garden wisdom

we were set upon in great numbers by Japanese beetles this summer....the shiny bastards ate their way through my Virginia Creeper...to my extreme distress and dismay.

it seems the little shites can't really be dealt with in any sort of pleasant and earth-loving way so apart from occasional crushing sprees {yes, the earth-love went right out the window} i couldn't do much about their mission of annihilation.

then because i couldn't bear to look at the skeletal remains of the leaves, i asked my Grandad {he's the master gardener} if it would be okay just to trim the vine back and  hope it'd rebound next year. {wherein i shall have beetle traps in place}.

so i trimmed the poor vine back to baldness.

and then whaddya know....

just when the caterpillar thought the world was over,

it became a butterfly.

         ~unknown

~*~

not that it'd be at all noticeable, but i'm taking a bit of a digital sabbatical for the month of September...time to spend some time unplugged...big shifts afoot requiring a greater measure of Presence...

i will be back, though...of that, i'm certain.

and so it goes...

because there's always time for silly

summerish days are upon us....although i think we're all a little leery to relax into it, seeing as how we've had a few false starts this spring...

it's like The School Thing never happened...but of course it did...and we're grateful, because it's made us all - especially Savannah -- see the joy in our days with fresh eyes.

a bit of gardening was done this past weekend....and to my {possibly ridiculous level of} JOY -- our worm compost is finally ready!!  *squeeeeeeee*

thank you worms....:)

we are pleased....

i realize this is one of the few places i could post pictures of compost and know there are several people grinning as widely as i was when i opened up the lid of our bin.

our adventures in vermiculture started way back here -- and then after the loss of our worms over the winter, and our decision last year to not replace them but experiment in break-all-the-rules composting...we are now reaping the benefits. patience, as they say, is a virtue.

{is it strange that feeding our plants this yummy mixture gave me that same satisfying feeling as when i see my kids tucking into a good meal?}

ahem, moving on.

added to our list of JOY this past week has been a dose of parcel JOY from the beautiful Rose.  having heard that Savannah wanted to learn Spanish, she sent along a few things she just happened to have lying around...;)

oh, how we *HEART* those picture-puzzle-find-it books!!! {and i LURVE tea}

missing from the pile is the spanish vocabulary sticker book that Savannah was reading at the time of the picture -- we amused ourselves greatly with our poor pronunciation for a good hour last evening and that led to a sojourn down memory lane for B and I and plans to research the provided links for correct pronunciation. i just love this organic process of Learning Stuff.

i'm in my own personal heaven with the packet of tea {sipping some chamomile/vanilla as i type} and the arty bits that never fail to delight.  the giant puzzle book and the snap game are going into our backpacks for our camping trip at the end of June. hopefully, the mancala game i ordered will have escaped the perils of the impending postal strike and will go with us as well. {fingers crossed}

in other news, we rescued a baby chipmunk from The Bloody Cat....long tale of high drama and late evening scramble for chippy-rescue supplies and a trip to the Cat Hospital {i KNOW, the irony, right?} where Napoleon* is, i'm relieved to say, convalescing satisfactorily.  {fingers crossed}

so yes, it's all good.


*so named because he is rather small, but evidently quite mighty. ;)

captive....

for some reason, the sight of this poor tomato, imprisoned behind a wee plastic fence in my neighbour's front garden really tickled my funny bone.

then again, i've been accused of an odd sense of humour in the past....

today....

...there was planting

garden views...

there has been much activity in our little patch -- salvage efforts from the combined pillage of squirrels and Emma-dog....I think I've got it sorted.

the plants that survived the winter (and Emma-dog) were placed in pots and then the soil covered with river rocks...sort of Zen garden meets dog-proofing....

 our little evergreen seedling now has it's own pot...and was promptly dug up by a squirrel...*sigh*...but I put it back in and it seems to be none the worse for wear.

there's something about the time spent in hard labour of a garden that brings a measure of peace to everything else...

gifts in the garden

a gift of garden knick-knacketry from Grandma....

a gift of colour from M....

...and a gift of the wind from Mother Nature...a wee evergreen that sprouted on the edge of a not-doing-anything-else pot.

Puddles, puppets and hot cups of tea

November has been a very kind month so far....above-normal to downright balmy temperatures and noticeable lack of rain...or as the case sometimes is...The Other (aka, the S-word - just can't bring myself to say it).

But, into every life, a little rain must fall...and so it did...making for a damp and dreary sort of day. So I  wandered out into our little garden patch to take some pictures of the greenery which has finally decided to give up it's green in favour of something a little more red...

 

 

Our outdoor *offering* basket....we decorated it with our painted pumpkins left from Thanksgiving...sadly, it seems that our visitors are not overly fond of the grapes, but *someone* ate the apple...

One of our Gargoyles....cozying up with some leaves...perhaps I should knit them scarves for the winter...

I did manage to convince my fairweather friends that we should get out for a walk with the dogs between rainshowers and we managed to do just that, getting home just in time for another downpour. At which point it was decided that it was a good day to stay inside and make sock puppets....as one does when it's raining and cold outside.

Savannah has an aversion to wearing any brand of socks other than Happy Feet socks -- being the sensitive soul she is -- thusly, she has a drawer full of failed experiments in acceptable foot coverings..which lend themselves nicely to becoming an entire theatre troupe of sock puppets.

We're working on some Glamour Shots....because every budding thespian needs a Glamour Shot, right? There are murmurings of a holiday puppet theatre performance of Rapunzel...which apparently will require elaborate set decorations and the sub-contracting out of the *extras*.....

In the midst of this creative frenzy, I managed to do a *final* edit on my manuscript, only to discover it is about thirty pages over the maximum to be entered in the contest I had my eye on...*sigh*...so instead of weeping with frustration, I made tea. Lots of it. Maple tea, to be exact...yes..you're thinking "Eww",which is what I thought until I tried it...it's quite delicious....and suitable for wallowing in creative self-pity.

Bounty of Lughnasadh...

(a Lilliputian pepper..fear not, it's early days yet!)

Well....it may have been time for the first harvest for the Celts but we're a ways away from that here! Thanks to our less-than-typical weather this summer, the growing season is all in a twist. But, from our wee garden at Nanna's we've already had some delicious zucchini....the tomatoes are on the vine - green still, but there - the taties are flowering (after a very late start) and there are a multitude of flowers on the cucumber and pepper plants....

Pudge's lily in bloom....



The fabulous tendrils of our giant pumpkin...

The first cucumber! Looks a bit more like a gherkin at the moment but we're not in any rush....

I'm fascinated by the tendrils of the pumpkin and the gourd.....these ones look just like a tightly-coiled telephone cord....they've completely ensnared the sunflowers. We should probably post a warning so that people don't stand still too long beside the plant...lest they become entangled..

Our lovely gourd! We couldn't remember which plant was the gourd and which was the giant pumpkin so we just had to wait....pretty sure this is a gourd....

Not bad for our trial garden.....next year's gonna be BIG! I'll be lobbying for a nice big herb bed...

Random Garden Snaps

The sun came out last week, so I ran outside and took some pictures....

From the garden...

A few shots from earlier this week...before the Gloom set in....


The sage is flowering....




Savnnah's strawberry plant....all set to ripen....which they did - only to be eaten by *something* during the Gloom when we didn't go out much....

The lemon balm jungle...which has gifted me with some delicious tea...

The fountain -- finally settled in and working on growing some Life around it....

The sun came out again, briefly, yesterday but it rained again last night....here's hoping for some clear skies for our Solstice celebrations....

Have yourself a Shiny one!