Frank and Zappa's Garden

We finally got some rain. Cory drove me to work in a downpour with thunder and lightning this morning. The rain kept up for most of the day, but it was over by the time I got home from work.

I put up two bird feeders on the weekend. Many a day have I stood at my living room window, watching birds flit around on the fence and in the cherry tree. I was excited to finally get bird feeders! Of course, suddenly it seemed like there were no birds anywhere. When I finally saw one today I was all excited. Here’s hoping he tells all his friends!

Photo taken through the living room window - it's a bird!

We made our first Farmer’s Market run on Friday night. We picked up our first baskets of tomatoes and peaches – two of my favourite things – and a load of vegetables for Hodge Podge. I made my first batch of salsa this weekend – none too soon because we are down to a few jars – and tried my hand at making zucchini pickles. Dad & Mom brought us a load of veggies from the garden when they visited, and somehow the zucchini got lost in the fridge. I figured we’d never be able to get it all eaten, so I found a recipe for Spicy Zucchini Pickles. I’ve never made pickles, never even though of pickled zucchini, but hopefully they will turn out okay.

The weekend was busy, what with the shopping, salsa making and pickling.Then last night Cory was late finishing work, and we were meeting with our new pet sitter, so we finally got around to making the Hodge Podge tonight. Cory put me in charge of of the carrots and told me to chop up as many as I thought looked good. Obviously he forgot who he was talking to. He kept saying “Is that all? A few more!” The carrots did smell good though, so I helped myself to some raw carrot sticks, since that’s the only way I like them. It was strangely satisfying to be standing there, in my apron, chopping carrots with my chef’s knife though.

Kitchen full of veggies!

More spoils from the weekend…We were at Home Depot and they had patio tomatoes marked down. Cory said we still had some space, did I want to get a couple? I think I love him!

So our patio is now officially full of tomatoes.

See all those green ones? More salsa, just around the corner!

Dad, Mom & Nathan came to visit for the weekend of July 14-15. They brought us veggies from their garden. We barbequed. Then we got down to work.

My TARDIS had it’s door repaired, grills added to the windows, a fresh coat of paint…

And shelves!

Dad and Cory finally installed the range hood to match our stove, which looks really good. Then Dad fixed my hammock and installed the cat tree he made for me.

Meanwhile, Mom & I got to work painting the front steps and door.

Frank approves.

It was a busy weekend. I think we were all pretty worn out by Sunday night. We did lots of good stuff though. The garden shed & front steps look great, I love my cat tree, and it’s good to finally have that range hood out of the box! Thanks so much to my parents for all the help!

Good things are happening in the garden. There are green tomatoes, and strawberries and blueberries ripening.

The hot & sunny weather has continued. We need rain, but I am not going to complain. I  have been enjoying this summer so much! Even if our lawn is dying.

Did someone say last weekend that it was nice to get some rain? We ended up getting quite a bit more rain last week.

Going into the long weekend, the forecast was not great, but it turned out the be a beautiful weekend. I took a vacation day on Friday, and I ended up enjoying four days of hot, sunny weather. It feels like the official start of summer. The only down side being that I really don’t want to go back to work tomorrow. 🙁

I spent a good part of the weekend out in the yard. I still had a few transplants that needed to go in the  ground, and I had a ton of weeding to do. The weeding is not finished, but I at least put a dent in it…in between walking the cats and playing with my camera.

Friday morning I was chasing butterflies. They don’t like to stay still!

And I tried to photograph my strawberries. I’ve been having a hard time with that for some reason. Last year I bought a couple of deck planters with strawberries that had the prettiest pink blossoms. I went looking for them again this year and found some to plant in the ground.

While staring down at the garden, I noticed something else. I have violas growing all over the place – they are like weeds, but very pretty so I don’t mind – and I happened to notice one going to seed.

Look at all those little seeds – no wonder they spread like crazy! I’ve never seen that before, and when I went out a little while later they were gone.

Next to that, I could see that my hostas are getting ready to bloom.

