In the garden

Fall is definitely the season of the we have to; We have to rake the leaves, we have to plant bulbs,

we have to plant the perennials, we have to weather proof, we have to put the storm windows....
I am sure that you get the gist!

So I am posting pictures of the garden

The fountains have been emptied, the water garden - same. Leaves have been racked and bulbs have
been planted. the windows have been taken care of...

Now it is time to think about Christmas!

Who Knew?

Growing up, my Dad was puttering in our small backyard every chance he got.

He worked 12-14 hours a day very often. He would go to his workshop on Saturdays...So garden time was Sundays.

I was young and eager to learn. I learned about the differences in plants, the bulbs, annuals versus perenials.

Dad would often find that I was all thumbs, but I loved hanging out in the yard planting bulbs and drinking tea.

When we bought the house in the burbs, I mostly planted plants I loved from my childhood. Lillies, irises, delphiniums, lupines and rosa rugosa.

Let's face it I bit off way more I could chew...eventually my yard was like a jungle and even if I worked on it
I felt overwhelmed....

Here in my new garden, I am still learning to know what every thing is, which plant needs what, how to trim the vines and clematis.

 The fountains are quite the new thing for me.

This cute one was called the cat's fountain by Dad.

Actually my cats are kinda scared of it...lol

But a lot of birds drop by everyday.

 I need to clean the pump every week or it gets full of debris...

 The pump died for the bigger one....I bought a new one....

And there is a piece missing!

All the components are waiting patiently....

and the mosquitoes!!!

Where I lived, since I was near the water we had millions of mosquitoes...

Dad kept telling me there were no mosquitoes in Montreal...

WRONG!!! I am full of bites!

I ordered some mosquito dunks to help with the problem...

I'll keep you posted!

Have a great night :)

More TCB and Vacation Round Up

On my to do list was a clean up of the spices shelf.....I tend to get messy and just open the door and throw spice jars....

Before

After

 Yes I have a flashlight in my spice shelf....Most of the time I can't see what I have!!!

 The border were badly overgrown and some plants had overstayed their welcome!
I can't stand plants that run amock and take control of the garden!

 So were removed a lot of weeds and perrenials I couldn't stand. I have been lazy in the last
couple of years and it is high time I regain control of the yard!

 

In the corner we had an old climbing rose that had seen better days, out it went.

I will put an Alaska daisy in its place.

It is far from done. The grass you see will eventually be all gone too.

We also have rogue garlic growing all over the place....

So we dug some out.

I am letting it dry a bit.

And it seems I have a furry helper....

 So cute!

 The veggie garden is coming along....

And I started drying out herbs for the winter. Here's sage next to the garlic.
Also I dried oregano and lemon thyme...

This vacation was the best! We napped, shopped, ate out, read, gardened, swam,gardened, organized, laughed, gardened, laughed, gardened,stained,laughed and gardened!

Of course I wish we could have another week off....

And we will have to keep the TCB focus because we have more stuff to do!

Be well

The Worst!

I am guilty! Guilty of extreme lazyness...

I've let my perrenial borders run amock and my yearly efforts to contain them have not been sufficient.

So this year I AM GOING TO WIN THE WAR!!!

No more lazy butt!!! No more crazy plants that run wild all over!

                                             This is the future site of the veggie garden.
                                              Much smaller and I hope easier to manage!
                 

 Dan washed the deck so we can stain it later this week

 

                                         These are all the wild garlic I dug out. I'm soaking it to remove
                                          all the dirt. I might pickle some...

                                 Garlic buds....they made a nice addition to the veggies for supper
                                 last night.

                                  I was soooo tired, I finished the day like a zombie....

                                  Surprisingly I'm not really sore today!

                                  It is raining this morning, so no guerilla gardening.

                                  Instead on the program this morning, we go in the basement and whip up
                                  a bacth of waterproof ciment.

                                  Then we will be framing some art....

                                  Yes I will blog about it!

                                  Later :)

Oh the possibilities!

This what I love about Fridays…They are the gateway to the weekend and a whole wide world of possibilities!

One thing for sure is that I won’t be thrifting but it’s A-OKAY with me. I need to deal with the thrifted treasures: clean, take pics, share with you and put in the store if applicable.

I also need to prepare a bit of food for next week to take care of the lunches...I crave Mexican lasagne! Suppers are easier, we try not to eat carbs at night....so it’s meat, or some kind of protein and veggies.

The painting hasn’t started for various reasons, well mostly sickness, so we need to give a big push to put all our stuff away and start the primer. A new floor is being installed on May 25th so the place needs to be cleared and painted!

I have some wash to catch up on, awkward things to wash that need to be dried outside (wool covers). I can’t dry on the clothes line @ night and it has been raining 4EVER!

I have to transplant my veggie seedlings in bigger pots....this is URGENT!

I want to work outside too, there are leaves to rake, borders to tidy, walks to be swept.....and that is just for tomorrow! Oh I forgot! I need to squeeze a bit of dance practice because we learned 5 dances last week. Yes 5! Our brains and legs turned to mush.....

Sunday is more routine like. I might have some time to garden, then off to the dance course, a spot of shopping, then back home for preparations for the week ahead .

Have a great night!

Ooooh flowers!

I still don't have fresh pictures.... I'm usually a compulsive shutterbug but since the computer incident I only take 30% of my usual quantity.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. I finished working on the front border: defining,weeding adding new soil and planting the annuals I bought the day before. The temperature has been really cold and wet lately and yesterday was supposed to be the only nice day, so I was outside most of the day.

Except that I sneeked in inside long enough to bake some water crackers and make a nice pasta fazul (pasta e fagioli) for supper. What's not to like? Vegeterian,low fat,full of fibre and oh so filling!!! You can even enjoy it at room temperature!

Well that was a success! Dan said I could make that everyday for ever (I don't think so!).

The crackers weren't dry or thin enough. But delicious as well, I'll just have to roll them thinner and leave them longer in the oven. I'm itching to try that recipe with different kinds of flour....

Today I'm heading to downtown Montreal to have supper with girlfriends and a visit to the Salvation Amy (YAY!) maybe I'll even have time to grocery shop in Chinatown.....

Have a nice day! :)

Amazon and a visitor

Friday around 6:20 pm I had a visitor on my deck!

Boy did I freak out! Not because I'm scared of raccoons, but I had heard they could harm cats real bad and Peanut (pinotte) was outside and under the deck. Yikkes!

I saw the raccoon go under the deck! OMG! I ran outside, just as heard nasty noises. I called my cat, over and over, but she wouldn't come out.

I went to the cubbard and got some Luv treats and started shaking the bag and calling her. I lifted my head and saw the cat running in the opposite direction, I scooped her up ,brought her inside and gave her a treat and started breathing again!

Look at that face! That beautiful kitty face!

Ok now for the Amazon part of the post! You know all those beautiful hardcover books nobody wanted at the garage sale? Well at 7:00 am yesterday I became an Amazon marketplace seller. So I listed all the books I could, the ones I couldn't will go in the next garage sale....

The 2 drape sets will go to the church basement on wednesday morning and maybe they will make somebody happy.

As for the Pyrex....I listed some on Etsy, will probably list some more today.

The program is to work outside and when my back needs a break then I come inside and list something