Adding adventure to everyday living!!
Adding adventure to everyday living!!
Tuesday was a stunner. And .. can you make pesto from leeks???
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday started off cool and cloudy and then morphed into a wonderful sunny day, yeah!!!!
I spent the entire day outside … except for tea breaks, lunch breaks, visiting with DH.
And what a day.
The winds continued all day ..blowing the clouds around into the most amazing shapes. So lucky I can just stop whatever I’m doing so I can just stand there and look up at the shifting shapes.
Saw a glory in one set of clouds, but the refraction of the sun kept entering the shot, so I couldn’t get a good visual to take a picture. oh well. I love those “circular rainbows” .. so sparkly and pretty.
At one point, a whir of twinkling colour flew back and forth above my head .. it was a dragonfly! It looked all shiny and new. And it flew so quickly here and there that I had a time trying to fix it in my vision. Too swiftly, it flew higher and higher and soon was gone from sight. One of those magical garden moments.
Sitting on the back steps, Sudoku and mug of Yorkshire Tea .. I finally heard the delicate, cheerful – high-pitched chattering song of the Bushtits! Yeah …. I was beginning to wonder. So I just sat there motionless …trying to get a fix on where they were. They were flitting about the branches on the apple tree .. about the same size as the small apples, so I had to look very closely. Luckily I was able to get a few pictures. Darling little birds.
Later on I saw them flying about a few old trees at the other side of the yard. So happy to see them.
Another magical moment and I don’t have photos of this .. but .. I was refilling the suet holder at another apple tree and suddenly there appeared a little Nuthatch. Sweet. He/she just perched on a branch inches away from my face. Then he flitted about, always settling down on a branch and seemed to look quizzically at me. So I held out the suet filled holder, just to see if he would perch on it .. but he flew away.
The house sparrows are not nice birds, from what I’ve heard. Bossy and shoving and pushing all other birds away. So when I hear them making a big commotion in the trees, I make clapping noises to send them on their way.
I can’t control the birding world, but I can intercept when I can and that’s what I’ll do.
So I’m still waiting to see the Downy Woodpeckers .. maybe they come out at different times of the day during the summer.
interesting article (Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun) in the Times Colonist this morning “B.C. coastal bird populations plummet, survey shows” … 35 per cent drop in birds over the past 4 decades. Populations of “aerial insectivores” – swallows, swifts and nightjars, all of which are in B.C. are down more than 80% in Canada.
The causes??? fewer insects due to widespread application of pesticides & climate change upsetting the timing of insect production in relation to nesting of long-distance migrant birds.
Just say NO to pesticides. Is this a no-brainer?
Well, no pesticides in our little gem of paradise.
Anyway … I finished putting the final layer of seaweed at the base of the garlic patch. And .. lucky me .. I found more garlic scapes. Even more than I’d harvested a few days ago! Plus, I kept breaking away the broken stems from the scapes harvested previously also. They do keep on growing.
And Bridget http://arignagardener.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/the-longest-day/ wonders if one can make a pesto out of leeks? I wonder .. does anyone know? I’m not enough of a creative chef to have tried this.
I finally planted those Kentucky wonder beans … they are nicely settled in to their new location. I’m so looking forward to see how they grow.
Found a stray tomato plant growing amongst the garlic .. so planted it in a sunny area. It was very wilted so I watered it with the magical EM and so will see today how well it is doing.
Transplanted some basil into a sunny area of the garden. More EM!
Checked out my seedlings. This should be interesting, as the labels have flown away so I’ll have some surprise plantings. Thy mystery plants will unfold during the summer.
Cleared away some more garden pots. I’ll be giving away hundreds. I’ve been storing the empty plant pots in large storage containers. And now ask myself “why”? It’s not like I’m planning to have a plant nursery. Oh, that did cross my mind .. but not for now. If I need pots, I can always get more.
Feels good to create empty space in the storage area where I keep my plant supplies. More space where I can bring out my creative paints, beads, tiles, etc. and jut paint in the sunshine. Let free my creative spirit and just play.
Well .. dressed for the garden. No evening dress & high heels for me. Just my Car-hartt denim overalls, long-sleeved shirt, bright socks and gumboots. Outside to play!
🙂
A sunny and cloudy Monday. Sightseeing and then some seaweed.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday .. continued spreading the rich, mineral laden seaweed around the garlic. So excited, found more scapes. Oh, yes .. going to make more garlic scape pesto .. will I ever have enough? Greedy little me, how I love this stuff.
