The Queen Has Spoken! More Zinnias!

  The "Queen of the Small Gardens" has a new thought!  Since the zinnias are doing so well and since I have a about a bucketful of extra seeds and since I cannot push a lawnmower to keep the yard clean, I need to broadcast the seeds with wild abandon!  Perhaps, I should just mix all of the saved flower seeds in a pail and scatter them!  The seeds could plant themselves wherever the wind blows them!  How pretty would that be??!!  How nice to not have to watch the grass grow to knee-high!  How colorful?!! How happy?!!  How immensely mesmerizing would a sea of color be?!!  Just a thought.  Perhaps Hubby and Son have other thoughts but...mehh...I am Queen of the Small Gardens and I am just expanding my realm!

  To be honest, the zinnia seeds are some I had saved from past years.  A while back, I bought a pack from DollarTree.  I was not even sure if they would sprout but, here years later, they are still doing well.  As the blooms start to wane, I snip them and toss them in an old cardboard box in the greenhouse.  There, they dry and sit until I get a chance to box them for the next season.  The plants in the garden keep blooming and blooming until they finally succumb to the winter's cold.   

  The flower gardens back on the farm always contained zinnias.  Pop saved the seeds from year to year just as he taught me to do.  Now, I find I am mimicking so many of Pop's actions.  That pleases me as I figure the man knew his gardens.  Maybe, just maybe, a bit of that rubbed off on me.  Now...the Queen of the Small Gardens has made her decision!  More zinnias!  I need more zinnias!  (Yes, I am bored being limited.)




 

Treated Like A Queen!

    It is not often that I have someone come to the Bayou and serve me.  More oft than not, I do the cooking.  Mark does cook occasionally and when he does, it is phenomenal but usually I do the food preparation.  I do not see myself as a "good" cook but at least what I prepare is edible and at times tasty.  I prefer home-cooked meals over fast food or any other type restaurant fare.  If the food is cooked here, I can control just what goes into a dish and there are no nasty surprises to be found.

  With my son and daughter-in-law visiting the Little Bayou House, I have been treated to a life of luxury.  They have prepare most, if not all, of the meals that have been served.  Both of them are extraordinary cooks!  They not only create the tastiest of dishes but the presentation is stunning!  (That is one of the parts that I am lacking!  While my food meets the need it is not pretty.)  Yesterday evening, they went out to dine at a really nice restaurant.  When they returned both of them were fully impressed with the meals they had eaten and decided to replicate the food for us.  Tonight, we dined upon some of the most delightfully tasty and beautiful foods to ever grace our dining room table!  Wow!  I felt like a queen!  How nice to have such wonderful kids!  I am blessed beyond words.

 

The Grouchy Ones

  Several times, I have written about docile bees and wasps that inhabit the gardens.  Honeybees, Leafcutter Bees, Mason Bees and even the Great Golden Digger Wasp come and go as they please without any intentions of attacking.  They do their things and I do mine.  We have a mutual respect for each other and all is well.  Even Paper Wasps, as notorious as they are as stingers, tolerate my presence within a certain distance.  Those, however, are on my list of "no-likes".  Then, there are the grouches of the Bayou. The foul tempered, mean, cranky wasps known as Yellow Jackets.  Those things top the "no-like" list and are on the "destroy, annihilate, obliterate, wipe-off-the-face-of-the-earth" list.  I guess you can say that I do not care for them.  I have been stung far too many times by the nasty tempered critters to ever think they are good for anything.  They stalk our fish cleaning table, crowd the compost and hide their underground nests right where I need to mow. 

  This afternoon during my hike about the hillside, I noticed yet another golden bee type critter buzzing about the ground.  Hmmm, this called for a closer inspection. Perhaps that was a hasty decision because before I knew it, I was in "stinging range" of an underground hive. The large bee-like critter was none other than the new queen working her new hive.  After a winter of hibernation, she had created a new hive and already had her first batch of workers thriving below the soil.  Queen Yellow Jackets single-handedly raise the first generation of her hive.  After they become adult wasps, she sits back and lets them dote on her as she becomes nothing more than an egg factory.  

