John is home all day on Wednesdays with me. Yesterday it was sunny and so we sat outside and get some sunlight on our skin. I arranged two chairs in a comfortable spot to watch the chickens roam the yard and dig around the apple trees. The chickens love to scratch and find morsels, perhaps more bugs than greens as they travel across the yard. They are just like running water or a fireplace- one can't take one's eyes off them They have not laid an egg, I believe, in six weeks but yet they hold my heart. Since they are older, the short daylight and the period of growing their new annual feathers, this is always a slow time of the year, so no eggs are not a problem. John sat quietly for the whole hour and occasionally I would walk around doing little jobs that caught my attention but also not too demanding or needing lots detailing.
This time reminded me of a line I read in Anne Morrow Lindbergh's book that included her notes and letters. She said as we age we come to appreciate nature much more. Not the travel to Kenya type or the whale watch boat trip but what is at hand in our own environment. She went on about the change of the seasons, the light of the sun or the moon, the flying insects and birds. Since Olympia has not had a killing frost yet it is amazing to see the tiny flying spots looking toward the shadow. They were numerous and the sunlight made their bodies white sparkles moving in some strange pattern. I realized I am the person she was talking about, the older person noticing the smallest detail in my own yard.
Studying branches on a slow walk along the back fence I saw many buds on the Asian pears, truly don't need more of them. I could easily read my silver tags on the espalier trees this time of the year and I see that I can create another line/level for one of my apple trees. Trying something new, I am leaving all my leaves in place as nature placed them. The raked cleaned orchard look is currently out of style in this yard. There is an idea being put forth that nature knows best and we have been cleaning up and then artificially adding back to our soil. It will be interesting to see how broken down the winters rains will have on all the leaves in this yard. One thing I know for sure my ground is not being pounded by rain, the soil is being protected and maybe the critters are multiplying under all this cover.
I found last summer the transplanted kale plants that went from the raised beds to the open ground garden grow so much faster and bigger than the ones that remained in raised beds. I believe it has less to do with watering but more to do with the opportunity to grow deeper roots. These plants are over three feet tall and will be harvested all winter along. I have fenced them to protect them from the chickens but on the other hand I have allowed them to munch on some Swiss Chard and a few other kale greens. Surprisingly, also, in the same area are many parsley volunteers that are making it to my dinner table almost daily. In the summer I have cilantro growing that I use daily but it is nice to have a few herbs that can survive year around and that includes Rosemary , some mint in a pot along with a sage plants.
Pruning is a constant job with the varieties in this yard and as I sat there momentarily yesterday, I mentally ranked the order of how I should approach the winter job. A month ago I pruned one of my peach trees. I may have seriously limited my harvest for next year but on the other hand I could not allow it to get so large that I can't reach it with a short ladder- I am not donating a broken bone for a few peaches. The found joy of all those cut branches, I will be using in the spring for munch after they get chopped up, that is new to me. Of course, in the meantime, there is a pile of branches sitting there as an eye sore.
Jefferson said it for all of us gardeners, "Tho' I maybe old, I am a younger gardener." John and I walked into the house with some kale to chop for lunch and add to to a stir fry.
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