Garden Journal Excerpts
My garden is
in constant revision, as you may notice my web page is, also.
This will be a way to show some of the updates and revisions I make to the garden throughout the years from my garden journal entries. I have several books of written garden journals. In June of 2012 I began to keep sporadic notes of my time in the garden on my computer.
Monthly Excerpts from the Garden Journal of 2014
SYNOPSIS of the year
1. The renovations for this year included the removal of the strawberry tree. It is a nice evergreen arbutus tree, but like all arbutuses, it is very messy.
2. The pond edges were eroding so I made some repairs. I am attempting to get rid of the bluebells in this area by smothering them with layers of newspaper, cardboard, or pieces of wood and diligently pulling them out. All of the pond edges were eroding so I replaced stones and cement blocks, removed a poorly preforming rhodo and replaced it with more cement blocks. This creates an observation/sitting spot by the pond. As I type this in 2017, I hope to get the edging plants and mosses growing over the edges of the cement blocks to soften the sharpness of all the cement and yet retain the firm footing to maintain the pond. This renovation continued on under the deck in the next few years. The garden in 2014
3. In May I potted up plants for the Vancouver Island Rock and Alpine Society show and sale. I took 30 plants in and left a copy of the pdf - VIRAGS Plant Sale 2014 with them.
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January 2014
Monday, January 06, 2014
I have one more page to do on my 2014 calendar but need ink. Cyrs left on Sunday. Started laundry last nite and finally finished today. We all went to brunch at the R & R diner and then to the Discovery Center... pictures of jelly fish, etc. On the 1st we had Steve and Ruby over for Coq au Vin.
We have had sunny weather. It freezes lightly at night and is above zero during the day. I have a couple of lily of the valley seeds sprouted, and a few pots of the milkweed. They all look spindly and stretching for the light. We need rain.
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
We got a bit of rain. It is above zero. The rest of Canada is in a deep freeze with loads of snow, and power outages, from the storms. We are so lucky. We got some ink today and I finished my calendars. Not perfect. Lots of mistakes. Mine hangs fairly well. Next year should be better, if I remember all the stuff. I should probably type out the things I learned for future reference.. none of it carved in stone. I have another orchid coming into bloom. It is the "Psyche' one ... seems it is a mini cattalaya from what I looked up on google today. My next thing to do is get my 2013 pictures and all saved to the storage F drive. I have got a bit of a start on it.. got the recipes, the web page and garden journals copied.
Friday, January 10, 2014
I have a little orchid opening... yesterday I read a bit about it. It seems it is a mini cattalya.. old one. sl. psyche china... I forget what crosses it is. My lovely mini phal. with the two colored leaves is in bloom again. It is from Kingfisher orchids in Sidney, from last year's orchid show when it was in bloom. I think it has more blooms now. Sogo Vivien has 6 blooms this year. The big phals are almost finished with one purple one just opening its last bloom. The violets look ok. The milkweed are not doing great. But the lily of the valley are looking pretty good... like grass but getting taller.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Was a balmy day. about 13. On Saturday I cleaned the hummingbird feeder with the new little brushes. Worked great. And within a few hours the hummers were back at the feeder. All the food must have been dumped out in the big winds and rain we had. I repotted the little pixie orchid and divided off its baby pixie... so have 2 now. The roots were not attached to the parent plant.. it has developed its own little set of roots. Watered all the plants. Threw out one that had far too much moss around the roots and had developed root rot to die. ... one of the $12 phals. The waterfall outside is running great. Mailed the calendar to Fran a couple of days ago. Mine looks good hanging above the little freezer. Added another -- hummingbird and feeder in snow... to the CWF for the Ice monthly contest. Not bothering to get people to vote.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Another beautiful day out. But I did not get out. I have resumed doing the July album for my web page. Am fairly well caught up in emailing friends. Have some work to do on the Megashot meet and greet, but not a big thing.
I have new hard cover books to read, and ink for my printer. The indoor plants are doing fine and when the computer is fixed I should be good to go... to consider going South in the camper van... maybe. But don't really care to go anywhere. Its very nice here right now.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Was a lovely warm day out. We went for a drive to area around the gorge park. A few sony pictures.. not great. The cyclmen is in bloom, the crocuses have leaves, no buds. The snowdrops are finally poking up.. no buds. I don't know why my snowdrops are so late, compared to others.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Yesterday we did a bit of gardening ... clipping back perennials, roses and heathers at the front. Its been warmish .. about 8 or 10. Then made moussaka. Today I take the computer to Trevor. The pixie orchid has come out with a bloom today. I must water the plants later today.
Jan 28
Making colcannon, a soup, got the ironing done. Overcast today. Made cranberries, made chicken stock, watched Murdock and TV news.
Jan. 31
Was some sun today so I was out in the back garden today for about 3 hours. Trimmed the cedars by the veggie patch, raked leaves off the grass and cleaned them off the little rockery. Trimmed back the heather, the sedum and the herbs. Started the clean up around the pond and reset the waterfall using a piece of the blue shale stuff to extend the water fall out over the mossy rocks so that it makes a bigger waterfall sound. I think I lost a big flat rock from that end of the waterfall. It's probably in the pond. Trevor has had a nasty cold and worse so he won't have my computer finished till Monday. And then it depends on how soon he gets over this bug. It is suppose to get colder and rain. We really did not get a lot of rain this last week. But the back grass is soggy and the moss is looking good.
February 2014
Feb.(notes from ipad as my computer is at Trevor's shop)
Cleaned the en suite bath tub and sink. Pat is repairing the big bathroom sink with his Drexel and a paint kit from Canadian tire. Was quite warm today. Took a few garden photos . . The newly renovated waterfall, crocus, snowdrops, cyclamen, woodland. Sat around all afternoon and watched tv after supper.
Feb 2
Fed and watered the house plants and the orange trees
This is from Feb. 3, of the notes on my ipad:
I had a shooting pain of muscle just below my right knee on the inside of my leg. It was impossible to put any weight on it. Wrapped it in the electric heating pad when I got into bed. Reading the book about David Milgaard. It is better this morning, but I am keeping Pat's cane to walk with. I have other muscle aches (especially my wrists and fingers, shoulders) so I think this is from kneeling on the floor while scrubbing the tub and kneeling on the kneeling pad on rocks in the cold while out gardening.
It is a sunshiny day and it froze lightly last night. I am lying on the couch with the sun thru the window warming my leg. It feels really warm and good!
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Added quick time .. so that my music on my web page would play in firefox... it plays in Chrome without the new download... So Firefox is really mucking about with its stuff... geezzzz do they never quit?
I actually got my old FTP program to work today. Hope I can manage it again next time. I kept a list of what places I clicked to get it to go. God knows what I did with the list... geeez this getting old is a pain.
Acronis ran at 6:00, since it is Wednesday... will run on Mondays and Wednesdays. to the backup drive.
Thursday, February 06, 2014
cold the last few days. We went out to the Market in Langford and saw icles on the side rocks. My leg is getting better... nearly good as before the great pain. We went to home depot (?) to get a new spritzer bottle for my plants and saw a gorgeous blue orchid, a phalenopsis in blue called mystic. Got it for 20.00 as that was the price below it on the shelf. The daft girl at check out scanned its code... no price on it... and charged me 29.... so I objected and got the $10 reversed. It still has marks on its blossoms, though. There were some really tired looking blue ones. I was carrying one around looking for the spritzer and this lady who said she was a horticulturalist came and told me not to buy it. Then we found the better looking ones and the adventure continued. c'est la vie. I have spent quite a lot of time looking for a good basic html web gallery maker... nothing runs without java, flash or css... but I do have the option of adding the old adobe stuff to my cs5, although they suggest not to... well adobe makes flash, of course, don't they. I need this basic one so I can edit in note pad. Adobe has stopped running the servers for the old stuff, so I cannot even load it to my Windows.. it just won't work. Dammit... I like the old one as I have just basic html and it runs very well on my old web page. I just had to download Quick Time to play my music.. quick time is apple product. Wish they could just get an operating system that was capable of running everything... old and new, without having to add this or that program for every different thing.
Otherwise I am reading about David Milgaard and the sample of the book about the Memphis 3... horrible shit... I won't be buying the book. Just finished the ebook about Edward I... boring.... I am sure there are more interesting books written about him... Must see if there is a Thomas B. Costain one... and check which ones of his I have. Been avoiding Megashot, not very interesting to me at the moment. I am on the hunt for the album maker, that works in Win 7 and does the basic html.
Friday, February 07, 2014
We had a skiff of snow this morning. It was gone by noon. Having a lot of trouble with my display screen hanging. Finally figured out that it is probably FireFox, with Trevors help. He will be around this weekend to get his book that he left at our place when he delivered and set up my computer.
Sunday, February 09, 2014
Yesterday I had several eureka moments. I found a very nice web album maker and created a try out album. Learned how to adjust the 'index' page to july or whatever. It is in the html, not the css style sheets. It looks better than the adobe PS CS one with its clunky arrows for navigation. I like it! Now, I hope I can get the ws FTP to work again when I need it. I have a note of the steps on the calendar. Also started using Chrome as my Firefox seems to have gone crazy. Trevor told me to reset it and I did, but I have changed my default browser to Chrome and was cleaning up the bookmarks a bit. Pictures of my new orchid and the ice on the pond. Refreshed the humming bird feeder.
Today looks overcase but a bit warmer. Watered the house plants. I was up till 3:00 and finished reading the Milgaard book. I found a copy of the Wake of the Red Witch which I will order today.
Monday, February 10, 2014
It is a lovely warm, overcast day. We got a bit of rain. The humming bird was at the feeder. I seem to be getting my computer stuff figured out. Making Swedish Meat Balls, typed up the recipe for my recipes folder. Planted some parsley seeds in one half of a milk carton and dill seed from the spices drawer in the other half. Washing the bedding, but really do want a new set so the sheet is long or deep enough to fit on the big mattress. Its a pain to move that heavy mattress every day to put the sheet right again.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Usefilm is back on line and called imageopolis.... stupid name. They have a pin it button... so I deleted all but one of my photos. mygardenjb at hotmail and feenix. They have advertising all over it. It really is pathetic. http://www.imageopolis.com/myportfolio.asp
warmish overcast day did not get anything done today am tired and going to bed and its only 8:15. Will read in bed.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Replaced the black (small one) and grey ink cartridges. The cyan says it needs changing. If I punch the ok button on the printer top it will keep printing. Trevor did this from the computer somehow I cannot figure that out. Made puffs with egg salad. Made breaded chicken breast pieces. Reading vol. 1 of the english history by Hume. Old fashioned writing but has some good info. Getting a few July photos done up. Was a warm day but I am not up to walking on my leg just yet. We drove to Fairway and got lottery tickets, then made a stop at the Mediterrean gorcery store and got mizithra cheese. There will be spaghetti sauce... browned butter and mizithra. I typed up the puffs recipe to add to my on line. It is from the Seagrams book.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Figured out how to get my photos off the camera and into My Pictures, then I can drag them into My Pictures #14 and rename of the folders. Had to set up the import settings .. it downloads to the DCIM drive and was saving to Margaret... on the C drive... not what I wanted.. It now goes to the F drive where all the data is.
Was a warm day again with a bit of wind but just breezy, actually. Yellow crocuses are up, at last. pictures of them and the orange lichens.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
about 8 degrees, breezy. Potted on 3 lily of the Nile, 2 milkweed (parashute ones)and 2 butternut squash. Still waiting for the pepper seeds and the dill and parsley to germinate. I used the cold dirt from on the deck to pot on the plants. The squash were ready for it but the other ones did not have a big root system. This cold dirt might be a shock to their roots.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
We had a bit of snow yesterday and it melted, same thing today, snowing but melting as it falls. I am slowly getting my photos for the July album finished and ready to run the new little album maker. Been doing a bit of meet and greet in Megashot and lots of contest entries. Nothing much on the communities. Lots of good cooking last week. My computer is running fine today. Windows had me up date to Windows essentials.. which I did not have loaded from Trevor. Dropbox did an update last week. My Firefox browser seems to be working good again.
Monday, February 24, 2014
We have snow again. I was up at about 5 trying to get some photos of the snow on the trees with manual and long exposure... not too great.
I have spent the day creating my July photo album. Have added the menu to each index page. Now I need to edit all the index words to July. The generator allowed me to add captions and title to each photo.. kinda cool that part. I am liking this web photo album generator. Hope I can upload it to the right place when I am finished. I may have to look into getting a new thing for uploading to my web page. Will see what this web generator thing says about uploading.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
The bit of snow we had has disappeared. There was sun and a bit of a breezy today. I am slowly getting my July album done. It is going pretty good. I would like to figure out how to make the text larger. I have half of the main pages edited. The photo html pages do not seem to be too difficult. I shall try to get some megashot meet and greet done, now.
The community compost guys took away my bin today. It is the last day for them. Saanich starts the green garbage pick up in April. Their bin is smaller, but they pick up every two weeks.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Sunny, 11 degrees.
I finished the June album and uploaded it. I need to keep 'index' pages and 'July' pages for it to work on the web site. I think. Anyway I have them both and the big photo html goes back to the July page.... must be a way to change the css, of index to July but I dun't know how. This is a run about way to fix it. It seems to work.