  I watched the queen as she busied herself around the area and noticed that she was entering a rotted log near the marsh. Aha!  I will keep watch on this lady for the next few days until I find that telltale hole which is the entrance to her hive.  Then, after the sun has slid down behind the pines, I shall apply Pop's remedy to the wasp problem.  A long necked bottle filled with gasoline will be upended in the tunnel.  By morning, nary a wasp will have lived to tell the tale of a sudden odor of gas seeping into their hive.  Pop and Mark both have killed hundreds of hives with this method without nary a sting.  Hopefully, I shall be just as successful.  I am just glad I spied her before cutting the grass this next week.  This could have been a very different story....a much more painful one.  Yellow Jackets are not a favorite by far!

The Queen Likes Pizza?

  Son, like any young man, eats a lot of pizza.  He loves the stuff.  His favorite is just plain old pepperoni pizza while if I had my way, everything would be piled on top!  And, even though I have quart jars of assorted herbs and spices, his favorite is what he calls "Pizza Spice".  The rest of the world evidently uses the wrong name of "Oregano".  Since he likes oregano so much, my stash is always being depleted which is why I took to growing that along side all of the other herbs.  Since oregano is easy to grow and reseeds itself, at least I shan't go broke buying the stuff.  

  While out picking figs this afternoon, I noticed that the oregano is in dire need of clipping.  Tomorrow will find me out with the scissors snipping the stalks for drying.  My harvesting is a bit late, though, as the herb has already started blooming.  While this will not hurt the flavor of the herb other than making it a mite stronger, I am a bit hesitant about going wild with the scissors.  Bees, namely bumblebees, have taken a liking to the blossoms!  Hundreds of the tiny bees were busy harvesting their own part of the oregano!  It seems as if the herb gardens are full of pollinators this year!

  The bumblebees that are busy in the herb garden are not truly out to make honey with the pollen and nectar they gather.  Since their colonies are tiny compared to honeybees and since only the queen bumblebee overwinters, there is no need for a mass amount of honey.  The bumblebees fill tiny "nectar pots" with the stuff they gather.  This is to feed the larvae that hatch in the spring and to feed the queen.  The queen sort of overstuffs herself to prepare for winter and then hibernates.  She awakes in the spring to tend to her new brood but unlike the honeybee queen, she has no worker bees.  She tends to the larvae herself and, once they mature, the cycle starts again.  

  The bumblebees, today, were quite busy on the herbs.  As they gathered food for the nectar pots and for the queen, I could not help but giggle.  I sure hope the queen likes pizza!

 

Going for the Gold!

  This was the day that I planned the garden spot for the tomatoes.  I have been informed by my kids that they are out of tomato sauce, salsa and ketchup and their shelves need to be replenished.  This means that Michael and I will be planting a lot more tomatoes this year!  Since ground space is limited due to the fact that we live on a very steep, sloping hill, my garden plots are dotted throughout the yard. This year, the tomatoes will be planted between the hedgerows of Boysenberries.  I have dead-wooded the berries and pulled out all of the weeds that managed to take over the space.  Now the ground is bare and turned.  (My poor aching back wishes I had used the tiller instead of the shovel!)  If the plants are squeezed in with the crates side by side, there is space for thirty-six tomatoes. More will be planted in another space but this will do for a start.

   Several railroad ties surround this garden spot as to act as a terrace retaining wall.  Mark and I lugged the things from down near the marsh to edge this hillside garden.  It took years to fill the area with enough dirt to make it even semi-level.  Now that the dirt has settle, the large timbers can be moved.  They will be placed in a different spot with the same terracing idea.  As I tugged on one of the huge boards, a bright bit of gold caught my eye.  Ok!  That was enough to make me stop to investigate.  Times like these are what make yard work interesting!  Wow!  What a pretty bee..err..wasp...err..bug, oh whatever!  I sat watching the critter as it tried to crawl.  I had obviously uncovered it from its overwintering spot and it was not one bit pleased. While I was admiring the brilliant yellow coloring of the wasp, Michael happened to walk behind me.  "Nice yellow jacket." he stated.  Yikes!  I was actually poking at a yellow jacket!  No wonder the thing looked so familiar and huge! This was the new queen yellow jacket!   Enough of that!  

  Each spring the queen yellow jacket will crawl out of hibernation and build a small hive.  Usually this hive is underground or in rotted wood. Already mated before her winter hibernation, she will single-handed raise the first generation of workers.  By the end of summer this hive will be home to nigh on to a thousand workers.   Under my railroad tie seemed to be her majesty's desired palace-building spot.  If I had not found her, this colony could have been quite worrisome.  Being so close to the house and garden, the yellow jackets could have been a severe danger to all of us.  Now at least this queen will not be calling our yard her realm!  I wonder how many more are lurking just beneath the ground...hmmm?

