August in Ten Photos

 Bachelor buttons under the Elm tree

 Pool party at a friend's house

 The Ellis Bird Farm in the evening

 Two girlies playing

 Nothing better than Taber corn (and eating outside)

 Painting/gardening/laundry

 Behold the red front door

 More bounty for these farmers

 Wednesday night = pizza

Wednesday night = pizza...and wine (our new favourite)

Farmer's Bounty

How our garden grows...

How does our garden grow this year?

Rather slowly, what with all the rain. But we're busy growing a fine crop of grass.

And more interestingly, many other things.

The view from our back deck:

(can you see the green fuzz-that-will-be-lawn?)

We're growing almost a full gamut of vegetables, including potatoes, beets, carrots, two kinds of peas, three kinds of beans, dill, various annual flowers...

...and lettuce.

The front yard is more interesting. 

We've planted all kinds of vegetables, perennials and annuals all mixed together

(along with the previously mentioned green-fuzz-that-will-be-grass)

The bachelor buttons have taken off marvelously. I've never seen so many shades of blue, mauve, pink, purple etc.

And lastly, E's birthday tree, though it is very young indeed, looks to bear fruit this year.

Season for Sunshine and Seeding

Random Acts of Tulips

We've never planted tulips here.

For that matter, I've never planted tulips at all.

But in the past couple of springs, as we've loaded up the flower beds with compost,

and watered faithfully during the dry summer months,

the tulips have taken hold. 

Last spring we had a few small blooms, in red I think,

which appeared with no encouragement.

And this spring we have yellow and red blooms,

which appeared in the dry and warm early spring,

and which have continued to cheerfully proliferate through the late April blizzards.

A gentle sign of God's sense of humour, I think, 

and of the potential for life.

Announcing

There are many ways that we mark the arrival of spring:

The first robin singing high in the tree tops

The prairie crocuses peaking their furry heads up

The first buds on the trees

The City of Calgary signs announcing when street cleaning will commence in our area. 

But one major sign, of which we were reminded by our friend over at Calgary Gardening Adventures, is the first signs of rhubarb growth. I had totally forgotten to look for our rhubarb's appearance--I guess I was caught up watching the tulips grow and bud in the front yard. But when I read Dan's blog about rhubarb, we rushed out to check the status of our own.

So, good news! Spring has officially arrived. Our rhubarb looks to be in fine form for the coming season. Too bad we'll be missing most of the harvesting. I hope the new residents enjoy rhubarb as much as we do!

March

It is March, and gorgeous outside already.  We noticed yesterday that we've got some green "stuff" coming up already.  Hopefully we don't get another hard frost, or we may have some very brown "stuff" later.

2010

Tulips are coming up, and some of our perennial flowers are as well. 

One thing I appreciate about taking lots of photos is going back into my archives and digging out things from exactly a year ago.  Here are the past two years.

2008

 Walking in Nose Hill Park in early March, same conditions as now.

2009

One year ago I was taking engagement photos for J&M, while they skated!

Royal Gardening

You may have heard that the Obamas have planted an organic garden at the White House. Well, apparently the Queen of England has also taken up the cause. Well, Stephen Harper? Ed Stelmach? Dave Bronconnier? What about it? There's plenty of green space available at parliament, the legislature and downtown Calgary...

Rhubarb farming

I like that rhubarb has a silent h in it. Sometimes I want to pronounce that h. R-hubarb. Say it with me. Speaking of silent h, I realized this morning that in my head, yogurt should be spelled yoghurt. But that's not the proper way to spell it, at least not according to the Mozilla spell-check. But I like it better. It looks more...ethnic. Yoghurt. So there. Anyway, what I came to say was that we harvested our second crop of r-hubarb today. Mostly because it was shading the oregano and squishing the carrots, not because we needed r-hubarb right at this moment. So I chopped it up, measured it, and put it in the freezer in a labelled bag. And tonight we went to the Hillhurst-Sunnyside farmer's market and got raspberries. They're laid out on a cookie sheet in the freezer. I'm looking forward to a bounty of fruit this winter.

End of June

Today marks the last day of school for many of our small friends. A momentous day indeed! It is a gloriously sunny day today and sunny is on the forecast for many days to come by the looks of it. Looks wonderful, but also a little scary...some rain interspersed in there would be nice too. Today is also cause for celebration because I finished chapter four of four total chapters of my thesis. There's still lots to do yet, including introduction, conclusion, bibliography and many many revisions, but it is definitely a milestone to be this far. And finally, the painted daisies, the peonies, the lilacs, the bachelor buttons and the scarlet runner beans are all in bloom.

I'm so glad God has a creative mind and made the world beautiful, not just functional and practical.

Firsts

This weekend was one of firsts. First rhubarb crop of the season harvested. It was put to good use in a combination with some strawberries for a crisp for our small group. My favourite dessert. Ever. First time seeing the town of Okotoks' namesake. The Big Rock. An erratic dragged by the glaciers all the way to the beautiful rolling hills of southern Alberta (see the picture above). What a wonder to admire. We decided that this is something worth showing family visiting from abroad. ...And the reason we were even near Okotoks is because we got to be a part of another first. The first high school graduation in the family for some dear friends. Thanks for inviting us, friends. And congratulations again, J! First tomato on the vine. Our tomato plant has decided to brave all the snow/sleet/rain/hail/being-hauled-inside-and-out and begin to set fruit. Cause for celebration indeed. First "game" of tennis of the season. B and I are enthusiastic occasional tennis "players." Players and game need quotation marks because 1) Neither of us know the rules of the game -- well B does sort of, but I really don't have a clue and 2) Both of us, and especially me, have to focus so hard on getting the ball over the net and still within the tennis court, that you can't actually call what we're doing "playing" a tennis "game." We just work on hitting the ball back and forth at each other. But man do we have fun. :)

Garden update

This morning, when the sun was shining so brightly, I got up with great intentions of doing some yoga before work...but it was a morning to be out in. So, I dug manure into the zucchini bed and the place allocated for the peppers. I planted eight marigolds, and six zucchini plants. And watered the whole works in with plant-starter fertilizer. Our tomato has its first blooms. Our scarlet runner beans are finally recovering from frost damage. The whole world smells like Mayday blossoms. And the sun is still shining brightly.

Plants and Music

I find I have to search out and be mindful of cheerful and joyful things these days. It's easy to remain caught up in my cloud of gray sadness and wonder about what-ifs and should-have-beens. But if I count my blessings and measure plant growth, it forces me to dwell in the now and the dependable future.

So, without further ado:

Yesterday a friend dropped by with a tomato plant. What better gift for aspiring vegetable gardeners? We spent some time discussing the pros and cons of fertilizer, how to build a coldframe with a thermostat and the probability of Calgary remaining frost free for the rest of the season (I would say chances are not great). Nevertheless, we're going to plant the tomato out and take our chances.

And in addition to a happily accepted plant, we're so blessed by the friendship of said tomato-givers, with whom we have a symbiotic plant-babysitting relationship as well as a mutual appreciation for things growing, green, outside, natural, rural... (and the list could go on). I am always astonished and blessed by kindred spirits.

Today our four new albums came. So far we're listening to the Once soundtrack. It's the perfect balance of melancholic and joyful for my mood right now. Then we're going to listen to Jimmy Rankin of Rankin Family fame. Slightly less melancholy but still far from fluffy or bubble-gum cheerful. The world is a serious place. And again of friendship. At the same time as our cd parcel, we received a card from friends I've known as long as I have memories, who just wrote to say they cared. We are indeed blessed.

May Planting

Our Garden This Year, in List Form: Seeds: - Spinach - Beets - Scarlet runner beans - Swiss Chard [yet to come] - Nantes carrots Transplants: - Scarlet Runner beans - Sunflowers [yet to come] - Peppers - Zucchini - Forget-me-nots - Basil - A happily-received tomato - Marigolds Growing: - Rhubarb - Tulips - Shasta Daisies - Jacob's Ladder - Lupins - Yarrow - Lamb's Ear - Columbine - Lemon Thyme - Day lilies - Tiger lilies - Lily of the Valley - Campanula - Delphinium - Irises - Rudbeckia - Painted Daisies - Dianthus

