Waiting...

               

The Art of OWR

        untitled, Ross York, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 20" x 20".

        unknown title, Kurt Zimmerman, 1995, mixed, 32" x 9".

        

        Field, Jennifer Brook, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 18.5" x 18.5".

        

      In Time of Rain, J.F. Simmons, 2005, mixed wood burning, 12.5" x 7.75".

        

Brown-Urban Wedding Invitation, Daniel Urban, 2008, print on paper, 8" x 12".

        

        Timmy?, Soleil Konkel and Ron Liberti, 2006, mixed, 17.5" x 12".

(Installation Title, Hall Haskell House, Ipswich, MA), Charles Chace and Gregg Rogers, ink on vellum, 2002, 36" x 3".

      untitled, Jillian Demeri, 2002, oil on canvas, 60" x 48".

        

        Hog Island, Jennifer Brook, 2000, watercolor, 6.5" x 5.5".

      Cherry Cough Drop, Elynn Kroger, acrylic, 2000, 17.5" x 17.5".

   unknown information, purchased at Todd Farm in 1998, 10.5" x 8.5".

Jean Francois and Beel at Rosemarie, Jillian Demeri, 1999, watercolor, 6" x 4".

 unknown title, Charles Van Buren, 2001, mixed, 4" x 3". 

unknown title, Ron Liberti collaboration, unknown date, print on paper, 8" x 10".

 

    Trees, E. Cune (?), unknown date, acrylic on board,13.75" x 13.75".

          

      Tim Rusmisel, 2001, ambrotype, 3.25" x 4.25".

Earth Day, 2010...sort of

Thistle in the Big Field

The fields were partially bush-hogged a few weeks ago.  My long-term vision of the property is a semi-managed field and forest.  I want to maintain some pasture land that obviously attracts a wide variety creatures while allowing some areas to return forest.  Cymande talks about a small wildflower operation. 

  

Toad in the Pine Straw

I'm not sure what to say about this friendly toad.  He seems to enjoy living at the base of a fig tree.

Ponte Vedra Beach

Cymande had a brillant idea...a trip to the beach.  It was a perfect day of cool ocean breezes and warm sun.  Cymande sat in the small tidal pool and watched the jelly fish and crabs float by and out to sea. 

Unidentified Crab

This little crab was sitting contently on the edge of a tidal pool.  We disturbed him briefly and then he happily floated away as the ocean advanced.  High tide drove us to seek higher ground and some lunch.

Not Good Harbor Beach

We talked about a day at Good Harbor versus a day at Ponte Vedra.  Each has a unique personality.  We're don't remember seeing an abundance of beach umbrellas in Gloucester.  My memory of Good Harbor is an eight-hour blistering shelterless day surrounded by people smoking and/or blasting music (I'm trying not to criticize, but smoking at the beach? Honestly...Cymande feels this is a cultural issue, but despises it too.)  Cymande has very fond memories of Good Harbor.  Ponte Vedra has the blistering sun and the occasional smoker, and less music.  We still proudly display our expired Gloucester resident sticker that allowed free parking at Good Harbor.  Ponte Vedra = 3 bucks.  

     

Gopher Tortoise

We have quite a few gopher tortoises on our property.  Charles spotted this one as we drove home from the beach.  I ran out to the field to take her picture and I was shocked by the speed at which she was moving.  She was enjoying a nice meal of grass which you can see sticking out of her mouth.

Bullfrog in Swilly River

I think it's amusing that this bullfrog and several others live in our used bathwater.        

Pink Spring Cleaning

Morning Fog 

Yesterday morning, around 7am, I woke up to make breakfast and noticed a cloud radiating pink light down to the fog that covered the field.  Naturally, I ran for my camera to capture all the pinkness, but upon reaching the field edge the light began to change.  I caught a bit of it, but I assure you that about 30 seconds prior to this photo it was all pink wonder.

   

        

Azaleas

The azaleas are blooming in the front yard and the blooms seem overly abundant this year.  I have a theory about the past winter being a particularly cold one leading to major blooms on all of our trees and bushes.  The pears, plums, peaches and even the live oaks seem to be producing huge numbers of flowers.  Maybe a coincidence...maybe science.

Lula with Chair

Lula enjoys herself with an all day nap outside the barn studio.  This time of year is perfect for her.  Neither shivering in the cold, nor digging holes all day to keep cool she is content lying in the partial shade.

