Marvelous Monday!

My father-in-law was a hard-working man.  As an immigrant to Canada, he spent most of his life working low-paying, long hour jobs in less than idyllic conditions.  He was a lumber jack in British Columbia for a few years in the late 1920's, spent a few years in the "dirty thirties" working in Saskatchewan and Alberta for the railroad where he was part of a crew who manually repaired railroad tracks along miles of track that were scorching hot without shade in the summer and blistering cold in the winter.  He also spent quite a few years in Sudbury, Ontario working in a mine where he managed to develop the "miner's lung" that would plague him for the rest of his life.  In the 1940's he worked at the Massey Harris plant in Brantford,Ontario where farm equipment was manufactured and in the 1950's, he was part of the tunnel-digging crew that dug the tunnels for the "new" hydro-electric generating plant in Niagara Falls.  He spent the last twenty or so years of his working life at a brick factory in an incredibly hot environment.  His job was to shovel coal into the kilns which had to reach 1800 degrees fahrenhiet in order for the clay tile and bricks to cure.  My husband estimates that during this time, his father would have shoveled 100,000 tons of coal!

When my father-in-law finally retired at the age of 70, he was at last able to spend time doing what he really, really loved to do ... and that was planting!   I think perhaps that he looked back with nostalgia to the the first 15  years of his life that were spent on a little farm in what was then Hungary but is now Slovakia, tilling the soil with a donkey, immersed in small-town rural Europe before the first world war changed everything so dramatically.  Or perhaps he just simply enjoyed the feel of soil on his hands but regardless of his reason, my father-in-law really did love to plant. 

My husband says that every time he came home from work, it seemed like his father had planted something new!  He planted fruit trees and currant bushes and hedges galore!  All of which had to be patiently watered by hand from an old-fashioned hand pump, bucket by bucket carried out to keep those little seedlings alive.  And for some reason, my father-in-law took a special liking to Rose of Sharon.  As a result, we are surrounded by beautiful Rose of Sharon bushes.

So today, on Marvelous Monday, I am extremely thankful for my late father-in-law, who spent hours planting those beautiful Rose of Sharon bushes that now grace our home with such beauty.  This past weekend, they all began to flower, their lovely big blooms opening up for the enjoyment of humming birds, bees, and butterflies and even the occasional human!

My father-in-law planted quite a few different colours of Rose of Sharons, including a number of bushes where several colours have been grafted on to the same plant.  It's lovely to see all the different shades.

Some are deep pink, and others have a blue tinge.  There are two different types of white blooms, the one above with the red centre, and one other that isn't open yet.  It is a soft white colour with a buttery yellow centre.  I think it's actually my favourite, but I do love them all.

When I sit on our front porch in the evening, resting on our swing, this is the beautiful view I get to enjoy.

And what makes it particularly beautiful is that although the Rose of Sharon are just opening up now, they will last for the rest of the summer and well into the fall, a wonderful reminder of my father-in-law and his love of planting.  

Sunday Crop Report

Calling this post the "Crop Report" brings back all sorts of fun memories.   Growing up, I remember that our supper table at home was always one of great boisterous chattering and laughing.  There are 5 siblings in my family and every single one of us seems to have become great story-tellers.  Those skills were honed from infancy around our kitchen table, where my parents always encouraged us to talk about what we had done at school, who we had met, and whatever trivia was important enough to us that we wanted to share it when we got home.

It's not to say we weren't taught manners.  My Mum (who actually loves to eat with her fingers!) made us eat properly with knife in right-hand and fork in left.  We even had to formally ask for permission if we wish to be excused from the table when we were finished our meal.  And we certainly were NOT allowed to talk with our mouths full.  But still, supper was not a quiet time, it was a loud, noisy interlude in our day when we all felt free to talk as much as we wanted and for the most part, had our parents' full attention.

With one exception.  In the summertime, when the CBC Crop Report came on the radio, we immediately had to quieten.  My father only had to put up one finger and say "Quiet!" in a stern voice, and instant hush fell into the room.  We would listen quietly as the crop report was given and then invariably my Dad would give some commentary on that day's crop report.  Then all would return to normal and we'd be busy yakking away as usual.

Anyway, consider this a hushed moment in the middle of your noisy weekend, because I'm about to give our very own Crop Report.


First the BAD news:

Some evil monster has snipped off THREE of our pepper plants and left them to die a miserable death, shriveled in the sun, separated at the base of the plant from the roots that would give it life!  I suspect it is one of those @#!% blackbirds that have been pooping with wild abandon in our swimming pool.  @#!% blackbirds!!!

