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The simple pleasures of the day (please add your own)

 
pollinator
Posts: 107
Location: Marbletown, NY
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Smoothing my homemade, organic hemp "sand" mattress, then sinking into the fresh new smoothed surface, digging my toes into it and thinking I made this!

 
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The summer season flew by but I’m thankful for a productive harvest from a little garden in a rocky pasture, new young hens laying beautiful eggs, my newly added cutting garden for bouquets! Looking forward to Fall and the woodstove and crisp days & nights.🤗
B33A47E2-F676-4D11-82AE-B42D6150E1C6.jpeg
Flower cutting garden
Flower cutting garden
 
Posts: 322
Location: USDA Zone 7a
32
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Nancy Reading wrote:Spotted a new (to me) bird in our treefield today:

source
The goldcrest (which has the delightful latin name Regulus regulus) is Britain's smallest bird. The adults weigh only 5g. It was certainly tiny, but quite bold, showing no particular nervousness at my presence, just hopping around in the birch trees. I could see it's yellow/red crest quite clearly. The head blends into the body with no neck, so cute! Apparently they do breed locally, so now that my trees are giving a good amount of shelter (and probably providing food via insect larvae as well) I hope that this one will find a mate and stay. Of course I didn't have my camera with me so had to find an internet photo to share.



It is totally adorable!!  Must be nice to hear it's little song.  Are they still coming around your area this year?
 
Denise Cares
Posts: 322
Location: USDA Zone 7a
32
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Lynne Cim wrote:Smoothing my homemade, organic hemp "sand" mattress, then sinking into the fresh new smoothed surface, digging my toes into it and thinking I made this!



OK Lynne, So now you will need to tell us all how you made this!  It looks wonderfully comfy!!
 
steward
Posts: 6601
Location: Everett, WA (Western Washington State / Cascadia / Pacific NW)
2188
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I was out gardening and noticed a fresh green husked walnut rolling into my yard from under my back gate.
Then tiny, lightning-fast, gray-furred hands yanked it back out of sight.
😁
 
steward and tree herder
Posts: 10929
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
5283
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Denise Cares wrote:It is totally adorable!!  Must be nice to hear it's little song.  Are they still coming around your area this year?


I did see the Goldcrests earlier in the year - still not able to catch a photo of them though. The wrens and robins have the loudest songs for little birds.
 
master steward
Posts: 13804
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
8137
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Getting a report from the field that the little duckling that needed a night in the incubator is happily hiding under mom with its two hatch-mates! One is lonely, two is better, three is a little family.
 
Rusticator
Posts: 9230
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4990
7
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Almost completing a build on a peg loom, in a few hours, that would have cost hundreds, to purchase. (I did cheat a bit, though - beyond using materials already on hand, I did buy the 4 dowels, @ $7@.) Now, working all these fleeces and alpaca blankets will go much faster and easier!
 
Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
Posts: 10929
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
5283
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Purple mushrooms!
strange colour mushroooms fungi mauve uk
I don't suppose they're edible though!
 
pioneer
Posts: 255
51
cat trees urban
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Very pretty, and as always, best left alone unless one has a veritable local fungi expert around who can positively identify all the possible harmful species like it that grow near you!

A quick search suggests they could for example be Inocybe geophylla var. lilacina which can cause lots of nasty illness, and potentially be fatal.

https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/inocybe-geophylla-lilacina.php
 
gardener
Posts: 620
Location: New England
275
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I grew giganti beans this year, the vine is still out there, the last of the beans on it I hope will dry. The vine is beautiful. Before it started to get cold, we had a hummingbird who'd come daily to the blooms.

I couldn't find giganti beans sold as seed, so I bought some from a gourmet food company. We ate most of the package and I planted a few....

That vine makes me happy.  I love going out and looking at the huge pods every day. I hope they mature/dry before we get a hard frost or 10/15 when I will pull the vines.

We had tree work done early this spring. My veggie garden this year made me happy.  Some things just didn't work: the old cherry tomato seed that did grow (very little of it) never flowered. Some of the potatoes/onions just rotted because of all the rain. But, I did get potatoes, onions, leeks, and green beans, shell beans, and some for drying.

This was the first time, ever, that the garden produced enough food to affect our food budget. The giganti vine, one red onion, a seeding lettuce, and the chickory which gives us radicchio every spring are the only food plants still in the veggie garden. The rest of it is weeds which need to be pulled and the beds mulched or beds which have been mulched.

