Hummingbirds Where Are you?

I loved the look of the glass hummingbird feeders on the garden tours and when I spotted one at a shop, I bought it.

I filled the globe with the water and sugar mixture and sat back to watch the hummingbird invasion. The invasion turned out to be wasps and they believed they have found nirvana.

I'll have to sneak out at night when the wasps are sleeping and move the feeder to a away-from-people place.

Of course, then I won't spot a hummingbird even if one does come visit.

Alas

My Garden Drought Survivors

Funny thing about planting sunflower seeds; drop them directly into the soil and I swear the earth opens up and swallows them whole.
Except for this big soldier, my one survivor.



These good sports are doing pretty well although they are on the runty side. They endure on a smattering of rain and any bit of hand watering that comes their way.





Ornamental grasses stand proud no matter what and their elegance and strength pull the entire garden together. I think they have a camel-like method of storing water.



I tried planting tomatoes amongst the regular flowers and they didn't do at all well. A big fat zero. Did they not like their companions or was it the parched soil? The reflection of the rose in the mirror helps this one along in the picture.

I dug out one skimpy tomato plant yesterday and re-potted it in its own container; let's hope if it was in time.





This is my one happy tomato plant in the centre bed and it represents what keeps gardeners at it year after year. You learn from your mistakes and carry on.

Every year, new mistakes and new discoveries. It keeps you both humble and grateful.

My Kitchen Table Exploded.

I thought a huge brick had been hurled through the window and I cautiously entered the kitchen to find it wasn't a brick--the glass top had really and truly exploded into fine powder-like crystals.

How does this happen?

Had I had been in the room I would have needed E.R. assistance and a child would have suffered a worse enounter.



Mine is not the only to suffer this crazy upset. I couldn't get the link to work but try this: Arvada woman says Martha Stewart table exploded for no reason

House Guest

Eli is visiting while his family is away for the week.



I figured it would be smooth sailing until I checked over the manifesto regarding his care.

Right off the top--forget Peter Rabbit--lettuce can give them the runs. Dear-god-please-not-on-my-watch.
They like parsley and carrots, a scoop of pellets each day and a bit of hay. I haven't noticed any wild or even moderate enthusiasm for the latter but we'll see.

Keep the water bottle filled but he really prefers his water from his food, so you make sure you run it under the tap before he gets it.

A closer look at the section on FOOD--how much and what and when. I had been giving him both parsley and carrots and it's supposed to be either/or. What if he waddles when his family returns?

Then there's COMFORT. Stroke him from nose to back. okay, so far so good and he likes it.

Apparently rabbits will chew any electric cords in their path so he isn't coming out of his jail call for the week and he's a bit cramped.
He has a lovely big cage at home but it was too difficult to bring that here in a small car.

Next, HOW TO PICK UP A RABBIT.Well, I would except for the intimidating last sentence: "they have a scramble instinct and he may try to jump out of your arms."
Listen I'm not as agile as I once was and I've got those electrical cords to think about. I like reading at night and the flashlight won't do.



I think we're doing fine. I talk and he pretty well has to listen.

Your peeps will come get you soon sweet guy.

In the meantime it's you and Gramma.

And no scrambling.

Market Day

We took a family trip to the Kitchener Saturday market and watched Aw, who is five foot nothing, dart through crowds and under elbows to find the best and freshest of everything.

Her sister-in law Lorrie is no slouch herself but Aw has that Bangkok edge.

Satisfied we had accomplished our mission we headed down the street to the big Chines grocery. Forget sterile, neatly polished and waxed supermarket fruit and veggies and think more basic.

There are Thai markets in town but Aw finds most of what she wants here and in a nearby Vietnamese grocery store. I'm not sure why this is and when her English gets to the next level, I'll ask.

This market is like stepping into another world--different aromas, multi languages and great prices on live crabs and frozen baby scallops and spices. You can find most of these things at the big supermarkets but the atmosphere will never be the same.



I'll admit some of the displays didn't entice me to buy.



Steve seems to agree with me on this.



I was surprised to find English on many of the items so you have a better chance of buying the right thing.

At Last! A Bird Sighting

Remember how I lamented a blog or two back that the new bird feeder was being boycotted?

Well, now I am in finch heaven.

The sweetie even noshed at the appropriate slot for finches.

Such a smart bird.

Next time, bring your friends.

PETER

This is my # 4 son Peter and it's his birthday today. He always celebrates the day the same way; a friend drives him to the base of a pre-selected mountain and he heads off and up on his own for several days and he is later picked up at the starting point.

Not bad a for a kid who had his first asthma attack before he was a week old.

Pete chose a simple life style not always understood by others: he lives well below the poverty level, doesn't owe money, drives a bike instead of a car and given the opportunity, will figuratively grab your lapels to warn you of the ecological savaging of the planet.
He is knowledgeable and speaks from study and experience.