March 2014
Thursday, March 06, 2014
Yesterday we got a cheque for $95 for the compost bin deposit. The total amount back.
We have had a week of typically March weather. We are getting quite a bit of rain, which is ok. Other parts of the country have heaps of snow and avalanches, Southern part of the UK is very badly flooded and the SW corner of the US is getting lots of rain on their fire damaged hillsides. Most of the crocuses are up and the daffodils are in bud. The arabis is looking pretty good along the driveway strip. I need to plant some of this across the road. It is evergreen, blooms and is low enough to miss the mowers, maybe. That Park path would look great lined with arabis. and maybe crocuses, too.
I am reading Emma the viking queen (Real person in England apx 1010) and the English history by Hume (ipad). A week or so ago I received the Wake of the Red Witch in the mail. Was written in 1946. Old book, in pretty good shape.
I sent Mark McIntyre $28.53 (was US dollars for CDN $25) by PayPal for his Web Photo Gallery Generator. I have July finished and loaded to my page. It works fine. Have selected photos for August and will be doing that next. So, I am making some progress on the old page.
The Orchid show and Sale is at the Church on Elk Lake Drive this year! Pat saw it advertised in the paper and told me. It is early this year too... just on the week end. So shall go on Saturday. I have no room for any more orchids though. Might need to make a stop at Cannor while I am out there, too.
Saturday, March 08, 2014
Was to the Orchid show and sale at the our lady of fatima church across from the pool by Cannor. Have 3 new orchids as listed in the orchids page. Spent $80. plus $7 entry. Pictures not great. Have 2 new cattleyas - small ones and a new fat Paph. Was rainy. Pat took me and picked me up before and after his Fondbo's lunch. Listed them under the Orchids stuff in the Gardening folder.
Did a bit of Megashot stuff at night and read some in the Emma Queen of the Vikings book. There was a Murdock on TV and a Heartbeat... maybe it was on Friday...
Sunday, March 09, 2014
Time change today, so had to get up an hour earlier for capicinno. Beautiful day out sun and about 12. I was in the kitchen all afternoon. Made 4 pkgs of Irish Yellow Broth (double batch) about 6 dozen cheese biscuits and froze most of them. Have the rice/Italien sausage casserole made and ready to go into oven at about 5. Tis 3:40 amd I finally finished these cooking things I assigned myself to do. We have about 2 weeks of soups left on hand, with today's addition.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Cleaned up the light garden. Fed and watered the plants. I have 28 pots of orchids, with 8 of them being Phals., 4 paphs and 1 Phrag (Andean Fire), 7 cattlaya, 1 massad., a dying Miltonia, a dendrobium spectabilis that never booms, another little pink dendrobium that blooms, the P. Pulchera that is a 2 pots and just a plain tiny orange flower, the hai maria discolor (whatever new name), 1 philippense which is a nice plant and a lady slipper. There is another Murdock to nite. There were 2 last nite.. saw them both before. We had a lovely warm day again. I was out for a bit. Looks like something or someone picked the crocus blooms off. Rabbits? There are only the purple ones and not very many of them. There used to be maeuve, white and yellow ones too. The crocus field is looking rather drab. The maeuve ones within the wooden borders are still there and looking ok. Since just the blooms are gone, I suspect shitheaded people.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
We have had quite a bit of rain in the last week. The crocuses seem to be finished and the Daffodils are all open. Magnolia in huge buds. I have 2 milkweed plants left, 1 squash and 3 lily of the nile. The wind flowers are open. My knee feels better so I may be out gardening soon. Yesterday we had Marlene and Art to St. Patricks day dinner. The cabbage turned out really well, with the corned beef, potatoes, yellow irish broth soup and desert crepes, cheese biscuits. Was good. They left quite early, as do we, unless we play some card game at their place.
Been doing quite a bit on Megashot.
Rachel M might come and stay in our suite, if she takes the job here instead of continuing with her co-op program in Seattle. Pam seemed quite worried. Tara and Freyja might visit us on the 28th. Very active young lady, that one! Tax time, so might not get time for much else for a couple of weeks.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Ohhhhhh Cool. I have found PS CS under Image Ready and it installs... I added Optic Verve's virtual photographer filter to its plug ins and it works!! Yeaaaaaaaaa....
Image Ready also has my old 'simple' photo album creator... should I ever wish to use it. I am kinda liking the new one I have as the stand alone program though. Anyway... am so happy with this find and install of the old PS CS and the Virtual photographer. Its frames work on the Virtual Studio on Win 7, but it whines about it. I have frames in Paintshop Pro. so I should probably delete the Virtual Studio and just use that plug in filters that I wanted. Good to know I can still use the old web photo album maker too.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Last nite, or rather this morning about 5:00 I saw 2 deer in the pasture. I think they go across Grange to the second house from the corner of Gerda and eat apples or something. They go to the same place when ever I see them. The frogs were singing again... yeaaaaa. We have been having quite a bit more rain and the temps have been mild and really quite warm. But I have not been out in the garden yet. My knee feels a lot better, so I should be able to do some moderate gardening now. Should probably wrap it in the tensor bandage anyway. My solar lights look great at night, especially when we have some sun during the day. Saw a humming bird playing by the waterfall today, but it was gone by the time I got my camera ready. Been watching more television lately especially the Murdock Mysteries.
My little Lisa Taylor Cat is in bloom. The blue phal is finished. I was reading a bit about orchids today and see where lots of the $12 phal.s need repotting and so do a couple of the paph.s. I have some really good planting mix from Cannor and should go back and get more, if they have any left. Everything is very expensive over there of course. Good thing my garden has no more room.
Have been doing quite a bit of Megashot stuff recently and some playing with textures, with PSP and with PS CS5 of course. I have taken to running my SX 40 on manual. Sooooooo cool. I have no idea why I was so scared of doing this. It is the best. Now I shall have to start using my REBEL and with RAW... should be a fine adventure. The SX 50 shoots in RAW... hmmmm maybe ....I should see if a camera shop will take a trade in... or sell it on Used Victoria. Old Bevan bombed out on the purchase of the Hasselblad. Guess I will just have to save it for the Megashot museum.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Made 4 borscht this morning. froze 3. Pancakes and plum sauce for lunch. After lunch I caught up some of the megashot email. Then repotted a few phals.. and the yellow lady slipper. It may not live. It did not appear to have many roots and I may have detached it from the big fat root. It was looking very poorly before this. I will probably never find one again. Now I need more orchid potting mix.
I was amazed to see a butterfly on the plum tree blossoms and got pictures. It was about 14 degrees. There were also bees on the plum blossoms, but not very many. The tree is loaded with blooms.
April 2014
Friday, April 04, 2014
Weather has been warmer. Yesterday I finished repotting orchids. I may have killed the old paph.. the lovely yellow one that bloomed every year, maybe the phrag. Andean Fire, too. I find I have a miltonia. It was pot bound and had not been repotted for ever. It never bloomed. The big dendrobium needs warmest temps and high humidity, and should never dry out. Well none of them should ever dry out. I have 4 1/2 bags of new orchid mix left over, so should not need more of that for a year or two. I am going to put the box of used orchid media under the deck where I will be planting the hosta. I will mix it with the clay that is under the deck, near the cedar hedge. Hopefully it will get rain from that side of the deck, and if I water the deck plants I could pour some water over the deck. Its a huge hosta. The new bleeding heart will go in that area also. The moss I took off the patio area is not green. It was the kind of moss that grows on cement surfaces and so is not exactly liking the clay and shade. I should get this done before Rachel gets here on the first of May. I should get the african violets repotted some time also. Should plant dill and parsley in pots, and the milkweed and the beans that Pat bought last winter in dragon alley when Cyrs visited. While at the Cannor nursery to buy more orchid mix I bought the $25 cannor card that gives me 10% off and my next $100 purchase I get to use this $25 coupon. That bill came to $80. after the discounts. I also bought a couple of saucers. I need one or two more small pots to put the clear plastic potted plants into. I have one pink plastic pot but it is too big and several bigger clay pots left over and they sit on the deck.
I have a new ebook called one second after. I got it a day ago and am more than half finished it. 545 pages for about $12.
fed and watered all the house and deck plants today.
Monday, April 07, 2014
was a warm overcast day. I was out gardening for a couple of hours. mowed the lawn and put the clippings into the back compost bin, it is full again. I will have to empty some of it out. I have a few branches from the grape in the bottom of the new green bin. took the box of used orchid media and put it under the deck near the cedar hedge. I moved the cement block that is behind the clematis and now have a bit of space to move the delphinium back a bit. I need to cut the clematis back, as it seems to be rather weedy. Cleaned up a bit on the dry stream. needs more done. pulled off some of the blue bells at the back in the woodland.. needs more done. I sprayed them with round up a couple of days ago. They don't seem to be dying. I don't see a trillium growing, but the white and the yellow fawn lillies are in bloom. The pots on the garden might have some milkweed starting... too early to tell. I have 2 left in milk cartons and have 3 milk cartons of Lily of the Nile from seed, under the light garden. The little piece of the mounding plant from the front rockery is going to grow in the little rockery at the back. The rhubarb is up and many weeds Cannot see any of the butterfly flowers or any the the perennials I put back there last year, coming up. One of the milkweed plants from Dave Dube is showing little buds. Magnolia, plum tree at the back, arabis, aubretia, hellebores, polyanthus, daffodils in bloom.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Yesterday I spent about 3 1/2 hours getting the plants on the deck cleaned up.. added a bit of soil to the top layer after weeding the pots. I shall need more top soil or indoor/outdoor planting mix, some sand and some more pea gravel. Maybe some manure and some bonemeal. I will want to run the bill up to $100 and claim my $25 off coupon, since I bought the membership. I also planted the milkweed seeds that were in the plastic bag with some sand. They had little roots or shoots on them. I planted them with the root pointing upwards.. opps.. hope they grow anyway. I left them out on the deck close to the deck door. I did up 3 milk cartons cut lenghtwise with dill, partsley and basil. I have the herbs in the house. Swept off the deck. It looks a bit better.
Today I am doing laundry but found about an hour to pull out bluebells in the moss garden and clean off the leaves a bit. It still needs work but its a start on cleaning up the moss garden. Hope to have it finished next week and before Rachel is down there, although she will be at work during the day. Also skimmed most of the plum tree petals off the pond... there is still lots to fall, though, so I will be doing that again soon.
The orchids are looking good. I will feed and water them again on the weekend. I have an off white pot under the deck that I shall bring up to the deck and use for the herbs. I can use the 2 brown ones by the garage for the other herbs. They have bulbs in them now. I also have a cedar trough on the garden...I could use it for lettuce or something.. maybe. Spinach? I hope to save poppy seed this year. Would love to be able to make a poppy seed roll. Must find a recipe for it. And there is the boiled wheat, honey and poppyseed that Mom used to make at Easter time.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Beautiful day. Spent about 2 1/2 hrs in the garden. Cleaned up under the deck, especially by the cedar hedge. Cut all of the 'popcorn' bushes that I could find down to the ground level. Cut back a lot of the old clematis. Planted the big hosta and the bleeding heart along by the hedge where I planned to put them. Cannot see the bleeding heart from the suite window, but it will get moisture as it is not under the deck totally. The hosta is by the bigger bamboo and may need attention to watering. It should be in a slight depression from where I added the orchid bark to a hole in the clay/cedar duff. The day lilies are growing and there is a rhodo that is growing too, by the clematis. Clipped back the skimmia a bit... it was getting buds. It does not produce berries, so it must be the male of the species. The ferns are sprouting new growth. Cleaned up the clematis on the pond side and ripped off the blue bells, clipped a boxwood thing back. The moss has not really progressed much but I have hopes for it. I must keep it damp under there. Cleaned up a bit in the moss garden as far as the Japanese maple, but it needs a bit more attention to the pea gravel. I am afraid I pulled out a specail plant that was growing in the moss garden. It may have been a pleione. oh damn. Pruned the fig tree and put the branches in the green bin. More trouble to cut them up to fit this small bin. Friday is next pick up. The bin is about half full.
Am thinking about potting up a few plants for the VIRAGS for the show/sale. I could get some anemorella from beside the garage. Maybe one of the lily of the Nile plants, I will look for some red sedum to root, corsican hellebore always put out seedlings, perhaps a german iris, wind flower bulbs perhaps, saxitalis tulips maybe, the cyclamens seed everywhere, corsican mint, maybe. Dont know how to collect fawn lilies. I would need to take them on Friday, or email Agnes about someone to pick them up if Rachel is coming on that day. A malva?, welsh poppies. Yeah, I could probably get a few plants for the sale. There should be campanulas in the show. Maybe I will find out what my evergreen campanula is, if I go.
Am reading the postman. Watched 3 tv things tonite.. murdock, heartbeat, some murder mystery thing from Uk. Have 3 apocalypse type books read. They all follow the same pattern. On the Road was differnet.. very desolate and how it really might be.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Was out for a couple of hours. Have potted up some anemorella, a welsh poppy, and a couple of the little gerarium things. Watered them and will see if they survive in a suitable state to take to the VIRAGS show. I could call someone to come and get them, if I was not going (by cab) Cleaned along the stepping stones past the rhodos and under the deck to the dry stream. This moss is good. Not too bad for weeds but quite a few grass sprouts in the stepping stone path. Am tired as I was up until 2:00 am last nite and up at 9:00 to make capiccino. No naps. There is a Murdock at 8:00 tonite, don't know if I am going to make it.