On Such a Summer's Day

Beautiful morning: We were up at twenty after six to make an airport run. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. And we stopped for coffee and breakfast on the way home. It's going to be a great day. Good news: the streetsweeper came [Brent informs me it's actually called a street cleaner]. Now our street is clean and shiny and much easier to bike on. But really, the reason it's good news is that I think the streetsweepers are pretty cool looking machines. I'd run one. Dilemma: my beans. They've decided to grow at the rate of...a bean? So they're nine inches tall now and I don't think I can neglect them in the house for a whole week while we're gone. So I was thinking I should risk planting them outside on Saturday (when it's supposed to be plus 15 out). I run the risk of killing them, but based on their present rate of growth, if I did kill them, I could always just grow new ones. Count-down: California-dreamin. T minus two days. And then tidal pools, sunshine and fresh fruit. Oh yes, and Disneyland. This morning we dropped E&B off at the airport so they could go ahead and make sure it's safe for the rest of us.

The purple one they insist on calling violet

(No one except my family is going to get the blog title, but I can't help it, it just came out). We took a trip to the greenhouse in late March when I was feeling particularly lacking in sunshine, and I bought a potted pansy. I was afraid it would get really leggy by the time we get around to planting it out, and it has, but it has also bloomed continually and brightened up many a snowy day in the past week or so. I love the startlingly deep colour. Pansies are definitely one of my favourite flowers. They're so cheery and come so early in the spring and can handle the frosty cold springs of Alberta. I remember when I worked at the greenhouse having to shovel a foot of snow off of the pansy seedlings and there they were, blooming cheerfully underneath, unperturbed by the rude awakening.

New Lens

I purchased a new lens for my camera this past weekend, and so far I really like the results. We went to the greenhouse of the way home from the camera store so I took the opportunity to test it out on the plants there, here are some of the better resulting photos.

Now hare this

Two days in a row we've had this little fellow visiting us around supper time. And not just for a moment. Tuesday night he stuck around the whole time we made supper and did dishes. Just sniffing through the flowerbed and hanging out. The second time he stopped by, I was surprised he wasn't wearing a little blue coat like another famous rabbit I know. That reminds me, have you seen the movie Miss Potter? I highly highly recommend it. I can't wait for the weekend. Here's what we're going to do: - Rake the gravel off the front lawn. - Clean out the flowerbeds and mix more compost in. - Trim down the perennials. - Enlarge one flowerbed so I can grow vegetables (shh don't tell the landlord) - Dump out the composter; mix it around; take out the decomposed bits; move the composter to a sunnier location; fill it up again. - Plant some seeds in yoghurt containers for later transplanting. 1) Scarlet runner beans; 2) sunflowers; 3) Forgetmenots; 4) I'm up for suggestions. - Get our bikes up and pump up the tires and dust them and clean them up so we can go BIKING. I've been waiting and waiting to go biking. - Visit the farmer's market and spend at least $20 on vegetables. I need way more vegetables in my diet. And protein, apparently. - Go for supper at some friends' house. But most of this is banking on the hope that Brent feels better by then. He is SICK. I've never seen him so sick in the whole time I've known him. He was hit really hard by this flu...way harder than me. He's been more or less on minimal input or uncontributing for three full days now. That's unheard of for Brent.

Last week I noticed that the tulips are peeking their heads up out of the wet earth in our front flowerbed. Spring is on its way!! We can't help but smile when we hear the birds singing sweetly. We're so glad to have them back. When we went running yesterday morning in the park we discovered that the ducks are back in great numbers. I wished them a good morning and a welcome back. I feel like I have never NEEDED spring to come so much as this year. We are so glad to see it coming. Our backyard is still completely full of snow, but it was 12 degrees outside yesterday, so this will change quickly. Hello all that is green and growing and sunshiny and earthy and new. I'm so glad to see you again!

Harvest 2008

Last weekend B and I drove up to Lacombe so B could work in the office for a couple of days...and it also worked out that we were able to be around for the weekend, just as my Dad's new combine arrived. Dad got it operational on Friday and then Saturday was combining day. Saturday morning was still too wet to start, so we ran an errand over to our longtime friends H&I, who own a dairyfarm nearby, and we put a big stack of straw bales up in the loft of the barn. At around noon Dad and T and B did some sample combining and then we took a sample across town to the elevator, where we were informed that the barley was just dry enough. So Dad and T and B spent the rest of the day out on the tractor and combine and in the grain truck. Meanwhile, I caught the close-to-last window for harvesting apples and consequently made some sauce and delicious crab-apple jelly. It was an absolutely delightful weekend.