Wednesday, September 5, 2012

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So here we are in September .. and I have another birthday looming up .. not for weeks yet.  I love birthdays .. another opportunity to celebrate!

The heat of the summer has been slowly winding down and now the days are shorter, darkness falls around 8 pm.   Gearing down for the fall .. lovely lazy days.  No more rushing around to plant veggies & flowers.  Time to relax and enjoy the beauty.

Yesterday my lovely gardening neighbour came over for a visit and to pick some of the plum bounty.  She laughed as she saw, once again, that I’d planted some tomatoes in the shadier parts of the yard.  She is teaching me some good gardening techniques that she has brought with her from the Russian Ukraine, so I’m slowly learning by experience.

The Kale plants that she’d given me (Tuscany, Dragon and a ruffled type) were all doing well and they would last me through the winter, she assured me .. and I could collect the seeds in the spring.  I quite like growing kale.   All I have to do is plant it, some water, some EM ..wait for a bit and then just clip the outer leaves.  My kind of easy care plant.

The cabbage plants that she’d given to me .. well, they were sun lovers, and as they are planted in the shade .. I’ll not expect much more than a few leaves from them.

She quite liked the way that the pumpkins were growing over the little arbour!   And I have one large pumpkin and a few smaller ones.

Of all the squash plants that are growing, I might be able to pick a few small fruits for cooking.

Oh .. next year .. just wait .. I’ll start my veggie plants earlier and I will carefully tend them during the cool spring months.  I promise that I will!

My very best crop, my absolute favourite .. is my garlic!  And I will plant them in mid-October (this is the best time, she advised me).

And the strawberry plants, that I’d placed in those lovely long oval tin planters, well, the soil isn’t deep enough for them .. so when the weather turns a bit damp, then I’ll be planting them in the side garden border, where they can develop longer roots.

I like the idea of growing vegetables, fruit and flowers together.  Pretty and practical.

Last weekend we went up-island for more sail planing .. and there we met the most wonderful pilot-in-training!  He is 86 and learning to fly!  He travels over 3 hours to reach the flying destination.  Wonderful person.   And to top it all off, he brews tea .. makes up a lovely pot of tea and shares!  How very decadent is this!   So we all enjoyed a hot brew in the morning sun.

I love meeting such interesting people who just go out and live life.

Oh and I meant to talk about Coombs, the famous place with the goats on the roof!  This time I didn’t take any photos of the little animals on the roof, they must have been inside a pen.  But I did take some pictures of a few of them grazing in their meadow.

How many times, over the years, have I stopped by the Coombs general store, parked the car, gone inside and shopped, and then left.  Too many.

This visit, however, DH & I decided to wander around to see what other businesses there were.  Oh ..wow .. another world appeared.

There was a little wooden structure, very picturesque and I think this was a cheese shop.  Then there was this most elegant of buildings that housed a pizza restaurant.  High scale .. reminded me of the many similar buildings that I saw in Europe, too many years ago.  There were the black iron filigree designs around the windows, the large Boxwood plants in tall planters and inside, I could see the draperies tied back to show tables all set and waiting for customers to dine.

And then we met Thor from Whistler .. his doggy daddy was happily taking photos of Thor at various locations & I took some photos of both of them.  We learned that friends always looked forward to Thor’s travels and his pics!

We discovered many more little shops and large parking areas.   All of this was always there and we wouldn’t have known, if we hadn’t just taken the time to walk around.

Well . .I could go on, but the morning is flying and I must go outside.

A lovely gardener has given me some plants .. ferns and grasses and I look forward to planting them in various areas around the yard.

Enjoy the day …..