Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label garden. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Heart of a Lion
I think most people by now know that a lot of the critters in my yard scare the pants off me. Mostly they are harmless, scary, but harmless. There are lots of animals in Malawi that are really really dangerous. Some of them are small enough to slip unnoticed into someone's (my) garden. I think the animals that terrify me the most are snakes. Cobras, boomslangs, mambas, they all live around here. We have found snakes in our garden but so far they have all been the harmless can't-kill-me-except-from-a-heart-attack sort of snake.
Before we came to Malawi to help get the kids excited we let them watch hours of African animal shows on Nat Geo Wild. We took them to the zoo and looked for all the animals from Africa. We read books about African animals. Somehow the black mamba seemed to show up again and again. Well mambas and hippos, hippos scare me silly but I am pretty sure I would notice a hippo wandering around my garden before I even made it out of the door. Mambas on the other hand are long and skinny and can hide any freaking where. I saw a show the other day where one was hiding in the water tank on the back of the toilet. That's one sneaky snake.
I can't blame all my issues with snakes on Nat Geo Wild. It's nothing new, but the upgrade from rattlesnake to mamba with the added bonus of severely limited availability of antivenin has meant a drastic escalation in my level of paranoia. All the boys from my husband down think I am nuts. I think I am cautious.
Last night I had a dream a black mamba reared up in my face while I was weeding around the overgrown comfrey plant in my garden. I'm sure this nightmare has it's roots in a late glass of red wine and an unfortunate incident with a bull snake in my Aunt Patsy's bean patch one summer when I was a kid. Nothing like a five foot snake rearing up in your face to scar you for life. Chicken snakes are harmless, black mambas not so much. I woke up this morning with my heart pounding praying it was raining so I could skip the garden today. The sun was shining. I guess I was going to be gardening.
As I walked into the garden I saw a skink slither into the comfrey plant. Good! If I was seeing lizards there probably wasn't a snake in the garden. I am assuming that a mamba would eat the lizard. If I am wrong don't feel the need to correct me, let me live in ignorance, my phobia doesn't need feeding, it is doing just fine on it's own.
The plan for this morning was to clear away the dead pepper plants and marigolds and to plant some bush beans. The dead pepper plants were right next to the comfrey. GULP! I refuse to let my crazy run my life so I plopped my butt down and started pulling up weeds. Then I noticed some dead leaves on the comfrey. Heart pounding I reached down and pulled them off and tossed them into the compost bucket along with the weeds. No snake reared up kill me. Whew! It was just a silly dream.
Do you remember that skink? The one I saw when I first walked into the garden? Well I had forgotten all about it and decided to finish tidying the comfrey plant as long as I was working around it. About halfway through cleaning it up the lizard suddenly had enough and decided to confront the problem (that would be ME) head on. A six inch lizard ran up my arm, jumped off my elbow, and headed for the tomatoes. All I saw was a blur with scales. Scream doesn't even begin to cover the sound I made. The guard came running. I am not sure he understood what scared me but eventually he seemed satisfied that there was no danger and he could go back to his post.
A lizard attack and severe embarrassment, great way to start the day. Is 8:20 am too early for a drink?
This is a skink, not a mamba.
Before we came to Malawi to help get the kids excited we let them watch hours of African animal shows on Nat Geo Wild. We took them to the zoo and looked for all the animals from Africa. We read books about African animals. Somehow the black mamba seemed to show up again and again. Well mambas and hippos, hippos scare me silly but I am pretty sure I would notice a hippo wandering around my garden before I even made it out of the door. Mambas on the other hand are long and skinny and can hide any freaking where. I saw a show the other day where one was hiding in the water tank on the back of the toilet. That's one sneaky snake.
I can't blame all my issues with snakes on Nat Geo Wild. It's nothing new, but the upgrade from rattlesnake to mamba with the added bonus of severely limited availability of antivenin has meant a drastic escalation in my level of paranoia. All the boys from my husband down think I am nuts. I think I am cautious.
Last night I had a dream a black mamba reared up in my face while I was weeding around the overgrown comfrey plant in my garden. I'm sure this nightmare has it's roots in a late glass of red wine and an unfortunate incident with a bull snake in my Aunt Patsy's bean patch one summer when I was a kid. Nothing like a five foot snake rearing up in your face to scar you for life. Chicken snakes are harmless, black mambas not so much. I woke up this morning with my heart pounding praying it was raining so I could skip the garden today. The sun was shining. I guess I was going to be gardening.
As I walked into the garden I saw a skink slither into the comfrey plant. Good! If I was seeing lizards there probably wasn't a snake in the garden. I am assuming that a mamba would eat the lizard. If I am wrong don't feel the need to correct me, let me live in ignorance, my phobia doesn't need feeding, it is doing just fine on it's own.
The plan for this morning was to clear away the dead pepper plants and marigolds and to plant some bush beans. The dead pepper plants were right next to the comfrey. GULP! I refuse to let my crazy run my life so I plopped my butt down and started pulling up weeds. Then I noticed some dead leaves on the comfrey. Heart pounding I reached down and pulled them off and tossed them into the compost bucket along with the weeds. No snake reared up kill me. Whew! It was just a silly dream.
