Harvest time, a time for reflection (cue the music).

Well it's the end of August, and I hate to say it, but it's harvest time again. Not that I hate harvest time, but it means that the nights are getting colder and every morning when I wake up, I can see my breath, and half expect to see frost on the deck. This weekend I went to Rona and purchased a 50' roll of heavy-duty clear plastic, because it looks like all my little green tomatoes need a bit of protection if they're going to get red without first getting frostbite. I'm tired of dragging old sheets all over my yard.

It's been a weird year. It rained pretty much every day through June, July, and early August, so we had a billion slugs and juuuust not enough sun for some of the fruits and veggies. However, I suspect the rain played a part in one of my greatest successes of the year, the plums. Remember how I always lament the troubles I have with the plums? Well they're far from perfect, but I have a lot of them, and the ones that are ready to eat are delicious. Behold:

There were two factors this year that may have contributed to their success: I pruned off all the useless, plum-less branches early on, and we had a lot of rain. I'm going to try to water the tree extra next year (if it's not rainy like 08) and see what happens.

However, the rain, paired with a not-perfect planting site, prevented me from growing any pumpkins. This was going to be a monumental year for pumpkins but I think the site I chose got too shady once the surrounding sumacs got to full-size, and the soil may not have been rich enough. It's tough to find a sunny site in my yard where pumpkins can grow to their full glory. I have a few ideas for next year but it means a lot of work. I didn't get so much as a baby pumpkin this year - nor did I see hide nor hair of squash. The melons never made it past seedling stage. I have to learn that surrounding plants grow bigger faster and choke things out easily - I don't know why it's taken me this long to figure that out, I guess I'm a slow learner.

It's not all doom and gloom, though, by far. Behold the beautiful things I harvested this weekend (plus the onions that I harvested over the course of about 2 weeks):
I am in love with those purple potatoes. Digging them up I felt like an archeologist, digging up jewelled egyptian beetles or something. They're iridescent. They far outgrew the 'Russet Burbank' yellow potatoes I grew (see the photo - they're the weenie ones) so they are the stars of the show. However, I served up all the tiny potatoes for dinner that day, and the russets did taste a bit better and cook up more elegantly - the purple ones are floury and go a bit soft for my liking. They also do not make great french fries.

I got two tomatoes but when I turned my back, Rosie ate one. Well, she sort of only mangled it while using it as a ball, but it was inedible so I let her have it. I got another three later on though, along with the remaining leathery beans. The garlic you see in the photo is the world's most potent garlic. I made a greek-inspired dinner on Saturday when a friend came over (and we lost power for 8 hours - I did it all on the BBQ), and I made chicken souvlaki-like skewers with garlic, yoghurt tzaziki-like sauce with garlic, greek-like salad with garlic in the sauce, and I used one clove in total. And had wicked garlic breath the next morning. So tread cautiously with my garlic. I take heart that I will finally rid myself of that pesky vampire problem that's been plagueing my household.

This poor guy grew through the fence. I am such a softie that I cut the fence to free him. My dad said "why the heck didn't you just cut the cucumber?" but I am not like that. The fence is not living. Now he's got an awesome studded collar and is the envy of all the other cukes.
Quietly, in the background of all of this, the grapes have been staging a silent coup on my deck. They almost ran off with the BBQ but I caught them red-handed.
I am wise to their tricks:

Maybe I'll have a Lucille Ball moment and make my own wine? Why not? I already make cider, how different could it be? The vines are heavy with grapes this year. Speaking of cider, here's the apple tree:

turn your head to look at it.

Hubby insists we have a much lower yield this year but I think he's being alarmist. I think we'll have plenty. Besides, we talked about getting some wild apples off the neighbors to increase the variety of apples used (ergo, increasing the complexity of our cider) so it won't matter in the end. We'll still be able to fill two carboys. He forgets that after making cider last year, I still had two pailfuls of apples in the downstairs fridge for ages and ages - long enough that they became like little shrunken heads. I should have carved them all up into faces and left them in the fridge for effect. I ended up throwing them into the snow for the deer, but the squirrels got them first.

I guess that's that. I have basil too, and thai basil, though not a bumper crop as I've had in previous years. I had a truckload of cilantro, and there were some strawberries early on. I have tiny beets that I still don't know how to prepare, and I have a few clumps of swiss chard as well. There are more cucumbers to come - the vines are escaping the garden, into the lawn - and the tomatoes are ripening. The marigolds and nasturtiums did really really well and got enormous. My peppers were dismal this year - the little ones I got got eaten by something, even though I did use diatomaceous earth. I think it was the rain and the lack of sun. The leeks are still in the garden but I don't know what to do with them. I may cut them off and thin them out and leave them for next year, to see what happens. They came back bigger this year, maybe they'll be the right size next. I still have ground cherries ripening - those are my little gardening snack for while I'm weeding, pulling out spent plants, etc. I also managed to get rhubarb well into summer, and hope that picking it will increase next year's yield.

Now that things are being removed from the garden, I have to space out the strawberries a bit better, weed the whole thing, and try to control where the cilantro drops its seeds.

So here's the list of things I'm going to do next year, and things I will leave behind:

- Plant squash and melons in a sunny, dedicated, well-fertilized spot.

- start tomatoes sooner, and harden them off better.

- Plant peppers in pots, not in the garden. Be vigilant.

- Get the leeks out of there.

- Plant more beans, so I can harvest more than 6 at a time.

- Plant more spinach (I may do that this weekend actually).

- Plant some things that ripen early and make decent side dishes.

- Plant russet gold potatoes earlier and leave them in the ground longer. Plant purples later and take them out at the same time.

- Plant more onions and garlic. Put them among everything. Leave them in the ground longer.

- Plant more basil.

- Maybe try romaine lettuce again?

- Don't attempt corn.

- Try asparagus again.

In conclusion, it looks like the veggie garden itself next year will be tomatoes, basil, onions, garlic, cukes, spinach, romaine lettuce, strawberries and beans. That's pretty traditional but fine with me. In pots I'll have peppers, and potatoes will be in the potato bin, and the squash and melons will be elsewhere, likely with the asparagus (if that works). I will also invest in a pear tree, to put up near my (recovering) cherry tree, and take good care of the existing plums and apples. I may also try blueberries, but I already have a decent blueberry source so what the heck. Why add to my workload?

Besides, next summer has the potential to be really busy, but that's another story.

A Reprieve

This past New Year’s Eve, my hubby and I received a little bit of bittersweet news. Hubby’s Aunt had passed away in the U.K. (in November – we knew this), and the official legal letter we got in the mail was announcing to us that Hubby is a beneficiary – one of nine – of her estate.

These things are kind of awkward to me. They’re sad occasions that come with good news, so the accompanying emotions are really mixed up. I have never specifically received an inheritance, to speak of. My grandmother passed away in 2003 and left me $100, which was very touching. It was nice to have been thought of, as I am one of 10 grandkids. My parents got a lot more, and used it to buy a behemoth boat, dubbed the “Thanks Mom”, which we have all enjoyed for 5 years. When my great uncle died, he left it all to my dad (+mom) and his siblings (+ spouses), so that generation got to divvy it up as they saw fit. It was once again a pretty generous amount (he was a single dude with investments), so my parents shared with us, giving each kid $2,000 at Christmastime. That was a terrific gift that made me cry like a baby, and I promptly invested the whole amount. It lost a bunch of money (thanks Scotiabank!) but is now bouncing back.

So when this letter came, our imaginations did two things: raced forward to the highest dollar amount possible, and then put the brakes on. We had no idea. We didn’t want to count our chickens. We wanted to take the time to process it, and to honour his aunt accordingly, as it was quite unexpected and very touching. My husband has a small and distant family – the surviving members are a hoot and I love them very much, but they live in Austria, Germany, England, Calgary – but he has not much in the way of safety net and is, technically and financially, an orphan. An orphan who was left on his own, in much debt, right out of university, with zero assets.

This gift-from-above represents, to me, his family finally looking after him in a financial way that a lot of the rest of us can usually count on throughout our lives, doled out as money for books, help with tuition, first month’s rent, borrowing the car, etc. This is his net. As he is still, unfortunately, swimming in student loans, this net could help him get out of the water.

Then the other day, we finally received the letter detailing dollar amounts. It was more than we’d imagined, even at our highest estimates. This influx is finally enough to get us out of debt (though we will keep our mortgage), meaning that there are no more student loans, no more car payments, no more renovation payments, and that we are now the proud owners of a 14’ fishing boat with trailer and all the trimmings. My husband is a happy camper. I am a happy camper. We are in celebration mode.

