Spring things....

 March 7, 2026

Well, that was quick. We hustled through ice season, long enough for Hubby to spread shavings over the ice where we needed to walk, and only long enough for the ice cleats to be on our boots for about two days.

Now, we are in mud season, and almost all of that visible ice has melted. 

Last week started out cold, the minus temperatures conducive to defrosting the freezer by just setting all the contents outside. It didn't take long before the freezer was clean, back on, and all the contents re-inventoried and back in. The very next day, the temperature rose and things started to melt. 

I shovelled the snow off of the hot frame in preparation for use.

The soil inside was unfrozen. The sun soon melted the residual frost and snow away,

and the path to the root cellar melted off, bare ground surrounded by snow. That spring sunshine sure has some power in it!

This was the snow depth on the last cold morning, March 3,

and after a couple of mild days, and then a day and night of rain, here is where we were at on March 7.

The rainy day was a good day to make another batch of soap...jasmine scented this time.

Today I planted some seeds!! I have geraniums on an heat mat inside, and broccoli, cabbage and onion seeds in cell packs sunk into the soil of the hot frame where the temperature of the soil within is reading 50F.

All will be well in there unless we get some very cold nights, of which there are a few in the forecast, when I'll add some extra insulation over the top. We are back to keeping a sharp eye on the temperature fluctuations. I had to clear out some weeds in there that were showing signs of growth before setting in the little pots. 

Figgy has been brought out of his hibernation in the root cellar, and is up in a south facing window. 

 This morning, the usual flock of Chickadees that swarm us when we go outside, were not in evidence. They seem to hear the inside door opening, and are waiting on the railing outside when we open the outer door. We looked around....and spotted a Northern Shrike up in the crab-apple tree. There are hungry critters everywhere. These wild canine tracks were along the edge of the road last weekend, heading down to the winter deer yards to the south.

It's time for....

April 6, 2025

 ...a cease and desist order against Old Man Winter. 

We have been riding this weather roller-coaster of snow, melt, snow, melt...and are preparing for more snow this coming week. Out in the open, a sunny warm day melts the fresh snow down rapidly, and the winter snow pack recedes a little bit more. There is still a foot of snow in the bush in most places, and walking is treacherous, on trail or off. One never knows when a foot will plunge into hidden melt water, or step into snow over the boot tops, so rubber boots are a necessity. 

Thankfully, we were north of the ice storm that came through Ontario last weekend, the worst of it landing south and west of here.

There was a layer of ice on everything, and sun light was reflecting off of the shining, ice-crusted snow.
 

Central Ontario is still out of power in places, as the ice weighed down lines and broke poles. On Thursday afternoon, the wind grew suddenly strong here, and walking anywhere on the road or in the bush would have been suicide, as branches and whole trees were coming down. A later drive down the hill showed it littered with large and small branches, and in several places, the township had had to chainsaw big trees off of the road. 

So, more winter is coming... we re-filled the porch wood box this morning, got another pail of kindling up from the barn, and refilled the bird feeders.

But, there are signs of spring advancing. Maple sap is running well, our maple syrup collection is growing, (pancakes and fresh maple syrup for breakfast yesterday), and we heard a warbling/cooing Sand Hill Crane fly over this morning as we were moving wood in. 

In the sprigs and sprouts department...

Crocus colour, daff shoots, and tulip nubs.... Yes, I know...you have to look hard!

Of course, under lights, my peppers are doing well and tomatoes have just emerged.

 Over the past week, the deer have been dispersing from their winter yard, and the migration trails are well tramped out. Last night we saw the first deer in the yard at dusk, and there will be many more showing up to graze, as the grass greens up. This doe wandered by a trail camera.

This wild canine has shown up again, checking out one of the deer trails that cross our trail, but in daylight this time.

This is the back yard and pond this morning.

Who knows what it will look like after tomorrow night's forecast snow?

A bit of this and that, and winter prep....

 October 2, 2024

We've had a lovely stretch of warm, sunny days to finish off September. October has started a little cooler due to an overnight cold front that pushed through and dropped an inch of rain last night. Autumn mornings are very dew-wet, and sometimes quite foggy, but the sun has been able to burn off the fog, and dry up the dew, until by afternoon, it is perfect to be outdoors.

I recently sliced up a bevvy of fresh garden vegetables, and made canned coleslaw. We'll see if we like it.

