Monday, September 17, 2007

An anaconda in the pond

It's coming. The leaves are starting to change, the nights are chilly, the owls and coyotes are out at night again, making all kinds of noises and the horses are blowing their slick summer coats and getting in their fuzzier winter wear.

I love fall. I love the changes and the smells and most of all, I LOVE the cooling of the weather. The crispness of the mornings that invigorates, the chill in the night air an excuse for a bonfire and hot spiced cider. Searching for the perfect Halloween costume for Unruly. Wild is to old to dress up any more, to hear her tell it. I long to lounge by hot, crackling fires in the fireplace and chill out on the floor with the family while feeding log after log into the flames. I yearn to reading books curled up beneath a quilt and drinking hot tea or working on that cross-stitch project I put away every spring to save for winter stitching. There is just something about fall, and impending winter, that turns on the hibernation switch.

The list of "do to's" gets longer, too: Clean up the flower beds, plant more bulbs, transplant and plant new trees, put in a few more grape vines and fruit trees, mulch the bulbs and the roses that are already in, prepare another flower bed, an herb bed and a larger veggie garden, stack firewood, clear weeds, put up more hay, run a heat lamp out to the chicken house and a de-icer to the horse tank, dig out the rain sheets for the horses and make sure they are in good repair, move the horses to the winter pasture plant pasture seed in the bare spots in the summer pastures.

But most of all, hope for rain.The pond is about 3 feet lower than normal and we're seeing some very strange things slowly being uncovered as the level drops. For some reason, there is a huge cable/pipe running through the middle of the pond and connected to this upright steel tube that is sticking about a foot above water level. I think it's the remnants of a fountain, but, it's hard to tell. It just looks weird.When I spotted the cable/pipe yesterday, my mind immediately said "OH MY GOD! There's an anaconda in the pond! I knew the snakes were bad, but this is ridiculous!" I knew that wasn't possible, there is no anaconda in my pond. It's just a man-made thing. And I've no clue as to what it is.

P.S. No, that's not the cable/pipe, but, rather what my mind conjured up when I saw it! Yes, my brain isn't always the tamest place to live.

3 comments:

Liz said...

Is now the right time to plant bulbs for next year? I'm so stupid when it comes to flowers and gardening. What about grass seed?

We're planning to build a fire pit in our back yard and I'm getting my mom's cider recipe ASAP!

Jenn said...

I will start putting bulbs in around the second week of October, and plant the trees around the end of Octber/beginning of November. Grass seed can go in within the next two weeks, the sooner the better, because you want it to get established before the first frost.

The fire pit was one of the very first things I put in. It's a work in progress. Eventually I'd like to have a little natural stone "patio" around the fire pit and more permanent seating, like split logs or something similar.

You'll have to share your mom's cider recipe! I usually toss a big tea ball of whole cloves, cinnamon stick chunks and orange peel into simmering cider and let it steep.

Anonymous said...

You make me laugh!