Next, somebunny has been nibbling off all the tops of our beet greens!

Wretched cute furry little things!  I'm feeling surprisingly in tune with my inner Mr. McGregor and Elmer Fudd! @#?% rabbits!

And finally on the Bad News front:

Our five peach trees have been hit very hard with curly leaf this year.  Here's a close-up picture that will show you how they are affected:

You can see the dead leaves in amongst the healthy second set.  The good news is that they seem to be making a good come-back with a healthy second set of leaves and fruit.  We will baby the trees along this summer as this type of disease makes them particularly vulnerable to winter kill.  My husband and I are debating whether or not we should get rid of all the fruit right now so that the trees don't have to spend their energy on producing fruit.  We can always get peaches from my brother who grows acres and acres of them.  But, of course, it is a difficult decision to make because we really do love having our own peaches.

Now on to the Good News section of today's crop report.

Our white cherries are ripe and absolutely delicious!  This tree in particular is absolutely loaded with fruit.

I am particularly fond of white cherries as they are so tangy!  Here's a close-up.

And some of our black cherry varieties look they will be ready to pick by the end of this week or early next.  I just hope we don't get a big rain storm late this week that will split all those lovely cherries like popcorn!

The rain we've had up until now has been very welcome.  Look at how the pears have sized up already!  The rain has been very good for them.  These Bartletts are already about 3 inches in length.

Looks like we'll have a good plum crop this year too. Our shiro plums are doing well, although we did lose a number of trees this winter. Not sure why really, since the shiros at my parents' farm would grow forever into huge gnarly old trees, but for some reason on our farm they don't have the same long life. Maybe it's the difference between our sandy loam and my parents' heavy clay soil. But the trees that remain are healthy and strong and have produced a lovely crop so far.  Hope we don't get hail or anything between now and the time they ripen.  They are another crop, like cherries, that can split if there is a huge rainfall when they are close to being picked.

Our early golden plums are looking wonderful:

As are our stanley prunes, especially since these trees are only 3 years old.  They are producing magnificently for such young trees.

I had a discussion with my brother and sister-in-law (who are full-time farmers) and we decided not to thin our apricots even though there is a heavy crop.  There are just so many things that can go wrong with apricots, causing some of them to be unmarketable.  Also, if we thin them, they will get quite huge and not too many people want really huge apricots.  So we've left them alone for now, but as you can see, there are clusters of them growing this year.  Apricots are funny trees in that they usually have two or three years of a light crop to every year of a heavy crop.  Looks like this year is the heavy crop year!

And on the garden front, everything (including the weeds) are growing like weeds!  Well, with the exception of the aforementioned pepper plants and beet greens.  The red currants are almost ready to pick.

And our little mystery plant (see this past blog post for more details), is really taking off.  I still don't know what it is.  Any guesses?

Well, that's it for the Crop Report today.  You can all go back to chattering up a storm around the Sunday Dinner table.  Hope you are having a good conversation with your loved ones, listening to the things that are on their hearts, and having time to share those that are on yours!

Follow Friday

It's "Follow Friday 40 and Over!" once again.

I always look forward to meeting new bloggers this way.  If you're new to my blog, welcome! I hope you stay a while and enjoy your visit.  It's a warm day here in Southern Ontario. So here's a nice glass of lemonade for you to enjoy while you visit.

And what's that in the background? My new planter! I just put it together today and I'm so pleased with the way it turned out.

In this eye-level shot, you can see that I've used my tiered dessert server. I used an old glass lampshade in the bottom, that conveniently had holes already in it for screwing the light fixture up. They will work perfectly for drainage now that it's been reincarnated as a planter!  Then I buried an oversized "teacup" in the centre, with it's matching plate standing behind. Into the teacup went a ceramic pot.

Here's an overhead shot where you can it see more clearly.

I've planted a little sweet-smelling lantana in the centre pot and some trailing lobelia in the glass lampshade. I can't wait to see how it looks in a few weeks when it fills out a little more.

Thanks for dropping in!  Hope to see you again real soon.  

Bird Cage Makeover

When I bought our male budgie "Humble" a number of years ago, I answered an ad in our local paper that said the owner had a baby budgie for sale, with cage and accessories for $15. I went to pick up my new little pet and was both excited and unhappy when I saw his cage. On the one hand, the cage was clearly not big enough for him to remain in very long. But, on the other hand, the cage was absolutely delightful to look at - a real vintage metal cage with a lovely shape and loads of potential. I bought a new cage for Humble very soon afterwards and relegated the old cage to the barn, thinking that I would have a creative moment some time soon and transform it into something else. Well, eight years have gone by and finally I've transformed it!

