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As the Crow Flies
May. 2nd, 2021 09:10 amSince ditching a bunch of meds which were more detrimental than helpful, I feel like my body and brain are waking up, shaking off cobwebs and dust and disuse. My sleep schedule has entirely changed. No longer do I go to bed very late, lie awake for a few hours, sleep fitfully, and get up exhausted. Now I go to bed, fall right to sleep, and although I think I could use a bit more sleep than I've been getting, I wake up refreshed and early. I decided to treat myself this morning, and before it was even 7 am, I was walking down the road to a Tim Horton's to grab a cheese croissant and a steeped tea. On my walk back, I gobbled up the croissant, took a nice big sip of my tea and had a mouth freakout.
That wasn't tea.
It was coffee.
Even when I was a coffee-drinker, I did not drink Tim Horton's coffee. It tastes appalling to me, like a mixture of cheap instant coffee cut with cigarette butts. It also does awful things to my digestive system, and no, I'm not talking about the ubiquitous coffee shits. I'm talking about major IBS gut spasms, nausea, and excruciating cramps which can last for a few days.
I only had one mouthful of the odious stuff, so I'm hoping my belly will be forgiving.
I went back and got the tea I had paid for in the first place. That tasted much better.
On my walk back, I heard the desperate screams of a hawk, and looked to watch a high-speed chase. A crow flew in hot pursuit of a Cooper's (or maybe a sharp-shinned?) hawk. The raptor made hairtrigger turns and corrections in her flight path, screaming in dismay at her predicament. The much larger crow flew in silence, intent on causing grievous harm. The hawk was juuuuust keeping out of reach. Crows hate birds of prey. They'll flock around owls and pester them to death. I paused to watch this tiny drama, and soon it was gone from my sight and hearing. Did the crow catch the hawk? Did the hawk get away? I dunno. No resolution for me, today.
When I got home, I spread a mixture of white clover and native wildflower seeds all over what was once a front lawn. It's supposed to rain for a few days, but this morning is beautiful and bright, so I wanted to take advantage of the ideal planting weather. Afterwards, I spread a mixture of chinchilla litter, shredded basswood bark, straw, and old leaves atop it all as a mulch. My yard is a carefully cultivated mixture of native varieties and introduced species. No longer is my yard covered with basic lawn grass, which is nothing but a food desert for pollinators. Now I have sweetgrass, sunflower, coneflower, goldenrod, gooseberry, strawberry, boysenberry, sour cherry, calendula, brown eyed Susan, red currant, honeyberry, hoarhound, goji berry, kiwi, rhubarb, blackberry, mallow, viper bugloss, dandelion, Saskatoon berry, day lily, poppy, raspberry, ramps, trillium, mayapple, Solomon's seal, trout lily, sorrel, chamomile, plantain, bergamot, cinquefoil, violet, and more. I am still working on getting milkweed established, and I'd love to bring in some crackerberry and red dogwood. I even have a planter where moss is growing. Three years in, and it's no longer short. Now it is sprouting higher, sending little mossy antennae skyward from dense green cushions. I don't know much about moss. I just know this particular moss planted itself, and is happy where it is.
When I first moved here, there were few pollinators to be seen in my yard. Now, my yard is a haven buzzing with life. More bees than I can identify take advantage of this mini wildlife sanctuary. I've seen green sweat bees (the official bee of Toronto), honeybees, bumblebees, swallowtail butterflies, monarch butterflies, yellow jackets, and more. Bats come swooping into my backyard at night, gobbling up insects and delighting me with their acrobatics. I've set up a bat house and a birdhouse. I've set up a potential den for a queen bumblebee: a buried teapot, spout facing the south, with a mixture of mouse shit and dried grass inside. Bumblebees like mouse dens. The droppings let them know that this might be a good place to have a family.
I'm not as keen on the way the ants tend to their aphid dairies on my food plants, but if nothing is eating the plants, they are not part of the ecosystem.
Every now and then, I go walking and look for species to bring home. I'll scoop up ladybird beetles and show them what I hope will be their new digs. I put nightcrawlers into my big permaculture planter out back. I dig up plants from the forest (careful to only choose spots from where that species is plentiful so I don't cause a paucity), and I introduce them to my yard. My yard shakes hands with the new plants and welcomes them to the community. Today, I brought home a bunch of day lilies someone had thinned out from their yard. Those lilies make for good eatin', and they're pretty. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Some of the plants I keep in planters, because I don't want them everywhere. Motherwort is one of those plants. It will gladly take the place over, so I grow it in pots. I also have a nice patch of stinging nettle in the back corner of my yard, carefully positioned so no one will accidentally rub up against it. I just planted it last year, and now it appears to have naturalized. Young shoots are popping up everywhere in a good-sized planter.
