Volunteer Lawn Mowers at the Park

With no enemy except the car, these deer herds multiply and prosper all over the Warner Parks, our golf courses and our suburbs. How they love clipped green lawns with succulent fresh grass shoots!

They are now as common as chipmunks, and much tamer. Today, a doe who seemed to be the group leader walked towards us after I took this picture. She was so purposeful I thought she was looking for a handout. Then she smelled my dogs, both short and hidden from her by the grass. She made a loud sound somewhere between a snort and a croak, and her band retreated. I had never heard a deer make an alarm call before. I always believed that the white tail flashing was enough-

For Those Interested In Gardens-

I have just posted "Old Fashioned Annuals in A Modern Garden" om my new Wordpress blog. Included are photographs of one of the gardens I am working in-

See Tales Of A Nashville Gardener.

Sailing On The "Sophie"

I have been on a voyage with Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin this past two weeks. It is my second trip with these engaging characters of Patrick O'Brien's seafaring series of maritime adventures during the Napoleonic wars. Who wants to stay in muggy Nashville during July, that most superfluous and enervating month, when they can travel to Gibraltar and Catalonia, and Port Mahon.

And in what company! Who could be more interesting a companion than Steven Maturin, physician and naturalist? A man fascinated by apes, and insects, and plants, and all that creeps or crawls whether in Spain or the Galapagos Islands. Book after book. At least twenty. I could be away for a year-

Jack Aubrey,- "Lucky Jack" when afloat, though not so much on land, where he is hounded by jealous husbands and wily creditors, is also good company.He loves good food,plays good music, harasses the French shipping for adventure and prize money.


Patrick O'Brien, who created this pair, also wrote a biography of Sir Joseph Banks, one of the great botanical explorers, and a man larger than life. I have the book now, courtesy of Inter-Library loan.


No voyage this morning, though. "Post Captain", second in the series, will have to wait till this afternoon. I have a garden to groom this morning, which is enjoyable, then errands-which are not, especially when the day will reach 99 degrees.


"There is no frigate like a book", Emily Dickinson wrote.

After The Rains-July 21,2012 Pasquo, Tennessee

July has been kind to Middle Tennessee. We have had 8 inches of rain in the past 3 weeks and all is green. I cannot remember a July when brooks ran and we could hear water teasing the shallows-

And here is a vista of fields planted with soybeans-

An old oak, split by lightning-

A turkey hen with one of her young-

Two summers ago a woman who lives off this road told me this area would become a housing development. Thank God this has not happened yet. Perhaps there is more money in soybeans than in million dollar homes no one wants to buy.

Buying and Selling Art-My Brief Career

Three years ago, at an estate sale in rich Belle Meade, I bought a painting by a French artist who painted just before the Second World War. I paid $295 for it, and I was convinced it was worth more. It was a Paris street scene, and my brother in New Hampshire, who subscribes to "Ask Art", looked it up for me to see how much it might be worth. The last painting by this artist sold 20 odd years ago for twenty five hundred dollars. I assumed it would appreciate in value. I assumed a lot of things.


Last January, when I needed money more than I needed a French painting, I sent the piece, heavily insured, to New England. My brother sent pictures of it to a Boston auction house and told me they estimated it as worth between 800 and 1500 dollars.
This sounded like rent money or a new set of tires for the Tundra to me-
.

I waited. I waited some more. I waited again. And last week heard it was going to auction today with an estimate of 700 to 900 dollars. Not what I hoped for, but at least a profit.

For several hours today I followed the auction on line. With trepidation.

It appeared the estimates meant nothing. Everything was estimated at 700 to 900 dollars. Everything was selling for less. Less meaning everything from 20 bucks to a couple hundred.

I was sorry now that I had not sent it to France to sell. Sorry I had not put a reserve on it. I was so sorry I hoped no one bought it for 10 dollars so the auction house could send it back to me.

It sold for 350 dollars. I made a 55 dollar profit until I figured in commission and fees, and how much I insured it for when I shipped it.


If I get one hundred dollars I will be lucky. Try putting a new set of back tires on a Toyota truck for that-

Okra and Butter Bean Stew with Creole Spices

I made this stew a few weeks ago using some leftover,tasty, and very meaty pole beans. But the pole beans have disappeared from the market, and this week I used butter beans instead.
When I first saw the beans at the market truck in the church parking lot I thought they were limas. An elderly, and well-heeled lady disabused me of this idea.
"Do you have any mo-ah of those butter beans?" she asked the vegetable girl,"Ah promised ma friend I would get her some-"

Since there were enough for everyone, I bought a small bag-full home and and added them to the stew. This dish improves by staying on the low burner overnight and allowing the okra to thicken it-


1 medium yellow onion, diced,flavored with sea salt and sauteed in butter to a golden brown

14 oz diced tomatoes,pureed in a blender.

1 cup butter beans

1-1 1/2 cup cut up okra.

4 small yellow potatoes,diced.

2 cloves of garlic,minced or pressed.

4-5 cups chicken or vegetable broth.

1/4 stick butter

2 heaping tablespoons of Creole mustard.

1/2 to 1 teaspoon or more of Creole seasoning to taste.( I use, and always will use Tony Chacherie's)

1 tablespoon of red vinegar.


After sauteeing the onion in a little of the butter, put everything else including the butter in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and leave the pot alone for a few hours, or even better overnight. This allows the stew to develop more flavor and to thicken. This should feed 4 or 5 people-

A Surprise at the Bird Feeder

The birds that come to my porch feeders are birds that do not mind people. They are the usual suburban camp followers-House Finches, House Sparrows. And the common permanent residents such as Jays and Chickadees and Titmice and Carolina Wrens.

I was surprised then to see a Hairy Woodpecker yesterday, not only eating for 20 minutes at the seed feeder, but drinking syrup from the hummingbird feeders.

(The Ruby-throats ignore my feeders. They like the Wendy's Wish salvia better).

Birds adapt. Consider the gulls seen at any landfill. Consider the eagle at Reelfoot Lake who snatches a duck a hunter has shot down before the duck or the retriever can hit the water-

Birds must have inherited this from their ancient ancestors,who survived planetary calamity and extinction by growing smaller and taking to the air. Who doubts that they were once dinosaurs?

I think velociraptors became hummingbirds ,who lost the blood lust but kept the bad temper!