D is for Delightful
9 Jan 2023 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wayfaringwordhackThere are some delightful things about this apartment so far:
We have hibiscus growing along the front porch, and they attract Palestine Sunbirds. So pretty! and they have nice vocalizations. I don't have a good lens for capturing wildlife, so have a short video:
Since it has been a bit rainy, we haven't had a chance to be out in the garden much. We did rectify that today and spent a lot of time pruning, removing unwanted volunteers (like a wild rose bush that was trying to smother the hibiscus and gaining on the lawn), and mowing the "grass."* have friends living just across the street, and N (the dad) came over to loan me his battery-powered pruner that came in very hand for cutting off branches from a dead orange tree.
J bought a weed-wacker to take care of the lawn because of the odd shape, rather than a lawnmower. Along with that tool, he brought home a passionfruit vine and a seedless grape vine.
And after doing all that, we took a bagful of clementines into the house and juiced them. We filled up a jar for N and his family, too. :D
The most delightful thing of all has been our upstairs neighbor letting down** a bag of goodies for us.
We have hibiscus growing along the front porch, and they attract Palestine Sunbirds. So pretty! and they have nice vocalizations. I don't have a good lens for capturing wildlife, so have a short video:
Since it has been a bit rainy, we haven't had a chance to be out in the garden much. We did rectify that today and spent a lot of time pruning, removing unwanted volunteers (like a wild rose bush that was trying to smother the hibiscus and gaining on the lawn), and mowing the "grass."* have friends living just across the street, and N (the dad) came over to loan me his battery-powered pruner that came in very hand for cutting off branches from a dead orange tree.
J bought a weed-wacker to take care of the lawn because of the odd shape, rather than a lawnmower. Along with that tool, he brought home a passionfruit vine and a seedless grape vine.
And after doing all that, we took a bagful of clementines into the house and juiced them. We filled up a jar for N and his family, too. :D
The most delightful thing of all has been our upstairs neighbor letting down** a bag of goodies for us.
Not once, but thrice! First it was some sort of fried bread with an anise flavor, then cookies, then a fried sweet flavored with orange-blossom water. We sent back some crustless cranberry "pie" and some olive oil oatmeal cookies and some drawings that the kids did. :)
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*I am pretty sure what we have all over the yard, in addition to all the arums, is Bermuda Buttercup or Oxalis pes-caprae.
**At first I thought a bag had caught on a snag and had a string come unraveled. But then we noticed that it kept jigging and dancing up and down, as if a fisher were on the other end, wiggling a baited hook. :P It really tickled the kids.OK, it tickled all of us. :D
So far, these neighbors are perfect! They are an older couple and are quiet. LOL. I can hear their TV when I wake up, but it is not blaring or anything. Other than that, we barely know they are there, and that, with the garden, makes us feel like we are in a house instead of the bottom floor of a 5 (or is it six?) story apartment building.
__________
*I am pretty sure what we have all over the yard, in addition to all the arums, is Bermuda Buttercup or Oxalis pes-caprae.
**At first I thought a bag had caught on a snag and had a string come unraveled. But then we noticed that it kept jigging and dancing up and down, as if a fisher were on the other end, wiggling a baited hook. :P It really tickled the kids.OK, it tickled all of us. :D
So far, these neighbors are perfect! They are an older couple and are quiet. LOL. I can hear their TV when I wake up, but it is not blaring or anything. Other than that, we barely know they are there, and that, with the garden, makes us feel like we are in a house instead of the bottom floor of a 5 (or is it six?) story apartment building.
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Date: 9 Jan 2023 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10 Jan 2023 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10 Jan 2023 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 10 Jan 2023 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10 Jan 2023 04:14 am (UTC)Does everyone in the building have the use of the garden, or just you guys? Sooo excited that you have a passion fruit vine! Your situation for flowers and fruit seems just marvelous!
And how pretty those sunbirds are, drinking nectar and burbling away so liquidly.
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Date: 10 Jan 2023 01:34 pm (UTC)We are the only ones who have access to the garden. :D. We might not be here long enough to get fruit from the vine, but we are--to paraphrase--Wendell Berry, "not asking what the land can do for us, but what we can do for the land (and future habitants of the land)."
The male sunbirds are not very shy, but I have yet to see the females. Sprout, who has spent more time observing them has seen both sexes. :). I am curios to see if we will get a nest or two in our garden. Maybe not since we are so present out there...
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Date: 12 Jan 2023 10:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 Jan 2023 01:11 pm (UTC)Crazy! We are different kind of people, my family and I.
The "gift lift!" I love that.
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Date: 16 Jan 2023 06:06 pm (UTC)It was a black bird, and he went on a small rant about which birds everyone OUGHT to know and be able to identify. :p
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Date: 16 Jan 2023 07:35 pm (UTC)