Do you remember that skink? The one I saw when I first walked into the garden? Well I had forgotten all about it and decided to finish tidying the comfrey plant as long as I was working around it. About halfway through cleaning it up the lizard suddenly had enough and decided to confront the problem (that would be ME) head on. A six inch lizard ran up my arm, jumped off my elbow, and headed for the tomatoes. All I saw was a blur with scales. Scream doesn't even begin to cover the sound I made. The guard came running. I am not sure he understood what scared me but eventually he seemed satisfied that there was no danger and he could go back to his post.
A lizard attack and severe embarrassment, great way to start the day. Is 8:20 am too early for a drink?
This is a skink, not a mamba.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Harvest
When we first got here I planted sweet corn in the garden. The gardeners said "Too soon, too soon." I planted it anyway and watered it. We harvested it shortly before rainy season started and got a very nice harvest. Lovely plump sweet yellow ears of corn. Remarkably little bug damage. The few ears that were chewed on still had plenty of good parts left so I cut away the bad and used the good to make homemade creamed corn (gag!) for Dave. He loved it, said it wasn't the same as his grandmother's but then nothing ever is. Even I had to admit that homemade is much better than that sickly sweet slimy stuff out of a can. So all was good.
One day the gardeners showed up at the door and said NOW we plant the corn. I handed over a seed packet for Silver Queen sweet corn and all was good once again. Today I harvested the corn. I picked the ears and hauled it into the kitchen to shuck, blanch and freeze. HOLY MOLY MOTHER OF GOD! I have NEVER seen such diversity of bug life! And I have blogged about my critter loving kids so you know I get to see a lot of buggies. Spiders, huge ants, beetles, slimy worm things, little black moving dots. Alonzo particularly loved when I peeled back the husk on one ear to have a large cockroach drop out onto my hand. I am sure I put on quite the show dancing around screaming. Such a girl! It escaped down the drain. I poured boiling water right behind it! Ha take that Mr. Roach! Next time the husking will take place outside right next to the compost heap, and I think I will let the boys do it. I'll supervise, from a distance.
Why the heck did they tell me to plant right when the bug population exploded? I thought that for a few minutes. And finally the light bulb went on. OK Blond moment, Duh! If you haven't figured it out they planted the corn a few weeks before the rainy season started. In the villages there is no running water. If they are lucky they have a bore hole with a hand pump put in by some NGO. Irrigation isn't a big part of farming practices here. Crops are planted in coordination with the arrival of the rains. The rains also means an absolute explosion in bugs as they multiply to take advantage of the sudden availability of food. This year the gardeners tell me the rains aren't as heavy as usual. I really hope it is good enough for a decent harvest. It is mind boggling to think so many people still live with their very lives tied to the arrival of the rains even in this day and age. Then they have to fight the bugs, birds and such for the harvest. If you are sitting in your comfortable house, reading this on laptop, or even your old desktop computer count yourself as blessed.
I need to get back to my corn. Even after all the bugs chewed on it for a there is plenty of corn left for us. I just need to cut away the bad parts and keep the good. It may be a few weeks before I want to eat corn after this though, so it is all going right into the freezer after it is blanched until I am over the bugs.
One day the gardeners showed up at the door and said NOW we plant the corn. I handed over a seed packet for Silver Queen sweet corn and all was good once again. Today I harvested the corn. I picked the ears and hauled it into the kitchen to shuck, blanch and freeze. HOLY MOLY MOTHER OF GOD! I have NEVER seen such diversity of bug life! And I have blogged about my critter loving kids so you know I get to see a lot of buggies. Spiders, huge ants, beetles, slimy worm things, little black moving dots. Alonzo particularly loved when I peeled back the husk on one ear to have a large cockroach drop out onto my hand. I am sure I put on quite the show dancing around screaming. Such a girl! It escaped down the drain. I poured boiling water right behind it! Ha take that Mr. Roach! Next time the husking will take place outside right next to the compost heap, and I think I will let the boys do it. I'll supervise, from a distance.
Why the heck did they tell me to plant right when the bug population exploded? I thought that for a few minutes. And finally the light bulb went on. OK Blond moment, Duh! If you haven't figured it out they planted the corn a few weeks before the rainy season started. In the villages there is no running water. If they are lucky they have a bore hole with a hand pump put in by some NGO. Irrigation isn't a big part of farming practices here. Crops are planted in coordination with the arrival of the rains. The rains also means an absolute explosion in bugs as they multiply to take advantage of the sudden availability of food. This year the gardeners tell me the rains aren't as heavy as usual. I really hope it is good enough for a decent harvest. It is mind boggling to think so many people still live with their very lives tied to the arrival of the rains even in this day and age. Then they have to fight the bugs, birds and such for the harvest. If you are sitting in your comfortable house, reading this on laptop, or even your old desktop computer count yourself as blessed.
I need to get back to my corn. Even after all the bugs chewed on it for a there is plenty of corn left for us. I just need to cut away the bad parts and keep the good. It may be a few weeks before I want to eat corn after this though, so it is all going right into the freezer after it is blanched until I am over the bugs.
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