garden treasures

I have a great garden. It gives me lots of Rhubarb to make these oatmeal bars and can a few quarts of Rhubarb Compote to use in the winter on my oatmeal...

It also gives me glass. Yup. It's the only garden I've ever had that gives me broken pieces of bottles, ceramics and porcelain from 100 years ago. 

I love these gifts the most I think. I keep them by my sink so I can admire them while I do the dishes.

Every year the earth in my garden and flower beds turn up more of these bits of the past. I just add them to my collection of treasures...

the Tour - the last days

I didn't do much blogging about the last week or so of the Tour. I wanted to but I signed up to do another test knit and started a mystery shawl. By nature both of these are hard to share. Mind you in a few more weeks I'll have lots of knitting to blog about.

I can show you a few photos of what my garden has been doing though...

Ignore the weeds. I've spent the last few days pulling them and the garden looks much better. A bit less green but I'm sure the plants are happy.

I'm amazed by potato flowers... who knew they were so pretty!

Today we...

did so many things! I had a list. It was short (maybe 5 items) and I actually accomplished everything on it and then some! Here's a few pictures...

So we went to the greenhouse today (just Mr. Man and I) and stuck to our budget and still managed to get a whole lot of lovely growing things. I'm super excited about some white and yellow hollyhocks that I picked up. And the above beauty is a really pretty orange dahlia. I have visions of the flower bed next to the driveway being full of orange and white blossoms. Kind of fitting with the ASPEN colours.

We planted the garden. It went well. Lots of dirt and water (thanks to Mr. Man and the hose). I always find the first planted pictures so promising. Here's hoping we have a terrific harvest of beans and beets, zucchini and tomatoes, carrots and potatoes (and more!) this year!

I have this thing with marking my rows with sticks... but they're not nice sticks... I think the next time I go on a walk with the family (and Josie) I'll hunt for fun gnarly sticks... Every garden should have some character and being a forest lover... well sticks are mine.

I finished a pair of mittens but they're destined to be a gift so I can't post pictures but I can share an in progress photo of my latest cardigan...

This pattern is called Simplicity and it's knit in lace weight. I'm using Tanis Fiber Arts in the colourway Sand. This will be a light cardi to pull on when I feel chilled in the summer evenings. I'm really happy with the colour and the pattern so far. I expect to get lots done tomorrow.

I also signed up for a test knit. It's been years since I've done a test knit. I can't share much right now but I'm so excited about this sweater!!!

So onto tomorrow... We're participating in the Indian Head Trade Show all day tomorrow. B has his ASPEN Electric booth set up and I'll be bopping back and forth between his booth, the Arts Council and the Library booth. We went and set up tonight. His booth is going to be fantastic!

Wish us luck! I'll be back sometime this weekend with the particulars... :)

Operation Baby Shower

One of the girls in the Itty Bitty Knits group asked us last week if we could help her knit 40 pairs of socks/booties for Operation Baby Shower. What is Operation Baby Shower you ask?

In Pat's own words, "I belong to a Blue Star Mothers group (military mom’s support group) and we have the honor of co-sponsoring an Operation Shower baby shower in early July. The goal is show support for military moms-to-be or new mothers by showering them with gifts. Especially since many of these moms are going through their pregnancy without the support of their husbands due to deployment or job assignment. We are all excited and consider ourselves lucky that we can be involved and show our support to these new moms."

Pat said we were free to choose whatever pattern we wanted. Her only request was that the colours be red, white and/or blue. I happen to have a nice little ball of Tanis Fibre Arts in the colourway Cranberry.

remember this yarn?

I've also been admiring Patricia's (pattytrish on Ravelry) baby socks that she's been knitting. So I decided to use the same pattern which is free, a win/win. The pattern is called Little Feet Baby Socks by Courtney Lee of the Knitterpated blog. I used 2.75mm dpns and finished 2 pairs in 3 days. They were quick and they're so sweet! I sure hope they keep some little baby toes warm this fall!

In other news, it's raining today. Pouring in fact and gloomy to boot. I'm not happy about that. I had wanted to get some yard work done and rototill the garden. The weather has been all over the map lately from 30C to -8C with the windchill (all in one week too, how's that for rotten?!). I'm feeling a bit stir crazy. 

 I'm happy about these tomato seedlings though! And the pumpkins are up too!

little beginnings

I finally, finally got around to planting some seeds the other day. I saw this great blog entry and just thought, I can do that! So I did...

These are Big Beef Tomato seeds from West Coast Seeds. I can't wait for garden tomatoes, they're like little bits of heaven!

