Nature from last week

I couldn't have been more beside myself than I was last week when this delightful, teeny tiny little frog jumped in front of me as I edged a flower bed in the yard. Frogs are my FAVOURITE animal; I find them so interesting and beautiful and unique, and am fascinated by the fact that frogs are the first animal indicator of what is happening in our environment. We have Leopard frogs galore around our place, so this shades of grey version was very exciting to see. And it was SO SMALL! It hopped from the soil onto the stone; I loved how camouflaged it was there.

We have a small pine forest on the edge of our yard, which is habitat to many varieties of birds, to our great pleasure. Woodpeckers, phoebes, finch, robins, orioles, chickadees, hummingbirds, and many other types constantly fly in and out of the bush, creating a stunning and interesting visual show, as well as making a wide variety of calls, which we have fun identifying. Last week, as I sat on the front porch, I noticed a white-flowered plant I didn't recognize blooming in the bush. I walked down to get a closer look...and noticed this broken egg. Then I saw there were actually five of these large speckled eggs! I was quite puzzled, as they were larger than hen's eggs, and didn't look like any bird's egg I had ever seen before. They were all cracked and on the ground; I wondered if a raccoon or something got into a nest and ate them. I picked a piece up and brought it in the house to show my husband and son; my son said right away he thought it might be a wild turkey egg. We have a lot of wild turkeys around here, so that made perfect sense. I looked it up online...and he was right! Mystery solved. My husband said he'd noticed a wild turkey in the bush a lot lately, so that must have been the female tending her nest. He pointed out a depressed area in the pine needles on the ground, nestled up against a fallen tree...and the eggs close to this spot. How interesting and exciting to discover this in our yard, and to learn more about wild turkey nesting!

 Joyful jonquils!

A tiny young spruce sapling, given to us by the teenage daughter of a good friend at work. They don't have space in their city yard to grow a spruce, and she knows we have a lot of space in our beautiful yard in the country. So she gave us 'her tree' to grow in our yard. This brave young girl has been ill the past two years, and has been incredibly strong and an inspiration to us all. She is doing well now, for which we are so relieved and happy. We look forward to seeing E's tree grow big and strong over the years, nurtured under the big pine.

Gardens and Yard

The vegetable garden preparation and planting is coming along nicely. We're about 3-4 weeks ahead of where we normally are at this stage of planting.

As I was planting seeds in the vegetable garden this evening (it was SO HOT this afternoon, so I waited until the air cooled a bit), the yard looked so very pretty, as the sun lowered. So I ran around the yard and took pictures. These two are of the front yard.

An unexpected garden retrospective

I was just looking around in my "Garden" folder of photographs, in order to post some spring flowers photos I've taken in the past, until I get some current ones posted. (Spring has come so early this year! It feels so odd. But good.) I opened a folder titled 'Daffodils and Chionodoxa April 2008', and found some delightful shots of cheerful daffs and the purple starry bloomers (also known as 'Glory-of-the-Snow'). But what was even MORE delightful was seeing how much our garden has progressed over just four years! It's hard to remember just how small a garden was, or exactly what was planted, or how much something has grown, unless you see photos of it years later. Examples:


This new bed created in 2008 on the east side of the house hosts two lilac bush branches jammed in the ground, a hydrangea (in front, and later moved), miniature irises, daffodils, and hardy geraniums. This lilac bush is now over 6' high and 4' across, and is sending up shoots all over the place. In fact, I'm in the process of expanding the bed so that the shoots don't get mown, so that we can expand the bush and have a better privacy hedge from the neighbours. All that - from these two little twigs!


I'd created this bed a few years before 2008, I think...but the bed was still relatively new in 2008, because it looks so clean and tidy and organized. The thing that struck me the most about this photo is the forsythia bush, just starting to bloom its delicate yellow blooms (at the left of the photo). These past few years, we are continuously pruning back the branches at the top of the bush so it doesn't get 'lost' in the crabapple tree - plus the base of the tree is spreading out all over, taking over that section of the garden. I'm kind of letting it go, because I want to be able to dig out branches for planting in our front yard berm once we get that built. I'm looking forward to cleaning it up; it's kind of getting crazy in there.


THIS kills me. The big ol' garlic patch sprouting up in 2008 - all 100 heads of garlic; 4 rows of 25. Over the past four years, we've continuously increased our garlic planting so that in 2012, we've progressed to 6 rows of 100 - we'll harvest 600 heads this July!

It's good to see how our yard and garden is evolving. When I think back to what our property looked like when we moved in 16 years ago...well, I'll just say we've put in a hell of a lot of work. And that's an understatement. But we love living here so much; it is such a haven for our family, and it is truly a labour of love.

Hello Again

All my excitement in the new year about a renewed interest in blogging rather fell flat! I keep coming back to the conclusion that I would rather focus my energy on living life rather than doing something then blogging about it; doing the next thing then blogging about it... But then there's something about an online journal, where I can write, and post photos, and interact with others, that really appeals to me. It's a constant battle. So that's part of the reason why I blog so sporadically, and not in any kind of depth. I also struggle with the privacy thing. I love the connection with interesting people, and the fact that I make friends from all over the world with my blog and theirs. I stop short, though, when I think of the obvious possibility of people who know me but I'm not close with, reading about my personal life. Obviously I can't have it both ways. So I err on the side of privacy. There's also the fact that my home computer setup is not very comfortable to sit at, whereas my work computer setup IS very comfortable...so I'd probably blog more if I could blog at work, which obviously I can't.

I think I just talked myself out of blogging LOL That was not my intent!

Okay; onto a happy thing I'm anticipating that I don't mind sharing with the world - I'm going to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in the fall (which will be my third year) with a group of great ladies, and just received confirmation of which plays I'll be going to. They are: Cymbeline; Much Ado About Nothing; and 42nd Street. I'm so excited!!! I will have to read Cymbeline, as I am not familiar with the story at all. I know the story of Much Ado About Nothing, but will read it anyway, because it's such a great story, and I want it to be fresh in my mind when I see the play. I'm excited about 42nd Street because even though I'm not a fan of musicals, I am looking forward to seeing Cynthia Dale starring in it. I think she's great, first becoming aware of her in the Canadian drama Street Legal in the late 80s/early 90s.

I've seen so many robins in the past few days since it's become mild...and the crows are flying low to the ground...Spring is here! The sap is flowing now, so maple syrup season has begun. This is a huge activity (both as a family hobby, and as a business) for many of our neighbours and those in our region, so there's lots of talk about the temperature (need warm sunny days, and cool/frosty nights) and how the sap is flowing. It's quite interesting, and quite the production! Plus the end result is pretty sweet (literally).

Must go for now. Have a wonderful day (a shortened one here, as we "sprung ahead" for the time change last night, losing one hour), and a great week!