Some garden-fresh red peppers going under the broiler for roasting...roasted red pepper jelly in the making.

A recent warm afternoon was perfect to clean all the garlic and onions and get them prepared for winter storage. There are a few shallots there as well. This is the first time growing them. The red onions were grown from seed, the yellow from sets, and there isn't a very noticeable difference in size between them.

I potted up a couple of pretty geraniums, and some coleus for bringing indoors later. Behind them is a little fig tree I got this spring, and it has grown 3 figs. No chance of them ripening before frost!

The plum trees are prepped for winter with firmly staked deer deterrent cages to prevent the winter winds from bowling them over. The trunks are wrapped to prevent vole chewing. There seem to be a lot of voles around this fall, and if we get a good depth of snow this winter, they will create havoc under it. Two winters ago, they girdled an unprotected small crab apple tree, and killed it. Lesson learned...wrap the baby trees!

There is a bit of leaf colour appearing around the clearing, and expect it to intensify over the next couple of weeks.

 

 Garden clear out is awaiting frost now. In the meantime, there are still cherry tomatoes, lots of greens, and the root crops are still in the ground. I'd love to get at it, but the root cellar is still a little too warm for storage...and these guys are still active.

Bush flora and fauna....and barrels 'o peas.....

April 14, 2024

The snow melted, the rain came...is still coming....Thankfully. The bush is now full of the vernal pools that were missing this spring. The pond has come up beautifully, the grass is greening, and when the sun comes out again....things will be bustin' out all over!

The heavy snow has broken down a lot of trees in the bush, and some have just keeled over from all the moisture softening the soil. Hubby has done a round or two of the trails, with ATV and chainsaw, and today we pulled off a few more smaller trees that have succumbed since then. 

The red squirrels have had a prosperous winter with lots of white pine seeds to eat. The stripped cones are lying in piles under trees, beside rocks, wherever the little rodent sat to eat.

The resident Pileated Woodpeckers certainly have lots of options with all the dead and dying beech trees. Apparently something edible was still in this stump after this broken tree was cut down.

More blooming things in the bush...

                                 Eastern Leatherwood

                                           Red Maple

And on the trail cameras....

A moose ambling by. It has a bald spot on its withers where it has probably been rubbing against trees to dislodge it's tick load.

(Disregard the date and time stamp.) This mild winter was probably a bad one for moose ticks.
On the gardening front, I have baby tomato and pepper plants just emerging, under lights, and there is some life starting to show up in my winter sowing jugs outside. Mustard, kale and oregano are poking up tiny sprigs of green. I've since prepped a few more containers and set them out with marigolds and several varieties of lettuce.

Perennials have been moved from the nursery bed in the end of the Field Garden, into the new bed out front, and I shovelled lumps of the remaining snow around them for slow-release moisture. It has been raining for several days since, so my timing was good. By no means is it a finished project yet.

The herb bed has had the rotten edging removed, and the new hemlock planks are being readied for insertion.

This is the first bed we made when we moved here in June of 2017. I was dismayed when I encountered this behemoth right in the middle, which refused to budge.

A couple of years later, I decided to dedicate this bed to herbs. To make the soil deep enough for planting, we cut an old water barrel into sections, and I positioned one right on the rock and filled it up with soil. I made the mistake of planting mint in it, but the rock did help stop the spread. We rolled the mint barrel out, put it on an old aluminum toboggan and pulled it to a spot over near the compost bins with the ATV. I'm sure it will be happy and thrive there! The other piece of water barrel in the foreground has oregano plants in it. The rock is marked on my garden plans every year, and again will be a place to plant very shallow rooted stuff.

A few days before the rain started, I dumped the soil out of these two barrels onto a tarp, revitalized it with some moisture control soil and a good pail of my sieved compost from last spring.

This morning, in the rain, I donned rubbers, waded out along the edge of the overfull pond, cut willow sprigs for uprights, then wove and tied a few more around for supports. A not too tall variety of pea is planted around the circumference. When the rain stops, I plan on putting just a few lettuce seeds in the middle.

Winter has come back...maybe....

 February 16, 2024

It started snowing yesterday PM, and as the day progressed, the snow came down heavier and heavier. After dark, flicking on the outside lights illuminated the snow pelting down. This morning there was a tinge of blue here and there in the sky, but it has since clouded right over. We have accumulated about 5 inches. Perfect for padding up our snow shoe trails.

