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The ironic thing is that we had a Trombocino squash garden growing under those Leyland Cypress trees… you know, the bushy trees that are nearly horizontal. Neither made it.

This was the scene as we went out the back door on Sunday morning after Hurricane Irene. The winds had blown hard out of the north, which is on the left side of the picture. About 12 years ago we planted three Leylands to soften the shed, never really expecting that they’d grow to 40-50′, nor be that lush. Sadly for them, all the dense foliage acted like a sail, so they were the first to go. Just off-frame to the left, there are two others that are down. There goes our privacy hedge.

There’s an old poem from Japanese poet and Samurai, Mizuta Masahide:

Barn’s burnt down —
now
I can see the moon.

While we lament the passing of these magnificent trees, we’re excited that the loss opens up an opportunity for us to plant new gardens or fruit tree guilds. For those following the story, the image The Vegitect was taken with my back to the shed, near where the grill is standing. And although the annual gardens have been a blast this year, we have plans to pull up the remaining grass and develop a permaculture (polyculture) food forest throughout the backyard in the coming years.

Another thought that struck me during this storm: Although the property is pretty ripped up, I consider this to be what I call “a first-world problem.” There are many people farther north of us who are still coping with record flooding situations, with some towns simply washed away. We’ve got issues down here, but nothing like some of those more northern places. I would hope that everyone who reads this could reach down and donate a bit to the American Red Cross, or other disaster relief organization, in order to help out those in need, particularly since funds at FEMA are about to be heavily politicized (Boooo!) Having been on the receiving end of the equation in the past, I can tell you that nothing is more welcome than seeing good people come to the rescue.

Please help.

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Waiting for Linus

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Sitting on one of the hay bales and sneaking outside the fence, we found this little guy. As Linus would do, we’ll continue to take care of the pumpkin patch, hoping for the arrival of The Great Pumpkin later in the year on Halloween night. To that end, we’ll try to keep the patch as ‘sincere’ as possible.

“There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” — Linus Van Pelt

News:

Congratulations to Jim Nix, from Austin, Texas. Jim was the winner of the recent contest held on this blog, and for playing, Jim will receive a free copy of Topaz Lens Effects.

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Spinning in Infinity

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Following up on the previous image Angels in the Architecture,  I again found fascination and beauty in an Italian Summer Squash bud, backlit by the setting sun. The varietal name is ‘Climbing Trombocino.’ (“Squash” seems like a rather unromantic name for such a plant, and certainly didn’t conjure up appetizing thoughts when I was a kid.)

I was delightfully surprised to see the bokeh come out so well on this image, especially since the aperture was f/6.3, though the tall hedgerow that caused the bokeh was some distance away from the subject. ISO was 800, 1/80 sec., at 55mm.

The title, once again, is the next snippet from Paul Simon’s song “You Can Call Me Al”

News Update:

The release of my HDR video tutorial has been delayed a bit. Since I created the video for a friend and wasn’t at all concerned about length, it’s a full hour of fun and games. Problem is, I hadn’t accounted for where I’d store the beast, and have had to break it up into 15-minute segments before posting on YouTube. I hope to have the finals uploaded by the end of this week after I re-index it.

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Angels in the Architecture

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Following up on yesterday’s strawberry image, The Overachiever, I managed to catch this Italian Squash bud in the light of late afternoon. (I always thought that I disliked squash of any sort, until I tried some fresh out of the garden.)

I never cease to be amazed at what plants like this can present as they unfurl their leaves and send out spiraling tendrils to grab onto the nearest bit of infrastructure.

The title is a snippet from Paul Simon’s song “You Can Call Me Al”

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