A lot has happened in the six months since we moved into our house back in October – November of 2020! It took until the end of the year to finish moving everything and get our house set up for the holidays, but we had a good Thanksgiving with friends and an equally pleasant Christmas Eve/Christmas Day with people we care about. Living in Florida, we do not have many of the restrictions plaguing other people who want to spend time together. I was very thankful just for that!
For many of you who get my annual holiday newsletter, the pictures in this article will seem familiar – because they are! However, you may be able to see more of the picture than what you got that way.
This is the view from our driveway down to the cow field. We often hear the cows mooing, either during the day or in the evening. It’s a peaceful sound, once you get used to hearing it. Other wildlife that has been spotted on our property are numerous squirrels, hawks, turkey vultures (flying high above it), cardinals, a trio of deer, and an escaped calf! The calf managed to get through barbed-wire fencing and onto our land. When we walked toward it, it just as quickly escaped back to the other side of the fence. I don’t know where it found a way to get through, but it was very fast!
This is the view from the east side of our deck. We have a couple of banana trees, some avocados, a mango tree, and a guava attempting to grow there. At some point, I would like to have these in a green house so I don’t have to worry about dips in the temperature that we tend to get a few times in the winter.
These are two pictures from our southern deck and our first attempts at growing vegetables! We set up four grow boxes and planted lettuce, spinach, arugula, mesclun, tomatoes, carrots, and green onions in these. The second picture shows the sprouts that came up. It was surprising because many of our seed packets were up to six years old and had been kept in our refrigerator all that time. We didn’t really know if the seeds would come up or not, but apparently many of them stayed viable!
Here is the view from our bedroom window. We have four acres of oaks and pines that are at least 40-50 years old. There are lots of shrubs and other plants growing on the forest floor, including beauty berries and some kind of vine with stickers. We want to get a botanist we know to visit and identify any of the edibles that are already growing here.
These are several herbs we were given to eventually make into tea. They are planted in coconut coir, a material that will absorb a huge amount of water. The sprouts are doing really well in this southern-facing window. We have lavender, peppermint and lemon balm sprouting. There are also some green onions in here. Once we cut off the part we want for soup or salad, we stick the bottom with roots into some soil and give it water. They grow right back! I took another picture of my sprouts on my kitchen counter from a different perspective so you can see how big they are.
Finally, we get to our holiday decorations! This is a Santa that a student gave me several years ago and elves that I have had forever! Many of you know that I drive a classic Beetle, so another student gave me this Beetle ornament that I have also cherished. I picked up the trees and gingerbread candleholder from other people, most of my decorations are several decades old, but much loved just the same. I’m really proud of our Christmas tree! It is the tallest one I have ever had at about 15 feet (approximately 4.6 meters). We got it from a local Christmas tree farm! You find the tree you want, cut it down, and pay for it based on the height. It was definitely the freshest tree we have ever had and had a beautiful natural shape! I have to admit I went a little crazy with lights, icicles, stockings, etc. Then there is our front door. I have had this wreath for many years and added several blue conure tail feathers to it to give it more color. For people without birds as pets, the tail feathers fall out naturally over time and are replaced – I don’t have to pull them out to get them! It was really nice to celebrate the holidays in our new home and enjoy the tree through the month of January and into mid-February. When I did take it outside to use for compost, it still had most of its needles!
I really liked that. Had seen your news letter earlier but got more out this.