On the 1st May, every year, in France, we offer a bunch of “muguet” to the loved ones. It is a tradition dating back to 1560 when the King Charles IX received a sprig on the first of May when visiting the fields in the Drome county. The next year he offered some to the ladies of the court to wish them luck, and so it went!
When I was little, we usually celebrated the 1st of May with a parade, where every community could show off, and ended up on the soccer field of the district eating french fries and sausages.
And it is when I realized that an entire field of Lily of the valley was growing in my garden that I remembered….
It has been about 10 years that I didn’t feel spring.
I was living on the Equator where there is little changes all along the year: seasons are very similar, even though native people would say that there is a raining and a dry season…. But flowers bloom 2-3 times per year, trees loose their leaves to recover immediately, and the temperatures oscillate only between 26 and 33°C, little for us to feel a strong difference. Because it is also very humid, plants grow fast and green, invading every corners and climbing until the roofs…
I arrived in Maine in September, absorbing these magic colors of fall, so specific to New England. But then came winter and everything was flat and covered by snow … including the area where I established the new home. So now I am discovering the area, the little town – with actual borders around the houses-, nice green gardens worthy of Englander ones, and vegetable gardens proliferating quickly around.
And it is with all my senses that I am wandering every day in the wild fields, filled with wonder, amazed from the beauty of Nature. Flowers just pop out from nowhere, embracing the warmth of the season… and I am trying to get the maximum from this positive energy in this crazy world!
Pine grosbeak pink bird, ducks, red fox, white-tailed dears, eastern chipmunk, red squirrels, grey squirrels, wild turkeys, coon cat, owls, pileated woodpeakers, seagulls, eagles and now hummingbirds are the few wild encounters of my run and hikes during these long days of quarantaine.
But 2 weeks ago I met the most horrible creature ever: the blakfly, from the Simuliidae family. And I am not anymore wondering why the houses are all equipped with “mosquitos” nets…
These flies just aren’t fly, they are small little butchers, “merciless eating machine” (Downeast.com*). They are very small – almost invisible – grey-black in color, “turning you into a bloody, itchy, swollen mess if they don’t drive you crazy first”. Females will bite you to take the blood they need to nourish their eggs, but they smartly first anesthetize the area – so you don’t know they are here – , then inject an anticoagulant so they can sample as much of your blood as they wish. Their salive is unfortunately a kind of allergen – so you can remember them few hours later….
It takes only few seconds for them to smell the carbon dioxide you exhile, so that they can spot you and attack.
The only good things are that they do not carry diseases and are actually the sign of good water quality. That’s good to know, because I am drinking tap water!
I heard that it generally lasts only one generation, so they are alive from Mother’s day to Father’s day… when is Father’s day in the US???
It is not allowed to have visits at home. I know. But these are very special visits. Regular ones.
The first visit I have in the morning is a hummingbird. It has been about a week that it comes every day, two or three times a day. In the morning it comes around 9:30 – 10:00. Now that it seems to know the area, it targets directly the Lavender flowers, get the pollen from 3 or 4 spots, and vanish. Usually it comes again around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Sometimes I am very close, just behind the window, and I can see all the colors of his feathers. It has a red tommy, white collar and rather greyish/greenish body, it should be a male ruby-throated hummingbird.
The ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) seems to be actually the only one seen regularly in Maine. He migrates from the Gulf of Mexico to southern Canada and nests in breeding habitats primarily east of the Rocky Mountains. This bird is the only one that can fly backwards! And rubythroats can beat their wings from 70 to 200 times per seconds!! One says that they are extremely territorial and will come back to the same place from one year to the other. Well, for now, I am looking forward to welcoming it daily for the entire summer!
There is another visitor, a mysterious one… I just discovered that he is coming regularly… on the compost bin! It looks like he choose to install his nest in the brown dead leaves and Pineneedles. I usually hide the few things I collect from cooking, so I don’t think this is of high interest – otherwise I would have seen this upside down. But I have added some fresh green grass from the garden few days ago, which may make his nest even more comfy ! Since he’s coming during the night, I’m wondering whether I’ll install an infrared camera….
According to the web (finegardening.com), it can be skunks, opossums, rats and armadillos, as they are fond of the worms and insects buried in the pile. However, they also are attracted by dairy products, egg shells, meats and other things that I do not consume, so that might not be the right ones… Mice and rabbits may be the ones nesting just right in the middle of it… I shall get a nice pitchfork to turn the pile more often and activate faster the decomposition, and disturb them so they won’t like to declare residence!
I am sure you know what I mean : be suddenly transported out of the present time. Just in a millisecond.