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Overcast, 16 degrees. Was out from 1 to 4. Mowed the grass. Used the hedge trimmer and have the honeysuckle along the Pee's side done and about half of the boxwood done. The trimmer finally ran out of battery charge. I was out of charge quite some time before that. The new Saanich green bin is full. They will take it away on Friday. I pulled out more blue bells at the back in the woodland and discovered the trillium back there is coming up. The hepatica is not looking great, but it is spreading a bit. The one under the deck in the moss did really well. The dill and the basil have quite a few first leaves up. Might have to replant the parsley. It wants a wash in detergent, and a rinse and then sit in water over night before planting it. Bother. I fed and watered all the house plants today. I think I will try move the orange trees out next week. I don't know where I am going to plant these beans I have. I believe they need a trellis. Pictures ... the plum tree at the front is in bloom. I cut off some of the branches that have this black fungus or whatever it is, on it.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Rained yesterday and today there were showers. Pat took me to Cannor and I got 3 bags potting soil, 3 bags topsoil and 2 bags of sand, big plastic box of bonemeal. forgot the pea gravel and the manure... oh well next time. I drew an easter egg thingy and it gave me 20% off my stuff, so that plus the membership 10% gave me a saving of 43.32 on a bill that came to $90.99 after the deductions. I took the plants home and the dirt and bone meal arrived soon after I got home. Saved 8.12 on the bone meal! The plants will be listed on the plant purchases.. one tomatoe, 3 little heliotrope, a yellow hollyhock, a bag of 50% off summer flowering bulbs and mine are the liatris... bulbs have shoots on them in the bag so they should get planted soon, a good looking lily of the valley that is going under the deck, another echinea, and a epimedium sulphureum.
While I was out looking at stuff under the deck I saw a little rufus humming bird. It WAS smaller than the annas, but did not really notice the rufous, was surprised to see it. I wonder if the nest is under the deck. I hope I did not disturb it while pushing the clematis back. While looking at the milkweed I see I have 6 or so pots of one kind of them germinated and more pots with lots of little things germinated... I think they are milkweeds. The ones on the deck are not showing leaves yet. BUT, glory be the parsley has germinated! I am putting the dill out on the deck during the day. It is still too spindly. I need to plant some out on the garden.
Yesterday I made strawberry and rhubarb pie from store bought berries and rhubarb. And made 4 little chicken pot pies which we will have for supper tonite along with pickles and coleslaw.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Yesterday I finished trimming the front hedges. Raked up the trimmings and put them on the woodland path. Moved the 2 bags of sand to the garden, a bag of topsoil and a bag of potting soil up to the deck. Trimmed a bit of the tall grass across the street. If I do a bit of this every time I am out there I should be able to keep it cut back... maybe even make a small path to the water. Moved a few dark purple late blooming crocus to the crocus field. I need to do more of them. And then give the crocus field some bone meal.
On Sunday after our duck dinner I made the carcus of the duck into 8 packages of duck soup. Its pretty good. Today I have the beans soaking for the bean soup receipe Pat gave me from his farm show paper. It will use up the big ham bone and give us 2 - 3 quarts of bean soup. The dried blueberries are good in the cole slaw.
I have the dill seedlings out on the deck over nite now, and just starting to harden off the parsley and the basil. I will start more dill out on the garden. We had chives on our baked potatoe and a bit of fresh rosemary on our pork chops last nite.. really good pork chops. I have some metal post things that I am going to use to attach the netting to for the red runner beans I will plant. I need to get the area behind the garage cleaned up so I can plant the beans there. The trillium at the back woodland survives. The trillium at the front is starting to turn red, so it is nearly finished. The camas at the Pees side that is surrounded by that invasive gout weed stuff, is holding its own. The Camas has 3 bloom stems up and blooming now. Once I get the blue bells out of the woodland at the back, I must get more camas and maybe more trillium.
good article on growing liatris: http://voices.yahoo.com/liatris-easy-care-reliable-perennial-attracts-3091706.html
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Made 5 pkgs of bean soup from the ham bone. Got a recipe from the internet after looking at the farm show paper recipe, which was pretty gross, for making the soup in the slow cooker. I did mine in the pressure cooker. Takes about 15 minutes to do the beans and then another 5 or so to do the vegetables. Its pretty good, and thick. I used the pound of beans that the farm show paper called for. This is pretty good soup too.
Was out after lunch. I have a few more plants for the plant show. I can get them to pick them up if I cannot get there. I think they need them on Friday, though, and that is when Rachel and Pam are coming, and whoever else they bring.
I have to look up the plant names and label them.. there go about 15 of my good labels. I will wait a week and see what survives. The little geraniums are doing good. The liatris bulbs should have shoots and roots in a week. So I have the rest of the liatris in 2 cut down milk cartons and in plastic cups. There were 25 bulbs and all looked good. These plants can seed about, it seems and get out of hand. Butterflies and hummingbirds like them. I may need to put a few over in the Park. They like sun. NOW this is something... the Milkweed seeds that I have out on the deck are sprouting. Great! I may have to put a few of them in the Park, too. Will watch to see how they mow it . I might just mow or clip around any plants I put out there to keep them from mowing the plants down. God knows any work they don't have to do will be fine with them. I used up a bag of compost on the area under the curly nut tree - Harry Lauders Walking stick. I find I have a camas growing under there. The Hepatica is doing much better this year. There was lots of grass in the moss between the stepping stones. I am mostly finished weeding the path up to the little bamboo. Must do the other end of the path to the old sidewalk... but I ran out of time. I put the dill into one of the pots on the deck and planted out one of the heliotrope to see if it will survive. The parsley and the basil will go out into their own deck pots as soon as they get their second leaves.
It has started raining at about 8:00... this is just what I need.
Friday, April 25, 2014
Yesterday was rainy, went for lunch at Jacks and grocery shopped with Pat.
I got out at about 1:30 today and puttered around till 4:00. Got the front triangle on our side cleaned up, added the yellow hollyhock, took out the tall bearded iris I had put in there, and added a bag of community compost to the plants. Weeded a bit in the what used to be the daisie strip, and planted the 3 iris there, closer to the spirea bush. Snipped the grass around the wooden edging up to the bush. finished weeding the stepping stones at the back. Spread a bag of compost in the fig tree area up to the top. I seem to have a peony looking thing coming up... I forget what it is and did not take the time to check the tag, if its still there. The fern leafed peony is in bloom. the tree peony has buds. I trimmed out its dead stuff a few days ago.
I am still undecided about taking plants to the show... would need to take them Thursday.. not sure when... I would have to find out.. email to Agnes maybe, if I should decide to take a few things. I would need to take a cab so I probably won't do it.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Between yesterday and today I have weeded the little rockery and the trough by it. The little Daphne tangutica is in bloom. Must get its picture. Lovely thing. Quite a few of the butterfly garden flowers are coming up. I planted another echanea along by the round stepping stones at the back. I have weeded the stepping stones path at the back up to the edge of the Japanese garden. I have been potting up plants for the VIRAGS sale and have about 30 plants. Tonite I made a list of them with the old office program, and printed it. I seem to have 7 kinds of plants. I might, after all, catch a cab over there with these 30 or so pots. Must remember to do up markers. Oh hell forgot to put the pinks on there. ... no matter.. they may not be sufficiently rooted. I can still put them on and print it again, too. The ferns are growing nicely and the moss is coming along. I saw an old board in the Park that I could use under the deck as stepping stones for walking through the mud. I think this wood would grow moss, with the right encouragement.
I got the laundry and ironing done, and made schnitzle for supper tonite. Been busy all day and was busy yesterday, too. We got some rain over nite and some more today. Nice showers. My basil didn't like it very much though.
Pat leaves for Red Deer on Wednesday and is back on the next Monday. Rachel, and probably Pam and Mike will be here on Friday. So, Thursday should be ok to take the plants to VIRAGS and to get some keys cut for the suite, or I can always call someone to get them.
May 2014
Saturday, May 03, 2014
Was really hot on Thursday and Friday. On Friday I took a cab $30. to the Church on Arbutus Rd to deliver my 29 potted up plants for the VIRAGS show and sale. Have a pdf of them made up. Cooler on Sat .. I got the grass mowed before Pam and Rachel arrived about 1:30 ish. We unloaded the stuff and they worked at getting things set up in the suite. We had ham and scalloped potatoes and stir fry for supper 5:30 to 6:30 ish, and then they got back to work downstairs. I was pretty well bagged by this time and went to bed about 9:30. Today it is cooler... they have some traveling about town to get stuff and whatnot. I got the deck plants watered. The fish tub water level was down about 4 inches from the hot weather. The lily of the valley sprouts that I had inside have suffered from the scorching heat for the couple days where it was 27 degrees. They look like they might survive.
Tuesday, May 06, 2014
Was out for 2 hours and got the path into the moss garden and the dry stream weeded. Put down new pea gravel to freshen up the 'water'. The big hosta seems to have rotted from water logged. Not sure if I want another one, now. Rachel is moved in and going to work.
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Was a beautiful day. Was out from about 2 to 4. Got 7 of the liatris put into the butterfly garden. Then cleaned up the borders along the old sidewalk. Put 2 liatris in the outside border and have about 4 more put into the area across the sidewalk from the holly tree. Have started to clean up behind the garage. There is a lot of grass in there where the lovely hydrangea died. I only got about one 2 sq. feet of space done. Not sure if I want to keep all the day lilies. I was planning on putting beans in there this year. I better get going to clean it up if I am going to do that. at 4:00 there was shade. so not sure if that is where the beans should go. I have a trough along the edge of the garden... maybe 8 - 10 inches is deep enough for beans.
Friday, May 09, 2014
Was a perfect day for gardening and I got out for about 3 hours in the afternoon. I finished weeding in the upper part of the front inner garden. It is not too bad, but is good to keep the weeds from going to seed. I transplanted 2 liatris in the front by the little boxwood hedge. There is room for a milkweed by the hedge. I have counted the beans and decided to put half of the orca beans which are a bush bean, into the trough on the garden edge. I should be able to get about 15 beans in there, and add some compost. So, tomorrow I should be able to finish the front inner garden.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Was a lovely day with 20 temps. I was out for the afternoon, and twiddling around at numerous different things. Mostly the old vegetable garden. I cleaned up the border where the trees are and brought some lilacs into the house. Dug over an area on the rhubarb side and weeded the rhubarb and strawberry area. I seem to have somehow lost the milkweed that was coming up... the plant from Dave. The other milkweed that I bought is nicely forming leaves. I took the white pot with the legs on it and filled it with top soil and potting soil, then transplanted the 3 lily of the nile, one milkweed, and 3 liatris into it. Added a couple of transplants left over from the VRAGS sale into one of the big pots. I have a smaller -- 2 or 3 gallon black pot with red runner bean and purple runner bean in it. They were soaked overnite so am not sure if they will sprout properly as the red runner bean fell into 2 pieces. I have the cedar trough along the garden planted with about 8 orca beans, also soaked. We had butternut squash for supper and I planted 4 seeds into a plastic tray. I will put them out on the garden when they get a few leaves... maybe below the rhubarb. As I had looked up how to get rid of blue bells on the net, it seems they need to be dug out.. bulbs and all roots you can find. Put into a plastic bag for a year or two, then discard. On Wednesday I hope to go to the Saanich rate payers meeting to hear a speaker on the invasive species. No doubt the little lizards will be on the list. I seem to be getting less of them around the garden and am seeing more slugs. I have to keep picking little grass out of the stepping stones path. Oh well... hope to keep ahead of it. Old Weird is having her house power washed and painted. At last! Saturday was light showers so I did not get out.
Monday, May 12, 2014
I got the laundry done and the casserole made for supper in the am. After lunch I was out for about 3.5 hours. It got really hot... 26 - 27, and I thought it looked overcast so wore my gardening sweatshirt. too warm! But I got some weeds along the driveway dug out. I think I dug out a lot of daffodils when trying to dig out the clump of spanish blue bells ... oh well... I put 3 bulbs back in and they will multiply again. Then got the stone path weeded again and pulled out grass from the siberian iris. These iris and the german iris are in bud and bloom. There are lots of bamboo runners going across the thyme circle. I put two of them under the deck and threw out three more. This disrupts the thyme but it should take hold again. The ground is still moist under it... I should water it though. I must keep on top of the grass, the violets, the white daisies and the bamboo runners. The little weeds that bloom in orange are growing too. They seed everywhere. The erodium along the stone path is looking pretty good, but the golden oregano is invading its territory. I might have to selectively roundup some of them. The oregano smells nice when brushed and looks good too.
