Sunlit Sunday...

a little bit of sunshine?

Even if the earth thinks it's spring, it's not.  We are expecting freezing rain later today.  It will be a slippery slide walk by morning.  I'll have to find my ice walkers.  Well I'm still cocooning this week, just not much interest, trying desperately to catch up with my laundry, it's not good to not do laundry for a month... catching up is a b___tch, and I'm not terribly interested to boot. I've actually been available to talk with my eldest each day this week, rarely happens, I guess we need each other just now.  My youngest lives at home so I see him, probably more than he would like but...we've caught up on life.  It's a good thing for all.  My husband is still distant... MEN!  The death of a mother certainly takes you by surprise, even when you are more than prepared.  Not a whole lot of reading done, I'm in the midst of "Care of Wooden Floors" hmm is all I can say just now.  It's got cats, so there is a little something there, hoping there is more as I get into it.  It looks like we are definitely going into a Provincial election soon, maybe a woman leader, and while I'm not particularly fond on any of the hopefuls a woman would sure shake up the old boy's club.  Cross your fingers and hope we don't go into full blast mode until May, or June then I could hire University Students that still remember how to read instructions.  Employees are so difficult to find, and all we hear in the news is how there are no jobs, do people really want to work?  This will probably be my last election, my ten year term is done in 2014 and that's o.k. with me.  I'm getting too old for this cr_p. SO as |I look out my window I see this little crocus coming up? go back I want to say, it's going to be freezing this afternoon.  Leftovers for supper tonight, and some paint inventory to do this afternoon, in between loads of wash.  Hope your Sunday is sunlit and relaxing.  Mine will be quiet 'cept for the whir of the washer, and the voice of Miss Marple.  

Sunlit Sunday is hosted by My Little Home and Garden

Saturday Snapshot... signs of spring?

We've had a warm spell and the snow has all been washed away with rain.  Is it spring yet?
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce from at home with books.

For Today...

For today is  hosted by A Simple Woman's Daybook.


FOR TODAY

Outside my window... lovely and warm, a perfect summer day.

I am thinking...Tuesday already.

I am thankful...for the relief the chiropractor has given me.

In the kitchen...pork chops

I am wearing...shorts and t shirt

I am creating...quite a disaster

I am going...to get some new pond plants

I am wondering...isn't Mother Nature wonderful

I am reading...still struggling The Stand

I am hoping...it'll be cool tonight so I can get back out to the pond.

I am looking forward to...my chiropractor visits.

I am learning to stand back and let my husband do it!

It's a dirty job.

Around the house...We woke up to our pond being drained, sometimes happens when an animal gets to jumping around the pump and somehow moves the hose, or picks the hose up and doesn't put it back where it is suppose to be.Racoons like to take a drink that way.  So we took this opportunity to "clean" the pond.  Boy were there a lot of roots.  4 huge bags of roots.  And what a lot of pond scum.  So Handy Andy  did it!  Can't believe I actually heard him say," wait let me clean that up" Now of course we are back at the beginning , no plants, the fish will be lonely. 

the tale end of things

I am pondering...wonder what will still be available in the nursery

A favorite quote for today...If you treat your wife like a prize stallion, she's less likely to become a nag.

One of my favorite things...afternoon with my favorite boys.

A few plans for the rest of the week:I presume my week will entail reassembly of the yard around the pond.

A peek into my day...

Before

After, looks like we should be going the other way.  Such is life.  Every time we do this I make it smaller.  Next time we'll be filling it in.  It was a project our eldest took on and stuck us with maintenance. Oh the joys of parenting.

Saturday Snapshot...Iris

Irises, aren't they lovely.  I do love them wish they bloomed longer though, like all summer, they are so short blooming that in my little garden, it's just frustrating.  However, I took a photo of them for Snapshot Saturday hosted by Alyce  at At Home With Books.   Whenever I see the Iris I think of Lucy and Iris Smachoo.  Lucy was a friend of my best friend Janice's, and Iris was her sister.  Their real names were something else, they are Ukrainian and in order to fit in they Anglicized their names to Lucy and Iris.  Iris as I recall was part of the in crowd of the Ukrainian youth, that our friend Ronnie was in with.  Not sure about Lucy.  Lucy is a textile designer, and we sort of lost touch, but she should know that I think of her and her sister and her dad, (never knew her mom, she had died when the girls were young) at least once a year if not more.  I love Irises you see.

Don't sweat the small stuff... what does that mean?

