Time flies when it is SPRING!

Oh my gosh! Where is the time going? I have had a busy time, working at the nursery, new jobs sites and planning and planting my own little patch of earth.
I have planted here in Grafton 3weeks ago my strawberries which are doing quite nicely.

Crows

Crows are one of my favourite birds. I think they are smart and organized. Today is Earth Day and crows are my way of celebrating it. I have a nest in my backyard of crows, well, actually they are at the top of spruce tree in my neighbours yard. This makes it all so convenient though, as I can watch them with my binoculars coming and going from the nest.
Here is some news from the CBC today about crows.

CBC News - Technology & Science - Clever crows can use 3 tools

Mother Nature's in Charge Here

Twisted Sister

I am so bad and should not be working at a nursery. Everything special that I wanted is coming in, plus a few other things including Juniperus chinensis torulosa! This is my twisted sister or as it's known by it's other name Hollywood Juniper. I am sure this is the Juniper I saw in San Francisco and San Diego that changed my whole demeanor about junipers. I love the form of this small tree. It's vase shaped, with fat twirling upright branches, it's origins are from Mongolia, China and Japan, suits me just fine. I don't have it home yet and I have told myself I can not bring it home until I plant my Robin Hill Serviceberry. It's freezing out there now and dark. Tomorrow I have to go look at a job site, yes, it's Sunday but to a pantheist that means nothing, I work Sundays folks and happy to do so.
Looks like Monday I will plant the Robin Hill, I have already put in a Crimson Frost Birch and a Reliance Peach this year. So I can bring home the Torulosa on Tuesday and get in the ground!! Then I set aside an Akebia vine, Calycanthus shrub, a Callicarpa and I am not going into perennials yet as my head might explode!! Tomorrow I will get a pic of my Twisted Sister and post the photo. I will sleep tonight knowing that I am expanding my collection of trees and shrubs. Yipeeee!

Baby it's Cool outside

I am wondering what if any after effects will happen because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland. They say it's the ice is melting into the volcano and this is the cause of the large eruptions, just like when an ice cube is put on a hot frying pan, it pops! I have a friend who is England and was to come home yesterday. He had invited a group of friends over to his house for dinner tomorrow night and he had to cancel. He is not leaving England anytime too soon.
I wonder if our summer will be cool because of this eruption, if you look at the map of the path of this dust, it has covered most of Europe and it does not appear to be dissipating any time soon. What is needed a good strong wind and that will scatter it's dust evenly everywhere. Hmm, what is going to happen to our temperatures this summer and amount of sun we receive. Last summer our sun was cut by 40% and it showed in our plants and plans for the garden!! We had too much rain, too little sun so it was a weird year. We may be in for another year of a not so sunny summer and cooler temperatures. I hope not!

Whew!

Busy, very busy these days. I am working a Baltimore Valley Garden Centre and everything is being brought to the store now, you can check out their blog by clicking here. I wrote about what is in the store last night after I got home, ate and bathed.
Working in the veggie garden the other day, weeding and heeling in some trees I was surprised by the soils movement beside me and out popped this girl! How do I know she is a girl, she is huge! Female toads are larger than male toads and she just sat  there soaking up the sun and watching me work.

This week I purchased three bare root trees and I am so happy! I got a Betula pendula 'Crimson Frost' birch, which now resides at the front of the house, I am sure it will be quite happy there and really help with my curb appeal.
I also have a Robin Hill Amelanchier and a tall one at that, it's has to be almost 12' tall! It is the one that is heeled in the veggie garden and I hope to get it in today before I go into the Centre. The last tree I purchased was a Reliance Peach, I really wanted one of these for many reasons. First you get amazing peaches and yes this tree is more than hardy here. The leaves are lanceolate probably 5" long, with a glossy green finish on top. The blooms are pink, heck the roots are pink and the leaves turn a peach colour in the fall. Bonus is that you get lovely peaches to give to your friends so they can make pies for you!!
I have to go out and plant the Robin Hill Serviceberry now and then it is back to work. signing off for now.

Ready Set Grow!

Seeds to sow and grow for your veggie garden can be started now. I know it seems impossible when you think of the weather we have had the past few days. On Friday, Bo and I on our walk encountered sleet, snow of small flakes, pelleting sleet again and then once we got home snow of the large flakey kind! I knew it would do something this week. How did I know? I have a brother who's birthday is on the 6th of April and it always snows the week of his birthday! Here is Bo on the walk and he was not bothered about being blown and pelleted!

It's hard to believe that you can direct sow seeds in this weather but you can. Flower seeds to be sown now are Larkspur, Poppy, Sweet Peas, nicotiana. For

This mornings walk

Here are some photo's I took on our walk this morning. Most are in my backyard, but not all.
First one up is the black willow which I can see from my backyard but this was taken from the block behind my house.

 I love the drape of the branches and this photo of course does not do justice to the drape or colour of this branch.
I had a better colours on previous photo's but Bo was tuggn' on the leash so they are out of focus.

