LysmachiaMoon's blog: Busy week; Bald Eagle sighting!

It's been a busy week, both in the garden and otherwise. I'm closing in on my second big deadline so hopefully I'll have some real time off for Thanksgiving.

In the garden, mostly doing a lot of tidying up and moving some plants around. I've been trying to take periodic breaks from the editing work, get away from the computer screen, by going outside and doing one or two things, then coming back in for another stint at the computer. It's piecemeal, but it does get things done.

I made a good start on that new path down thru the Below the Deck Garden. Got all the summer "tenders" lifted out of the path as well as 4 nice hostas that all went into the Stumpery. While in the Stumpery, did a little weeding, put in a small pot of tiny-leaved ivy, then moved in two pretty big rocks. Most importantly, I moved that table and chairs set out. That meant clearing a small brush pile and leveling an area further north in the woodland and moving the table set there. It looks MUCH nicer, both in the Stumpery and where the table is now.

Dug out all the tenders...dahlias, cannas, and colocasias. This is a huge job, especially the colocasias. Some of those bulbs are gigantic. I've got most of them in the garden shed to dry/cure and I'm slowly moving others into their winter storage in the basement. I am running out of storage room. Next spring, without fail, I have got to re-home some of these. I've decided to sacrifice some of the canna roots, just leave them in the ground over winter. I've got a lot of them stored and hopefully these will be plenty for next year. All but one is a common red Indian Shot canna; the only other is a no-name yellow that I'm happy really increased this year. I'll have enough to spread around next summer.

And you know how it goes: as I'm lifting out the tenders, of course I'm pulling weeds, tidying up bed edges, pruning overhanging branches, etc. I even set in some concrete path bricks at one point; I found them hiding in the Long Border and re-purposed them to extend the path thru the much expanded Rose Border.

I'm trying to decide where my "Jungle" will go next year. The colocasias, cannas, and castor bean plants were spectacular this summer, planted down near the mailboxes, but they really didn't have the impact I wanted there. Next summer, I want to make an area somewhere (???) that really shows them off.
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One really exciting thing happened this week. I saw THREE Bald Eagles in the sky over E's house. We were in her backyard, heard crows carrying on, looked up and there they were. They were low enough and the sunlight was just right to see them clearly. The crows were teasing them, then flew off. This is only the second time in my life I've seen a Bald Eagle in the life. R and I spotted one a few years ago, down in Marsh Run. I know that in other parts of the country this isn't a big deal, but it is here. We haven't had Eagles of any kind for decades. Now that a lot of work is going forward to reclaim and protect the Chesapeake Bay and it's associated waterways, we are starting to see more varieties of birds associated with wetlands. This sighting made me and E feel really proud that we volunteered to plant trees for the Chesapeake Bay foundation a year ago and that we delivered 30 more small trees a couple of weeks ago to another group that is replanting wetlands and watersheds. Finally, some good news.

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