Spring fever

It’s got me. It’s got me bad. Like the trees that I saw poking out of the snow last week sporting tiny little buds, I am starting to feel spring in my bones. There’s no practical explanation for it – it was -24 this morning, when I walked the dog in the darkness – but the days are getting slightly longer and as a result, the trees are in bud and the seed catalogues have come in the mail. Like clockwork.

I promised myself I wouldn’t go insane this year. For logical reasons, I plan to hold back on the ambitious and usually-unsuccessful experiments. This year, we need to replace or resurface our deck, which will not only take time but also take up space. We will also be overseeing the construction of my brother-in-law’s cottage and starting to clear our own land, which we will be using on many weekends. I am not going to attempt to do planters of flowers on the deck this year because as much as I love them in June, in July they always get ignored and bake to death and end up looking awful. I had visions of window boxes on the north side filled with coleus and other shade-loving plants, but somehow I think if it’s not in the books in January it won’t be in the books in June.

This year, I really do want to focus on having a great veggie harvest. I am more and more interested in sustainability, which for me includes being self-sufficient as much as possible. I like to think of myself as an island. It’s delusional, yes, but it keeps me going.

The one large project I will take on, aside from the deck, is a new bed at the back of the house, on the south side. I want to cut some of the scrappy cedars out of our forest, which will open it up a bit for other plants to grow and also cut down on the bugs, increase the breeze, etc. I will then use these bits of cedar (and some metal spikes) to build a raised bed, about 18” high and 20” wide, along the wall at the back. I will build a trellis up the wall as well. Into this raised bed will go gravel, a batch of fresh compost, peat moss to absorb the roof run-off, black earth and maybe some sheep manure or something. I will plant this area in a concerted way with my squash vines, so they don’t trouble the veggie garden. I will surround it with copper mesh, so the slugs can’t get any purchase on my beloved squash. Dammit, I will have squash this year. If I have to cut down trees to create sunlight, I will have squash this year.

I have ordered some seeds, against my better judgement. Yes I have a two-litre tub in the basement filled with seed packets, but I can’t rely on their viability. Some of them are pretty ancient. I have ordered from Greta’s Organic Gardens once again, despite having mixed results last year (tomatoes were tinier than expected, melons didn’t really germinate, squash did nothing). I have ordered the elusive kale, which I will inter-plant with my garlic for a late harvest. I will plant a lot, so boerenkool all winter! I have ordered two kinds of tomatoes – one is an early harvest type, and the other is called ‘winter-keeper’ and apparently if you pick them slightly unripe, they will last up to 4 months in a cool dark place. Fruit flies here I come.

Also in my order are butternut squash and tiny little melons, which apparently ripen early. I love melon in summertime. You always have dessert ready! Lately we’re really into grapefruits. Dessert is either a grapefruit or yoghurt. Anyway I am off-track. In addition to that, I will grow peppers and small eggplants in pots on the deck – red pots – because I have had no success in the garden and they need more sun. Baking is good, as long as I water them every night. Also I can keep the earwigs and slugs at bay a lot more effectively in pots.

The main garden will be focused on: Tomatoes (x2), onions, basil, kale, garlic, mint, strawberries, beans, carrots and cucumbers. And cilantro, inevitably.

The new bed in back will be: butternut squash (they’re a compact variety, bush-style), melons, and zucchini (up the trellis in back). This bed will be about 10’ long. If that’s all too much, maybe I’ll do the zucchini in the garden as they’re easier to grow.

I will plant potatoes in the potato bin once again, as that was pretty successful. Last year’s successes were pretty much only potatoes, garlic and onions.

I’m giving up on all herbs that aren’t basil or cilantro. Turns out, I don’t use them. Maybe I’ll try a bit of dill for fish.

As for annuals, I want to get a few to fill in the perennial bed – orange poppies, maybe calendula. I have some other planters that need filling but I promise not to go nuts. I really want cannas but that has never really worked for me. Maybe this will be my year.