Harry Lillo phoned, so the Benets and Lillos and us are going out to the mychosin cafe for supper tomorrow. So, I hope it rains. :-)
Our lizzard population seems to be reduced. Pat thinks they got trapped in the cracks in the driveway when the guys sealed them off last Fall. There are some left... no doubt they will multiply again. We have birdsong ... some that I do not recognize. There are little plums on the plum trees... too high up for Mrs. Pee to reach, on the front one, I hope. I should fertiilize that tree and the apple. The Apple and the Saskatoons were covered with blooms. The lilac is now in bloom and the fragrance is vie-ing with the stink from the Pees compost. I think the lilac is winning... at least on my side, anyway. The wisteria is in bloom at the top of the western red cedars. This is soooo cool. the moss garden is looking good and expanding, slowly. The camas on the Pees side had several blooms this year. The Japanese anemone is a huge clump on their side. I have several other clumps started around the garden. This is the most elegant flower. The perennial bachelor buttons are suppose to attract butterflies, but they just spread everywhere and crowd out everything. The lambs ears are holding their own with the St.John's wort... but that has to be kept back too... maybe roundup. The spanish blue bells are herbicide resistant. So you have to just dig them all out. I might try a cardboard cover in the back woodland; but am diggigng them out, too.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Got the grass cut and took the tall stuff out of the crocus field. Did this in the morning but it still got hot by noon. Our green bin is full. Watered a bit at the back. Hope the beans germinate soon. We went to the rate payers meeting and listened.. or tried to listen to the guy talk about invasive species. The main means of attack is dig it out... and keep at it until the plant gives up. Morning glory, and black berries can go into the compost. Cyclamen have become an invasive species, and holly trees. Along with the usual offenders.. ivy is suppose to go to the dump, ... well I think I will leave that for the fat assed Saanich boys to pick up and take to the dump when I clean up the ivy by the blue bridge.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Was out this afternoon for a few hours. I have the inner garden and stone path at the front weeded. Transplanted another liatris with the alliums (smoke bush bed). Have the bamboo shoots pulled out of the thyme circle and hopefully the thyme will grow back into the spots where the shoots were sucking up all the nutrients. Used up a half a compost bag on the plants. The little moss like plants is looking good and spreading, slowly. Must keep it weeded. From my pictures I see that the polyanthus/primroses are doing nicely. I think I might plant more of them on the other side of the stepping stones. They have been in bloom for a month now. I should be finished at the front in another couple of days. It is suppose to rain tomorrow and maybe Sunday, too. Monday is the long weekend.
Saturday, May 17, 2014
cooler day with a bit of a breeze, much better for gardening. Was out from about 1:30 to 5:30. Got the front finished weeding except for the rectangle on the Pees's side. It is a mess with too many Spanish bluebells that I shall have to dig out. That will involve digging out the peony that is struggling in that spot. The other three peonies have buds this year. Will still have to keep an eye on the daisies and the violets ... but they are more like under control now, as long as I keep digging them out. The lavender died and I am thinking of putting that peony in that front strip in the lavenders spot. It is totally clay, so will need lots of compost, if the peony is going to live there.... still thinking about that. The back woodland got some more bluebells pulled off. They are all over the fawn lilies. I shall have to be very vigilant about them next Spring. I might dig out the red columbine and clean its roots and the spot it sits in, and cover some of the surrounding area with cardboard to slow down the blue bells before I replant it. Trouble is; there are fawn lilies in this area. Maybe I will be able to tell the difference between the fawn lily and the spanish bluebell bulbs, if the fawn lily is a bulb. If this is so, I can clean up the woodland and replant the fawn lillies... maybe... big job. Probably better left until I get back from our trip East. There are two plants from the lewisia bed that I have photos of when in bloom on that garden... they have not come up this year... I must check the names of them too. I cannot imagine what happened to them, they look well established in the photo. I made a larger area for the front trillium and must give it some rotting wood, as Chestnut said hers are happy in this kind of media. The moss garden is looking pretty good. I have to dig out the snowdrops and put them somewhere else as they are ruining the moss where they come up.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Yesterday I was out from 2:30 to 5:00 and spent the time digging blue bells and grass out of the rectangle at the front on the Pee's side. The peony was totally infested with bulbs of all sizes, so I tried to dig it out totally and clean up its roots. I now have the peony in a pot with new dirt of course. I don't think it is going to survive. I made a cream of carrot and onion soup in the morning and a very good meatloaf meal for supper. We have not been getting any of the rain promised, so I have watered and fed the deck plants along with the house plants. The beans in the small black pot are coming up and the tomato looks bettter for being fed.. The dill, parsley and basil are growing nicely. The heliotrope looks a bit stunted. I think it got chilled when I first put it out, it is blooming again though.
I did a search for the rock plants that went missing from the little rockery at the back, and found that they were purchased in 2010 I think... and probably got trampled when the Davey tree guys were here in May of 2013. The lewisias are doing ok in that bed, with the daphne, the pinks, etc.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Lazy day today. a few photos, a bit of megashot. reading. Its overcast, I am waiting for it to rain. Would have been a good gardening day, if I could have worked up the ambition. Watered at the back and a bit at the front yesterday.
Friday, May 23, 2014
We got about 1/4 inch of rain over night. Went to Brentwood bay nursery today and got a Coelogyne Cristata orchid for $4.00 repotted it before reading about it. Well, it seems it does not like to be disturbed... oh well. . It is in potting soil with a bit of bark. the directions say coco bits and spaghaum moss for moisture retention. Brentwood's seemed to be doing find in potting soil mixed with cactus mix. Ok hope mine survives. Planted another red rnner bean in the pot on the deck as I seem to have only 2 of them up. Planted a heliotrope, a little blue daisy thing and a parsley in Rachaels pots. I have a red columbine and that moss looking evergreen thing to put in yet. Had a look at the milkweeds and I do have a few I can transplant... they are toxic so handle with care. They sprouted up when I watered them. I am trying to figure out how to cut the bottoms out of these pots I have them in, so I have the top of the pot to mark where the plant is. I did not do very well with my lupine transplants last year. The pink one is in bloom, but I may have bought that one at a nursery... not sure. I have one other plant that might bloom next year. There is another damn bamboo shoot root in the thyme to be pulled out. C'est la gare.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Got a bit of digging out grass at the back of the garage.. was cooler and breezy. There is still a bamboo shoot in the thyme cirlce. I added fruit tree spikes to the front plum tree today. I see that ugly fungus thing on a fairly large branch that I should cut off... maybe cut off the whole big branch. The tree has small plums on it, so I should keep watering it. Just so old Pee head can grab all the plums... There are 2 squash seeds up and I will wait for them to get bigger leaves before I put them in the veggie patch at the end of the rhubarb. There are little green strawberries, some figs that might be good.. about 7 of them. Something is eating all the lower leaves on the purple plum tree. Where are those lizards when you need them?
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
On Sunday we went to see Dr. Ralph Smith's new rock garden on Exeter Rd. It is behind and above the swimming pool. Looks good. Then we went to Finnerty gardens. The rhodos are mostly finished. I did not see any shade plants that I needed or wanted.
On Monday, I got a lot of stuff done in the garden. Got the crocus field and all the grass cut. Looks a lot better. Got the Pees side cut back off the sidewalk, and cut the gout weed down before it went to seed. Took down the camas too. Transplanted the red columbine to the front and the mossy looking thing to the back little rockery. Cut the leaves off the wisteria by the Pees, and cut down the tall iris heads. Watered a bit at the back and washed the leaves off the old sidewalk. Pulled the spent blooms off the white rhodo by Rachel's window. There are 2 bamboos growing back there. The taller one makes a good screen from the Pees side. Those cedars are growing more leaves, so maybe they will fill in again, eventually. Transplanted a 6 pack of lettuce into a trough and have it on the deck. That lettuce is sooo good fresh off the plant. Got Pat to help me cut the black fungus stuff off the plum tree. Hopefully that will slow the fungus down a bit. There are quite a few plums on that tree, this year. Weeded violets out of the hebe. and weeded a bit around the front garden.
The lettuce looks pretty good after the transplant. Amazingly so does that peony that I dug out of the blue bells. Must keep it moist. It is on the deck where I can keep an eye on it. The lily of the Nile plants are not doing to great. They had a very hot day in the sun that set them back. The parsley is good and the basil is slowly growing, dill is good. My tomatoe plant has a bloom and Rachel's plant will be good. I gave her a bought parsley plant too... must tell her they are hers. The beans on the deck are up - 2 in a black pot. There are 2 squash seeds up and I am waiting for them to get bigger before I put them in the garden. I do not see the orca beans in the trough up yet. Must have planted them too deep. I moved 3 Milkweed out of their pots and to the area behind the back garage. I replanted the yellow jasmine .. It has survived in a plastic bag with a rootball of soil, so it should be happy to be in the ground again. I dug out more grass and blue bells and have enough space to plant out red and purple runner beans. They are suppose to like it cooler, so maybe they will like it there. There are a lot of day lillies in that bed ... I am going to keep them to a minimum... maybe even get a new one or two and throw out the ones that I have too many of the same kind. It is suppose to rain tomorrow, so I plan to do laundry, and maybe something in the oven as it will probably be cooler.
While I was out gardening Pat took a call from Carol in Regina. Ruth passed away on Monday ... Apparently she was in hospital and had spent some time in and out of hospital..... must have been a terrible ordeal for her. I hardly want to think about it, so I won't. As we are going out later in the summer, I don't think I want to go to any service they have for her. Should check facebook and see if there is anything there.
June 2014
Sunday, June 01, 2014
Services for Ruth on Monday. We are not going.
Yesterday we went out to Dallas Road where we found a parking spot for the van. I walked and photographed Kites for about an hour and a half.
I was up way too late last nite, so I am not too mobile today Watched a really good 'Frost' on TV. This morning I watered the deck plants. The peony has sent up a little shoot! Yea it is going to survive. It needs to be put out in the garden though, as these deck plants are drying out and we are going to be away for a month. The lettuce is growing nicely, the tomatoe is in bloom, the parsley and dill are ready to be used. I cleaned up one of the willows ... there is some kind of a bug rolling itself up in these leaves... Of course I hope it is a butterfly, but I really doubt it. I left them rolled up and will wait to see what they are. Pat cleaned up the deck door and greased it. Now it works great.. very easy to move and no more squeaks.
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Was a perfect gardening day. Was out for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I am about finished digging over the area behind the garage. I have taken out some of the daylillies and will probably remove more of them. I transplanted the peony that I rescued from the front out there. I have some liatris, some milkweed, the old yellow jasmine bush, the daylilies, the big fern and the lily of the valley shrub in that area. I started to clean up the irises across the sidewalk from them. Its not too bad for weeds up to the black tub. I think I need a new fish for the tub. I did not see the old one. But I have seen little damsel flies and two big dragonflies so maybe I will leave it for now and see if I can get more dragons. I saw a swallowtail on a dames rocket, but by the time I got my camera it had moved on. It was spending a bit more time around my garden, though. I watered at the back behind the garage and filled the tub, then watered a bit on the patio and under the deck. Turned the back garden sprinkler on for about an hour. The rhodos are looking terrific. The iris are mostly finished, the peonies at the front are looking pretty good. The french lavender is great. Its been in bloom for a long time. The bees love it. I had to cut off a few bamboo shoots. I have to constantly pull the little grass out of the corsican mint at the back by the stepping stones. And those little orange flowers are everywhere. I have to keep after them. The Oriental poppies are flopping all over everything. They are not good as cut flowers, I don't see bees or butterflies on them. I really think they will need to be contained in tomato cages or just dug out. The water pump had to be reset.. it had stopped. Strange. The red columbine survived its transplant and it looks good in the inner garden at the front. I need to give those plants some compost. The snapdragons at the front look good for the bit of attention they get to feeding compost. The two lupines are almost finished blooming and will need feeding too. One is pink and the other one is darker pink.
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
Planted the rest of the red runner beans and some more of the purple runner beans behind the garage. Set up place for them to climb. Made it from the metal struts re-inforced with bamboo canes. Tied some garden neting to it. I hope this holds the weight of the beans when they get growing. Its about 4 to 4.5 feet high and maybe 6 feet long. The beans were soaked over night and the soil is still damp from yesterday's watering. Planted more orca beans in the wooden trough. Doubt if they will grow. I moved one milkweed to the front, where the lavender died, under the plum tree. I must mark this plant. It is one of the milkweeds with coarser leaves, so might not be pretty, but the butterflies should like it... if ever I get any milkweed growing. Weeded a bit in the cutting garden. Some of the plants survived, but are a bit leggy because of the lack of light, I am sure. Planted out the two squash plants in the area just below the strawberries. There are lots of berries this year. Will probably be ripe when we are gone to Sask. Blah! I watered a bit at rhe front... left the hose run on the rectangle on the Pee's side. The roses are all in bloom and the peonies. The red lupine is surviving the transplant. The snapdragons look good ... it helps to add compost and water to them. I will probably need new ones next year... they seem to last a couple of years. The rhodos are very good this year too.
I am having trouble with the pump in the pond shutting off. If I hit the red reset button on the side of the house, it worked again. Must watch it to see how long it will run before it shuts down.