His lungs benefit from the clean mountain air and he learned a long time ago how to live with and by himself.

He takes beautiful movies of his adventures with nature. I'm not crazy about the idea of him being close enough to film a grizzly fishing, but I do know he is careful and I hope the grizzly minds his manners when they're in the same area.



He was pretty young when he decided to be a musician for all his life and this was his official start, on a Christmas long ago.
He refused lessons and has been self-taught all these years.




Drums are still in his life but he has branched out and can play most instruments.

He takes public transit to most of his his gigs, lugging along his guitar or mandolin or keyboard, but he has to work out a compromise when larger equipment is called for.

His family love and appreciate him as he is, but still, what if something goes wrong during one of those hikes? We persuaded him to carry a G.P.S. tracker he calls "Zippy," and Zip tells us several times a day where he is hiking and if he gets into trouble there is an emergency button to push and his exact location is sent to the appropriate help.

So birthday boy, breath the clean mountain air and come back as always ready to fight for the planet you love and respect.

The Peach Tree Saga

Last year the peach tree came to live at the back of the garden and the squirrels loved the convenience of sitting on the fence and casually reaching over to nibble the fruit.

Next time anyone strong enough to use a shovel dropped by the tree was moved closer to the house, next to the rose bushes.



So far so good, win or lose a couple. Then, I bought some netting to give the two remaining peaches a chance to grow to full term.



I've never bought netting before and I envisioned stuff that resembled fish nets, suitable for catching smaller fish. All I could find is this and I don't think it's the best kind to get--As you shake it open it floats up into the air in slow motion and wherever it chooses to land is pretty well it.



On what turned out to be my first and last try, everything nearby was covered but the two peaches stood proudly untouched and I sported the results of vengeful rose thorns.

Oh well. This will provide more of a challenge to the squirrels and next year, another kind of netting. That's assuming I can ever remove this one without suffering serious lacerations and derision from the squirrels.

Does the New Bird Feeder Have The Cooties?

It looks okay. I bought it recently when the other one split in half, rolling bird seed out over everything.

The stickers attached to this one claims that it holds every kind of birdseed, so no bird can feel slighted.

I added something for everyone, big seeds, tiny seeds and in between, so where are the birds? The seed level has gone down some but I've never seen a nibbler at the buffet.

Either this feeder attracts reclusive birds that don't like people watching them eat or the new plastic smell is putting them off.

Mental note: next time, wash feeder before filling to get rid of the nasty plastic smell.
Or hope for invasion of winged extroverts.

A Hot Day In Paradise

This was the temperature yesterday. It felt hotter. Much, much hotter.



The hosta took a liking to the white blooms and makes a pleasing bouquet. It's particularly nice to admire while we slowly bake.



Meanwhile Fish and Buddha have the shadiest spot in the garde, overlooking the pond.

I'd join them if I could figure out how to extricate myself after cooling off. The muscles don't always cooperate for the return trip and if I got stuck there long enough Buddha would have permanent company.

Thrift Takes A Wrong Turn

I'm a thrifty person and when I was plotting economical ways to cover my back lawn with bricks I didn't have and wasn't planning to buy, my first thought was to check Kijiji, a good place to find free almost-anythings.

A nice lady promptly responded, offering me a large complement of pavers she wanted removed from her walkways. Pavers are like bricks but have square corners.

I hired someone to go dig up and collect the pavers, bring them here, unload them and stack them round in the back yard.

There they are in the picture--waiting for the next step.

I hired someone to start the process. He knew as much as I did--you just dig out a little bit, slap in the pavers and fill the joins with the dirt you dug up. Easy.

Then a professional person happened by my yard soon after we got started. Coincidence?
I rather believe a family intervention was taking place.

Anyway, quickly the pavers are uprooted and a professional crew came in to grade, lay down a bed of crushed stone, pound it down and then, only then, did the brand new just-purchased- from- a- brick yard bricks go into place. Followed by just-purchased sand to fill the spaces.

I guess you can see that my thrift wasn't well thought out.

I had to hire someone to take the now aging pavers from the back to the front and stack them neatly on the driveway while I figured out how to get rid of them. They stacked them directly in front of the garage door so the car lost its shelter for a couple of weeks.

An ad in Kijiji brought us someone eager to take the pavers away.

Moral of this story? Let's see, free pavers, pay for labor to bring here and set in, then pay someone to un-set and stack them around the front, and then we have the hiring of professionals to do the job with brand new bricks and sand.

Have I learned my lesson?

We'll see

cows and hedgehogs

Cow keeps close check on the back yard happenings. Not much to do during the hot spell. No one had the energy for mischief.
The drought has left my squash vines stunted but they may yet make a comeback.