And on top of all of that debt-canceling, the best part is, we can finally start looking for a piece of cottage property to start working on our dream: a home-made cottage, to be used by our family, friends, and perhaps renters, on a lake where hubby can fish and I can dive off the dock, knowing that week after week the dock is mine to dive off of. This dream is still years in the distance, but I can now taste it. And do you know what? It tastes like mojitos, barbecued chicken and ribs, fresh-caught fried fish, crisp salads, and cedar.

Thank you Eileen.

Six months later....

Hey guys, remember this?

That's Rosie, sitting there acting all demure and quiet, with Tonka's big rear end in her face. Well, six months makes a lot of difference in the life of a dog (or two). Here's a shot of Rosie and Tonka now, at 7 months old, fishing for the beluga whales printed on the bottom of the pool:

It would be a bit more than one could handle, if these two weren't the sweetest dogs alive. Rosie is 58 lbs., Tonka's around 75.

Also...

...Today marks three years of wedded bliss. And is this my 100th post? I do believe it is. Congratulations to me.

Something expensive is afoot

I had a new experience yesterday. I like to document all new experiences in some way, and since the doctor didn't let me keep my x-rays, I figured I'd write about it here.

For awhile now, I have had a sore foot. My family doctor called it a hallux valgus, but when I told that to the podiatrist's receptionist, she said "you mean a bunion?", which made me feel much less dramatic. I prefer the latin name.

I made the appointment ages ago and finally, yesterday, I had to figure out where it was and make my way there. Turns out it was quite far out of the downtown core, and so I had to take the bus to get there. I am not a bus person. The bus freaks me out - I am constantly worried that I took the wrong bus, that I missed my correct bus, that I will miss my stop, or that I won't get out of the bus in time when it does stop. I tend to sit near the doors and pay close attention. I have also learned that some bus routes are more civilized than others. On this particular stretch, we passed two hospitals - one of them the local mental hospital - and the front of the bus became an entangled mess of walkers, strollers, and people switching seats to allow the elderly or troubled passengers to sit down. I stuck to the back.

This bus smelled like a mix of exhaust and halitosis. I sat next to a nice elderly gentleman, I'll call him Italian (his sandals looked Italian), who was returning home with his recent purchase, a DVD copy of a Verdi opera. He was a largish man, however, and our hips were squeezed together a bit uncomfortably, a fact that neither of us was willing to acknowledge as the bus lurched side to side. I picked him as my seatmate because he was relatively nicely dressed and his hair seemed clean, and didn't look like he would smell bad, which was more than I could say for the rest of my fellow passengers. I stared out the window with great purpose for at least 15 blocks before my predicted stop, and then pulled a move typical of me: so worried that I would miss my stop, I got out four blocks earlier than I needed to. I tried to seem casual as I walked behind my bus, waiting in traffic, and watched as the other passengers got off up ahead, right where I needed to be.

Anyway, I finally got into the waiting room of the podiatrist's office, and filled out the form. I have had so many specialists in my day that I know this form well: allergies to any medication? Nope. Any of the following conditions? Only athsma. Any perscription meds? Only ventolin. I like this form. I was a dentist-surfer for years so I have filled it out many times. The one at my current dentist's office is super-detailed; it takes a good 20 minutes to fill it out and asks about every disease under the sun. This one was simple, though - I was done in about 2 minutes. I guess they don't really care about your athsma when they're working on your feet.

I sat and waited. And waited and waited. I picked a seat next to the magazines but this made me sit directly across from a woman and right next to a man, and we were all really concerned with not letting our feet or elbows touch the whole time - not an easy feat, this was the tightest waiting room I'd ever seen.

I got in to see the doctor and it was pretty quick, being that I was their last patient of the day. I actually had to ask him to slow down at one point as I wasn't catching what he was saying (next stop, the hearing centre next door). Consultation, x-rays, talk of orthotics, then they made plaster casts of my feet, which was super fun. I doubt I will get those back. There was a nurse there who croaked "I'm real bossy. Been here 35 years. Put your feet here, hon, and stand like that. OK hon, now let's do the other foot. OK hon, that's great sweetie, thanks." The next one told me that none of the nurses there were married.

Turns out my feet are collapsing under the great weight of my body as I lumber through life. OK I'm joking, I'm not that heavy, but for some reason the tops of my feet are losing their structural integrity, causing my hallux valgus (or bunion, as others may choose to call it) and forming little claws on the backs of my heels, like Rosie's dewclaws. I went home with a piece of rubber strapped to the bottom of my foot and moped around all evening like a lame horse, even though nothing had really changed in the course of my day. My cruel husband still let me make dinner.

These orthotics are going to set me back $635. Only $300 of it is covered by the cheap bastards at my work, so I'm on the hook for $335. I figure it's better than surgery, though my mother reminds me that with surgery I get two weeks off work. You don't get time off for orthotics. I am nervous that I will never wear stylish shoes again, as I do love my high heels, but I figure I'll cheat for special occasions.

Bottom line is: getting old is expensive. Specialists are expensive. Thank god the ship is coming in (slowly), but that's a story for another day.

Another post with zero pictures

I always forget my camera, or my cables, or both, so you are treated to another post with no pictures.

I just got back from the kind of weekend where one needs a few days of nothing but water and lemon juice to clean out one's pipes. I actually overheard one jolly fellow say "I'm gonna have this cigarette then go find my pants." It was that kind of weekend. I found myself unable to stop disco dancing beside a campfire, which is unusual behaviour for me. At least I wasn't alone.

And my dog was kind of embarrassing. She was generally very well-behaved and sweet. However, she ate the following non-dog-food items this past weekend: the steak right off of someone's plate three doors down, a big chunk of banana cake with cream cheese icing, potato salad, a turkey burger, pieces of a tofu-and-jerk-chicken skewer, and a bunch of random buns and chips. Needless to say, we were at the vet last night dealing with a bit of gastric upset, manifested in scary poos. Sorry, too much information. And a warning: dogs are expensive.

We shared a cabin with my girlfriend Fiona (jeweller extraordinaire, who re-made my engagement ring after last year's mishap) and her hysterically funny partner Dom. Who is english, and could preface anything with "Dahling" and make it sound sweet. They brought their pooch and the doggies got along famously, and they also brought their very loud sound system. We had a lot of cocktails and partied to the wee hours and busted a gut laughing, which felt like a million bucks. At one point, the cabin beside us was briefly (2 songs?) transformed into a nightclub, complete with couch-dancing and flashlight strobes. Good times. We called it the Canadian Shield Dance Party and I'm sure the noise of it carried across the lake like crazy and irritated all the rich cottagers.

This weekend we're having a gathering at our place and I'm a bit worried. About the weather, about people not coming, and about the little black food thief. I think it might be embarrassing. I may have to tie her up on her rope, which she won't like, which will make her bark, or if there are no other dogs there I may get Grandma and Grandpa to take her for the night.

Onto the requisite garden talk: Remember when I said I didn't have any grapes? I lied - they were just hiding. I have a LOT of grapes. I don't know what they will taste like or whether they'll make it, hiding from the birds and the bugs, but I look forward to trying. Also I still have some plums on the tree, and they're getting larger, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will at least have a few.

The veggies are great and there's no sign of cucumber beetles yet (knock on wood), though I would like it to stop being so damp out so the slug-fest can end. I hate the damn slugs. Pretty soon I will be pulling up potatoes, garlic, and onions, and will be able to start eating beans soon enough as well. I have baby tomatos and the peppers are getting ready to do their thing, so I am getting the diatomaceous earth tomorrow. Pumpkins are in full bloom and are awesome, though I don't think they like this rainy dark weather either. The rest is a bit of a messy jungle. When fall comes I will move the strawberries around a bit because I planted them too tightly. I should also rip out the borage before it drops seeds, because I am really starting to resent it.

Hey can everyone who reads this post leave a comment of some sort? I think I'm yodelling into the darkness here.

What's my name? Where do I work again?

(Sigh). I'm back at work.

(pffffffffffffft. That's the sound of me being deflated). I have been back now for 4 days, and I think it was a terrible idea. I should have taken 3 weeks off. Except I had a lot to do this week and next week, they're sending me to Winnipeg on a 6 a.m. flight. In Gennyland math, that means I have to get up at 4, and leave the house at 4:30.

Complain complain complain.

Vacation ended, not a whole heck of a lot got done on the house but we're in good shape, I cleaned it about 48 times - or rather, swept the floors 48 times - and spent a bunch of time sitting on my arse. Summer's in full swing now, so I don't spend a lot of time in the garden, which is ironic. I almost can't - it's been taken over by borage and that stuff is prickly. I dislike it. I am slowly ripping it out, as I discover it smothering or shading my prized peppers, tomatoes, beans, and other things you can actually eat.

So far everything's doing really well, though I am worried about the lack of blooms so far. The tomatoes are blooming, sort of, and the beans have started, but the squash and cukes are still bare. The bonus is that I haven't seen any cucumber beetles yet. The pumpkins are ready to burst forth with new life; I think there will be blooms by this weekend. Sunday - I'm calling it. I will let you know. They're doing really really well.

Therefore, I really hope that frost comes late this year, because it seems I will have a lot of things on the vine in September. Thems squash need time to get big and the plants are still teensy.

Cilantro's completely taken everything over, but I'm going to start ripping it out because it's all gone to flower. Next year maybe I'll start anew, and have it grow only where I want it to grow. I guess I can plant it in the fall - or just scatter the seeds willy-nilly, which seems to work just fine.

Lettuce is getting ready to bolt but I continue to eat it - this variety doesn't seem to go bitter, which is really nice. Usually I miss my lettuce by waiting too long. We've been putting it on everything but could have salads every night for 2 weeks on my supply. Swiss chard is coming up, so before it gets big I'm going to have to figure out what the heck one does with Swiss chard. The peppers look like they're ready to bloom - the plants are short but stocky and dark green and hardy-looking, so I'm happy about that, seeing as I grew them from seed. Now I need diatomaceous earth to keep the earwigs out, those slimy little bastards. I'm disappointed in the output of my rhubarb - the stalks were all skinny, so I didn't pull them out, and now the leaves are all spotting and withering. It does this every year. I think it's very old, possibly spent. Maybe I need to rip it out and plant a new rhubarb bush in a new spot for next year.

I have plums. Not many clean ones but I have plums. The tree was filled to the brim with them, but they've slowly begun succumbing to the same disease they get every year, but I have my fingers crossed that because I had so many green ones, there will be at least a few that make it this year. I am encouraged by this not to rip the tree down, but to try to fix it for next year. The trick to the great output seems to have been to cut off all the non-producing branches, because the tree itself seems to be quite happy. I'm not sure if it's a disease, or bugs (curculio? caterpillars?), or something nutritionally wrong - or all three frankly - but I'd like to get a professional opinion before this happens again next year.

The flower gardens are typical of my summer flower gardens - messy, weedy, the large plants are in the front and the small plants are in the back, being dwarfed. I am no landscape architect or garden designer. My interest in horticulture is scientific, I seem to have zero aesthetic abilities. Why would anyone put Veronica in the front? Shasta daisies? To be fair, I think those migrated, but still. Now I have to wait until they're done blooming to move them to the back. Meanwhile, I had columbines at one point, but I have no idea what happened to them, and my hens and chicks have been engulfed. The whole thing is shot through with quack grass and these unruly prickly things with yellow flowers that get tall, and of course raspberries. The dread black raspberries, which tangle everything up. I need to trellis them but have of course been too lazy to do so.

I had a ton of grapes but now I have none. Bugs? Birds? Whatever, now I have tons of grape stems. Probably for the best, grapes are poisonous to dogs.

Anyway, that's the yard update. I have to whippersnip because it hasn't been done in a month and everything's shaggy. I figure, since my house is under construction and I am back at work, that's the least of my concerns.

Notes from afar

Okay, not exactly afar. This ain't exactly travel writing. The vacation’s been pretty good so far. Not ideal weather-wise, but I have managed to get some stuff crossed off of the “objectives” list, and when I take the time to reflect on it, I am quite relaxed. For the most part.

The main plot points of the vacation can be summed up thusly:
Golf tournament, reading, spaying, sleeping, painting, construction, windows, beer, money, hammock, mosquitoes, satellite dish collar, turkey cookies, and bad hair.

To elaborate, I have finished my book, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, and finished knitting the sleeve of my sweater. I got new windows installed in the living room. Rosie got spayed on Thursday and now is miserable in her satellite dish collar, but is otherwise fine. After a couple of weeks of diarrhea and a morning of vomiting, whatever was in her system seems to have left the building and she’s fit as a fiddle. We’ve learned to feed her more slowly by adding water to her kibble, and have cut down on the green peppers which are apparently hard to digest. However, I did buy some beef rib bones at the butcher and smoked them myself, and she enjoyed those quite a bit. I’m sure the bones are still kicking around here somewhere. The whole house has a sort of mesquite scent to it now.

The renovations are coming along. I’m not too stressed about it, for some strange reason. I’m just picking away at it and somehow it’s getting done, sort of. I guess we’re going to have to start going gangbusters this week – we’ve put up one piece of siding, have stained a few more, and are now well on our way. I spray-painted the patio door red, which was pretty successful.

The flower gardens are popping like mad these days. The yellow iris just faded and the peonies are on their way out, but the delphiniums are opening up and the tiger lilies are on their way. I let the pale yellow cinquefoil take over the garden this year – I usually pull it out since it’s considered a weed – and it’s highlighting everything very nicely. It may stay.

In the veggie garden, the tomatoes and peppers are still small, and the beans are also struggling a bit. We need more hot weather. It has rained every single day since I’ve been off work, which is good for the garden in some respects but not so good in others. I seem to have a slug farm on my hands. I hate slugs so much you have no idea, so this doesn’t make me so cheerful. Last night I got one stuck in my Croc and it squished between my toes every time I took a step – I was not a happy camper.

Yesterday was rainy, so we cleaned out the freezer a bit and made dog cookies out of leftover thanksgiving turkey. We enjoyed a 19-lb grain-fed free-range turkey from hubby’s co-worker, to feed three people, so there was a little bit of turkey left over. We have enough to make cookies for pretty much the whole year. She loves them, so phew, but it was quite a process to make them, and it turned my stomach thoroughly; I may never eat turkey again.

Oh, I also got a dog gate for the car. This was an adventure because when I brought it home and started to set it up, I discovered that it was missing some essential parts, but also contained half of a chlorine testing kit. So we promptly returned it to Canadian Tire and replaced it. I installed it yesterday – it looks very dog-person-y.

I have not been dieting or cleansing. I have been eating beer, chips, hot dogs, cookies, grilled cheese sandwiches, wine, French fries, and a lot of steak. So scratch that one of the list. Construction workers need to eat hearty fare.

I’ve started to finish the inside of the window in the living room. Oh hell, I’m almost done. I am staining the shelf I built, which is taking forever. Reminds me I have to go down and put on a second coat when I’m finished this.

I have seen movies: I’ve seen 2 Days in Paris, which was quite funny, and The Other Boleyn Girl, which I thought was a rushed version of the book and didn’t love so much. Natalie Portman was excellent, Scarlett Johansson looked hangdog the whole time – she literally only had one expression, and in my humble opinion she shouldn’t do any more period films where they remove her eyebrows. It’s not a good look for her. And they should have used the guy who played Henry Percy to be the one Mary ends up with (Stafford?), not the weenie-looking kid they did cast. Disappointing all in all, though it could have been so much more. I think the story's way too long to be a movie.

I’ll post vacation photos when I’m back at work. I’m on dial-up at home, so can’t upload a damn thing unless I’ve got 4 hours to spare. I’m off to stain a shelf.

Objectives

This afternoon I have a meeting with my new boss to discuss my work objectives for 2008-09. I think this is the final step in our performance appraisal process, which is very long and drawn out and has been happening since the beginning of April and with two bosses.

In the spirit of objective-setting, I herewith set out my objectives for 'Summer Vacation 2008'. If you will recall, my objectives last year were lofty and ambitious, so this year I hope to go a bit easier on myself. Let's see what I've got planned:

- Finish reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon;
- Finish knitting the sleeve of the sweater I've struggled with since Christmas;
- Renovations! Get windows installed, do front of house;
- Deep-clean closets;
- Finish some notes for Green committee at work;
- Do work for Green committee;
- Rosie spayed (june 26);
- Go camping?
- Purchase a dog gate for the car;
- Build lattice wall on deck;
- Stake tomatoes, delphiniums, etc.;
- Get a tan;
- Move living room furniture around. Maybe;
- Visit friends - at least two;
- Diet/cleanse. I've been eating a lot of bad stuff lately;
- Make food (granola, ice cream, bread);
- Watch at least three movies;
- Finish off inside of living room window, with a shelf;
- Download music;
- Attend some Bluesfest shows.

I am sure there's going to be more to add, but this is a good start. I have 1.5 days of work left until vacation, and 5 meetings within those 1.5 days. Sigh. I also still have to buy some accessories (earrings and necklace) for the wedding I'm attending tomorrow afternoon. I am a busy girl.