Friday, June 06, 2014
Did nothing yesterday. Was very grumpy. I bought another one of the Kyle West sci fi books on my ipad... the 2nd in the series. Another lovely day today. I watered front and back. Got out the old green hose to add to the front one and attached it to the black one, then watered the plum tree area. It is a bit of a bother to get the green hose out and put it back but is worth it for the watering on that side of the garden. Dave sent me photo of his new little monarch larvae. He seems to have 23 of them. The leaf of the Milkweed he showed in the photo seems to be the color and shape of the ones that germinated for me. I am not sure what these other two are... they might be milk weeds, if I am lucky.
I watered and fed the deck and patio plants. Should do the house plants tomorrow.. It is 5:20 and so far that pump has been running since 2:00... will see how long this lasts.
Sunday, June 08, 2014
another lovely day. Was up too late again so am not moving very fast today. dead headed geraniums, some of the roses and a few other things. Cut back the grape shoots. There is one bunch of grapes on it. Pictures of the front plums, one of the figs... we might have 8 or so. One of the milkweeds by the jasmine has just disappeared... strange. I must have some really weird birds that would eat toxic plants. I looked up the purchases from last year, and find that the milkweed I bought is the tuberosa. The speciosa is the showy MW that the caterpillars will eat. I do believe that the little plants I have set out are the showy, from the looks of the leaves on Dave's video. I picked 2 or 3 cups of strawberries and there is about as many left on to ripen. Good crop this year. The rhubarb is hopeless. I should get a half barrel to grow it in where the tree roots cannot get it. Maybe get a new one. This plant just does not preform.
Monday, June 09, 2014
Trnasplanted the milkweeds, two of the larvae edible ones (speciosa) in the cutting garden and one in the big black pots. There are two more black pots from the ones on the deck planted with the milkweed that has a pretty flower. No doubt the butterflies will like it anyway. Put a half row of dill seed into the cutting garden and hope it grows. I think swallowtails like it, so it could go to seed. Have the spinkler on at the back. It covers a pretty good area. Gets the bean row behind the garage a bit sprinkled, and some even gets over the Japanese garden moss. The pump is still running, so whatever was happening with it, is fixed. The orca beans do not grow. The lettuce is ready for another picking. Shall have it with the avocado if its ready, for supper. I have the meet and greet caught up on Megashot. Am getting emails from Dave ... he has his little monarch eggs, they are eating, frassing and growing like crazy. Some people in his area have seen Monarchs ... so whatever they are all doing, it is working to get the monarchs back. I can hear different birds out in the garden. I think they like the water sprinkler.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Yesterday I mowed the grass, picked two or three cups of strawberries, watered the back. Then it rained a bit over nite. Today is another lovely day, with gusts of wind this evening. Did Megashot stuff the last few days. Started reading the Fail Safe book, as I have finished the Brian Boru books.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Cooler day. Yesterday we went to the Museum for the Viking stuff, with Pam, Mike and Rachel. Got nothing done. My beans are up in the row behind the garage. We had bits of rain over night. We were on the Model T Barney Oldfield run today, with bits of rain, in the cooler day. Lunch at the restaurant and pizza from the fridge for supper. Getting a few pictures tweaked for my blog. But do not have much ambition. Getting a bit done on Mega. Am reading Fail Safe.. written in 1967 with reference to real happenings at the time of the cold war and nuclear stand offs... probably Kennedy in Presidents office.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Filled the big humming bird feeder. Watered at the back and everywhere at the front. Was cloudy and cooler, but we did not get any of the promised rain. We had a 3.2 or 2.3 earthquake 11 k north of the penninsula today. Pat was in the house and heard and felt it. I was out watering and did not notice. Of course, the tractors and mowers were out mowing the thistles and black berries down, across the street. So much for the butterfly food over there. Just as glad that I did not plant any of my milkweed over there. The ones in the garden seem to be doing ok. The liatris on the deck seems to be starting a flower head. I also watered the deck and patio plants today.
July 2014
Thursday, July 10, 2014
We left for Sask., Winnipeg on Monday June 23 and got back on July 8.. about 16 days. Got laundry and a bit of garden clean up done. Watered deck plants. Skimmed a bit off the pond. Saw Fran for about 6 days, helped vacuum up the water in her basement. That about finished me. Could not go to Regina or Winnipeg or to see Dierkers as everything was flooding in Southeastern Sask and Southwestern Man. We saw Sali's and stayed on their parking lot over nite. They have slowed down quite a bit but are doing pretty good for their age... 86 and 82, I think. Stopped at Lloyds.. they are totally renovating Linda and Paul's old house on Buxton, very near Sussex. Hoards of people around and drank way too much of course. Did not go to see Jo in the morning as I was totally hung over.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Watered around the back, filled the back tub and the pond. 28 degrees today, but with the watering and Pat set up the fan in the back, it is quite nice. Have to turn on the oven to make meatloaf, though.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Cut back the iceberg rose, pulled out some morning glory along the driveway. Watered around the front a bit and watered the deck plants. Got a couple of critiques done on Megashot. Last nite I worked on my web page and got the Travel to Sask this year done up on the list. Have added another album to my town.. my walk called The trail.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Yesterday we went to Genoa Bay for lunch. Was a lovely drive and a very good lunch. On the way home we were stopped on the Malahat for an hour, due to an accident further up the road. Got home about 4:30. Also yesterday I got some more work on this Annual Garden Changes page that I am making up for my old web page. I added K.D. Lang's Hallelujeh for music to it and got it to work. Yeaaaaaaaa! Got a bunch of chores done on Megashot. On a critique on that Vosk twit I had put a link to the snow photos on my blog. She went from my blog to my web page. She is from the city of Nivelles, area of Brabant, in Belgium.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
fed and watered house plants. Watered under deck, on patio and in the back a very little bit. Filled the water tubs. Am getting some stuff done on my newest page of mmmee.com. Got some chores caught up on megashot last nite.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Was cooler today. I was out in the afternoon and got quite a bit of stuff cleaned up. Cut back the grape and the fig. Scooped up a lot of the dry leaves from the arbutus and put them on the woodland trail. Mowed the back lawn. Cleaned up some of the moss garden, taking out ferns. Cleaned up the spent blossoms on the rhodos. Took down the blackberry branch that was going over the garage. Had to stand on the green plastic chair to reach it. Also took off a couple of branches of the pin oak that are going into the Japanese cedar. Axed and pulled down two sumachs that are too close to the Japanese cedar. Have to cut them up yet.
Finished reading the Ugly Americans..about the stock market American traders in Japan. .. hedge funds. Am reading the Wasteland Chronicles on my ipad.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Watered at the back, skimmed off some of the duck weed off the pond, watered under the deck. Cut off branches of the sumachs, did a bit of weeding and planning. Yesterday I walked home from my lab at Royal Oak, so got nothing done. Saturday and Sunday I was working on my Changes in the Garden pages for my web page. They are coming along ok. Tonite we take Rachael and Pershon out to dinner at the beach house. Giving her a cheque for $100. for looking after the place tonite, too.
Friday, July 25, 2014
The garden is looking not too bad. Watered at the back and under the deck today, after lunch. We had bits of rain yesterday and the day before. I walked from Dr. Cuthbert to Chatham street and got into the car in plenty of of time on thursday. Had a look around The Hudson market... some stuff... not too grand. So, after lunch today, I watered the deck plants and then hosed off the table and deck. The Pees had their roof power washed and there was grit all over the place. The back garden is ok. Watered all the front from about 2 to 9 pm. Dead headed stuff at the front. I looks pretty good. Every thing seems to be finished blooming. The black eyed susans and the thread leaf coreopsis are in bloom. The Yucca is just finishing up. I need to cut back the bamboo. It has some small black canes I will use somewehre in my garden. I might need to get a few thyme plants for the circle. Raked the bamboo leaves off it. Not a big task. Dead heading the french lavender was the biggest chore. Tomorrow I should mow the grass at the front and then start weeding the veggie/cutting garden and edging the back grass. The lily of the Nile look pretty good. The plum and the apple trees are loaded. The grape and the fig have some fruit.
Finished reading the Wasteland Chronicles. Am reading Obama's Stories of his Father...a good writer. I might have to get another Gynne Dyer book. I ordered The Gladiator.. and had to read about Marcus Aruelies ... Emporer of Rome, about 160 to 180. Not doing much on Megashot. BUT getting the Changes pages done up for my web page. When I am finished one and two, I will be able to do albums for the years ... maybe from 2009... right now I am thinking 2011, but there was a lot of changes in 2009 and 2010. .... paths and stuff. ... will see.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
On Monday we went to Port Renfrew with a stop at Jordan River for cold chicken lunch. Foggy and cooler than in town. On to Port Renfrew where we found a spot right beside the Juan De Fuca River for $30 a night. with two showers that opened at 9:00 wifi only by the registration place. Not up to much, anyway. We have a special spam and maple beans dinner.. dishes and go for a walk on the beach. Just up from our campsite the river joins the ocean or inlet . The tide is in. Low tide for our walk to Botanical Beach will be at 9:00. We get up about 7:00 have bird baths in the dodge lodge, breakfast, and then drive to the parking lot for the Botanical beach. It is 4.5 km from Port Renfrew along a twisty narrow road. We hike down to the beach ... 1.5 km through the rain forest. Awesome! Must take me an hour. Not many people down there yet. We spend about half hour and head back up again... lots of people coming down now. It was foggy. We saw a heron and an otter as well as the tidal pools. We get back to the van and go into Pt Renfrew and have lunch on the deck of the hotel, and watch the tide come in. Nice seafood chowder for both of us. Then back to town, along the twisty road, with a few one way bridges. This road is nicely paved and not too much traffic. We get home about 3:30 and unpack the van. Tis much warmer in town than it was on the deck at Pt. Renfrew. Am tired and have a nap in the afternoon... get to bed by 8:30 and asleep by 9:00.
Today I didn't do much... downloaded photos, drug store shopped. The plums are ready to do... maybe tomorrow I will start them.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Watered most of the front with the little blue sprinkler set here and there. Watered at the back .. not the woodland or the driveway strip Have 2.5 jars of yellow plum juice done up. added a bit of lime juice and sugar... needs more sugar if adding lime. Left them in the hot water for a few hours and hope they are sealed. I intend to keep them in the cupboard.
August 2014
Friday, August 01, 2014
Have picked enough plums to give me 4 lbs of the pitted, cleaned ones. This cooked down to 4 jars of plum sauce. It tastes good. It will make a good dipping sause for fried chicken or shrimp. I should learn to make a tempura and try it with deep fried shrimp or chicken bits. Could add ginger to the sauce. I am keeping them in hot water for a few hours and hope they seal so I can keep them in the cupboard.
I cleaned up the leaves and twigs from when I removed the two sumachs. I have a bag of twigs in the garage and I am using the trees alongside of the woodland path. Small twigs and leaves are on the path. I have the water spraying out over the woodland and it is doing a fine job. It has been on for an hour and there is no water running out the garage eaves.. the beans are getting nicely watered and even the rhodo is getting some water. The rhodo and the butterfly bush were both drooping.
Today it was up to 26 degrees but it is cool in my kitchen. Watered the house plants today. Did megashot stuff this morning and will do more tonite, to finish the awards in contests, I hope.
The weirdest thing happened. Pat got a message from my google chat .. asking if I wanted to chat, on his nexus tablet. just happened to be in the house at the time, but no where near my computer, phone or ipad. Nothing seems amiss on my gmail. I should probably change my password.
When we got back from Port Renfrew, and when I got on my computer to check my shaw mail, it asked me for my password. Never did that before, either. Wonder if I picked up a hacker from out there. I just added Jim Boggs to my google+ friends but that should make no difference, as he is on my facebook and email.
Wednesday, August 06, 2014
There seems to be a billion passwords hacked by some Russians. No doubt I should change my passwords. blah.
Saturday Kelly, Angela, Jason and Alyssa were to viisit and stayed for salad, pizza and plums and ice cream for supper. They were camping at Goldstream and go on to Parksville and somewhere else before heading home.
On Monday we went downtown and rode the Hippo Bus and then had lunch at the Steamship restuarant. Was fun.
Tuesday worked some more on my Changes gardening page for my web page. The weather has been warm... well hot even.
Today we walked to the lottery ticket store and then had lunch of a 12 inch lobster sub, shared. Was real lobster .. and was ok. Cherries and Jack's were both closed for a holiday and both back on Friday. Well! After lunch I picked about 4 lbs of cleaned pitted plums to make up 4 more jars. So about a lb of fruit goes into one of the jars. I put ginger and 2/3 cup of sugar in it today. Read some more Obama book.
Thursday, August 07, 2014
cleaned up the house plants and watered them. Watered around the back and patio and deck. Warm sunny day.
Friday, August 08, 2014
Was out from about 10 to 12 cleaning up the strip between the driveways, and shawna's driveway. It has been so very dry. We are having a drought on the Island, but our water reserve is at 85% they say. The green bin just emptied this morning and I have it filled up again with another load waiting to go in. Darlene Halyako stopped by with simon the dog on her way to visit a friend, yvonne. She took some lupine seeds. I was very dirty and stinking. She keeps herself very nice and trim. She is very very suntanned from their bike trip to the Osoyoos area for a week. I washed off the lawn mover.. Also mowed the front grass, so it looks ok. The plums are starting to turn... Mrs. Pee is keeping a close eye on them.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Saturday we were to the HCP with the Model T for the Music and Arts in the Garden. Hot day. Were there from 11 to about 3:30 . . lunch was awful... kale crap
Sunday we were to Gwen Page's place with the bentley for an island's people RROC BDC picnic. Lunch from Thrifty's salad and chicken. Had iced tea, yogurt from home. Was another hot day but we did not spend as much time there.