The new generation of sparrows are quite the aggressive little guys. They are having little tussles in the trees. And it’s not just the sparrows either. Yesterday I had to duck as I watched two Robins tumbling over each other in the skies, till they each went to their separate branches in the cherry tree.
Speaking of this venerable old cherry tree …. the fruits are ever so slowly showing a slight blush of pink. The winds have been whipping the branches, with the result that a lot of fruit is lying on the ground. I see that the birds are tasting these and they aren’t very delicious to them, as they are leaving the cherries where they fall.
I can hear the nasal chirps of the little Chickadees. And still haven’t seen the Bushtits … where are you my little darlings!
Time for a break .. today is my DH’s birthday .. so we dash out for Won Ton soup at Dakota’s and then time for a flight.
Oh, how I love being up in the sky with him … the day is quite quiet . .not much traffic. So I settle back and gaze out at the mountains and clouds. Feels rather special to be in an aerial location to get a closer look at the clouds. We’ve had quite the interesting variety of skies in the past few days, as you can see in the pics I’ve posted.
Back home .. I continue to spread the seaweed … quite a variety, actually … all gathered from the shoreline last week. I was going to dry them and place them in containers for the compost, but they’ve been in the bins for 5 days and have reached the stage where they are better off being mixed into the ground.
As I do this .. I’m finding more garlic scapes. Even thin, delicate scapes from the garlic that I’d potted up last fall.
Just getting into the flow when the rains come back. Darn. Double Darn.
So, inside …lots to do there, never stops.
Later, I take my first Seaweed Bath. Why has it taken me so long … months. to indulge in this luxury? I just plain don’t know! Whatever, finally, I prepare the bath and settle in. There is the most amazing giant leaf of Kombu (this was a single leaf, not attached to anything when I found it!) I’d dried it out in the sun months ago. And now, as the rich emerald-green of this magnificent leaf becomes alive in the water .. the soft velvety indentations of the surface sheer translucent beauty shimmer as I hold it up to view against the light.
I soak in the mineral laden water for a while .. such decadence feels appropriate for this day and I just relax and breathe in the scent of the sea.
And later on, I slept the most delicious relaxing sleep .. and woke up feeling relaxed, yet energetic. I’ll reuse the Kombu again tonight and then it will be added to the compost .. to continue its magic powers . .sharing its oceanic values with the earth.
And so .. its early morning .. time for another pot of Yorkshire Tea and outside .. to make incredible changes to the yard . .. or just to see how things are growing and to plant my latest leafy ferns, grape vines and on and on .. with this day.
🙂
Smallforest .. simply the most iincredibly creative and magnificent needlework that you will ever see in your life!
I sustained a delightful couple of hours of mindlessness, yesterday, and had a bit of a play with paints and brushes.
The end result isn’t very profound or meaningful, but the process was pretty special.
It was one of those rare moments when I managed to turn off the endless chatter of thoughts in my head—the critic, the sycophant, the worrier, the unhappy rationalist, the self-conscious amateur, the eager-to-please child, the pretentious dilettante—and slip through the little magical door of Now, into simply Being…simply Doing, firmly occupying the present moment and having the present moment occupy me: focused on nothing but the dabbing of paint on canvas, the playful building-up of lines and shapes, the aroma of the coffee, the sounds of the wind and water around the boat.
I felt a deep peace and calm as I worked, not caring what the outcome would be, not caring if turned…
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And over in Ireland, Bridget shares the 5th Bards & Harps Day. So beautiful, such history, hauntingly beautiful music.
Saturday last saw Andy and I at Carrowcrory, near Ballinifad, Co. Sligo at the home of John Willmott and Claire Roche. The occasion was the fifth Bards and Harps Day to be held here. Regular readers will remember John from the Poetree Walks postings. He is a fab poet, tour guide, folklorist, story teller and labyrinth maker. Check out his blog at www.celticways.com .
Claire is a harpist and singer, but not just any singer, a singer with the voice of an Angel. I saw tears being wiped from eyes as Claire gave her wonderful performance. In this pic, which is a crap pic because of the light, Claire is getting ready to play 2 harps at once. Quite an accomplishment!
The cottage itself is wonderful. Decorated in the traditional style it is a warm welcoming home. But then a home can only reflect what the people who inhabit it…
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Lovely Claire is busy taking photos of the London 2012 Games and is generously sharing with us! Beautiful photos! Thanks claire!!