Hubby has the panels and the drive cleared, but the plough has not come up the hill yet. I love the feeling of being socked in. Of course we could get out if we wanted to, although getting back up the un-ploughed hill might be a challenge! I'm pretty sure we would have to resort to "Shank's mare"!

The 12+ Blue Jays are mobbing the scoop of corn we put out in the tray feeder. There have been small flocks of Pine Siskins and Red Polls pecking at the exposed gravel on the road. They fly up in a chittering flurry as I walk toward them. My Merlin app also told me there are Red Crossbills around. A group of 6 Evening Grosbeaks show up at the feeder periodically, but this winter, there have only been a few Chickadees about.

Our son arrived last night for Family Day weekend. He arrived late, having had a long and slow slog from the Big Smoke. (Toronto) Most wise folk stayed off the roads, so there was very little traffic to contend with and only the odd snow plough.

I browned a couple of chicken thighs in the cast iron pot on the wood stove, sauteed some veg, and now a good pot of soup is simmering there. I'll shred the thighs and add some orzo close to lunch time.

Other than daily, good cardio walks down and back up the hill, I've been spending time crafting and baking. My most recent build is this tote bag with a draw string top. There are two roomy zippered pockets, one on the outside, and one on the inside. The drawstring top folds down smoothly against the upper insides of the bag, and can be pulled up and used as needed. 

In the baking department, muffins, cookies and some good whole-grain bread full of seeds and grains.

 We discovered some medium sized wolf tracks on a walk around earlier in the week. Things were frozen and we were able to walk without our snow shoes, as long as we stayed on the packed trails.

The wolves had been through on a mild day, their prints sunk into the soft surface.

 On a recent sunny Sunday, we did a bit of a back roads foray, and stopped at Fourth Chute on the Bonnechere. The rocks here are limestone, and are filled with fossils. It is a fun site to visit on a hot summer day, as there are shelves of rock descending into the river.

The Aero garden is doing well. I've been well supplied with dill and mint. The basil has been transplanted out into a pot, not liking the move, but now is showing a little more life. The empty pods are now growing lettuce, and the parsley is just getting usable.

My bit 'o green keeps me company on a table in my craft room.

 

Well, isn't this a "fine kettle of fish"...?

 December 29, 2023

That is for want of a pronouncement that is not profane!

This is what I want, and would be normal for this time of year.

All except the last picture, were taken around Christmas time in 2017, the most perfect Christmas. The last one was 2021

This is what we have today. The overnights are not even reaching the freezing mark, and it rained last night...RAINED. Nuff said.

This stretch of weather has been so grey and dreary. Heavy fog has hung around day after day. Don't think we have seen the sun since the 22nd, when we had one sunny day.

That morning, there were lovely hoar frost crystals on all the twigs and branches, but since then the mild temperatures have whittled away at the snow until now, there is nothing of consequence left. The ground was still covered with snow for Christmas day, so technically, we had a 'white Christmas', but it was mild and melting, nothing fresh about it!

So the cooking and feasting is pretty much over. The turkey bones are simmering on the stove for stock, and we are still enjoying the tree and Christmas music. Why not? It is damp and cool and just not wintery outside. I will dismantle things early in the new year.

I've been spending some time in the craft room...got the last pair of Hubby's holey work pants patched, and all my decks cleared and organized for some fun stuff. He has been warned...that is the last time for that particular pair, as there are patches on patches. This time I put a whole big patch covering the legs, from upper thigh to mid-shin, and zig-zagged heavily over all the rips. 

Son gave me an AeroGarden for Christmas, and I am waiting for the sun to begin showing itself more consistently before setting it up. It uses a little bit of power for the light and the circulating pump. It seems to be a hybrid between hydroponics and in-soil plantings. It comes with pods, pre-planted with dill, mint, parsley, thyme, and two types of basil. The bottom of the pods protrude into the water, to which you add chemical fertilizer.

I'll be having a good think before starting those plugs, as the germinating time and growth habits of those plants are different. It would be nice to have fresh parsley and basil though.

Nothing much planned for the next few. We are usually pretty quiet over New Year's Eve and day. I'll be making something special for Hubby's birthday on the 31st, and a cake, of course. I'm thinking cranberry/orange carrot cake with cream cheese icing. 

I always think it is best to start the new year with a good sleep under one's belt! 

All the best to everyone for 2024. Happy New Year!