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's the all or nothing season, I am in the greenhouse planting like mad, everyone at the nursery is busy one way or another. Setting up, pricing, planting, digging trees and shrubs, what is there not to do?
I have some photo's that I have managed to take of spring around me. I noticed my first Blue Heron flying north yesterday, the Turkey Vultures are soaring in groups now, no alone.  This past winter was so dry here, with little or no snow that dry conditions are a real concern. Yesterday it rained for awhile, it was not enough. This morning it is raining again which is good. The weather is so warm though, that spring could be over in a nano second. They are saying we could get frost before the weekend. I love spring, cool mornings and this is what the lilacs and other springs bloomers need in order for their blooms to last. We will see what happens, in the mean time here are a few pic's.

This sulphur butterfly was on my front porch yesterday. I really like getting a close up of insect

Sedum and salix.

Venus Occults Jupiter and Saturn

On April 1 at midnight go outside in your pj's and look south. Venus occults Jupiter and Saturn at this point, gee that is a few minutes from now. I think I will check it out. What is really amazing is that this is the first time this has happened since 0401BC! How these people figure this all out is beyond me, I am glad they do! But I really think it has something to do with April FOOLS like me!! See sky and telescope week at glance in sidebar. Ha, ha, ha, oh those goofy sky guys!.........  :o

Spring abounds

It's great out there and I spent the day outside, we are getting ready to open the nursery and a lot has to happen yet, but we will be open this weekend.
When I got home, Bo and Boots had to be fed and then walked. Boots did not partake. What is going on out on our walks is a plethora of bird songs. Meadowlarks, oh I love Meadowlarks, there used to be so many, but there are still some around and there are several on our walk singing their hearts out.

This was taken with my zoom lens, the camera was on a fire hydrant so it's not perfect, but the song was!
It's a clear elongated song, that makes you stop and look for it's source.

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.

It's time to GARDEN

Here are some things that I have done and am doing to help you with your garden tasks. I walk my property pretty much everyday, just to observe and see how big buds are and what is growing that I don't like. I have weeded my garden already, yes I have! This is to nip certain weeds right away, it is amazing what they can get away with.

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.

Spring, I LOVE IT!

Everyone is writing about it, walking it and watching it, it's spring out there folks. Yes it is, step right up and enjoy! Buds are swelling and so are the feathers of the boys flying around outside the house and on my feeders. The loud, rambunctious Grackles have arrived and along with the Red Winged Blackbirds they can make quite a racket!
It, in my mind so far, this is a good spring. Forget that warm spell we have had all winter, this is now and it's spring. I like the fact that Toronto is 2 to 3 days ahead of us in the landscape, they are my harbingers of spring. Keeping it cool here means a longer more enjoyable spring only to finalize this season with some of the best lilacs in eastern Ontario. Lanes, roads, side roads and hillsides of lilacs out for a long spell and for that we need it cool please. For now it's the birds that give the clues to where we are in the season. Bo and I saw this swan with a Canada Goose at Keewatin Nature Sanctuary pond with a Canada Goose.  The ice was still on this pond last week.

John Lennon

I moved into this house a year and a half ago and I still have boxes that require to be sorted and unpacked. I was attempting this act of 'cleanliness is next to goddess' look this week when I was sorting boxes from the move earlier this week in the basement. I also I have confess I hate basements, so being down there for periods of time can make me suffer from damp, dark blindness. I persisted though with my task. What I found thrilled me. Two pieces of paper that I have not seen since high school. In the late 60s', early seventies I was a hippie, does that mean I am not anymore. Not by a long shot, still am too!,  as much as I can be in my time of life (what year is this?). In our high school library they had a small book that was only ever taken out by moi. It was little book by John Lennon and it was a brilliant collection of his drawings and poetry. I loved that book and my last year at the school I considered taking the book home with me because I had been the only one who ever checked the book out of the library. I did not take it, instead I copied a funny poem from it, actually typed it out. I remember at the time I found this hilarious, must of been the hippie in me! So here it is from December 8, 1972 from John Lennon's little book.

Now after the morning News it's ...... AN EQUINOX

On Sunday March 20th is the night when daylight and night are equal, it's an Equinox! The sun is at the equator and it is heading our way! There is a bonus with the Equinox, so get your binoculars out and get ready to look up again.  As twilight begins the moon appears with in a large crescent form, but wait until twilight fades to night and that is when you want to start looking up.

                                                           Nasa Image, thanks Nasa!
                                    

Northumberland County 2nd Annual Mayors' KEEP THE COUNTY CLEAN CHALLENGE

This is about the clean up of litter that gathers in ditches, roadsides, nature trails, any park or public space in Northumberland County. Last spring was my first spring in Grafton and I go out walking every day here, not by choice. I have a dog and I have to walk him everyday at least twice a day otherwise he is out of balance!!
Last spring was my first spring here in Grafton (I was born in Haldimand and happy to come back) and what amazed me on these walks was the amount of litter that is tossed on the ground.

blah, blah, blah will change

My last post is news based, this will change here shortly. The nursery will be opening up soon, due to very warm weather, we have lots to do before we open the doors.
Also, it has taken me a year and a half to figure out the use of space in this new home.

Women who change the World

Have you ever traveled through the fragrance of an orange blossom grove early in the evening, I have. It is one of the most intoxicating smells on this earth and the early evening with it's moisture laden air is the perfect conveyor for this intoxicating fragrance. You are transported somewhere foreign, exotic and although it took me a while to figure out that wonderful fragrance was coming from off the Florida highway, yet I could not see one orange grove but I sure could smell it's gorgeous bountiful fragrance.
Before you read on, this is not always a pretty story, so be warned.