When I pulled the pea trellis, I planted garlic in the bed, so we'll have more green garlic and scapes next spring. And we might have enough bulbs next year? I was shocked, the farm stand where I've been buying my weekly produce has garlic stalks for $4.99 each??? EACH? That seems insane for a crop you basically have to do nothing to get..! Everytime I think about that I take another head of garlic out there and tuck it in the ground.
 
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Just being in the great outdoors..its a bmessing
 
Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
Posts: 10929
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
5283
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Finding a plant that you thought was gone for good!
Zingiber mioga ginger growing perennial vegetables UK
Mioga appears at the end of the summer

Japanese ginger: Seems to turn up right at the end of the season when I've given up on it!
 
gardener
Posts: 2124
Location: Zone 8b North Texas
576
3
hugelkultur forest garden foraging earthworks food preservation fiber arts bee medical herbs seed wood heat composting
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I love watching birds fly in unison, murmuration.  

They are like the ocean waves in the sky.  Peaceful, happy-go-lucky, free, floating.  

I can be on my way home from a physical job in 100 degree weather, see one of these and perk right up...smile and my day is better.

My heart always lifts as I watch them.

Starling Murmurations
 
Carla Burke
Rusticator
Posts: 9230
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4990
7
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
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When everything is going sideways, and a flash of color catches your eye, and unexpected blooms of a gifted plant reminds you of your friendship with someone very special - like May Lotito, and her sweet spirit.
20231112_200150.jpg
Thanksgiving cactus blooms
Thanksgiving cactus blooms
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Thank you, May. What a lovely reminder!
Thank you, May. What a lovely reminder!
 
gardener
Posts: 2035
Location: Zone 6b
1249
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
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Happy Thanksgiving! The Thanksgiving cactus is always on time.
20231123_101637.jpg
Thanksgiving cactus
Thanksgiving cactus
 
May Lotito
gardener
Posts: 2035
Location: Zone 6b
1249
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
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I was taking videos of the front ditch and accidentally came across one secret chicken nest. From tge color, the eggs are from a buff Orpington. She got out of her broodiness a few weeks ago, lossing so much weight. I am glad she is hefty and laying again.
Resized_20240321_100104.jpeg
Chicken nest by the road
Chicken nest by the road
 
Jay Angler
master steward
Posts: 13804
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
8137
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
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...my strawberries are blooming!
 
steward
Posts: 17545
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4483
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
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Lavender fields forever ....

This must be the year for verbena (not my pictures, though this is what my place might look like)










Prairie Verbena is an amazing native perennial. It is drought tolerant and highly deer resistant for those areas that are suffering under increased deer pressure. This beautiful low growing trailing plant likes dry to medium moist sites and can be found along roadsides, pastures, and open grassy areas often covering acres of ground.



https://seedsource.com/prairie-verbena/
 
Jay Angler
master steward
Posts: 13804
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
8137
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My back field tends to create a vortex because of its shape and the tall trees all around it.

Watching the Maple Keys being blown off the tree and dancing in the field, flying higher than the tree itself, was delightful!

We're expecting more wind today, so I may get a "rerun"!
 
pioneer
Posts: 232
Location: Wisconsin Zone 5a
93
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Today I stopped by the elderly crossing guard after dropping my kid off at school, and I gave him a box of chocolates for keeping all the kids safe. He was very touched by this, and I could see him still smiling as I drove away. When I saw my kid this evening, he asked if I gave the crossing guard a box of chocolates that was red and had a name starting with the letter M. I said, yes I did. He said, "My friend, Silas, walked into school today carrying the box of chocolates. He said the crossing guard gave him the box and told him to have a nice Christmas. He brought the box in and shared it with all of us."

So my box of chocolates made me happy when I gave it to the crossing guard. It made the crossing guard happy to receive the gift. It made the crossing guard happy again because he now had something to give to someone to make them happy. It made my son's friend, Silas, happy to get the gift. It made Silas's friends happy that Silas shared the gift. It made my son smile, because he figured out it was from me. And it again, made me happy, to know it made so many people happy today.

I hope this story just made you happy.  If it did, that just made me happy.
 
master steward
Posts: 7651
Location: southern Illinois, USA
2825
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig solar wood heat homestead composting
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Working outside in the cold and coming in to a roaring fire in the fireplace.
 