I've undertaken quite a number of challenges this past year, both in my reading and in my home life.  I can tell you now I don't think I'm going to meet my goals any time soon.  So this afternoon when I sat down to have my lunch time tea, and write my post (I was brain dead during my morning coffee) I still had a very dry spell.  I hit that saving button on "Imagination Prompt Generator". Don't sweat the small stuff...what does that mean? was the prompt.  Well, I do sweat the small stuff.  Like, I just painted that freaking front door and there are fingerprints on it.  Do I need to do an inservice?  They're cancelling my favourite day time drama, what am I going to do on Monday between 2 and 3.  My hairdresser quit her job and left no forwarding address! Shall I go on.  And then I sat down and thought about it all,  these are such small matters,  I have two friends who are dealing with parents with "SERIOUS" health issues, I'm sure their Mondays between 2-3 are not on their minds. 

snails in my pond are another one of those small things I sweat, they eat the roots of my waterlillies,

We've all been preparing ourselves for the possible devastation on IRENE (not me the storm) and thankfully it was not nearly as bad as had been anticipated.  I guess it wouldn't matter if I had fingerprints on my front door, it that front door  wound up under 20 feet of water.  And I've decided that I would better meet my commitments if I used that hour on Monday to take a nap.  I never really sleep well.  So the next time I think "O crap, who left that pile of laundry where I didn't see it, and now I've finished washing for the week" I'll try to remember this is the small stuff there are bigger worries in the world, even if I'm blessed not to have them right now. Hope all of you who have been affected by IRENE are safe and dry and you find your front door dry and with or without fingerprints, that would mean all those entering are o.k. enough to leave them there.

It's GONE!

My headache is finally gone.  I'm on the mend, and I'm ready to get back to life, well maybe, I've now come down with some kind of coughing thing.  So I'm sleeping through this day and maybe this week.  Thank goodness for chicken soup, and freezers.  My husband is worried about Thanksgiving Dinner, can you imagine.  What a turkey.  Anyway I hope to be able to read a little this week, just to catch up to my own schedule.  I don't think I'll ever catch up with housework.  And it's almost time to plant bulbs.  How do you keep the squirrels from digging everything up?  I don't usually plant until after our Canadian Thanksgiving.  It usually get cold enough that after that the squirrels have socked away all they think they need.  But this year our Thanksgiving is early and I think I may have a problem.

One of my books had the following suggestions., #2 didn't work for me at all, because as soon as it rains, and it does quite a bit in the fall you have to keep replenishing the pepper flakes. So I think I may try the screening. 

1. 1
   Make sure you plant your bulbs at the proper depth. Large bulbs should be planted in a hole 8 to 10 inches deep, while smaller bulbs should be planted at least 5 inches deep. The deeper the bulb, the less likely a squirrel is to find it.
   
2. 2
   Spread some blood meal, cayenne powder or black pepper above your bulbs and around the planting area. Rodents don't like any of these things and will look for an easier meal rather than digging your bulbs up. Keep in mind that over time the scent of all these things diminishes, so you will need to replenish every couple of weeks.
   
3. 3
   Place a thin layer of pea gravel on top of your bulbs or put a handful of gravel in the hole on top of the bulb when planting. A squirrel will find the gravel harder to dig through than soft soil, and may be discouraged enough to move on, leaving your bulb untouched.
   
4. 4
   Cover your planting area with window screen held in place with some decorative rocks or long U-clips. Place a layer of about 4 inches of mulch over the screen to protect your bulbs from winter chill and make your garden more attractive by hiding the screen. In the spring when the flowers start to emerge, remove the window screen and cover your young flowers with a layer of chicken wire with holes cut to allow the flowers to grow through.
   
5. 5
   Spread fox urine powder or pellets around your planting area. Fox urine has been proven to scare small rodents such as squirrels away from an area.
   
6. 6
   Consider the type of bubs you're planting as well as how you arrange them. Squirrels don't seem to like the taste of narcissism or daffodils, so by planting these bulbs around the perimeter of your planting area, you may be able to protect the other (better-tasting) bulbs from the squirrels.
   

Wordless Wednesday

Enjoy Wordless Wednesday.

Mellow Yellow Monday

I've never really been a fan of yellow in my garden, but since I've participated in this post, it's looking GOOD to me. So yesterday after an exhausting day at the seniors home with my mom and a quick visit to the cemetary to check on my departed ones I took a refreshing stroll through the nursery. I also missed the 8:14p.m. train by one minute, next train 1hour away.

First up were several different colours of yellow yarrow... while I like how they look I don't think the size of my garden will accommodate them.










I've had a need to plant a bush of forsythia, no luck finding one other than artificial.








And then there were the day lilies, love them, have a lot of them, but not this variety, a definite possibility. Oops those were the roses, love them too.






And then of coarse my eye caught this golden juniper, hmmmmmmmmmmmm.