I finally painted the rain barrel; white just didn't set the tone and the blue is friendly. Okay, I admit it could use another coat. manana.



Badger or hedgehog? I've never met either one. Anyway, he finally had his chance to act as the mud scraper he's supposed to be and his bristles fell out.
Poor dear. He's retired now.



I try to stay away from kitch, but really, a corner cow? How could anyone resist.
My junk yard man is gone now so there may not be anymore corner cows in my future.

Update of the South Side

Here is the south end of the property on day one of the move seven years ago. Yes, feel free to say the house closely resembles an army barracks.

First thing, I took some flour and made an outline of this bed, making it deep and with scallops. My daughter the Empress then dug it out and chopped up the rough soil.

She was also the champ who, until the move, stored umpteen plants and shrubs I wanted to keep from the old garden; we were so tidy about it you wouldn't know we had pillaged.



The next year showed a small improvement; no overall plan--just creating day by day. I had lugged the old pseudo brick fountain-turned-planter around with me from house to house and it settled nicely into the corner.
Keep an eye on that hosta in the lower left corner. Man oh man, did that little puppy have a growth spurt.



See what I mean?





This is the usual sight in the spring, once the snow melts. Seasoned gardeners know that underneath that debris are sleeping sprouts that will soon come looking for the sun.
It's best not to go mucking around the beds just then because you might lose or displace the little guys, possible permanently.
And okay I confess, I scrabbled out there in the mud during our long, long rain spell this spring and it turned out very well. The ground was so pliable it was a pleasure to weed and tidy up although I'm still working the garden out of my fingernails. The plants didn't seem to suffer from my stomping around. Lucky is what I was.



The pond-turned-planter is gone now and the small plants have turned into extra large and the results are pleasing.



The right hand corner needs work now. That's next on my list, the minute the temperature goes down from its current plus 38C.

New Neighbours?

For a couple of days it was treacherous to step from the deck to the terrace.
Whoom! Sparrows chattering at me from all directions and warning me to mind my manners. The nest is in the center of the picture.

Okay, I get it--they're building a nest in the arbor right above the steps.



If I knew how to Photo Shop, I would have drawn some squiggles to show you where the nest is located. But I haven't and I can't so it's in the upper left side of the arbor.

Yesterday I saw six or seven sparrows perched near the nest as I passed through; they remained quiet.

Today, not a sound. Or a peep. I wonder if they decided I wasn't trainable. I thought I was behaving, I really did.

I guess in a day or so I'll know for sure if the nest is occupied.

I was really looking forward to babies peeping out from that nest.

The Potato Crop

This is my potato crop--two barrel's worth.

I drilled some holes in the bottom of two plastic garbage cans, gratefully accepted the gift of several seed potatoes, added soil and I was in business.

It's pretty simple: as the green leafy stalks push up, add more soil until finally the top of the barrel is reached. by that time, the plants have flowered and apparently that is the signal that the little duffers are plumping up down there. I can't remember when one harvests them. I'll wait another month and then try a trial test burrowing in one corner to see what's what.

Last year on my first try, I used ordinary wizened out-of-the-grocery bag potatoes with green shoots and my crop consisted of twelve spuds. Twelve.

This years I think the crop will be larger.

After that comes the problem of storage. I recall books on pioneer life when root cellars were the way to go. To accomplish that I'd have to dig under my nice new brick "lawn" so we'll forget that and there's no cold room in my tiny basement.

So- during the winter my basement is warm and the garage is freezing cold. Where to store the home-grown veggies?

That's my conundrum.

The Challenge Of An Empty Wall

At first the deck wall was short. Really, really short. See the grey-ish boards at the lower level? That's how high it was.
Picture this--you step out of your kitchen onto your deck and directly in front of you is your neighbor stepping out of her kitchen onto her deck.
This works if you and your neighbor are over-the-top friendly and itching to chat but honestly, I prefer to be separated by a tall screen.

Son#3 came to visit, and since he is a carpenter it seemed just wrong not to get him on his feet and working to create a taller wall to screen out--well--people.
And a fine he job he did.

Having decks side-by-side, which incidentally is apparently not to code, you have to pretend you're alone. It doesn't help when the people on the other side smoke a lot but it beats sitting on a steel fire escape outside your fourth-floor walk-up.
Bear with me--I've been thinking a lot about the novel, "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn," and it reminds me how lucky I am to even have a house of my own.



What I started out to say was--did you notice that enticingly blank space on the wall? I keep that blank space in mind on my travels. I'm still searching for another junk yard to find a round, flat steel something that would bring that area to life.

Meanwhile, each garbage pick-up day I'll scout the discards and something will pop out, begging me to lug it home.