Planting Tulips in December

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….temperatures warmed up enough to get a shovel in the ground

Sunday, December 1st…the first advent of the Christmas season and I’m in the garden planting tulip bulbs. About three weeks ago a parent at school kindly gifted me 40 tulip bulbs and advised me to plant them that weekend. I told her I had problems with squirrels digging up all my bulbs in the past so she also brought me a small bag of hen poop. Apparently they don’t like the smell. We’ll see.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the bulbs in the ground when the weather was warmer and the soil was still soft. Life just got in the way. Last weekend when I had some time I pulled out the trowel and almost broke it when I tried to turn the soil. It was so cold that the ground was frozen solid. Winter had arrived early.

This past weekend we were having the kids over for our annual pre-Christmas goulash and mulled wine party. I wanted to start decorating the house to get in the festive mood so I pulled out the outdoor lights. After testing each string and hauling the ladder out from the garage I started to drape the yew in front of the house. I noticed that the ground was pretty muddy so I decided to take advantage of the conditions and get my bulbs into the ground.

So there I stood in the drizzling rain, bent over and digging holes in the garden. My neighbours must have thought that I was crazy. Once all the bulbs were in the ground I continued to decorate the tree with the outdoor lights. It was still raining as I was literally tossing the strings over the branches. I made several trips into the house and I noticed that I was tracking in a lot of mud.

With only a couple of hours left before the kids arrived I got out the pail and mop and washed the floors, cleaned the mud from my shoes and set the table for our meal. I then drove up to the liquor store to buy the wine for our mulled wine or gluewine as we call it. My husband was in charge of making the goulash.

When the kids arrived we enjoyed some appetizers and cups of mulled wine while the spaetzle cooked. I underestimated the amount of German noodles that I needed to cook but there was more than enough of the goulash to go around. Everything was delicious. After dinner our son-in-law brought out the board game we bought him for his birthday and we all learned how to play Small World: Underworld from Days of Wonder. When the rules were being explained to us I really didn’t think I’d get the hang of it but once we started to play I was on a roll. In the end I tied for second place. My son-in-law, the game board master, was impressed with my standing.

Less than three weeks of school left before we’re off for the holidays. The Hundertwasser projects are coming along nicely and hopefully I’ll be able to post some of the finished projects in the next day or so. I’d better get off to bed. I have to get up early for more basketball practises. We play in the semi-finals next week. Till later.

Cheers!

Is This the End?

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. our beautiful Eastern White Pine is completely brown

When we moved into our house 35 years ago we inherited a small pine tree that was planted off to one side about half way into the backyard. Had we known how tall that tree would grow we might have transplanted it to back corner of the yard but we didn’t and over the years we had to trim the lower branches so that the tree didn’t take over the entire yard, push over the fence and damage our neighbours garage roof.

It grew higher than our two storey house and it can be seen miles away. Every year the needles of the White Pine turn brown and fall to the ground but before they fall new green needles have already replaced them. Except this year. Earlier in the summer I noticed that the tree looked different but my husband thought I was overly concerned. Two weeks ago my neighbours commented on how the tree was dying and the next day my husband expressed concern over the state of the tree.

I called the neighbourhood arborist and they came a couple of days later. They said that they had never seen anything like this. The Eastern White Pine has a life expectancy of about 100 to 200 years and ours couldn’t be more than 40 years old. They’re looking into it some more. They think that there may be some kind of insect infestation.

When my husband heard this he wondered if our neighbours new White Pine had infected our tree because it died last year and was replaced with a new one. Hmmm?

I can’t imagine our backyard without that magnificent specimen. Have any of you ever seen this happen to a pine tree?

A Day of Cleaning and Purging

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..including cleaning out my inbox

Many of you gave me permission to delete my unread emails that I couldn’t get to over the summer. I fully intended to follow your advice but I started to read them, a few every day including the new ones that came in. Today I finally finished reading every single email and I’m glad I did. I would have missed a lot of great stories, wonderful photographs, beautiful works of art and delicious recipes if I had merely clicked the delete button.

I started my morning by giving the kitchen a good cleaning. I paid some bills and then sat down for breakfast. We were suppose to dog sit Lucy today but my daughter’s plans changed so after breakfast my husband and I discussed what we could do together. We agreed to work on the garden and start cleaning out the garage. We haven’t had a great vegetable garden this year so much of the vegetable boxes and planters were already cleared out but the flower beds needed some pruning, thinning and weeding. My husband cut the grass while I sorted through the plants.

After filling two large garden waste bags, K and I tackled the garage. We have wood in there from over 30 years ago. We started to pull things from the far corners of the garage and filled 4 garbage bags in no time. Some metal items we put on the curb right away. Even though it was a Sunday they miraculously disappeared within the hour. We have people in the neighbourhood who drive around looking for scrap metal to recycle.

We’ve decided to call in one of those junk retrieval companies to pick up the wood that we have stored in the rafters. I think if we haven’t used it after 30 years we’re not likely to start finding uses for it now. If anyone in the Toronto area wants free lumber you can post a comment here or email me.

After working about 4 hours in the garden I felt that we got a pretty good start on cleaning out the garage and the flower beds. Even if we don’t do anything else this season at least we have room in the garage to store our garden furniture.

I also gave my birds a nice clean cage tonight and before I go to bed I will transfer a load of laundry into to dryer.

Lunches are packed and ready for tomorrow. It always feels good when you can see the fruits of your labour……and I read all my emails. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Birds of Prey and Our First Farmers’ Market of the Season

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..a very spontaneous day

My husband and I rarely plan our weekends in advance. This morning when we woke up we decided to get an early start for our daily walk/run to the park. It was sunny but quite cool this morning so we layered up and put on cotton gloves. When we got about half a kilometre from the house we realized that we forgot to bring the poop bags so my husband headed back to the house and I tried to continue the walk with Frances. She would have none of it. She kept pulling back on the leash so I finally gave in and started walking back until we met up with K.

When we finally got to the rugby pitch there were people on the field, setting up for a game so we decided not to do our run and changed our route. Frances is great off leash when we run around the pitch because she just runs back and forth between the two of us. When we’re on the path she’s better on the leash which makes it more difficult for running so we both walked today.

Just before the pitch we came across this beautiful flowering tree in the middle of this very green patch of land. I loved the contrast of the mauve blossoms with the bright spring greens.

The route was a little longer and different from the one we normally take when we head out to the point. Today we had an unexpected surprise because a Spring Bird Festival was taking place along the route. There were dozens of bird watchers and numerous displays under canopies. One of the displays featured raptor birds prominently perched on the arms of their handlers. They were absolutely beautiful.

Once we were far away from the Bird Festival we let Frances off the leash so that she could go for a swim in the lake. After retrieving her tennis ball out of the lake several times she ran and ran and ran. She must have checked out every last little path along the route and went back into the water at different points for more swims.

On the way home our noses were assaulted by a very bad odour coming from Frances. We realized that somewhere on the walk she must have rolled in something disgusting. Once we got to the house K took her immediately to the backyard while I went inside and prepared buckets of warm water with doggy shampoo. She let us rub her down with the sudsy water and then stood perfectly still while we rinsed her with warm clear water. She was cooperative but you could tell she wasn’t happy.Our walk covered 6k.

Today was also the first day for the Junction Farmers’ Market. We were debating whether to ride our bikes or drive the car. After our walk K made us a wonderful breakfast of bacon and eggs and by the time we finished eating we didn’t have a lot of time left before the market was scheduled to close. Consequently we drove but we parked a fair distance from the market and we managed to add another kilometre to our walking distance.

The market was small but the vendors were very friendly and we picked up some fresh baby greens, honey, radishes and more plants for the garden. We’ve already lost one tomato plant. It was dug up and destroyed. We’re thinking it was a racoon. We’re replacing it with a zebra tomato plant and we’ve bought a couple of Jerusalem artichoke plants. A couple of vendors suggested spraying the plants with pepper. We’ll have to give it a try.

Later in the afternoon I went to Curry’s Art Store to buy a Gelli plate to try a new type of mono printing. I had checked out two different art stores when we were in the Junction this morning but neither store had heard of them. I’m looking forward to trying this technique and sharing my results with you.

Cheers!

Spring is in the Air

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….how wonderful

Yesterday the boys and girls at school, along with a group of parents, cleaned up and replanted the garden in front of the school. It was a beautiful day and every class in the school took turns pulling weeds, raking debris and leaves, turning soil, planting new flowers and covering the beds with mulch.

The children had a wonderful time. They put their hearts and souls into the work. A few mistakes were made. Sometimes tulips were uprooted when they were mistaken for weeds but all in all the garden was turned around and is now something to be proud of. Here are a few pictures of the activity that took place.

The Toronto Marathon, Cherry Blossoms and Road Closures

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….not a good day to be driving

It was another beautiful day. A great day for walking, riding your bike and other modes of transportation. With everything going on in the city, citizens were urged to not drive and to get to venues using public transportation.

My husband and I had to do a little gardening at our daughter’s house while she’s away. We know the city fairly well and we knew how to get to the house using a route that wouldn’t be as impacted by the road closures as some of the main streets. Getting there wasn’t bad but getting home was another story.

I’m not sure why we didn’t take the same route home but we didn’t. I guess we thought that the marathon would be finished but we didn’t count on the mayhem of cars trying to get into High Park to see the cherry blossoms.

Spectators were urged to not drive to High Park. The subway and the streetcar stop at the park. There are bicycle routes that go into the park. On Saturday the parking lots in the park were full by 8:00 in the morning and no one in the parks department thought to open the public washrooms that are situated throughout the park. I guess they normally don’t open until the long weekend in May. Apparently, the washrooms in the one and only restaurant in the park had huge lineups, especially for the women.

As we were driving down Parkside we couldn’t figure out why the right lane was moving so slowly. We moved over to the left lane and soon discovered that cars were lined up to get into the park. If you can see that the line isn’t moving why wouldn’t you use some common sense and change your plans?

