New To The Neighbourhood

After a very, very long time, we suddenly have some walnuts this year! I hadn't realized it took so long for walnut trees to reach maturity; it wasn't even something I thought about. But pretty much I'd given up on the idea of nuts. And then this year...

The Promise Of...

       Coltsfoot, one of the very first signs of spring growth.

              Contrasts. Not just the black cat against the white snow, but the fact that there's somewhere not snowy for him to walk as well!

              Daffs-to-be.

 

Other small sprouting things; more daffs, crocii, and scylla.

                 Wonder of wonders: the rhubarb is already starting, even under ice!

   And okay, this exotic beauty may have suddenly appeared in my garden, but by force of husband, not force of nature. It's a small solar light thing. Though I had to actually go close, and touch it, to be sure!

 And while it may not last for long, the weather forecast for the weekend, as of this aft, is for actual near-summer temps!

The Tough Decision

So, I wandered down to the pond, and part of my routine was checking on the frogs, and the koi, seeing what level the water was at, what stage the plants around the pond were in, it having been a kind of unnatural sort of spring.... And yes...checking hopefully in the spot where last year we'd had one stalk of asparagus, and later, one asparagus fern.



There it is! Again, this year, *ONE* stalk of asparagus. I can't really track down completely useful information on the growing and propagation of asparagus. I only know that we didn't plant it, and last year was the first occasion of such exotic discoveries.
Last year I was lucky, as far as I can see, that somehow I missed a stalk, or it came along more slowly, to go to fern, since I think they're an important part of there being further asparagus.

So, to harvest and feast? Or to leave it. In hopes of continuation.

I think we're going to make the hard decision and forego our culinary delights this year. Sigh.

(Not that there's a huge amount of delight in ONE stalk, even carefully divided lengthwise, betwixt two people...)

My Oasis

It's suddenly deep winter out there. Less than a week ago, Darrell and Neil moved fridges up and down the deck stairs in the "Great Fridge Swap" of '09. Now the only creatures who can access the deck are the little birds, so appreciative for a bit of seed and a bird ball. Even the cats, who think nothing of going out through the garage, and hightailing it around to deck door to keep us on our toes, won't be making the journey for a while... (At least till it firms up for walking on.)

I did go out today and wallow my way to the edge of the carport where I could retrieve the shovel and dig a path. We can now get to the vehicles if we need to, and the snowblower man has been sometime in the last day or so, so the roads, and eventually, civilization, aren't too far beyond.

But it's white. (Occasionally pretty...) But deep and white.

So, it's very exciting to see this:

Last Christmas Darrell gave me a Christmas Cactus. Just an impulse buy at the grocery store (or somewhere similar.) And it spent several days hiding in the cold and dark of the back entrance. I really never imagined it would amount to much, and would have been completely happy to have it not simply die.
In fact, I was quite chuffed this year to have it make a few new leaves, and grow noticeably taller! I mean they're quite a neat shape, and fairly exotic, just in themselves.
So I was amazed when not that long ago, what I thought to be leaf buds suddenly turned out to be the harbinger of blossoms! Tons of them!

Since then it seems to have reabsorbed a few of the budlings, opting instead for a lesser but more impressive show. But still, I'm amazed, and thrilled.
Even with nothing but winter as a backdrop, there's something intrinsically tropical and bird-of-paradise about these beauties!

Unexpected Gifts from the Garden

Hmmmm...when we DO plant them, they never grow...

Darrell's Sunflower

Not quite the conflagration we were banking on....

After...

I never thought to take a Before photo. Never realized I needed one...



This is after the much-hated raccoons came in the night and shredded my twenty-year old jade tree. There isn't even enough left to try replanting, or starting anew.

sigh...

More Random Photos

Since I'm sure no-one (including myself) wants to listen to me mutter about his continuing cold - two weeks now - or my worry that I'm finally starting to come down with it, let's follow along in my new trend, and give you a gratuitous cat shot, Charv the Inert:



And a photo of remembered spring. (It's even whiter outside today, and now their talking arctic cold fronts. Brrrr....)

Down by the River

I decided to take a tiny break between working on Rapunzel, and switching to Little Red Riding Hood. (Yes, good ol' Theatre Orangeville Young Company...) and lured by one of my cardinals calling, decided to wander down and check out the pond.

We've had such an unusual amount of heavy rainfall in the last while that the pond level has increased as if it were spring. Up to a week ago, the water level was receding, as it does every August, and sandy shoals were being revealed, where I could check for signs of snapping turtles. (No signs as of yet.)
Well now the shoreline has expanded outwards by six to eight feet, and much of the edge area is all swampy again. And places that had been dry sand where a cat could roll and get good and gritty, are now under 8 to 10 inches of water!

And I could hear the river. Usually by this time of year, the river is almost invisible and silent under a verdant growth of Joe Pye Weed and Jewelweed. So I fumbled my way through the chest high wet grass up to the road, where I'd be able to see the river from the bridge. While I was looking, I noticed a new bright flower I'd never seen before. However, I couldn't see it well enough to be able to identify it, so came back for the camera. Even with the telephoto I wasn't getting much definition, so had to climb on down to get as close as I could. (Not that close. River's edge is pretty marshy!)



Anyway, I'm fairly certain it's a Cardinal Flower. (Rather appropriate since it was a cardinal who'd called me out!) http://www.wildflowersofontario.ca/cardinal.html

And a quick shot of my faithful companion for this expedition...

Because...

Because some people get grumpy when I don't post updates, and don't feel that my sewing costumes for two dozen fairy tale characters for Theatre Orangeville's Young Company qualifies as an excuse...

Well, for those people, a really hasty little array of snaps:

Lily's morning preening.



Morning spider webs
My woad seed harvest. No idea if that's lots, or anything.
And in some sort of context, so you can gauge the size of the container, next to my big black cat.

Growing Things

*Happy woad.

* And just for Karen....

New Images of Spring!

The annual [single] flowering of the Hoya. A weird alien little blossom that is fascinating to watch.

Apple blossoms. Yea! But sadly, our main tree suffered sudden onset death last spring, after it had blossomed and was starting to make apples. So it makes a sad counterpart to the blossoming tree, as shown below.

One of the koi from the pond, who turn out not to have been eaten by snappers, but have gone from five red and two black to one red and several dark ones, though I have great hopes that those little goldfish shapes may turn out to be baby koi, and prove that our koi are more promiscuous than Grondzilla's!


The woad, definitely in blossom!


Darrell making a few paths so we can find our way from one end of the yard to another. I must haul out my weed nibbler, and clear some space next to my varying plant beds, so I can tell where they are, *before* the "lawn" eats them up!


The first of my baby lilacs getting near to blossoming. My other lilacs never do much till about two weeks after every other lilac in the county. Very odd.


Honeysuckle starting to flower. But they kept jiggling in the breeze, which makes it very hard for a clear shot.
And maybe, just maybe, if we've convinced the raccoons to go away, that there are crazy people living here [true!], maybe I can put out my hummingbird feeder...

Woad!

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, the votes are in.
I seem to have woad! (After my confusion two years ago, of id'ing a young plant as weld, and then simply not really seeing it until it was unmistakeably blossoming woad, I haven't trusted myself.)

Now the question is, do I leave it there, in the Wendy-house garden, which is really not the most gardeny of gardens. Do I move it? try to find somewhere the little woads can flourish? And will I see a return of the calendula (which was wonderful) and the alkanet?

For all that woad is supposed to be invasive, I find that our yard tends to win out over most plants. Only thistles reign supreme!

v