Photographic evidence

I've been trying and trying to properly document my growing garden, but with minimal success. Trust, when you look at these pictures, that either the colours are off or they're invariably duller than they look in real life. With that in mind, may I present "Garden Pairings 2008":

These are the coral bells and jacob's ladder, against growing veronica, with a bit of hosta and peony in the background. Pretty typical stuff, only this time with more weeds.

Columbines showing their stuff to the tulips who'd recently lost their blooms. How rude.

I am in love with these dark-leaved coral bells, especially with that purplish sage, and when the centaurea comes out, as in this photo, watch out! Though the centaurea is a victim of over-exposure in this shot.

And this is my pièce de résistance: the Siberian iris/poppy/marigold combination. Some might find this tacky but I just think it's happy. Those people are not invited to my yard.

Here we have the overall veggie-garden effect, as seen from the deck. Pardon the hose - I give it a quick spritz every morning, at least until the rains come (tomorrow).

And here's a little miracle:

The squash that wouldn't start in my grow op under lights, are doing JUST FINE since I 'discarded' their 'empty pods' in this neglected seed tray. I'm going to leave this out and see what else decides to show it's face. Looks like those pods at the bottom of the shot have something going on as well. See? It PAYS not to clean up properly! Also in this photo: my epidemic of cilantro and borage. Sigh. What the hell do you do with borage? It's so messy.

I'll take more pics as the garden comes up. For right now, I am happy with the progress we're making. My tomatoes seem to have bounced back and gotten hardy and everything else's just trucking along. Now what to do with all these squash seedlings.....

Advance warning

This is an advance warning that lots of garden pictures will be coming your way very soon.

Mid-June is the very nicest time in the garden, I think. The vegetables are all still tiny and manageable and there aren't too many bugs infesting them yet, and the flowers are starting to really pop. Everything's still clean - nothing's gone out of control as of yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Currently, I am enjoying the contrast of my hot red poppies next to my deep purple siberian irises, against the backdrop of the orange marigolds in the veggie garden. My eyeballs aren't big enough.

Today or tomorrow, the yellow iris that I transplanted into my upper perennial bed will bloom for the first time, against the deep purple of the centaurea and, if it sticks around, the hot pink of my gorgeous peonies. Seriously, the camera can't even capture it. I've been taking pictures of nice garden pairings but then when I look at them, they all seem drab on-screen. My brother's girlfriend got a nice digital SLR camera, and takes the most gorgeous flower pictures, so maybe I'll have to hire her out for an evening, ply her with alcohol or something.

In the veggie garden, I am also experiencing moderate success: The garlic's trucking along, but I haven't seen hide nor hair of the neighboring corn yet. Maybe that won't work out, but that's not a tragedy; there's enough corn in the world and I don't even really like eating it that much. The tomatoes are bouncing back, growing themselves some dark green, hardy, outdoor leaves - the nicest ones are the ones I bought off of the little boy at the garage sale.

I think the basil that I transplanted is ok, but it's so tiny still that I can't be sure when looking at it from a distance. I haven't been through the gate since the weekend. 2 of my 3 cucumbers are doing well, the third had it's leaves eaten off by something (sluggy?) but may still bounce back. I had no success with the squash that I started in the grow-op, but stuck the remaining 5 seeds directly into the ground, and they've grown and are happy to be there. The lettuce is coming along, spinach is almost ready to eat, and I have a ton of cilantro. The beans are up, and the beets are doing well, and I may have a nice little crop of strawberries this year as well. My nasturtiums are poking their adorable little leaves out of the ground, and I have mounded up my potatoes already. May have to do it again this weekend, they're growing so fast in this weather. 5 of my 6 pumpkins are doing really well, and even the one that Rosie yanked out of the ground is bouncing back ok. I am considering spreading compost over the rows and then covering them with straw once the plants are a bit bigger - but we'll see. Damn I love the veggie garden in June. August... not so much but in June I am full of enthusiasm.

And the best part is, I've reached the point where there's very little to do aside from management. I've been spending a lot of time in my hammock, just watching the apples grow. Weeding, top-dressing and mounding, staking, bug control, and harvesting, that's about all I have to worry about until fall. I do have to clean up the grow-op though - it's a filthy disaster.

It's been so hot and humid these days (but raining at night - perfect for the garden) that Rosie doesn't know what to do with herself. We've moved her crate into the darker, cooler back room and put a fan on it, so she's ok during the day, but she really doesn't want to play sillybuggers outside much these days in the heat and the bugs. Life's hard for a black dog in summertime. So, we are going to the nearby lake a lot. I got her one of these:

It's called a Wubba and it's a hollow lightweight Kong, covered in neoprene, which floats really well. She LOVES it. I got the bright yellow one, so it's not easy to lose sight of, and the little tassles make it really easy to throw far, even for a klutz like me. She dives in so inelegantly after it, it's worth the $10 I spent on it in laughs alone. I'm an idiot for this dog.

Look at that curly butt! How could you not want to buy toys for it!?

Funny thing: when you get a 9-lb puppy in your arms who's a mix of two breeds, you're never really sure what you're going to end up with. I was convinced she was all lab. Her mum's a golden retriever, and in this shot you can see it. Usually she looks more like a black lab, save for this longer, curly coat. I adore it. I snuggle my face into this coat at least three times a day. I crave the smell of this fur all day when I'm at work. She is so handsome too, just perfectly proportioned, perfectly athletically put together. I would take credit, but I didn't birth this creature - she's someone else's miracle. I just get to watch her grow, which is pure pleasure. Bittersweet though, I do miss that tiny 9 lb pup. She was so damn cute.

I'll post pictures tomorrow... someone has to do some work around here.

Best.Discovery.Ever.

Yesterday, we brought Rosie to our latest favourite place: the doggy daycare 15 minutes from our house.

You may dismiss me as being a crazy dog lady, one of these bourgeouis pet owners who treats their animals like children and buys them all kinds of expensive crap that they don't care about, and you'd probably be at least 35% right (I treat everyone like children ha ha). Sure Rosie gets pampered, and we buy her the healthiest food we can find, and we feed her people food (peppers, bananas, apples, broccoli, yogurt, peanut butter) as snacks to switch it up a bit, but we do that for the cats too. They occasionally get the water from our tuna cans, shrimp tails, and occasionally fish skin or other end bits that we can't stomach. They don't get as many snacks, mostly because they've traditionally had weight issues, and they only really eat meat and dairy. It's much more fun - and tidier - to give a puppy veggie snacks for good behaviour.

Anyway, back to our discovery. This daycare is actually a boarding kennel, and it's run by this supercool lady who also works at the vet's office. She's german, and no-nonsense, and has 20-something sled dogs in a seperate pen in the yard, this neat enclosure outfitted with parasols and christmas lights, where each dog has a little 'fort' made out of overturned plastic barrels, with little wooden decks and stairs. It's very neat. Those dogs seem pretty happy.

The facility itself looks like a cool brand-new house. Inside the doors, to the right, there's a sunroom with about 12 built-in pens for cats, each containing a bed, food and water dishes, a window, and a couple of tiered shelves that they can climb and sleep on.

Down the hall at the back and to the left, you enter a big concrete and chain-link-fence hall filled with barking dogs. Each dog (or family of dogs) gets their own pen, which is attached to their own outdoor dog run, so they come and go as they please. You bring your own bed and toy and food. The facility is very clean, and they seem very conscientious. When we bring the dog in, her pen has been freshly mopped, and she has a little clipboard on the front with her name on it and special instructions (one dog last week had 'needs extra cuddles' written on her instructions - she was an over-nighter). We gave her the container of food and a baggie with treats - a chunk of pepper and two chunks of banana - and she feeds them at the assigned times.

She breaks the dogs into 'teams' based on their personalities, for play time. Originally she was only going to put Rosie in with the little nice dogs, but eventually she was in with the whole gang - she's very social. I was informed that many dogs would be completely pooped that night thanks to my Rosie, who played hard until she fell promptly asleep in the playground. Then she woke up and played again. She was terrified when we dropped her off, but had a great day, and was playing with a 6-month-old Newfoundlander and my brother's neighbor's English Spaniel when we picked her up, minus one more tooth. As soon as she hit the car, she fell asleep.

And she pretty much stayed asleep until this morning.

This wonderful service costs $10 for the day, plus tax. So we figure, for once a week, to have Rosie playing with other dogs and happy and social, and to switch up her routine so she's not in a crate 5 days a week, it's worth it to her. And it's so worth it to us, because we effectively get a night off. I could have done almost anything last night. I would pay double that to be able to nap, knit, read a book, snack, or whatever (last night I assembled our new patio umbrella) for one night a week. Not that I don't enjoy hanging with Rosie in the evenings, but it's hard to get anything done when she's in full week-night mode.

