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.

 



 

 

 

 



 



 

 

Summer

Summer has arrived...

 

...finally after what seemed like a month of cool and rainy weather...

 

 

...summer has arrived...

 

and the temperature hit the mid thirties in Langley today.  The shady trails didn't seem much cooler so Nellie and my run was more like a walk today... 

 

 

 

 

... I plan to spend the rest of day in the shade with a good book and cold beverage or two.  I hope you are enjoying the weekend.  Happy Canada Day.  

 

 



A Perfect Day...

...sometimes the most unplanned days can turn out to be perfect.  Today was one of them.  We woke early to a warm, sunny day and took our horses to the park for a ride before it got too hot.

We are lucky enough to live in south Langley where there are beautiful parks and countryside on our doorstep...

My horse Bud on the trails

Puppy anyone...

...today for the first time in weeks, the sun came out...

 

 

...I was finally able to trade in the wellies for sneakers and  shorts.  I have to admit I have not spent very much time in the garden in the last couple of rainy cold weeks, so today I went out to catch up on weeding and maintenance...

The "Klutz" Gene...

...My mother's side of the family all have it and I certainly inherited it.  Each morning the first thing I do when I get out of bed is go to the barn and feed the horses...

 

 

...in my pyjamas.  Winter or summer.  The weather right now is cold and rainy so this morning I was wearing my boots... 

The Potato Experiment

 

Every year I experiment with something new in my veggie garden with varying degrees of success.  This year it was my potato patch.

Snapped from the Bird Blind...

 

 

 

...okay so it's not really a bird blind (or hide) but rather the dilapidated hot tub gazebo we inherited with the house...

 

A new kitchen table...

...our kitchen lacks storage and we have limited counter space...

It's Spring...

...so my sister and I went on a spring mini-break to her husband's family cabin on an island they own off the coast of West Vancouver...

 

...this cabin was built by his great great uncle at the turn of the last century and was added onto by his grandfather...

 

...it's amazing this was all built by hand...

...so relaxing...no electricity no phones...

                                           Nellie enjoying the view

...100 years of history.  All these signs, afixed to the woodshed, washed up on the shore on the island...

...parts of the island are quite rocky and steep.  My sister using a rope to decend one of the paths...
 

...you'll guess by her clothing that the weather was not spring-like.  A storm blew in and it was very windy and sleety...

 

...Nellie didn't move from the kitchen fire...

 

 

...but it was still an amazing spring break with my sister.

 

 

 



Home made dog biscuits

 

 

We love our three pooches.  We spoil our animals, all of our animals including our 3 horses. Friends gave us this sign which pretty much says it all...

 

 

 

In early September we lost our 7 year old boy, Tiberius, to cancer.  During his illness I started to research dog diets and food and I was perturbed to learn in Canada there are no governmental regulations pertaining to dog food manufacturing.  The manufacturers do not have to list ingredients on their products. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/consumers/pet-food-law.html.

 

Tiberius

 

 

So I decided to make my own doggie treats.  I've experimented with lots of ingredients and found the one that has the best texture and stores well is liver.

 

 

The Recipe (I use the word recipe loosely):

 

 

Put raw chicken or beef liver into a food processer...

 

 

 

...and puree.  Add a little water,an egg and blend...

 

 

 

 

Pour the liver into a mixer, add flour, a tsp of baking powder, and mix.  Hubbie complains of the smell when these are baking so I put a couple of tbsp of herbs de provence to mask the cooking odor...

 



 

 

Add flour until it's the consistency of cake batter then pour the mixture onto a cookie sheet...

 

 

 

...spread it evenly and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes...

 

It's easier to cut when the dough is still warm, use a pizza cutter to slice it into lenghts...

 

 

...throw the treats back into a low oven, about 200, and bake for another 15 minutes to dry them out.  Treats must be kept in the fridge, I make a large batch and freeze half.

 

 

Your dogs will love them.