Those hooves, those horns

A couple weeks ago, I heard the clip-clop of hooves on the gravel road below us. My first thought was, "Groan. Whose horse escaped?" We know from experience that trying to find the owner of loose horses is difficult.

But it wasn't a horse. It was a cow elk and her calf.

(Here's the calf.)

Mama was looking for a spot to jump the fence, which she did quite easily.

But poor Junior was flummoxed by how to get to the other side.

There was a wall of blackberry bushes as well as rose bushes, and he couldn't figure out how to breach this impenetrable barrier. He trotted back and forth in agitation.

Meanwhile, with seeming unconcern, Mama made her way across the pasture.

Junior was getting more and more agitated.

Finally he pushed/shoved/jumped/struggled through the barrier and went racing into the field.

Then he had to stop and look around. Where's Mama?

There she is! Wait for me!

And he disappeared from sight.

Then, day before yesterday, I took Mr. Darcy for his evening walk. The sun had already set and it was dusky. I looked up and saw this:

This beautiful bull stood in imperturbable majesty, simply watching Mr. Darcy and me. (It's worth noting that Darcy didn't even see him. Go figure.)

I took several nearly identical photos, and then slowly continued down the road with Darcy (who still hadn't noticed the bull).

(By the way, this is why I try to always have my camera on hand whenever I set foot outdoors. I never know what I may see.)

Mr. Darcy and I moved farther away, watching this big boy as we went.

Gradually he disappeared from sight.

Interestingly, our neighbor's horse was watching the bull elk with great concentration. Shortly after taking this photo, she neighed and cantered to the other side of the pasture. My thought is she didn't like elk.

Incidentally I think this is the same elk I saw a few weeks ago in our pasture, eating apples off a tree. How do I know? Take a look at the bent-down tine on his left-hand rack.

Seeing as it's hunting season at the moment, my sincere hope is this beautiful animal doesn't end up as a trophy on someone's wall. He's much handsomer in the wild.

Nuclear strawberries

Last spring, I ordered a variety of ever-bearing strawberries called Fort Laramie.

I had no previous experience with this variety, but it seemed like a good overall match for our area. The website's description was as follows: "Super-sturdy strain thrives in all parts of the country; withstands the worst winters without mulch. Produces a fair amount of runners and huge crops of bright red berries bursting with juice. Honey-sweet flavor is excellent fresh and for processing. Self-pollinating. Zones 3-7."

I potted these berries in April, and planted them in June. They've done extremely well, and I've been able to harvest strawberries all summer.

Well I tell ya, here it is mid-October, and they're still producing flowers, green fruit, and mature berries. Nuclear strawberries, baby!

These aren't wimpy leathery late-season yucky berries, either; but full-bodied sweets. Granted, it helps that we haven't had the first freeze of the year yet; but wow, I'm impressed.

And more are coming! They've slowed down a bit in their production, but they're still producing flowers.

Every few days, I pick a bowl-full.

On October 10, I went out to do a bit of maintenance. Lots of flowers still.

The plants had sent out tons of runners, something I'll take advantage of next spring, since I want to plant two more beds.

But for now, it was time to clean them up. Using scissors, I went around and snipped all the runners off.

Of course, some runners had started rooting themselves into the gravel. Those with the best root systems, I planted back in the beds.

At the end of my snipping, I had quite a pile of leaves.

The beds looked much tidier.

I deliberately piled the discarded runners outside the fence to give the deer a treat. Sure enough, early the next morning a mama and older fawn found them.

Here's the fawn, who didn't quite know what to make of them.

Mama, however, had no such hesitation, and munched out.

By later in the day, all that was left were the stems.

My nuclear strawberries are still producing, but I know they won't go on forever. We'll enjoy their fruit while we can.

Snack time

Don and I took Mr. Darcy for his evening walk last week. As usual, there were many deer in the fields. One cluster stared at us with alertness. But an older fawn took advantage of Mama's distracted attention to grab a snack.

Believe me, this kid wasn't letting go for anything. Notice how Mama's tail is starting to go up? Didn't matter to Junior.

Mama stood there, kinda anchored to the ground while I snapped photos. Junior gulped as fast as he could.

Finally Mama had enough. Gotta go! Even as she started leaping, Junior stayed latched on.

Finally she broke it off and high-tailed it out of there.

Deer drama.

The passing of Angela Lansbury

I was saddened to hear of Angela Lansbury's passing yesterday.