Today was really hot. probably 30. Shopped and went to Cannors and got some winter lettuce mesculin. Shall plant it in the lettuce trough ... maybe tomorrow and keep it watered and in the shade. Man this weather is really getting to me.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
We had about a half an inch of rain overnite, and light rain or heavy mist today. At last! We had about 17 or 18 degrees temps. I got the ironing done and transplanted the spicy mesculun into the trough where the lettuce was. This should add a bit of zip to our salads. Finally decided on the music I am adding to my changes pages. Yesterday I was in the house and playing my tunes list all day. The little rockery seems to be growing pinks from seed. No wonder -- I let the ones beside it go to seed. I should dig them out for the rock and alpines plant sale.
Friday, August 15, 2014
Yesterday we went down to the Imax and watched the Lemurs of Madagascar and then to lunch at the James Bay Tearoom. Drove around a bit in James Bay. Lots of older apartments. We had our first FIG of the year for supper last night. Tonite we go to Art and Marlene's for supper. Laura is out to visit.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
I have finished Page one of the changes in the garden and am getting more stuff done on page 2... I can always add stuff if I miss anything, too. Watched a football game and there is one tomorrow too. There is a "Frost" 2 hour tv show starting at 8:00 tonite. Was a cooler day. and a bit humid... not really any rain.
Monday, August 18, 2014
watered and fed house and deck plants saturday or sunday. Watched two Murdocks and the news last nite.
Warm day with some cloud. Picked another FIG and a handful of purple runner beans, half a dozen plums. The plums are about finished. Very very ripened.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Another FIG today, a handful of purple beans and a dozen plums. Bean, plums for supper. yesterday's fig for lunch. Was a warmish day, again. Pat was out and repaired the eaves on the old garage. He took a branch or two off the arbutus (strawberry) tree and cut them up for the green bin or the fireplace.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
did a bit of deadheading at the front. We have a few plums on the front tree, Brought 2 in to see if they ripen in the house. I think they do. Our yellow plum tree is still loaded and we are eating them for supper with icecream. Was another nice day out, but I was not out for very long. I have been up late doing computer stuff lately, and then doing other stuff with Pat. Shopping today. We have only one soup left in our stash, so need to start making soups again, soon. Today I picked a tomato and some plums for our supper.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Made green bean soup with 2 to freeze. Filled the hummingbird feeder. Another nice day, but did no gardening. Went to the Greek Festival and just ate. Did not stay for any dancing. The music was horribly loud... Polish songs/band/singers.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Made a half a tongue for supper. It smells good so far. Was out in the garden from 2:30 tp 4:30. Swept off the patio area. Cliped up the twigs and leaves from the arbutus branches and put them down on the woodland trail behind the garage. Have about 8 feet ready to be covered with cedar tree leaves. The cedars turn a nice orange-ish brown for the top covering of the woodland path. I have the two limbs from the Sumachs to re do the top path edging. I want to get more arbutus leaves to line the rest of the top of the path. These leaves do not compost fast so they will make a good layer to drain the water off, hopefully. We have the biggest and 5th FIG to eat for supper tonight. Watered at the back for a couple of hours.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Another very nice day. Made cole slaw. Used dill seed from the deck dill. The dill in the butterfly garden germinated but died when small. Made Green Bean Soup have 2 frozen. Made up chicken stock from our chicken dinner and vegetable peelings. Saved in large jars. 4, 5 and 2.5 cups. Watched the Sask Riders and BC Lions football game.
Monday, August 25, 2014
A nice day again. We still need rain. This morning made soup with left over vegetables and some of the yesterdays chicken stock. pureed it... was pretty good. Then, after lunch and shopping made up double batch of Irish Yellow Broth, using two of the big jars of chicken stock (still have the 5 cups one frozen) . Made 4 blue packages and froze 3 of them. Watched Murdock and some of the National News. Did the IQ test and scored 130. woo hoo! Mensa is usually 131 and above as required score on their tests. Earthquake at Napa, California at 3:00 am... not sure what size, but damage and injuries, maybe 2 or 3 deaths. We had a garden tomato and 6 plums for supper.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Made 7 packages of Mulligatawny and one for lunch tomorrow. It was a double batch. Shopped for more soup stuff. Making fish stock from the salmon bones. Salmon stock, it says, is too strong for seafood chowders. Well! who knew! The salmon recipe I am looking at uses chicken stock. So, made 9 cups of salmon stock. Shall use 4 of them for the salmon chowder I will be making on Thursday. Picked a few more plums for supper., The temps got to be 27 today! This should bring on more figs.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Made 12 packages of minestrone soup with 11 frozen. Picked 2 dozen purple plums. I see there have been quite a few disappeared. The higher ones are left. I picked off what I could reach and have 24 in egg cartons to ripen. The two I picked when they were quite hard about 2 weeks ago, have ripened in the house, so I expect that the ones I have picked will ripen in the house soon. Must get Pat out on the ladder to get any that are left, higher up. It is another hot day. Watered the house and deck plants. and patio plants. and around the back a bit. Pat picked more purple plums and we brought in 8 lbs of plums. Its about 11 or 12 dozen. There are still a few high ones on the tree, but not to worry about them.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Made 4 packages of coconut curry salmon chowder. Vacuumed entry way and stairs. Did laundry. Have the 5th Fig in the house for tonite's desert. Pat is out cutting off branches... who knows where. It is another warm day today.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Yesterday I made 9 packages of Fran's Seafood chowder and 3 pkgs of chicken soup. Used up the fish stock and some duck stock for the chicken soup. So, now have 39 pkgs of soup on hand. The freezer is getting full and I still have some stocks left in there. I also ran the sprinkler at the front, after cleaning bamboo leaves off the thyme circle.
Today was a cooler day and bits of rain, but no where near anything measureable. Was on the computer all day and never really got anything done. Doing congrats for winners on Megashot, for no real return on that either. Spent some time looking at everyone on Facebook. TV at night. We had the Sixth FIG for supper this evening.
Monday, September 01, 2014
Made 4 pkgs of Classic Pea with Ham soup. Made homemade spaetzle and froze 2 supper servings for us in plastic bags. The freezer is getting full but I should have room for the 18 bean soup that I am making tomorrow. I have 43 pkgs now. Vaccuumed the dining room and the living room and finished the stairs. Was getting low on battery, so left it
It is a cooler day again.
Tuesday, September 02, 2014
Made 6 pkgs of 18 bean soup. Now have 49. The freezer is getting too full. In the afternoon we had a down pour and thunder and lightning. At 7:00 we have had 3/4 inch of rain. At LAST!
Wednesday, September 03, 2014
To Cannor spent $116. after using up my $20 coupon and my 10% discounts. Got 2 bags manure, 2 of potting soil, 6 square plastic rocks at $6.69 each, 4 perennials, 4 hedging cedars, 4 little gold fish. It is a warm day again, but cooler in the evening. Came home on the bus, carrying the fish and perennials. Was very hot in my sweat shirt and jeans.
Monday, September 08, 2014
yesterday we had the 7th Fig. We have been having some really hot weather again. There is more figs out there. Now that the Island Challenge is over I can think about gardening again. Something ate the grapes off the vine. geeezzz... birds, squirrel? My cement turtle seems to have disappeared. The purple plums are ready for me to start preserving them. I think I will do them in jars and hope they seal. But I do have plastics from cottage cheese. The blue pkgs would be too big, I am thinking. I have decided on the placement of the 4 new cedars and the perennials. 2 cedars by the parmars sidewalk at the front and two at the back by the deck to help fill in the thrashed hedge at the bottom.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
yesterday I watered all around the front and did some dead heading. today was another perfect day. Was out from 9:00 to 2:00. Planted the two cedars along pees side by their garbage cans. Hopefully they will help screen the view and the stink. Cut back the roses and pruned the pink one a bit. Pruned the jagged broken limb off the purple plum tree. Used my tree pruning saw. It works really good. Its very sharp. Cleaned out the back corner of the old garage where there were some stumps and the rats nest. Put the stumps under the deck to be used when I move the rhodo and add more dirt beside the pond path. transplanted the calcelaria (yellow pouch flower) into the little rockery at the front. Planted the 2 balloon flowers into the smoke bush bed. Took out 4 bamboo tall stems - 2 of them are black, and put some of the leaves on the woodland path. These bamboo leaves do not seem to break down very fast. I think I will start adding them to the woodland path. The twigs and stuff I added from the year I cleaned up the Virginia Creeper and the St. John's wort have mostly decomposed. Used up one 20 litre bag of top soil around the little rockery and the inner garden, including the thyme bed. The thyme is growing back in again, from where the bamboo runners were. Watered in the transplants and watered lightly all around the front. Brought in 6 more plums that were on the ground. The pussy toes and the pink lychnis are spreading nicely. So are the black eyed susans.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Yesterday was another nice day. Did not get much done outside. Had sore muscles.
Today is nice out again. I have made seven 500 ml jars (used up the available jars) plus a saved jar that I will freeze of preserved purple plums. So, the equivalent of 8 pints of fruit and syrup. I used 8 1/2 dozen plums from the original 8 lbs of plums we picked. I used about 3/4 cup of water and less than 1/4 cup of sugar per each jar for the syrup. Boil the syrup, add the pitted plums and bring them just to a boil for about 5 minutes. Pour into the sterilized, hot jars and seal. Heat the finished Jars in hot water for about 20 minutes. Have a jar of syrup/juice left over.. so I should use less water... can always add more water. I have the 8th fig picked.
I am finished page 1 of Changes for the Gardening page of my web page. Have 2 to do, and then will be doing up albums starting in 2008. Have to do the 1997 album which will include everything from the beginning to 2008. I should try and do it up year by year, and each garden area within each year, on this album.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Was a beautiful day. No rain, though, and we are still in a drought. Watered the house, deck, patio plants. Then watered under the deck, filled the water gardens, watered the primulas, rhodos, fig tree and along the old sidewalk, watered the Japanese garden area and swept some of the leaves and debris off the moss. I am planning to make the stepping stones path into the water garden into just moss, and the path will be the other side of the plum tree on the cement blocks. We only need one path, after all. Am going to take out the nice little boxwood and the ratty rhodo. Will put a stump where the boxwood is and just need the fluffy low evergreen.. the boxwood is too much. Want to move the empty cedar trough up to where the rhodo was, and dig it in a bit, then add more dirt, maybe from under the deck, claysoil. I will have a few rocks to move to cover this area and a few cement blocks. Then I will be able to set a rustic bench or a comfy chair in this area, overlooking the pond. The plastic white chair needs to be replaced, as the back is broken... maybe another green one, under the deck. Might use the plastic stones in this new sitting area... not sure yet. We talked of taking down the big branch of the plum tree that goes over the pond. Should be doable. This will open up the pond to more light and I might be able to keep a water lily, again. I need to fix the cement blocks by the yew hedge to a more level setting, so I can walk on it without clinging to the yew trees. I hope to keep the primulas by the edge of the dry stream, so I will be adding the new rocks to be behind them and build up the stream edge a bit with bigger rocks or with a branch. There is one across Loenhold Rd that someone has discarded, that would work, except it is a straight line... I might want a more curved appearance for the dry 'stream'. Some of the moss is absolutely thick, so hoping the rest of it will fill in more. I want to plant the indoor cyclamen in the big pink pot and see if it survives... the primula that is in a pot on the deck will go there, too. Now, I should like to get more hepaticas. The epimedium is doing great under the Harry Lauders Walking stick (coryolus avellana contorta - corkscrew hazel, filbert ) The hellebores are crowding out the hosta. I think I will leave the hosta and move the hellebores under the deck... am getting tired of them, anyway. Must clean up under the rhodos. The ferns are spreading nicely under the deck. I could move the hepatica from the woodland back to the moss where it likes it, once I get the new area established at the pond side. I think I should move the cedar box with the indigineous saxifragia off the garden path and behind the waterfall. This would work, cause the rocks seem to have gone missing from the back of the waterfall.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Warm day, 27 degrees. I have started to remake the path around the pond. I will make the one that goes through the Japanese/moss side of the tree into just stepping stone through the moss. the other side of the plum tree is the cement blocks. I have finished it to the corner where the boxwood is. I am going to take out that boxwood and move the lantern further towards the deck as that corner is really crowded. The cement blocks are closer to the tree and about two inches lower. I will be digging out some of the the dirt from under the rock necklace to lower the edges too. Then I need to fix the blocks along the yew hedge as they dip too low towards the pond. So those stones will need to be fixed and lowered a bit too. I have liberated two square cement blocks and one rectangle one. When I take out the rhodo I am going to cover the violets with cardboard and dirt. I will have to get some from under the deck and contour the edges of the path under there.
