Frank and Zappa's Garden

Started off with so much snow and freezing cold weather.

January 4

January 4

The we had a January thaw; it lasted a week or so. It was warm! It rained! The snow disappeared.

January 17

January 17

January 18

January 18

But of course, that was too good to last for this time of year. Spring is coming; just not quite yet.

January 19

January 19

January 24

We had a couple of warmer days over the weekend. We don’t have much snow left right now. I’m sure that will change, but for now the Fabulous Felines are enjoying it.

February 2

February 2

I look out my window,

And what do I see?

A chickadee eating his feed!

AKA Candace & Cory’s 12th wedding anniversary!

We had a busy day. We had to be up early because the cable guy was coming with a new modem (there were a lot of power outages in NB due to the ice storm; some went for days without power. Our power was off for all of 2 hours, during which we weren’t even home, but that was enough to fry our cable modem),  plus the maids were coming. Then we had to run out to do some last minute errands.

Trees and bushes are still coated in ice, and I’ve been wanting to get out with the camera during a sunny period, but somehow I keep missing  it. When we got home from our shopping, I did go out and tramp up the hill for a look around.

Then we got busy getting things ready. We had rearranged our living room a bit at the start of our vacation – we keep trying to make our tiny room feel less crowded.

We got a mat for  our entry way. As soon as we put it down, Frank had to check it out.

We expanded our dining room table to full size for the first time. We had to move the dishwasher down to the end of the hallway, and it took us a few minutes to figure out how to get the extra pieces out, but once we had that figured it was pretty easy. I took some pictures as we were setting up, before people arrived, because I had a feeling we’d be too busy later…which we were.

Do you like my Tardis lights?

Since the first snow storm of the season, on Sunday, December 15, winter has not let up. We had another storm on the following Wednesday, then freezing rain on the weekend. The weather was decent enough for us to travel on Monday, the 23rd, but I think we’ve had snow almost every day since then.

We headed for Nova Scotia on the 23rd. They have had their share of the snow and ice, and it snowed every day from the 24 – 27, but that didn’t stop us from having a good visit.

Nathan is enjoying all the snow, since it is good snow mobile weather.

And at Cory’s parents’ house, I enjoyed the bird watching, along with the hospitality.

On the 2nd day of our visit, our cat sitter mentioned that the tree out front was bending over a lot from the ice. I was hoping that it would be okay, but when we arrived home on Friday night, we could see that the tree was down.

As a matter of fact, as we were able to the next morning, the tree split in half.

The fence is in pretty rough shape as well, so it looks like we’ll definitely need to replace it this spring (after two years of talking about it).

This put a bit of a damper on our homecoming. We only have 3 trees in our yard, and this was my favourite; the yard will look very bare without  it.

When I went out with my camera, I came out through the garage and left the doors open so the cats could follow me if they wanted. Frank came out right away, and walked with me while I  was checking things out. There is a pretty thick layer of ice under the snow, but I managed not to fall down. That felt like an accomplishment.

When Frank and I were making our way back to the door, we saw that Zappa had come out to join us – though he didn’t come any farther than the front corner of the  fence.

The cats are not impressed with this whole winter thing. Not that I  blame them. They are  not getting out much – and that’s not likely to change, since the fence is now useless – so they get a bit stir crazy. We’re doing our best to keep them entertained.

Also, oops.  Guess I should have taken the bird feeders in before we went away.

It is currently snowing again. And we may get more freezing rain. I’m thinking I should buy some snow shoes.

Most years, it seems, December is fairly warm and we don’t get much snow. I like that trend. January is plenty early for winter to start. Looks like it’s not one of those years though.

When we woke up Sunday morning, it was snowing; it continued snowing into the afternoon.

The cats are not impressed.

Zappa doesn’t make it past the front step. Frank will go down to the driveway, but he doesn’t stay out long. It’s been pretty cold most days, so I can’t say I blame them.

I did clear a some space on the deck so they can get out there too. They both took a turn sitting on the railing today, looking around.

It’s looking like it might be a long winter.

What can I say? I’ve been really slow getting things done this fall, and haven’t taken many photos.

I picked away at getting the yard all ready for winter. I pruned the forsythia bush that was growing over the front step, and noticed that it seemed to be a bit confused about the season…

I brought a few branches in and put them in a vase and they have been slowly blooming.

I dug up my carrots.

I am missing the birds, since we had to stop filling the feeders. There is still seed in the globe feeder though, so the chickadees still visit.

We got our new bed, plus a new duvet (I’d been wanting to get a new one and they had them at Costco); we are all sleeping comfortably.

One of my Christmas Cacti is blooming; it’s a nice splash of colour as winter looms.

We woke up on Wednesday morning to a frosting of snow on everything; it didn’t look like much, but the roads were slippery on the way in to work. By afternoon it was pouring down rain, and the snow disappeared.

But we woke up to more this morning. Happy December 1st! Have some snow!

Frank & Zappa have barely set foot outside, not that I blame them, especially since it seemed to be precipitating freezing rain this afternoon.

Here comes winter.

Autumn is flying by; the days are getting shorter, most of the deciduous trees have shed their leaves already, the temperatures are dropping at night.

Blueberry bush

I have planted my fall bulbs and my garlic, and started the job of putting the garden to bed for the winter. Hopefully I’ll get that job done before snow flies and/or everything freezes solid.