Anyway, best discovery so far. Soon she will go for her first overnight, and I will be scared and sad, but it'll be part of her growing-up that she spends a night away from her humans. I hope that by now, she's learned that no matter what length of time we're away - 2 hours or a week - we always come back for her. If not, this is part of the process.

Batten down the hatches!

This past weekend I put most of the remaining seeds and seedlings into the veggie garden. It rained all weekend long, so perfect weather for a lazy gardener like me - easier to weed, no need to water after planting, keeps the bugs down, yadda yadda. I am no fair-weather gardener.

Now I have to prepare for the onslaught.

My tomatoes were the first hit; I guess I didn't do a good enough job of hardening them off (my problem every.single.year - one would think I'd learn eventually?), and they turned white and crispy a few days after planting them out. They're bouncing back, but some of the leggier ones and the tinier ones are experiencing a real set-back. I will need to give them extra attention and kisses in the coming weeks, and remember to stake them properly when (if?) they get larger.

Actually, the first round of baby bok choi that I planted were the first hit, as they were completely uprooted by Rosie.

Then I did the same thing to a row of beets. (sigh). Rosie comes by it honestly.

I am going to be armed and dangerous this year. I'm going to watch very carefully for cucumber beetles - I've moved everything around and I hope to hell they've been thwarted. I want cukes this year. The past couple of years they have been a crashing failure. I tossed the rotting trellis and flipped everything in the garden over, and changed the location of my cukes, and moved the other squash and melons elsewhere, so I hope that's done some good. If not, I will resort to killing them, spraying with oils, you name it.

I also plan to get on top of the currant problem this year. Every year we have a caterpillar infestation on the currant bush and it affects productivity and makes it a disgusting pain in the ass to pick the berries. I have to spray the base of the tree with vegetable oil, apparently, and I guess I have to start doing it soon.

Yesterday I put out (prematurely?) my little adorable pepper plants. Some barely have a second set of leaves but dammit I am impatient, and it was rainy. As soon as I see flowers on them, I will start surrounding them with diatomaceous earth to deter earwigs - the pox of my peppers. I also stuck a lot of marigolds in and around the tomatoes and peppers this year, we'll see if that scares anything off.

I tried my best to plan the garden using companion planting guides. I think I screwed it up here and there by changing plans, but for the most part, I hope to grow a lot of veggies in a small space well, by making sure they're all compatible with each other. The only things left to go in the ground are the melons, which are going into the perennial bed, and the basils (thai and regular), which are healthy and prolific but still very small. They'll go in very soon - maybe next weekend. But I am happy - the grow-op is shut down for 2008.

Once all of that's done, I go into maintenance mode. I'll weed and try not to pull up the vegetables by mistake, kill insects and try not to kill the good ones, mound the earth on my potatoes but try not to smother them, and try my darndest not to step on anything.

I will post more photos when the garden looks like more than just straw, marigolds, cilantro and weeds.

The Spoils

This year's Great Glebe Garage Sale did not disappoint. After a chaotic morning in which darling Rosie and I went for a walk but she took her sweet time, and it ended up taking 40 minutes, during which loving hubby was freaking out about not getting a parking spot downtown and 'words' were exchanged, we finally found a spot (albeit not close) and made our way into the heart of the Glebe. So, after a week of paying for every $1 purchase with $20 bills, we waddled off with our backpacks full of change and had a terrific day of deal-making and chit-chatting with strangers and old friends.


Behold, our 2008 purchases:

(the darned cat is in the way)

From left to right:

• electric lawnmower ($20)
• cabinet of metal drawers for my seeds etc. ($5 or $2 can't remember)
• lawn edging - never used ($1)
• kiddie tent, to be used for animals ($2)
• rawhides for puppy (free)
• frisbee for puppy, which she can't play with yet ($1)
• electric boat motor ($10)
• Buster cube toy for Rosie ($2)
• all episodes of Twin Peaks on VHS tapes (free)
• little box of ancient fishing flies ($5)
• cool handmade plate, maybe from Mexico or something ($2)
• hummingbird feeder ($0.25)
• large laminated map of Quebec (free)
• ceramic cat teapot for my cat collection ($1)
• shortie Iris ($2)
• cool euphorbia ($5)
• tomato seedling grown by a very sick little boy ($0.50)
• canoe 'foamies' ($2)
• ice cream maker ($3)
• two silver spoons (?)
• a crowbar ($1)
• Bill Mason canoe book - Path of the Paddle ($3)
• Easy to make Outdoor Furniture ($2)
• large yellow wooden crate in which to store our pet food ($10 - with a story)

The lawnmower works great, I have hung up the hummingbird feeder and hubby enjoyed fishing with his electric motor - all in one day. So we made off like bandits, all for about $70.

The crate was a terrific find: we both saw it from afar, but they were asking $30 because it came with a sump pump and 100 feet of hose. As the guy was calling his buddy to see if he could sell just the box to us for $20, a goth-y looking couple came up and expressed interest in the sump pump, so we made a deal - they got the pump for $20 and we got the crate for $10. They had to stuff the 100 feet of hose into a suitcase they'd bought earlier, but it worked out well and we both went on our merry way.

That evening, we took Rosie to her first city party. That dog had never been to the city before, and she did pretty well, all things considered. She jumped on people and knocked over beer bottles and had the runs and barked at the neighbor's pet squirrels and managed to score a hamburger bun, but all in all she was pretty good, and was excellent when I took her for walks down busy sidewalks. I was very proud and will do it again.

I worked outside on Sunday, which was beautiful, and again on Monday, which started out yucky but ended up pretty ok, and managed to get a few things done. I put out my annuals, built a garden gate, and therefore was able to plant my tomatoes. See?

Shots of the perennial garden thrown in for good measure, though it doesn't look nearly as colourful as it should.

That's it for GGGS 2008. We are already making our list for 2009.

Dog gardening.

This past Victoria Day weekend presented me with new challenges, as two areas of my life are now necessarily intersecting.

It was a long weekend, and I was determined to get some plants into the ground, dammit. Seems I've only been able to work in short, 20-minute bursts so far this season, and I was resolved to get some planting done. I went to the garden centre with my mom and spent $56 on annuals for pots, for the garden, marigolds for the veggie garden, clover seed for the lawn, and a couple of other seedy things.

On Sunday I went out in the rain and put in additional rows of lettuce, beets, spinach, and bok choi. Then, on Monday, I tied the dog to her new little stake, measuring the approximate distance so that she'd be able to enter the veggie garden, but only by about 2 feet or so.

Well.

That didn't go well. I had all my flats of marigolds sitting there and she loves the bright flowers and the crinkly plastic. There went my marigolds, across the lawn. I managed to rescue them by pointing her towards a pansy bloom that she could eat, but she ripped out the entire pansy and flung it around. Every time she saw me digging a new hole for a marigold, she would start digging too - no matter what had previously been planted. Finally I managed to distract her enough to plant the marigolds (some had to be planted near the entrance), and moved on to other things. All was well.

Then yesterday (Monday) I planted up the rest of the annuals, and another pot. Missy didn't like that very much - once she was bored of her rawhide, she started barking at me, and every time I walked past her - necessary - she bit me. Hung onto my clothing with her teeth. It was charming. Not to mention that some had to be planted near her, so as soon as she saw that little crinkly plastic flat, she'd select a plant and run off with it in her mouth. What a brat.

Later on, I made the mistake of letting her off the leash. Well. She ran right into the veggie garden and went up and down the paths like a tasmanian devil, stopping only to dig dig dig riiiight where my baby bok choi and beets were trying to come up. I think she busted a few onions, chewed on a few others, and tossed up a couple of marigolds before I caught her.

This is all aside from the other problem of her pooing in my shade garden, and running through my perennial garden to chew on the cat.

So I need a gate. It's slipped my mind (or my energy?) for the last little while but I do need a gate. A really strong one. Otherwise that $56 (and more!) will have gone down the turlet.

In good news: I don't seem to have allergies anymore. Huh. Just like that, I am breathing through my nose. You'd think adding another animal to the household (and to the bedroom) would make everything worse, but it only seems to have improved things. Rosie is magic.

The photo post

I finally took some pictures of the stuff I've been doing, remembered to bring in my camera, and bothered to re-size them all. And so now, for your viewing pleasure, may I present the photo post (wherein I stack all of the photos relating to all of the things I've written about in the last 10 entries or so).

First up! Our trip to BC.

Our first day there, we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. These were a real highlight of our visit (in my opinion):

Don't ask me what kinds of jellyfish these are.

On our way back home, after visiting Kelowna.......we hit an all-you-can-eat sushi place. It was like eating on a dare. It was stunt eating. We didn't know when we first got there that A) you can order any quantity of anything you want, as long as you eat it within 2 hours, and B) whatever you don't finish, you will be charged full menu price for. Makes sense, from a business perspective, but we filled the table with a totally hedonistic array of raw stuff before we realized that rule. Also I drank a huge beer. After about an hour of eating, and my guiltily spitting a half-chewed California roll into my napkin (I was full up my neck!), this is what we were left with:

Actually I think I have the chronology wrong on this. I think that's the doomed california roll in the foreground. Who knew it'd be filled with crab salad and about the size of my fist?

Luckily we weren't charged. Our dinners were still $17.95 each - a total steal.

Then we came home and I gardened more. This is what the perennial beds look like these days:

I know! Same photo as last year right? But here's something I know you will be really excited about:
That there is an artichoke. They are biennial, so I grew them from seed last spring, planted them into the perennial bed (3 of them), and when winter came, I covered them in buckets stuffed with dry leaves. Then we had like 8 feet of snow on them or something. When I uncovered the buckets, they had been pressed into the ground so much by the weight of the snow that the earth heaved up and made big hills when I pulled the buckets off. Inside, what was left of the artichokes was all black and slimy and dead. I wrote them off. I said "oh well that serves me right for trying to grow mediterranean vegetables in Quebec." Then I saw these little guys last night. Totally adorable - gives me hope for the future and all that.

This weekend, I took my Saturday (by myself, hubby was fishing) and said "today I am going to do frivolous pretty things and no backbreaking work." So I did. I built birdhouses. For the veggie garden, to go on top of the new fenceposts I put in, which are still crooked grrrr. Here's the overall effect: And now a close-up:

When my dad asked me "what kinds of birds do you think you will get living in there?" I said "umm, the decorative kind?"


Last night we went on a long walk with Rosie - down the hill, across the road, down the path, through the swamp (well, Rosie did - she went for a wee swim), up the trail, around the mountain, and down the road again. While up on the mountain, at the end of a freshly-blasted road, we found a spot of land that looks like it'd been cleared for a lot, but maybe 5 years ago. It had plants all over it, including this little beauty, which I promptly dug up with a stick and transplanted to my own garden:

I have no idea what it is - overall it's abotu 4" tall, the flowers are green (centre) and look a bit like little hellebores, except for the leaves, which almost have a ginkgo look to them. Here it had been freshly watered so it looks a bit worse for the wear, but I think it'll be fine. You see, the place where we got it from is owned by a bad bad man who likes dynamite too much, and builds ugly houses, and loves bulldozers. And he is a real jerk, and nobody in my neighborhood likes him. So I took his plant. He would never have known its beauty anyway. I am going up there again tonight to see what else I can take, I hate him that much.

ANYWAY! On to nicer things. Here's something I love more than I ever could have known:

And I have an update to yesterday's post, in which I showed off my new patio set. When I went onto the website to get the photo of the set, I discovered that it was ON SALE. I bought it Friday and it was on sale, 3 days later. So I promptly finished the post, and called them up, and got them to reimburse me the $250 difference. VICTORY! I felt like a million bucks, I tell you. There's nobody who likes a deal more than me. OK well maybe my grandmother.

So that was the photo post. Hopefully I'll be able to do this more often, post photos more regularly.

getting better all the time

6.6!

That's the number of hours I managed to sleep last night! That's really big news.

We've managed to find a new groove, me n' Rosie, where she actually wants to follow me up to bed each night.

Since we keep the stairs blocked off during the day, and she weighs almost 40 lbs, she has to have permission to come upstairs. On Friday night, I went to bed at 11 and she busted down the barricade, came upstairs and sniffed around beside my bed for a bit, then went into her crate. Hubby brought her out again, fearing that she wouldn't sleep through the night if allowed to go to bed early. On Saturday night, I had a bath late, and went upstairs to get dressed, and she once again forced her way up, thinking I was going to bed. I had to convince her to get out of her crate and follow me downstairs, where we snuggled on the couch instead.

Last night, I brought her to bed with me at the normal time. Only I had to clean up laundry before getting into bed, and she wanted to invade the bed and it was chaos, so I had to put her in the crate while sorting laundry and that wasn't a popular idea. She barked and barked and barked and then 'thunk' - passed out. And stayed passed out for six-point-six hours.

The real experiment will be to see if she does it again tonight. Since she's active all day long while we're home, she burns more energy and is more pooped at night. During the week, not so much. She's active in the morning, at noon, and at night. She sleeps through the rest of it.

This sleeping upstairs thing is working well for us. The cats are even able to sleep on the bed without being barked at, and their presence doesn't keep her from sleeping. She seems to relax immediately and completely up there. When she wakes up, I can hear her breathing and moving and scratching herself, and hear her tags jingling a bit, but she's very quiet and doesn't wake us up until she feels it's really necessary. When I open the crate door, it takes her awhile to get out - she has to stretch and do her morning yoga routine before she can get going. Then she sits at the top of the stairs and waits, because she's not totally confident on the stairs when she just wakes up.

The key really is to have her in a spot where she can see, hear and smell us all night long. She quickly tunes into our sleep patterns, and it doesn't hurt that the bedroom is really really dark thanks to my newish dark purple Ikea curtains. She has a seperate crate for daytime - a wire one, so it's very open and airy and her comfy dog bed is in it - but the sleeping crate is like a big plastic cave. She needs zero convincing to go in there. I can't say I blame her.

There are now only THREE major problems we have to deal with in terms of Rosie:

1) She pees when she meets people and gets really excited. She jumps up too.
2) She attacks the cat harder than ever. Sometimes she dribbles here too, from excitement.

3) She jumps up against counters and tables and will eat or lick or paw at anything that's within 8" of the edge.

Aside from that, everything's just normal puppy stuff. She's gotten mouthy and bitey again, but it seems to be a teething thing, and mostly playful or done for relief. I think the texture of my hand is perfect for sore gums, like a pliant rubber. She does snap at me once in a while but that's a phase. She's testing her limitations. She doesn't do it with my parents, but I have found it's even common in humans to treat your grandparents better than you treat your parents. Especially as a teenager. And why would she snap at them? When she's over there she's spoiled ROTTEN! I came home Friday after an event, picked her up at my parents', and she had enjoyed treats all afternoon long, including a simply enormous beef marrow bone that my mom had gotten from the butcher - special order no less. It's as long as her leg. It looks like a dinosaur bone and it's totally repulsive. The way to Rosie's heart is definitely through her stomach.

And on the plus side, I get a lot done when I wake up at 5 or 5:30 - the days seem very long and full and satisfying. I just don't have a lot of wiggle room in the evenings. If I go to bed at one a.m., that means 4.5 hours of sleep. No more Saturday Night Live for me. I am getting used to this new routine.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of what I did with my weekend. In the meantime, here's a shot of the wee giftie I bought myself last week.....due to arrive in a week or so.

Fa la la la la

SO! 'Tis almost the season to be jolly, thrifty, spendy, and all that. If I were to rank holidays in terms of their importance and excitement level in my household, I would have to rank them accordingly:

- Christmas
- Great Glebe Garage Sale
- Halloween
- Victoria Day weekend
- Canada Day weekend
- August long weekend
- Labour day
- Easter
- Thanksgiving
- New Year's

.... and so on to all of the other holidays from other cultures that we do not celebrate in our home, which do not come with government holidays (i.e. St. Patrick's Day. ha ha ha).

The Great Glebe Garage sale happens the fourth Saturday of every May, and it is the most fabulous thing ever. When I was young, I would meet cool, hip, 'adults' who would tell me about the most interesting amazing things they managed to buy at the GGGS. I always wanted to go. But I was a country kid, and the GGGS happens in the city, so without wheels or adult supervision I was unable to see it, or to even fathom the giganticness and fabulosity of the event.

Basically, the Glebe is a neat area of Ottawa filled with residential homes that are a mix of upwardly mobile young families, students, and older people who have been living there for ages and are also therefore upwardly mobile. It's not cheap, let's say. People have nice gardens and there are a lot of individuals who seem to travel the world a lot. The houses are mostly old, and cool, and stately, and for the most part very well maintained. Bank street is a major artery that runs through the area, and the Glebe section of it has become completely gentrified with interesting little knicknack shops, pubs, knitting stores, bookstores, Starbucks, organic bakeries, restaurants, etc. You get the picture.