Now, where shall I put horseradish so it doesn't take over? And thistle? And I also want to set up a deep planter for burdock. I don't want that growing just anywhere, but I do want it.
That wasn't tea.
It was coffee.
Even when I was a coffee-drinker, I did not drink Tim Horton's coffee. It tastes appalling to me, like a mixture of cheap instant coffee cut with cigarette butts. It also does awful things to my digestive system, and no, I'm not talking about the ubiquitous coffee shits. I'm talking about major IBS gut spasms, nausea, and excruciating cramps which can last for a few days.
I only had one mouthful of the odious stuff, so I'm hoping my belly will be forgiving.
I went back and got the tea I had paid for in the first place. That tasted much better.
On my walk back, I heard the desperate screams of a hawk, and looked to watch a high-speed chase. A crow flew in hot pursuit of a Cooper's (or maybe a sharp-shinned?) hawk. The raptor made hairtrigger turns and corrections in her flight path, screaming in dismay at her predicament. The much larger crow flew in silence, intent on causing grievous harm. The hawk was juuuuust keeping out of reach. Crows hate birds of prey. They'll flock around owls and pester them to death. I paused to watch this tiny drama, and soon it was gone from my sight and hearing. Did the crow catch the hawk? Did the hawk get away? I dunno. No resolution for me, today.
When I got home, I spread a mixture of white clover and native wildflower seeds all over what was once a front lawn. It's supposed to rain for a few days, but this morning is beautiful and bright, so I wanted to take advantage of the ideal planting weather. Afterwards, I spread a mixture of chinchilla litter, shredded basswood bark, straw, and old leaves atop it all as a mulch. My yard is a carefully cultivated mixture of native varieties and introduced species. No longer is my yard covered with basic lawn grass, which is nothing but a food desert for pollinators. Now I have sweetgrass, sunflower, coneflower, goldenrod, gooseberry, strawberry, boysenberry, sour cherry, calendula, brown eyed Susan, red currant, honeyberry, hoarhound, goji berry, kiwi, rhubarb, blackberry, mallow, viper bugloss, dandelion, Saskatoon berry, day lily, poppy, raspberry, ramps, trillium, mayapple, Solomon's seal, trout lily, sorrel, chamomile, plantain, bergamot, cinquefoil, violet, and more. I am still working on getting milkweed established, and I'd love to bring in some crackerberry and red dogwood. I even have a planter where moss is growing. Three years in, and it's no longer short. Now it is sprouting higher, sending little mossy antennae skyward from dense green cushions. I don't know much about moss. I just know this particular moss planted itself, and is happy where it is.
When I first moved here, there were few pollinators to be seen in my yard. Now, my yard is a haven buzzing with life. More bees than I can identify take advantage of this mini wildlife sanctuary. I've seen green sweat bees (the official bee of Toronto), honeybees, bumblebees, swallowtail butterflies, monarch butterflies, yellow jackets, and more. Bats come swooping into my backyard at night, gobbling up insects and delighting me with their acrobatics. I've set up a bat house and a birdhouse. I've set up a potential den for a queen bumblebee: a buried teapot, spout facing the south, with a mixture of mouse shit and dried grass inside. Bumblebees like mouse dens. The droppings let them know that this might be a good place to have a family.
I'm not as keen on the way the ants tend to their aphid dairies on my food plants, but if nothing is eating the plants, they are not part of the ecosystem.
Every now and then, I go walking and look for species to bring home. I'll scoop up ladybird beetles and show them what I hope will be their new digs. I put nightcrawlers into my big permaculture planter out back. I dig up plants from the forest (careful to only choose spots from where that species is plentiful so I don't cause a paucity), and I introduce them to my yard. My yard shakes hands with the new plants and welcomes them to the community. Today, I brought home a bunch of day lilies someone had thinned out from their yard. Those lilies make for good eatin', and they're pretty. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Some of the plants I keep in planters, because I don't want them everywhere. Motherwort is one of those plants. It will gladly take the place over, so I grow it in pots. I also have a nice patch of stinging nettle in the back corner of my yard, carefully positioned so no one will accidentally rub up against it. I just planted it last year, and now it appears to have naturalized. Young shoots are popping up everywhere in a good-sized planter.
Now, where shall I put horseradish so it doesn't take over? And thistle? And I also want to set up a deep planter for burdock. I don't want that growing just anywhere, but I do want it.
