My Lovely Garden … Mon Joli Jardin

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Yesterday was so much fun .. wandering around the Fernwood & Haultain neighbourhoods with my pal D … she knows the area so well and thus we walked up many little pathways and shortcuts that I was quite lost.  So in a way, it felt as if I was on a holiday in another town or country and all was new.  Quite energizing.

So when I got home, mid-afternoon, I had a little think about the choices that I had in the rainy afternoon.  Well, number one, it was rainy so I wasn’t excited about working outside and getting all muddy.

That left indoor stuff.  Made a pot of tea, pondered, read further on my Ruth Rendell novel “Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter” … really just wanted to finish this exciting mystery, but it is daylight so I really “should” be doing something.

Thought about working away on my decluttering.  Then decided to put the milk from my tea away to the fridge.  Opened the fridge door .. noticed that there were a few items that were ready for the compost, so I started that activity.  While I was transferring the veggie items to the compost pail, I wondered, curiously  …. if others have this same hobby.  Of purchasing fresh veggies for the compost and just put them in the fridge for a little while till they are in just the right stage for the compost bin?  Just wondering, that’s all.

While looking through the fridge I found a large bowl of peeled potatoes.  I’d purchased some organic potatoes awhile ago and since they were starting to sport buds on the surface, decided to peel them and cook “later” … helloooo .. it’s later now!

D and I had been talking about potatoes and she mentioned that she’d shred potatoes and make hash potato patties for her family and this was a portable snack for walks.  Well, thinks I .. I’ll try that.

Started off with shredding the potatoes with a grater, now that was a bit messy.  So I climbed onto a kitchen chair and brought down the kitchen processor to do the job.  Once all the bits were assembled and the machine plugged .. I started the task of shredding the potatoes.  Next step involved attempting to remove the excess water.  By this point I had realized that these little red skinned potatoes were not the right type for hash browns, but I’m too far gone in the process to stop.  Sliced up red onions and garlic, added to butter sizzling in an iron fry pan and proceeded to cook a gigantic patty.    After (quite) a while, the potatoes were done and very tasty, thank you very much.

I still had about 2 cups of mushy shredded raw potato left, so fetched a container of organic chicken broth, into  a Corningware pot it went, along with the potato mixture.  Searched through the fridge and found a lovely bag of carrots purchased at Dan’s Market.   These carrots were just delicious!  Also discovered some celery, so sliced up ample amounts of both of these and into the pot.  Next I found a bag of dry curry leaves that I had bought a few months ago.  Popped in 5 or 6 of them into the soup.  Yum

Now I was on a roll and decided to make a little carrot salad, so out comes the fine hand grater and soon I had a little bowl of very thin  strips of carrot, topped this off with finely chopped celery, a drizzle of flax oil and this tasted so delicious that I had two (tiny) bowls of salad.

My inner chef was very creative and I bow to her!  I’ve noticed that my cooking is very creative when I’ve tapped into my creative energy and this is so rewarding!

Sorry, no photos, I was thinking of taking photos to share, but that would have stopped my creative flow.  So just visualize very pretty attractive food dishes and you’ll be right!

On with today!  I’d taken some Rosemary cuttings months ago, added EM to the water and patiently waiting for them to root, and most of them have.  Passing by the kitchen counter, something different caught my eye and I returned to have a look .. and saw these oh so very dainty little Rosemary flowers on a cutting that had just the tiniest bit of root.  Magic, sheer magic.

New additions for my garden, purchased two of these lovely plants at Country Grocer at Royal Oak.   I’ve been finding all kinds of wonderful new plants …. supplied by local and Vancouver Island Growers .. how lovely!   I’ve not grown these before and Hummingbirds are supposed to love them.  I’ll take photos in the summer.

There was a bit of a hail storm, well, several, actually … throughout the day.

I went to the North Saanich Farmers Market today .. it’s once a month for now, soon to be twice a month and in June, yea, every Saturday.  It was my first visit today.  I was on a quest to purchase some Musquee de Provence seeds from Tina at Alden Harvest.  She’d completely sold out of these seeds at Seedy Saturday .. but she saved 6 for me and thus I paid for them .. these are my newest “precious” seeds. I’ll plant 4 and save 2.  Looking forward to taking photos of them this summer.

At the market, I purchased this most lovely Mason Bee house .. isn’t this great?  The little bees are in the top section (see the hole where they can fly out) and soon they will hatch and be busy little bees in our yard.  This style will be very easy to maintain.

Now for some yard fun, I perched the Mason house on the rustic tree trunk and beside it I placed this funky bell-ringer (from one of our thrift store ventures, when D & I buy things that we don’t really need, but, heck, they are fun).  Not sure if you can see the hummingbird design that is part of the bell-ringer.  I still have to decide where I’m going to install this, but the meantime, this looks good.   Doesn’t it appear as if the Masons have a doorbell?   Or have I had too much fresh air today .. ha ha ha

I was surprised to see an actual outdoor telephone, at the Deep Cove store, as these pay phones simply don’t exist much anymore.  Nice to see.

Good storage, plain and simple.

Inside the washroom … I just had to take these pictures of the crows …. as I seem to be on a theme of crows right now .. time to share.

Have you ever wondered what you were going to do with that spare set of cupboard doors?   Well, wonder no longer.

et voila …

and again ..

Lovely wooden walkway outside the store .. old-fashioned, friendly and relaxing, don’t you think..

I fell in love with this pot of wild strawberries, they’ll have small golden fruits.

These artichokes will occupy a fair bit of land so I’ll put some of them in pots.

It’s been a fun day .. I’ve travelled in the city, out to North and then Central Saanich and had lots of fun …. talked to quite a few people.  Experienced the relaxed and creative atmosphere of the North Saanich Market.  I bought the world’s most delicious butter tart square there .. omg .. so very delicious that I will definitely return to buy another in May!

The weather has been:   sunny;  rainy;  hailing …. quite a mix and quite lovely for all the plants in our yard.

🙂