Open Merc is an open mic session at the Merc Playhouse in Twisp. The music varies all over the spectrum and is always entertaining. It’s free to the performers and the audience and happens about once a month. Ken had a work meeting so was late getting there. He got to play last and had great backup with out of town musicians and local harmonica favorite – Egon Steinebach.
The weather still feels like March around here – blustery with a constant threat of snow squalls or rain. Still, it’s time to work on the garden and pretend that Spring will be here before summer. It could be one of those years where the temperatures just get hot and stay there without a Spring reprieve from the extremes of heat and cold.
So despite the weather we we did a garden survey and decided that the raspberries we planted last year will need more room and soon, that is if we want to get lots of raspberries and of course, we do! So, where to put them? They are in the new upper garden next to the house, the one we created out of a barren lawn two years ago. The most logical place to expand seems to be the old lower garden on the hillside below the house. The plan is to sheet mulch the area to be added to the fenced garden this summer, put in the fence posts in the fall and add the fencing next spring, just in time to start the big raspberry move.
But first, there were two big compost bins that I had made out of pallets and baling twine the summer before last and they were in the way. So to begin with, I took out the ‘finished’ compost and spread it on the garden beds. What a lovely sight for a gardener – fresh compost – it just doesn’t get any better than that.
And then, I had to dismantle the bins and move the older compost to wait and continue to rot til next Spring.
The compost for next year looks really good on top of the pile but down inside there is still lots of work for the worms and other composting agents of the soil.
And I’ve already started on the pile for 2013!
The garlic got a good layer of compost and chicken manure and then I pulled last fall’s mulch back over it to help keep it warm for now and also to supress the weeds.
And it looks like we might soon have daffodils in bloom.
Yesterday, for part of the day, it really, really did feel like Spring. Lots of birds were singing and announcing their territorial decisions. Red-tailed Hawks circled as I got too close to a nest. Chipmunks tormented the dogs. Much of the snow has gone and the hillsides are starting to dry out. Tiny wildflowers are emerging from the moist duff. Anthills are a frenzy of activity. Currant leaves unfurled in the sun and serviceberry reached for the sky.
Later in the afternoon, a cold wind blew off of the snow-capped mountains.
Seattle’s Pike Place Market takes on a new air after the vendors leave and darkness takes over the evening. Bright lights and shiny surfaces don’t show the commerce and hustle and bustle that crowds the market each day. Neon lights still point the way, but to gated off stairs and closed walkways. The wet floor no longer tells tales of spilled coffee and smashed fruit that accidentally hit the floor. It’s all waiting for another day.
We have quite a few nest boxes on our place and a Spring ritual is to go around with a ladder and various tools and clean them out. Some people like to do this in the Fall. We think birds might like to roost in the boxes during the winter so the old nesting material may provide them a little extra warmth during the cold season. Most of the feathers in the nests are ones from ducks and geese that we ate during the previous winter. When the swallows are flying and gathering material for their nests, we toss the feathers into the air and they swoop down to catch them and take them to the boxes!
Sadly, some birds don’t make it out of the nest.
Wasps in the boxes will discourage nesting.
This nesting bird found a Northern Flicker feather to add to its nest.
Swallow nest – Tree or Violet-green?
Some baling twine from the straw we used to mulch our garden.
Tiny House Wrens like to fill boxes with sticks before they build a tiny nest on top. They will also simply fill boxes with sticks to keep other birds from using them. If we see them doing this with several boxes, we try to clean the sticks out so that swallows and bluebirds can also use the boxes.
A House Wren nest.
Here is a House Wren nest on top of a bluebird nest. Both nests looked sucessful.
The bluebird nest.
