The Notorious Butterfly Killers.

Total death count today was 6 butterflies and a moth. I managed to rescue an additional few but they were severely maimed. No wonder nothing gets pollinated in my gardens! Speaking of pollinators, my bee nesting box is back! Scott McIvor is still collecting data on various species of solitary bees and I am happy to be hosting a nesting box as part of his study. Hopefully the farmcats leave them alone!

The Best Cure

It seems that cold and flu season had one last virus up it's sleeve and I've been the lucky recipient of it since last week. On top of that I've been dealing with some family emergencies recently as well. My brother in St Catharine's had a near disaster with a table saw a week ago Friday- he caught his wrist with the blade and did serious damage to his soft tissues (thankfully not the bone). The surgeon was able to repair it and he should have near full function once it heals but he's looking at two months in a cast! Then my mom who has heart disease, had some issues and was hospitalized overnight -again thankfully it turned out to be not as serious as first thought and she's home again but worrisome just the same. It was a downright miserable week and I feel like I'm still recovering.

Not surprisingly I haven't had the inclination to post much and all of the challenges fell by the wayside. Of course life still goes on and stuff still got done so I thought I'd do a brief check in to prove I'm still alive and kicking.

One thing that's always guaranteed to shake me out of a slump is getting my hands dirty so I've been spending as much time as possible in the garden or preparing for it. The garden beds have been raked, the composters emptied, the rain barrle's hooked up again and a winter's worth of debris is gone.


The farm cats are ecstatic to be outdoors again. They follow me around the yard, happily rolling in the dirt and climbing everything that can hold them.

I even managed to coax some help from the Russian, trimming some branches and chopping them up for other projects. He works best on creating stuff and prefers to leave the actual gardening to me. I have some new ideas for trellising that I'll suggest to him to come up with the working model- he's usually pretty ingenious!

I'm excited to see the garlic I planted in the fall is already up- it's the first time I actually remembered to plant some!

The strawberries look healthy as do the raspberry canes and the rhubarb is up too.

Up on the deck, the herbs are making a comeback- the mild winter allowed them to winter over even in the shallow pot so we are already eating fresh oregano, thyme and sage. Things are moving towards a bountiful growing season!


I still haven't managed to get any seeds for cool weather crops in the ground yet but I have rapini, peas and lettuce seeds set out to plant this weekend. It may still be a bit too early now that the temperatures are seasonably cool but I'm going to chance it anyhow since the soil is warm and the beds are ready. If they take a little longer to germinate so be it, at least they're in the ground.


Inside things are moving along as well. About 50 % of the tomatoes I pre-germinated survived being transplanted in soil- more might have survived had I been paying better attention and planted them earlier/ kept up with watering immediately afterwards. I still have a respectable amount of seedlings, just over 20, but I have only a small number of a few varieties, and a couple varieties of which none survived. There's still plenty of time to reseeded thankfully. I've got a couple of things started in the greenhouse at work as well and I'm looking at what needs to be seeded next- it's still a bit early for most things but I'm anxious to get going.

It's Easter this weekend and I hope you all enjoy the time off with family and loved ones, and puttering around in your own gardens!

Surviving January

It's probably a bit early to be posting about the winter blahs since here in Toronto we've barely even had any winter yet. In fact it was balmy 7 degrees C yesterday and today is looking to be even warmer- yes that's laundry on the line! But it's been mostly grey and bleak for what feels like months already and even sunny days seem too short. It's so easy to slip into a funk when all I feel like doing is reading or watching movies, and even getting dressed seems like too much effort. In my defence I did receive a lot of great books for Christmas, including these beautiful clothbound editions of classic novels that the Russian gave me!

In the video dept I have my dear friend Kate to blame for my latest addiction- Downton Abbey is a beautiful period piece set in England in the early 1900's and I've been devouring the first season which I was able to download entirely along with a Christmas special. I was also delighted to discover that Season 2 begins airing on PBS this Sunday at 9pm!

I never did get around to doing a year end wrap up post so I thought I'd post a few moments in pictures. The highlight of the year was of course my trip to England: my aunt and I had a fabulous time and I hope very much to make another trip there soon.

My search there for both Kilner history and Kilner jars was a success and then my friend Leigh trumped the list with this beauty she recently brought back to Canada with her. It's a vintage 3lb jar that is going to look great on the wall of jars.

The gardens on the other hand have had better years. In fact the less said about them the better. The best thing about a new year is the ability to forget all the heartbreaks of last year's garden because it's a clean slate again. I'm already dreaming of what I want to grow this year!

The one sad note of 2011 was losing my beloved Casey in Sept. I still occasionally forget she's gone and then miss her all over again- 20 years of habit I guess.


I'm grateful to still have my other two Farmcats even now that it's winter and they are as stir crazy as we are. They get restless being inside so much and need regular amusement lest they find some on their own (hide the toilet paper and lock up the yarn!)Our favourite method of entertaining them in the winter is the mini disco balls we have strung in the sunporch. At this time of year when the sun does shine, it streams in the windows; sunbeams reflect off the mirror balls and bounce all over the place. The cats think it's a marvelous game. Best cat toy ever!

And of course I am full of joy that the Russian is still here in Canada. Although it's been a year since he was granted permission to stay, he's still awaiting the documents that make him a permanent resident and until he has those in his hand he won't believe it 100%. Government bodies move slowly and at times it's still frustrating-the longer it takes the more he doubts it will really come to be no matter how much I try to reassure him. Having those papers will mean we can make more plans, as well as allow him to travel outside of Canada again and he hopes to be able to see his daughter who he hasn't seen in 4 long years. Hopefully he won't have too much longer to wait.



Despite my earlier grumbling, 2012 looks to be a promising year. Colette and I have decided to emulate our Can Jam experience by attempting to can one recipe a month again and we have our eyes on Meyer lemons for January. And speaking of canning I finally splurged on a pressure canner just before Christmas but I've yet to try it out so I'll be sure to record my first attempt!

We've also got some other great plans for this winter, including building window farms and of course tapping maple trees again- mmmm, syrup!
At work we're putting together a number of interesting projects as well. I'm still amazed that I'm getting paid to come up with gardening plans and related projects and I can't wait to get going. There's even a rumour that I might be working with bees and possibly even chickens!!

Maybe I should enjoy the quiet time while I can!

You know it's really spring when...

The laundry and the farm cats are hanging outside!

Unlike out neighbours to the south who are getting hit with yet anther snowstorm (I feel your pain, really I do!), we have been blessed with sunshine and spring jacket weather today, with more to come for the weekend. We're celebrating by breaking out the barbecue for some steaks and grilled veggies for dinner tonight.

Even Casey, our senior citizen decided to catch some rays today.



She's looking pretty good for a girl that's going to be 20 years old this June!

Rainy September Saturday night....

...and the farm cats are happy to become house cats again.