Busy days continue...

September 17, 2025

This stretch of warm sunny days we are experiencing, is perfect for getting on with winter preparation. We did have a touch of frost one early morning. 

Apple-ing:

  

Canning:

Picking:

 

Finding: 

lots of acorns...

 and loaded down apple trees.

There shouldn't be any hungry bears this fall!

Another trip to Ottawa. 

Golden Lake, a bank of mist rising, on a cool September morning.

Visiting the Arboretum at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa. 

What an amazing collection of trees have been grown here. This large oak tree was at the bottom of a somewhat steep slope, but above and behind the photographer is a very large grove of many, many different trees, many unfamiliar. 

Within the area dedicated to maple species was the largest Sugar Maple I've ever seen.

This amazing looking tree was in the W.T. Macoun memorial gardens.

A beautiful place to visit, well worth a trip in every season of the year.

Here are some visitors to our place. 
 

 

Busy September days

September 8, 2025

With these cool, dew-wet September mornings, my days are split between doing indoor stuff in the morning, and outdoor stuff in the afternoon.  Everyday, a little bit more gets accomplished in the processing and preserving department, and a bit more of the worn and weary looking garden, is cleared out. 

One morning it was bread and applesauce.

Another morning it was making another batch of sauerkraut with the last cabbage. What a beauty!

Here it is, just harvested, laying beside the fall greens bed.

These guys are loving these cooler days and nights.

We have had a couple of good downpours of rain, thankfully reducing the wildfire risk, and relieving me of the weekly watering routine. In the squash patch, I've been fighting powdery mildew, but as of now, am letting it go. The fruit are very mature, and I'm going to let nature take it's course. 

Last night and tonight we are under a frost advisory, so the covers are out over the pepper and tomato plants, and the still producing zucchini.  Warmer nights are forecast once we get through these couple. 

Today, I dismantled the cucumber fence. I am cucumbered out! The pickle shelves are as full as they need to be in the storage room, and the last pickings are fermenting in a jar with some dill and garlic. There are always a few mammoth green cylinders hidden in the greenery, how on earth did I miss them? 

What I did miss, was this..

A bird had built a nest in behind the screen of cucumber leaves, perched partially on the fence wire, nestled in the old pea vines. Inside was one little brown-speckled egg. One assumes and hopes that there were more, and that they hatched successfully. 

Hummingbirds are still visiting the flowers and the feeder, but expect them to become scarce very soon. They are usually gone by mid-September. Today a low flying flock of geese, in V formation, flew over. Coloured leaves are starting to show up, and a definite chill in the night-time air heralds the changing seasons. 

We had some gusty winds one evening, and the bean teepee took on a decided lean, so we buttressed it up with some guy ropes.

Some late-sown sunflowers have started blooming, and bees are loving them.

Hubby has been busy building me a new, taller shelving unit to hold my cookbooks. Can't wait to get them moved into their new home.

Beautiful clear blue September skies.

 

From basketball to balls of fire...

 August 31, 2025

The inch and 5/8ths of beautiful rain that fell on Thursday, plus the half inch from last Sunday, has resulted in a reprieve from watering the gardens, and reduced the Total Fire Ban that has been in place in this area, to a less restrictive ban. Temperatures have moderated, early mornings are a little chilly, but the days are sunny and comfortably warm, with no humidity. The sun is very noticeably rising later and setting earlier.

We had occasion to travel south to the 'Big Smoke', (Ottawa), mid-week, and decided to meander home along back roads. We visited Almonte, where the Mississippi River, (not that one!) once powered woollen mills, and still produces hydro-electric power. The volume of water cascading down the stepped falls is noticeably diminished, due to the drought.

We came across this fellow, Dr. James Naismith the inventor of basketball, seated on this bench, with a ball and peach basket, in a little parkette along the main street.

The clock tower on top of the old Post Office, seen from the bottom of Mill Street is an impressive sight.

Garden production has slowed a little, giving some breathing room. The first planting of carrots was unearthed and layered away on moistened sawdust in milk crates in the root cellar.

Although a little gnarly, the roots have no blemishes on them, so this year will be the first time for storing carrots in the root cellar. We'll see how that goes.

A morning wander around the garden beds yields a variety of produce, ingredients for a 'garden medley' stir fry, and a salad.

 This fall 'greens' bed is really liking the cooler temperatures. Nibbling deer have begun to be more prevalent, hence the screen of hardware cloth.

Aji Charapita peppers, apparently one of the most expensive peppers in the world to buy....why grow them? Because I can...! Three plants, loaded with fruit. 

Their Scoville rating is 30,000 to 50,000, compared to 2,500 to 8,000 for the humble Jalapeno pepper. 

Two shots from the trail camera over the apple pile behind the barn. A couple of critters eyeing each other,

and a bruin passing through.

The sun beautifully high-lit this spider web along the trail, from this morning's walk.

 

Rock, Paper, Scissors...

 August 24, 2025

No; rock, water, wood.

This live, leaning tree, is growing out of a crack in the rock. Water and frost created the crack, enough detritus settled in it for the tree seed to sprout, and the rest is history. There is now also a baby tree taking advantage of that pocket of soil.

We did a wander around the bush trails yesterday morning, and picked up the SD cards out of the trail cameras. It is wonderful to go wandering now, without the need for bug jackets and gloves. Along another trail, under an oak, green acorns were scattered across the path.

They may have had help to fall, from squirrels, or maybe the oaks are stressed from the drought, and are dropping their nuts early.

 There are a few more critters out and about than there has been for a while. This bear wandered across in front of a camera in a clearing. 

I'm sure it is searching for food. With the dry conditions, there are very few blackberries, and the apple trees, under drought stress, are dropping their still green apples now. I may have to go further afield to get apples to process into my usual quota of apple sauce this fall. 

A big branch on an old apple tree behind the barn, was too heavily loaded with little apples, and crashed down. Hubby cleared up the branchy mess, but left the apples and put a camera on them. This little one showed up, in daylight, still spotted, and it's mom was there as well.

We had a bit of rain Sunday and Monday, adding up to 3/8th of an inch. It was a nice break to spend some time indoors, creating in my sewing room. The hanging kitchen towels are looking threadbare and stained, so I whacked a couple of thrifted hand towels in half and made two sets of new towels.

The toppers are made from random scraps of quilting cotton from the stash, and with a buttonhole and funky button, they loop handily through the drawer handles beside the sink.

Last night there was a thunder storm and the lovely sound of rain on the roof to go to sleep by. The half inch that fell, does appear to have perked things up, and there is a greener tinge appearing on the previously brown grass. The seedlings in the fall garden visibly jumped as well. No amount of rain now though, will save all the brown-leaf covered trees we saw today along the highway on a little excursion to the east. We can hope that they have just gone into early dormancy, and will re-leaf come spring. 

It's a busy time of year. Processing garden produce continues. Every day, a little bit more gets canned, frozen or stashed in the root cellar. The pickle supply is almost where it needs to be. A picking of peppers is going to be blanched, sliced and dehydrated for winter pizzas, the tops and tails chopped and frozen.

The tomatoes just aren't what they should be. The fruit is large and unblemished, but are refusing to turn red. Now there is the sign of blight encroaching on the leaves.

The beautiful, long tresses of Rapunzel are ripening with no issue. They are a good sized cherry, and have such a sweet, juicy pop of flavour.

The vertically supported zucchini is giving a steady, controlled supply. I tie it to the stake as it grows, making the fruit easily visible, and the plant takes up only about 3-4 cubic feet of garden space. 

In the bird department, there appears to be an influx of young Eastern Phoebes hanging around now, and the activity around the Hummingbird feeder has increased with the addition of this year's young. On our bush walk, the only birds heard were an American Redstart, Black and White warbler, a Black-throated Blue warbler, an Eastern Wood Peewee, and our resident Blue Jays and Chickadees. The bush orchestra is going on hiatus for this year.

 



 

The old, the new, and the growing...

 August 19, 2025

This is the old picnic table outside the back door, near the well top, my go-to spot for cleaning vegetables, re-potting plants etc. It is a firm, flat surface at working height, for any outside chore that needs doing.

It is pretty weathered and rickety, with rotten spots here and there. So...

Hubby has built a new one to replace it out of lumber he milled from a cedar tree from our property. It is in the process of being stained and weather-proofed. I think I'll have to cover it whenever I have a chore to do on it. It would be a shame to mess up that beauty!

Some corn got processed for the freezer, and I plan on picking up a few more dozen. Setting up my cutting boards as a splatter screen worked beautifully, and kept the mess contained. 

These fellows were hiding. There is always one or two that get away.

Thinnings from my fall greens patch. 

They are coming along nicely, are secure in their screened enclosure and are loving the cooler temperatures we are having at present.

 A cool front moved in Sunday, pushing out the heat and humidity, and brought a dribble of rain with it, but the rain didn't do much more than temporarily lay the dust. The overnight temperature dropped to 7C (45F) Monday night, the coolest overnight for quite a while. Although nights are now cool, it is a treat to have warm, sunny days with no humidity. 

The on-going drought is causing trees to colour prematurely, and drop their leaves, especially noticeable in areas where the soil is thin over bedrock.

A Buttercup squash.

Finally, I am seeing some Butternut squash growing. They always seem to be the last to show themselves.

A visitor to the zinnias.