Flowers and Weeds

Winter / Spring Cleanup

2012-01-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

First it was the teens with machine guns, then the computer distracting me, and suddenly the window of sunshine (which probably lasted only 30 minutes) was gone. But it was still pleasant - cold, but calm - when I finally got outside this afternoon to cut more blackberry vines for my stick bugs and spiny leaf bugs. The machine guns? Oh yeah, it's not really that kind of neighbourhood. One of the teens in our neighbourhood was in the cul-de-sac, filming scenes with some of his friends. I recognized the villains' vehicle as his parents' van, and they were holding up some poor guys driving his dad's delivery truck. No actual shooting. Perhaps the scene didn't need it, or they will add that sound later. They apparently were on their lunch break, since they were gone by 1 o'clock.

Anyhow, once I did get out to clip blackberry vines, I was happy to stay out longer, to trim and clean up my front gardens. I notice there are some tulips just starting to push through the soil, which gives me hope that Spring will arrive soon. But when I suggested that to the local newspaper delivery man, he reminded me that we often have snow into March. So true, but I'm ready for Spring anyhow.

In 1 hour I easily filled the 48 gallon container which the city provides for yard waste recycling. I always think that I wish I had a larger container, or was able to borrow one of my neighbours', but then when I come back in the house, I realize it was just about the right amount of exposure and exercise for now. Besides, I have a list of a dozen items I need to get done inside the house, and I've only crossed off the first few.

Never Too Late for Spring Bulbs - Hopefully

2012-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

I am not inclined to planting annuals - or bulbs, for that matter. But I like to have some Spring surprises, and I love underplanting my fruit trees, to have some colour and life when the trees are still mostly bare (see below). This past summer, I expanded the holes around my fruit trees, so was optimistic, and bought a number of different Spring bulbs. I planted many of them before Winter set in, and suddenly it was dark every evening when I came home from work, and weekends were either too rainy or when clear, the ground was too frozen (okay, we don't really get frozen here, but still we get a layer of frozen on top, which makes it unpleasant to plant through).

Anyhow, the remaining bulbs have been sitting patiently in my pantry for a few months now, for their opportunity to be planted. They are a bit shrivelled now, and some were sprouting, but today they got their chance. Although we didn't get the deep snow that was continually forecast, the temperatures have stayed below freezing for the past week, so that the snow which was on the ground persisted. Finally yesterday it turned to rain, and lots of it, so it cleared much of the snow away. Then today it cleared up, and amazingly that coincided with my husband taking the kids skiing, and leaving me behind for the afternoon.

So I planted the remaining bulbs. Some "Quebec" tulips (see photo below courtesy of Botanus - aren't they pretty?), some mini irises, some tete-a-tete daffs, and some muscari (hyacinths). I feel a great sense of accomplishment, and relief. Now I am ready for Spring. If only Winter would hurry up and finish its course.

Girls Birthday Party and Arrival of Snow

2012-01-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

My daughter had her birthday party with 7 of her friends last night in our house. It was fun. I made her 24 rat-themed cupcakes, and they were a big hit with her friends, who also enjoyed playing with her 4 rats. There was only cupcake left this morning, which my daughter will have for lunch. She's off to a handbell festival today. (Click any photo for a better look, then ESC to return from the photo viewer.)

The parties are getting easier for me every year. I didn't need to think of ideas to keep her friends entertained. Between the rats, multiple rounds of eating, fashion shows (using hats and fishing nets and other items we didn't manage to clear away from the rec room), dancing, more dancing, .... they were very disappointed when their parents started arriving 3 hours later. My daughter has a great group of friends. She's an impressive girl too. She spent MANY hours in the week prior to the party, purchasing songs on iTunes and fighting multiple rounds of uncooperative technology, to finally get a playlist on her MP3 playing on the sound system within the house, so the girls could dance in the rec room in the basement.

She managed to also dig up her laser light for the dance party, so I tried a few photos of the girls in the dark, on a long shutter speed. I think this one turned out pretty good. My daughter is the one in the front with pink hair.

Late last night, after all the girls had gone home safely, it started to snow. We awoke to a pretty good blanket of snow in the morning, so I snapped a few photos of the back yard, from the 2nd floor balcony :

...and from the main floor deck :

The front yard, from the porch :

It looks pretty. Good thing I don't need to drive in it, at least not today.

Another Fursona

2012-01-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

My son doesn't think this is him, but his fursona is a wolf, and he is an avid soccer player.

My daughter's birthday party with her friends is tomorrow night, so we'll see if the girls will try this "fursona" out for themselves. Tonight I made some cupcakes which I'll decorate tomorrow so it will be a surprise. I hope to share some photos once they're done.

My Fursona, or rather Scalesona

2012-01-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

My daughter will turn 13 in another week, and she's at the wonderful age that she has all sorts of neat ideas to share with me. So today (instead of cleaning the house, which I was also trying, but not very successful) we were exploring how to create a fursona. She may ask her friends create them at her birthday, as a fun activity.

Fursona: A Furry Version Of Yourself

Scalesona: A Scaly Version Of Yourself

Feathersona: A Feathered Version Of Yourself

You could either pick a type of animal which you like, or associate with in personality. Or you can take the quiz to find out what type of animal you are. When she took the quiz, she turned out to be a small animal, such as a raccoon, or bunny or bat. She chose the raccoon for her fursona :

I took the quiz, and found out that I am a winged creature, such as a dragon, owl or bat. I chose the dragon, in this case as a scalesona :

I tried to personalize it as best I could - the dragon has my big belly, my green eyes, and shares my love of boots.

If you find this amusing, and take up the challenge, please let us know or send us a link to your fursona. It would be fun to compare our results.

Spiny Leaf Insect Eating Molted Skin

2011-12-24T01:54:00.000-08:00

'Twas two nights before Christmas, and rather than posting wishes for Peace on Earth and the Joy of the Season, she was posting videos of her spiny leaf insect eating her molted skin....

I was fascinated to find my spiny leaf bug this morning, hanging precariously from her molted skin. I had missed the actual molt, but soon realized that she was eating her skin (no wonder I never find any in the cage, as I do with the stick bugs). The whole process of chewing it, as she hung from it, took probably an hour. I took two video clips, which I would like to share. I promise to be more seasonal in upcoming posts.

Spiny Leaf Insects Eggs !!

2011-12-14T23:45:00.000-08:00

I had a nice surprise tonight. My oldest spiny leaf insect, who was born in April (see post), so is just shy of 8 months old, started laying eggs tonight! My son helped me spot 5 eggs, which I have removed to another container on a layer of moist paper towels, to await the long 9 months until they will hatch. Here they are in my hand (aren't they pretty?) :

By the time we looked back at the mom, she had an egg showing at the end of her tail (sorry for the blurry photo) :

My son and I waited until it dropped. Pretty exciting. I read that she could lay as many as 100 eggs.

This is pretty good timing, since it is a bittersweet time for me and my girls. A long time ago, I posted an ad that I would be willing to sell up to 2 of my 5 girls, and recently I've been contacted by a lady who is so excited to buy them that she will have a friend bring them by airplane for her. He is supposed to come this weekend to pick them up, and I've had such mixed feelings about parting with any of my girls, but I know they will be going to a good home where they will be appreciated. Now I am also glad that I will have eggs to provide hope of a new generation once my dear bugs are gone. If I have any sense, I won't keep all the eggs, and certainly not all the offspring!

Here are some recent photos of all my girls. This is #1, my big 8 month old girl (now a mom!) with the regenerating front leg. She has a wonderful weight to her, when she is held, and little spines on her belly can be felt against my skin :

This is #2, she is a bit more green than my first one :

This is # 3 :

This is # 4 :

This is # 5, who is 3 1/2 months old now :

I am thinking to keep #1, 2 & 5, and part with #3 & #4.

O Christmas Tree - How Lovely Are Your Branches

2011-11-29T22:54:00.001-08:00

We had convinced ourselves (at least I had) that we would buy an artificial tree this year. After 7 years of a near-empty living room, we had finally filled it with wonderful furniture just after Christmas last year. So I was sure we couldn't fit our usual monster tree anymore (see our trees from 2010 and 2009 and 2008), we would need a more "slim" tree. And part of me dreaded those first couple of weeks, when the tree would need water 3 times per day - like a new baby in the family.

I searched high and low, and there were very few options for trees in the 12' + height. A few posts on Craigslist, and a couple of trees in retail stores. Nothing worked out. So this weekend, we finally gave up and decided to get a real tree one more time. I'm so glad we did. This is not a great photo, but look at this beauty we found:

It is a bit shy of 12' this year, but a wonderful, strong (and very prickly!!) Grand Fir, beautifully cultured by what seemed to be a very kind and friendly Christian couple, who operate a small Christmas tree farm in a residential area of Surrey, BC (which is a shorter drive than we usually make, to get our tree). Most of their trees are more in the standard manageable size, but they had a few tall ones which they posted on Craigslist, and were only asking $32 each. What a deal, and a gorgeous tree. I think it has narrower profile than many of the previous trees we've had, which was ideal this year. With some rearranging of the furniture, we managed to fit it in the room very nicely.

So far, we only have lights on it, but this is not even December yet. It feels like we are behind in just about everything else recently, but at least we are well ahead of our usual schedule for getting a Christmas tree!

Scary Gardener and other Musings

2011-11-25T14:11:00.001-08:00

I have to admit, I am scary when I'm gardening. I find it amusing to read blog posts or advertisements for cute gardening boots, or pretty gloves. No matter how much I tell myself I will only do "light" gardening, I nearly always return to the house frightfully dirty, wet, sweaty, and with twigs in my hair. My garden gloves are all in a state of disrepair (most of them should have been thrown away long ago), wet, and dirty. All three of my garden clippers are crippled in some form or another, and I keep going with them too.

Today I decided to take advantage of my day off work, the beautiful clear skies and balmy 8 C (46 F) weather - rain/snow is forecasted for the next few days - to "tidy up" the front yard a bit. At first I started with pruning some wayward branches from my shrub, which would otherwise sag across the walkway once the snow weighs it down, and picking up leaves and twigs which were cluttering the garden or walkway. But by half hour into it, I was cutting and struggling out large branches with the pruning saw. I even started to cut a few branches which were above my head. The last couple of times I did that, I ended up throwing my neck out of alignment, and needing a chiropractor to straighten me out. After I cut two branches, I felt an odd feeling in my neck, so started praying and doing some neck exercises which could help. I seem to have come out of that okay. A bit stiff, but I think the neck is still safely in place.

Not deterred by that close call, I kept going with the pruning, and cutting out large grasses and other branches, until my large garden clippings bin was completely full. I considered asking one of the neighbours if I could keep going and fill theirs too, but by then, my attention was turned to the driveway. It was a great day for pressure washing the driveway and walkways. So I fought my hose off the hose cart, and started spraying down everything in sight. Although it is not a real pressure washer, we have one high pressure hose connection which does a pretty good job of spraying off most of the grime and certainly the sand and leaves and other debris. I've always wanted a real pressure washer, but it's probably a good thing that I don't have one, since I've heard the horror stories about people who accidentally chop into their legs or other body parts with the pressure washer. I'd be very likely to struggle with the hose, or get distracted, and do that to myself. So I stick to my hose, and dream about one day hiring someone to do some real pressure washing.

I learned a few things when building our house, such as the importance of those grooves in the sidewalk and driveway, to allow the concrete to expand and contract. So ever since then, I've been very careful to wash out those grooves a few times per year. (Fortunately for him, my husband, who was less involved in the building of the house, is unencumbered by the need for any type of house or yard maintenance, happy to leave these matters in my capable hands. On a good day, he's the first one to suggest going to the park or another nice place. What does he think I'm trying to create in our own yard?) Winter and very early spring are my favourite times, since I don't have to feel guilty about using water. At this time of year, the water reservoir is more than full. By summer - almost every summer now - there is crying about water shortage, and restrictions on its use. It seems pretty funny, in a city which probably gets more rainfall than any city in North America, and which probably pays more local taxes (or any taxes, for that matter!) than any other. Somehow, all those taxes we pay end up being squandered - I mean spent - on other activities, with not much planning on expanding the reservoirs which are now serving a population which is likely multiples of what it was when the reservoirs were built. Anyhow, this time of year, I felt quite okay spraying good clean water down the driveway, clearing it off. That allowed me to cool down a bit, since I had gotten myself a bit sweaty doing the garden cleanup.

When I'm deep into the driveway cleanup, having a solid line of dirt and moss and other gunk which I am systematically spraying down the drieway, I hear the phone ringing inside. I turn off the hose, and head toward the house. By then, my cell phone is ringing inside. I catch neither, and notice only that it is from the office. Most likely my husband. So I phone him (busy), send him an Instant Message and email, and finally a voice message, asking if he is trying to contact me. (An hour later, I hear back that yes, he was trying to call, and he answered his own question.) By then, I have taken off my gloves, which are soaked through with cold water, but can't bear to put the cold wet gloves back. So I decide to go with bare hands to finish the driveway and walkway. The water is freeeeeezing cold. Wow, I didn't know how much the cold wet gloves had helped to keep my hands warm. But I am determined to finish, despite the cold hands.

By the time I arrive back in the house more than 2 hours later, I notice the bottom of my jeans are wet, and take them off. By then I am shivering, sore, and otherwise feeling like I have been run over by a small car. If I had been successful in borrowing a yard waste bin from my neighbours, I would have felt like I had been run over by a truck, which is the state I usually find myself in after being in the garden for a few hours.

It's funny, when I am in the garden, the cold or pain or anything other sensation is only a minor distraction or amusement to me. I am so focussed on the task at hand that I lose myself quite completely. I am not in the least bit lady like. In fact, I don't feel much of a female at all, and hardly even human for that matter. I am just determined, fighting, struggling, making progress one handful at a time. I must be a pretty entertaining sight, if any neighbours were to notice me. Not to mention that my standard gardening gear consists of my Victoria's Secret tank-style bra top with lace back, and a cut-off (yes, the real thing) pair of jeans. Pretty scary sight, at my age and size, come to think of it. In the winter, I add a T-shirt on top, and wear full length jeans. But no matter what I wear, I almost always need to change, and often take a shower too, when I return. But I wouldn't change it for a moment. I love the challenging terrain (more on that in other posts) and the feeling of losing myself completely, to where I can only keep struggling away, musing about various things while I work. But not thinking of what else there is to do - my TO DO list keeps growing longer and longer, despite how many items I finish and cross off. There is no energy to spare for that. Just the musings. That's one of the things I love about gardening.

Happy late-season garden cleanup, everyone!

Cranberry Sauce Muffins

2011-10-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

I love cranberry sauce, so when I prepared the turkey dinner last weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving), I made sure I had plenty of it. But after using all the turkey leftovers, I still have more cranberry sauce than I can eat myself. So I went on a search for a recipe for muffins using the leftover cranberry sauce.

I found one called "Morning-After Cranberry Sauce Muffins", which uses 1 1/2 c leftover cranberry sauce.

I also found one for "Cranberry Muffins", which uses 1 1/2 c chopped cranberries, but many of the commenters had substituted dried cranberries or even cranberry sauce, with appropriate adjustments to other ingredients.

So I set out to make my own variant, based on these two, and am pleased with the outcome, as were the kids, who ate them as they came fresh out of the oven. The muffins are very moist, and the cranberries in the sauce provide a wonderful freshness to the taste. My only adjustment would be to the spices.

MIX TOGETHER DRY INGREDIENTS, SET ASIDE :
1 1/2 c flour
1 c quick oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg (I'd reduce to 1 tsp next time)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger (I'd skip next time)

CREAM TOGETHER :
1/2 c butter
1/2 c brown sugar

ADD, AND MIX :
2 eggs
2 c cranberry sauce (see my notes below)
1 tsp vanilla

ADD IN DRY INGREDIENTS, AND MIX WELL.

TASTE, TO ADJUST. I added 2 Tbsp sugar at this point, to make it sweeter. You could also adjust for moisture level, if too dry (add water or orange juice), or wet (add a bit more flour).

I used mini-muffin tins, which make 20 mini muffins each. I think the 20 mini muffins are roughly equivalent to 12 regular sized muffins, but I'm not certain. I ended up with 2 trays of mini muffins, and 5 regular size.

SPRAY MUFFIN TINS WITH OIL, SPOON MIXTURE TO 2/3 FULL.

BAKE AT 350 F until done. Approx 15 min for the mini muffins, 25 min for the regular size.

CRANBERRY SAUCE
My cranberry sauce was made from fresh cranberries, with my sister's variation on the basic recipe :
3 c (340 g) package of fresh cranberries
1 c orange juice (instead of water)
3/4 c sugar (instead of 1 c)
Cook on stove, boiling for about 5 - 10 min. Let cool.

I made double this recipe, and guess that we ate roughly half. I ended up with 2 cups of the sauce. So I'm guessing a single package would be about right. If not, I'd adjust the flour more or less accordingly.

Having eaten the muffins both warm (amazing!) and cool, the adjustment I would make is to reduce the nutmeg to 1 tsp, and skip the ginger powder entirely. With the natural tanginess of the cranberries, the spices seemed a bit unnecessary, and gave the muffins a somewhat artificial taste (and it doesn't help that my spices are too old - I really should dump them and refresh them all!).

Let me know if I inspire you to try this recipe or a variant on it, and please share with us what you discover!

Grape Harvest

2011-10-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

This year's grape harvest was a pretty good one. For some reason, last year's was a big disappointment. But I was pleased with the harvest this year. I asked my daughter to take a photo of me, with my basket of grapes :

These are wonderful grapes of an unknown variety, but they have seeds and are a bit too sour for easy eating. So I only reserved two clumps (for now - I may yet juice them), and promptly converted the batch into 5 jars of grape/apple juice (I added in the remaining apples from my espalier tree, the ones not already snatched by the squirrels).

I didn't take too many photos, since I already have photos & posts from 2 years ago...

... about my grape harvest then, which appears was even larger than this year's : 2009 Grape Harvest.

... about the 3 varieties of grapes : 2009 Photos of Grape Varieties

... and about my new juicer, which is like a reliable friend to me (I've made 3 different batches of juice in the past 3 weeks) : My Stainless Steel Juicer

Based on my experience these past 3 years, that the red variety of grape bears only a couple of bunches (this year, only 1 pitiful bunch smaller than my fist), which rot on the vine, I think I will cut down this vine entirely, and make room for another variety of table grape. My mother-in-law has a table grape which bore fruit for the first time this year, and if I like the flavour (I haven't tasted it yet), I will ask her for a cutting. I have a neighbour also who has wonderful sweet table grapes, who could provide a cutting.

The other variety of green grape which I do have, that is seedless and quite delicious (although a bit tart) also bears very few bunches. This year, only 3. But I will give it another chance.

My espalier apple tree bore a large abundance of apples again this year, at least the top and bottom varieties. Again, the middle row didn't bear any apples. The apple tree in the yard didn't bear any apples. Nor did the pear tree, for that matter. Disappointing. But perhaps since I pruned the apple tree back a bit, it may respond with fruit again next year.

My espalier asian pear bore wonderful fruit on all 3 rows, and if it weren't supported, I'm sure the branches would have broken under the weight of the fruit. See photos from 2009 of my espaliered apple and asian pear fruits.

My relatively new espalier european pear tree bore 2 fruits, which I believe were the red bartlett pears. The first one, I picked while still a bit firm, let it ripen inside, and enjoyed with the family. The second one I left to ripen a bit longer on the tree, but I see that the squirrels must have enjoyed that one.

PS. Oct 11 - It's funny how taste is so subjective. My mother-in-law brought me a sample of her wonderful, sweet green table grapes to try, and they tasted almost identical to mine! Hers are labelled Niagara Table grapes, and bear the description "Large bunches of tasty, green fruit used for wine, desserts and juices". So I guess I may have one of the sweeter varieties available. Likely the best I will get, for our cool wet climate on the west coast. I dream of the yellow-with-pink-blush Muscat grapes I only once ever found in a grocery store, and the tiny green (almost yellow) Champagne grapes which I found in a local produce store for the first time this year. But I'm sure neither of these would ripen here. I remember when I was a kid, my mom had grapes growing on the side of the garage, but they never ripened enough to be edible. So I guess I should be happy with mine which make great juice, and are edible for those who like a real zippy flavour. I will, however, remove the red one which is taking space and sunshine and not successful at all.

Stick Bug Jealousy

2011-10-04T23:21:00.000-07:00

In the three years which I have been keeping walking stick insects, I have not noticed any displays of emotion. In fact, they hardly seem to move - or eat, for that matter. They don't seem to seek out or mind the attention of other stick bugs. If one walks on top of another, neither one seems to pay any attention. With the exception of the adult males, who do manage to seek out and mate with the females.

Last week my daughter brought her small cage of stick bugs to display to the whole school, so the night before, I cleaned out the cage for her, and set up fresh blackberry leaves. We were a bit concerned to see a male and female joined together, since this sort of thing would raise unnecessary questions from the younger kids. As I removed the lid which they were clinging to, a second male approached from behind and climbed onto the first (successful) male's back. I figured it was just because I had disturbed them, and expected them to soon settle. Instead, I saw something I didn't expect. The second male appeared to bite the first male on the leg. The first male recoiled slightly, which confirmed to me that it was actually a bite which I had witnessed. Then he bit again.

Normally, I would have gone for my Blackberry, to be ready to record in case it happened again. But it was late at night (which always seems to be the case when I am cleaning their cages), and I wanted to get done before I got too tired. So I never did see whether the biting continued. But when I returned the lid a few minutes later, it appeared that the first male was still in position with the female, and the second male was still waiting nearby, perhaps jealously.

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

2011-10-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the family went for a drive and walked around the Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Ladner, BC. As always, there were lots of different species of birds to look at, and to amuse myself, I took a few photos.

One of my favourites is always the black-capped chickadee:

There were a noticeable number of red-winged blackbirds yesterday :

We heard the tapping of this woodpecker before we spotted him:

This looks like a song sparrow, but it was too busy eating seeds to sing for us :

The mallards were there in the usual abundance :

I was amused by the great number of shore birds. I know there were at least a few different species there, but to me they were all "sandpipers". It was amusing to us that there was such a wide expanse of shallow water, that it gave the illusion that they were all walking on the water.

Here's a closer look :

This photo appears comical to me. This little guy was stretching and flapping his wings, and looks a bit off-balance :

I kept noticing bushes with vibrant red berries along the road as we were driving, so I was glad there was one along the edge of the parking lot, so I could identify them as hawthorn berries :

Our walk in the Reifel Bird Sanctuary was peaceful (other than the kids goofing around and chasing each other). The drive was also pleasant, past many farms and a few fields of bright orange pumpkins. We were passed by a huge tractor/truck full of potatoes. I somehow wasn't expecting to see potato farmers just 1/2 hour out of Vancouver proper!

I am trying to find my snow geese photos from a previous year. That was quite a sight. It must have been some time in November, since we remember the fields with some remaining pumpkins rotting on the ground. We'll have to remember to make another trip out there soon.

Garden Glimpses - Early October 2011

2011-10-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

I have not posted many garden photos this year, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy in the garden, nor that I haven't added to my plant collection. I wish I had taken more "before" and "after" photos of the garden beside the front driveway, but I am pleased with the progress I made in cleaning it up, and the new additions, mostly from Phoenix Perennials in Richmond, BC. Here are just a few of them, which are blooming now.

This rosy beauty is Echinacea "Raspberry Truffle" :

This cheery yellow beauty is Echinacea "Now Cheesier". I love coneflowers for their bold blooms, and strong stems which usually don't need any support :

This is a Schizostylis coccinea (Pink river lily). This dramatic late-bloomer caught my attention last year at the UBC apple festival (which, by the way, is Oct 15 & 16 this year). I bought a pink one, but I think I'll go back and buy a bright red one also :

I wish I had taken more photos of the other additions. I'll try again next summer.

The back yard is not without its colourful blooms, also. Most notably are the gigantic sunflowers outside my kitchen window, which the squirrels have not raided yet (although I'm sure by now they've figured out my work schedule, so know when the opportune time will be) :

I made this yellow / purple arrangement from some of the available blooms a couple of weeks ago :

Spiny Leaf Insects Munching Leaves

2011-09-23T00:11:00.000-07:00

If you're not already tired of my photos of the spiny leaf insects, here is a video I recorded on my Blackberry this evening:

If I were clever, I would figure out how to add music to the clip, but it's too late at night for such a challenge.

Garden Treats

2011-09-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

This is a wonderful time of year, when the golden "Fall Gold" raspberries produce their second crop, with even larger and sweeter berries than the summer's crop. The espalier apples and asian pears are starting to become ripe, and even some grapes are ready to pick. Today I was able to bring in this harvest :

I washed and prepared them, and called the family to sample:

Look at the size of those raspberries :

My absence of posts this summer have not been indicative of the time spent in the garden. I have been fortunate to have spent quite a bit of time in the garden this year, although never as much as I would like. During the week I work, and even with taking Fridays off this year, I have spent most of my Fridays doing laundry, tidying and cleaning, attending to various errands and medical appointments and such. So most of my gardening has been in the evenings (while the days were longer) or weekends.

Today I spent 3 hours tackling my hillside, which is difficult terrain, and full of challenges :

This summer I started to climb the hillside to remove some blackberry vines which were shooting up from above my Gunnera (top right), very high on that hill. On my first attempt, I discovered that the wasps had a nest in the ground, and was fortunate to escape (I didn't know I could run that fast!) with only one sting. I have tried 3 times to eliminate them with wasp killer, and this last time, I finally was successful. (I probably would have left them alone if I had any other way to approach that hillside, but it is getting too difficult to come from above.) So today I climbed up, but after removing about 4 wheelbarrows full of weeds and plant material, I still hadn't climbed all the way up to remove all the blackberry vines. So that will need to be another day.

This year was the first year I planted my giant sunflowers in the small "kitchen" / herb garden outside my kitchen window. So it has been fun to watch them grow. Although all their bright cheery faces are pointed in the other direction, I only see their backs from the window.

I think I will do that again. There is good sun in that location, and I like the result.

I hope you are all enjoying your gardens, the fruits and veggies and flowers, the fall colours, the tidying up and preparing for winter. It never ends, but that is what makes gardening such a wonderful pastime.

Taking Time to Take Photos

2011-09-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

Time flies by so quickly, sometimes the only way to make it stop, for a moment, is to take some photos to remember it by. My daughter just started Grade 7 (oh my, how did that happen?), and one of her school projects is to make a poster all about her.

She has no shortage of interests and activities and topics to cover. Her pet rats, her interests in music (flute currently) and photography, her belly dancing, her toys, her faith (she will display her new parallel NIV / The Message bible which I gave her as a first day of school gift), her new ATV (wow, she has her very own one, and has already put 200 km on it). Not even mentioning her previous experiences in singing, piano, guitar, TaeKwonDo, her hamster, and math awards. (I guess you can tell, I'm very proud of her.)

First of all, she decorated her poster board, with black paint, fluorescent spray paint, and splattering of neon and glow-in-the-dark colours:

Now she will add photos of her rats, Sammy :

...Jenny :

...Bear :

...and Archie :

And some photos of her riding her new ATV the week before school started :

She will also add some photographs she made this summer which were pretty funky, giving a fresh perspective to some very ordinary objects :

When you look at that second photo, do you see the lock protruding out, or recessed in? It is a bit of an optical illusion.

Yes, time is surely flying by, ever more quickly, but for just a moment today, it stopped and allowed us to reflect on what is fun and meaningful to us.

PS. Sunday Sept 18 : It didn't seem right that we didn't get a photo of Jenny in the tissue box, so we tried again today, and got a cute photo of her in the box :

Spiny Leaf Bug Regrowing Her Leg

2011-09-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

I am still enjoying my spiny leaf insects, my oldest being now almost 5 months old. Recently she lost a front leg while molting, and I have been hoping that she will regrow it. Spiny leaf bugs, like stick bugs, have the ability to regenerate missing limbs. Pretty cool.

Anyhow, after arriving home from a one week vacation, I was very pleased to see that she is regrowing the leg. See it in the photo below, it is still much smaller than the other legs, but through successive molts, it should get longer. Way cool. You go girl!

I was also pleased to find that I now have a new hatchling too, my 5th leaf bug now. I am getting quite a collection.

For any of you who follow my blog for my garden, I apologize that I have not shared much of my garden lately. Happily, I have been able to spend quite a bit of time there, and have made significant progress re-working sections of it, but have not been taking my camera with me often enough, and often it is too dark by the time I remember. I'll try to take it with me and share photos in the upcoming weeks.

There are signs of fall already, with changes in leaf colours starting a few weeks ago. I am doing lots of clean up already. I even got my act together this year, and harvested much of my lavender. Tonight I cut down many of my globe thistle flowers, and will dry and hope to use them for a dried flower arrangement. They look like something out of a Dr. Seuss story.

Tropical Salsa 2

2011-08-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

I have been so happy with my first batch of salsa, that I decided to make another. I was fortunate that my mom accepted my invitation to come over and join me preparing it. That way, we enjoyed chatting while working, and the preparation time was greatly reduced, with four hands doing the chopping.

This time, my daughter suggested that I use more tomatoes. So I did. So it was still a tropical salsa, but not quite as sweet or fruity as the first batch. The following is my approximate recipe.

Finely chop and mix all ingredients in a large saucepan:

5 nectarines (if you blanch them in boiling water for 1 minute, the skins pull off easily)
1 mango
1 medium onions
7 jalapeno peppers, seeds removed
1 large red, 2 small yellow bell peppers
8 tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 c white vinegar
1 cap of Realemon juice

Chop 1 bunch of cilantro, but set it aside.

Clean and prepare canning jars in boiling water.

Heat the saucepan, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes, adding cilantro toward the end, and sampling for any additional ingredients you may want to add. Good time to adjust sugar or salt levels, or be inspired to add spices. This time I was both enjoying the conversation and so excited about making more salsa, that I actually forgot to sample the salsa before putting it in jars. If I had sampled, I probably would have added 1/2c to 1c of sugar, and/or a bit of salt, or more lemon juice.

Spoon salsa into the prepared (boiled) jar, leaving 1/4 inch air space at top. Seal.

Process jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

My recipe again made 7 jars, approx 500 ml or 1/2 quart each.

Over all, this second batch was more hot (maybe a medium/hot, compared to a mild/medium on the first batch). But it was also a bit bland in comparison. I think it was the pineapple in the first batch which made it more flavourful. And the colours were still pretty, but the first batch had crisper yellows and reds. I think it was the tomatoes that made the slightly more subdued or murky look. See photo - the first batch is on the left, the second on the right.

Comparing the two batches, I love them both. But if I made another, it would be based on the first batch, with no sugar, and possibly with introducing the lime zest which the original recipe suggested. In terms of heat, either one is fine, but perhaps I'd go with the jalapeno peppers, which seem to be a bit hotter than the serrano peppers. By the way, this time I used the knife to remove the seeds, and used a glove in the hand which was holding the peppers. So I didn't end up with capsicum burn like I did last time!

Stay tuned. I have a feeling this is not the end of my salsa making. Please let me know if you attempt a batch of salsa, and what you discover.

Best Jar of Fruit Salsa I've Ever Eaten

2011-07-29T14:48:00.000-07:00

...and it's one I made myself last night!!

Recently I got the idea of canning my own salsa. It may have something to do with my buying a (rather pricey) jar of "Aji" (which to me is the base for a salsa, if I added more tomatoes, and I've been adding to sandwiches and all sorts of things) at a local Farmer's Market, knowing that I could pretty easily make something like that myself.

Also, I used to be able to buy a really good peach (or mango?) salsa, but it seems to have disappeared out of the stores I shop in. I can't remember the brand, but it had a hummingbird on the lid. I still have lots of the empty jars, since they are a great size for canning.

Anyhow, I enjoy occasionally making a fresh salsa. But this time I searched online for a recipe for a salsa which I could put in jars. I found this one, which became the main inspiration for my own recipe, along with cross-checking the ingredients on my jar of "Aji" and other store bought salsas in my pantry.

I didn't measure anything precisely, since it is easy to adjust by eye & taste to your liking, so that is the approach I'd recommend also. Here goes with my version:

Finely chop & mix all ingredients in a large saucepan:

7 peaches / nectarines (if you blanch them in boiling water for 1 minute, the skins pull off easily)
1 pineapple (remove the core & skin & spiny bits)
1 mango
1 large white onion
8 serrano peppers, seeds removed (ouch, I didn't wear gloves - I will next time!)
1 red, 2 orange bell peppers
2 large tomatoes
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 c white vinegar
1 c sugar or to taste (I think I'd omit it entirely next time)
1 cap of Realemon juice
pinch salt

Chop 1 bunch of cilantro, but set it aside.

Clean and prepare canning jars in boiling water (my large pan fits 2 at a time, so I swap in the remaining jars one by one as I remove each jar to be filled).

Heat the saucepan, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes, adding cilantro toward the end, and sampling for any additional ingredients you may want to add. Good time to adjust sugar or salt levels, or be inspired to add spices.

Spoon salsa into the prepared (boiled) jar, leaving 1/4 inch air space at top. Seal.

Process jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

My recipe made 7 jars, approx 500 ml or 1/2 quart each.

I already ate 2/3 of a jar today, with tortilla chips. The "heat" is about a medium, although when I tasted it before it went into the hot water bath (so the flavours had not mixed and mellowed yet), the peppers tasted much hotter. I'm pretty happy with the result.

A little note about the serrano peppers. A few days previously, I had cut up a few to make a fresh mango salsa and fresh tomato salsa. I had not worn gloves (as I've only heard, but never done), but I had cut them in half and used the knife to remove the seeds, before chopping. So last night, I got careless, thinking that it was okay to use my fingers to pull out the seeds. It seemed more efficient, and anyhow I enjoy getting my hands into things and getting messy. I didn't feel anything until completely finishing the salsa, at which time I noticed my one finger and thumb were completely on fire. I searched for "capsicum burn" and read all sorts of remedies, which I tried : dipping hands in milk, adding oil & then washing thoroughly with soap, vinegar, isopropynol alcohol, repeated washing with dishwashing soap... I stopped short of the suggestion of using full-strength bleach. Nothing helped, other than providing momentary relief. But I went to bed expecting to be fine in the morning. Which seemed true, until I started getting dressed, and touching things. At which point, my fingers were on fire again (although not quite as much). As I type now (almost 20 hours later!!) I can still feel a funny sensation in those fingers. So although I will probably still not wear gloves next time, I will be sure to handle the peppers more carefully, and not touch any seeds with my fingers!!

Please let me know if you are inspired to make this salsa, or some variation on it, and let me how it turns out.

Another Spiny Leaf Bug

2011-06-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

I apologize to those who follow my blog for photos of my garden. Tonight I noticed another spiny leaf bug had hatched. I now have 2 spiny leaf insects. The oldest is 9 weeks old now, and is looking more like a curled up leaf every day:

I tried to be clever and get a photo with them both on my hand, which I did:

But the newly hatched bug moves very quickly, and after this photo, it promptly disappeared up my sleeve. At which point I put the older bug back in her cage, and ended up taking off my shirt to search for the little one. Fortunately, I found her without squishing her.

On the stick bug side, I still have way too many, and keep telling myself I will try to find a home for many of them. I managed to give away 4 to good homes last weekend. Good thing I have a plentiful supply of blackberry leaves in the neighbourhood.

Garden Mosaic and "David" Tree

2011-06-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

I love this time of year in the garden. Every couple of days there seems to be a new type of flower blooming. There are early signs of fruit emerging. Here is a mosaic from photos from a stroll through the garden this evening (after weeding for about an hour, and just before it got too dark for photos):

What do you think of the white irises in the bottom right of the mosaic? I was pleased to find them blooming today. They were buds last time I looked. They look so delicate and pure. I received them as a gift from my mom's friend Irene a number of years ago, and they have grown into a beautiful patch. It was a precious gift, which I hope to in turn share with many people over the years to come.

I am absolutely smitten with my new "David" tree (Davidia involucrata, commonly know as "Dove tree" or "Hankerchief tree", but fondly named "David tree" for my son, David). Since I planted it just under 3 weeks ago, I have been playing around with an underplanting of sedums and other succulents, and watering it every evening since. What do you think of it? Although I read that the Dove tree may take some 15 years to bloom, I am already so pleased with the gorgeous bronze-tinged and deeply textured foliage, that I think I will be quite okay with the wait. Already the small twig which I bought at the Van Dusen Garden Plant Sale has developed noticeable branches:

Oh, I forgot to include in my mosaic my tiny Frost peaches (most of which will prune themselves long before they ripen):

Last year, I managed to pick and taste our single peach before the squirrel got to it. Perhaps I'll be able to taste another one or two this year. The tree is still young, so I don't expect much.

Spiny Leaf Bug at 6 Weeks

2011-05-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you are tired of my bug photos by now, but I am so fascinated by my spiny leaf insect, that I created a photo collage, showing the transformation so far, from the red/black ant-like newborn (top left) to the crinkly dried leaf at 6 weeks old (bottom right):

On the gardening side, the weather was wonderful last week, so I made an amazing amount of progress at cleaning it up, planting many of my recent purchases, and had 2 yards of soil brought in, which I spread into the cleaned up areas. This week has been not bad either, considering the forecast a week ago was for 5 or 6 days of rain, and it has only rained a couple of times. So I am continuing to make good progress on evenings and weekends, and hope to bring in another 2 yards of soil soon. Most of the time, I have been too busy to take photos, but here is a collage of some of my recent photos, and I hope to take more soon.

Happy gardening, everyone!

More Painted Bird Houses

2011-05-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

I have a weakness for buying and painting wooden bird houses from Michaels Arts and Crafts Store. Unless I am actually painting with the kids (as I have done previously), most of my painting takes place after they are in bed for the night, so between 10pm and midnight. A little while back, I painted this little cutie (below) with the windmill. Then about two weeks ago, I bought this bigger one, and thought I would just give it a single coat of paint that night. But I ended up continuing to paint the flowers, a different flower on each side (click any image for a slighter larger view).

Yesterday I was shopping with the kids at Michaels, and surprised to find a whole lot of new bird houses. I picked up two more funky shaped houses. I promised myself I won't paint them both in one night. I need to pace myself, and enjoy.

I use simple craft acrylic paints (in the little plastic bottles), and when done, spray it with a clear varnish. They survive very well in the garden year round. At least the paints do. Look at the state of this roof, after only 1 year outside (this was not one I painted, I bought it already finished, but one day I will give it some real colour!):

And look at the thread-bare roof on this one (which my daughter painted 2 years ago):

I've learned to pick the ones with a solid wood roof, they seem to last the best. There are even some in the store now with metal roofs. But then that would be one less part to paint, so where's the fun in that?

Spiny Leaf Bug at 2 Weeks

2011-04-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm a freak for bugs, but I am really enjoying my spiny leaf insect which hatched 2 weeks ago. When I open the door to her cage, she seems to sense it, and finds her way out. She is so interesting to handle, since she runs very quickly, her tail tightly curled, and then when she calms down, she slows down, and lets her tail unroll. The stick bugs move when provoked, but rarely do much walking, and when they do, it is much slower. Here are a few photos of my spiny leaf girl (they will all be girls) from today (click any photo for a slightly larger image):

The red colour in her head is gone, but isn't she still freaky looking? I am really fascinated by her.

We had a second one hatch a few days later, but it had a gimpy front leg, and has not done well. I don't think it will last until tomorrow. Earlier today I found it lying on its face on the bottom of the cage, its body quite shrunken flat. So I pulled it out, and gave it some water in my hand. It seemed to drink, and revived and filled out a bit. I also finally removed the leg, since it was stumbling on it, and having difficulty moving forward at all. Later today I found it looking almost dead again, and gave it some sugar-water in my hand. Again, it seemed to drink, and its body filled out a bit, but it didn't revive very much. Instead of its tail curling up, it hangs down onto the ground. Poor little thing. I hope more eggs will hatch soon.

Fruit Tree Blossoms

2011-04-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

The fruit tree are one month behind compared to last year, but at last they are bursting into blossoms. Here is the asian pear espalier:

The european pear espalier, being younger, is off to a good start (although it looks overwhelmed by the massive honesuckle vine behind it, which I keep trimmed back from the pear tree):

The following shows my Frost peach tree (left) and Rainier cherry, with closeups of the blossoms.

In the mosaic below...

Top: Ribes odoratum (Missouri currant), which is loaded with more fragrant blooms every year, but disappointingly bears almost no currants. I am sure I have seen pollinators in previous years (although this year will be pretty challenging, with every second day raining - today it rained very hard).

Bottom left : Lapin (dark) cherry blossoms, with yellow ribes blossoms behind.

Bottom right : One of my rhubarb plants looks like it will flower this year. I am reading that this should be discouraged, by removing the flower. So I'll keep my eye on it. Perhaps capture a few more photos, before I take such drastic action.

My new garden path is looking pretty nice, with the peonies and hostas just starting to shoot up on both sides.

The weeping cherry (Prunus "Snofozam" or "Snow fountains") in the center is barely visible. A couple of weeks ago, it was the only tree in full bloom:

The Alchemilla mollis (Lady's mantle) is not a showy plant, but I love the way it holds beads of rain:

Finally, since I tackle various parts of my garden at random, so often forgot to capture "before" and "after" photos, these are kinda "mid" photos - I've done some cleanup (as evidenced by soil being visible, which it would not have been in the "before" scene), but still have much to do, so it is not really "after". I am clearing out sections of rampant bluebells, removing (and finding good homes for) daylilies which have spread too far, and removing chunks of fall asters which are too widespread, leaving instead tidier "clumps" of them. It feels good to finally make some progress on this section of garden:

Weeds in the Garden of Eden : Part 2 : Types of Gardeners

2011-04-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

Garden of Eden Source unknown - used without explicit permission

If you happened to already read Part 1, bear with me in the weighty conclusion today...

There are two types of gardeners:

Homo contentinhumus - The true gardener, who is truly happy being up to the elbows in soil and plants, and often doesn't even care that he or she will later suffer from allergies. This is the gardener who has a garden (noun) so that he or she can "garden" (verb) there - pulling weeds, moving plants, amending soil... He or she may set up a bench in the garden, since it sets off the colours and textures of the plants so nicely, but has no time to actually sit in it. In utter but euphoric exhaustion, he or she is often found instead sprawled on the porch of the shed, or kneeling for a while in the soil, or leaning against a fence while catching his or her breath and picking the leaves out of her hair.

Homo Hortaverbosa - The pretend gardener, who spends a couple of hours twice a year, but talks about how much he or she worked in the garden for proportionately too long. This is the type of person who tries to sound interested in plants, but elects only the "low maintenance" ones chosen and installed by his or her landscaper. He or she may walk about the yard occasionally to inspect the "garden" (landscaping), but quickly retreats to the comforts of the deck, and home. He or she thinks of gardening (verb) as a chore, done only to have a nice "garden" (noun).

I'd venture that anyone who has made it this far into my blog post, is not only the true gardener, but is probably resting at the computer after exhausting yourself in the garden earlier today. Besides, it's already dark, so not much more can be done in the garden tonight.

By definition, the Garden of Eden was a place of perfection, where all creatures existed in peace and love and fulfillment. So I would venture that when God commanded Adam and Eve to be "fruitful and multiply" and to garden there, that the gardening and the playing around (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) in the garden was enjoyable to them. (Okay, the scriptures don't explicitly refer to gardening (verb), but I'm sure that they were not only to eat the fruit there, but they must have also tended to the garden, since later the curse was that the gardening would be a "toil", and they would need to deal with "thorns and thistles".)

So if the gardening was a source of fulfillment, then Adam and Eve were true gardeners, who enjoyed this activity. So by extension, true gardeners also enjoy moving plants about, and "weeding" out ones in favour of others. Even if Adam may have been content with harvesting fruit, and leaving things where things were planted, Eve must have had some ideas of how the planting arrangement could be improved. After all, it's not only a woman's prerogative to move things about, but it is a God-given gift to imagine and create and effect change. (Certainly not a result of the fall into sin. I'd venture that the effects of sin was the subsequent reluctance of the man to help her anymore with making the changes she still imagined, and leaving her to "toil" on her own - oops, getting too personal here!)

Since all plants bear seeds or runners or other means of propagating successfully, they all need tending to keep them organized, and keep any garden area from becoming totally overgrown. Especially for fruit-bearing plants, they need tending and pruning and "weeding" around them to keep them bearing successfully.

Okay, where am I going with all this? Since the definition of a "weed" as set out in Part 1 is a plant growing where we want it not to grow, and the first couple - who were true gardeners - enjoyed moving things about and changing planting arrangements, and cleaning up the garden to allow for successful fruit bearing, then it follows logically that they must have needed to remove plants from the garden. Therefore, there were weeds in the Garden of Eden!

This thought makes me feel pretty good, and I'm up to my elbows in dirt again today, removing weeds.

Weeds in the Garden of Eden : Part 1 : What is a Weed?

2011-04-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

Occasionally while I am up to my elbows in dirt and weeds, I muse about whether there were weeds in the Garden of Eden. Today I came to the conclusion that there were indeed weeds in the Garden of Eden, and can logically prove it.

First of all, what is a weed? By definition, a weed is simply a plant we don't want growing where it is successfully growing. Newbie gardeners may be surprised by that. One of the common questions of a newbie gardener is "Is this a weed?" It's a weed if you consider it a weed. Plants by their very nature are not "weeds" or favoured garden plants. There are simply plants which are too successful and too prevalent for our gardening conditions, that they are considered "weeds". Case in point : When I used to participate in seed trading forums, I remember someone posting that he was looking for dandelion seeds. In his gardening zone/conditions, the dandelion was a difficult plant to grow, and thus desirable to attempt in his garden. In my gardening conditions, my lawn would be all moss and dandelions if I would let nature decide. If it weren't for its rampant success, I'd be planting dandelions in my garden also, since it displays the prettiest and most vibrant yellow of all the plants I can think of.

Many of our "weeds" may even be plants we've introduced to our gardens intentionally. In my early days of gardening, I brought home many treasured plants from plant trades, which would later, after taking over much of my garden, become weeds which I now remove on sight. Most notably for me is the Carex pendula (Weeping sedge) which I brought home from a plant trade, and planted it on our moist hillside. It was pretty, and even seeded itself about the garden. The first couple of years, I was bringing the strong, green seedlings to plant trades myself, and finding good homes for them. It wasn't until it proceeded to seed itself by the millions, at which point it had grown to such a large and strong clump that I couldn't dig it out myself, that I became alarmed and called on my neighbour to help me remove it. I am still pulling Carex seedlings by the hundreds, years later. (My neighbour ended up planting the clumps, but I don't believe they were successful, or just marginally so, so we are still on talking terms.)

At our last home, our neighbour (on the other side of the duplex) was an elderly lady who enjoyed occasionally inspecting her "garden" which was composed of a wild overgrowth of plants which many experienced gardeners would consider "weeds". To her, they were her pride and joy, growing successfully with almost little effort on her part. Funny, although I was amused by this, I also brought some of her weedy plants with me when I left : Hyacinthoides hispanica (Spanish bluebells), which formed the basis of my blue shade garden, until I filled it in with other blue shade plants, and Lysimachia (Yellow loosestrife), which formed a colourful clump (see photos) in my wild garden at the far back of my yard for some 5 years, until only last year, when I cleaned it up as part of my raspberry garden renovation.

So really, a "weed" or a treasured plant is only in the eye of the beholder. A "weed" is simply a plant growing successfully where we don't want it to grow.

Mosaic Monday : Fairy House

2011-04-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

I received encouraging comments on the recent photo of my little fairy house, which has survived 3 years now in the garden, with incredible durability, since I built and installed it there in May 2008. So I have assembled a mosaic of photos over the years (click the mosaic for a slightly larger view).

I wish I could have found the photo from three winters ago, when it was completely covered in a mound of snow. See this post, which shows it just prior to being buried.

Pop over to Little Red House for more of this week's Monday Mosaics.

Plant Sale Season

2011-04-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

As a gardener, this is one of my favourite times of the year. There is much to clean up in the garden, there are blossoms and signs of new growth everywhere, and my favourite plant sales to attend. Today was one of them, the South Burnaby Garden Club's sale held in the Buy Low parking lot in South Burnaby.

Since it started at 9am, and church starts at 10am, I convinced the family to get up early to join me (actually, I gave them the option to let me go on my own, and meet up at the church, but they chose to join me). My mom is actually a member of the club, so we picked her up on the way there.

Sadly for me, the focus this year was on edibles, but I pretty much have all the herbs that I need, and I really don't do vegetable gardening. Although I made the exception for a very gorgeous red-veined plant which is slightly sour and can be used in salads. I am too lazy to go outside to look at the tag for the name.

My delight this year was to pick up a small pot of Mousetail plant (Arisarum proboscideum), which I have since read is a relative of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit. It has lovely green spade-shaped leaves, and funny little flower spikes which look like a mouse's tail. I separated the tiny plants, and put most of them in the fairy garden, and a couple into my native/shade garden. (Click on any image for a slightly larger view.)

I also picked up a few more columbine (they weren't labelled for colour, so it will be a surprise), some hellebore seedlings which will apparently be black/dark flowers (wow, can't wait!), a Japanese iris (again not labelled for colour, but I loved the narrow strong leaves), some dark bearded iris, and a few more plants which caught my interest. Prices at this event are always good, so I came away feeling like I got some bargains, and also supported a local club, so it went to a good cause.

The "big" plant sale for me will be the Van Dusen Gardens sale (Vancouver, BC), which is May 1, 10am - 4pm. Sadly, it will be early afternoon before I can get there, after church and lunch with the family, but unless the weather is miserable, it is worth it just to enjoy strolling the gardens for free, taking a few photos, and if I pick up some neat plants (as I always do), that is a bonus.

My other favourite plant sale, the BRAGS (Burnaby Rhododendrum and Garden Society) fund raiser, will be held May 1 at Shadbolt Center, in conjunction with the Burnaby Rhododendrum Festival (the rhodo is the official flower of Burnaby). So not only will it be more crowded, and unlikely to get parking nearby, but it is the same day as the Van Dusen sale. So this will not be an option for me this year. Too bad. Usually I pick up some plants on my way to church, then a few more at 1/2 price (as they are closing up) on the way home from church.

The weather has been interesting. Alternating between beautiful sunny days and rain with snow/hail mixed in. Good thing Friday & today were the sunny days, and both days I got out in the garden for a few hours. There is much to do, and if I thought of it as a job, trying to remove weeds and straighten out my gardens, I would be overwhelmed. But I take it as therapy, and do what I can. By the time I come back inside, I am so exhausted I can hardly walk, but at peace with the world, at least for a little while.

Friday I did a significant clean up of the raspberry patch. Today, I cleaned in various places, but the most rewarding was to recover the path in the fairy garden, which I built out of smooth stones and shiny marbles, but has been grown over for some time now. Here it is after today's clean up (and note the Mousetail plants to the right of the house):

I marvel at that little fairy house, built from cuttings of my butterfly bush, and roof from my blue oat grass. It has survived 3 winters now, and still looks amazingly fresh. I didn't know I was so good at fairy house construction. If I didn't know how much work it was, I would be tempted to build some more.

Yesterday, between showers, our family took a walk around Deer Lake, but instead of walking the full perimeter, I convinced them to detour through the Century Gardens around Shadbolt Center and the Burnaby Art Gallery. The gardens were pretty. I want to end with some photos I took yesterday.

I love this grotesquely contorted tree. Somewhere I have jotted down the name of it, from the "Burnaby's Great Tree Hunt" book I borrowed from the library, but I don't remember where I put it now. Hmmm.

This was a pretty narcissus, with the double/triple center:

The hellebores were in bloom, and there were very large sized clumps of them. Quite impressive.

I didn't know that trilliums also form a beautiful clump. I was very happy to see that I have one small white trillium blooming in my garden now, I bought it at the South Burnaby Garden Club sale last year.

My daughter April took this beautiful photo of emerging fern fronds. They look like a sad couple about to embrace.

I believe this purple beauty is a Primula denticulata:

New "Baby" in the House - Leaf Insect

2011-04-16T11:24:00.000-07:00

I admit that I am a bit strange, but I was very excited yesterday to discover a new "baby" in the house - my first spiny leaf insect (Extatosoma tiaratum). I received about a dozen eggs a couple of months ago, and have been waiting patiently ever since. They have been well worth the wait!

The baby leaf bug is similar in size to my baby stick bugs, but a stockier build, very dark with a red head. When I tried to pick her up, instead of moving slowly like the stick bugs, this little gal starting marching quickly, almost running on my hand, and did not hesitate to jump when she reached the edge of my hand! If I didn't know she was a gentle vegetarian bug, I'd be scared to touch her. She looks downright fierce! When disturbed, she rolls his little dark tail into a tight ball, looking like a biting ant.

We had a hard time taking photos with her moving so quickly, so this is all I can share so far:

For comparison, here is a newly hatched baby stick insect:

17April2011 - Here is another photo, a closeup showing the curled tail and pointy head:

Southwest / Canyonlands Photos

2011-03-30T00:11:00.000-07:00

We just returned Sunday from a dream tour of the Southwest US, with hundreds of wonderful photos and memories, and plans to return again soon. My only regret is that we took only the one week the kids had for Spring Break, so it was aggressive to cover the 1500 miles and numerous National Parks and Monuments which we knew we couldn't miss. Most of these were ones my husband and I had visited 13 years ago, when I was first pregnant, and we had our final fling - a 3 week driving trip from Vancouver BC, camping in our tent (many places without running water) and staying in modest motels. This time, with the kids, we stayed in Holiday Inns and Best Westerns, which was good, since it was still quite chilly and even snowy in some of the locations.

This is a collage of many of the beautiful locations we visited:

We flew into Las Vegas, staying two nights at the gorgeous Venetian, catching their haunting and powerful Phantom of the Opera show - I highly recommend it. I haven't downloaded the photos from the small camera yet, but we also visited the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden (with tigers, lions, panthers, etc) and Dolphin Habitat, and spent a lot of time gazing at the amazing painted ceilings at The Venetian. We didn't end up riding one of the gondolas through the canals, since we were not persistent enough to insist on reservations (we only phoned the hotel in advance, and also asked at the registration desk, but we should have also checked with the Concierge, who should have been able to help us with that). They had a beautiful outdoor pool with fountain and hot tubs, but it was still quite chilly, and miles away from our room (even though we could see it out our window), so we didn't make it. Another time.

From there, we visited the Hoover Dam and the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was still in snow.

It's hard to believe that this huge canyon could be carved out by a small river. Looks more like the result of an earthquake, splitting such a huge crack in the earth.

The next day we were in Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, and took a Jeep tour with a Navajo guide, Bobby, who grew up in the canyon, and still lives there today. The Canyon is quite amazing. Not as wide as the Grand Canyon, but the sheer vertical walls are breathtaking, with their red rock, the streaks of minerals down the sides, and the remains of Anasazi dwellings tucked into the sides of the cliff. Not to mention the many petroglyphs and pictographs of the Anasazi, Hopi and Navajo peoples.

Having seen the Anasazi cliff dwellings from below, the next day we were in Mesa Verde in Colorado, where we were able to tour inside one of the many cliff dwellings there, even climbing down a wooden ladder into an underground kiva (round religious / social meeting room). We visited the Spruce Tree House, which was easy to access, and the only dwelling open so early in the year. The Cliff Palace, which we viewed from the cliff above, was even larger.

Note the multi-story dwellings in the photo on the top left. I found that fascinating. And these people were definitely small, to fit into such small spaces.

From Mesa Verde, we drove to Arches National Park in Utah, arriving in the late afternoon, with a few hours before the sunset. It is an amazing place, with natural arches and rock formations, which can be accessed quite easily on foot. Note my husband and 2 kids in the photo on the top left, and bottom - those are fun photos.

Of course, the most recognizable arch in the park, is the Delicate Arch:

The next morning, we spent more time in Arches NP, and then headed to my favourite from the previous trip, the Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. Being a State Park, this one doesn't seem to get enough recognition. We could find very little mention of it anywhere in the tourism information, including the internet, but it is a must-see for anyone in the area (near Hanksville, UT), especially anyone with kids. This park is a wonderland of little goblins and mushrooms and other weird little shapes which can be climbed on and between, and our kids spent most of the visit playing hide-and-seek with their daddy (see the 3 in the bottom photo), while I pursued them with the camera. The middle photo I will name "Ostracized" - poor little goblin!

The following day, we visited Bryce Canyon in Utah. It was snowing in the morning, and we started out on a hike into the canyon, but it was too slippery and dangerous. So we visited some of the viewpoints, but the visibility was limited. We let the kids take a break from the sightseeing, and enjoy the indoor pool before dinner. We visited Bryce Canyon again the next morning, before we drove back to Las Vegas, and were able to get some wonderful views into the snowy canyon. Sadly, the road to some of the further viewpoints was still closed. So we'll need to go back again, to see those, and to be able to hike down into the canyon between those hoodoos and other rock formations.

Once I emerge from the unpacking and laundry (we arrived late Sunday night, and went to work Monday morning), I hope to transfer the photos from the other camera, and may post a few more photos and comments.

What's Bloomin' in March?

2011-03-18T23:42:00.000-07:00

I am a few days late for the March Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but I hope Carol of May Dreams Gardens will forgive my tagging along, once the rain finally cleared, and I had a chance to search the garden for blooms.

I was happy to see a few signs of Spring. The weather is still very cold, for March, and the snow line is very low in the local mountains. Every year I have a crocus or two emerge from this corner of my garden, and I love the contrast of the cheery yellow against the dreariness of the fallen gunnera leaves:

This Winter Aconite (Eranthis) is smaller than I remember buying it last year, but it was delightful to find this tiny bloom peeking from my native/shade garden:

These mini irises are so cheery surrounding my granite bench. I hope they will naturalize and fill the area:

This emerging sedum is not a bloom, but the little rosettes almost look like blooms:

My Missouri currant (Ribes odoratum) is not quite in bloom yet. I wonder if it will tease me again this year with loads of flowers but next to no fruit?

I noticed today that the flowers of the male Skimmia are actually quite pretty, and dainty:

Although I originally bought the males to keep the females in berry:

The winter pink in this little sedum is so colourful, contrasting with the golden thyme, that it looks a bit like a bloom. In the summer, the sedum will be silver blue:

I love my Petasites frigidus, but I find the flowers which emerge before the leaves a bit creepy looking. When they get tall enough, I will cut them down, otherwise they will send seeds (which have little umbrellas like dandelion seeds) flying everywhere.

I hope Carol will forgive me - not only late, but also showing off my non-blooms, too.

Looking at other garden bloggers blooms, I am longing even more for Spring to arrive at last. All the best to everyone in their gardens this year!

Another Plum Tree!

2011-03-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

It was not a surprise, but it was wonderful that I could convince my husband and the kids to go pick up another plum tree this afternoon. I had my "landscaper" (who cuts my lawn, and does the occasional projects for me around the yard) dig a big hole just before Winter hit. But his idea of digging was to clear the layer of grass and soil, and leave a shallow "hole" of our near-undiggable clay. I suppose he would have used the excuse that he didn't want to leave a hole for the Winter.

It was me who came along after that, and actually dug and loosened up about 12" of the clay, and laid a load of grass clippings on top, to provide some organic material, before the Winter hit. Today, it was my husband who climbed in and dug a real proper hole.

It seems the grass clippings had some effect, since there were lots of worms in the top foot or so, which actually resembled something like soil. He removed that to the side of the hole. Below that it was grey clay. Thick, mucky, and non-draining. My husband removed a few wheelbarrows full of clay (dumping them just outside our fence, in the "abyss"), and mixed back the top layer of soil, with two large bags of planting soil (100 l or 4 cu ft each). I also poured in bonemeal. We had enough to plant the tree, but could use a couple more bags, to fill it up to the surface properly.

Enough about the dirt. What type of plum did we plant? It was a tough decision. I already have an Italian plum which is very tasty and sweet even when a bit firm. It has started to bear a good amount of fruit these past two years, for fresh eating. I wanted another plum which would also be good for eating, but also for making juice.

I phoned Triple Tree Nursery in Maple Ridge, where I have bought nearly all our fruit trees, and asked about their plum varieties. Their European plums included the Italian, Yellow Egg, Damson (not really for fresh eating), Toka and Superior. Their Japanese plums included Santa Rosa, Beauty, Shiro (Yellow), Methley and Satsuma. For flavour, Shiro and Methley were recommended.

Since then I read up on the various plum varieties, and the ones which emerged as the top choices were:

Methley (Japanese) - Red skin with dark red juicy flesh, early bearing, self-fertile, mild and sweet flavour, attractive and vigorous tree.
Green Gage (European) - Flavour was described as "exquisite", and my mom remembers her uncle (?) having this plum tree, green colour even when ripe.
Satsuma (Japanese) - Red with deep red flesh, semi freestone, good flavour.

I was really intrigued by the Green Gage, and might have tried it, except perhaps for some random notes on the internet from people who had bought some and were looking for recipes for them. It made me wonder, if they are so exquisitely flavoured, why would they not simply eat them, and not be looking for recipes? Not to mention, the photos of them really didn't do much for me.

So in the end, I decided on the Methley, for the dark colour (I like that in a plum, and it would be great for the juice!), hopefully the flavour, that it is an early bearer, and I hear that the Japanese trees tend to bear their first crop at an earlier age than the Europeans. The Methley trees available at Triple Tree (they are bare root, not potted up yet, so a great time to buy them!) looked pretty good, too. So the Methley joins our collection of one dozen young fruit trees.

The photo is courtesy of Marshalls Seed Co in the UK. In a couple of years, I hope to be sharing my own photos. :-)

Winter's Last Stand

2011-03-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

As Spring gently advances on our land, Winter has taken its last stand, surging forward with its final battle cry, sending a flurry of massive snowflakes, covering the land with some 6" of snow. Followed by rain, and hail, and bitter cold. At last (or so I hope), it relents, and has gone silent.

The snow was actually very pretty, falling quite steadily from Saturday evening until Sunday morning. Before it got wet and fell (that's the kind of snow we usually have in Vancouver), it hung softly and silently in the trees, for some pretty Winter scenes.

Yesterday evening, before night fell, I carried my kitchen compost to the big bins at the top of the yard. I took some photos of the crocuses, battered by the cold and snow, laying surrounded by a thin layer of snow. I think it would have some pretty good photos, but I accidentally had the "blank" card from my laptop in the camera, and I guess the silly thing tried to store the photos on it, but unsuccessfully. At least I can't seem to find them.

I'm hoping this is the last bit of Winter here, and sent only so that we will appreciate Spring even more when it comes and stays.

Virtual Wildflower Garden

2011-02-24T20:27:00.000-08:00

Can't wait until Spring? Tired of snow?

My sister sent me a link via email, to grow my own flower garden. It's fun and easy, just drag your mouse where you want your flowers to grow. Click refresh to start another flower garden. Here's one of mine. Isn't it pretty?:

Wonderful Gardening Day

2011-02-19T23:27:00.000-08:00

Today was an amazing gardening day. On Thursday, it snowed lightly, then yesterday and today, we have had amazing weather - crisp but sunny, and clear blue skies. Since my son is sick with a cold, we kept him home from soccer at noon today, and I went out in the garden instead, wearing a tank top and shorts, to get as much Vitamin D as possible. I'm sure I'm terribly deficient, and have also had a sore throat and cough the past couple of days.

First I managed to squeeze in one hour, since my husband offered to make lunch. Then in the afternoon, he wanted to enjoy the weather by going for a walk in the park, but I begged him to let me stay home in the garden instead. So he ended up taking my daughter for a bicycle ride, while my son spent 2 hours in the garden. I pulled lots of weeds, removed old flower stalks, trimmed back my grape vines to visible growth buds, and fought for a long time with the butterfly bush. My son was a great help to me. I chopped and pulled large branches down (it is over 10' tall), and he chopped up the branches for me. I keep many of the straight segments of the branches I cut down. That's what I used to build the fairy house years ago, for the fairy garden (photo on right from last summer), and I'm sure I'll find lots of uses for them in the garden, staking plants, etc.

It was not windy, so warm enough to continue to work in my tank top and shorts in the afternoon, as long as I stayed in the sun. In the shady spots, there was still a light covering of snow on the ground. By 4PM, it started to get windy and cooler, so I finally gave up. It was only after I got inside that I realized how exhausted I was, and was glad that I had finally come inside. But I think those hours to relax and soak up sun has already helped. I am tired tonight, but my throat is no longer sore.

I feel sorry for my friends and neighbours who think of gardening as a chore. Or my husband, who thinks that when the weather is nice, he needs to go away somewhere else. When I am in my garden, working hard, it is one of the few times that I am completely at peace. There is lots to do, but if I can't finish it all today (ha ha!), then it will patiently wait for me. I often think of tunes or amuse myself with what I would like to blog about, but my head is not racing with problems from work, or other issues. Even when I am trying to sleep, I am not at peace in that same way. I often wake up in the morning trying to solve problems, or making notes to myself of all the "to do's" I need to accomplish. If there is gardening in heaven, for sure I'll be there.

I have been trying out my Cobrahead Weeder and Cultivator recently, and have been very impressed with it. I would like to say more about it some time, but it's getting too late. I'll visit my husband at the TV for a bit, and then go to bed.

GBBD February 2011

2011-02-15T23:56:00.000-08:00

The rain finally subsided this morning, so I was able to run to the top of the yard to dump my kitchen compost bin. As I stepped outside, I realized it was Garden Blogger's Bloom Day hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. So I returned and took the camera with me.

The crocuses (does anyone say "croci"?) under the Fuyu Persimmon would be blooming if there were any sun to speak of. But not this overcast morning.

I did find one mini iris blooming next to my granite garden bench.

At this point in the season, there are plenty of hopeful signs of new growth, but the garden "bones" of bare tree branches, evergreen bushes and the occasional garden decoration, dominate the garden view. I like the shadow these decorations cast on the fence (on a sunnier morning a couple of weeks ago).

One evening last week, the setting sun lit up my contorted shrub (the name is not coming to me at the moment) in the front yard. Although the photo doesn't fully capture the golden glow I saw, it conveys some of the magic of that moment.

Here's to dreaming of Spring!

Fun with Fabric Paints

2011-02-14T22:13:00.000-08:00

My daughter's friends at school all have food nicknames this year. My daughter's a cookie. One tough cookie.

One of her friends is a cupcake. An evil cupcake.

Another friend is a brownie. A super brownie.

I designed (drawing on some ideas I found on the internet - or outright borrowing the first one from David and Goliath - I hope they forgive me, in exchange for a link to their site, where they have some really cute T-shirts) and created all three shirts tonight, with puffy (dimensional) fabric paint I bought at Michaels.

They may take a couple of days to dry, and then the threesome can wear their shirts to school. It will be a fun surprise for her friends. Oh, and the whites of the eyes are made with glow-in-the-dark paint, so that will be an extra surprise for them.

Birthday Season and Stick Bugs

2011-02-04T22:34:00.000-08:00

Today was my son's birthday party with his friends from school, and the end of "birthday season" in our house. I have discovered the joy of making cakes instead of buying them, so today I had fun decorating his, except that I couldn't find my icing decorating set, so instead ended up improvising with a plastic bug cut on the end, and holding one of the icing tips I did find against it, but it was a real messy job, with icing spilling out on all sides onto my hands. You wouldn't know it, though, by looking at the cake. I think it turned out pretty good, don't you?:

My only mistake was that I indicated that we would be done by 7:30 or 8pm, and some parents arrived at 7:30pm, and we were not done. My husband only arrived about 7:15pm from dropping off my daughter at the church, and I had waited for him to return before opening gifts and serving cake, since I wanted his help with a few photos. So it was a bit of a rush finishing up, with parents arriving.

In the midst of the chaos, Gary from Cinemazoo arrived (from another birthday party he was entertaining at) to buy a few of my stick bugs for his collection of bugs and creatures which he shares with kids of all ages for educational and entertainment purposes. I was very impressed with him. Gary is a true nature enthusiast, and a very patient and kind person. He graciously gave me some eggs of a leaf insect, which I will be thrilled to add to my stick bug "collection". He also took the trouble to go back to his van and bring in some huge hissing cockroaches, which I enjoyed holding (the birthday kids all backed away and couldn't be convinced), and this giant stick bug which he preserved (wow, I would have liked to hold it while it was still alive!):

I think it would be a really cool birthday feature, to have Cinemazoo bring in their weird and wonderful creatures, and share them with the kids. Tonight, one of the little sisters of one of the boys shrieked when she first saw my stick bugs, but after explaining to her that it was a "nice" gentle bug, I convinced her to hold one, and within a few minutes, she had convinced her mom that she wanted to take one home with her, which she did. I was thrilled to see her transformed from her initial terror, to proudly clutching the little box with her new bug "pet". What a night!

Stream of Dreams Mural

2011-01-31T22:46:00.000-08:00

In September, the kids and I painted wooden fish for a Stream of Dreams mural, during the World Rivers Day celebration in Burnaby, BC.

We were told to watch for our fish to be displayed on a fence in the park in the near future. But we didn't return to the Fraser Foreshore Park. At least, not until this weekend, when we went for a walk on the beautiful clear Sunday afternoon, and discovered our fish, in a Stream of Dreams mural. We were happy to find our fish swimming happily in the stream:

For more photos of this particular mural, see this page, or to learn more about the Stream of Dreams, see their website.

Insect Art - Painted Stick

2011-01-28T17:02:00.000-08:00

On our trip to Otter Lake this summer, we found a stick which had insect tunnels all over it (under the bark, which had peeled off). I brought it home, intending to paint it in contrasting colours to bring out the funky patterns the insects had carved. I finally found the time this past week. I think it turned out pretty neat.

I originally planned to paint in red (for the tunnels), and finish in contrasting black, but as I started painting the red, I came up with the idea of painting in red and yellow stripes, evocative of a poisonous snake, which the shape of the stick suggested. So that's what I did, making sure to get deep into all the tunnels:

However, at this point, the tunnels were not very evident:

Until the black was painted on (brushing a light coat of black using the side or heel of the brush, so as to avoid filling the tunnels):

I am pleased with the final results, although I am not sure where to display it. For now, I have it sitting beside a large wooden eagle head carving and stone salmon carving, both of which we bought from real (successful) artists. So there is a sort of loosely west coast nature theme to it, even if it doesn't look like any of our local snakes.

If I get any compliments, I'll give most of the credit to the insects, for creating their patterns in the first place. All I did was recognize and highlight it for them, so their artwork would be enjoyed.

Rattie Boys Introduction

2011-01-19T22:26:00.000-08:00

Our latest pet rat, Archie, is about 3 to 4 weeks old, and is now beginning to show that he is a male. This is good news, since our poor boy Bear (who we hoped was a girl when we bought him 6 months ago) has been without a companion, and going crazy not being able to visit the 2 girls in the cage next door to him.

I decided that I would let the boys sniff each other through the bars of the cage, and when it seemed friendly, I opened the door and let them sniff each other directly. Archie fearlessly jumped into Bear's cage, and that was that. We watched them for some time, and the interactions have been friendly, and unlike the girls (who still tousle often, ending with Sam on top, and Jen squeaking at her), the boys chased and sniffed each other. In fact, our dear gentle giant Bear seemed a bit afraid of little Archie buzzing about and climbing on his tail. Often, Bear retreated to the top of his food dish, watching Archie from above.

So I secured the second platform which we picked up at the dollar store. The original cage was designed for birds, thus the vertical bars and lack of accessories. We borrowed the ladder from the girls' cage, since they easily climb or jump up to their platform without it.

Bear seemed very interested in this new lower platform. Archie was interested in everything, it was all new to him. He figured out how to climb the vertical bars in no time, checking out the lower and Bear's upper platforms with no problem, not even bothering to use the ladder we provided.

It looks like a successful introduction. Just in case Archie needs a place to retreat, we added a small tunnel which he can fit through but Bear can't. But I don't think that will be necessary.

Here is a short video clip of the boys exploring together. We are very happy for Bear that he finally has a friend to play with.

Five Year Blog Anniversary - and Thanks!

2011-01-17T22:41:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe I've been writing this garden blog for 5 years now. It was my blog's 5 year anniversary this past week. No hoopla. No big giveaways. But lots of good memories, photos and reflections on my garden to look back on occasionally, and an appreciation for the wonderful people I've "met" along the years, who share my love of plants and bugs and crafts and gardening.

I remember when I started my blog in January 2006, thinking that I would offer gardening advice and share my expanding plant knowledge. My early posts included such advice as "Flowering Shrubs to Hide an Ugly Fence", and articles like "Mint : Lovely, useful and invasive!".

Very early on, I also discovered the joy of just posting "Garden Glimpses" or photographs of my garden and plants throughout the various seasons. I still enjoy looking back on these, and comparing the garden and blooms from year to year.

In early 2007, I started my Garden Painting project, and posted my step by step series of additions to the painting, until I finally hung it on the wall, half finished, where it remains today, waiting for my next period of inspiration.

Early on, I used to track my visitors, and what searches led them to my blog. Early on, it was photos and descriptions of my espalier trees which seemed to bring the most visitors. Now, other than my regular readers, it seems to be Google Images searches which brings about 100 visitors per day. Many who click further, and others who don't.

For the longest time, it felt like I was writing mostly to myself. My brother checked occasionally whether I was making any progress on my garden painting, and then eventually gave up on me entirely. Then somewhere along the line, I discovered the occasional joy of visitors to my blogs who actually left comments. One of my first regular visitors and commenters I remember was Irena from My Roots Run Deep, a fellow Canadian gardener in the Toronto area. I treasured those comments, which were a sign that someone "out there" actually cared enough to read or look at my posts.

I discovered the joy of reading and "following" other garden blogs, and leaving the occasionally comment to let them know, too, that someone cared and appreciated their posts. Now I can spend entire evenings just following my regular blogs, and following their links and commenters to discover more good blogs to "follow".

In my reading, I discovered that although I loved reading about plants and enjoying photos of new plants (and bugs and crafts and recipes and photography...), I also enjoyed little glimpses into the blogger's world, their moments of pride or joy or sorrow, and quirky observations or discoveries or personal anecdotes they were willing to share. That has helped to open up and share little quirky thoughts and experiences from my life also. Whenever I have done so, I have felt very supported and encouraged by my regular readers and other blog visitors. It is for EACH OF YOU that I am so very thankful, for you have enriched my life as I have poured a little of myself and my love of gardening into this blog for these past 5 years.

New Baby in the House

2011-01-08T17:00:00.000-08:00

My son often surprises me. Recently he decided that he would like a pet rat of his own.

When we bought our three rats earlier this year (see posting of Sam, Jen, and Bear), he was hesitant to hold them, and we didn't force him. Now that they are nearly full grown, they are a bit intimidating. So although he feeds them through the bars of the cage, and touches them, he is scared to hold them. I offered that he could start with a baby rat, which is not scratchy, and he could get used to it.

Today we went to the pet store, so my son could try holding them. I didn't expect that he would be ready on the first visit, but he found a rat he liked, held it, and decided to bring it home. So we did.

He doesn't have a name quite yet, but that will come soon. But he (at least we're hoping it is a boy, but not sure about it) is very cute.

We hope this latest little rattie is a boy, so Bear (who turned out to be a boy, so is in a second cage on his own) will have a companion. Sam and Jen also have room in their cage, but since they already have each other, don't really need another friend. But we're okay either way. We'll find out in another 4 weeks or so.

Making Room for New Furniture - I'm Still So Excited

2011-01-05T19:50:00.000-08:00

A most amazing thing happened a few days before Christmas. We were driving back from a dinner with friends, and we passed our sofa (something told me this was the one!) in the window of a furniture store. I shouted to my husband to circle the block again, and I wrote down the name and phone number (they had a Grand Opening sign) of the store, before we continued home.

The next morning, Dec 23, I phoned the store, and we arrived there in the afternoon, to check out their furniture offering, and ended up buying the whole living room of furniture before we left the store (which is very amazing for us, usually we need to go home and analyse and measure and think about it some more). But after 6 1/2 years in our house, looking for the perfect furniture to match our living room, suddenly we had found it.

I am still giddy with excitement, and thanking God for that chance drive-by. We have been shopping on and off for a long time, and not quite finding what we were looking for. Disappointingly close, but the colours or fabrics or something was always wrong. This one is beautiful, with a neutral-tone floral tapestry fabric, and intricately carved mahogany:

If you are thinking that we sound like spoiled people, you are absolutely right. We are very blessed, with consistently good health, great jobs, a wonderful kids and supportive extended family, a spacious and beautiful home we designed and built, and many good opportunities in life. We are VERY blessed, and we know it.

We arrived back from our trip to Otter Lake on Jan 2, and had the furniture delivered Jan 3. So that meant tearing down and chopping the beautiful Christmas tree, which this year was amazingly fresh, even though on our instruction my Mom, who was watching the house for us, didn't water it the whole week we were gone. It took us about 3 hours that night, before we could go to bed. Here's the tree on Christmas Eve, before we tore into the presents:

That morning, our living room was bare again (as it is most of the year), with only the piano on one side:

Then came the furniture:

It is everything I had hoped. I don't even mind that it is quite floral, since the colours are so neutral. The fabric is really strong, it looks like it will last 40 years or more. I know, since it is similar to the fabric on my first sofa, which has survived some 18 years as our main sofa, and when we bought our set of 4 LaZBoys for the family room this summer, we moved the old sofa into the basement, since it still looks as good as new.

The neutral tones, and pink highlights in the floral pattern are very similar to our dining room set. The wood styling / carving is also very similar, although a bit more reddish in tone.

Now we just need to buy a rug (I think that would tie it together nicely, and soften the look of the wood floor), some lamps, and we are done. Hopefully it won't take another couple of years. ;-)

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-30T17:03:00.000-08:00

We are at "our" cabin for New Year's again. At least it feels like our cabin, since is the second year we will enjoy New Years here - we were here last winter, as well as during the summer. The cabin was recently sold (listed for just under $1M), but we were glad that the new owner continues to make it available to rent. We have already pre-booked for New Years next year.

We are on Otter Lake, in the interior of BC. So instead of rain and mild temperatures in Vancouver, we are enjoying snow and clear cold weather. The snow here is drier than we are used to, and due to the cold, hangs in the trees for a long time. In fact, there is no sign of it falling. It makes for some beautiful winterscapes. Enjoy!

I wish you all a happy New Year!

Spreading the Christmas Cheer

2010-12-14T19:33:00.000-08:00

...but not intentionally, this time.

Yesterday my kids came home from school to find a package on the front porch. It must have been dropped off during the day, giving one of our local squirrels enough time to tear his way into the box, and, being that there were only 23 cookies inside, to sneak one. Well, at least he didn't bite any of the others, so we have been enjoying the remaining 23.

I wonder if I should let the sending party (a company we have done business with during the year) know about the squirrel's break-in? So they will know not to leave cookies on front porches anymore? Or just let it go? By default, I will likely not say anything. What would you do?

Last weekend we finally made time to decorate our Christmas tree (click photo for larger view). Since at 14' it is much higher than I can reach with our step ladder, I decorated the top from the loft. I was a bit skeptical when my husband brought home icicles for the tree. They seem to me a bit old fashioned, and also can be pretty messy. But I am quite pleased by the effect, and how they shimmer with the light, and sway when someone passes by the tree.

We stayed with the lighter ornaments, not placing all of them this year. But I think it's still pretty loaded. Many of them are hand made creations my kids made at school or church, so it was fun pulling those out. My son cut a lot of paper snowflakes for the windows.

I feel like I'm not quite in holiday mode yet, but by next week, hope to start taking time off work, and enjoying the family. We are scaling back the shopping this year, or at least that's the plan. I hope for spending time together and enjoying Christmas carols and Christmas concerts. My daughter planned out the songs yesterday which our family will sing around the piano, including a couple songs she will perform as solos, and the kids are practising "We Three Kings" as a guitar duet. That will be highlight of Christmas for me.

Christmas Tree - Beauty and Beast

2010-12-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

We are blessed with a beautiful living room with 18' ceiling, so when we pick a Christmas tree (we've been cutting a fresh one for the last 6 years we've been here), it needs to be big enough to fit the proportions of the room. Every year I think we find a bigger and prettier one. Yesterday we cut down a monster of a Noble Fir - 14' tall, even after we took about 2' off the top. The kids (who insisted they keep their brooms for the photo, after sweeping up needles we left on the ground from dragging it in) give the photo an idea of scale:

I strung up the lights on it today, reaching from the loft to string up the top branches, and a from a ladder for the remainder. The two strings of lights sparsely cover, but still look lovely (click for a slightly larger view):

It was fun driving home, a lot of people were staring at us, thinking we are crazy. Of course, once we got home and had to tackle the tree off the car, up the stairs, and into the stand (wow, it just barely fit, leaving almost no room for water!), then we also knew that we were crazy. But what a beautiful tree it will make for Christmas.

By next year, hopefully we'll have furniture in the living room (we've been shopping for some time now, but haven't found the right furniture yet), and then maybe we won't be able to drag in a monster tree anymore. So in the meantime, we'll enjoy it while we can.

Stick Bug Unsuccessful Hatching

2010-11-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

In the couple of years I've been keeping stick bugs, I have had a lot of babies hatch, but have not been able to witness any hatchings - until a couple of days ago. Or sort of. I saw a stick in the bottom of the cage, which looks like it had a failed attempt at hatching (I've had a couple of those). But as I reached to remove it from the cage, it moved slightly.

I gently picked it up, and took it into the kitchen, to watch it more closely, as it attempted to free itself from the egg capsule.

At first it looked like it was pushing with its front legs, to free its tail from the egg. Then as time went on, I realized that the front legs were also helplessly attached to the egg, and only the middle two legs were functioning normally. One of the back legs were broken off (perhaps by my picking it up the first time).

It struggled valiantly for a number of hours. Finally I tried to help pull off the egg capsule, which came off but left behind an unidentified clearish white material, in which the 4 legs were firmly and hopelessly attached. Unfortunately I managed to also break off on of the good legs, in the process. So the situation was pretty bleak. Without legs, this little guy would have no means of survival. I tried to console him that evening with a moistened blackberry leaf, but while his mouth parts moved a bit in response to the leaf, he didn't make any noticeable attempt to chew it. In the morning, he was dead.

Poor little thing. It was sad to see him in that predicament, and not be able to help. But at the same time it was neat to get a little glimpse into the hatching process, even if an unsuccessful one. I still hope one day to witness a successful hatching.

Preparing for a Harsh Winter

2010-11-21T22:38:00.000-08:00

On Friday night, it started snowing, and by midnight, everything was blanketed in white. This is VERY early for the Vancouver BC area. My daughter snapped this photo Saturday morning of our wooden bench on the back deck (which I've since pulled closer to the house, to avoid further snow and rain):

It had been a long week, so I didn't get up early enough on Saturday to get a nice photo, only this one after the snow was already starting to melt, and fall off the branches:

Note the small banana tree on the bottom left. My landscaper gave this to me (an offshoot of his tree) only a couple of weeks ago. So hopefully it will settle in and survive this winter, which is predicted to be a particularly harsh one. Here is it before the cold hit it:

Yesterday I was able to take advantage of the clear weather to provide it with some winter protection. I have wrapped it in straw, held in place by a roll of chicken wire, which is held in place by a few small posts, and wrapped in twine. Then I covered it with a clear plastic bag, also tied with twine. Fortunately, both the chicken wire and plastic bag were just tall enough. Hopefully it will give the banana a head start in Spring, so it doesn't die right back to the ground.

I was worried that it might look like an eyesore, but I think it actually looks pretty good. Maybe with a bit of decorating, this little column of plastic-wrapped straw will look like a small snowman:

Today I also removed the hoses from the 3 outdoor hose bibs, and put away the hose reels and sprinklers. I unplugged and covered the transformer for my low voltage lights, and wrapped the glass fixtures in bubble wrap. I also removed the solar light fixtures from the front yard, leaving only the stake and aluminum tubes in place so it will be really easy to replace the fixtures in Spring (I'm not sure if I should leave them there, or also remove them - any advice?).

Yesterday I noticed a small dead bird, partly covered in snow, in the bottom of our outside stairwell. Today when I went to remove it, I found it already gone. A crow or other scavenger must have found it and done the job for me. So today I am thankful for scavengers, who tidy up for us.

I have cut the gunnera leaves, and piled them over the crown, to protect it for winter. This method has worked for me in previous years, and this year I had a lot of leaves and very large ones, so hopefully that will be enough. I cut some of the flowered ends of my beautiful big floppy butterfly bush next to the front driveway, since the wet snow was weighing it down too much, and I was afraid that more wet snow would break too many branches. I also trimmed back some hydrangea branches which we already breaking under the weight of the snow. Normally I would wait until Spring, but again, it is better to cut back than to wait until they break. I could do some more trimming and clean up, but I think there is nothing really critical remaining to be done.

I think I've now ready for winter. At least in the garden. Driving may be a different story.

Congratulations Ola! One Million Giraffes!

2010-11-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the One Million Giraffes project I heard about just over a year ago, and submitted a photo of my giraffe sculpture, then some drawings of giraffes which the kids and I made?

The project was started by Ola Helland, as a bet with his friend Jorgen, that he would be able to collect one million images of hand made or hand drawn giraffes. That was a lofty challenge, and one which I was happy to lend my assistance, as did many people in 102 countries. I am happy to hear the Ola has recently reached his goal of one million giraffes, after 440 days of collecting giraffes. The web site One Million Giraffes continues to collect more giraffes - so if you missed being part of the first million, there is still a chance to submit your photos, perhaps toward the next million giraffes! A nice coffee table book (a sort of Where's Waldo? of giraffe images) containing most of the one million giraffes has emerged as a result of the project.

The book is available from Amazon.ca here or Amazon.com here, or possibly at your local bookstore. More photos and information about the book can be found here. So if you participated in the project, you can purchase the book and look for your giraffe. Or if someone is looking for something to buy me for Christmas, this is one possible idea. :-)

Squirrel Attack Makes a Snack of Jack

2010-11-12T00:28:00.000-08:00

This post is not for the faint of heart. Remember that fearless and menacing Jack O'Lantern we set out on Hallowe'en?

He has met his match. He has been reduced to a cowering, whimpering, suffering Jack, his eyes and teeth and chunks of his head viciously chewed by the real dark menace - the neighbourhood squirrels.

It's a funny thing about squirrels. They wave about that big bushy tail, and we all think they are the sweetest thing. Even I have been known to fall for their sweet mischievous looks. And judging by how the squirrels shamelessly mobbed us the last time our family took a stroll through the park, many others have succombed to their charms as well.

I have to admit, even when rushing straight towards you, isn't this one cute little creature?

Or look at this little charmer. Who wouldn't agree that she's adorable? Even if she's only after your nuts. Or in my case, my apples, pears, cherries, plums....

On the flip side of the rodent family, there are the rats. Since we have added 3 rats to our household, we have found them to be friendly, gentle, inquisitive, intelligent, and very affectionate - snuggling and licking and enjoying being handled. Quiet, clean, and full of fun. Look at this little face, isn't he a cutie?

Or this little girl? Wouldn't she just melt your heart?

But when God was handing out tails, and the squirrel picked his big bushy tail, the poor rat picked the wrong one. The one which makes us gasp, to stop and stare, or to just turn and run in fear.

Poor dear rats. If only they had picked the bushy tails, I'm sure they would been the hit of the small pet market. But instead, sadly, most of those born in captivity are destined to be snake food.

Castor Bean Plant

2010-11-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

Until recently, I had only seen photos in gardening books and seed catalogs, but the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) is a stunningly beautiful plant. See photos here.

Soon (next summer) I hope to have photos of my own, since my mom gave me two young plants which I have happily planted into my garden, one at the front of the house, and one waaay up at the back, near the shed. Some gardening friends of hers had bought some of these beautiful plants (the beautiful reddish "Sanguineus" variety), but then got scared by the description that they will grow to 15'. I am not sure in one Vancouver BC weather what to expect for growth, and winter survival, for that matter. I have only very recently spotted this plant (I don't believe I've ever seen it in "real life" before), growing beside a nearby police station. Funny thing, I thought, with this plant's reputation for use in chemical warfare and terrorism.

The toxicity of the bean (due to the protein ricin) has discouraged me in the past, but realistically, my kids are old enough now, and I can't imagine anyone picking and eating the beans (kids nowadays have plenty of food, and aren't looking for such culinary adventures). Except hopefully the squirrels, which are cute little buggers but are becoming a bit too much - this year they picked all my apples (except the few unripe ones I picked first), asian pears, pears, and many of my plums. In past years, they have eaten all my daffodils and many other bulbs (I don't even think I'm going to try planting bulbs this year).

As for winter hardiness, I am beginning to worry... I read that it is perennial in zones 8 - 11, but elsewhere I read that it likely will not survive the winter in zones 8 & 9, but will propagate by reseeding. Mine don't have seeds developed yet, and the winter is already setting in - there was snow on the local mountains yesterday morning. So I am not sure if I should hedge my bet by digging one of them up, and trying to overwinter it in the basement.Vancouver is usually pretty mild, but the predictions are for a severe winter this year (to make up for last year, when snow had to be trucked in to the local Cypress Mountain for some of the Olympic events). Does anyone have any advice?

Happy Hallowe'en

2010-10-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

I hope you all had a safe and fun Hallowe'en. The kids, now 11 and 9, decided not to go out trick-or-treating this year. So they opened the door and gave out candies to the few (much less than previous years, even though it was a clear evening - perhaps since the forecast was for rain).

We carved a pumpkin as a family, and my son also carved one at school. Enjoy!

The puppet of my daughter, which we never quite finished, became our greeter on the porch this evening.

Dried Flower Arrangements

2010-10-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I made a dried flower arrangement for our master bathroom, from lavender and dried grasses:

I think it turned out quite well. Since then, I have added some dried purple sage along the front, which filled the arrangement in nicely, and hides the green oasis. I'll try for another photo when we have a bright day, so that the colours will show better.

Anyhow, that intial success encouraged me to try again, with some Nigella from my mother-in-law, and dried Lamb's Ear, also for our bathroom (which may now be the most decorated room in the house!):

Today, I decided to make a more ambitious arrangement for the dining room, from a variety of dried flowers in the garden, picked before it rains tonight. I found a small basket in the garage which matches the colours of the dining room as well as the colours of the fall arrangement:

I'll try again for a better photo when it is bright enough not to need the flash, but this photo gives some idea of the result. My daughter thought I bought the arrangement, not made it myself, so I take that as a very nice compliment. Among the variety of dried flowers are: poppies and nigella seed pods from my mother-in-law, coneflower centers, bright red rose hips, iris seed pods (the dark ones), lavender, crocosmia, allium, and a few stars (bright green, but I suspect they will fade nicely into the arrangement) of umbrella sedge (Cyperus alternifolius). I am also drying some more stems of purple sage, and may add a few to fill in the arrangement. We'll see.

I am very pleased with the outcomes, and may make some attempt next year to dry even more flowers. For example, my globe thistle should make a wonderful cut flower if I cut and dried it before it blooms. At this point in the year, the little globes are crumbling apart.

9Oct2010: Here's perhaps a better photo of that last arrangement, with some purple sage also added in:

Zucchini Loaf

2010-09-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

What do you do when your garden overwhelms you with zucchini? Or when a friend (in my case, my mother-in-law) is blessed with an abundance of zucchini? Make zucchini loaf!

I tried this loaf a few days ago, even though I was short one egg, and didn't have cinnamon, so substituted allspice - which smelled the closest to cinnamon to me. At the time, I doubled the recipe.

I loved it so much that I decided to make it again tonight, this time with cinnamon, and I tripled the recipe. It was very difficult to mix such a large amount (in retrospect, I should have doubled, then made a second batch), and the zucchini was larger, so the peel was tough. But the wonderful aroma in the house is well worth the effort.

The recipe is from ifood.tv, this page.

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs

1 cup oil

1 Tablespoon vanilla
2 cups peeled grated zucchini
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
optional : 1/2 cup chopped dates
optional : 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

DIRECTIONS:
Beat eggs well, add sugar, vanilla and oil and mix well.
Mix dry ingredients together and add, together with dates and nuts.
Best done in electric mixer.
Pour into 2 greased loaf 5"x9" pans and bake about 1 hour at 350 F.
Remove and cool on wire rack.

I omitted the dates, since I'm not a big fan of them, and also the nuts, so that the kids are able to take the loaf to school in their lunches.

It's funny, now that I'm reading it, I see that this recipe was for 2 loaves. I was wondering why the pan was so full, and I ended up with such a huge loaf. Hmmm, next time I'd make it smaller, I think. Maybe 3 pans for double the recipe. My oven is always a bit slower than the recipe calls for, but I found it took 1 hr 40 min to be done (use a bamboo skewer to test the center - it should not be gooey). But then again, I was using twice the batter per pan than the recipe called for!

When I used the smaller zucchini, I left a small amount of peel on, so there were flecks of green in the loaf. Kinda pretty. The larger zucchini had too tough of a peel. The flavour of the loaf is mild, somewhat reminiscent of pumpkin loaf, and not too sweet. A really nice loaf to go with tea or coffee or a nice cold glass of milk. Oh, and it freezes well. If you don't eat it first, especially when it is warm out of the oven.

Colour Mosaic Monday : Black

2010-09-27T22:59:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot, this is the last colour - black - in the series at unglazed. I'm going to miss that series - thanks so much to Jen for hosting!

The colour black made me think of the Orca whale watching expedition my husband and I joined in Victoria BC, when passing through on our anniversary cruise 1 1/2 years ago. This photo mosaic looks a bit like a series of 3 postcards.

I really like the photo with the boat. We were that close at times, too, so maybe they got such a neat photo of us in our bright orange zodiac too. Exciting! The bottom photo shows 3 dorsal fins. The tall one apparently belonged to a juvenile male. The other two to his mother, and sibling (too young to be sure if a brother or sister). For more photos of that cruise and excursion, see this post from May 2009.

The colour black also made me think of my dear curly-haired rat Jenny. Here she is shortly after bringing her home. She's quite a bit bigger now, but just as sweet.

I know that to anyone who has not experienced a pet rat, it sounds very strange, but we have been amazed at how clean and fun and gentle and affectionate our pet rats have turned out to be. They are truly the hidden secret of the pet world - very much like puppies in rodent bodies. If only they didn't have that tail which is a turn-off for most people.

My Little Soccer Player

2010-09-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

My son is David becoming a very good soccer player. That's what everyone is telling me. That's why I let David kick balls (not the soccer ball, though!) around inside the house, even though I don't really appreciate that.

Today turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day and I stayed to watch David play soccer, rather than retreat with my daughter to the library nearby. Here are some photos I was able to snap this afternoon with my daughter's digital camera:

Don't we live in a beautiful part of the world? I love the backdrop of the North Shore mountains from our soccer field in North Burnaby, BC.

Colour Mosaic : Brown

2010-09-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

When Jen at unglazed suggested Brown as one of the colour themes, I didn't think there would be much to show - at least not from my garden. But when I browsed through my photos, I found a number of brown-themed ones which amused me, which I've combined into a mosaic (click image for a larger view):

In the mix you'll find bison from a nearby farm in Agassiz, BC, some of my homemade chilli and ginger chocolates, a campfire cake I made for my daughter's 10th birthday, a photo of my asian pear tree espaliered against the fence, a closeup of a wasp's nest, and a photo of our rat Sam when she was a little baby.

Colour Mosaic Monday : Purple

2010-09-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

I was feeling too tired tonight, but I couldn't resist creating a purple mosaic for both Mosaic Monday at Little Red House and Jen's Purple Theme this week at unglazed.

Purple is one of the favourites in my garden, where all but one of these photos - can you guess which one? - are from my garden (click the image for a larger view).

Otter Lake Adventure

2010-09-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

Our vacation this past week at Otter Lake (Tulameen, BC) was the perfect combination of wildlife viewing, outdoor recreation, exploration and relaxation.

The wildlife was abundant. There were black bears walking through the town, such as this one which appeared in our yard one evening. We made noises to get him to look our way, otherwise he was quite oblivious to us, grazing on the lawn. It was interesting to us that the local bears seemed to take no interest in people or in their garbage (as usually is the problem), but rather on grazing and eating berries and leaves from the bushes:

This mom with 2 cubs (one is not visible in the bush) came by our cabin one morning, again only interested in the bushes:

There were often Mule deer in the yard also, and we saw moms with their young many times while riding our bicycles and driving about (most of the time while our camera was not handy, thus this unimpressive photo):

We saw loons and diving ducks and an otter (or possibly beaver?) on the lake. There were signs of beaver activity along the edge of the lake, such as this beaver-fallen tree:

The recreation opportunities were great. We enjoyed canoeing, kayaking, and operating pedal boats in the lake:

The kids shot baskets in the hoop next to the house (with one of us keeping watch nearby in case of more bears passing through). They also tried out go karting on a nearby track:

We also enjoyed cycling part of the Trans Canada trail, the portion near Tulameen being along a former railway line, so nice and flat - although it was pretty tough going through the rocks and gravel - more suited to the ATVs using the line, than to cycling. The first time we cycled from the South end to the North end of the lake, and returned, a 3 hour round trip. We were somewhat relieved when we were blocked by some cows at the North end, since my husband would have liked to have gone further.

He went ahead to investigate whether we could pass through, but when a large bull stepped out onto the path (behind my husband, on the left), he knew this was our sign that we have better turn around:

Another day we explored the trail in the other direction, this time a 4 hour round-trip, to the town of Coalmont, and the ghost town of Granite City, which was a boom town which resulted from a 1885 discovery of gold by a cowboy named Johnny who apparently stopped at the river for a drink and discovered gold nuggets. It is interesting that there are only two places in the world where both gold and platinum are found in the same waterways, and one of them in at Coalmont, BC. The other is in a river in Russia.

On the topic of exploration, we heard from one of the locals that there were fossils which could be found fairly easily at the site of a local mine. So we spent two afternoons hunting fossils, and were amazed at how many we could discover. Most of the ones we found (at least the ones that we recognized) were of some conifer, likely sequoia or possibly pine, according to my internet searches.

Here are some photos my daughter took of some of her finds:

From my reading, the fossils are likely from the Eocene era, reportedly some 55 to 33 million years ago. Pretty amazing. We found some which looked like tree seeds, and one which is likely part of the head and backbone of a small fish. There were lots of bits and pieces and shapes which we didn't recognize.

There were also lots of opportunities to just "kick back" and relax, enjoy each other's company, and enjoy the scenery. It was a beautiful lake:

And it was a beautiful "cabin" - really a full house, with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and fully equipped kitchen and laundry, and huge outdoor deck - sitting on the waterfront with our own BBQ and fire pit and dock and access to canoes and kayaks and pedal boats:

The kids and I took some books from the public library with us, and I especially enjoyed reading Artists in their Gardens by David Laskin and Valerie Easton. It explored - with lots of photos - the gardens of a number of well-known artists in the Pacific Northwest, including Little and Lewis, concrete sculptors who inspired my concrete leaf casting attempt, painter Robert Batement, and architect Arthur Erickson.

So after a wonderful week of enjoying the wildlife, recreation, exploration and relaxation, we have enjoyed a day to unpack, organize, and prepare for the start of school tomorrow. The weather has even cooperated nicely, turning to rain today, to signal that summer is over. We are refreshed and ready.

Late Colour Mosaic : GREEN

2010-09-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Before I left for vacation last Sunday, I prepared my green mosaics and emailed them to myself, so I would be able to pick them up on my laptop, and join the colour theme at Jen's unglazed blog. But as technology would have it, the email didn't make it out of my Outbox before I left. So I'm posting them anyhow, and hopefully they will provide some enjoyment or amusement to someone.

This mosaic is a combination of wildflowers from some of our trips, as well as greenery from my garden:

My second blog is a combination of photos from a trip to Disneyland and Universal Studios a couple of years ago, as well as my daughter with Sumi, one of the mascots from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver:

Concrete Leaf Catastrophe

2010-08-31T09:50:00.000-07:00

My visions of a beautiful concrete Gunnera leaf for my garden have been shattered into pieces. Quite a number of pieces, as you can see here:

Although from this angle, it looks like there is still some potential for an artistic creation:

Perhaps a sculpture of a decaying Gunnera leaf, crumbled into pieces on the soil?

The dark green parts are where I still need to peel away the Gunnera leaf to reveal the concrete cast below. I had my husband flip the leaf for me Saturday afternoon, and I didn't have time to finish this work, since we were packing and leaving the next morning.

The imprint itself worked out quite well, with nice strong details of the veining in the leaf (again, the dark areas are where I still need to remove the leaf):

So what did I do wrong?

The biggest mistake was to start with too big of a leaf. Not only did I run out of materials (I think it should have been thicker, especially on the edges), but I created my own monster. At about 100 pounds, I am not able to handle and move it myself. Even the fragments I have now are a struggle. If it were smaller, I likely would have been able to support the leaf while trying to flip it, and then allow it to continue to cure. But as soon as my husband starting lifting the beast, it was cracking under its own weight.

If I make another attempt, it will be with a smaller leaf. Something suitable for an ornamental stepping stone in the garden. Then if all goes well, I could work my way toward a larger bird bath or focal point in the garden.

In the meantime, I will see what I can salvage of the Gunnera, and keep working on it, to learn a bit more about the process. If I can, I would like to finish pieces of it, and try painting them before Winter hits, so I can learn how the paints survive the Winter.

Color Mosaic Monday : Green - NOT!

2010-08-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes technology works for us, and sometimes it works against us. This weekend I was all ready to join Jen at unglazed with this week's theme of GREEN. I had created 2 GREEN mosaics on Saturday, and emailed them to myself, so I could collect them from my laptop from our vacation this week. But apparently they didn't make it, although various other emails from the office made it. Perhaps my mosaics are still stuck in my Outbox on my home computer, which has subsequently been turned off, for our trip.

The first was a mosaic of green foliage and flowers, mostly from my garden, some of wildflowers from hikes.

The second was a mosaic of miscellaneous greens, from Disneyland and others.

I would have also posted to this week's Monday Mosaic at Little Red House.

But I guess this time technology worked against me. :-(

On the other hand, we are having a very enjoyable family vacation, before school starts next week. Gasp!

Concrete Leaf Casting : First Attempt

2010-08-24T23:30:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in the last couple of years, I encountered a post about concrete leaf casting, and haven't been able to shake the idea out of my head since then. I was quite interested to try it last summer, and read several posts about how it's done, and the ingredients used. I also am fortunate enough to have a Gunnera plant in my garden, which seems to be getting bigger leaves every year, and which would make an awesome concrete leaf, such as this amazing creation by Little and Lewis on Bainbridge Island, WA:

Even if mine were half as awesome, that would still be very amazing. So with this dream simmering in my head for a couple years, and the recent realization that Fall is around the corner, and that the cooler temperatures would be suitable for such a project, I decided to finally take the plunge, and try it out.

I don't know how to post yet, since I won't really know for a couple of days whether it worked or not. It felt like a disaster almost every step along the way, but I am still hopeful that it worked out, and will be as amazing as I have dreamed. So I will post what I did and learned so far, and then once I know, I will post the results, and perhaps this post will be a useful lesson in either what to do or what not to do.

Challenge : Find the materials. Most "recipes" for concrete leaf castings were something like : 1 part Portland cement, 3 parts sand, and some part water and/or bonding/fortifying agent. But as I suspected, the brands and products mentioned were not available locally, so I did some investigating on the Home Depot web site, and went to the store with various product descriptions in my hand, hoping to finalize the decision. I came away with two bags I couldn't lift : 88 lb of Portland cement, and 80 lb of jointing sand. I had investigated various mixes, but all included some gravel in the mix. I wanted mine to be a fine mixture, so I chose to mix it myself, and also chose the finer jointing sand rather than construction sand.

The Home Depot store didn't carry the acrylic based bonding agent which I was seeking, but I persisted, and phoned the number on the web site, and asked them to track down the product, which was a Stone Mason "Acryli Bond" liquid. Sure enough, we found a store not too far away which carried it, and I was able to pick up a 4 L (1 gallon) bottle.

Challenge : Dust masks. They were advised for the mixing of the Portland cement, which is a fine powder. Good thing I bought a 3-pack, so my son & daughter had fun trying them out. Since I couldn't wear mine. I felt like I was being suffocated, it was too hot, and my glasses steamed up when I breathed. So after trying a few times to use my mask, I gave up on it, and just held my breath when scooping the cement, and tried to mix carefully. I pre-wet all the sand, so at least it was not dusty at all.

Here's my daughter on the porch of our shed, where I was setting up the Gunnera leaf on plastic, and mixing up my sand and cement in the wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow was a good idea. I wouldn't have managed with the deeper bucket I had originally planned. And it washed up really well afterward.

Mistake : While the porch was a great idea since it is covered to provide protection from sun or rain, and the leaf could be left there (since I can access through the one door) for a number of days, it was not at a good height for my back. Very quickly I found that my back was very sore bending over to work on it. The wheelbarrow too was too low, but I managed okay by kneeling beside it. The other problem was that it was hard to reach the back part of the leaf. Access from all sides would have been much better, such as on a sturdy old table.

Challenge : The concept was to mound of the sand to support the upside-down leaf, so when it was done, it would be a naturally cupped shape. But the Gunnera leaf I chose was quite cupped, and the amount of sand I would have required would have been more than half of my 80 lb bag!

My solution was to use instead some pots (they were nearby) to support the leaf, and use some sand sparingly in between. There were a few places the support was a bit light, but since the Gunnera was a very stiff and strong leaf, I'm hoping it was adequate. We'll find out when we flip it over, and find out if I had ripped or distorted the leaf too badly.

Mistake / challenge : Choose a small leaf to start. I didn't. I didn't feel that I had time for that. And I suspected that if I tried a smaller leaf, I would find so many challenges that even if it turned out okay, I may not be "up" to the big project, knowing what I was truly walking into. Perhaps that's true. But it would have been comforting to know what I was doing, rather than feeling on the edge of disaster through the whole process.

I had read to apply a wetter layer first, and work it into the small wrinkles and crevices in the leaf, before applying the thicker concrete. This seemed to be a very good idea. Especially since the sharp slope of the leaf (a flatter one would have been better!) made the concrete slide quickly off. So being able to work a thinner layer in would prevent some of the air bubbles I'm sure I would have had otherwise.

Challenge : Reinforcement. This photo doesn't show it well (click for a larger view, perhaps it will show better), but I used 4 pieces of 1" chicken wire to reinforce the leaf, once a thin layer of concrete was applied. The challenge was that it was difficult to bend it into a shape that matched the deep ridges and valleys of the leaf. If I didn't make it snug enough, I couldn't cover it in concrete, which would result in chicken wire showing at the back. If I pressed it in too far, the sharp edges broke through the leaf, possibly resulting in wires sticking out the front of the leaf. So I struggled for a long time with this step, with my husband trying to help with cutting and bending also (I had called for his help when I started the concrete and realized I forgot the roll of chicken wire in the garage).

Then I spread the concrete over top, using a small metal coffee can to scoop it from the wheelbarrow.

Challenge : Unhelpful help. If you have any "helpers" nearby, best to communicate with them about what you are doing, and how they can help. Sadly, when I didn't notice, my husband added more water to the wheelbarrow to "help" me. But I wasn't using water at that point, I was using the Acryli Bond liquid. And mixing the sand and cement first then adding liquid, was a better order (so the cement wouldn't clump up right away). I should have just scooped as much water back out as possible, but I decided to try to add more cement and sand to it, to get the consistency right. I ended up finishing up my whole bag of sand, adding more cement, and finally got it to a workable, although still too runny, state. Then I added some more Acryli Bond also, to make sure it would be strong enough to hold the fine edges.

Here is the finished product, about 2 1/2 hours after I started out. I finally managed to cover the chicken wire, and get a reasonable layer of concrete all around the leaf. It kept running down into the valleys, and I needed to work it back up onto the ridges. I think the finished thickness was somewhere between 1/2" to 1" thick, but since I used up the 80 lb bag of sand (other than the part I had laid underneath), and maybe 30 lb of cement, then I guess the whole thing will be over 100 lb to lift!! Wow, I guess I thought about that, but the reality had not sunk in... I will need help to lift & flip it over!

I understand the concrete cures better when kept moist, so I flipped up and laid plastic on it. Today I visited it. I have no idea how to tell if it's finished setting, so I may give it a couple of days. I sprayed it with water, and left it sleeping inside its plastic blankets.

Who knows what monster - or artistic wonder - lies sleeping there? I will know in a couple of days, when it is flipped over, and the leaf peeled off.

[Aug 31 : See result, which was not as I hoped].

Colour Mosaic Monday : YELLOW

2010-08-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

I may have some mixed feelings about the colour ORANGE from last week's theme, but I think it would be hard NOT to like this week's colour: YELLOW. Yellow is so bright and cheery and is the colour of our life sustaining Sun. Jen at unglazed may not have kicked off this week's theme yet, but I've got my yellow mosaic ready and I'm posting already on Sunday night (click any photo for a slightly larger view):

While we're on the yellow theme, I would like to also post my answer to this Spring's dilemna about what to plant in the front yard, against the granite-faced porch. I decided to plant sunflowers, and I like the way they turned out:

There are about 8 plants, but since I started them in pots, and transferred each one when it looked ready, starting from the left side, they ended up like a line of school kids, arranged from tallest to shortest. Unfortunately, the faces ended up pretty small (perhaps since it has been so dry, and I didn't keep up with watering them enough), but they got the good height (the tallest is maybe 10') which I was hoping for.

I'm also pleased to participate with this week's Monday Mosaic at Little Red House. Stop by this week for more creative and colourful (not just yellow) mosaics.

Garden Glimpses : Mid-August 2010

2010-08-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Before I show off photos from the garden, I was reminded yesterday about how important friends are. Sometimes in the busy-ness of life, I tend to forget about the imporant people in my life. I was driving home at 3:20pm to pick up the kids from camp at 4pm, which is normally about a 35 minute drive, across the Knight Street bridge from Richmond into Burnaby. But as soon as I turned onto Knight Street, I knew something was wrong. It was a parking lot. I had a sinking feeling, that there was not even any way to turn off (without doing something illegal and dangerous), so I had to just inch along and hope for the best. But within 15 minutes, I realized I had no chance to make it back in time to pick up the kids, so tried phoning my parents. No answer. So I phoned my friend Andrea.

By the time I explained to her where they were, and she looked them up on Google Maps, and headed out, needing to pick up gas along the way, she arrived about 15 minutes after the camp official end time. But still within an acceptable period of time. Meanwhile, back on the bridge, I was just crawling along, approaching and crossing the bridge (which usually takes 10 minutes) in 1 hr 50 min. So if Andrea hadn't saved me with her quick action, to pick up the kids and take them out for pizza at the Mall, I can't imagine what would have happened if I had left them there for almost 2 hours! I didn't even have a phone number to call anyone at the Camp (which is an outdoor adventure/canoeing camp this week). Thank you Andrea!

Tonight I picked some more tomatoes from the garden. I started some from seeds I collected from a small container of specialty tomatoes (purple, striped, etc) which I bought at the grocery store last year. I seem to remember a few plants of a small purple variety, but they must have been hybrids and not have come true from seed, since the tomatoes I got are considerably larger and less purple than I remember. But they were still juicy and sweet.

The yellow pear tomatoes (bottom right) are one of my favourites for their unique look and mild flavour, and I grow them almost every year. The turnip-shaped one on the bottom left must have been one from my specialty tomato purchase, although I don't remember it. It is very pretty also.

The Italian Plum tree is doing very well again this year. There are lots of small plums lying under the tree, as it goes through its self-pruning process, but it looks like there will still be lots of fruit for our family to sample also.

This is the first year I bought a number of flowers and seeds through mail order, and I have to say, the results have been quite disappointing. I may expand on that in a later post. On the other hand, I made some purchases in the Spring plant sales which have turned out very well. I also picked up a small pack of bulbs (corms) of the crocosmia "Emily McKenzie" at our local garden shop, Gardenworks, and I was pleased to notice it blooming tonight. Although maybe a bit deeper orange than I expected, it is certainly as beautiful as the photo portrayed, and I am surprised by the large size of the blooms!

This was a good find, and addition to my garden! I may seek out some yellow crocosmia next year. I already have the common orange one, and the tall red crocosmia "Lucifer".

Colour Mosaic Monday : ORANGE

2010-08-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

I recently stumbled across Jen's 8 week Crayola Colour meme on her unglazed blog, and decided to participate. I missed last week's theme of RED, but I am happy to join in for some Orange photos today.

The following is a mosaic of flowers from my garden, including daylilies, asiatic lilies, and martagon lilies (given to me by my Taiwanese friend Lily, whose mom grows them in her garden and eats the bulbs - myself, I find them far too pretty to think about eating them!):

The other orange mosaic is a miscellany of non-garden photos, including the kids wearing their bright orange vests on a canoe adventure last year across the Barnet Inlet to Indian Arm, a little pumpkin I prepared at Hallowe'en, some golden raspberries (okay, those are from my garden!), and a house sparrow (see the bottom of the "W") who found a great nest location in the safety of a Mark's Work WearHouse sign:

Today is also Mosaic Monday hosted by Mary at the Little Red House. Enjoy!

Peach Harvest and other Edibles

2010-08-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

This is my peach harvest this year:

One delicious "Frost" peach is pretty good, considering we only bought the peach tree last year. I am glad I picked the peach before the squirrel got to it. When I cut it open, I found that the stone was split, and some sort of bug had gotten to the seed before I did, but that was fine, I just cut the stone away, and the peach was very nice.

After fighting the blackberry vines for some 6 years now, which invade from two sides of my yard, this year I finally had quite a few bunches of berries hanging over the fence into my yard. I was looking forward to picking them when the neighbour at the back suddenly cut out all the vines. On one hand, I was happy to see him finally cleaning up the yard (it is a rental house, and I never see anyone in the back yard except the owner a couple times per year). But on the other hand, I was sad that his timing was off - if he had left them for another month, I would have picked quite a few berries.

But I am picking a few blackberries from the ravine side, behind my espalier trees. I enjoyed some more berries tonight:

On the other side, where my upper neighbours have a 4' retaining wall with a 5' fence on top, I see that they also have a zucchini growing into my yard:

If they don't pull up the vine any time soon, I may end up with a small harvest of zucchinis:

That would be a nice bonus.

On a sobering note, the virginia creeper on that wall tells me that Fall is just around the corner:

I'm not ready for Summer to end yet. But I believe there is just over 3 weeks left before school starts again. Yikes!

Life's Peachy - I Have Much to Give Thanks For

2010-08-10T00:25:00.000-07:00

I've been a bit discouraged lately. Too much pressure at work. Too much to do at home. Not enough hours in the day. A husband who is travelling every week now, and even leaving in the middle of our weekends. More problems recently with my neck.

But when I stop to reflect, I have much to give thanks for. In many ways, my life is even "peachy". Despite some long hours, I have kept very healthy, as have my family. My kids are wonderful, smart, happy, bring me much joy, and shower me with love. My husband still shows that he loves me also. Our business, although too hectic, is very successful. My garden is full of wonderful surprises, and gives back much more than I give it. We finally got the rain we had been waiting for, so as I dug around in the ground tonight, the soil was moist - a very refreshing change to the recent dryness. Recently, I even received a miracle related my neck.

Speaking of peaches, though, I was showing my neighbours John and Sandy my garden this evening, and they convinced me to pick my single peach before the squirrel picks it, as he does with many of my apples and cherries and such. Ha, maybe for a change he will be out there cursing tomorrow that I picked it before it he got to it! Anyhow, the peach already had wonderful colour, so I took a chance that it is ripe enough to come inside and finish the process on the kitchen counter.

I like this photo of the peach from tonight, the onions are courtesy of the book "Play with Your Food" by Joost Elffers. It is a wonderful book we bought long ago, which has provided amusement to us and the kids over the years.

Here is the peach in hand, to give a sense of its size. The lighting was not good, since it was already dark outside when I took the photo.

As for my neck, it was about a year ago that I first put it out of alignment, and after weeks of pain in my arm, found a chiro who was able to ease it back into alignment for me - see original post here Sadly, I have put it out again three more times over the past year. The second time was in February, and I was reaching up and pruning my gigantic butterfly bush, trying not too look up more than necessary (since I had been warned that this could put it out again), and reaching up and pulling down those big branches. I knew it right away. Sadly, it required three visits to my chiro before the adjustment "held". Each time, I went through the stiffness and soreness for a couple of days after the adjustment, only to be disappointed that the discomfort in my neck (it feels like burning at the base of my neck on the right side) and the pain in my arm was still there.

This most recent incident, I was doing some sort of reaching up and lifting something. I can't even remember if it was in the garden, or pulling pots down from my pantry, or what. There was no pain in the arm as such, just a funny aching feeling, but the familiar burning on the side of my neck. I have been to two adjustments this time, and as the stiffness is wearing off, I'm trying to decide if I'm good now, but sadly I'm still feeling some funny sensation in the neck, so I may need to go back for another check and possible adjustment. Which makes me appreciate even more the miraculous healing I received the last time my neck went "out".

It was the end of June, and I was packing and preparing for the trip to Mt. Hood. My husband was arriving late that night, and we'd all be leaving the next morning. So I was packing for the 3 of us, and trying to get as much laundry and such done so he'd be able to pack easily the next morning. It was early evening when I realized that I had put my neck out. It was unmistakable. But even if I could phone for an appointment, I wouldn't have been able to get in at such a late hour, and we couldn't wait the next morning, since we had some 7 hours of driving ahead of us, and were determined to arrive in time for dinner.

So I laid myself down on my side, trying to remember the position my chiro had laid me in, a number of times already. Then I prayed that the Lord would have mercy on me and heal me, so that I would be able to enjoy my family and going hiking, and all those good things which we had planned on our trip together. Praise God, He did heal me. Although not for any reasons or anything I did, but just because He chose to do so. When I sat up, I was stiff, just like I am after an adjustment by the chiro. But later that evening, all the pain and discomfort was completely gone, and I wasn't even sore for the next couple of days, as I usually am. The adjustment worked, and wonderfully.

So a couple of weeks ago, when my neck went "out" again, I tried a number of times, lying down and praying for healing. But each time, the answer I seemed to be getting was that I should get off my butt and phone my chiro for an appointment. Which I did. Funny enough, it is the repeated failed attempts to adjust it now which have made me more grateful for the healing which I did receive. Just in case I believed it was so easy just to lie on my side, and the neck would go back "in" on its own. Yeah, just in case. God is good.

Late July Garden Photos - Overgrown Green Jungle?

2010-08-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

Is it August already? This summer is flying by so quickly. Although we can't complain in Vancouver, we have had an amazing stretch of hot and dry weather. So at least we have really had a summer! Here are a few very recent photos of my garden.

Looking at this side, I wonder why the peach is referred to as a "fuzzy navel", since it sure looks more like a "fuzzy rear end" (click any image for a slightly larger view):

I can't help but visit my one little peach every time I go into the yard. I keep taking photos, since I'm sure that the squirrel will pick it before it is fully ripe. But even so I still hope that I will get a taste of it myself.

The grapes are looking very promising. I'm hoping that I will have a small taste of all 3 varieties this year. We'll see:

We hosted a BBQ last weekend for some 60 - 80 people, and I got many inquiries and comments on my garden. But my husband, who tries but can't seem to appreciate what I am creating back there, recently told me that I have too much green and not enough "flowers", and it has all grown too large. Hmmm, what do you think? This is a view from the 2nd floor balcony, looking into the back yard:

It is true that I am crazy about foliage, and very strictly "don't do annuals", which tend to be the brightly coloured bloomers. But I think there are lots of neat flowers and foliage when examined a bit closer. Such as these pretty coneflowers from the "Cone Crazy" collection:

These Kwanzo daylilies form a pretty good patch of orange:

As do these other unnamed daylilies from my friend, whose name is also Lily:

I have oriental lilies also, most of which are fragrant, too:

And yes, I like foliage, like the large rough hands of the gunnera reaching up to the sky in the corner of my yard:

This lacey japanese maple cascading softly over the hard concrete wall (with the spiky balls of globe thistle standing tall behind it):

And I have some garden decorations. Not lots, but some well placed decorations such as this dragonfly, perched high above the bold leaves of the Rodgersia:

I really like this corner of the garden. It has a few colours too. I see pink and white and yellow. And lots of textures and shades of green.

And how about this view up the steps? Even without counting the orange, blue, pink, white and purple flowers, there are reds and purples and silver-blues in the foliage too.

And then there are our newly-placed birdhouses, which are very colourful:

What do you think? Do I have enough flowers and colours in my garden? Or is it just a big overgrown jungle of too much green?

The Price of a Cute Photo

2010-07-20T23:02:00.000-07:00

It seemed to be a good idea at the time. It would make a cute photo, for sure. I stuck our youngest rat, Jenny, into one of the birdhouses which we recently posted out in the yard, after it sat way too long (more than a year!!) on our kitchen counter. (Ironically, last year's post talks about hoping to post the houses before the big company BBQ last July, and it is this year's BBQ (this coming weekend) which finally prompted them to be posted out.

After a long wait, I was able to get a wonderful photo of her (him?) poking her nose out the doorway of the bird house (click photo for a slightly larger view):

Of course, it occurred to me only after she was in the house, that the rat with the darkest face was probably not the best choice for this photo. This photo shows her face a bit better:

Well, getting a rat into a small cozy dark space is easy, but getting one out is a totally different story. Good thing I was on a lunch break (I work from home on Fridays), and the weather was wonderful for being outside, but I didn't plan to spend half an hour on this photo. But once Jenny got in there, she didn't want to come out, even with my attempts to call her, entice her with food (which she bit and then retreated inside to chew), poke her with a stick (she thought that was fun, playing with the stick!). Finally I had to stand some distance away, wait until she was curious enough to start coming out, and then snatch her up before she changed her mind and went back inside.

My immediate feeling was "I won't do that again!" But soon I began wondering if I'd be better to try this with Sam, who would be too big to find the house so comfortable, and is better trained to come to my voice, or more easily enticed by an edible "treat".... I may just get myself into trouble again, but sometimes that's the price of a cute photo!

Here are photos of the other bird houses, mostly set on the posts holding the supports for our 3 espaliered trees. This one is not too colorful, since we bought it already painted. We may eventually paint it more within our bright color scheme:

This one is surrounded by the red currant bush which grows between the espaliered asian pear and espaliered european pear:

The twin posts holding up my monstrous yellow perennial (I've forgotten if it's a Heliopsis or what) had a bird house from long ago, but it is now joined by a tiki bird feeder:

Girls Camp Out and Ratty Dilemna

2010-07-17T06:34:00.001-07:00

My daughter had two friends over last night, and the 4 of us "girls" slept in the tent in the back yard last night. I didn't sleep well. Not because the girls didn't settle until close to midnight, and a robin perched in a tree in our yard and started singing loudly at 4:30am. No, I wasn't sleeping anyhow, I was tossing and turning, and trying unsuccessfully to solve our rat dilemna.

Our first rat, Sam, is a girl. When we bought her, we had no intention of having more than one, so didn't even think to ask about gender. Not that it mattered, since the pet store staff may not have gotten it right anyhow. So when we realized she was a girl, I was a bit anxious, since my friend Andrea, who is a wonderful ratsitter for Sam when we go on vacation, had in the meantime adopted 3 boy rats. Sadly, her 3 boys caused terrible allergies, and needed to find another home. But I was still a little anxious about having a girl rat, considering the frequency and size of litters if she were ever to become pregnant.

So when we realized that she would be happier with a companion, we set out to find her a female one. We ended up with a sweet dumbo eared rat, Berry, and curly "Rex" rat, Jenny. But last night we realized that Berry is now Bear, a boy rat. Since we bought him July 6, and I'm guessing he was maybe 3 weeks old, that would make him approximately 5 weeks old. Although not likely, females are able to become pregnant as early as 5 weeks. So as I tossed and turned in the tent, I kept trying to work out the age of Berry. She was probably 2 weeks old when we bought her on July 9, so she is about 3 weeks old now. Assuming she's a girl, at what point is it no longer "safe" to have Bear and Jenny together in the hamster cage? Probably best if we sort out this living arrangement within the next week or so, just to be sure.

Bear may almost be big enough (that he can't squeeze out) to join Sam in the big cage, but that is no longer an option for us. Jenny is probably still too little to join Sam. But can we leave her that long with Bear, or need a separate hamster cage for her? But then I end up with 3 rats in 3 cages, with no companions for any of them!

My first reaction last night was that clearly Bear had to find another home, and soon. But then as I tossed and turned, I wondered, what if Jenny was actually Jimmy, a boy, too? Even then, I couldn't bear to give him away, too. In which case I should have kept Bear, and then we'd have 2 boys, would could be good friends, and poor Sam, who is still without a companion. Two large rat cages in our kitchen. Make sure we don't let the boys and girls out at the same time, but otherwise we could still play with them whenever we wanted.

Without being clear on Jenny vs Jimmy, it is hard to know what cage to buy next, or whether to start advertising to find a home for Bear. So when the robin started singing at 4:30am, I took the opportunity to step out of the tent to scare it to a more distant tree, and search the internet for some answers.

I found many pages on "sexing rats", and the best one was this one. But without being able to hold her side by side against similar aged rats, I am still not sure which of the photos more closely match our dear Jenny. So even though I turned her over a number of times to look at her, I couldn't be sure one way or the other. But I do know that I can't trust that the pet store staff thought she was female. They thought the same of Bear.

So then I found myself reading about curly haired or "Rex" rats, with mixed result. Although Jenny's curly whiskers will always be curly, there may be various moults and regrowths of her curly hair which may not be as curly as I had hoped. I learned also that her colouration is actually called "bareback" instead of "hooded", since she has the "hood" part but doesn't have the stripe running down her spine.

Then there is the sneezing. Both Bear and Jenny sneeze a fair amount, even though they are in the recommended aspen bedding, and there are no obvious reasons why they would have allergies. Sam, on the other hand, has never sneezed, at least not that we've noticed. But my reading didn't answer my questions, and even the people who went to their vets didn't seem to get clear answers why their rats were sneezing when they didn't exhibit other signs of sickness.

So finally, I ended up on Craigslist, searching for another large rat cage. Rather than a second hamster cage, this way we'd be prepared long term for whatever decision we end up making. I found a good one at a good price, and emailed the owner about it, but just need to wait until I can follow up, since it is only 6:25am.

The 3 campers are awake now, and in the house. They all have freshly painted fingernails and toenails. My son just came downstairs also. So I guess that's it for any attempts at sleeping. I'll catch up another night.

Third and Final Ratty Girl: Jenny

2010-07-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

When my daugher picked out Sam some 3 months ago, I found a beautiful little hooded (black head, white body) rat with curly hair. The curly hair is really different. (It's apparently only the occasional rat that comes out curly, and none of the adult rats there seem to have curly hair.) But we only wanted one rat at the time, so we brought home our beautiful Sammy:

Since then, we have realized that it was not fair to Sam to leave her alone, and I set out to find another curly haired rat. We've stopped in at the pet store a few times, without success. Then on Monday, I found my girl. But she was still too small to remove from her mom. So I told the ladies at the pet store that I would be back Friday, and take her if she was ready.

At the same time, my daughter found the little dumbo eared girl, which she adored, and wanted as well. So we ended up returning for her on Tuesday. She is called Berry.

Then on Friday, we returned for my little girl, Jenny. She is the most adorable rat I've seen, with her curly hair - and even curly whiskers!

Now that we have the 3 girls, I think we are done. Our household is complete now.

Berry and Jenny are too small to join Sam in her cage (they could squeeze between the bars), and after some initial skirmishes between Berry and Jenny, we had all 3 in separate cages for a couple of days. Then this morning, I moved Jenny into Berry's (hamster) cage, because she had dumped over her small water dish (in a bottle cap) in her tiny cage (which is actually a carry-cage), and in the larger cage with Berry, she would have a more consistent supply of food & water.

There were a few tense moments, just before we headed to church this morning, watching them pouncing and rolling on each other, some foot and tail biting, and some squeaking. But by the time we had returned, they were both together in their makeshift hammock formed by a sock with the toe cut out. So I think they should be good now. When the two get bigger, they will join Sam in the multilevel cage.

Another Girl in the (Ratty) House

2010-07-06T23:24:00.000-07:00

...or at least we sure hope she's a girl! Since we are not looking to breed more rats!

Do you remember our rat, Sam, which we brought home 3 months ago? She's a sweet little girl, and has added lots of enjoyment to our family life. We haven't taken nearly enough photos of her, since she's a very active girl, and is hard to catch on camera. The photo on the top right is when we first brought her home (click for a larger view):

We have realized for a while now that she needs a ratty friend, especially since she's awake most of the night, while we're sleeping. Then we're away most of the day, at work/school, so she needs more socializing. Last night we went to the pet store, to pick out another girl, and I found one I adore, but she is still too young to remove from her mother. We hope to return on Friday or on the weekend, to bring her home.

In the meantime, my daughter held a dear little tan Norwegian hooded rat with dumbo ears, and instantly bonded with her. I resisted, since it was my turn to pick a rat, and I had already picked one. But on the way home, I realized that we wanted this one also, and we really could accomodate 3 rats. So I told my daughter that if she was still there Friday when we returned, we'd get her also. But by this evening, we were running back to the store to pick her up. We would have been very disappointed if she was sold in the meantime.

Here she is, my daughter has named her "Berry" (named in honour of "Bear", another dumbo rat which my friend Andrea had for only a short time, before she sadly discovered that she was allergic and couldn't keep her 3 boys - we still don't know why, since Sam doesn't bother her at all). In all the excitement tonight, and trying to introduce her to Sam, we didn't get any good photos, but here are a few we managed to capture:

So far, the introduction went well. They sniffed each other a bit, but largely ignored each other. So we let Berry climb around in Sam's cage for a while with Sam removed, and then let Sam back in. A few times, Berry chased Sam, and it looked like she was hoping Sam would be her mommy, but Sam wouldn't have it. Berry made herself comfortable inside Sam's usual tissue box, so Sam found her way into the other tissue box, and mostly retreated into her hammock. We made popcorn to celebrate the new girl in the house, and both enjoyed eating in their separate areas. Once Berry grows up a bit, she will be a good friend for Sam, I'm sure of it.

Stay tuned for my new rat coming soon. I can hardly wait to bring her home. Right now she's pretty tiny, and hasn't opened her eyes yet. She still needs her mommy.

More Wildflowers at Mt Hood

2010-07-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

As promised, I am posting more wildflower photos from our trip to Mt Hood.

Trilliums:

Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry or Perennial Dogwood):

Adiantum aleuticum (Western Maidenhair Fern):

Other native wildflowers:

And finally, one of the kids at the fishing dock at Trillium Lake was pulling up salamanders by the bucketful, using only a line with a worm attached to it. I couldn't resist to pull one out to get a better look and a photo:

It seems that this may be a species of Taricha, or Western Newt. Apparently they produce toxins, including in their skin, but I didn't feel anything. It was adorable. I would have picked it up even if it irritated my skin.

For more lovely mosaics this week, visit Little Red House.

Bear Grass Surprise at Mt Hood, OR

2010-07-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

Our family just returned tonight from a wonderful 4 night vacation near Mt Hood, Oregon. We spent some time hiking, visiting various waterfalls and lakes and other viewpoints, and relaxing at the Mount Hood Resort, mini-golfing, playing tennis, and enjoying some wonderful spa treatments.

Most of the native plants and wildflowers were quite familiar to me, theirs being a very similar climate to ours along the west coast of BC. But one which I had never seen before, and which really impressed me, was the Bear Grass (Xerophyllum tenax), as featured in the following mosaic. It was my husband who first spotted the white spider (Goldenrod Crab Spider or Misumena vatia) hiding in one of the blooms (rightmost photo), successful at catching an unsuspecting visitor. After that, we found many of the blooms inhabited by that spider, many of them successful also. Click the photo mosaic for a larger view.

I took many photos of the native plants along the trails, including trilliums, Cornus canadensis (bunchberry), Adiantum aleuticum (western maidenhair fern), and the beautiful pink rhododendrons which grew wild in the forests near the base of Mt Hood. I hope to post more photos soon, but since it's after midnight, it will need to wait for another day.

For more photo mosaics, be sure to visit this week's Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.

Don't They Ever Sleep?

2010-06-27T23:48:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, my husband phoned from the department store, asking if he should buy a tent. The kids and I answered "NO". He bought it anyhow, along with a second air mattress. Then next thing we knew, we were setting it up in the back yard, and the 2 kids & I all slept in it that night. It's a huge tent, with an optional divider in the middle which makes it two rooms, each with its own door and two windows, and with plenty of room for a double air mattress on each side.

I know when we keep our windows open at night, I sometimes need to close them by 4:30 or 5am, since the birds are so noisy it is hard to continue sleeping. But I was surprised that in the tent, the commotion starts much earlier. At 3am, I already heard swallows flying. Then at 4am, a small bird started singing in earnest. By 5am, the crows were on the move, and calling loudly to each other. We were all quite ready to get up by 7am.

This weekend, our nephew stayed with us, so we set up the tent again on Friday night, and the 2 boys slept on the one side, while we girls slept on the other side. Same story. By 3am, sounds of birds stirring. (If anything else had wandered by earlier, I must have been sleeping and didn't hear it.) The weather had also changed from a clear sky (and view of the full moon!) at midnight, to totally dark and overcast by 3am. Good thing it didn't rain, so allowed us to take down the tent while still dry the next morning.

I was just about to go to sleep tonight, when I noticed a bird singing outside. He's been singing for over half an hour, since I noticed him (it's now past 11:45pm). I'm wondering what he's thinking. It got dark at about 9:30pm. Or are there enough lights in the city, that he is staying up a little longer than he should? Anyhow, even though the "camping" is fun (and we hope to do more of it this summer, maybe invite some of the kids' friends over), I'm happy that I'll soon be crawling into a warm, comfy bed. And if this poor confused bird keeps singing, I can close the windows.

New Look for My Young Lady

2010-06-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

A while back, my daughter asked me to cut her hair real short for the summer. I am very impressed with her, that she will take chances with new looks and trying new things. I am also glad that she still has confidence in my ability, to ask me to try it. I have never had any training in hair cutting. I've never really been one to fuss with or style my hair, it's pretty much tied in a ponytail and that's that. But ever since I can remember, I've always cut my own hair (my mother in law trims the back now that it's too long for me to reach), and since we got married, have cut my husband's, and the kids' too.

I guess I just take the approach that in the worst case, hair will always grow back. That takes off the pressure, and allows me to experiment without too much fear. And so far, I've done a pretty decent job, I think. But this one was a bit of a challenge for me, since I don't have any experience with short hair styles for ladies, and didn't want to cut it to match the two men in the house! So it took a bit of thinking, and searching the internet for inspiration. I think this Meg Ryan photo on right was my main inspiration (no, I was not specifically looking for any "stars", but that's who seemed to show up in my searches for hair styles).

At 11 years old, my daughter April is already becoming quite a little lady. Smart, determined, concerned, responsible... I think the short hair will suit her personality. Not to mention that we are always annoying her by asking her to brush her hair - again! - since it still looks messy. Here is her "before" photo tonight:

The bangs have become too long to be bangs (she wants to grow them out again), and the curls go wherever they wish. (I love curls, since my hair is completely straight, but now I also appreciate the challenge they present.)

Here she is "after". The aim for the new style is that she will no longer need to brush it, just brush the back straight, and push the top with her fingers, maybe add a bit of gel if necessary (a bit more height on it may look even better):

We'll find out tomorrow and in the next few weeks whether the decision was a good one. But for now, I'm pretty happy with the new look.

Masked Visitor to the Garden

2010-06-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

The kids and I were eating at the kitchen table the other day when something passed within inches of our sliding glass door to the deck. A raccoon! I jumped up to get the camera on the counter, and looked out, but didn't see him anymore. Then a moment later, the kids shouted that he was along the fence, so I slid open the door and caught his attention for a photo, before he hopped down into the upper neighbour's yard.

Skimmers, Raspberries, Fuzzy Navels and Magical Garden Lights

2010-06-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

I somehow managed to hurt my left shoulder today, so decided to be careful and not go into the garden after work. But then I saw this little beauty sitting on my retaining wall, and next thing I knew, I was walking about, then doing a bit of weeding. I believe this is some sort of "Skimmer" dragonfly. It is not common in my yard. I think I've only seen it once before. I hope he visits more often.

My son David was anxious to try out his gardening gloves we bought on the weekend. He was the one asking me today whether we could go into the garden. He enthusiastically pulled a LOT of weeds and some very large horsetails. He is a wonderful helper for me. I hope he continues to enjoy gardening.

Earlier in the spring, I had my landscaper help me clean up my raspberry patch, since it was overgrown with various weeds, had no room to expand, and was getting hard to wade in to pick the berries. Now it is in two neat rows, but the plants suffered quite a bit from being pulled up and replanted, especially since it was a sunny warm week when we did it (unfortunately, I didn't have much control over the timing).

I knew there would be at least a temporary setback in fruit production. Sure enough, for some while, the plants have looked quite sad, although they did manage to still put out a number of flowers, and the bumblebees have been busy pollinating. Today I noticed the first few ripe berries. Perhaps I've been forgiven. I'm relieved. Plants are wonderfully resilient.

I'm still anxiously watching my little peaches. This is the largest one. I hold my hand close to it for size reference, but I dare not touch it.

My landscaper came and cut the lawn today, and connected the low voltage wire through the path lights I had set up. Unfortunately, he didn't connect the 3 spotlights. That will be next time. But he did plug in the transformer before he left. I had almost forgotten, and looked outside while the kids were getting ready for bed, and noticed the inviting glow of the lights. I had to run out to take a photo or two or three... What do you think, is it magical yet?

Rainbow Mosaic Header

2010-06-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

After waiting more than 4 years to create my first header, a photo collage from my garden....

...only weeks later, I am experimenting with a replacement header (click for full-size image):

This one a photo-mosaic made from my garden photos, in rainbow colours. I'm not sure I like this one better, though, it is not as vibrant, nor does it contain as many of my "favourite things". What do you think?