Now see there are still spots left in the carton?

Well first - I only had 6 eggs, so that's what I planted,

And second - I will fill those spaces, as soon as I can convince B that we should have another quiche for supper.

Random Tuesday, cause it is...

So I woke up this morning to a cool drizzly, grey morning, the kind that feels like summer is ending.

You know the one... that morning where you smell the bite of winter coming.

I was a bit bummed. Winter is a long season around here and while we got off to a rocky start, this summer has been everything a summer should be. It's been full of sun, and storms, change and growth and fun.

Mr. Man got a new backpack that he won't take off, ever...

My avocado pit is finally growing... and although the hollyhocks along my neighbor's back porch aren't as lovely as past years, I still love seeing them when I glance out my kitchen window...

And I finally got around to frenching, blanching, and freezing some beans from the garden tonight...

Thank goodness the sun came out today and while it didn't get scorching hot, it still turned out to be a lovely day.

Cheers to summer, I'm not letting go yet!

Fresh Stuff

Here's a small glimpse of how wonderful my garden has been to  me these past few weeks! We have yellow beans, zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers, not in the picture are lovely golden beets and amazing beet greens and also swiss chard. Mr. Man has been picking raspberries every night for weeks. We also have beautiful potatoes too.

I love that I can come home from work and not have anything planned for supper, go out in the garden, pick whatever needs picking and come up with something delicious.



This is the easiest summer meal ever, just roast whatever veggies you have and some sausages until done in a 350 degree oven. Boil up a pot of your favorite pasta, rough chop the sausage and veggies and toss with the cooked pasta.

Voila! Instant deliciousness!

 Yum!

going... going... gone...

So you all know I live in an old house right? It was built in 1901 and probably around the same time someone planted 4 lovely spruce trees (well actually 6 but today I'm only telling the tale of 4 of them).

Unfortunately those 4 grew rather tall and being very close to the house, they decided to do what all big trees do when cramped for space...

they wreaked havoc...

they have heaved the ground and made a mess of the driveway...

dropped all manner of cones and branches and needles everywhere making it impossible to grow anything around them...

they throw pitch at you and your car whenever you are near...

and they started dropping loads of pitch on our new tin roof which I'm told causes the paint/finish to come off and the roof to rust...

I have to admit even with all the reasons we had to take them down I just about shed a tear. I feel like I'm in mourning...

I'll miss the birds, the squirrels, the presence and the history of these 4 beautiful trees...

Fortunately as I sit on our porch breathing in the fresh pine smell,  I dream about apple trees and wildflowers and white picket fences and soft grass and morning glory and...

Change isn't always bad...

Summer Solstice

So my solstice looks like this...

This is what my neighbours garden looks like, only feet away from my own (which isn't under water yet)...

Seriously since Friday we've gotten over 5 inches of rain. So much that everything is flooding again.

There's water in my basement... again...

Roads are closed and people are stuck out on their farms... again...

The rain is supposed to fall all day today but maybe not tomorrow...

Okay summer... anytime now...

Plant Hunting

I finally made it to U & K Greenhouse on Saturday. I love wandering around the flowers and vegetables looking for something new and grabbing a few of my favorites.

I picked out a ton of Tomatoes! We have beefsteak and cherry, red ones and orange ones. I love fresh picked tomatoes and hopefully this year we'll have lots! I also grabbed 12 cucumber pants because we love those too.

I got some herbs to add to my flower pots this year. I bought Sweet Basil and Thai Basil (very purple!) and Thyme and Sage. I'm also growing Peppermint in it's own pot. I love using herbs in my cooking and can't wait to use them fresh.

The flowers I bought this year are a mix of old standbys and some new pretties that caught my eye. I have a mix of Petunias and some pink and white Geraniums. I also planted some basket stuffers with white blossoms called Diamond Frost Euphorbia, Snow Princess Alyssum, and Robe White Nierembergia. I have lots of purple in my garden in the spring with all the Irises so I was in the mood for some cool white. I bought some lilac and white variegated Heliotrope and a lovely tall flower called Stock in pinks and purples.

My pots are looking good, all freshly planted. I know as the season moves on they'll fill out and explode with colour.

I'm definitely getting more hanging baskets next year!

The start of something wonderful

That's what I think when I look out at my finally planted garden.

I've planted potatoes and beans, peas and carrots, zucchini and Hubbard squash, lots of swiss chard and some beets. There is lettuce and dill and parsley too. Along the fence are my raspberry canes. We have 4 sweet little canes coming up this year. At the far corner is my rhubarb patch. It looks like someone was out hacking at it (I promise to post a few rhubarb recipes for you this week).