I may not see the cherry blossoms, first hand this year but I did discover that there’s a beautiful cherry tree in our neighbourhood and on our walk this morning I took a couple of pictures.

When we finally got home I decided to do more gardening. It was too beautiful a day to spend indoors. I had already done about two hours of work in the morning, mostly cleaning the beds and pulling weeds. I worked for another two hours in the afternoon. I will probably regret it in the morning but I love the feeling of accomplishment when everything looks so clean and groomed.

I was pleased to see that my perennials are peaking through the soil. Last fall a parent at my school who works at the golf course offered a few of us some plants that she had to thin out. I loaded up the back of my car with some plants that had been cut down but the roots were still intact in a clump of soil. I planted everything in the areas of my garden that were most suitable for each plant.

Here’s my problem. As I look at the new growth coming up from the ground I realize that I have no idea what some of these plants are. I’ve forgotten what I was given. I know I have some ornamental grasses and one plant is a fern but I can’t remember what the rest are.

: Fern

: My Dahlia

: Forget-me-knot

Here are the plants I’m not sure about.

: ???????

: I think this is a grass

: This is an ornamental grass but I don’t see any new growth. It was the one plant I was really excited about.

Do any of you know what I’ve got here? Let me know if you do.

Cheers!

Time to Put the Garden to Bed

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. I think we’ve seen the last of the warm temperatures today

After coming back from my reunion with my high school friends I changed into my gardening clothes and started to prepare the garden for the winter. I planted a few shade loving perennials in the front, raked up 6 bags of leaves and pulled the rotting vegetable plants from their garden beds.

I ended up with one very tiny eggplant but the cool temperatures in the last couple of weeks halted any real growth and it started to rot on the plant. As you can see from the picture it’s not very pretty. I’ll try again next year.

The Brussels sprouts look a little more promising. I’ll be pulling the plant apart tonight to see if I can salvage any of it. Love those Brussels sprouts.

A few more bags of leaves to rake and bag and a couple more perennials to plant (maybe some bulbs but the squirrels usually eat them) and gardening for the season will come to an end.

Cheers!

A Gift….a Beautiful Day in November

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. November 11th, Remembrance Day

As we prepared to go for our walk this morning we had no idea how beautiful a day it would be. The sun was shining and the temperature was warm. Here are a few of the sites we experienced on our walk.

I know that you may think posting a Tim Horton’s sign is odd but we’ve been waiting for months for this place to open. Being able to pick up a coffee on our early morning walks is a special treat, especially since this location is right in the middle of the college where we walk every day.

“Hurry up and finish that coffee, Carol!”

I pass this tree every day. Today was the first time I noticed what an unusual shape it has.

: A few final blooms.

Beetles, Tomato With a Nose and Too Much Salt

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. great party but up 2 1/2 pounds since yesterday

I know that the weight fluctuation has to be water but 2 1/2 pounds!!!!

My daughter, A and her partner, J hosted a family BBQ to celebrate J’s 30th birthday. I wasn’t too worried about my food choices but I didn’t count on the salt content of the foods that I chose to eat.

As you can see from the picture there were healthy choices but the BBQ’d meats were loaded with salt. No sense in dwelling on the past. I drank mostly water but did have 1/2 glass of cider and a sliver of birthday cake. Started the day with eggs and K made sure that there wasn’t any salt in them at all.

While sitting in the backyard, we enjoyed the garden and discussed successes and failures of our own gardens this summer. I learned some new tricks on trimming my tomato plants.

One of the things that I like about living in the city, where your neighbours live in such close proximity to each other, is the sharing that happens. During the party A’s neighbour leaned over the fence and handed her some of the vegetables he had harvested that day.

One of the tomatoes, literally had a cute little protrusion that looked like a nose.

On the fence, the other neighbour’s Rose of Sharon had some blooms spill over into A’s yard. Well into the party J became agitated by what she saw sitting in one of the flowers. Upon closer inspection I could see that a very large beetle was the cause of her anxiety. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a couple of pictures of this lovely beetle. Does anyone know what kind it is?

My Abundant City Garden

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….lost all track of time while I worked in the garden yesterday and my plans to head up to the cottage vaporized

I love the garden but it is a huge commitment and requires love, care and TIME.

I had packed my clothes, shopped for the necessities to bring back to the cottage BUT I needed to do one more little thing in the garden before I left…..

Well that ‘one little thing’ turned into many little things and before I knew it I was on a roll and couldn’t stop. It felt good to tidy up the weeds, trim the hedge (again!), cut the grass and pick the ‘fruits of our labour’. That evening I sat outside with my husband enjoying a lovely dinner of grilled vegetables and salmon fillets. Looking over the garden from our deck gave me a great deal of satisfaction and a feeling of pride.

This morning I walked around the garden and took pictures of the flowers and some of the vegetables that will be ready for harvesting in the coming weeks. If you remember my post from May where I showed you the beginnings of this garden I think you’ll agree that it’s come a long way. NOT BAD for a garden in the middle of Toronto.