On this one Saturday of the year, all the residents empty out their basements and garages and put their stuff all out on the lawns to form one massive garage sale that spans about 60 city blocks. To put it into perspective, when we go each year, we are only able to see about 2o% of it in 6 hours of solid walking. Bank street businesses all have sidewalk sales, and the only way to travel around is by foot, it's all so busy. If you haven't gotten a parking spot on the street by 7:30 a.m., you won't, even though the official start time is 9:00.

It's like a big county fair, urban market, or bazaar. All of the streetmeat vendors are out, all of the buskers are around, there is a Dixieland jazz band made up of very talented old-timers that plays on a front porch every year, gathering huge crowds, and every kid who plays the violin or cello is out on the front lawn with an open case for donations. Little ones set up lemonade stands and sell their mom's overpriced cookies, and all of the local churches fill their parking lots and front yards with tables that out-of-neighborhooders can rent. People with gardens, who have necessarily done their spring perennial-dividing and tomato-starting, sell the plants and herbs that you can see flourishing in their yards. The ATMs are empty by 10 a.m. You have to wait in line for 30 minutes to get a Starbucks, if you are so inclined. On a sunny day, it feels like the most amazing place in the world.

If you are sitting there thinking "well Gennyland must just like to shop," consider this: it's my husband's favourite day of the year. He's mental for it. The day after the GGGS, he's already making a list of stuff to look for at the next year's sale.

Here is a partial list of things we have bought at the GGGS in past years:

- African straw basket that stores our kindling;
- Moroccan lantern/light fixture that I haven't yet installed anywhere, but which the dog likes to carry around in her mouth;
- Anton Pieck framed relief picture;
- Set of left-handed golf clubs for $10. I am right-handed. I re-sold them for $20;
- Brand-new camping cot;
- Book of retro cottage/cabin designs, which we consult more often than you might guess;
- My everyday set of '70s flowered pots and pans;
- Miscellaneous perennials which have now completely integrated into my garden. Includes silver ferns;
- An old turntable, which was free, because it doesn't work;
- Another black cat for my ceramic black cat collection;
- Many many old and new fishing lures (hubby's);
- Antique 'Urine Sample' bottle, which sits on the bathroom vanity;
- Roof racks that didn't come with their key, or even fit our car;
- set of 6 'wrought iron' sea creatures;
- antique galvanized tin bucket that I use as a planter in the summer;
- a 1980's video camera which takes VHS tapes. It's humungous, but hubby wanted to try making his own fishing show (sigh).

It's our annual opportunity to acquire eclectic objects for our home and garden. This year, however, I've gotten hard-ass about it. I've told hubby that if we want to go to town at the GGGS as we have in previous years, we have to first spend a day cleaning out the basement and throwing some of our current junk away. We have no more room to store camping cots, left-handed golf clubs, turntables that don't work and roof racks that are useless to us. We have yet to tackle this tossing of the junk, but I feel confident that we will have the chance sometime in the next 22 days. I'm thinking we could probably lose the plastic outdoor furniture that's been under the deck for 6 years, the headboard that we found in the garbage which doesn't fit any of our beds, the used-outdoors rug that's been mouldy and rolled up in the corner of the basement for 5 years, OR the 1950's fridge that occupies the middle section of my laundry area, which when we moved in contained only a rusted old pick-axe.

Just sayin'.

So, the GGGS kicks off the summer for us. It's the first chance to wear shorts in public and wear sunscreen for the day. I have to save up my coins and find myself a decent fannypack (when did I ever think I'd hear myself say/write that?) I'm off to make myself a list of things to look for.

What a difference a week makes

Hey everybody! I went on vacation last week!

One would not naturally assume that when one takes a vacation to British Columbia in mid-late April, one would experience a snowstorm. But I guess that's Canada for ya. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, it was about +27 degrees and tropical, so I came back to this:

And, more importantly, this:

The cat's not dead, he's just lazy. Looking at this photo makes me realize that my black cat's not as black as I always thought he was. Huh. Like a panther. Do you know that they're actually spotted?

Anyway, the vacation was good, but back home all the snow was melting and the garden was growing. When we returned, I was able to rake out all the dead stuff and get a move on outside, but gardening with a puppy is challenging, especially when the hubby's out fishing for the weekend. Being a single parent is hard.

But Rosie turned a new leaf while we were away. My parents had her, and had a wonderful time. We almost didn't get her back. Apparently she's developed a taste for running around in swamps and eating rawhides, which are pretty harmless habits. Also, she experienced being tied up for the day, and she was ok with it. They had lots of playtime and the weather was great, and she slept a lot during her stay. Now that we've got her back, she's all mature and stuff. She doesn't bite us anymore, and she's more mellow. We can put her to bed earlier, and just turn out all the lights and she's fine. This morning I also noticed that she's lost some of her baby teeth. I'm sad. My baby's growing up. She had her final shots on Saturday, and graduated from Puppy K (not with flying colours but that's just as well. Probably my fault), and she weighs 32.6 lbs. And now she is losing her teeth.

She still attacks the cat really hard - I'm not sure when or if that will pass, but I am ready anytime. It's very stressful. They're better outside, but inside it's total chaos. My poor cat's fur is always crusty around the neck and ears area.

In the garden, the bulbs are up though I am a bit disappointed - I think I may have lost some over the winter because I could swear that I had waaaay more tulips planted than what I see. Like I should have in the neighborhood of 50, and I only see about 20. Perhaps some of them aren't really up yet.

The perennials were all poking their heads up even through the snow, so I can now also see where things didn't come back. One of these days I will reconcile myself to the now-irrefutable fact that I cannot grow artichokes. It makes me sad. Not that I love eating them, I just think they're fantastic-looking. When I uncovered the buckets full of leaves that I'd covered the artichokes with last fall, all I saw was black mush. I don't think they're coming back.

The perennials are all out at the garden centres now, which is a ton of fun. I want some new things this year, surprise surprise. I think I'd like a few more ornamental grasses for the area around the veggie garden, and some tall red flowers (lobelia?) for the perennial beds and veggie garden areas. I want to attract more hummingbirds. I have a lot of monarda, but I think it might need to be refreshed and spread around. I love me some monarda.

As for the veggie garden, I really have to get a move-on and work it. Luckily, the last few days haven't been great or warm so I have a bit of a grace period, but I have to get the garden composted, turned, and tilled/formed into rows next weekend so I can plant out the onions, beets, lettuce, spinach and other early direct-seeded veggies. The rhubarb is up, and some onions, and all of the garlic that I planted last fall (yay!) and I will have to work around the strawberries, sage, and inevitable cilantro that'll be up before long.

I also have to figure out what the hell I'm going to do about my squash and melons. I'm thinking they'll go at the edges of my perennial beds so they can tumble out and over the lawn. It'll be a mess. I have a great spot at the back of the house but unfortunately it's bordered by railway ties so I can't grow any edibles there. I am wondering about sunlight levels on the west side of my veggie garden, and whether I can make a quickie newspaper garden there for the behemoth plants. Maybe that'll be a plan for next year. This year, I think I will have to improvise.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick up my potoatoes, and bags of shrimp or mushroom compost, and some peat moss. I also should have bought a tie-out for Rosie, so she can be close to me in the veggie garden but ideally not peeing or digging in the soil. Or worse. I will need a new garden gate and I think I am going to go professional this time, and buy something sturdy. She is a lot different than a delicate cat.

I also have to pot up my tomato seedlings, becasue they're enormous and leggy and not looking so hot. I can fix it, but I should act fast. Like tonight. Maybe I'll ask hubby for an hour off of dog duty and do that this evening. Or I'll let her 'help' me outside on the picnic table. Ha. I need to find a spot to harden them off...every year I burn the leaves in the sun, so ideally I need a shady spot out of the wind to start, then gradually bring them into the bright sunlight. They look soft.

The peppers are coming up - a bit slower than the tomatoes but that's not unusual. I also have basil, thai basil, and my "Big Max" pumpkins which have sprouted, and will likely need potting up by tonight as well.

I have to look at the garden plan and plot my time. I also have to be reasonable, because with the dog, I get a lot less done. I do, however, want to buy more fruit trees and plants (blueberries?), and this year, I will probably part ways with the old plum tree. I'll wait until it blooms though - it's so pretty.

(Sigh). How can something so enjoyable also be so stressful!? I need another vacation.

Leaving on a jet plane.

On Friday, despite it being kind of a busy time at work, the weather taking a turn for much better at home, and my desperate fear of flying, hubby and I are leaving for a week-long vacation in BC.

