Stormy Monday

The storm front which created such terrible destruction down in the States brought us high winds, humidity and rain. We were out most of the day and when we returned home it was to find things tipped, tumbled and blown about in our yard. Rain barrels had blown off their stands (they were up but, not working yet - no water equals no weight). Our large (30 foot) ladder had blown over. Chain link gates on the enclosed gardens had blown open. Nothing devastating which couldn't be righted in a short time and no damages were found.

We drove into the big city of Ottawa. Which put us on the road for well over an hour and half. The car was buffeted by the winds (gusting at times to 70kph we later found out) but, being low slung, it wasn't a big problem, we hardly felt the winds at all. Other drivers were not so lucky. I watched one car as it cleared the end of a long line of dense trees... it went scudding off the road when the winds hit it. Kind of scary.

Hard to believe this was happening at home unbeknownst to us as yesterday appeared to be such a nice day. Our temperatures made it up into the 70s. With the humidity we were closer to 80. Wow, eh? We saw a few brief showers but, no torrential downpours.

Today's a calmer day for weather.... gentler winds (15kph) and cooler (50s) temperatures. More like April's weather is supposed to be.

Gardening Update

I have spent the past couple of days outside doing a little of everything in the gardens. Prepping for this year vegetables I plan on growing and pruning the small orchard DH and I planted when we first moved into this house, three years ago.

The orchard consists of a total of 10 trees. They are apple, cherry, plum and pear trees. The first year they were young trees and the only fruit we had from them were some plums with the promise of more to come in the following years. But, alas the next year this was not to be. We had a very early Spring last year. Which confused the poor darlings into blooming early. Way too early.

Then as everyone feared we had some late in the season killing frosts with a couple of days of snow. All of my precious trees lost their blooms. Day by cold relentless day. Each and everyday I watched in horror as the trees dropped more and more of their sweet smelling flowers. Scattered under the trees was a field of white, not of snow mind you but of all those fruit blossoms.

This year with fingers crossed, I am hoping we have a normal Spring without an early bloom of fruit blossoms on my precious fruit trees. I am also hopeful one day to have a bench (built by DH) down under one of those fruit trees where I can happily sit, munching on a piece of fruit. Listening to the birds and the bees and watching the world go by.

The Gardening Shall Begin

Yesterday was the first day I felt like maybe Mother Earth was starting to awaken from her frozen nap. It's wasn't because of the sunshine, as there was not much. No UV warning from Environment Canada that's for sure. They are the watchdog for skin cancers with their warnings of the UV index and the sometimes "we got the weather right" national weather forecasts. By afternoon it was just grey, overcast and had a cold wind blowing in from the northwest. Required me putting up my hood and putting on my thick winter gloves. I don't think we were ever on the plus side of the thermometer. It was cold, windy and not alot like Spring.

But... I still felt as though the world was awakening. Maybe it's the birds. More birds have returned from down south and a more diverse gathering of birds are at our bird feeders. Whole huge flocks are stopping by. The robins are definitely back and are building their nests. The wild beautiful call of the Canadian geese is heard everywhere. You are turning to scan the sky to find them as they fly overhead in their "V" formations.

So what was it which found me out in the garden wandering and looking and feeling? Was it those little nubbins of rhubarb I saw poking up from the soil? The harbinger of Spring to a gardener? Or, was I just so tired of winter I had to be out and about "doing" in the garden. I weeded, I pruned, I turned some soil and then I turned the compost pile. And, it felt dang good!

Here I stand, my arms flung wide, yelling out loud ...... "WELCOME SPRING!"
Psst.... and don't be dragging your feet anymore. Okay?

Spring's Seedlings 2011

I finally got my arse in gear and started some seeds for this year's veggie garden. I have been very lucky and have had approx. a 100% germination rate with all my seeds. If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you will know I seed save from one year to the next. (At least I think I have written of this more than once.) With that being said.... here's a couple of pictures of my "lil babies".

Blah and Phooey!

Phooey? Yup you got that right. Phooey!
After a week of semi normal temperatures heralding Spring's possible arrival, this morning it is snowing.

Oh no, I thought we were done with the white stuff???!!!???
It's not like it's a light little flake falling out there.
No it's those huge fluffy flakes which accumulates inches in mere minutes.
It's only been snowing about 2 hours and we have about 10 cms already on the ground.
That's roughly an inch an hour.

The ground where you could see green grass everywhere, well mostly brown grass, just yesterday is now covered in a blanket of white.
Phooey!

And, to prove I am really actually looking forward to Spring and all that entails, I have posted some outside (phooey) and inside (Spring has sprung) pictures for your enjoyment.
That's a morning dove and a house finch digging through the snow for bird seed. Picture is a bit blurry as it's snowing! Notice the amount of snow....?
And, the seedlings I am showing under my grow lights are brussel sprouts and cabbage which popped up yesterday. Nice, eh? A big happy sigh :)

Bird Feeding

We have started feeding the birds for the winter. We were starting to get worried since it's gotten so cold quickly this year, we figured starting sooner than later was for the best.

This year we got smart. Do you know how expensive bird seed has gotten? Don't buy bags of mixed birdseed. They contain a lot of filler, such as red millet. Most birds won't eat it. It gets kicked onto the ground, where stays until it rots. (Look around the base of your bird feeder come Spring, you'll see what I mean.) Mixed birdseed is not a bargain. Buy the seeds you know your birds want.

To maximize the number of species that visit our feeders, we offer a variety of food. And offer it at different heights. We have feeding stations on fence posts, on the pole that holds a very tall bird feeder and DH has mounted old satellite dishes on poles. We can see the bird feeding station from any window on the back side of the house and from the back breezeway mud room.

Most birds that stay in cold regions in winter eat seeds. They have to. Insects are hard to find in freezing weather. Here is a selection of seeds that attract a wide variety of birds;

The over all favorite is sunflower seeds. It attracts cardinals, woodpeckers, blue jays, goldfinches, purple finches, chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches. It's good to put most of your sunflower seeds in hanging feeders. It's safer from squirrels and raccoons that way. For the past two days we starting seeing our first cardinal... it was Mr. Cardinal... didn't see the Mrs. until the following day. What a joy to see those two.

Get black sunflower seeds, sometimes called oil seeds, rather than the grey-and-white-striped sunflower seeds sold for people to eat. They're higher in oil content, softer shelled, and cheaper.

Nyger has replaced thistle as the most popular seeds to feed goldfinches. Goldfinches adore nyger. Dozens of goldfinches will be visiting your nyger feeder at once, which is quite a sight on a winter day. Niger is a black seed, so tiny and light you can blow away a handful with a gentle breath. Niger is also expensive, over a dollar a pound! We don't want to waste this precious seed. We bought a hanging tube with tiny holes, designed especially for nyger.

Safflower is a white seed, slightly smaller than black sunflower seed. Chickadees, titmice, chickadees, and downy woodpeckers eat it.

The great thing about safflower seeds is that squirrels don't like them! (We have one grey and one black squirrel who have started visiting the bird feeding area... DH got out his slingshot to scare them away.) Neither do grackles, blue jays, or starlings. I bit into a safflower seed myself once and bout gagged me!

You can buy seeds at feed stores, nurseries, supermarkets, and some hardware stores. I buy everything except the costly nyger in 25-pound bags and store them in the back breezeway in a huge trash can.

FYI
Oh and once you start feeding the birds, don't stop till Spring. Some birds may become somewhat dependent on your feeder for food, especially some migrants that might have traveled farther on to a more dependable food supply. By feeding birds, you are also concentrating many of them in a small area. If you suddenly stop feeding, the birds will have to look for natural food sources which may result in overtaxing the available supplies in that area. Hungry birds will move on in search of food and it may take some time to lure other birds to your feeder. Keep your feeder filled at all times.

Happy birdwatching!

Seed catalogs

The seed catalogs are overflowing out of the mail box. These past two weeks, I have gotten such an assortment of them, I am driving myself nuts.

I really need to catalog the seeds in the deep freeze to see what needs ordering. Because the way things are going I am going to be spending my last dime on seeds and all sorts of gardening paraphernalia. My hands are just itching to get dirty.

Dirty.... can't wait! And, I am one of those crazy gardeners who doesn't wear gloves. During the growing season I have broken and grimy fingernails even though I scrub and scrub them.

Okay back to my daydreaming. Come on Spring!