Whew!

What a year and I am bloggin again, must be February!! Seed catalogues, nursery catalogues and other remnants of trade shows and mail box findings are at my feet. Honestly though, I have had time only for the nursery catalogues. I need to go through my seed orders and see what I want to plant for next year. . . I have saved some gourd seeds, Cinderella pumpkin seeds and other that I liked from last fall. Also a lot of native flower seeds. This year I am continuing on my trend here to plant for the pollinators, butterflies and birds. As they are struggling still.
A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to visit The Owl Foundation in Vineland. It is not open to the public and I only got the opportunity because Audrey Wilson was taking an injured Barred Owl to Kay McKeever's centre.

Birds & Oil Do Not Mix

What is happening in the Gulf Coast now, is a tragedy of major proportions to say the least. First I feel for the people of New Orleans, Louisiana because of what happened after Katrina. Which is to say the Bush administration did nothing for those who lived there. It seemed as if they want Louisiana to be a 3rd world country on its own.

Fresh AiR

The tasks today were filled with the essence and lift of spring. First I had to go photograph a Witch Hazel in bloom at a friends garden. We had put it in I would guess, 4 years ago now and it is starting to really take hold. It's gorgeous and now I want one!

This plant is much prettier in real life, I have to work on that! The red petals transform to orange red tip and are really wonderful! We placed this shrub outside a bathroom window which helps shield the lower window from outside viewing  and yet it makes a nice view while inside looking out. You actually get to see your witch hazel blooming!
This is Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane' a truly gorgeous Witch Hazel.

Talk the Walk and Walk the Walk

Yesterday, I started my collection of recyclables and garbage for The 2nd Annual Mayors'  "Keep the County Clean" Challenge.

This was not my intent when Bo and I left the house, but it was the  broken up computer keyboard glaring at me from the ditch that made me realize that just because I don't have my 'kit' from the County should not stop me from starting to Clean Up. I must have anticipated my intentions as I was wearing my stretch gardening gloves instead of my usual driving gloves.  I decided that since we were only 5 minutes into our walk I would just start piles to be picked up and get them with the car later. Really, last year I was dragging home bags of garbage and recyclables. I do not want to do that again, it was too heavy.
So Bo and continued down the Old Danforth, here is Bo on the summer road that starts just after Purdy Road. He is off leash at this point and revels in the ditches and scents that he can check out on his own.

That is Bo on the right side of the road, barely visible, nose down doing what he loves to do, check out the stink in front of him!!
 This road is part of the original Danforth Road that ran from York (Toronto) to Kingston, Surveyed by Asa Danforth who was hired by The Crown in 1797. What I like about this particular section of the Old Danforth is that if I let my imagination run wild, I can place myself into another time. Although, I am sure that the flora was much different in and around 1797, no European Buckthorn, no dog strangling vine and the trees would have been all native and much larger. Too bad the Crown insisted that the landscape be raped of trees as a prerequisite to settling on the land. Along here, you can see huge erractics that have been rolled down the side of a drumlin that allows the farmer to create a field. The course of the road has not changed, but the sides of the road has, with invasives' and  total disregard by those who seem to think this road is a dump site.

Bloody Ivory : Elephants CITES 2010

This is a link to what is happening with the poaching of elephants for their ivory in Africa. We can help and we can stop this by not buying anything ivory or supporting those that do. Right now thousands of elephants are being slaughtered in Africa for the ivory trade, it's an international crime.
You can sign the AVAAZ.org online petition that will be presented to the UN convention before its too late.
click AVAAZ.org for the petition.
Below are more links on this crime:
http://www.bornfree.org.uk/

Bloody Ivory : Elephants CITES 2010