Winter preparations

October 19, 2026

This is a very busy time of year for those of us who garden at this latitude in this hemisphere, and we are having the most perfect weather to get all the outside work finished up before the cold settles in. We've had quite a few mornings with frost, and one morning there was also a very faint skiff of fluffy white stuff, barely discernible. Despite the frost, the calendula and asters in the flower garden soldier on. 

The leaves are really starting to come down now, any sort of breeze sends showers of colourful leaves drifting down off of the tree branches. Dry sunny days and falling leaves equal one thing for me...it is time to get them bagged for future mulching and compost making.

The bagger attachment for the mower has made the job actually enjoyable. Previously I used to lug around a leaf blower/vacuum and spend days collecting leaves. With perfect weather like we are having now, an afternoon will suffice to complete filling as many bags as I wish. 

Yesterday we dug about a third of our potato patch and have them curing on screens in the barn. 

These are the gold potatoes, the red ones are still in the ground. I had to put screens over the spud patch a while ago, as some critter had rolled out a few potatoes from the hills, and nibbled on them. Once these spuds are dry, they'll be checked over before they go into the root cellar.

This little red helper has been wonderful for chopping up all the stalks and stems from the gardens. 

Finely chopped greens will compost much easier and faster. Even the big, thick broccoli stems that I used to toss over the back of the bins into the bush edge, were pulverized through this beastie. We bought it second hand this spring, and it needed Hubby's magic touch to get it going. 

So the garden beds are mostly empty now, and a layer of compost has been spread on them.

The garlic has been planted.

The only remaining plants are some lettuce, a cabbage, about the fourth planting of green onions, the caged carrots in the bed on the left, and 3 rutabagas in another bed.   

The row of fruit trees have had their bases wrapped with anti-vole protection and the little apple tree that the deer pick on, is protected as well. 

In the barn, my kindling supply is growing. 

 It is a satisfying feeling to have preparations well on the way, or completed for the coming winter. 

Human artists and Nature's art....

 October 4, 2026

The fall edition of the Madawaska Valley Studio Tour is on this weekend. https://madawaskastudiotour.com/ 

Seeing as a friend and I had done the summer edition back in July, we wanted to continue our explorations, as there were more artists listed on the fall tour than there had been on the summer one. We chose yesterday, and we chose well, as today it is dreary and raining. Saturday was a sublime, sunny fall day with temperatures in the high teens...perfect.

We visited a copper and silver jewellery maker,

an ink drawer and print maker, potters, a leather worker, artists with beautiful paintings of all things Renfrew county, a glass sculptor, a loom weaver, and a blacksmith. Most of the studios were indoor, and even though I brought my camera, I usually forgot it while exploring the beautiful creations. At the blacksmith's, who had his work displayed outdoors,  I finally clued in and took some pictures! 

 https://mikedesrochers.com/

 His drive entrance...

His coal fired forge in a beautifully restored old log building....

and one of his metal sculptures.

At all the venues, talking to the artist and learning their story was the best part. 

This morning on our trail walk,

I came across a very visible patch of Indian Cucumber root, (Medeola virginiana) which has stopped photosynthesizing for the season. 

It is a pretty whorled forest plant with two tiers of leaves, the lower one bigger than the upper, separated by a good length of stem. In the spring, I took pictures of one of the plants when it was blooming,

then later, when the blooms were changing into green berries.

 The berries then turn burgundy, as does the top whorl of leaves. 

The blooms curl downward, but as the seeds set, they curl up and then are on top of the top whorl of leaves. 
It has been on my list of wild edible plants to try, and finally, this fall, I dug up a root and we sampled it.

The root/tuber is small but very crisp, juicy, and yes! it tastes like slightly sweetened cucumbers. 
Who knew that Mother Nature does 'splatter painting'?

Here and there in the bush, one sees these pale apparitions. Striped maple or 'moosewood', (Acer pensylvanicum) have lost the chlorophyll in their large leaves, and stand ghost-like among the still mostly green understory. 

 

Who likes apples??

 September 27, 2026

 A number of apple lovers showed up when we took a trailer load of dead fall apples and dumped it in front of a camera along the trails.

Lots and lots of deer.

 

The camera had close to 2000 pictures. As you click through them, the deer heads appear to be on swivels, constantly looking around, alert to any sound or movement. The same individuals came back over and over.

A family of raccoons appeared often.

They are sure fat and healthy looking.

A Fisher showed up and checked out the pile,

and then it's small relative, an American Martin.

He's hard to spot, the dark lump in the lower left quadrant.

Foxy checked out the pile a couple of times. We have watched him eating apples under the trees in the yard.

We were expecting to see a bear, but so far, no luck. As of yesterday, that pile of apples is pretty much decimated, and someone not knowing the spot could well walk through without noticing any residuals              

The leaves on the trees around the clearing are really starting to show their true colours. Most of September here has been without rain, and things are very dry. The nights are cool, but days are sunny and warm. In the garden, I'm keeping up the watering on the fall greens and the carrot patch. The broccoli patch has been producing side shoots almost constantly until just recently, when they are getting  small and scarce, so the chore of pulling/digging those monster stems out is nearing the top of the list before the deer discover them, as the plants have been un-caged for a while.  
The large rutabaga harvested a week or so ago, 

was perfectly sound throughout when cut open.