Jay Angler
master steward
Posts: 13804
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
8137
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Walking down the hill by the light of the moon, and seeing the moonlight shine off all the apple petals decorating the grass under their tree. It was like seeing a thousand miniature fairy lights!
 
rocket scientist
Posts: 380
Location: in the Middle Earth of France (18), zone 8a-8b
213
2
hugelkultur dog tiny house chicken composting toilet cooking building sheep rocket stoves homestead composting
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Taking my horse to the pasture early in the morning.
The pink light of sunrise highlighting his breath and the little insects flying in the air. The pringtime song of birds on the background, the star solo sung by the nightingale.
It's a ritual of serene silence (of the mind), returning home to coffee and starting the day.

15659A93-34DD-4251-AFA1-0972C8168A7E.jpeg
[fjordhorse_at_sunrise.jpeg]
 
steward & manure connoisseur
Posts: 4508
Location: South of Capricorn
2483
dog rabbit urban cooking writing homestead ungarbage
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I've been swamped with work lately and waking up early to start at 5 and get a few hours' jump on the day.
I am greatly appreciating the early winter sunrises: dark and clear, starry sky turns blood-red sky over the mountains, followed by heavy fog. In another hour it will burn  off and we'll have a clear, dry day. It's gorgeous, and comfortably predictable.
 
Carla Burke
Rusticator
Posts: 9230
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4990
7
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Bottle feeding and diapering the almost 3week old 2week-preemie 'bummer' baby goat (that I thought would surely not make it), to then watch her bouncing happily, in the playpen, at my side...
Messenger_creation_67FC88B6-4CE5-4030-9607-12300D41687A.jpeg
2day-old Princess Franciepants in a diaper & (Charlie's hand-me-down) sweater dress, to stay warm in the playpen, in the chilly house
2day-old Princess Franciepants in a diaper & (Charlie's hand-me-down) sweater dress, to stay warm in the playpen, in the chilly house
Messenger_creation_B12C516F-B8E2-4CD9-9DD5-13542E83250B.jpeg
How I found the 2.0212lb baby, on April 21, '25
How I found the 2.0212lb baby, on April 21, '25
 
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 6129
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
2967
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The patch of milkweed on my neighbors property has come into bloom. If the wind is just right, it smells heavenly.
 
pollinator
Posts: 197
Location: Oh-Hi-Oh to New Mexico (soon)
52
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Picking the last of the spring peas to freeze for stir-fry and also foraging some early blackberries for my morning oats.
 
Posts: 596
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I picked the first tomato of the season today.  Sat on the deck stairs barefoot and shirtless with salt shaker in hand.  Ate the whole thing letting the juice and seeds run everywhere like the heathen I am.

Not too bad for a rescue plant popping up in one of the spider plants back in January and growing in a 5 gal. bucket !

Peace
 
steward
Posts: 4462
Location: Pacific North West
2116
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Watching the fish doing their thing in our creek on a hot day.
IMG_6418.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_6418.jpeg]
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[Thumbnail for IMG_6424.jpeg]
 
Jay Angler
master steward
Posts: 13804
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
8137
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
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Taking the time to admire the setting sunbeams lighting up trunks of trees like spotlights and seeing the beautiful patterns shift slowly.
 
gardener
Posts: 690
Location: Poland
372
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With my little herd of quail came a new pleasure of the day: sitting with them in the aviary and watching them do the quaily things. They seem to be constantly giggling and snooping around. And I can only see the garden from the inside of the aviary, no house or other signs of city life!
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Happy days
Happy days
 
Nancy Reading
steward and tree herder
Posts: 10929
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
5283
5
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Picking a punnet of ripe blackberries - the season has started!
purple_hands.jpg
pink stained from berries
pink stained from berries
 
Tereza Okava
steward & manure connoisseur
Posts: 4508
Location: South of Capricorn
2483
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It's finally raining!!! Oh happy day!! (the peas love it! happy peas means happy me)
I managed to solve a dreaded "your email is no longer delivering emails" persnickety situation for my website, without tears, although a small headache may have been involved.

Tomorrow, planting starts in the garden (hopefully it will be a bit warmer than today...)
 
You got style baby! More than this tiny ad:
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