I have a friend who used to do acting in Los Angeles. She told me a charming story: How she had always admired Dame Lansbury, and one day (this would be in the mid-90s or so) she decided to write to her and express her admiration for how her career revitalized as an older actress. To my friend's complete shock, Dame Lansbury wrote back and thanked my friend for her regard, and expressed the difficulties involved in the second (and older) boost to her acting career.

I've always liked Angela Lansbury anyway, but this story cemented it.

This should make you smile: Recording the song "Be Our Guest" from "Beauty and the Beast":

Rest in peace, Angela

The unfolding situation in Europe

We've been watching with great concern the unfolding situation in Europe.This morning we saw a headline: "Back To The Old Days: Europeans Panic-Buy Firewood And Stoves." Since energy prices are skyrocketing to the point of unaffordability, people are scrambling to find some way to keep from freezing during the upcoming winter.

While woodstoves and firewood are an excellent solution, the unpleasant fact is there is only so much wood and so many stoves available; and, of course, not every structure can accommodate wood heat.

Obviously there are a great many contributing factors to Europe's predicament – wars, pipeline sabotage, strikes, economic uncertainty, industrial collapse, political policies – but the combined result is the same: Untold misery for millions upon millions of innocent Europeans across many nations.

Some say what happens in Europe will soon come to America. Yes and no. Certainly people should strive to lessen their vulnerability to issues beyond their control when it comes to critical necessities such as food, water, and heat; but America has a whole different set of issues and circumstances we're dealing with. Whatever befalls us will not necessarily be a duplication of what is befalling Europe.

What Europe does illustrate, however, is the growing cracks taking place worldwide in matters of security with energy, food, finances, etc. What many thought was a solid foundation of rock is revealed to be a foundation of shifting sand.

My conclusions from watching the unfolding situation in Europe is this: watch and learn. There isn't a whole lot most of us can do to influence national or international policies. But there's a lot we can do to help ourselves be less vulnerable when those policies translate to the ground level. Starting now.

If any blog readers are in Europe, please let us know what's happening in your area.

Coming up for air

Phew, the massive rush of work is nearing completion, and I'm starting to come up for air.

Everything got neglected during this rush of work, including household chores, church, and emails. The only thing we didn't neglect was washing dishes and walking the dog.

We're still in the middle of some chaos. The tankard order won't get shipped until Wednesday, and since the staging area is our kitchen and library, the chaos remains.

And Don just today got in the extra parts he learned he needed to install the hot water heater (we haven't had hot water in the house since Sept. 3), so that mess is still strewn about.

But at least now we're a little more free to work on projects we want to complete before winter, including splitting wood, finishing Older Daughter's porch, and otherwise buttoning up for winter.

Whew. What a month.

Wild couple of weeks

We're all starting to come up for air after an intense couple of weeks of work. We've had a crazy schedule. Older Daughter works four days a week at her outside job, then has been coming home in the evening and heading straight for the shop, where she's working on a large (and fast) production run of tankards for a customer in Ohio.

Don has been working on Older Daughter's porch as well as helping Older Daughter with the tankard production run.

I'm on Day Eight out of Ten for a run on my job with no days off, in addition to a crazy writing schedule.

This will all comes to an end on Monday when the tankards get shipped off and my work run is over. We all plan to take some time off and relax!

Anyway, sorry for the blog silence.

Happy Birthday!

Sorry for the radio silence, dear readers!

First of all, a hearty Happy Birthday to Don! Today he turns 65.

Yesterday I jokingly asked if he had any special plans. He thought a moment (/sarc/) and said, "Hmm. I think I'll work on this project and that project and the other project." In other words, a typical day in which he's trying to get various things done before winter.

The reason for my silence is I've been wrapped up in an intense work schedule and burning the candle at both ends. I'm on Day Six of a ten-day stretch on my job without a day off, which means pretty intense 10-hour days. On top if that, I turned in the revisions to my last Harlequin romance on Monday, and today the proposal (synopsis + three chapters) for the next one is due.

I've been wrestling the plot to his book from here to eternity and back, and (after numerous consultations with Don) it's finally gelled. But a gelled plot for a proposal is pretty useless unless the synopsis and three chapters are written. So here it is, 2:45 a.m. as I type this, and guess what I'm doing?

Such is life. I just hope I won't be too tired today to wish my dear husband a happy birthday.