Well that was a breath of fresh air. Now on to making supper at 10p.m. Have a wonderful Mellow Yellow Monday.

Tip toe through the tulips...

This past week I got to spend and enjoyable couple of days with my friend Janice and her Mom. We trecked out to Niagara and enjoyed the bulbs in the green house. What an inspiration to come home and do some gardening. So you can imagine how exciting it was when we actually got a Saturday that was warm enough to do that. I hadn't planned on it. It was going to be laundry day, and toilet paper replacement but then I looked out my sunny window. All I could think of was my husband will not be tip toeing through the tulips. So, I abandoned the laundry...

A couple of years ago I planted a bunch of crocus' throughout my back lawn, and this morning when I looked out there they were all ready for spring. Last year the rabbits did their thing with them and I hardly got to enjoy them so, I went out today and raked and enjoyed them before the bunnies come hopping by. I have plans to increase these things this fall. I'll be moving my grapevine hyacinths to make a plaid in my lawn. Won't that be cool. It's such a welcome sight after a very long winter. You can see the grass is still yellowed.









The cat was wondering what I was doing with his favorite grapevine cones. Well I was getting ready to set up barriers. I gave them a quick spray of red paint.
This is a frequently travelled route, to maintain the pond, you can see the filter tank now, but once the vegetation gets going, it not visible. Andy often checks it so I expect collateral damage in my plants, so I've put bright red twig cones secured to the ground to protect my astilbe, and more large branches.








This area has not only those valuable car parts but my hydreangias and Lenten Rose, and all those day lillies and Iris' so it gets a big barrier. I've even place large branches around the pond to keep the traffic off my Hibiscus which doesn't look like anything more than dried up sticks at the moment.








Most people have lawn furniture to sit on, I use it to baracade my husband from my garden.Each chair is strategically place over a growing plant that may be mistaken for a stepping stone. The white chairs in the background protect my clematis, and each clematis has a barrier around it as well, just in case he moves the chair to step there. We would have starved to death if he was a farmer. So today's "in service" will be a garden tour. "Don't tip toe through the garden".
I had to post this tune with the animae, since Sasha passed the "in service" for toilet paper replacement, and animae is his "thing."

Widgets

I haven't posted for a few days, since I'm just too tired to do so. Sasha wondered why I had not removed my Christmas Widget. Well I like to think that Christmas is more than just one day, so it will be there for a while. (or a least until I figure out how to remove it). There has been some serious reformatting of computers at my house so if you don't hear from me "that's the why". We are experiencing spring like weather today or at least now so I'm out to my garden. See ya!

What to do with those few left over tomatoes from your garden.

If you're like me you don't want to let go of summer, if only because of the taste of the tomatoes. Well I have a few ripening all at once on the window sill and what should I do with them when they are all ready at one time. Well I like to serve them as a warm vegetable. I know, I know they are not a vegetable they are a fruit.(Or so Mr. Science in my house keeps telling me, I wish he could tell everyone else.) Any way I cut them into rather thick slices of about 1 inch, spread them out on a good nonstick type jellyroll pan drizzle them with honey, pushing the honey into the hollows. Proscess 2 slices of not too fresh bread into breadcrumbs (not too fine) combined with 1 tbsp. of tarragon (dried) 1 1/2 tsps. salt and 1 1/2 tsp. pepper spread evenly over the tomatoes dot with butter and bake in the oven at 350 for about 30 min. or until the tomato skin wrinkles. Broil 5 inches from heat 5 minutes until tops are golden. Serve warm. *I have skipped the tarragon when I didn't have any. The measurement covers about 8 med. size tomatoes. for easy clean up you could line the pan with tinfoil. Mmm good.

Thyme is on my side, yes it is...

Don't you just want to sing when you hear that phrase. Well, I'm in the garden at long last today, we had a little slice of spring in Ontario this week, and I thought I would let my neighbor have a good winter, so I cleaned up. I was almost out of steam when I got round to clearing an clipping around the pond. I just love the look of leaves on the ground, it's so Canadian. But, I can't leave them on the ground or they blow around and end up in the pond, then the pond scum in the spring is brutal. So reluctantly I raked. I might add that my husband was playing on the computer, and I mean playing majong or solitaire. Oh no that brings another song to mind. Anyway, as I was racking and trying not to think of my aching back, I smelled something wonderful. I guess the scratching action of the rake triggered my thyme. I've had so little time to spend in my garden this year, I really enjoyed this little treat. I think I'll be planting much more. I only have an area of about 4 x12 so far. At one point my plan was to replace my lawn. I may think about it again. I lost my patience last year when it wasn't spreading a quickly as I had wanted it to. But there is always next spring. Now on the topic of my husband if he keeps playing solitaire... Well he didn't play for long, I pulled the cord, and took his laptop to the shed, so if he wanted to connect, good luck.

