Our newest – Meet the Homing pigeons. Rollers, actually.
Just realized that I havn’t posted in a week and a half, guess that’s what book deadline does to someone as busy as I am…..this weekend in New England was BEAUTIFUL. Sunny, cool, dry…. so I only have a short time to post this Sunday night. Visiting you best nursery in August is a great time to snatch plants that are in full bloom, that you might not ordinarilly buy out of bloom. I needed more blue and yellow, in just the right shade, as you will see later in another post. So I came home with a dozen pots of an extraordinary periwinkle catmint, and some hyssop. something that I would never have bought out of boom, but now know that it will fit nicely in the blue and yellow garden that is being constructed in front of the greenhouse.
August is also the time to order spring and some summer bulbs like lily’s, which will need to be shipped in October for fall planting, I ordered all of my lily bulbs this weekend, 24 of each variety, since the few trumpets that I had in the new front garden did so well, I might as well plant huge significant clumps for next year. Next time you are at a botanical garden, notice how many plants they plant of each perrennial or bub. Last year at Kew, I counted at a minimun, 36 plants in eack 10 foot diamet clump. This is how the English plant thier borders. Here in the US, I see ( and I am guilty of this too!) people buy one of these, and one of those, maybe three of something else. I have been trying to think broader, and buying in at least 6 or more batches. I am fotunate to have the room, so if you don’;t do certainly buy at least 3 of anything. Lilys doo look best in mass clumps.
Well, I thought I would introduce you to the rest of the gang around here, beyond Fergus and Margaret, our Irish Terriers (Fergus got sprayed buy a skunk twice this weekend.)/ Margaret is smart – once last year and she stay’s away!). Irish Terriers are unusual, less than 100 puppies are born in the US every year. The movie Fire House dog which just was released on DVD is a story about an IRish Terrier. Joe and I are active in the Irish Terrier Club of American, bothe Margaret and Fergus have won significant shows and many of you know, of course, here, they look rather trailer-park-ee shot in the back quarter near the chicken coop, as they watch a rabbit.
Fergus, left, and Margaret.
Fergus was named after Fergus Garrett, British garden expert the late Christopher Lloyd’s head gardener, when we met him once, we liked his name. Margaret, was a name we just liked!
A wild cotton tail rabbit. When we we’re kids, my mom and dad ofen ended up with a shoebox of cottontails,when a dog or something destroyed thier nests around the chicken coop. We have fond memories of raising many litters of bunnies, as well we squirrels, feeding them with an eyedropper. This bunny, may be a decendant since we have live here since 1920, on this property.
Thumper – the Cockatoo.
We resuced Thumpie about fifteen years ago from a vet who knew that he was wild caught. He plucked and picked his feathers, and was basically naked. We had little hope for him. But here he his…..loud, but feathers grown in, and quite happy outdoors getting his cage cleaned.
Fred – The Spurred South African Tortoise
Joe brought Fred home when a co-worker at his office announced that he was up for grabs. Fred was living in an aqarium, and never saw sunlight, nor any green vegetable, a primary staple in his diet. Fred loves and must have plants like chicory and dandilions. That’s why his ‘beak’ and jaw are uneven, a deficiency in his diet causes his shells to grow irregular, and his shell is now somewhat deformed. Still, this doesn’t stop him one bit…he zips around in the summer at his new home, on the golf-green, a circle of bent grass that has been in my family since the 1920’s, when my dad and his brothers built it for my grandfather, they all worked summers at a nearby golf course. You know, No one ever golfed in my family, ever. Yet this lawn is maintained in strict order, with antique metal numbers on poles. lead lined holes, a special lawnmover, and now, Fred, who spends his summers there teathered to a chain that runs from his shell-piercing near his tail, where a previous own drilled a hole and connected a shower-curtain loop ( I know! but it works) and Fred think’s it’s quite cool. (no tattoos yet, though).
This is Kojo, the African Gray Parrot
He’s looking a little pisse here, because he was getting his cage cleaned outside, and he was sprayed with the hose. But it was 90 degrees ouy, and he needed a bath.
Kojo is six year old now, I bought him for Joe as a birthday gift, when Kojo was just out of his egg. Joe hand fed him, and raised him. Now Koj is Jealous of Margaret and Fergus, so he bites Joe, and prefers me ( 0r our friend Jess, who brings him mini-corn in a can). Kojo really like women.
Kojo talks ALOT. HE says stupid things, full sentacnce, sings, barks, calls the dog..” Margaret…..Knock it OFF!” He doesn’t swear, but he learns just bout anything we want him to learn, in about two days. And he learns everything we don’t want him to say, naturally.
His favorite? the dumpster truck backing up., BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP. or the phone.
