Incoming!

Incoming!: A phrase used most often in action movies of the military variety to signify the imminent arrival of something moving fast and able to cause significant damage.

I've always loved barn swallows. They are fairly common around here, in fact we have a picnic shelter in front of our house, and a family of swallows just fledged from there in the last week or so. We were made aware of this fact when a large picnic was held there, and the entire extended swallow family spent the whole picnic sitting on our power line griping about it. They have beautiful coloring, but the most significant thing about barn swallows for me is their acrobatics in flight. They feed on insects that they catch on the fly, and they are a joy to watch zipping over a field, diving and weaving. Say what you want about peregrine falcons, barn swallows get my vote for the avian version of the blue angels. Probably one of the reasons, besides ample nesting space, that the swallows gravitate toward barns is that they've learned that a tractor mowing hay scares up significant amounts of insects, making for an easy meal. For lack of a local tractor, our swallows have decided that my lawn mower can offer up an easy feast as well. The last time I mowed, I spent the whole time ducking and twitching as they practically dive bombed me. I admit, I was all the more twitchy due to the knowledge that most of these daredevils were newly born this year. That's right, I was at the center of a cloud of teenage daredevil pilots. I may need a helmet to mow the lawn next time.

Incoming!

As you can probably tell by the blog, I'm really enjoying the garden this year. Things are going pretty well so far, and no major disasters have occurred. (Like rabbits, or deer, or beetles or blight) However, the real panic doesn't set in until the garden starts producing faster than we can eat it. I never have time to cook or preserve my harvest the moment it is ready. More often I have to wait until a weekend and then try to resurrect stuff that should have been dealt with on Tuesday. And of course the first and most frequent producer: Zucchini. I took these pictures today.

Incoming!

Yesterday I sat down for the first time and seriously tried out my new hobby. I'm teaching myself to spin on a spindle. There were some cool moments, some frustrating moments. I won't deny that I used a bad word or two, and had to be reminded by my husband several times that "This is supposed to be fun." Kate also learned that she can't help me spin the spindle and she can't attempt to climb in my lap while I'm working. At one point she actually got tangled up in the roving and it stuck to her hair. But at the end of the day...I have a new hobby.

Incoming!

And finally:

Incoming!