Finally, perennials. I always have to wait to see what lived through the winter before buying anything new for the spring. There’s a weird garden area at the back of my place that needs something permanent and ground-covering, so I may invest in that a bit – perhaps a variety of hostas would do the trick. They’re so low-maintenance - I love them.

This post has been very helpful. I have now made a shopping list, and will attempt to stick to it. I promise.

A Really Uneventful Week

So nothing much happened this week. Just status quo. Nothing to watch on t.v., no exciting international events, nothing. Yawn. What a tedious week.

Oh except for that whole Barack-Obama-thing. But what's so exciting about that? So he's the first African-American US President. So he's young and sexy. Who cares that he has a gorgeous amazon of a wife? And the fact that he's been in office only two days and is already on his way to fixing everything is so banal.

In all seriousness, it's like the second coming. I am a huge fan. I drank the kool-aid and loved it! Gimme more! I could not watch ENOUGH inauguration footage. I even watched the boring marching bands (actually not so boring - did you see the one with the ladies in the gold pants?) I worry that he's going to burn himself out though. I mean, save some work for next week. Take the weekend off. I love how he's like "this morning: shut down Guantanamo and broker peace in the Middle East. This afternoon: cap salaries and make government more transparant. Make peace with Cuba. Then have an open-house party, confirm my Secretary of State, and re-take my oath. Tomorrow maybe I'll work on the economy. On Friday: fix the environment." And I thought my schedule was tough.

At least he works from home.

In other news, my parents are in Cuba. Rosie's been at day-care all week and she's so pooped. Every morning now, she stands at the door and looks at me beseechingly, like 'please can't I just spend 11 quiet hours sleeping in my crate today?' but she's still so excited when she gets there she's totally out of control. It's a little embarrassing. I worry about her throat and neck because she pulls so hard, she barrels in the door to go find her friends, which is technically bad behaviour but so damn cute because all the dogs seem wait for her. Cesar Millan would not approve. Anyway she's a peach at home, so Cesar was right: exercise, discipline and affection in that order. Except that with the first and the last, the middle one is almost totally unnecessary. She's been really good all week. It's hard for her to get into crap when she's lying on the floor snoring.

Parental units are getting back tomorrow so Rosie will be back to normal. She will be beyond excited to see gramma, and will likely pee all over the place.

Also, on Saturday Farley goes to his new parents. We said "anytime after 9 am would be fine" and the husband said "we will be there at 9:01." I love that they are so excited. Farley got fixed (he would argue that he was not broken) on Tuesday, to celebrate the inauguration, and he looks like a little baboon with his shaved arse. Poor guy. I wonder if it's cold? I have pre-warned the new parents not to be put off by the baldness. Farley seems perfectly happy, like he has no clue what happened, which is for the best I guess. Tomorrow night I will brush him again for one last time (I've already removed a bunch of dreadlocks, most noteably from under his chin), and attempt to cut his toenails so he's all ready to be on his best behaviour at his new house. I won't be at all sad to see him go, because I know he's going to the best possible home.

So after this weekend we should be back to normal. I promise to clean out the basement and maybe even start letting Rosie down there. It'll be nice and cool for her in the summer.

Last weekend was a blast: we took Rosie to town. She was great! She only tried to jump on a couple of people but it was pretty easy to deal with using the harness. She sniffed the ground constantly, which made me realize that the city's a horrible place for dogs. There's crap everywhere! Cigarette butts, frozen vomit, food bits, garbage - it's so distracting for a country dog! That's likely why she was too busy to jump on anyone. But she walked beside us, was friendly to strangers (especially those carrying bags of food), was very popular, sat before crossing the street and was not at all put off by the traffic. It was total saturation. We were walking around for an hour and a half and she slept all evening long, she was so exhausted.

The next day my brother, his girlfriend, hubby and I took the dogs up the mountain for some snowshoeing, which was beautiful and exhausted the dogs once again, and then we all went out for dinner (not the dogs) for his girlfriend's birthday. Fun times.