The buildings are complete, we saw the finishing touches, the final planting, clearing and cleaning the site, to the backdrop sound of rehearsals for the opening show…. ssshhhh!
It was a real treat to see the park before the official opening ceremony and the start of the games. A small group of friends let loose in a playground and a big one at that! To stare in wonder at the incredible buildings to ooh and ahhh at the sublime planting and to puzzle at and play with the art works specifically created for the Olympic Park. You see the Olympics is far more than the sports events it’s a myriad of sights.
We saw so much in an afternoon of dark threatening clouds, rain bursts and sun spells that I’m going to split these posts up into sections. I’ll take you around the park at a more leisurely pace – slowly and surely we’ll see all the main buildings like the Aquatics…
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Sunday .. a day of sun .. enjoying the beauty of flowers and the joys of flying.
Monday, June 25, 2012
We were very lucky yesterday, the weather did not turn out as predicted and we were treated to a hot sunny summer’s day!
Lots of flowers blooming away .. thanks to the previous day or two of rain.
I’ve been noticing, over the years, how randomly placed plants seem to just somehow group themselves together into a most cosy group of flowers.
Yesterday I was noticing the lively colours of the pansies were intermingled with the low growing thymes and the delicately scented lavender flowers.
And the sunflowers, dwarfed in their containers, growing quite happily with the lupins. How sweet this will look, with the purple lupins growing alongside the bright cheerful yellow of the sunflowers.
The transplanted foxglove, which last year grew to well over 6 feet .. when it was in a richer area of soil and .. transplanted to the edge of a grassy area, in more clay soil .. grew to a diminutive height of less than two feet.
But next year, who knows? It will acclimatized itself to the tougher growing area and will most likely resume its former grandeur.
I’d cut down the robust Lavatera plants, since they’d been rapidly going into seed .. and there are enough of these tough little plants anyway. There’s no fear of not having lots of these plants. In another week or so they will be tall and flowering again.
The rosemary plants are nearly 3 feet high now .. a far cry from the barely 3″ eight when I planted them, 3 years ago.
Some of the sweet peas have gone to seed … I’ll just plant the seeds and there will be another crop.
I love the tenacity of these tough plants, mostly drought resistant but they do love the water and flourish with an abundance of that.
Yesterday was a day to relax, wander around the flowers. Spend some time up in the air, flying through the skies. And time to read through my Compost Tea & textbooks from my gardening course. The intricate subjects of soil and plants still unfolding .. so much to learn. And loving the journey.
Another great day .. and on with this one.
Mother Nature has been taking care of watering the gardens .. thank you very much.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Saturday .. what a day .. windy, blustery … rainy .. and then the sun did come out, later on in the day. A sweet promise of what will happen on Sunday.
So I really wanted to play outside, but decided to save that treat for another day.
Looked outside at the trees, branches waving away in the winds … glad that we planted so many here .. years ago. Knowing that the birds have many places to take cover in rough weather. Places to nest … unseen by human eyes. I respect their privacy. Although I would love to see their little homes . .I leave them be.
Happy that Mother Nature is watering the gardens thoroughly . .no worries about dry soil for the plants. Oh, this will be good for everything, the berries, the garlic .. the fruit trees. And the grass .. another opportunity for me to use my newest garden tool .. the push mower.
And I must empty the Rubbermaid containers .. that are full of seaweed. So they can begin to enrich the plants with their mineral laden goodness.
So I didn’t take any pics on Saturday and am posting some of sunnier days: Including some pics when my pal D & I visited the beaches of Sooke. Slowed down when we saw a young deer standing, transfixed, by the side of the road.
Then, later, we’d been busy gathering seaweed and were surprised to see deer prints, freshly made. It had been around our area and hadn’t made a sound!
Visited the beautiful Point No Point for the most delicious chicken soup, homemade bread and tea. Drank delicious water, untainted by chlorine .. Looked out the windows at the magnificent ocean vista. Priceless. What a lovely place .. it’s been years since I’ve been here and I vow to return again.
Wandered the magnificent property. Walked the lovely red bridge .. a truly beautiful place to be.
Glad I took pics .. lovely memories of nature.
Well . on with this new day. Some gardening, you say? Of course! At Dakota Cafe!
Laters!
A.M.
Walking in the rain. Created the most delicious lasagna. Friday was a super day.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Friday morning .. wasn’t sure if it was going to be a sunny day or if the rains were actually going to happen. Air was quite muggy.
