Wednesday, October 9, 2013

What a day!

What an incredible day!  Here it is, October 9 and there are cicadas buzzing!  The skies are clear and there is a gentle breeze for hanging laundry.

Ozzie is at doggy day care for his weekly play date and a day for us to get things done around the house.  For me it mostly means that I can vacuum without him going bonkers, but today is all about working outside.


I am in the midst of emptying out pots and planters...better to do it in the nice weather rather than leave it until the cold and my DH went all around this house and carted the pots to me by the greenhouse, saving my back and so much time.  He is always to willing to make my life easier and suggested he set up this table so I wouldn't have to bend all the time.



Inevitably there are some plants that I just can't pitch into the compost pile just yet, such as this Gerbera, so I will keep it in the sun room until it is too cold in there.

I was torn between keeping the anemones in the gardens  and taking them out (they really can seed around), but then I see them full of bees and lady bugs and know that I can't take them away from these beneficial insects.  Besides, the anemones make such a welcome hit of white and pinky/purple in the fall.



Speaking of lady bugs, they are really making an appearance this year and I was finding it hard to be out there at times with them taking a sample of me now and then.  The birds are all over the windows picking off bugs...what a day!

It seems the weather is going to stay nice, so it will be hard to stay inside and do any cards and cooking, plus we still have the beets to dig up and can.  I also want to cut all the parsley, some for my Mom and some for me to make a parsley pesto for the freezer.
  
Time to get back at it!

Monday, October 7, 2013

          It was a great experience this weekend.  I was exhibiting with a friend who hand crafts elegant and beautiful jewelry at the  Apple Harvest Craft Show in Meaford this weekend - my first experience.  The days were long but it was exciting for me to have my cards etc. for sale.  Most exciting was the fact that I actually sold some!  

Today is back down to earth at home with Ozzie, drying tomatoes in the oven.  The house smells heavenly with the aroma of Italian herbs, tomatoes and garlic.  DH is up at Colpoy's and hopefully he will be successful and bring home fresh caught fish.

It is a rainy cool day and we had some hail earlier but the temperature is still fairly warm for the date, so no complaints but it makes for a good day to be indoors.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

It has been a long while since I have last posted, and there has been much that has happened on a personal level, but it is now time to get on with it.

I am still a passionate gardener, but with the gardens full and needing plants divided instead of adding plants, my searches for just the right additions here and there has certainly lessened and I am now working with what I have, re-arranging here and there, dispensing with non-performers and adding gifted plants from a treasured friend.  That is not to say that I will pass up something that really catches my interest, as I can always make the room for just one more, somewhere.

Last year I really got the daylily bug, thanks to aforementioned  treasured friend, and filled the gardens with early, mid and late blooming types.   It was well worth the investment and their blooms filled in so many spaces where I didn't know colour was lacking.  I still have five that have blooms...Swallowtail Kite (taken at dusk with a flash), Jo Barbre, Lilting Belle, Royal Frosting and First Knight with Sandra Elizabeth yet to bloom!







Starting last Friday we had a good number of people here for garden tours and ending on Tuesday, we had a wonderful couple here who have retired to an area around North Bay with an acreage in full sun.  They had been here in 2006 when our gardens were four years old and so had seen it when the trees were small and there was no shade.  It was so great to have them back and they could see the possibilities available to them in a relatively short period of time.  DH and I were more than happy to share our tips and tricks for maintaining the gardens in dry spells, how to push the Zone up a notch or two among other things that cropped up in conversation.  That is the best part of gardening...sharing your knowledge and always, always learning. 





So, again on the days that were too hot to work outside, I pressed flowers and ferns and made cards, but have also taken up two different types of card making, one of which can compliment the pressed flower cards, gift card holders and bottle tags - embossing and stamping.










 This takes my cards to a whole new level, and then I was told about Iris Folding by a wonderful woman who came to tour the gardens.  I'm hooked on this as well and am using Japanese papers, origami paper, tissue paper and wrapping paper.