We went skiing Monday. God we sound so active. And god, we are not really. I have sat on the couch and knitted a sweater every evening since. It's coming along though! I'll be on to the sleeves soon enough.

That's all I've got for now, but WHAT an exciting week! Jam-packed full of heart-warming goodness.

See?

Gorgeous.

Weekly check-in

Hi all, it's time for a check-in. Last time I wrote all about Harry/Farley, our little basement tenant. I have spent the last several days thinking about the following things:

- seed catalogues have started arriving, and I have been looking even though last year I SWORE I had WAY TOO MANY SEEDS and would NOT be buying ANYTHING this year. Ha.

- we bought our ski passes yesterday. Now we have to figure out when to use them.

- Mom and Dad are off to Cuba on Friday. That means Rosie gets to go to daycare every day for a week! Wow will that ever be fun for all of us.

- tomorrow's temperature is supposed to be something insane like minus 48 or something. I got a new coat in the mail, which weighs exactly zero grams, and am excited to check it out.

Picture my head on here. And my hands.

- Harry/Farley continues to do well. No changes there, except that his new parents are beyond excited to meet him.

- I love my job. I get to look at art all day. It's rough, people, but somebody has to do it.

- Am waiting on the two new magazine subscriptions that hubby got me for xmas: Dwell, and Cottage Life.

- I am now an amateur architect (ahem), and so have designed about 6 different cottages on my computer, all under 850 square feet. It's hard to stop. We are gonna go to the cottage show in April and do some learnin'.

- No clue what to do for dinner. I'm thinking aloud here. Nothing is thawed and the kitchen is a disaster zone. Takeout? This is one of the downsides of living in the country: no chinese takeout. I am falling down on the dinner front lately. The produce is suffering.

- I have a weird urge to make a cake. A real, decorated, honest-to-goodness-with-homemade-frosting cake. I am going to make one for my new boss' farewell party next friday. He's moving to Australia. I am trying not to take it personally. Should I make cake for dinner?

- Rosie is now not so good at sleeping in the bed. She tends to sleep in the upper part, where we are, and she sleeps sideways. Ergo, hubby and I have not really slept well for the last few nights. She's still sweet though, so she gets away with it, though half the time I think she's fake-sleeping so we can't move her.

- I need plants for my office. I have stolen two cuttings off of some existing office plants, but am also considering an aloe, a small palm, and maybe one of those plants you can grow in a goldfish bowl with a beta fish swimming around the roots. I need some life at the office and I don't think they want me to bring Rosie in for the day.

- I have the urge these days to bring Rosie into the city. Crazy, I know, but I want to see how she does when there are TOO many people to jump on and TOO many cars to get excited about and TOO many other dogs to sniff. I think she will be humbled, and I want to see that. She's a country dog, so she still gets overly excited at every passing pedestrian or car. I want to see how she does on a busy sidewalk with traffic passing beside us - to see if she actually becomes blasé about it at some point. In her harness, of course. I guess I'm a bit late to the game on this one but there haven't been a lot of opportunities. I also need to post more pictures of her, to here and on facebook, so you all can enjoy her beauty. I can't say this enough: world's most gorgeous dog.
I'm actually a bit embarrassed by it, like people will think I strive for the most beautiful dog and spend money and time in the pursuit of that, but it's all natural. I think she could work in Hollywood.

- We're running out of firewood. OK it's getting to the end of this post; I have run out of things to say.

Enjoy the week, folks. We're heading into a crazy cold snap so I will be unashamedly wearing silly hats for the next 5 days, bad hair be damned.

It's never dull

Phew.

The holidays are over and I'm back at work, staring at a snowstorm and eating a falafel sandwich. I craved garlic after a coworker microwaved her garlicky lunch in the kitchen adjacent to my office. Mmmm garlic. I am so susceptible. Also, the snow seems to be falling upwards.

