April 16, 2008

More Spring today! By 5pm, we had achieved a temperature of 16C (60F), the sun is shining, the birds are singing. I got my hands dirty in the garden, although I only spent a few minutes out there. It seems my thyme survived being buried under 4 feet of snow and it is growing and green!

Some neighbours were out talking about gardening. One fellow was already raking. I'm not going to rake even after the last of the snow goes because the lawn is too tender right now but it will soon firm up. I talked with another neighbour and she told me that she has actually seen the nefarious beaver in Centrepointe park! She was walking her dogs in January during the big thaw we had then and the animal walked right across the path in front of her. And her dogs went crazy of course. We wondered and don't have an answer for where the beaver came from. But she said it has done even more extensive damage in the park. I may call the animal control people to have it removed to a more suitable location because it isn't doing our trees any good out there.

I notice there is a roof line forming on the first of the new housing units to go up.

There are still unmelted piles of plowed snow all over the place, but most of the rest of the snow has gone.

Except for here on the bike path. I rode out this afternoon to see how far I could get going north to the river. Some of the bike path had been plowed in the winter, as evidenced by the grit all over it. But when I got to the Queensway transit station, it suddenly stopped. I guess they figure no one walks north from the Queensway. I walked the bike over the small bit of snow and ice at the station but when I crossed the road and headed toward the creek, I decided to call it a day when I saw quite a bit of snow still on the path. I could have walked through it but it probably would have gone over the tops of my running shoes and I didn't need wet feet. I figure there must have been one huge drift here, for this fallen (not plowed) snow still to be unmelted.

November 17, 2007

I forgot I took these pix on Thursday.

They are preparing the gardens at the old city hall for winter.

I think those are irises beneath the snow fencing. They have some lovely very dark purple irises that I enjoy every time I walk by in the early summer.

We took a turn around the park this afternoon and it was a real pleasure to walk into the park and see a bright kite flying.

It was a windy day and pretty cold - about 3C. The kite was initially tethered to the children's play structure at the edge of the park but later, we watched the kite flyer walking across the park with kite in tow.

It always looks better the real life but I snapped this photo anyway, when an airplane crossed the sky right where the kite was.

The geese were out in force today. You'd think they'd be seriously packing their bags to head south.

Instead, they were swimming in line in the pond (I think that is a dog collar on the post),

pooping everywhere - look at those poop logs!

and walking in several different directions at once. One group finds something interesting over the hill and another group heads for the pond. All with deliberation.

We noticed that a section of the metal chain link fence was missing over at the construction site and some orange plastic fencing has been put in its place. You always wonder if someone stole the fence or what happened to it.

November 6, 2007

Not much of a blog entry today. Didn't see anything walking to or from school.

But when I got home, I saw that the yard people were still busy clearing away the leaves. They must have taken a powerful blower to my front step because everything including the door panels was covered in dirt and dirt was resting on the leaves of my geraniums along with more leaves. I wonder what it would have sounded like if I'd been home at the time?

This doesn't look like much but it represents about an hour's work, planting bulbs and then stretching mesh across the bed to keep the squirrels out. I like squirrels but they can go get their own dinner.

I had more bulbs that I could fit in the one side garden so I stuck the leftovers in the other side. I trampled the dirt down but expect to see evidence that squirrels have discovered the bulbs here later. I decided to do bulbs only in the one side garden this year so that I could get annuals planted in the other side before the bulbs were finished in the Spring.

November 1, 2007, afternoon

My back aches. I have been pulling out all the frost killed plants. And it always takes me longer than I think - every time.

As I was pulling out and throwing out the annuals, I decided to clip and save the last of the black-eyed Susans, which are perennials. The leaves (the rest of the plant) haven't been damaged by frost yet but the flowers will be enjoyed longer inside than out, now that the rest of the bed is mostly dirt. I'm not used to perennials but I think I will just leave the bases of the daisies and let the snow cover them. I don't have real mulch, tree leaves will only be blown away, and the leaves of the perennial may act as a sort of mulch.

This is the side garden we created this Spring for the first time, right after the condo dug up the foundation and repaired it where the water had leaked into my basement. I thought the ground had settled but I was very mistaken and after I had planted everything, the ground sank by a matter of several inches. The two green plants flanking the edges of the photo are the black-eyed Susans. Next Spring, I shall get a few loads of topsoil and fill in this dent.

Around the back, I cleaned out most of both beds. I clipped back the poinsettia right to the base of the stem and when I did that, two of the five plants popped out of the ground so I gave them the heave-ho. I have no idea if this plant will survive a Winter here but it is quite close to the house and sheltered by the fence too, so it might just.

I am always amazed at how hardy herbs are. There are two kinds of thyme and oregano, growing close to the ground and over the edge and some kind of odd parsley that appeared because it self seeded from last year. I don't remember what I planted last year but this is fairly flat leafed but with small leaves and it tastes faintly of anise. I do know that when plants self seed, they often lose the over-bred and chosen characteristics of the plants you buy from the plant people. In the middle is the wonderful pine-smelling rosemary.

I now have three big yard waste bags to put at the curb tomorrow. As you can see, the yard guys didn't take away any of my leaves - yet.

Addition, Nov. 2:
Due to popular demand, here is a photo of the side garden in July. Enjoy.