We booked this trip way before Rosie was a twinkle in our eyes, so there are some canine logistics to be worked out. Turns out, Rosie doesn't pack light. I need to gather up her crate, her food, her bed, her dishes, her many toys, her leashes, etc., etc., pack it up and take it, along with the dog, to my parents' place, where she will be pampered for a week (I hope). I'm sad to be leaving her, and will miss her terribly, but on the other hand I am looking forward to a week of doing whatever we want whenever we want and, especially, sleeping in. I intend to sleep a lot.

Rosie's becoming quite the little lady now. She's biting me a lot less (though this morning was still a bit rough) so my hands are healing up nicely. She is responding to the squirt bottle training technique we adopted out of desperation, which we use only when she's going nuts on the cat or biting us. Now, sometimes she will calm down when we just hold the spray bottle. Sometimes she licks it. Maybe it won't be effective for very long but for now Loki's appreciating the reprieve.

She has become a real dog. It's funny; one minute she's a tiny delicate puppy who can't even get up onto the futon, and the next minute she's a DOG, jumping up on all the furniture and running over the back of the couch. She's getting leggy, and is all claws and elbows. We keep her lean and exercise her a lot so she's not chubby, and the large-breed puppy food we feed her is keeping her growth at a nice slow rate, so she's not over-size or stressed. She has a lovely face and we've taught her to "kiss kiss" which is the cutest thing going. She loves routine, so when she wakes me up at 5:30 a.m. to pee, she immediately comes back inside and heads straight to the futon for a snoozy cuddle time. I kind of look forward to it, even though I protest the early start.

Anyway, next week will be mommy and daddy time. We're looking forward to going to the Vancouver aquarium and visiting the otters behind the scenes. I am very much looking forward to visiting my cousin who I haven't seen in 12 years, and her husband and four children who I have never met (she has another on the way!). I can't wait to stay with my girlfriend in Kelowna for a few days, and hang out with her little dude (and observe the growth of his new little baby brother/sister, due this summer). We will get our baby mojo on with all of these pregnant mommies around!

When we get back, I fully expect spring to be in full swing. Already the grow-op is going full speed, I have the lights rigged on timers and EVerything. So far I've started:

- Red peppers (up)
- Cayenne peppers (coming up)
- Striped tomatoes (waaay up)
- Roma Tomatoes (waaay up)
- Melons (just started on Saturday)
- Squash (ditto)
- Basil (")
- Thai basil (")
- Pumpkins (")
- Ground cherries (")

Hopefully the snow will be long gone when we get back and then my order of operations will be:

1. Fix my fences - the snow toppled them.
2. Get a new garden gate, esp. now with the dog
3. Get a tie-out for Rosie, for the front lawn
4. Till the garden. Dig in compost. Remove weeds and dead stuff.
5. Make rows in the garden.
6. Plant the spring crops (spinach, coriander, etc.)
7. Get the new greenhouse-row cover-coldframe set up in the garden
8. Plant out the tomatoes and peppers in said coldframe
9. Figure out a spot for the large vines - the pumpkins, squash, and melons.
...and everything after that is status quo.

I hope I have time for the garden this year. We're looking for an electric lawnmower too, and some flagstones, so I can finally dress up the area around the firepit with my new side-by-side Muskoka chair (and table) from Costco, on a wee flagstone patio. We also have to (sigh) start thinking about the renovations again. I need an influx of money.

OK I'm getting ahead of myself. One thing at a time. We're off to BC. I can't wait.

And the winner is....

The irises! (photo taken April 5, 2008). More evidence of spring and it's springing.

Talk me down why don't ya

Today has not been the best.

Rosie got me up at 5:30 a.m. That isn't the worst thing ever, except that last night's bedtime was fraught with anxiety re: the cat, the dog, the husband, etc. So I don't know if I fell asleep very peacefully. Hubby's flair for the dramatic can make my blood pressure rise, as when I say "what's going on down there?" he'll say something subtle like "all hell is breaking loose down here - the dog is trying to KILL the cat!" So yeah, not too relaxing for bedtime.

We haven't been getting along great these days. I don't know if we're resentful towards each other because of the dog, or if we're competitive with each other -- I tend to think it's a bit of both -- but we are fighting like the cat and the dog. Well maybe more silently and less physically. I don't know how to address it, I'm in a bit over my head. The tension does break, for example we don't seem to fight once we're at work and e-mailing each other, but at home it's just nasty a lot of the time. We're both frustrated, resentful, tired, feeling put out, and full-on taking it out on each other.

So this morning was the pits. Up at 5:30, out for a pee break (not for me, for the dog), then a cozy nap on the futon, which has become my favourite time of day since Rosie gets nice and snuggly on me. Then she wakes up, bites me for awhile and trots off, and has to pee again. Today, I put on my lined rubber boots and jacket over my housecoat and nightie, and went out. Which would be fine, except that I thought she had to poo so I brought her to the side, and she walked down too far and got wrapped around a tree. I let go of the leash to try to get her back that way, but the leash got tangled in the tree, which was in the deep deep snow and down a hill, on the edge of the forest. So I had to go in. I was walking on top of the snow just fine, then sunk in. Up to my knees. Half naked, bare legged, and really really pissed off. I did this a bunch of times. My feet and shins were raw and miserable. I was blowing blue smoke out of my ears, I'm sure, and swearing like a sailor.

Then hubby woke up, and shaved at a leisurely pace on the couch, which pissed me off more. I don't think he know exactly how rotten my morning had been up to that point. The dog was jumping all over the place so I left her with him and I took a shower. Put my bathrobe back on. Then hubby had a [waaay too long but that's another issue] shower but Rosie had to go BACK out meanwhile, so out I went again wearing hubby's boots this time, my housecoat, and jacket, but nothing under my housecoat. She went down the front yard to poo, and I followed. For some reason. And sunk in again. Le sigh.

Then we had chaos leaving, I ONCE AGAIN didn't have any time to do my hair or makeup, and so I look a tired wreck, and Rosie got frantic when I went upstairs to change, and so when I came back down she started jumping at me and biting me and nipping my legs and pulling on my sweater, and hubby just sort of stood there not knowing what to do, which sent me into a snarling rage. I was literally stunned into silence by the time I got into the car, I was so angry at the world. Rosie didn't want to go into her crate and was barking so loud we could hear it from the car.

Then I had a combative complainy meeting for two hours once I got to work. More sigh.

And to top it all off, it's frigging snowing. April 4. And it's yucky wet snow and makes everything dirty and messy and terrible. To quote the inestimable Liz Lemon "Augh, Everything's the worst."

Today is the kind of day where I need a start-over. It feels like nothing will ever get better. It feels like I will always be tired, the dog will always be misbehaving, we will always be fighting, winter will never go away, work will always stink and we will always be panicked and running late for everything. I hate it all.

So talk me down already. I think I need to go home and get dee-runk.

Spring is springing

OK let's get this over with quickly. Mandatory cute animal picture for today. Hold onto your hats :

I think Rosie was surprised to see me. In order to be able to take this picture, I had to kind of jump out at them from around the doorframe. Loki looks nonplussed.

So spring is finally springing, I do believe. Things are melting, the dog poo is in full bloom, and my seedlings are growing up into leggy little tomatoes and peppers. Pretty soon I will have to find a dog-proof (ha!) spot in front of a southern window for my little greenhouse, and move the tomatoes and peppers to the grown-up table. Next up at the kiddie table are melons and squash, which need 4 to 6 weeks before last frost, and I'm going to tempt fate by starting them April 6. Maybe I should wait oooone more weekend. I have the garden all planned out already and yes, it's ambitious, and yes, it will probably not work out and be infested by cucumber beetles and cilantro and weeds and probably I will forget to water it or mulch properly, and I will get earwigs in my peppers and my tomatoes will be late, but what the heck. I amuse myself.

I want to find a good book on survival, or 'wild', food from my area. I would like to do at least one meal using the ingredients found in our yard. I would call it the 100-metre diet. Thing is, within 100 metres of my house, I have the following native delicacies:

- burdock (ha! lots of it)

- mushrooms (in fall)

- wild ginger (I promise not to take much of it)

- dandelions (meh)

- birch trees (I am interested in making flour out of the bark, for some odd reason)

- miscellaneous edible flowers

- black raspberries

- red raspberries

- wild strawberries

- fiddleheads (spring only)

- venison (ha ha ha)

- sumac berries

- nettles

...and I'm sure there are more things that I'm forgetting. Perhaps I could serve venison with a sauce of wild ginger, sumac berries, and mushrooms, garnished with edible flowers, served with burdock and steamed nettles on the side, paired with a lovely dandelion wine.

Sounds like a lot of work.

Can you milk deer? ("I got nipples Focker, can you milk me?") I could then conceivably make deer cheese. That should have been the title of this post.