I might add that when we were putting up the shed, (piece of crap that it is) I suggested an electrical outlet, (my husband fancies himself an electrician wantabe), he sort of flipped I'm sure he would have appreciated it with the laptop out there in Roosters Retreat (the shed)

Seven days of lilies makes one week...

This is the most delicate of the day lilies I have. It's soft and pink. I believe the name is "many happy returns". I hope so...

Saturday's Lily

This lily is so tall I had to stand on a stool to dead head it. I think I'll be moving it to cover some of the taller car parts. As you see it's smack in the middle of my " White garden".

Friday's Lily

When we were growing up, on Pottruff Rd. my parents had a huge garden, with fruit trees to boot. We had apple trees. We were so sick of picking apples, bushels and bushels of apples. My mother made apple soup, apple cake, apple jam, you name it we had apples in it. Well those trees are long gone and I must say I could sure go for a bowl of apple soup. I do make the apple cake often enough, I don't do the jam. So when I spotted this lily in the garden center "apple blossom" I decided I didn't have room for an apple tree this will have to do. I think it is a lovely substitute for the orchard and a whole lot less work. No soup for you today.

Thursday's lily

I planted this lily at the edge of my pond, in amongst the iris's. I don't mind the green part of the Iris after it's bloom, it make the pond look quite natural, so I thought adding a little colour later in the season would be nice. This too was to be a yellow lily. It's really quite burgandy.

Tuesdays lily

Today's lily is the Stella D'or. I had to buy this lily because my middle name is Stella. It's a purply burgandy one, a little shorter than the bright orange of yesterday. It too is in my "white garden". The little tag on it read "bright yellow" (so I planted it next to my orange one). If you read Leslie Moran's blog on July 30, she did a bit about what's in a name, and I at some point talked about what flower would I be if I were one. Stella D'or is o.k. with me. I have such difficulty choosing plants. I want them all. I thought I would do a white garden so at the end of the day I could sit outside with my book light and read by the soothing riple of the pond. I read somewhere it was called a midnight garden, perfect timing for me as that's usually when I get to sit down. Well ... I can't do that with orange and burgandy flowers, but I do enjoy them during the day. I've now settled on some white birch twigs, (which I hope I can coax my ivy to cling to) with some mini lights. It sure makes those lilies stand out.

A lily a day...

I often read Carmi's blog and she has been talking about her wildflower garden. It looks like a meadow to me. I'm so glad it wasn't disappointing this year, she was going to mow it down. I on the other hand am growing car parts. Last year I planted vines around them so that my neighbor (who's garden is absolutely meticulously maintained) would be at peace with my mess. Well the clematis chose to go around the car doors, the ivy is doing beautifully at my neighbors house and thus I feature car parts and a few day lilies which have grown beautifully. It's time to split them up. I think Misia would enjoy these in her backyard. They are bright orange, with a rusty throat, double bloom, spread rapidly. It's a friendship flower, my ivy went next door and this moved over from my neighbors house. I quite like it. I'm not an orange person, but my son certainly is. This part of my garden was intended to be all white, well I do have a white hydrangea, and a white hibiscus,and a white iris, but everything else decided to be something else, so ... they are all enhancing some lovely rare red car parts. I hope you will not mind my featuring a different day Lilly each day they are so lovely that I feel they could be sent out with sentiments. Happy gardening.

look what happens when it rains...

]

When you thought I wasn't looking!


A message every adult should read because children
are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.

When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you hang my
first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately
wanted to paint another one.


When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you feed a
stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind
to animals.


When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make my
favorite cake for me, and I learned that the little
things can be the special things in life.


When you thought I wasn't looking I heard you say a
prayer, and I knew that there is a God I could always
talk to, and I learned to trust in Him.


When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make a
meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I
learned that we all have to help take care of each
other.


When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you give of
your time and money to help people who had nothing,
and I learned that those who have something should
give to those who don't.


When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you take care
of our house and everyone in it, and I learned we have
to take care of what we are given.


When you thought I wasn't looking I saw how you
handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't
feel good, and I learned that I would have to be
responsible when I grow up.


When you thought I wasn't looking I saw tears come
from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things
hurt, but it's all right to cry.


When you thought I wasn't looking I saw that you
cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.


When you thought I wasn't looking I learned most of
life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and
productive person when I grow up.

When you thought I wasn't looking, you fixed my pond so it would be great!

When you thought I wasn't looking I looked at you and
wanted to say,'Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking!