Summer is winding up!

 The summer is slipping by far too quickly.  The ridiculous heat and humidity we've had so much of this year, is something I'm not sure I'll adapt to easily.   However, there are already signs showing how short our summers are.  I drove down a nearby road the other day and there was a tree with a lone branch already turning colours.   I know this could also be due to lack of moisture, but I'm still not sure I'm ready for the leaves to turn colour.   Hubby also brought in a load of kindling yesterday.  I asked if it wasn't too early for that, but he pointed out that we'll likely have to have our first fire in 4 to 6 weeks.  Plus there are the crickets.  They are an end of summer bug; a noisy, loud, end of summer bug.

Speaking of bugs.   I noticed 3 big caterpillars on my parsley plant.  I looked them up and they were parsley worms, or the caterpillars that turn into Swallowtail Butterflies.   The next day there were only 2 of them, and today there aren't any.  They were very slow and hardly moving and large enough that a friend who has watched some all summer, said they were ready to spin their cocoons.   I looked around a bit but didn't see any cocoons, so I'm hoping they found a safe place and weren't dinner for the chooks, who have been hanging around begging for leftovers and treats!   I also hope if they did spin cocoons that they have time to complete their metamorphosis  before it turns too cold here.

With only 1 tomato plant, which was supposed to be a cherry tomato but has turned out to give large,
yellow albeit delicious fruit, I purchased a couple of baskets of tomatoes.  I quickly peeled them, chopped them up and tossed them into the canner.   I've done 2 batches this way.  It means 2 hours at most at one time for canning, unlike having a bushel and it taking 2 full days to do them up.   I remembered how easy it was that year that my tomatoes ripened slowly and I had a canner load every 3 days or so.   That was really the best way to do it.

I'm passing on my big counter balance loom.   I have a smaller jack loom which has been unused for well over a decade.  I've decided to clean it up and switch them out since the counter balance is just a bit too big to be comfortable these days.   A friend wants it so hopefully two of us will be happy about this.

I put this on the rigid heddle loom last night.   Mary Maxim is having their tent sale and while they tend to have a lot of middle of the road yarns for quality, nice but not exceptional, their prices, especially at the sale are decent.   They didn't have much sock yarn, but this stuff was nice.   The  only thing is that it is DK weight, and sort of in-between reed sizes.   It's interesting because of the way the colour changes are painted.  I thought it might be more serendipitous plaid like but it's not at all.  It's lovely in this part, with the section which is mainly white, but a little different in the next colour change with the darker blue and the little black bits.    This photo was taken at night, so despite the flash, it is dull.   The white is nice and creamy and the blue parts area. really nice shade.  The vertical black spots are great, but the part I'm not sure about is when the black and blue are in the weft, and go horizontally.  I don't have enough of this yarn to cut out the blue and black sections, and have enough yarn for the weft left and it wasn't cheap enough to grab another ball to play with, so I'm going with it.  I won't really know what it's like until it's off the loom and washed.  It could end up being lovely.

Rant and summer colour update

We saved up all our pennies for 5 years because we needed a new car.  The old truck was on the road for 2 or 3 years longer than we would have liked.   We shared my car last year because winter safety and then general safety, was more important than me getting out of the house, which was a bit difficult sometimes, but it's what was needed.   We did without a lot, stopped purchasing unnecessary stuff, used our leftovers, stopped eating out at restaurants, carefully weighed costs vs expectations  for classes etc, and I mended a lot of clothes.   It's not that we did totally without, as we took small vacations etc but were actively saving for the car first, now a new roof and to get 2 mature trees professionally removed because the previous owner planted them in a stupid spot: both of them in different stupid spots!  

 So why do some people find this an issue?   Like I'm supposed to just go and spend whatever I want whenever, when I have a budgeted amount of mad money for the year and refuse to go over my budgeted amount?    I have to pick and choose what I do, and I'm okay with it.   Somehow I don't think anyone else should be ticked off that we chose to find a way to make our budget work well for us!

Rant over and it was due to comments and actions of some acquaintances and friends.  And nope, just because we have our car now, I still can't afford to get that or do that.  By the way the car is nice.  It's not horribly special or exotic but all cars are stupidly expensive right now, so what can you do? 

This little guy, or his relatives have lived in our woodpile since we moved here.   He's not overly tamed or friendly but he's getting better about not racing off as soon as I try to take a picture of him.   I'm not a huge fan of small rodent creatures living this close to the house, but he's better than some it could be.  I do mean that I'd freak a bit if there was a honking huge rat sitting there, like we used to see sometimes on the farm!  We lived on a road with almost all dairy farms, so there were tons of them when someone tried to eradicate them from a barn.  ICK!

The black eyed Susans were out in full force on our last walk.   The field that had all the poppies in the spring is now filled with these and some clumps of bergamot.   I really wonder if someone tossed a bunch of seed out into that field, or if they are natural.  There are just so many of them.   My only experience with wild flowers in unused field areas, is from a different area, with less farming and more bush, and a colder climate, so maybe all these flowers are normal for this climate zone?

One of our favourite trails has several different trail routes you can take.  It's a mix and match thing, giving lots of choices on how long, what sort of terrain and what you'd like to see on the trail.  One part of the trail runs through this spot, with a single bit of railway track persevered.   It's fun and an odd spot for something like this, but it fits.  Despite there being 2 different working railway tracks on two sides of the conserved area, there is a little bit you can safely walk on and have fun with.

Elecampane.   I planted this because I'd read some natural dyeing information which suggested that you could get black with the roots.   Someone warned me you might never get rid of it once it was planted, but I thought that I was safe.   It has giant leaves on the base, with a few small leaves up the very long stalk and a rather spindly flower.  It's not full, it gets scraggly easily.  I think it will dye a yellow, but I dug up the whole patch to try the roots once to see if it gave black and got nothing but a lovely clear dye bath.   And now, after having dug up my whole plot of the flower, it's growing in other parts of my garden?  Like how does it do that?  Like madder, it's not a horribly lovely plant, but I guess at least it's not prickly like madder is!

Wild Flower Bounty

 On a short hike today, there were lots of wild flowers.   This particular trail looks different in every season, and different with whatever trail or paths you follow. The terrain goes from field, to woodland, to wetlands to lake side, with softwoods, cedar, pines and some deciduous areas as well.   The fields on both sides of the trail were full of wild poppies.  They were so pretty and the little dots of red, with the white clover and purple alfalfa.   There were pops of bright green spurge as well.

Canada Anemone was blooming all along one of the riverside trails.  It was so very pretty.

The Fleabane has started flowering there, well before anywhere else that I've seen this year.  I don't think that fleabane actually deters fleas.  It sometimes takes over a bit in places in my garden, but it's pretty, so I don't mind too much.

I think this is some sort of Coreopsis, but I don't think it's a wild flower.  However there used to be a pollinator garden plant display, so I wonder if some of these flowers have been seeded from that garden.  There are a couple that seem more like garden plants that wild flowers.

Like this Dianthus, or Sweet William, which I think must have been seeded from the old pollinator garden, or someone sprinkled some wild flower seeds, or other flower seeds in some areas last fall.   

Ox eye daisies were blooming on some of the sides of the trails in sunny areas.   I remember making daisy chains as a kid and braiding them into my horses mane and forelock.  He was a very patient pony! The walk today was so much fun with all the flowers.  I'm sure hubby was a bit frustrated at times because I stopped an awful lot to take photos.  It was so lovely to see the pops of colour along the trails.

This is one tiny part of one of the fields of wild poppies.  The spurge is a bright green, in behind the poppies.   It seems like something I should try to paint, with all the greens and pops of reds.   

A Crazy few weeks, but still things get done.

 What odd and icky weather we've had.   Sunday we had frost warnings and apparently there was a frost delay on the local golf courses.   It's been cool, so cool that we've had to run the wood stove until the very end of May, which has never happened before.   Today though, was lovely and I got to hang laundry, dry fleece and spend a lot of time outside, without a toque, mitts and sweater.

The garden is half planted.  The beds aren't warm enough yet to plant the beans and I'll need to get a few more onion sets as a raccoon got a few the first night I planted them.  I've now got towers of tomato cages protecting freshly planted seeds and seedlings.   I've a couple of pots left to clean out and have a few more bags of composted manure to spread.  The cool weather though, means that everything else I'd like to plant is delayed anyway, so I'm not really behind.

Today I saw this pretty butterfly that I identified as an Eastern Swallowtail. It was gathering nectar from a late flowering lilac bush, a Persian Lilac.   Its scent is different from a true lilac, but it always flowers.  Since it flowers after the true lilacs, it nicely extends the season, which is good for extra colour in the garden.

I've started washing Dorset/Friesian cross fleece that A gave me.  The first batch was done my usual way, which was 3 washes and 3 rinses.  It works well and the dirt and lanolin was all gone.  Today, I soaked the fleece in water for a couple of hours before washing it.  I was going to  soak it 24 hours, but then A called up asking if I was available for a spinning day tomorrow.  To make sure I had enough fleece to spin, I drained it, washed it twice and rinsed twice.   Instead of using my salad spinner to spin out the water, I whizzed the laundry bag of fleece around outside.  I was amazed at how quick and effective this was.   I laid the fleece out on the deck,  between sheets of screening on a laundry rack.  It dried in just a few hours.  I've now run a few bats through a drum carder to use tomorrow!

It's really dark black, not grey.

I made a hat for a Christmas present for my daughter.   It's black.  I was going to make black mittens to go with it, but have decided that I really don't like knitting with black yarn that much.  It was commercial dyed black and the stitches were so difficult to see.  I think I started it 8 times before I bought a new, very short needle to make it work.  I'm very happy with how it turned out though.  I over exposed the photo so that the pattern could be seen, because it looked solid black otherwise.

The grey and black sock yarn scarf is off the loom and needs to have the fringes twisted and to be wet finished.   I'm not going to pass judgment on it yet, as I think wet finishing will remove the spinning oils and could end up with a different feeling project.

The SCA A&S event on the May long weekend was a success despite a bit of rain and some very cool weather.   It took me almost a week to unwind from it, which is mainly because I picked up a couple of good novels,  an Ann Cleeves mystery and a hilarious sort of romance by R.J. Blain.   I do enjoy a few days just to read.    

A good start to May

We've had a very slow time easing into spring.  We've had snow storms, ice storms, wind, rain and cool weather.  We're even still loading up the wood stoves because the evenings are cool or uncomfortably damp.  However, that doesn't seem to stop Mother Nature from keeping things from happening.    There is a green haze on most of the trees.  We have baby leaves!   The oak trees and a few other very late  leafing deciduous trees aren't quite there yet, but they never are this early.   Some of the flowering trees are in bloom.   We always have leaves on most of the trees by Mother's Day, and despite people's worries about the trees leafing out late this year, it's happening just like it should.

I got my little tray of watercolour paints out and played around with some new techniques to make non-wintery scenes.   I've played with flowers, winter scenes obviously because I paint my Xmas cards, and have started experimenting with summery scenes.   These 2 worked out well enough that I'm happy with them, but I'll practice some more. While I've seen a few sunsets like this one, with pale colours, many of ours tend to be a bit more dramatic with deep oranges and purples.  Sunrises though, often have pale pinks and lilacs, if you catch the right time.  They are fast and the colours don't last all that long.   I decided to send out a few birthday cards though, so I figured I should practice about bit for summer cards.

I've been spinning up some of the leftover bits and pieces from my "stash" of leftovers from over the years.   This is some green ramie.  I had purchased 1/2 lb of it, and spun up maybe 3/4 of it and left the rest.    I remember it being quite slippery and an effort to spin.   Obviously my skills have developed because instead, it's just effortlessly sliding off my fingers into lovely, fine singles.    I should have divided it into two equalise pieces of roving before I started though, so I could have spun two bobbins for plying.  Instead I'm going to have to much around with either guessing or plying from a centre pull ball.   While that is how I first learned to ply, I've found over the years, that you have to be very careful when plying fine yarns from centre pull balls, so that they don't collapse in on themselves and tangle before you finish plying.  It's been fun to spin though, because I don't seem to have to really think a lot about it while spinning.  It means I can chat or "egads" watch the hockey game at the same time.

This is my friend A's dog Teddy.   While he's getting older and a bit greyer, with thinning fur, he still blends remarkably with the rug.  He's exactly the same colour as the rug and in the right light, and angle, the parts of him that are his original colour really could be the rug.   He's a sweety and a very cuddly dog with his kids.   Today though was funny as he was sleeping when I arrived for spinning day and he didn't notice for about a 1/2 hour.  Then of course, as the good watch dog he is, he made sure to let everyone know that I was visiting.. too funny.

Nature's Promise Revealed

 

Last Crocuses - such a pretty colour

On the eve of the Winter Solstice, I light a candle to help light the way for longer days.   We've had a rather dramatic winter this year, with the winds, lake effect snows, and variable weather.  It was an abnormal winter for us and after several fairly mild winters, this one really seemed to hit us with a vengeance.   Finally though, with a few glitches in between and weather that the prognosticating rodent (ground hog) said would be an early spring, we finally have evidence that spring may truly be on its way.

The crocuses or croci if you prefer have bloomed.  Yesterday these few were in their prime while the rest have faded.  Only one of the Siberian Irises came up this year and that was during an ice storm, so it didn't last for long.  But the leaves and greenery for many other spring plants have started to push forth from the finally thawed ground and are showing the promise of spring.

The daffodils started just when the crocuses first bloomed.  In the beginning, they were just tiny green sprouts.  Now though there are early flower buds which catch attention and the longing for spring flowers.   I usually try to buy a pot or two of forced bulbs in the spring, but there weren't many in the shops this year, catering to those of us who desperately need that early hit of spring.  Now of course, with daffodil flower buds starting to show, it's worth the wait for them to mature.

My iced over kitchen window

The weather  has not been all favourable this spring.   Areas to the north and east of us were hit with a major ice storm.  We were lucky enough to miss out on the first one but a smaller second one hit us a couple of days later: not even enough time to recover between the two of them.   The area police were issuing warnings to people to please slow down on the high ways.  Hubby's co-worker took 30 minutes to cover what was normally a 10 minute drive.   We had lots of power flickers and a short outage, but quickly resolved, unlike areas in the rest of the province.  Everyone I talked to were thankful for that, and dismayed about the havoc that the storm wreaked elsewhere.  With rain, snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, more snow it was a few days to hunker down.   I can't remember seeing the snow plow go down our road multiple times  in April, plowing the snow on the road, the shoulders and laying down salt to try to keep the roads safe.

Lone Siberian Iris

Today though, the sun is shining and the winds have finally eased off.   I was able to go outside to practice the banjo yesterday as I found a sheltered spot which was warm enough and while I could hear the wind around me roaring through the trees, it didn't hit the spot on the deck where I was sitting.  Today, I let the chooks out and might even bundle up a bit and take my tea out to the deck.

Mother Nature sometimes is delayed with her promise of spring, but she's never failed to produce it yet.  That darned groundhog though, I'm sure spent weeks rolling around in his den, laughing at us all with his faulty predictions this year, that we all so desperately wanted to believe.

An early spring hike

 It snowed again.  I woke up to low, lead grey, snow clouds and a wintery sky.   There was a light dusting of snow on the ground.   It doesn't feel like spring today!   Yesterday was another cool day, however we had a short reprieve from the incessant wind.   We took advantage of that and went for a hike.  The trails were in pretty decent shape all things considered, with only a few muddy and slippery spots.   That made it a rather nice day out.  I was worried I was over dressed, with my parka and a hoody on underneath, instead of the liner jacket, my double wool toque and thick wool mittens.   However, it was cool enough outside, just above freezing that I was comfortable the whole trail!   

It wasn't sunny, although the forecast suggested we should get some sun.  It was however, brightish out, which was nice enough.   The dark, foreboding skies we've had most of the winter do get a little bit much sometimes. 

The river was flowing fairly quickly.  With all the snow melting over a few days and some rain in there, and now more snow, I was amazed that it wasn't higher than it actually was.  It's usually this brown, silty looking water.  The difference with the view in the springtime is that you can easily see the water.   Once it warms up a bit, the foliage from the trees and the ground plants will obscure the view because they are so lush and full.

This white birch and a yellow bird house were the real spots of  brightness on the trail today.  Even the new growth of the pine trees didn't show brightly enough on this dull day.   However, the walk was pleasant enough and the terrain wasn't difficult due to icy or slippery, muddy conditions, so that has to be considered a win.   It was great getting outside for a bit too, without being scolded by birds.   Also, I saw a robin!   I haven't seen one at home yet, and they are another sign of spring.  

This is a true sign of spring.   A small patch of crocuses started blooming a couple of days ago.  They made me very happy.

The daffodils and tulips are just starting to grow, with their green leaves pushing up from the ground just a few inches.  The hyacinths are still under a small patch of leaves and snow - snow that I'd missed, along with the snow on the other side of our fence line!   Please go away snow!

Winter walks, garden visitor and shawl update

Hawk, right side, middle of picture.

 Here is a photo of the hawk visiting our garden.  He sticks around for over an hour at a time and has a couple of spots he likes to hang out.   With his dedication and patience, we're now thinking it might be the hawk who got one of our chooks.   DH says he found that hen just inside the door of the chicken coop, so it's possible.   The poor girls have been stuck inside since then.   With the risk of a hawk attack so likely, I'm keeping them in the coop.   They aren't fond of the snow regardless.  They'll make a track to the feeders and sometimes to spots where they can sun themselves, and mainly they hangout in the open part of the barn, making a mess of things.

The photo was taken through a double pane window which I didn't think needed cleaning this fall.  I was wrong.  It does.  The hawk is fairly large, like a crow size or a tad larger.  His back is grey and his underside/tummy is white and brownish.  He has a greyish head, which makes it hard to see, but he scanned the area constantly from that perch and I watched him sit there for over an hour.  He's been back daily, sometimes multiple times a day.

We headed out for a walk today.  I needed my sunglasses when we left the house.   The skies were mainly white, with some patches of very pale blue.   The sunlight was reflecting on the snow so it was bright, despite the high clouds.   By the time we were halfway to the chosen trail, I no longer needed my sunglasses.  There was a light flurry as well.   Luckily, the winds and the real snow, didn't pick up until we got back home.   

The trail was white.   Enough people had been on the trails by the time we got there, that the fluffy snow we had over the past 2 days was partially packed and easy to walk on.  No slippery spots and no ice.  Just light fluffy snow and lots of foot prints.

The lake or pond is mainly frozen over.  I don't think the ice is really strong enough to walk on yet, but there were foot prints on it.  They were likely animal prints, but we didn't go close enough to the shore to find out.   We were on top of the hill when we took this photo.   There are some houses and a train track on the other side of the lake.   You can't see them once the trees are leafed out.  This time of year though, they are able to be seen, and I'm betting they have great views as well.

The sun came out briefly (sort of) just as we were near the end of the trail , which runs beside the river.   It's not actually as steep as the photo suggests, but a weird angle to capture that tiny bright spot, the sun and trying to get a bit of the river in as well.  I don't think I was horribly successful.

The winds only picked up after we got home, which was nice and now it's snowing the kind of big flakes which tend to suggest we'll get some accumulation.  

Shawl update:   I'm getting about 4 -6 rows a day done if I put some effort into knitting right now, due to the length of the shawl.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to make this the last repeat.   It's certainly big enough to be a useful shawl, and maybe useful enough to be worn like a sonntag or tied shawl.  It's small enough though that I could also use it as an under-shawl and wear my larger one over top of it for warmth.   I'm also trying to decide whether I'll put the suggested fringe on it or just crochet a simple edging around the sides of it.    I fear the fringe might get in the way of wearing it for warmth while doing things like baking at Westfield, although the fringe in the sample picture was very pretty.

A new weaving project.

I warped up the rigid heddle loom.   I purchased some Sugarbush Drizzle, a mohair/silk yarn which is really thin a couple of years ago.  I bought 2 different colourways and since I had no idea how much I'd need, I bought 4 or 5 skeins of each colour.   It was $3 a skein, so it wasn't a huge outlay to be prepared.   I wove up a purple scarf which was lovely.  It wove up quickly and easily.   I ended up giving it away as a gift.   Two nights ago, I had finished the novel I was reading and didn't have a new one chosen yet.   So I dug up the second colour way of the Drizzle and warped up the loom.  This yarn is perfect for the rigid heddle loom.   I'm using the 7.5 ends per inch reed and the yarn, although very fuzzy, works up well at this sett.   It wasn't quite as easy to start weaving with as I remember the purple being, although time does tend to soften some of the memories.   Once I got into a rhythm, it's working up quite quickly.   The colour way is called Sailor's Sunset, and it really is a lovely combination.

The first photo doesn't show the colour variations very well or at all really.   It's also a photo I should have colour corrected because there is virtually no pink in the yarn at all.   

I did make a stupid mistake, totally my doing.  I forgot to attach a tape measure when I started weaving.  I usually pin one into the centre of the item I'm weaving to try for a fairly accurate idea of the length that I've woven.  I didn't notice this until after I'd advanced the weaving more than a couple of times.   I could unroll the weaving from the front beam, but my experience is that it doesn't always re-roll up with the same nice even tension.   I'm going to guesstimate its length and it might end up being a long scarf!

The corn is being harvested.  It's been dry for ages now, partially because we had such a dry end of the summer.   I found a partial cob in the yard, perhaps missed and thrown by the harvester, or dragged out of their field by a persistent raccoon.   It's a good yellow colour and really hard.  I thought the squirrels would have gotten it, or the chooks, but it's was just sitting there.   Then what interested me, is that the neighbour baled up all the corn stalks.  I'd never seen that done before.   I had to look it up to see why it's done.  Apparently it's used as feed.  It's fairly low in protein though and some of the websites considered it a very low quality fodder, that is usually only fed to cattle in desperation.  However, other websites said that if it's slightly damp, it will start fermenting.  This would make it more like silage, so maybe increase the nutrients a bit.   When I was a 4-H leader, we had a great trip to a dairy farm and good silage smell very much like fermenting beer!  I guess at least the cows would be happy.

Crazy busy times post

I've been trying to sit down at the computer and post an update. Between other computer things taking up my time, some weird updates at the most inopportune times,  crazy amount of meetings and events, it didn't happen.  I had it all figured out. It was some sort of poetic drivel about the early spring greening up, with the trees showing a green haze.   It's actually amazing to see, with the green just showing on the trees, especially in the neighbour's bush lot.   The colours are so bright and fresh!  However, we have baby leaves now, and it doesn't seem quite so appropriate.   Instead....

This is a Mock Angel Food cake from a cookery book dated 1914.   It looks great!   It tasted exactly like an Angel Food cake but only used 2 eggs.  I deemed it a failure in the end though, despite the taste and the look.   The texture was off.  It was almost sticky and wet.  I tasted it and couldn't eat it.  My men folk didn't like it.  In the end I tried to feed it to the chooks, but they weren't impressed either and left half my offering untouched.    I'm not posting the recipe since I don't think it would be worth really trying.

There's been some rumour of the Trilliums being out early this year.  We went for a walk looking for them.  I found a single red trillium in bloom and only 2 very tiny clumps of trillium leaves with no blooms.  Still, it was a nice walk. The weather was fresh and cool, but there was some sunshine which made a difference.  The folks who look after that trail had been in and took down most of the dead ash trees, so it was looking a bit apocalyptic in places.  The trail was clean and easy to walk though and with the early spring, it was very pretty.

 The hyacinths are looking a little bedraggled this year.   We've had a wild mixture of weather this spring with so much rain, wind, frosts, snow and even a few days of sunshine.   The hyacinths came up looking  a little worse for wear.  It's not been a still enough day to enjoy their scent but I've been able to sit out with my tea, and a book or my banjo and soak in the good weather.   The nice thing about having no neighbours is that I can practice the banjo outside and nobody complains at all!

I made a thing!  It's a Circular Sock Machine novelty item which has been going around the csm community the past couple of weeks.  It's a Yip Yip, like the Muppet aliens from so long ago.  It was definitely fun to make, although a bit fussy.  I wish I had some solid coloured yarn for the inside of the mouth and lining, which would give a bit more contrast and a better look, but this was from scraps.

 

 

 

Circular Sock Machine Luuvvvvvv....

 I'm totally in love with one of these.   I went to a "crank in" on Saturday and saw vintage and modern circular sock machines in action.  I got to try a couple as well.  People showed me how they made heels, i-cord, started socks, how to fix skipped stitches more.   There was a machine from 1896 still making socks!    I was so busy talking with people that I forgot to take any photos at all.  

Now the issue is finding one of these that is within my budget.  I've been toying with the idea of getting a circular sock knitting machine for years, but never found anyone who actually had one, that could show me how they worked.   I was thrilled when a friend suggested  that I come to the event, which was local.   This confirmed in my mind that a machine like this is for me!   

This is a page from the catalogue from the Canadian company Creelman which made sock knitters from 1872 - until 1926. 

I wandered around the yard this morning and the zucchini plant which was started too early was flowering.   I don't know if it ever got warm enough for the bees to be out and about today.  I was thrilled though that there was both a female flower and a male flower at the same time.  

There are 3 cool nights this week, one with a risk of frost, so I'll have to cover the plants in hopes of keeping them safe. I should have waited to plant my seedlings, but they were starting to outgrow their little pots again, and I didn't want to have to re-pot them again.   I'd planted one tomato which I'd already put in a new container and was obviously not happy.  I found a bunch of plastic cloches that I'd used with success before and planted everything in the planters.   The only two which haven't fared well are the cucumber seedling which got pecked by a grackle, and the Serrano chile pepper which wasn't doing well in it's little pot either.   But there is a new leaf on it, so my fingers are crossed that it will survive.   My son-in-law gave me the seedlings, and they are varieties which are harder to find around here.

My son kept adding solar lights to the garden for days.  There are solar sunflowers, solar tulips, solar dandelions, solar wheat stalks, some strings of lights like in the gazebo, and a whole bunch of firefly lights like these, all around the garden.  The firefly lights are nearly invisible during the day but the rest sort of stand out.  But at night, the whole back garden is lit up in one crazy way.  A little tacky, maybe, but also so pretty and fun.

Colours of Spring

 I was wandering around the yard the other evening and saw this shadow in the sunset.  It only lasted a short time, so I'm glad I got the picture before it disappeared.  Sometimes it takes a bit of luck to get the right time of day, combined with the right time of year for a particular photo.   

The gooseberries are already fairly large.   I wonder if they're going to ripen early this year?

 

 When we moved here, a friend gave me a little cellophane packet of poppy seeds from her garden.  I planted the seeds, albeit a little haphazardly, and yet they grew.  Some years I get a lot of blooms, but mostly just a few.  I think that may be that the chickens are poking around in that part of the garden, just a little too much in the early spring.   They are pretty though. 

 This year they are surrounded by wild raspberries.  We had a lot in some places last year, but this year the abundance of wild raspberries is crazy.  These are the black raspberries.  They're small but tasty. 

We went for a walk on one of the shorter trails.   I'd love it if it were a tad longer as it's only 1 km long.  So many of the trails in this area are in different terrain and mini-ecosystems.   One area is near lime deposits and has a man made lake.  The trees are smaller, and mainly softwoods.   There are trails through old rail lines, trails running along rivers and streams and even one to a pond.  This one is a circle trail which runs through a hardwood bush lot.  It's spectacular in the spring, summer and fall.  Because of the downed ash trees, it's a bit dystopian feeling in the winter.  

Weather usually allows for several days of tea outside, with the scent of the lilacs in the air.    This year, the weather was wet and went from very warm to quite cool.   I almost missed the lilacs completely.  One evening I was out locking up the chooks in the barn, and the lovely scent wafted in the air.  No tea in the morning with the lilacs this year, but at least I didn't miss it completely.

Years ago, when I was a soap maker, I made a lilac scented soap which was amazing.   It was in the autumn and I was so happy about having a realistic lilac soap for over the winter.    It was cold process soap, so it had to dry for a few weeks so it could harden up.  While it was drying, some mice made their way inside and had a field day on the soap.  Every bar was heavily gnawed, with nasty little teeth mark along all the edges.   I never did get to use that soap as it went into the trash and we spent a couple of months getting rid of the rodents because our cats didn't seem to think they were an issue!

 

Garden happenings

 I harvested this handful of cotton a few days ago, from the two cotton plants I over wintered.   There have been a few bolls ready to harvest over the past few months, but these all popped at the same time!  I now have a sandwich baggie full of home grown cotton and two very straggly, ugly cotton plants.   I'm not sure if I'm going to over winter them again.   Our climate really doesn't support the growth of cotton and it's not like I'm getting a superb harvest from my potted plants.

There are a couple of milkweed plants growing in the garden, hidden in with the madder plants.   This year I saw a monarch butterfly caterpillar.     Oddly enough, this is the first time I've seen one in the wild, on a milkweed, where they're supposed to be.  I was pretty happy and hopefully it survived to make a cocoon.

I was in the garden, picking a tomato and realized that the whole top part of one of the plants was missing.   It was like it had been snipped off.  There were several other branches lower down that were stripped off all their leaves. 

After careful checking I found this tomato hornworm, another caterpillar I'd never seen before.  This thing was huge.  It must have been almost 4 inches long!  My sweetie snipped the branch it was on and tried to feed it to the chooks, but they wanted nothing to do with it. 

I looked them up and apparently they eat pepper plants as well.  I wonder if they were responsible for a couple of my pepper plants just disappearing over night?   I was definitely not as happy about seeing this beast as I was the monarch caterpillar.

I made english muffins from scratch.   I used a recipe from 1859.  It was quite easy with delicious results.