Garden Clean-Up

This photo is post-clean up.  Earlier in the day the garden was looking a bit rough with good  portion being covered in knee deep stinging nettle.  Cymande usually manages all aspects of the garden.  This year being pregnant with twins and now at about 30 weeks she gets to watch me manage all aspect of the garden.  She did direct me and hand me seeds which was quite helpful.  I cleaned, checked the irrigation system and planted beans, okra, watermelon, squash, lettuce, cabbage, peppers, herbs.   

And the Garden Pond Clean-Up

Earlier I mentioned that we experienced a rather cold winter.  We lost a couple of plants, but we also lost all the small fish and invertebrates that were living in the garden pond.  This was the first time that this has happened in the past three years.  I've heard that there were widespread fish kills throughout Florida this past winter.  With all the dead plant and animal material settled on the bottom it was looking pretty bad.  I spent a few hours emptying and mopping up the detritus and now it looks quite pretty.  I'll reintroduce fish from Swilly River in a couple of weeks.

Inside the Coop

Our five hens are starting to lay again.  Of the five hens remaining, two are originals when we started the flock about four years ago.  A variety of predators (including us humans) have taken their toll over the years, but I'm impressed with their longevity. I've learned quite a bit about chickens along the way.  I can identify a good broody hen (sits for the duration and gets up when a good number of chicks hatch) versus a bad broody hen (sits for a few days and gets up for a few days then comes back, or rolls eggs until they crack, or sits and never gets up and eventually dies).  I'm pretty good at identifying predators by mode of death.  Coyotes = a small explosion of feathers and no carcass, dogs = small explosion of feathers with carcass nearby, and the most gruesome would be the weasel = attack at night (because I stupidly forget to close up the coop, oh the guilt) and a carcass with its head chewed off and eaten.  Most of our chickens have been victims of coyote attack which, while disturbing at the time, are at least feeding a family.  The other attacks were just wasteful.

       

Outside the Coop

We put up a fence around the pear trees which keeps the chickens in a large outdoor area.  We did this for a couple of reasons.  The first reason is to protect them from coyotes and dogs.  The other is to protect our yard and garden.  This maybe news to those without a free ranging flock of chickens in your yard: ten hens can and will destroy a vegetable garden in an hour and then happily finish the day scratching away your landscaping.  While Cymande was always very zen about it all, this caused me great annoyance and thoughts of mass slaughter. Now we are all happy.       

Baby Shower

         

 

          

        

March Flowers

Redbud Blossoms.

Who doesn't love Spring? Swarms of bees and hornets found their way back to our front yard.  For as yet undetermined reasons, some confused horticulturist named this tree a redbud.  It is pink and fuschia and white, but really not red.  

         

Mr. M and the Belly.

We are not clear if Mr. M is expressing his early love of the twins or he is plotting.  Mr. M has a mixed poor record with toddlers.  He's furry and attracts interest and this usually results in a screaming and superficially injured child.  Luckily, most kids are quick learners, but if they're not then Mr. M is happy to give additional tutorials.  He has no sense of humor as you can see in this photo.  He is mama's cat, mama is his human.

  

        

Daacha

I don't know what to say about this place except thanks.  Gainesville has a venue for open format modern art/music/performance.  Lake City has Red Lobster. 

Pear Blossoms.

The pears trees are showing more potential than ever.

Spring Colors

Pleasant Pastures

We have decided to go with a new color scheme here on Old Wire Road.  We are sticking with classic white but for the trim...pleasant pastures and pleasant it is.  We keep referring to the new color scheme as 'Nantucket,' but let's be honest, it is pure fantasy that we share anything with a remote New England island, except maybe a certain type of dementia that develops after not leaving the same small geographic area for months on end.  Instead of being surrounded by summering investment bankers vying for a table at some time honored French-American breakfast bistro you can spend 4 minutes trying to figure out what the postman is incoherently babbling about (he's angry that you receive the NYtimes.)  

Yes, that is an exam table that I've examined countless patients on...

When you see burly men remove a nearly useless exam table from your clinic and replace it with a decent one you are filled with some happiness.  Then, when you go out to lunch and see it on the side of the road, well, then you need to take a photo because that is just strange.

  

I'm ready for Spring.

I know it sounds stange to be sick of Winter in Florida, but I am.  I'm tired of cold fronts rolling in and turning 74 degree sunny days into windy 40 degree days.  I'm also tired of the local weatherman saying, 'Alberta Clipper', 'sparking off T-storms', and the general mainstream weatherman concept that rain = bad and sun = good even during a god-damned drought.  I thought that weathermen were supposed to enjoy weather not the lack thereof.

That is some ambitious late Winter moss growing on the shore of Swilly River.