On Monday of the Thanksgiving  weekend, I  picked my jalapenos and turned them into pickles.

First time I’ve tried that, so hopefully they will turn out okay.

In other news, we found a can of beer that is almost as big as my head.

Cory and I split this. Not only was it entertaining, it was good beer. Happy Oktoberfest!

There has not been much going on in the garden this year. A late start, too much rain, not enough sun does not lead to bumper crops.

Early on, I was heartened by the fact that I had lots of green tomatoes. Lots of green tomatoes should surely lead to plenty of ripe tomatoes…Or not, as things turned out. I’ve been picking the odd tomato here and there…

Became a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich

I managed to grow a few cucumbers…

Pickles anyone?

And made dill  pickles for the first time.

Pickles from the garden, salsa from farmers market tomatoes

This past Sunday, I brought in the most tomatoes I’ve picked at one time so far this year.

Along with some leftover farmers market tomatoes, they became my second batch of salsa of the summer.

Oh well, they can’t all be banner years.

Sunday was back and forth between sunny and cloudy, but still warm, so we had the patio door open. The fresh air is nice, and it keeps the cats happy.

Late in the afternoon we had a sudden downpour, and we kind of forgot about the patio door for a bit…We ended up with a bit of a puddle in the kitchen. Nowhere near as big as the puddles outside though.

Fortunately it didn’t last all that long.

I can’t keep the bird feeders full lately – I guess the critters are getting ready for winter. Around 6 pm on Sunday, I looked out to see a cardinal and a squirrel sitting in the cherry tree.

This cardinal was not leaving until the squirrel gave up the sunflower seeds…

The squirrel finally did move on, and the cardinal moved right in.

Not that the squirrel went very far.

Pretty brazen little fella. I was out in the yard one day, with both cats, and the squirrel was scampering around the lawn; he did have to make a hasty retreat when Zappa noticed he was there, so I guess he’s not completely careless.

The squirrels have not been helping my tomato situation either. I’m pretty sure they got most of my cherry tomatoes, and I keep finding half eaten tomatoes – or green tomatoes with a few teeth marks – on the ground. I don’t mind feeding them, but the tomato stealing I could do without.

Anyway, it seems that the lazy days of summer are pretty much over for this year…

Frank and Zappa will just move right on to snoozy autumn days instead.

Sunday, September 1st we woke up and had an excellent breakfast of pancakes with strawberries and bacon. I relaxed with my coffee. I looked out the window, and saw four blue jays sitting in the  cherry tree.

And a squirrel.

Sometimes I will hear a jay squawking…

And I look out to see blue jay and squirrel facing off over the peanuts.

The blue jays are not much interested in sharing.

It turned out to be a day for bird watching. Some days things are pretty quiet at the feeders, but on Sunday there seemed to be a constant stream.

A hummingbird even stopped by.

And, from what I could tell, a family of finches. It looked like the adults were feeding the young, who were not 100% steady on their wings yet.

Maybe the birds could tell that the rainy weather was coming. Yesterday and today have been wet and grey, though still warm. Mostly we’ve had flocks of grackles and the squirrel busily emptying the feeders. Greedy guys, those grackles.

End of July, going into August, I was feeling pretty tired. Exhausted, in fact. To know me is to know that me being tired is not exactly out of the ordinary, but I couldn’t seem to shake it and I was feeling frustrated because I felt like I wasn’t doing all the things I should be doing.

Going into the second week of August, I decided that I had to just go with it. If I came home from work and didn’t feel like doing anything, so be it. We were having much nicer weather that we had been earlier in the summer, so I would take my book and my camera and go sit out in the yard. The cats kept me company, I listened to the birds and soaked in some summer. You’ve heard that saying about a rest being as good as a cure? Well, resting in a peaceful garden does me a world of good.

Of course, if I left my chair, this was likely to happen…

There have been a ton of birds around this year – I guess that’s what happens when you put up lots of bird feeders. It’s been fun seeing new ones show up and trying to figure out what they are. The latest – Chipping Sparrows? They have little rusty red caps and often show up in little flocks.

I don’t have a lot of fall blooming flowers, unfortunately. I keep thinking I need to do something about that. But the comfrey was blooming and that seemed to be enough for the hummingbirds.

I also have a bumper crop of catnip growing in the herb garden, which makes for happy cats.

Though I think nice weather, and garden time in general makes them happy. They look all sleepy and relaxed…

But they are always ready to pounce.

You know. Maybe. If they feel like it. 🙂

Our squirrel is thriving, busily burying peanuts all over the yard…

…And enjoying some sunflower seeds for a snack…

…And I’m pretty sure he’s responsible for this:

After I came out and found one of the sides laying on the ground, I gave up and moved the feeder. I don’t mind feeding the squirrel, but I’d rather he didn’t dump all the feed on the ground.

Tomatoes are starting, oh so slowly.

And we have carrots. Why is it I can always grow carrots? Even if nothing else works.

And the end of this tale, or so we hope…

They got the dozer running again, and they smoothed out the hill. It looks like they are trying to direct the water run off. Once they finished that, they took the bull dozer away, and we haven’t seen anything since. We hope that’s the end of it.

A couple more birds to finish things off…Couldn’t decide which of these I liked best:

And, a toughie, taken through the window and the fence, of a cardinal that didn’t want to stay still…best I could do: