Take time to.....

 August 10, 2026

...smell the roses phlox. Hey Foxy, glad you enjoy them! It really does look like he/she is having a sniff, but I doubt it.

Up here on the hill, it is not unusual to have a fly-over by the military. One hears the unmistakable, rapidly increasing volume of sound of approaching aircraft practising low level flight. You have very little time, but seeing as the doors are open, a quick dash through the screen doors and out onto the grass, to witness the low flying plane. There are usually at least two, one after the other. I rushed out and could look up at the belly of the big plane, seeming to just skim the ridge line of the roof and brush across the tips of the trees on the edge of the clearing, while it's roar is all-encompassing for a brief moment. It is always a thrill to hear and see them. (forgot to grab a camera)

On Friday past, I had a summer get together of my crafting group. We take a break from the end of June to the first of September, but in the summer, one or the other of us hosts a craft circle at our homes. We had a lovely day, the Hummers, butterflies and pollinators in the flower bed in front of the verandah kept us entertained while we chatted and knit/spun. 

On Saturday, Hubby and I braved the crowds and explored the 'Taste of the Valley',  https://www.totv.ca/ which made a stop in Barry's Bay. There are always so many interesting vendors to explore, and I came home with a fat bag of combed fleece to spin. 

 Back on the home front, the large amount of precipitation we received a week ago, has soaked down to the water table, and the water level in the pond has risen. Every growing thing is appreciating the moisture.

Today I began digging up the celery plants to process for the freezer. 

Cherry tomatoes are ripening just fast enough to keep us in daily snacks. 

The 2 vertically supported zucchini plants are getting a little ahead of me with their fruit production. 

I've picked two blushing beefsteak tomatoes, but the paste guys have not shown any colour as of yet. There are certainly a lot of them, but that's OK, because I have plans for all of them! 

The onions were harvested yesterday, their spot smoothed, compost added, and few fall things planted; lettuce, bok choy, radishes, green onions and two cabbages. We'll see how far we get with those. You never know unless you try! Protective screening is in place to thwart curious skunks, raccoons and foxes. The onions in the foreground are big, sweet guys, which will get much bigger as summer progresses.

We got a nice surprise on Bird Cam when we checked the chips over the weekend. Here is a Black and White Warbler posing in front of the camera. 

There were also many pictures of the flying squirrel going back and forth to the ball of nesting material. I'll bet there is a nearby nest box for birds being retrofitted for his winter quarters!

Almost had to build an ark.....

August 3, 2026 

A weekend of pretty near continuous rain, at times practically a monsoon....170mm in the gauge. The grey overcast skies slowly cleared this morning, and now the sun is out in a blue, blue sky, with big fluffy white clouds.  

The 'monsoon' was too much for one of our old apple trees, and a big, apple laden branch broke, so sad. I had been thinning apples as far up as I could reach with a step ladder, but it is an impossible job. Here is the trailer load of fruit that fell with the branch.

In other news.... the igniter in my stove called it quits, and to replace it would cost more than half the price of a new stove, so new stove it is! This one has electric ignition, (vs battery ignition in the old stove), plus it has a glass door!! and a light!! Small luxuries, like fresh, sun-dried sheets on the bed, some of life's best things.

Someone has been getting naked in my garden...

A garter snake has left his old garment in the garlic patch, found when I cleared out the rocks holding the mulch down, and dug the bulbs. 

 

 Peter Piper could easily pick more than a peck of peppers in my pepper patch. Green bell, 

 and sweet red.

 The celery is a beautiful green forest.

Pumpkins are growing on the fencing with some Scarlet Runner beans, and I've been slinging the fruit up in pieces of old T-shirts for support, although they seem sturdy enough without. They are small sugar pumpkins, so they won't get too big. 

Cucumbers are really starting to take off, and despite rigorous pruning, I am beginning to be inundated. Note to self: plant fewer vines next summer! 

In the tomato department, the cherries are ripening slowly, 

and there are lots of beefsteak and paste guys growing.