And then finally, if you look closely in the midst of the clump of violas, there are little blueberries on one of the high bush plants I put in last year.

It’s time to cut garlic scapes. I planted a couple of Dad’s garlic cloves last fall, and they seem to be growing quite well.

And for the first time that I can remember, we are seeing cherries on our tree. We have no idea what  kind of cherries they are, so we don’t really know when they should be picked. There aren’t that many anyway, and also we don’t have a ladder, but it’s nice to see them!

And I got a new set of solar lights.

After all the rain last week, and then the sun we’ve had over the past 4 days, things seem to be growing like crazy. I was late starting my tomato seeds this year, and then I confess that I did not take as good care of them as I normally do, so they were looking pretty puny when I transplanted them. They are still small, but they seem to be taking off now, so hopefully they will catch up. I ended up buying a few plants as well, just in case.

I picked my first handful of snap peas from my deck planters today and ate them. So good!

Today, I mostly caught up on some things that needed doing inside the house. After 3 days, I felt like I need a break from being out in the sun.

Now I am very tired, but feeling like I made good use of my long weekend. Now I just have to finish the weeding – next weekend’s project!

After a streak of dry weather,we finally got some rain.  I was glad to see it – I’ve been trying to keep the garden watered, but the lawn was getting kind of crispy. It was kind of nice actually – the cats weren’t constantly begging me to take them outside, we had no place to go, nothing  urgent to do, just a quiet & relaxing weekend at home.

I’m not normally a fan of garden gnome statues, but I liked this little guy with a tube for measuring rainfall. And maybe he’s more like one of the Seven Dwarves? He is sitting in a corner of the deck with some planters.

There he sits, waiting for rain, guarding the peas and beans. At night, he has some solar lights to keep things festive.

The pea plants have lots of blossoms, and the other day I noticed that I will soon have a few Snap Peas to pick.

I love this time of year!

Spring has been happening and so far it’s been fabulous.

Cory arrived home from, his fourth trip to Japan, Friday night of the Victoria Day weekend. He was pretty tired of course. The weather was perfect all weekend and I spent most of it working in the yard & garden.

By Monday night Cory was complaining of allergies and feeling exhausted. By Tuesday he knew he was sick. I was pretty tired on Monday night from all the yard work, but Tuesday morning I woke up feeling great. Wednesday morning I felt awful – tired and achy – and thought all the garden time must be catching up with me. By Friday I knew I was sick. 🙁

We’re both feeling better now though, and we’ve had another nice weekend. Yesterday was a busy day, but I did stop at a garden center to pick up some plants and this morning the cats and I enjoyed some outdoor time.

…That was written on June 4 and I had every intention of finishing…And now it’s June 17…On we go!

In my defence, that was a very busy weekend. And I have been trying to weed and put in transplants and tidy up the yard, so I’ve been keeping busy. But since it’s almost summer now, maybe we should look at some highlights from spring?

In May, while Cory was in Japan, we had Forsythia and Cherry blossoms.

Cory came home from Japan, bearing Kit Kats.

Which I did ask for, though I was not expecting so many! So far the Annin Dofu Flavour are the favourites, and we only have a small  box of those so they won’t last long.

In June, petals fell from forsythia bush and cherry tree, and leaves took their place.

And Lily of the Valley bloomed…

Our cherry tree is loaded with cherries. We need to come up with a way to keep the birds out of the tree. We’ve been in this house for 10 years and never once managed to pick a cherry off that tree.

The cats and I have been busy…Okay I have been busy, weeding and planting; the cats just want to be out of doors.

My Irises are in bloom, the Honeysuckle is well on it’s way, and this Catmint just keeps getting bigger every year. I think it’s trying to take over the garden. Fortunately, it’s quite pretty.

Thank you Anna, for the kick in the butt I needed to get posting again. Next February, when I am sick of winter, I will be happy that I can come back to this and remember what spring looks like! I have some other photos to post of things around here, plus more from our Japan trip. I won’t wait so long to write the next post, I promise!