Thursday, October 05, 2017

Waiting for the Milkweed Seed Pods to Ripen and Other Things of Fall

I've been watching these curious beauties for when to harvest as I have promised some to friends.

This is the stage they are presently.  Milkweed seeds are so large and so unusual... almost ready I think.

 I was so excited this year to be able to have the time to make pickles.. 

Started off with Chow, made with green tomatoes and onions. They turned out Yummy!!!!!

The Mountain Ash berries are fully ripe but seems that the birds are waiting for later in the season to devour these. after all so much is available for them right now and they know these will keep... anyway after a few frosts they will soften up

 Also managed to find a basket of cucumbers and a big bag of onions and made some Lady Ashburnham Pickles...

 After they sat overnight sprinkled with pickling salt , I drained them and added the mustard and celery seed.. and vinegar of course

 Now they are bubbling along with the turmeric and mustard powder added. they smell so good! the whole house if filled with it 

 wow.. I can hardly believe we will have them this winter with our potatoes

A shady spot now has planted in it 2 new Big ferns. gave them some compost and bonemeal... soon I'll add some wood mulch. Oh I hope they grow.. I love bushy big ferns... (my mother's name by the way... I guess Grammie liked Ferns too!))

Black Eyed Susan's are blooming so cheerily at the end of the walk.  I was so excited to cheer up this old forgotten little homestead, I planted things all summer... and we are preparing the land for next year, to be ready to plant more.

This very old tree up on the back of the property line has some apples I want to harvest. I can't believe how big the apples have grown in the last month. only thing is these apples are about 25' up in the tree. there is another apple tree intertwined with it that is an August Apple tree, but they fall off so easily that the deer have eaten almost every one of them.

The new rock wall is almost done in the front of the house.  We hauled lots of compost to fill it up and will be ready for spring as soon as I mulch it with a thick layer of straw. 


It has been a beautiful summer and fall .. couldn't ask for better..
Fallen Leaves...from the studio of Desideratum... Happiness to all!!

9 comments:

^.^ said...

Awesome post and pics as well, friend Gwen ... my son Paul and daughter in law Leanne along with their cat Benny and their van Morrie :) started travelling North America in September ... they are in Brunswick right now .. will send their blog address as soon as I find it ... Happy autumn ... Love, cat.

^.^ said...

paulleanneandavan.wixsite.com/paulleanneandavan ... Love, cat.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Hi Cat, It has been a super busy summer.. and a hot one to boot. Hope the weather stays good for your family's adventure. They should have a wonderful time exploring! cheerio!

rachel said...

Milkweed - curious beauty indeed! Lovely post, Gwen.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Rachel, Milkweed is such a cool plant... grows in the most unlikely and rough, dry, forgotten places... so many insects gather around it. ants, wasps, bees, beetles, caterpillars, butterflys etc..... and it grows wild.

WILDSIDE said...

:-) Thank you for the update, Gwen! Tell it is going to be (is) a fabulous new place because of you...

Gwen Buchanan said...

hey sweet of you Wildside... we are just laying a little love on the place...and it really feels good to be bringing it back to life. Cheers!

Guillaume said...

Great autumnal pictures! I love the season as you know and this really represent why autumn is so lovely, in a nutshell.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Guillaume, I am really appreciating the distinctiveness of the
seasons more so every day.