Tale of Two Gardens

There is my garden, which is mostly perennials and self-seeders, with a few herbs for cooking and making tea. It is meant mainly for beauty.

Oriental poppies; click to enlarge.

Then there is Scott's garden, which is all vegetables; purely practical.

Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and pumpkin are now in the ground.

It is my contention that beauty is perfectly practical, as pleasure is important, and that practicality is quite beautiful, because without it you're in big trouble, and vegetable plants give great satisfaction as you watch and help them grow and produce. And it's hard to top the flavour of a fresh garden tomato. Or a new potato. Mmm, beautiful! 

Flowers nourish the spirit, vegetables nourish the body. Two sides of the same coin?

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Maggie Turner on "We've Got Grouse-lings": 

Beautiful garden Kate! You inspire me to give growing Poppies a try! 

These orange ones are oriental poppies, which spread like weeds, more each year. They bloom early, and then I cut them back to about eight inches high in hopes they'll bloom a second time. The foliage gets brown and ugly later in the summer, so something needs to be planted in front of them to hide it. This year when they've finished blooming, I'll be pulling a lot of them out completely because they are encroaching upon my rose bushes (I blame them for the roses not doing particularly well) and I hope this will give the roses a leg up. But the poppies will come back just as thick next year, and in the same places. I don't think you can fail, growing poppies!

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We've Got Grouse-lings

Pulling into the driveway this evening, I saw a ruffed grouse standing on the gravel. I slowed down, pressed the button to put my window down, and turned on the camera that was hanging by a strap on my wrist. Prepared, donchaknow. But still, by the time I got the thing aimed and focused, she had disappeared into the trees.

What I did see, however, were several tiny little fluffballs making their way into the trees after her. 

A ha! The lonely grouse got himself a sweetheart after all!

I came into the house, all smiles.

Poor old Scottie was lounging on the couch, sniffling, after a night spent largely awake because Ducky Doodle was afraid of the lengthy thunderstorm we got and wouldn't leave Scott alone. Me, I just lay abed, thrilled at the wondrousness of the noise, before sleeping like a baby. Guess I should've gotten up and told them both to quit being so silly. 

First bloomage. Standing at the kitchen sink isn't so bad when you've got flowers to look at.

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Maggie Turner on "Catching Up": 

Love your dog-gone dish Kate! Congratulations to Everett on his new room mate, cats are cool. Enjoy your ant-i-social activities! I'm on a roll... or not. :) 

I'll make a point of enjoying the summertime guests and trips. Usually you can't drag me out of my little piece of paradise -- after all, it took me so long to get here -- but I realize that people are more important than places and so I must rouse myself.

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Lorna on "Catching Up": 

I read and thought I commented on your monthly letter, but it's entirely possible that I forgot one of the essential parts of posting. I never miss your posts, but sometimes have only a reaction, not an add-on. 

I'm the same. There isn't always something worth saying, whether an entry is moving or not.  

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Teresa on "Catching Up": 

Eating from the dog's bowl "priceless". Do like you new dish. Nice you got to cuddle the latest addition to the family. Enjoy the nice weather. 

The dish is a bit of a treat ... nice and heavy ... thanks to the dog (or its owner, I guess) that pushed me into buying it, I have a new toy. Funny how much pleasure I can take from using a new plate! As for the nice weather, Tuesday night there was a wild thunderstorm here that, unfortunately for Scott, scared Ducky Doodle, who kept him up half the night. Me, I just enjoyed that rolling thunder.

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Secret Agent Woman on "Catching Up": 

That's a big garden. Baby's are magical, aren't they? 

He's got as much space as he wants and more, that's for sure, but in the end didn't plant a very large garden.

Babies ... there isn't anything more adorable. When they're content, that is. 

Catching Up

Clearly, the weather has been fine and nobody is indoors.
Not only have I fallen down on my daily blogging because of it, but not one person responded to my newsletter mailout -- did anyone even receive it? I can't help but wonder.
However, I blame it on the weather and people's good sense. We've all got spring fever and are out and around, where we should be.

The farmer boys have finished seeding.
Scott and I went for a drive around the countryside, which is nice and green where the tent caterpillars haven't eaten:

See? Not flat.

He has been out preparing the space for his vegetable garden. You are seeing less than half of the total area behind our house that he will seed to grass, leaving a regular gardening spot:

On Sunday, Everett and I drove to the animal shelter in Humboldt and brought home a lovely four-year-old kitty for him to love. I haven't got a photo of the two of them yet but I will. What I do have is a picture of the heavy plate I purchased for 50 cents at a garage sale in Watson on the way back. It will be going to the office with me tomorrow:

Yesterday I worked here at my desk for an hour and then jaunted off to Margo. It was my turn to see that newborn baby! Little Everley Grace. As some of you know, Grace is my mother's name, and I was very pleased and deeply touched to see the wee girlie given this name.