We had a great time. The family was wonderful; they loved their land that we bought them with their money, Christmas gifts were all a great success in both directions, we bowled, we snow-shoed, we ate, we pipe-dreamed, we drank, and I learned how to play canasta. Nasty canasta.

When Christmas was over and the Austrians left, on Dec. 29 (Rosie's first birthday!), I had another challenge ahead of me. As we had lost our Loki, and hubby had posted notices all over town looking for him, my kindergarten teacher - with whom I am in touch regularly - called me to let me know that she had a stray black cat around her place and would I come take a look? I knew in my gut that it wasn't Loki (too far away) but I went anyway. It turned out to be a sort of ratty-looking long-haired black cat, who was very friendly. I promised my teacher that I'd make him my problem, since she didn't want to encourage him to stick around and he was getting kind of skinny. She was concerned but really didn't want a cat.

I brought him home and installed him in our basement apartment, which is apparently a popular spot for transients and needy folk of all kinds (my busted-up neighbor, our friend whose house burned down, our friend who couldn't afford rent in town). I started to feed him, and brush him. I brushed out about a pound of dull, unused fur. I learned that he is an intact male and that his pee stinks real bad. I also learned that he has worms and possible other parasites, so I made an appointment to bring him to the vet, before he could pass anything to my other pets.

I brought him in on the weekend, and when we got there, the nurse asked me "what's this cat's name?" I went "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Harry? 'Cause he's hairy?" and then Harry had his first vet check-up. We learned that he's one year old at the very most, probably younger. We learned that he is 10 lbs. We learned that he's an excellent patient (he's very friendly) who didn't complain at all when he got his shots. We learned that he hasn't got fleas, but that he had a terrible yeast infection in his ears. I made him an appointment to be neutered as well, just in case I couldn't find him a home in time and he starts spraying my house or fighting with the neighbors.

All in all, he's a healthy and friendly little bugger. I was starting to get a wee bit attached, despite my dislike of long-haired cats, which is not his fault. I put him back in the basement for now, and upgraded his food a bit. Hubby decided he liked the name 'Farley' better so now he's 'Harry/Farley'. I continue to brush him and feed him cod liver oil, as part of his makeover.

On Monday, hubby went to work and put out the word that we have a cat up for grabs. One of his most-liked coworkers said "as a matter of fact, we have been looking for a cat for our 12-year-old daughter." Turns out, she wants a long-haired, friendly, young cat, black is ok, and male is preferred. They had been looking for one at the SPCA for some time with no luck. Harry/Farley had her at hello, or rather, once she saw the pictures hubby took of him.

I suspect he may be full of beans. Ssh.

So Harry/Farley has found a forever home, starting January 24. They are over the moon and excited to meet him. Hubby has great respect for this lady and says she will be a great cat mom. It is a perfect match, and it warms the cockles of my little heart. There is something karmically good about this.

In other pet news, Sasha's getting along much better with Rosie, since Loki's gone. They even kiss and will sleep next to each other, which is really big news as she's spent the last 10 months avoiding Rosie completely. Rosie turned one on Dec. 29, and got lots of toys for her birthday and christmas, as well as a 'happy birthday' dog cookie with dog-friendly icing. She had no idea what was going on. She was ok with the visitors but she jumped on them incessantly, so I guess she wasn't really that ok. We're just used to it. She is on big-dog food (no more puppy food), and we've gradually cut out lunch, and she'll be happy to be back to her routine. She's better when she knows her parameters. She is still knock-out gorgeous.

But there has been one big change: Rosie now sleeps on the bed. Something I said I'd never do. Now that Loki's gone, she's great on the bed and sleeps like a rock - no more spite-peeing! She actually sleeps in. Sasha will also sleep on the bed some nights. In the mornings, Rosie wriggles up and continues to sleep wedged between us - it's pretty cute. Once the novelty of this wears off, I am hoping that she'll sleep anywhere, preferably on the floor next to our bed. We shall see. In the meantime, don't judge me. We no longer have a working heater in the bedroom. I am used to having warm snuggly animal bodies on the bed and was missing one of mine.