This year I have tried to refrain from taking off the suckers, just pruning out some of the lower leaves for air flow, to see what, if any difference it makes for fruit production. The jury is out. 

 

 

The rewards......

 July 26, 2026

There is a big up-tick in the amount of produce coming in from the garden now that we are near the end of July. The beans are from the first sowing in June, zucchini, greens, cherry tomatoes, broccoli side shoots, young root vegetables, and soon cucumbers big enough to pick. Let the pickling begin! 

Cabbages are harvested, and a couple have gone from this,

to sauerkraut.

In their place, the soil has been loosened and a couple of pails of sieved compost added. This is hopefully where the winter supply of carrots will grow, and hopefully they will be the perfect size for root cellar storage much later in the fall when things cool down.

The white strips are a gel of corn starch and water, into which I mix the seeds, then put it into a piping bag. After sitting overnight, the mixture gets piped into rows, then more sieved compost nestles them in. The gel holds moisture and gives the seeds a boost. 

There are more Monarch butterflies around now, although I haven't succeeded in finding any eggs or larvae. They are loving the swamp milkweed I've established around the edge of the pond. Six or more Hummingbirds are visiting the feeders, and the flowers. They absolutely love the red Bee Balm. So does the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

The bird chorus in the bush is much diminished now. The Song Sparrows from the nest in the cedar tree have fledged, as have the Cat birds in the lilac bush. The young Catbirds hung around in the lilacs for quite a while, but have since dispersed. Here is one trying out the branch in front of Bird Cam. The young ones are much less sleek than the adult birds, looking kind of scruffy and unfinished. They also do a lot more "mewing".

The Frog Orchid blooms are opening up quite a bit. They are tiny, but so obviously an orchid. 

There is another orchid coming into bloom now. It occurs quite commonly along our trails wherever more sunlight penetrates, and even comes up in the gravel along the sides of the road. Research has shown that it is a Broadleaf Helleborine, an introduced plant from Europe.

I managed to get a not too bad close-up of a bloom.

The weather gods have blessed us with sufficient moisture so far this season, but if the rain in the forecast does not materialize, I'll be getting out the hoses to give everything a good soak, as it has been about a week since the last good rainfall. Temperatures have moderated to quite pleasant summer days, after the suffocating heat and humidity earlier in July. One can very comfortably leave all the doors and windows open, perfect timing for beginning to process produce for storage. 

A mystery no longer....

July 19, 2026

 The mystery plant from two posts ago.... 

has been identified as Dactylorhiza viridis, Long Bracted Green Orchid, or The Frog Orchid!!!

How appropriate, that a frog lover now has Frog Orchids growing in the front yard! 

Being a bit of a plant nerd, and being familiar with the seasonal stages of most of the plants around here, I knew this was one I'd not seen before.

Apparently it is not uncommon at all, and is found in Europe, and across North America. Here is the best close-up I was able to get of one of the blooms. 

When one hears the word 'orchid', one thinks of something absolutely beautiful and exotic, but there are many that are much less showy than the ones that get all the attention. Ontario is home to about 60 species of orchids, this being one of them.

The wildfire smoke plumes that have been making life horrible for lots of people, have waxed and waned over us, some days were really bad, and others have been clear, like today. Yesterday was a somewhat smokey one, and the afternoon brought thunderstorms and rain amounting to 22mm. Overnight the wind changed direction, so the smokey air has vanished. All the growing things are thriving and beautiful.  

This weekend is the annual Summer Madawaska Valley Studio Tour, so yesterday I picked up a friend and we went visiting local artisans in their home studios. The most interesting and enjoyable visit we made, was to Northern Viking Farm, where we spent some time watching demonstrations of carding and spinning, and visiting with the family and the Icelandic sheep.

In Wilno, we had our picnic lunch at the Polish Kashub Heritage Museum, https://www.wilno.org/museum.html timing it just right before the skies opened with the second deluge of the day.  

There is an absolutely astounding amount of information to digest here, and it would take hours and possibly days to absorb all of it. 

 

 

 

Enduring the heat, and preparing for winter...

July 14,  2026

This morning...  

The weird ball in the sky, a smoke obscured sun in a smoke hazed sky. The camera didn't capture how red the sun was.

We are under a heat and smoke warning. 

Every one of these hot mornings, we are up just as the grey dawn breaks, and off to check out the garden, me; and Hubby is off to the bush with chainsaw and trailer in tow. After splitting and piling all the wood we harvested in the winter, there was still a gap in the woodshed. After nine heating seasons of having sufficient stores of wood; last winter, with it's long cool spring, used up more wood than any other year since we've been here. There are some dying beech trees Hubby has scouted out, and this is the latest instalment to the wood yard, the gap they are to fill, once split, is on the right end of the woodshed. 

Giving all my garden plants a good deep soak once a week and a good layer of leaf, grass or straw mulch, has been the recipe for keeping things hydrated and growing in my gardens, even through these hot and humid days. 

Here is the last full head of broccoli from my eleven plants, and the first harvested Caraflex cabbage. The broccoli will continue to supply us with lots of side shoots.

The first cluster of cherry tomatoes are showing some colour!

Zucchinis are producing lovely little fruit. One of my favourite ways to cook them is sauteed just to 'tender-crisp', with garlic butter and a little salt.

The celery bed is doing well, sandwiched between carrots, beets and the pepper patch at the far end. Determinate tomatoes are in the next bed over. 

In the field garden, everyone is happy, squash and pumpkin are starting to crawl and climb, Glads are growing, indeterminate tomatoes are blooming, and so far....no potato bugs!

An early morning look over the 7 raised beds closest to the house. The dill in the foreground are volunteers in the onion bed, I thinned them drastically when they were small, but apparently not enough! They are co-existing with a full 4' X 8' bed of onions, my winter supply of cooking onions, plus some big sweet guys and some green onions.

I am hoping the dill will help to confuse the leek moths, which seem to be a new pest up here on the hill. Some of my garlic got hit, so plans are in the works for how to deal with that new threat next season. 

Presently the Grey catbird is serenading us with his eclectic repertoire from the lilac bush. The heat is increasing, although it has been quite delightful to spend some time out here on the verandah, with a nice morning breeze from the west keeping things bearable. 

 

Gardening, fishing and observing....

July 7, 2026

The last day of June gave us a good 5cm of rain, then the heat and humidity moved in for the first few days of July. Everything in the gardens grew like crazy. Just when the heat and humidity got almost unbearable, there was a bit of a cool down to comfortable temperatures and no humidity. We had a few days when the windows and doors could stay open, but today, things are heating up again. 

Everything garden-wise is doing well. Yesterday I harvested and processed over 4 pounds of broccoli, and in a couple of days, a few more heads will be ready to be cut. 

Peas are starting to fill out. We had a first taste last night, and soon we'll be inundated. 

Wild strawberries are fat and juicy this year. These were picked in just a few minutes. Absolutely delicious.

There is not much happening on the trail cameras. The usual deer, this doe and fawn at a salt block...

and Turkey vultures squabbling over the fish entrails put out after our fishing expedition. The Raven in the background is patiently waiting.

The Phoebes in the nest on the verandah have just fledged, so we no longer get scolded for using the verandah. The Catbirds are still ferrying food to their nest in the lilac bushes, and there is a Song Sparrow nesting in the east side cedar tree out front.

We are only now, beginning to see the odd Monarch butterfly around. Over the last few years, they have been arriving later and later.  

There are five mystery plants growing in the front yard, over along the bush edge. Their alternate leaves are longitudinally veined, and sure look 'orchid-like' to me. The bud spike on the most advanced one, has gone from drooped over, to vertical, and there are little buds all along it. 

Meanwhile, another outing on the beautiful Bonnechere, the clouds drifting along with us, and a couple of nice Pike, a Bass and a big Crappie in the cooler....