She slept like an angel the whole time I was there having tea with her mother and grandmother (my sister Karen). Then Michelle took pity on me and brought the hungry little girl out, so I got to hold her and give her a bottle. What a darling. A hungry darling. Her older sister is struggling a little with the change in family dynamics, but that seems pretty common. Her mom and dad are giving her as much attention as they can.

Everley has been fed, but seems to want more;  with her mom Michelle.

While the baby was getting a diaper change, I was in the bathroom taking a photo of the stained glass that Karen made:

Which reminds me, I still haven't purchased the wire I need to hang the stained glass she made for me.

 It's a grey, coolish day, although the forecast was for 30F heat. We've put a beef roast into the oven and Dad's coming over for supper. I've warned him that there is less than half of one of those big bottles of white wine left, but we have rye, vodka and scotch.

Aunt Reta phoned last night from Phoenix. She and Uncle Carl are coming out in July for the mini-reunion. And Cathy R and I have made a plan for a short road trip to the Edmonton area the following weekend, when I'm on holidays from the newspaper.

Life is good.

And now, it's out I go to dig some more flowers into their pots. and curse at the ants that are already living in them. I guess they'll be cursing right back at me for the great disturbance I'm about to cause.

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Ralph Goff on "Dog Germs": 

Those tent caterpillars are the worst I've ever seen. Big bushes in the hundred acre woods are leafless looking like fall or early spring. They were literally raining down on me the other day. Good thing I had a wide brimmed hat. Then they were crawling up the legs of my coveralls. Between them and the wood ticks I almost forget about the mosquitos. 

My only comfort is that they say the leafless plants will come back. 

It's the ticks, though, that are making me wonder if I might go live somewhere else for a couple months of the year. 

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Lori on "Dog Germs": 

Yuck! I'm with you on the "dog germs". About 'coons: This week I coiled chicken wire around the perimeter of the deck to stop them from going there. Apparently they don't like the smell of ammonia (neither do I), so I have rags soaked in ammonia strategically placed where they climb up. Raccoons are a big problem here and they are well adapted to urban life. Our "food" is top notch. A CBC doc about them basically said we need to learn to learn to live together...accommodate. :) 

We have to try to do that in the country too, although when they get to be a problem, it is not always easy or humane to put a stop to shenanigans. You may have a pack of coyotes attack and kill a newborn calf; you can't accommodate, alas, but have to decimate their numbers. You may have raccoons tear the shingles off your house or kill your barn cats; costly damage can't continue and you need your barn cats to control rodents; I don't know if raccoons help with that, although they are meat-eaters so maybe. I don't think they eat the cats! But I don't know.  Right now the property owners who farm are having their land flood due to beavers, so there is a war on -- a cull -- where the government is paying $35 for a beaver carcass, and people are shooting them. It's said that won't solve the problem but they're doing it anyway. It seems terribly unfair to the beaver and to the natural ecosystem, yet one can see the farmers' frustration too. One of our reporters at the newspaper has just done a good article on different ways of controlling the problem, but what works in one place doesn't always work in another. I'm sure there is a balance that can be found, but we are still a long way from implementing it for the good of both human and wildlife.

There are some natural behaviours in animals that are really hard to put up with. Like when we had cats and they'd catch the birds around the yard. I hate that. 

You will have to let me know how well the ammonia-soaked rags work!

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Lorna on "Dog Germs": 

Cat and dog germs! I'm totally shivered. 

As for the table, we don't allow technology, but we do allow books and magazines, which both can be read on an e-reader, so the wedge is in. 

It's all reading and writing, isn't it!

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Dog Germs

There is a very serious tent caterpillar infestation in these parts. We drove up to Kelvington last night for beer and a burger and were surprised to see the many large swaths of poplar trees that are leafless. 

They haven't seemed too bad around our yard, but when I was pulling quack grass out of a perennial flower bed today, several of the worms were on the leaves of one of the rose bushes. Damn! And here's the amazing part: I picked them off with my BARE FINGERS. 

It's as if someone else has taken over my body. 

Why, a few years ago I actually began to catch moths with my bare hands, and put them outside. I could never have done that before.

I still can't crush an insect (other than a mosquito) by touching it directly; smashed bodies give me the heebie-jeebies. I flung the tent caterpillars into the grass and came into the house for gloves and a plastic bag to dispose of them. Still I don't like to do this, because it seems cruel. Better to kill them quickly so they don't suffer, but I can't make myself do it. 

Quirks, eh. Irrational, but there they are. 

Recently I discovered that our office dog has been drinking water (probably for the past five months) out of the flattish bowl that I always use for lunch when I'm at work. There is now no chance that I will ever eat from that bowl again, even if it's been washed with hot water and soap, then bleached/sterilized. I know it's silly. I've probably eaten off the same dishes as a dog has, many times in my life, not knowing it. It's not going to hurt me. Nevertheless, I've seen where dogs put their noses and the kinds of filthy things they'll eat, like cat turds. I'll be taking my own plate and bowl to the office and keeping them in my desk where no one is likely to feed or water a dog or cat from them. 

What can I say? (Shrug.) Some things put me off, and sharing dishes with dogs and cats is one of those things. I wouldn't eat or drink from my pets' dishes, and I don't want them to eat off mine. It's just one of those quirks that I don't feel guilty about, but accept and respect myself enough to heed. Others may think and do as they wish, and I'll do the same for me.

We had an overnight guest on Tuesday, and this was the scene on Wednesday morning.

I've seen a lot of this in recent years. You've got company, and in the morning everyone sits around the kitchen table with their phone or laptop. It's the new way, I guess. Doc is touring/playing across the country and his laptop is his office, so he's got things to check out when he gets the chance. Scott's got a little iPhone love going on and was looking up some particular music to share with Doc. 

That's my iPhone laying unused near Scott's glasses. He's got progressive lenses that he can't use for reading. 

I was where I can often be found: at the sink, doing dishes. 

Doc and I had been able to visit in the kitchen for several hours the previous afternoon, a rare opportunity for some one-to-one conversation (the best kind), and in the evening Bev came out and we sat and drank wine for a couple hours, and Scott came off the field and joined us at dark. 

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Teresa on Ducks and Deer": 

The circle of life! Happy June. 

Ha! I didn't make that connection! Good one.

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Lori on "Ducks and Deer": 

I love hearing about your animal kingdom there. Just curious...do you have raccoons? If not, would you like some? We have two babies visiting us under our deck. 

Oh my! What are you going to do? 

There are raccoons around but since we've had an outside dog till just recently, we didn't see them. Now that we're without a yard protector, I expect we'll get a glimpse of them once in a while. I think there was a litter in our unused chicken coop last summer. I went in to get my bicycle where Scott had stored it over the winter, and heard some telltale chattering on the other side of the wall that warned me quite quickly away. 

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Ducks and Deer

Vee haff ducklings!

Click to enlarge. 

In other news ... there is no other news.

Unless you want to see the mule deer laying in the ditch not far from our driveway, no doubt struck and killed by a vehicle. Nah, I didn't think you'd want to see it.

It lay there two days before the flies found it, and after dark that night there was a coyote chorus from that direction. They must have been feasting, for the next morning when I drove past on my way to work, all that was left were the head and the rib cage.

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Lorna on "Comings and Goings": 

It continues to amaze me that my life in retirement is so full. Of stuff. Not planned. 

Most retired people say there's no such thing as an empty day.  I believe them. 

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Comings and Goings

Had to chauffeur Emil from his place to Everett's on Saturday after Everett got home from work.

And then back to town Sunday evening to take Emil home again.

Dad arrived from B.C. and has been here a couple times.
The first time, we had grilled cheese sandwiches and white wine.

After Dad. He gave me his laptop.

Then Doc showed up yesterday afternoon so we spent the day chitchatting at the kitchen table, and after supper Bev came out. She's in town helping her mom get moved to a seniors' residence.

Doc and Bev

Then my hairdresser is heading out on holidays so, unless I want to have very big hair by the time she gets home, I've gotta be in town in an hour for a cut.

Never a dull moment.

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Lorna on "Drafts Folder": 

Empathy for you both....still on the lookout for a couch my mom liked at LaZboy.

I can relate. I watched a re-run of Last Tango in Halifax last night and wondered what Mom would think of the show, since one of its characters was also a regular on Coronation Street back in the day when I used to watch it with her.

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Teresa on "Looking Back to 2004": 

Time does get away from us. Journalling is a good thing for the most part. 

Thanks for your comment. Daughter is feeling somewhat better. Waiting to see her specialist. Think it is all stress related. 

Glad she's okay. 

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Ralph Goff on "Looking Back to 2004": 

Not quite ready to publish my own boring life journal I've kept. But I do publish another family member's daily journal of farm life through the 1930s to early seventies in "Nevardblog". Its been a good way to spread a little family history on the net. 

Boring lives aren't boring! Whaddaya mean?

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Looking Back to 2004

It's been 11 years since Mom passed and I haven't really been able to dip back into the old journals, either online or handwritten. They have the power to take me to a shitty place. But since posting that link yesterday I followed up with a bit of reading last night and this morning and have had a few good laughs ... mostly at Everett's expense. He was a funny little guy back then and he's a funny big guy now.

One good reason to keep journals is that one forgets the many amusing and/or sweet things said and done by one's children, otherwise. But once written down, the memories can be triggered. It's so worth it.

Cattle on our "hill."

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Lorna on "Robins & Magpie": 

Magpies, for me, are always associated with silver; Ottawa has a couple of stores full of lovely silver jewellery, which in my dotage I have learned to avoid. 

Hm! That's an unexpected connection. Will we ever hear the story behind it?

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Birdie on "Drafts Folder": 

I blogged all through my mom's ovarian cancer diagnosis, treatment and eventual death. It was over teo blogs and then I started my current blog because, well, I don't know why. Just too much sadness connected with it all. She died 4 years ago in September and I will never, ever get used to her not being her. I have just learned a different way of living. 

The last thing mothers want is for their children to be defeated by their passing. That doesn't take the ache away though, does it.

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