Kiss, Julia Child and a gaggle

This morning while Windy was busy eating in another part of the paddock Kiss went to the fence and met his half brother Cairo (Windy is also Cairo’s mother), Trouble and Whisper. Usually Windy lays her ears back and puts herself between Kiss and other horses.

The “Julia Child” rosebush, named by the chef herself for its buttery yellow color, has begun to bloom. Yesterday, I planted carrots, beets, and radishes to accompany the raspberry bushes, strawberries and tomatoes. I’ll plant butternut squash, cucumber, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash seeds this afternoon or tomorrow. We have a small herb garden too with sweet basil, rosemary, dill and lavender.

The weeder geese are getting bigger. The gaggle of the two now adult grey Toulouse survivors (see May 14 "Goslings meet bad end" post) and the 11 five-week-old white weeder goslings travel around the property together and are very friendly with lots of honking conversation. Recently a neighborhood dog came into the yard and the gander ran at him wings flapping and bit him in the butt. The dog cowered and left.

When we can we spend time outside making improvements to the farm. Ian’s been removing old barbed wire fence and I’ve been using the brush mower to tame overgrown areas. We’ve cleared away all the undergrowth in the stand of pine trees next to the house and plan to till the area and plant hostas.