Was out to get the model T with Pat. He backed up and got right on the hitch... no yelling needed. This was great! I was out in the garden after we got back with the trailer. We leave for the Can Am at McMinnville on Wednesday early morning. I will have to finish the pond edges when we get back about the 24 --25th. Getting the laundry done too.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Did more digging in the Japanese garden area. Removed the little boxwood as it was too close to the fluffy little cedar. Am moving the Japanese garden path closer to the tree and making it into just stepping stones through the moss. Moved the lantern further back to the curve in the dry stream. The cement block path is now lower and I have a few extra cement blocks and cement stones. I moved the big round rock out from under the little Japanese maple. It now sits at the head of the dry stream, but still close to the maple. I still want to remove the ratty rhodo. Its very messy looking with all the violets which I have to get rid of. I would like to get a nice bench or rustic seat of some kind to put into that area, but I will need to move more clay soil from under the deck. I thin I should remove the ratty skimmia under the deck too. Then I need to dig all the edging stones down a bit. The top of the pond seems to have eroded and the pond is not so deep as it was. I have not seen the fish for a while. I cleaned up some of the steppng stones that lead past the primulas and cleaned up a bit under the rhodos. Put a cyclamen that might be tender, out by the pink pots, put the hollyhock under the arbutus that is going to come out. Put a primular auricola into the big pink pot. (It has bulbs in it... hmmm not sure what they are). I really must get pictures of the new renovations, after we get back from this Can Am.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Got home this morning before lunch. Very tired. Put stuff away, had a duck soup for lunch, then a nap. Had Rachel up to help us eat the rest of the Chinese dinner warmed over and some Cherry Garcia, and wine. Was ok. Gave her plum stuff of both colors and some Tillamook cheese. I updated my ipad to ios 8. Ken has deleted his photos from Flickr too... Jyryk's have been gone for some time now.
The waterfall on the pond was not working when we got home. I pushed in the red restore button and it is running again. Everything looks really dry. We might get rain tomorrow, by the looks of the sky. Tons of fruit flys in the house. ewwww... Rachael said to put apple vinegar in a jar, cover it with saran and poke holes in the saran. they get in the jar and can't get out. Hope my holes are not too big.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
The apple cider trap for the fruit flies is getting quite a collection of them in there. We have rain today. about 1/4 inch at noon. Hope to get more. The pond pump was quite stuffed up with mud. I cleaned it and skimmed off some leaves. The water fall looks pretty good again. Picked 6 green apples and made apple sauce with sugar and cimmamon, with one little jar to freeze and another one to eat with our pork chops tonite. The humming birds are whizzing around out there. There are two of them. This morning there were cedar waxwings and robins testing the thorn bush berries. It seems the berries are not ready yet.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Was out in the afternoon, working on the paths around the pond. Its coming along nicely, I think. Moving both paths by the plum tree, closer to the tree. Transplanted the 2 cedars by the deck. Moved the little bamboo closer to the big one that is by the cedars along the deck. I took out the scraggly rhodo by the deck and hope to build that spot up more. Maybe put a bench on it.... But it needs more dirt.
Friday, September 26, 2014
yesterday I finished moving the path blocks along the deck side of the pond and began making the spot where I took out the rhodo into the sitting spot. Its a bit lower than the path. I have 3 square blocks and 1 rectangle one to use. I emptied a little more than half an inch of water out of the gauge. We had our 9th fig for dinner last nite. It rained over nite and more this morning. I just emptied the gauge again of more than half an inch. So we have had at least an inch and a quarter so far. This afternoon I had my phlobotomy with the usual peeing around trying to find my vien. The IV guy finally got in there (Steve) and did a wrist vien needle that had my blood just pouring out. Since we were there early, and I got out at 4:00 we must have been there for an hour and a half. KFC for supper. Its only 7:30 and I am ready to sleep.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Watered the house plants. It is raining lightly and 15 degrees. Made Califlower soup and saved 2 of them.
Saturday, October 04, 2014
We had an invasion of Marie and Donnie on the 1st and 2nd. On the 30th I made squash and quinoa soup and had 4 to freeze. Sometime in there I errored in clicking on a email notification from megashot that was not megashot, but some phishing crap, so I spent one totally sleepless night and finally got it sorted on the 30th.
On the 29th.. I think... my photo was photo of the day at CWF.. have it noted on megashot and facebook. It was the Lake koocanusa sunset one.
Yesterday, after our appointment downtown to see Jeffery Jacobsen at RBC (Chelsea) and a trip to the Bay for my Oscar de la renta and lunch I got some work done out in the garden. I cut off a few branches in the woodland, deadheaded a few perennials, and mowed the front lawn. Then I did a little more work on the pond path. Weather was superb for Fall gardening. Today I was at Cannor by 10:00 for the pond design demonstration. I was the only one interested, it seemed, so there was no demonstration. I bought some bulbs, and am having 2 bags of pea gravel, and 3 of sea soil .. on sale at 3 for $18.00, delivered, probably on Tuesday ... came to $75.00 despite the sale and my discount.
Sunday, October 05, 2014
We have the 10th fig for supper tonite. Was 21 degrees today. Sunny. I got a few things done in the garden from about 3 to 5. Cleaned up the wisteria and rolled up the screen. Cannor delivered the dirt and Pat helped move the pea gravel to the back garden. The sea soil is in the old garage. I cleaned up the eucalyptus a bit. I have finished settling the cement blocks by the pond, used clay from under the deck and broken cement pieces to bring them higher up. Now I need to dig the edges lower. I will prune the shrubs in the spring.
Megashot was hacked and Cyrus is getting it transferred to new serves. I got the Can Am for 2014 note done and loaded to my web page with a link to the Model T forum for pictures.
Monday, October 06, 2014
Was a lovely day again. There are a couple more figs ripening. I was out in the afternoon and got more stuff done on the pond renovation. The new cement blocks are firmly levelled and might hold a 26 inch bench, if I want to add one. I am thinking of making the black stepping stones lead down from the cement blacks under the deck and to the sitting place down there. I moved the lantern again. Moved a pot of liatris down to the back woodland area. Am thinking of moving one of the willows into the moss garden... but not sure yet. I started to lower the edging stones and have done from the boxwood over to the Lebanon cedar. I have a double row of stones and more clay in front of them. I want to establish moss on the rocks and clay. Will need to keep the weeds and blue eyed grass out of the area.
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
yesterday was docter stuff, out to lunch and some other shopping. Today was another lovely day. I spent a bit of time trying to find the names of my willows. Then was out from 3 to about 4:30. I transplanted one of the willows ... the one with the big pussy willows and the cinnamon colored bark to the end of the path by the yew hedge. Hopefully the roots will extend into the water. I have stretched one or two roots out to the water and there is a a rock over top of them. While making the hole for this willow I dug out 4 more cement rocks. I also dug out the blue eyed grass and anything else I found out of the area between the cement block path and the pond edge. Trimmmed up the little Lebanon cedar a bit. I shovelled out the campanulas and am ready to continue lowering the rocks at the deck side of the pond. I will only go up to the big rock where the wulfenia is growing. That stuff should look good next year, I hope. I must keep the weedy things out. I am trying to encourage the moss to grow in all of the area. once I have it finished, I will try to transfer some of the cement moss from the back step over to the cement and the rocks surrounding the pond. Or the moss that grows on the clay might work too.
We had our 11th fig for supper tonite, and there is another out there that might ripen.
Megashot was hacked and I have managed to leave it alone the past few days and get my own stuff done. Apparently they moved to new servers. Have a lot of catching up to do on the notifications stuff... blah, and a bit on the meet and greet.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Yesterday we shopped at Lee Valley, went for lunch at Dad's .. just up the hill from Lee Valley, did some grocery shopping. Took the afternoon off.
Today, I made the mistake of up grading my ipad to ios 8.0.2. Craps. I fretted about it all morning and half of the afternoon. Finally just went out to garden at 1:30. Was in by 4:15. I finished the paths and the pond edging. Transplanted the little campanula into the bed between the pond edging rocks and the cement path. I hope to get moss started on the rocks, especially on the side of the plum tree. I was rather amazed at how well the rocks fitted together allowing space for clay to hold them in place but not fall into the pond. This should let the campanula and the saxifragia climb over the rocks. I topped the clay with a bit of top soil and hope the campanula likes this. Over all I put a thin bit of pea gravel. I need to move the lantern over a bit. Might have to dig out the plant... or get a new one. ... forget the name of them. but they are a good shade plant with plume flowers. Subtle and delicate. Look good with the cement blocks and stone. The cement blocks are a good place for sitting, if I add a rustic seat of some kind, or a good place to display a special plant. I am thinking of bonsai-ing the pendula willow I have on the deck. Adding the two willows I have on the deck to this space. The third willow is planted by the path with its roots in the pond, hopefully. The harry lauders walking stick needs pruning. Not sure how to prune the spruce, but it is getting too fat. I will keep the juniper thing, and prune it a bit There was some dog or animal shit by the waterfall. I threw it over the pees way. Not sure where it landed. digusting. I see no evidence of an animal knocking over stones or anything. Well, two legged animals abound in my neighborhood. Next I need to clean the leaves and weeds off the moss and encouage it to grow everywhere, in the water/japanese/under the deck area. I watered around the newly done area, watered under the deck and the 2 new hedging cedars, skimmed a bit of the leaves off the pond. The pond looks much bigger with the irises cut back. The water hawthorn has a bloom. I think I want to get some lights for around the pond. The ones I have now are really very cool. I will try the deck one down by the pond and see how I like it. I might want taller ones... maybe about 3 of them.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Have had a week of rainy cooler weather. The colors are changing on the creeper, sumachs, etc. I am finished the pond edges and will be trying to keep the moss clean of leaves. There wasn't much rain in the gauge to empty, considering the rainy days. I know I did empty it a couple of times when it was almost half an inch. Today we had our 13th fig was very good!
Megashot 2 is coming along nicely. Lots of new stuff. I am up to date on the chores, notifications and greetings, I think.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Yesterday we were on a VCCC monthly run around downtown, craigdarroch, point ellice bridge, etc. ending at the Ross Bay Cemtery for a half hour guided tour, then to the pub at the mall across the street for a glass of beer and visit them all for a bit. Today to the lab .. foggy, lovely morning. I shopped the mall a bit, got lottery tickets, and 2 perennials at Country Grocer, walked home took me 30 minutes. No stops. No breakfast... just water.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
There was a big wind last nite. Lots of leaves flew over the house and landed on the deck and patio. 3/4 inch of rain in the gauge .. emptied it. I swept up the leaves on the patio and put them in the bin... swept the deck stuff off the cedars end of the deck. Transplanted the primula to the bed by the curly nut tree. The gentian is in the little rockery. Picked up the apples off the ground and dumped the bad ones brought the rest into the house and have 2 blue pkgs of apple sauce made up. We had some over hobnob cookie with a tspn of marsala on it. When I dug the hole for the primula, it was not wet very far down. We still need more rain, I guess. I put the black plastic rock looking stepping stones down leading from the new sitting spot in the Japanese garden ... on under the deck and over to the sitting spot by the wall of the house under the deck. Still need to add some sand under them, I think.
This morning I walked from Dr. Cuthburts office to Chatham street. Was there early, so had a look around work wear store. nothing I need. We then went to the new uptown mall and got Halloween candy, some vitalux and deodorent for me. Could not find the plain solar lights I want.. there are halloween ones, christmas ones, but no plain ones.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
yesterday I brought in a bag of apples. Put out the new little solar lights . They are super bright! look good in the Japanese garden area. Getting more rain.
Today I put 20 good apples wrapped in newspaper (after a wash with 1/4 cup of bleach added to sink 1/2 full of water) into the blue bin in the garage, and am processing 30 to applesauce. I microwave about 10 - 15 of them at a time, after peeling, core and bumps removed, in the microwave for about 12 or 15 minutes. Add cinnamon, water and bit of sugar, maybe butter, maybe dash of brandy and process in the food blender and freeze in the blue pkgs. have made 4 pkgs of apple sauce from the 30 culls. And 2 frozen from before for a total of 6 applesauce so far. We are definitely going to have to find something to do with all these apples. Maybe feed the deer? Give away some of the sauce.
We are having more rain so am not going out to get more apples. Lately there has been at least 2 hummingbirds around. I have not seen any big lizards lately. They are all tiny. I wonder what has become of the big ones. Hope they have just gone into hibernation.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Picked 22 lbs of apples, put 5 lbs out in the deer pasture, have 8 lbs to make into sauce, so there has been 9 lbs go to cold storage, individually wrapped in newspaper. We had a heavy rain this morning, now the sun is out. There have been lots of birds around in mid morning, a jay on the deck, 3 hummingbirds, robins, towhees, wrens, sparrows, chickadees. Pat emptied the full rain gauge at 5:00. I made 3 1/2 cups of apple sauce and still have 6 lbs to sauce yet. I made a casserole with turnip and apple sauce. Was very good. We will have more of that!
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Rainy day yesterday. We shopped a bit and had lunch at home.