Around the corner in my front flower bed live my tomatoes and cucumbers. I also planted 3 pumpkin seeds. I sure hope they come up!

I always love the start of gardening season. I love how green and fragile the new seedlings are. I love the promise of yummy veggies for our table. I also love the weeding (I need to get on those dandelions!).

I know that as the summer ripens and so do my plants, chores like weeding and harvest will lose their shine.

I know that by the end of fall, I'll be glad to put the garden to rest.

I know that today, I'm in love with this space.

Sweet Stuff

Well I've been a busy girl lately. While I've read and kept up with the blogs I follow, I've been a bit lazy about posting on mine. Sorry about that.

Last week we had some lovely weather and things finally started to leaf out. My apple tree has turned green, the raspberries are looking wonderful and the tulips were blooming. Unfortunately we've also had some crazy winds and said tulips lost their petals in a hurry.

I took the warm weather as a sign to get out in the garden and plant some seeds. I got 6 rows of potatoes in and a few rows of lettuce and herbs like parsley and dill. I also threw (literally) some wildflower seeds in my front flower bed and planted some rows of sunflowers and hollyhocks.

The birds have busy fighting over nesting sites and lady birds and my friend saw an Oriole in her yard. So along with bird seed we have a few cut up oranges out to tempt them.

B has cut the lawn twice now and it is green green green! I love it! He rigged up a Kayak transporter to throw in my trunk. I can easily strap the yak to it and pull it to the water. I'm pretty excited to try it out. He also made some racks on the ceiling of the garage to store the yaks out of the way. They look pretty impressive I think. I'm glad he had time to putz around and make me stuff!

I've been admiring the Johnny Jump Ups that have jumped all over my yard. Here they are in my lower bed, but they also live in my lawn and next to the driveway, under the trees, and probably in a few more spots I haven't discovered yet.

In knitting news I've been busy putting the finishing touches on the latest swap in the Itty Bitty group on Ravelry. It's a cupcake theme and let me tell you, there are lots of things out there in consumer land that work perfectly for this swap! I had a hard time not putting things in the package. I knew it was going a long way away and I really wanted to make it special so I tried to keep the items high quality. I bought some goodies and some cupcake making do-hickies.

I also bought some local yarn. I went to Golden Willow (because I know she stocks items from around here) and bought some alpaca from Balgonie and some from Bolivia (not a close neighbor of ours but a really pretty gray alpaca!) and I bought some hand dyed yarn from doglover. I've bought her yarn before and I love the kettle dyed effect she gets. Really pretty stuff. I hope my swap partner likes it too!

I also added the knitted elements that make the swaps so much fun. I made the Cupcake Hat in the Itty Bitty Nursery book by Susan B Anderson. Actually I made 2. I'll tell you why after my partner gets the package. I also made the Cupcake Pincushion, also by Susan B Anderson. It's a free pattern on the Spud & Chloe website so check it out.

Today being Friday is my day off and I'm going to spend it taking Mr. Man to story time at the library and maybe the ice cream parlour. I know I'll be checking the post office for parcels (I'm expecting 3!) and of course knitting! I have a few projects that are really close to being finished.

Happy Friday! :)

Spring is here?

Nope, just kidding... we still have lots of snow.

I can't wait to get out in the garden. I wish it didn't look like this (ok it looked like this yesterday when I wrote this post).

Now it looks like this! We woke up to about 8cms (or 3 inches) this morning. Lovely! Hope it melts quickly I mean it's April 3rd for goodness sake!

I'm not a big fan of this time of year with the dirty snow and puddles that turn to ice overnight, and the sudden bad storms. At the same time, the birds are returning and the snow is melting. Also, I got my seed order in the mail last week!

I ordered some golden beets (we like them for the tops as much as for the beet), green and yellow beans (B's favorite), swiss chard (everyones' favorite), yellow carrots (cause they look fun), and patty pan squash (my favorite). They even threw in a freebie pack of wildflowers! I love flowers! I can't wait to scatter them in a flower bed and see what comes up!

I have some seeds left over from past gardens, like lemon cucumbers, zucchini and peas. I know there's more but I need to dig them out and get them organized.

I'm most excited about the potatoes though. I mean look at these beauties! I've got some red and yellow spuds and let me tell you, nothing tastes nicer than garden spuds!

Anyone else busy getting ready to plant (or if you're lucky already planting!)?