The Queen!

The Bayou has one resident that reigns as queen.  Ms. Put, the cat, has been officially named as Queen of the Bayou for several reasons with the main one being that...she rules.  I must admit that she rules with an iron hand...errr...paw over all of her minions.  Those minions include several humans that just happen to be here as well.  We are her slaves.  When Queen Put wants something, we are to snap to it and get it for her.  Queen Put, also, has as her palace, the entire Little Bayou House.  Not many places are off limits to her.  This has little to do with her reign but rather that she has come to fully deserve the right.  If ever a pet can "pull their own weight", she can and does.  There is not a day that goes by that she neglects to bring us a rat, mouse or vole body.  (Yes, just the body.  She kindly removes the head after catching the critter.)  This rodent catching is something that we could never do without.  Living near the marsh, there are all sorts of critters that are just waiting to make quick work of anything growing in the garden.  The Queen (Ms. Put) takes her job seriously as a cat should!  She makes short work of any intrusive rodents.  It is no wonder that I love this cat!

Today started off as a cloudy mess but late in the afternoon, the sun popped out and made things downright beautiful!  With the temperature hovering in the mid-fifties, it was the perfect day to get outside.  The dog, Ms. Ez, enjoyed her time romping after the ball but Ms. Put was quite content to lounge in the sunshine. I am sure that her age has something to do with her lack of playtime. This is one old cat!  We found her when she was but a tiny kitten.  Some cruel folks threw her and her brother out in the road just beyond our house.  The pair somehow made their way through the creek and up the hill to the Little Bayou House.  There they found a home and we obtained wonderful friends.  The kids named her "Put" and him "Tup".  The kittens were mirror images of each other hence the names being reversed or mirrored.  Tup roamed as male cats are prone to do and eventually never came home.  Put stayed, endeared herself to us and soon became queen.  That was seventeen years ago.  Her aging body does not take to well to the bitter cold that we have had this past week so I can only imagine how divine the warmth of the sun felt.  She soaked up as much of that sunshine as she possibly could!

Now the queen has settled in for the night.  After a nice bowl of food, she has cozied herself on the stairs to guard Michael's room.  We tease him about having a "watchcat" on duty but the truth be known, she just loves the stairs.  From that perch, she can see everything that goes on in the dining room. She can watch what goes on in her realm and can be ready to step in if her rule is needed.  Yep, I love this old cat even though she is fickle, dominant and is always ready to take a swipe at anyone!

Queen of the Bayou!

Today after we all ate too much, my cousin, Michelle, and I took a hike to the pier to walk off a bit of those extra calories! It was a beautiful afternoon to just sit there and chat. After discussing what seemed to be about everything under the sun and then some, it was time for good company to part. We wandered back up the hill to where Mark and my uncle were sitting in the lawn chairs. Then...Ms. Put, the cat, made her appearance. This is one fickle cat and even though she would much rather stay her distance, she also wants all of the attention. It never fails. I have noticed in the past if there is ever anyone visiting the Bayou, Ms. Put will literally throw a fit to attempt at scaring them into leaving. I knew what was coming and so warned my visitors ahead of time. She can be quite intimidating for such a small cat!

At first, there was the low, gurgle of a snarl. This was just a warning of what was to come if this cat did not get her way and her "way" this time was "food". She wanted her food and she wanted it now..not when it is convenient for any of the human slaves. She expected us to hop to it! I warned my guests that the fits would get increasingly worse if we ignored her..and they did. Ms. Put threw herself onto the ground and rolled a bit. Then tail a-swishing, she sauntered off a few feet to continue her snarling. She went through all of the motions of a major fit but I did not budge. This slave was being lazy and impudent! When the Queen calls, slaves are supposed to jump..but I did not. The hullabaloo grew in intensity..the howls and snarls were now quite loud! This cat was not one bit happy! I finally caved in and opened the door. Ms. Put shot into the house and then came to a full halt in the middle of the dining room! Nose in the air, she sniffed...TURKEY!..I want turkey!!!!

Not wanting to neglect my dinner guests, I called to Son to feed this crazy animal and I headed back outside. After hugs and many "Good-byes", they headed down the street and back home. What a wonderful Thanksgiving! I went back inside to find my crazy cat, calmly cleaning her paws. She hopped up on a chair to take a nap but not before she turned to glare at me.."Leave me now..your job is done!" She was satisfied..the Queen had spoken and her minions heeded.