Today is rainy again. Have done up 3 pkgs of apple sauce, one to Rachel, one to the freezer and one in jars to the fridge. this used up the apples I have in the house. This took 2 hours. There was a flicker eating apples on the tree and the robins in firethorn and holly berries.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Brought in 2 more bags of apples, threw a few dozen out on the deer pasture. Have taken 3 boxes of wrapped apples down to the bin... maybe 3 - 4 dozen. Have enough apples in the culls to make about 3 more packages of apple sauce. Walked to the river and watched for fish. The Coho are suppose to be back and migrating up stream to spawn, in the Craigflower and Colquitz. Will do an exerpt from the times colonist about it for my blog, soon, I hope. There were flickers and jays in the woods by the blue bridge. There is a tall water level marker by the white bridge on loenholm road. It looks like they have cleaned out the river and are keeping an eye on it. We took Strudwicks to supper at the Ithaka Greek restuarant. Was good.
Saturday, November 01, 2014
Yesterday did laundry. The afternoon was nice, no rain but did not go out to garden. The day before I did up the apples and have saved 4 pkgs. I am having a very lazy day. We had about 35 Halloween kids. Some of the costumes were awesome. We have about 50 candies bars left. oh oh.
Friday, November 07, 2014
Was nice and sunny this afternoon. Tied up the juniper tree by the front step. It had fallen apart from the big winds we had the other nite. Cipped it back a bit. Tied up the jasmine on the back garage and anchored it to a nail on the garage. clipped it back a bit too. Clipped back the michaelmas daisies at the back and a few at the front. Picked a couple of bags of apples and washed them. Giving them to Pam. Her and Mike are going to be over tonite, bringing Chinese, taking Rachael to her soccer game and then going home. Not sure how Rach will get home from soccer. Also skimmed off the pond and cleaned a bit of the leaves off the moss. There are still leaves on the trees.. lots on the front tree...and quite a few apples still out there too.
Saturday, November 08, 2014
Sunny day. Was out in the afternoon when it had clouded over. Raked leaves off the plants and bushes at the front. Put them in a windrow on the grass. Ran the mower over them. Both the mower and I ran out of steam before we finished the boulevard grass. Can't mow the croscus field as the crocus and grape hyacinths have leaves already. At this rate I may have crocuses in December. Still lots of leaves on the Oak trees and the front tree. Most of the plum trees leaves are off. Quickly swept off the moss with the kneeling pad and hands. Put the leaves on the dry stream to be picked up later. Moss is looking pretty good. I put cardboard down in the woodland to cover the bluebell things. Putting mulched leaves on top of that. Hope this slows the bluebells down a bit. Didn't get the two old mossy boards from the woodland moved under the deck yet. Got in at 4:45, turned the oven on has chicken, baking potato, carrots in there to get done for our supper. Brought in a sprig of fennel to dress up our coleslaw... must get that stuff eaten up. Its beginning to taste like sauer kraut. There is still about 1/4 of the apples on the tree.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Fed and watered house plants today. Pixie and psyche are finished blooming. Have 2 or 3 more phalenopsis sending up shoots to bloom. It is cooler. There is a thin layer of ice on the water table, the bird bath and the tub. I made up some vegetable whip with 2 pkgs for the freezer.
On Monday, we had schnitzle and had Rachael up to help us eat it. She made the most delicious cookies from oatmeal chocolate chips, apple sauce. In the afternoon I was out till about 4:30 and raked up more leaves. took down the bean trellis, cleaned up the iris in the back tub and the tall bearded iris, a bit. Cut back the fig tree a bit. The moss is covered with leaves again. I moved the two mossy boards from the woodland under the deck to add to the moss garden.
Ernie passed away on Monday. His funeral is on Friday at Melfort. We are not going... its too cold.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Planted the bulbs... all at the back... only the dutch iris by the pond, the rest - tulips, anemones, hycinths, double snowdrops all in the fig tree bed. Raked leaves off the plants at the front and ran over them with the mower. Put a mower bag full of mulched leaves on the back of the woodland. Its cooler out, but sunny. Maybe tomorrow I can get the pond skimmed off and the moss cleaned. Put 3/4 of the 5kg of bonemeal on the bulbs back and front.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
It has been sunny but cool for the past few days. There has been ice on the water table, the tub and the birdbath. The hummingbird feeder thaws out in the afternoon. So, today I finally got out, it was a bit warmer. I cleaned up under the fig tree along the primulas to the pink pots. Cleaned under the steps, removing ferns and all other brown vegetation. Then cleaned the moss along the dry stream to the edge of the deck. Cleaned up the evergreen tree by the deck... cedar? It is looking quite Japanese. Then dusted and shook off the little blue spruce. Pruned back the Harry Lauder walking stick. Then tried to clean up all the leaves and needles off the moss up to the entry to the Japanese garden area. As it was getting dark by this time, I will need to review what is done, tomorrow in daylight. The moss is looking really quite good. Moved the lantern a bit... might have to level it again. Have moved some stones around and will check them tomorrow for harmonious positions too. Then I should get some pictures.
Pat lined the edges of the steps with the gripping strips. The steps should be much safer to use when it rains, now. We had a duck feast last night.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Was out from 1:00 to 5:00 It was 10 degrees and a bit of sun. Cleaned up the moss on both sides of the Japanese garden. Clipping back and cleaning the trees. Put down new pea gravel on the dry stream. Cut back the pond plants and cleaned up the Parmar's side of the pond. I have the yews side to clean up yet. It should be nice out again tomorrow, so hope to get the pond finished. Thinking of putting a cardboard down on the pee's side cause there are too many violets and bluebells growing there. I want to get the pendula willow out there. If I put it into a tall black pot, maybe its roots can go over the side to get into the pond.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
didn't get out today. It rained lightly... just enough to keep me inside. I did up the apples I had on the cupboard into sauce. saved it in two of the canning jars I have. This morning as I sat by the living room window all kinds of birds came to the tree. The flicker, the jay, a couple of robins, a couple of rufous sided towhees, chickadees, sparrows, even the humming bird went zipping past the window. They were all there in just a few minutes. I never saw a bird in the tree for the rest of the day. Next time I need to take my camera. There are still quite a few leaves on the tree. I did the original of the flicker eating apples and put it into the monthly contest at CWF. I missed the Oct 31 date as the annual contest last entry day.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Watered the house plants. Was out in the afternoon for a couple of hours. Raked leaves off the back grass and off the grass and little plants at the front. Put 5 wheel barrows full of leaves ... some to the woodland, where I had put down another cardboard, and the rest on the path, and one bag of mulched leaves also to the back over the cardboard. Was 12 degrees, calm and mostly sun. Lovely day.
Friday, November 28, 2014
We had record high temperatures of 17 °(use Alt 0176) yesterday, but it was lightly raining and we were to the Union Club for lunch and that talk set up by RBC Jeff Jacobson, Chelsey. And then to museum to get annual pass for next year.
Today I was out from 1:12 to 4:12 - 3 hours. I got the back raked, and cleaned off the moss. Put the leaves in the green bin. Washed off the patio and boxes and bins. Put the Orange trees in the garage cause we are to get freezing temps tomorrow and maybe even snow. Raked the leaves off everything in the front, put some around behind the hedges, and ran over the rest with the lawn mower... put 2 bags of mulch on the back woodland. Was 10° quite warm with my 2 sweaters on. There are still some leaves on the front tree, the english oak, the curly nut tree still has leaves, too. The house cyclamen is still showing its pink bloom. Got my Hadfield photography book today. Sure is different view! Last nite Cyrus said we are going to have V2 on mega in just a few days. I have been viewing some of the pages lately. Its going to be quite different, but not entirely different. There will be portfolios for artists and photographers, and then the companies, and models. Hmmmmm... hope that brings in more clients.
Monday, December 01, 2014
washed plants and trays, and watered them. There is still snow on the ground.
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
Made Spatzle, have the sauer brauten marinating. Getting laundry done.
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
The Sauer brauten was very rich. I probably won't make it again for a while. The spatzle was fine. Fry it in butter until it is golden brown. Made meringes out of the 4 egg whites that were left over from the Mousaka. Mousaka delicious ... need a bigger bowl for the meringes to be made in... and do not make the syrup.. use less sugar too.
We have had some wind and rain and much warmer weather. Most of the leaves are off the front tree. Still some on the English oak. I dragged the orange trees out of the garage as it is 15 degreees today. Raked up the leaves and ran the mower over them. Had a full bag of leaf mulch. Skimmed off the pond and moved most of the leaves off the moss. I see the snowdrops are poking their noses up, in the moss garden. I may just dig them up and move them this year. Under the fig tree I think.
Friday, December 19, 2014
been far too busy. Dinner at Fireside Grill with Bruce and Kim on my birthday. Lunch at the Legislature bldg a couple of days ago with Marlene and Art. Pam and Mike came and got Rachaels stuff and then she moved up to the guest room for a few days. Her last day over nite was on Thursday, and then she left from work to go to Vancouver and then off on her trip to India, etc. Back to classes on the 5th, I think. The suite is empty and I have moved the orange trees in on top of a big plastic sheet. It actually is nice to have the place to ourselves again. We enjoyed having Rachael here but never really saw much of her. Busy girl.
We have been having lovely warm weather. Some wind, lots of rain. Our power never went off. The moss is coming along nicely. I have 3 paph orchids in buds. African Violets are looking good. Cyrus is working on Mega 2... keeps showing me stuff for it anyway.
The leaves from the front tree are all down. Some have blown about in the wind. Maybe next week I can get out and clean up perennials a bit. The moss is looking good.
We had dungeness crab for supper ... what a feast! Pat cooked them and cleaned them for serving. They were perfect.. bottle of wine, half a bagette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a salad. Yumm
Monday, December 22, 2014
took my Hasselblad stuff to Kerrisdale Cameras and spoke to John. He checked the list to see what all was there, then signed it and made a copy for me... this shows as my receipt for leaving it with them. I am not too hopeful about getting anything. John said that the film would be out dated and not worth anything, but he kept it. I see I still have some that I didn't give him. In their window they have a display of used cameras and lens that are on Used Victoria. Their site has quite a few used things. The shop has old darkroom material and new paper etc for digital darkroom. They do not trade camera bags, as it would not be worth their or my time to try to sell them... they go for very little if used. Said he would get back to me in a week or so. I am not very hopefull.
I am reading No Place to Hide on my ipad... Greenwald's book on Snowden. Reading Gwynne Dyer's Climate Wars in hard copy pocket book. Have a couple more of Dyer's waiting to be read. Helping Cyrus with design for V2 of Megashot. Megashot seems to have slowed down a bit recently... Alexa says so, but Alexa is nutz. Does not show Canada as being on their radar where as a few weeks ago we were doing a high per centage of the hits. Weird.
The Free Guest books is going to shut down their books and site... too much spamming and other nasty shit. So... I will rework my Guest Book page maybe into whines and complaints about the net and maybe about climate change or maybe my library... maybe all of the above. I could set up 3 columns ... one library and books, one for internet whining, and one for you tube movies to watch. Climate change and new sources of energy could be on my word press... maybe
Or I could have recipes ... maybe with the books I am not sure how much whining and complaining about the internet that word press allows.
Continue on to Journal Entries for 2015
Back to Journal Entries for 2013
Welcome to the bottom of the page
Annual Gardening pages
January - we occasionally get snow.
February - more rain, and some
bulbs up
March - first spring bulbs
blooming
April - rock plants blooming,
grass needs mowing, fruit trees blooming
May - the garden is in full
swing
June - lovely warm days of
medium temperatures and roses in bloom
July - we need to water a lot
in the summer as we do not often get rain.
August - the Fall perennials
starting to bloom and fruit is ripening
September - harvest time in the
vegetable garden and time to plant the winter garden
October - glorious fall colors
and sunsets, fruit ripening and rains begin again
November - sometimes a lovely
month with the Fall colors and warm rains
December - more rain, the garden
is mostly greens and browns, very peaceful.
Water and Japanese Gardening
- I built my pond with its 8 - 9 foot diameter
Fruit and Vegetables -
grapes, figs, pears, apples, plums, and vegtables
Garden paths and Garden art - I have
converted most of the lawn to gardens and paths
Rock and Alpines - I have a few small
alpines in various spots around the garden
Woodland garden - I am trying to
establish a few indigenous plants in this area.
Indoor gardening - orchids,
cacti, African violets
Bugs - butterflies, birds,
animals
From the Market - photos of bought
produce or flowers
At the Show - there are a number of
gardeing shows I attend annually
Mushrooms, lichens
Boquets - Creating flower arrangements for the house and for show is an
added benefit for creatativity as well as visual satisfaction.
Miscellaneous - in case I cannot
decide where something belongs
Annual Journal Notes of 2012 - This is the first page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2012 when I began to keep my garden notes on my computer. See the bottom of this first page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2013 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2013 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2014 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2014 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2015 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2015 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2016 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2016 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2017 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2017 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2018 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2018 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2019 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2019 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2020 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2020 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2021 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2021 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Annual Journal Notes 2022 - This is the page of the annual Journal Notes excerpts beginning in 2022 from my garden journal . See the bottom of this page to go to the Journal Notes for the next year.
Outline of the garden changes - This is the first page of a series of three giving a tour of the my garden.
A description of the garden rooms - This is the second page of a series of three giving a tour of the my garden, and showing the creation of the garden rooms as well as some of the renovations over the years.
Annual Garden changes photo albums The third page of the series will be annual photo albums of the changes in the garden for the year, beginning in 2009.
Annual Photo Albums
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