I once used to work with a Tire Engineer named Hugh Scott. He was a Black man from Virginia and very, very low-key.
I bumped into him at a discount tire store where I was having new tires put on my Firenza. Uniroyals, if memory serves.
While killing time in the waiting room, we made idle conversation.
Hugh observed that anybody can move forward when everything is going well. The key to long-term success, in his opinion, was to make progress, any kind of progress however microscopic, when the universe was resisting your every effort.
Not a flashy guy. But he was profound.
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| A
robin built a nest on the mini-platform I built in hopes of attracting
barn swallows. The horizontal ledge is 5.5" below the ceiling and the
flats are 5.5" square. |
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| Unknown bird species building this nest. The bird is smaller than a robin but it is very early for swallows. |
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| This is one that has no tenants yet. |
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| Our birds are not fussy. This is a mourning dove sitting on her nest |
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| This is a robin nest about 10' away from the mourning dove's nest. |
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| Another robin's nest about 75' away from the one shown immediately above. |
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| A fallen-apple that is in recovery |
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| The fallen apple's sister tree. Toppled by wind-gusts. |
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| Oregano |
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| Catnip |
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| "Sarah's Violet" |
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| Sarah is my niece. We lost her when she was 22. She liked pink. |
We are still fighting off colds. Quicksilver was a stinker today.
While she was napping I grafted twenty Liberty scion to some 6" long pieces of MM-106 apple root-stock. It is theoretically possible to root hardwood cuttings of some of the dwarfing root-stocks like quince and (maybe...fingers crossed) MM-106.
When a fruit grower purchases root-stock, they typically ship rooted, dormant plants that are between 18" and 24" tall. It was not a big deal to trim a few of them back since I plan to bud or graft about 4" above ground level.
Root initiation is facilitated by total darkness, 80 degree F temperatures and humidity. The experiment is double-bagged in bread wrappers and totally wrapped in aluminum foil to exclude light. It currently is sitting on my germinating, heat-mat. I might peak at it in a week to see how it is doing.
It cost me nothing more than my time.
Search-and-destroy missions
I was working on Box Elder and Oriental Honeysuckle today.
Inch-by-inch. Row-by-row. We are going to make that garden grow.
All progress in such matters, even infinitesimal, is good progress.
ReplyDeleteSarah, gone too soon but remembered.
ReplyDeleteYour mourning doves are more social than mine. They will fly away from the feeding site screaming every time and not return until just about every squirrel and turkey eats the food I set out.
Right now as I look out the window some black headed little birds are eating the white millet everybody else seems to ignore.
I saw our first barn swallow of the year in Bowling Green, KY last week while cutting the grass. No activity in the barn yet.
ReplyDelete