Finally, the green house is up and running.

It was a little daunting to tidy up after a winter of chucking things into it....

...with tea in hand it didn't take long before I had enough room to actually sit down and start the seed trays. .  By the time I was almost finished it was late enough in the day to actually take a glass of wine in with me. Something quite relaxing and comforting about sitting in a warm green house with a glass of wine.   I think perhaps I'd like to start a wine pairing list, not with food but with activities.  For instance, a winter night in front of the fireplace could be pared with a glass of red chateau neuf.  A glass of chilled rose for green house chores. Cold chardonnay for reading outside on a warm spring evening....

My first red pepper seedling.

The next project (I am just waiting for it to stop raining) is to tackle the weeds in the veg plots.   Now what to pair with that....







A rope in case...

When I was a teen in the 70's I discovered a series of books by Lillian Beckwith.  My teen mind fantasised about living on a croft in the highlands of Scotland just like her,  and I just love all of Beckwith's books.

 

Today I discovered I have actually become Lillian.

 

 

Well I live in Canada, not Scotland.  I have a hobby farm not a croft.  But as I went out to the horses today with a rope tied around my waist just in case I needed to lead one of them back into the paddocks I stopped in my tracks.  I have become Lillian Beckwith.  Then I looked down...

 

 

 

 

Wellies. I have become Lillian.

 

 

(Lillian Beckwith was born in England and moved to an island off Skye.  Her books are charming, funny, and an easy read of simpler times.)

 

 

Snow...

 

 It snowed for two days solid (the only real snow we've had this winter)...

 



 

 

...then today we woke up to clear skies and it  was t-shirt weather....

 

...well kind of t-shirt weather...

 

 

...as pretty as it is, snow this time the year is just a pain in the      %#*...

 

 

...these are the raised beds I was ready to plant a few days ago...

 

 

 

...and the snow is up the Nellie's chest...

 

 

 

...so it's going to be a bit yet before I start the garden...

 

 

... just as well, that'll give me enough time to repair the poly tunnel green house that was damaged...





Waiting for spring continued...

 

 

 

We have been truly blessed and our weather has been rather mild this winter.

 

  I was planning to experiment in the veggie plot; I read this article about burying household compost this month and then planting peas on top..  The theory is that the decomposing compost will heat the soil and give you a head start on early spring crops. 

 

 

 

And then we woke up to this today....

 

 

...and it hasn't stopped snowing all day.  It actually turned out to be a lovely lazy Sunday day.  We took the dogs for a long walk...

 

 

 

 

....the horses didn't venture out of their shelters all day....

 

 

 

 

...and we build a fire and stayed indoors and had a nice leisurely Sunday afternoon...still waiting for spring.



 

Waiting for Spring

 

Yesterday I wandered around the garden and was delighted to find signs of spring.  I saw my first robin of the year and the iris and day Lilly plants were sprouting....

 

 

 

 

...the animals were enjoying some mild weather....

 

 

 

....then today we woke up to freezing weather.  Minus 3 daytime high, the water in the barn froze...

 

...Titus lay in front of the kitchen fireplace all day....

 

 

....so tonight I snuggled down in front of the fire pouring over my new seed catalogues planning for spring...



Feral hmmmm

I thought I'd start the year out with trying to blog again. I became very frustrated trying to design and improve  the blog so I gave up.  I read Blogging for Dummies, watched many a youtube how to video and still I can't figure it out (you'll notice my header photo is off center and I just can t seem to fix it and I hate the font selection) so if anyone has any advice on Blogger and an easy photo shop program I'd love to hear it. 

 

Now that my little moan is over....

 

Since my last post we have had a few additions to our family..

If you squint you can see it...

 

...it's tiny but it's my first...

 

...I've tried growing them before with no success,  this is my first artichoke.  June was a bit cool, but with the fantastic weather we've had in the past couple of weeks, the garden has exploded...

 

 

...the yellow zucchini...

 

 

...peas...

 

 

...and sweet corn have all taken off.

 

 

...puppy keeping cool.