Onions and garlic are cleaned and stored, a few potatoes dug, but most will safely stay in the ground until the root cellar cools down. The processing and canning is slowing, the shelves are as full as we need them to be. I have a couple of boxes of tomatoes ripening, and when they are ready, that will probably be the last filling of the canner this fall. 

The chimney was cleaned yesterday, the wood boxes are full, and we are very thankful for our good fortune.  

 

Squirrelling it away....

 September 20, 2026

 Yes, that is frost coating the grass Saturday morning. 

A quick check of the weather forecast Friday night before bed, had me going out with headlight and covers for the cherry tomato trellis and the half unharvested pepper patch. The frost didn't do a lot of damage, as there wasn't much cold sensitive stuff remaining in the gardens. The basil is very unhappy, some of the marigolds are singed and blackened a bit, but the zinnias appear unscathed. I'll leave it all for the pollinators that are still around.  

The rest of the peppers got harvested Saturday, overfilling my very largest, big metal bowl.

Earlier in the week, the rest of the squash was picked as the powdery mildew was marching on relentlessly. 

Maybe, just maybe, this will be the last pail of apples I'll process this fall. It has been an amazing year for apples, bumper crops on all our good trees.

After spending this morning in the kitchen processing peppers for dehydrating and freezing, it was pleasant to sit in the warm afternoon sun at the picnic table, and clean the garlic for storage.

The Jerusalem artichokes are one of the last things to bloom, and they are a bright spot against the cedars over beyond the garden shed.

Behind them along the stone fence, the Winterberry bushes are loaded with food for the birds. They look so Christmassy!
 

My asters planted here and there are finally blooming.  

I'm looking very much forward to taking a break from squirrelling away the harvest, and having more time for other pursuits!

 Farewell summer.

 

Foraging, harvesting, and butterflies....

 September 13, 2026

According to my gauge, 8.5cm of rain fell during August, and it didn't stop falling when August was over. We had another 3cm early in the month of September, and as a result, the bush is absolutely brimming with all sorts of fungi. The garden and the apple harvest is keeping me busy, but still I try to get out and see what is happening in the woods. 

 I had visions of lovely sauteed slices of puffball in butter for lunch when I spotted this guy...  

Sadly, his interior was yellowing, so he was too far along to enjoy. 

A beam of sunshine was perfectly spot-lighting this guy in the middle of the hemlocks, looking like a mini campfire. 

When we moved here in 2017, this big beech tree was perhaps the largest beech on the property, and was green and growing, although if we'd known about beech bark disease then, we probably could have spotted the signs. It didn't take long for him to succumb to the disease, and now the top has crashed down, and the remaining stub of a trunk is shrunken and riddled with fungi.

It saddens me every time I walk by him.

The rain and humidity has hastened the powdery mildew on the pumpkin vines, so they had to go. Strangely, the other squash are still holding out with no sign of it....yet.

I pulled the oldest and biggest of my succession planted rutabagas. It is smooth and firm, but am wondering if there will be a hollow in it's centre when we cut it open. 

Back in the kitchen, a morning was spent making blackberry and chokecherry jelly. It has been a few years since the blackberries have been as prolific as they have been this year.
 

The excessive rain this late in the summer has caused some splitting on the beefsteak and cherry tomatoes, but so far the paste tomatoes show no sign of being affected, and are ripening gradually. This may be the largest tomato off of the one Brandywine plant I grew. 

One afternoon a few days ago, there was an influx of Monarch butterflies, perhaps a migrating group? They love the zinnias that are blooming in several places throughout the gardens. I stood between two beds with zinnias, and dozens of beautiful Monarchs were fluttering around me, nectaring on the blooms. There were more Monarchs around me than I've ever seen together in one place, in my life. It was an absolute thrill to stand there in the cloud of butterflies.

Furry guys, Mushrooms and Sourdough.....

September 7, 2026

Labour Day...definitely. 

This morning we cleaned up the wood yard, and got the grass cut.

There are so many other things to keep us busy around here, that the job of splitting and piling the last of the log rounds, was put on the back burner, but done this weekend.   

 So good to finally get the woodshed topped up. Full.

 In a few months we will be starting the process all over again, but for now, job done.

In amongst the wood chips was this furry caterpillar...

I think it is an American Dagger Moth Caterpillar.

Across the front of the house, out near the line of bush between us and the road, is a damp area that doesn't need to be mown hardly at all as it mostly grows lovely moss. Today I walked it, throwing off any branches that had fallen from the trees, in preparation for collecting the leaves that will be falling. I need a clear run as the leaves are collected with the mulcher blades and the bagger attachment on the mower. The reward for that was...

a handful of fat puff balls that will be sauteed in butter and added to the menu. Yum. 

On the apple is a fellow that I found when picking up the fallen fruit under the trees in the yard, a daily chore this time of year.

I think this guy is a Spotted Tussock Moth Caterpillar.

On a bush wander earlier in the week, this beautiful Lion's Mane mushroom was found on a dying beech tree.  

In the garden, there are now enough red peppers to make a batch of red Pepper Jelly. A few hot peppers in the mix give it a nice zing. 

Recently, I have been bitten with the Sourdough Bread making bug. The first two loaves were abysmal, inedible, and got composted. Gradually I am getting the hang of it. The last two loaves have rapidly disappeared...so delicious. I had no idea.

Second last loaf, a little chewy, but good.

The loaf I baked off this morning. Much much better, but still room for improvement. Making sourdough bread requires patience, and about 24 hours from start to finish.