Spent a few hours outside, continuing to sort plant pots. Check on seedlings. Mix the seaweed in amongst the garlic and into some veggie beds. Having quite a lovely time of it, really, just working away, here and there. Feeling great that the yard is taking shape. It will take a few more weeks and then I’ll really have done a thorough job of tidying up.
Finishing planting some fancy geraniums, Found the best area for my new grape plant .. at the south side of the house. Just have to dig up the hard soil about a foot and then place the vine in firmly. When the sun does shine, this part of the yard is the absolute hottest. I’ll take some pics when I’ve planted it.
Filled with joy when I discovered that a Salmon berry plant was thriving at the side of the yard. Last year it looked like a dry stick and so I was just so sad. Here it’s been growing strongly, beneath some bushes .. so time to relocate this little guy, so it can grow in more open space.
There are about 20 Red Hot Poker plants all thriving well in pots. These I had potted up last year and just left them to grow .. or not . .and they have all decided to grow. So, time to share these with others, as a yard can only handle so many, I think. The birds love the brick-red tubular flowers .. as do the butterflies and hummingbirds. Just as I’m clipping away roses from the side yard, the faintest of little rain drops start to fall. Then nothing .. so I wasn’t sure if the rains were going to be the type that start and stop.
Kept clipping away. Next, time to check on my latest seeds to see if they’ve sprouted .. . nothing yet. And then to the very back, to place some stakes around the Silverberry bush, which should be growing tall and instead is tending to loom over the yard … soon had the main branches aiming upwards, adding more space to walk around the back area. Now the rains were pouring down in earnest.
I lingered outside awhile. Enjoying the feeling of being outside in the rain. Lovely damp earthy smell as the water hits the ground. Feeling like a kid again .. listening to the birds. After awhile … time to head indoors. And time to work on the recycling inside. Found a bucket of music cassettes .. some going back 20 years. Troupe music from several forms of folk dancing, middle eastern dancing, clogging.
Let’s see .. when is the last time that I’ve played these tapes .. too long .. time to recycle. So for a few hours I stand at a counter, tiny screwdriver in hand, slowly undoing the 5 screws that hold the cassette together. Salvage the plastic bits in one container, the metal bits in another. And, unfortunately, not able to recycle the actual tape .. well, I’ve seen sites where clever people have actually knitted things from this tape, but I know that’s not going to happen here.
So, out it goes. I’ve dissected about 20 or so cassettes …. and time for a break.
So I go for a little walk out in the rainy .. see a neighbour with her daughter and most beautiful little baby .. all are so happy .. and I smile as I continue my walk. Love walking in the rain! And later, back home, time to cook up another gigantic lasagna dish.
This time I’m using the Lambs Quarters that my pal D has collected when we went to the beach. Thanks to her I have a huge bowl of these most lovely greens to use, instead of spinach. Using those amazing no-cook lasagna strips makes the process so easy. I cooked up a mixture of chopped onions, ground chicken, ground veggie meal, the last of the frozen tomatillo’s from last year’s harvest and a few frozen green tomatoes.
Add salsa and canned tomatoes (blended up). First I browned the onions and meat .. then added the rest. Spread a layer of this mixture into the lasagna pan, then a layer of lasagna sections. A thick layer of the Lambs Quarters. These are considered a weed .. but, as I’m finding out .. a lot of “weeds” are highly nutritious and delicious.
Then added 2% cottage cheese, some sauce, some shredded mozzarella and repeated layers till there was absolutely no more room in the pan, except for the last layer of just blended tomatoes on the top .. to soften the lasagna. A thick layer of shredded mozzarella .. and into the oven.
Cooked for an hour. MMMMMMMMMM
Sort of thought of taking a photo, but by then, I’d cut into the lasagna .. oh, it was delicious. So just imagine the most golden brown cheese encrusted lasagna dish that you have ever seen in your life .. times two .. and that would be the finished dish! Absolutely the best lasagna!
Some will be frozen for future meals .. that is .. if we can stop ourselves from cutting a slice and heating it up for a meal!
Twas quite a day.
Ok .. this lasagna is very clever! However, the writing on the glass jar just makes so very much sense!! I wrote on my first jar today and it won’t be the last time. No more taping papers on the lid! Suddenly I feel very sophiscated in my kitchen. 🙂
My Lovely Garden … Mon Joli Jardin 