That just happened to me this morning as I was running into the woods: the simple smell of pine trees warmed by the sun. How powerful! I was transported to when I was a teenager, living in a house behind the dune and surrounded by pine trees.
It was about 12 degrees C, blue sky and sunny, the ideal temperature to run: enough cold to wear a comfortable long sleeve shirt and long pants, without being too warm while exercising, but entirely protected from the sun and other bugs.
Not only us, human being, are coming out of our (COVID19) hibernation. There is a video often shared in the local Public Radio and Television programs these days, about a bear, a black bear, making a mess in the gardens nearby… which are about 5 km from my home!!!
They say these bears are rather friendly, but I won’t try to meet up with them… so I didn’t refurnished the bird feeders, nor I left the garbage bin outside, and even turned and hidden the compostable veggies further below the pine needles and dead leaves in the compost bin…. We are never too cautious!
But how exciting is this in this calm environment!
I have been busy though these days. And busy investigating also. Here are the facts: a mysterious creature was eating what was coming out in the garden…At night….
Interestingly, this happened only in one particular spot, not everywhere, even though the same plant (a fern) was coming out at other locations. Strange.
So when I planted flowers I wanted to be sure the creature would not eat them…at least before I posted it on this blog! And now, after few days, I think I got some answers: I think the light that I left outside all winter gave the deers a kind of path to follow – and you have seen their footprints sometimes! – on which the flowers were coming out of the way! Since I turned off the light on the nights, no greens have been attacked anymore! Strange coincidence….
And the good news is that the flowers have not been eaten… yet!! Yeah!
First I needed to use the 3 bananas that were becoming too black to be eaten with pleasure – but my mum always said: “we can’t through any food”. So I needed to do something before throwing them. And I remembered a delicious banana cake I ate often back in Singapore, and wanted to have a try…without recipe. Apart from eggs (that I finally got again fresh from the backyard of my colleague, because of this cake!), flour, sugar and butter – of course – and the bananas, I added cinamon and pecan nuts… mmm, almost gone!!
Second, I tried for the second time tofu. It was written “very firm”… mmm, not sooo sure…. not toooo bad…. but definitely not my favorite! I tried to fry it, to pan it, to steam it, in salad, warm, cold, well, I didn’t find the perfect way, yet! But finishing it… of course (I would feel guilty!).
Third, I ordered food for the first time from a local restaurant – I just was too much craving for indian style! and we should support local business that are quite lost without tourists, despite trying their best to survive. Spicy vegetable Korma curry with garlic naan and basmati rice… Delicious!!
And a couple of other things I tried this weekend – some ideas if you are bored: zucchinis and eggplants pan fried in the wok with garlic and cumin seeds – that was super good!; boiled sweet potatoes – warm or cold in salad; Mixed salad with avocado, tofu, sweet potato, red onion, tomato, pomelo, letuce, rucola, and pine nuts. As usual for a salad, excellent!
Samples of my last 10 days meals… beginning with a Friday in front of the fire place – I was too cold from the day long at my desk and needed some comfort…
Going on with a tortilla (potatoes and eggs – remember I got some fresh eggs from a colleague of mine!); red cabbage salad (with raisins, walnuts, and apples): Kartoffelsalad (potatoes, onions, pickles, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt/pepper and mayonnaise); fresh carrots salad (with loads of garlic); the twin Gerbera flowers (not to eat); lentils (with carrots and garlic essentially); green salad (with french endive, spring onions, tomatoes, rucola, red onions, sunflowers seeds, chia seeds, avocado, and balsamic vinegar/olive oil/salt/pepper – as usual); ratatouille (again….); quinoa salad (with cucumber, among other veggies); Lima white beans, again… and corn! I should add oranges and mandarins, lemon juice for the morning, and lately few kiwis, sometimes apples. Well, I am trying to eat a large variety of veggies, fruits and legumes, but yes, recipes come back. Next will be fenel – again – but I am also kind of dreaming about Indian food, so I may finally decide to try the local one; they deliver!
Today was a big day: I finally completed the compost bin! – yes, it was not snowing anymore, still cold and windy but at least sunny like a nice very early spring day!
It’s been a while that I get prepared: pallets, saw, screws, nails, corners brackets, hinges and hook and latches. Well, it is not perfect, I forgot few important points to make it smooth and professional, but that’s really not too bad for a first project of this kind! – and it works well!
I was more than happy to be able to put somewhere all the dead leaves and pine needles that I collected these last weeks from the garden. So happy to have made it that I especially went outside tonight to throw the organics from my dinner: small salad and veggies parts and silky threads from corn in the cob… Un petit plaisir!
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