Andrew Spittle
It’s 9:15pm. The sun is starting to set after another long, warm summer day. The flying ants (apparently, a thing!) have settled for the night and the chirps of grasshoppers have quieted. All is peaceful and serene in this slice of the Irish countryside. Your wife is 41 weeks pregnant. You...
Andrew Spittle
I expected bats in the countryside. I did not expect bats (yes, plural) in the house on consecutive days. Yet here we are. We had a heatwave last week, which meant we left windows wide open at night to cool the house off. One flaw in that approach: our property is bordered by a stream and...
Andrew Spittle
We have a creek that runs down two sides of our property, which was a real selling point of the house. There are even two footbridges! I’ve loved being around water my whole life, yet I didn’t appreciate until we moved in how much the presence of that creek would make me aware of different...
Andrew Spittle
Prior to this year I could not have told you what a broccoli plant looks like. It turns out it’s mostly dark, abundant leaves. They first rivaled and have now surpassed the kale for the crown of our leafiest plant. The challenge, as we’ve learned, is that it’s all ready at...
Andrew Spittle
We had what passes for a heatwave this week with a couple days in the high-20s. That’s not too bad all things considered, except we hadn’t yet bought fans for the house. Lesson learned after a couple very warm nights of mediocre sleep. Our tomato plants were grateful for the heat and kicked...