Yesterday, Donna over at An Enchanted Cottage revealed a charming makeover of her "swingset garden" and included in her pictures was a sweet one of a birdcage planter she has made. She linked to a previous blog where she explained how she made the planter (Donna's instructions for a birdcage planter). I loved what she had done and have to give her full credit for the inspiration for my own birdcage makeover.

So yesterday afternoon, inspired by Donna's blog and finally ready to tackle this job, I headed out to the barn to dig out that old birdcage. The last 8 years have taken their toll, I was actually rather delighted to see that the "fake brass" paint has chipped away leaving a lovely rusty cage to begin the project.

Here's how it looked before I started:

My first step was to brush on a "shabby" coat of cream-coloured paint, using loads of paint thinner so the rust would show through in lots of spots.

Next, I rooted around in my kitchen for a "dollar-store" plastic container that would work as a planting insert, puncturing a few holes in the bottom to allow for drainage. I chose several different colours of alyssum and an asparagus fern because I wanted something delicate and tiny to match the scale of the birdcage, and also because I love the sweet fragrance of alyssum.

Once I had assembled the planter, I needed a stand as I didn't think it would be safe to hang it. I finally decided on this old iron cafe chair, another "found" item that I discovered in the scrap pile at our shop (see Objet Trouve). I used an old board to give it extra stability underneath since the chair has no seat in it.  When I painted the cage, I had removed the glass inserts on the sides. In returning them, I deliberately did not clean them because I really liked the way the "rust" stains on the glass hid the plastic container from view and added to the "shabby chic" look.

But I felt something was missing. Donna had used a lovely little garden sculpture in her birdcage. I wracked my brain to think of what I had on hand that would be small enough. And then inspiration struck - this pretty  coloured-glass butterfly suncatcher would look beautiful hanging above the alyssum!

So here's what the final product looks like:

I haven't yet decided if the chair needs repainting. It might be a little more "shabby" than is strictly necessary in its current state!

Roses & Rodents & Humans, Oh my!

What a glorious Sunday!  We've been enjoying our ROSES which are just coming into bloom.

I'm particularly happy with this rose that is finally big enough to start climbing over our pool fence and trellis.  I planted it 2 years ago and it is coming along beautifully.

I just love this shade of pink especially against the "aged grey" look of the fence boards and trellis.

I planted this Betty Boop rose two years ago as well.  I love that at different stages of the bloom, some of them have yellow and others are more white.  Really makes a stunning display.

Can't remember the name of this one but I LOVE it!

And now for the RODENT portion of today's post ....

I have to confess that I don't like many rodents, but I am extremely fond of CHIPMUNKS!   When we lost our outdoor cat two years ago, I was heartbroken, but I have been happy to see that our chipmunk population is gradually being restored since the cat's demise.  I have been attempting to tame the cute little creatures so I've been putting peanuts out every so often and I do see one chipmunk quite regularly collecting them.

This morning was a lazy Sunday morning when we got to sleep in and then have breakfast out on the deck.  While we were sitting there with our coffee, we heard a rustling and suddenly not one, not two, not three, but SIX chipmunks appeared!  Actually there were two adults and four babies.  So adorable!    

Here the four little ones are playing around with each other. 

They played very much like kittens, hiding and then pouncing on each other.  Very cute!

Looks like the mother is trying to keep the youngsters in line.  :)

In this picture it looks like she's giving one of them a scolding, or maybe washing his ears!  

I got out the bag of peanuts and convinced one of the adults to come quite close.  I wasn't expecting that he was going to touch my toe though and I was a wee bit nervous he might mistake it for a peanut. 

And finally here's a shot of our home where roses, rodents, and humans all coexist with great happiness.

I hope everyone in blogland is having a wonderful, restful Sunday like we are!

Objet trouve: a natural or discarded object found by chance and held to have aesthetic value (noun, etymology French).

I need some advice!  Today I discovered two "found objects" and I'm not quite sure what to do with them.

The first one is a "volunteer" plant:

It just appeared in the bottom of this unused planter.  I hate to throw it away because I suspect it's not a weed, but I have no idea what it is!

Here's a close up:

I'm thinking that it might be a watermelon, a zucchini, or a cucumber.  Any thoughts?

My next item is totally different.  Occasionally people drop off scrap metal at my husband's shop because they know he takes regular trips in to the scrap yard.  If I have time, I like to poke through the piles because I never know what interesting things I might find.  I discovered this really cool item a few months ago but I haven't decided what to do with it.  I'd like to use it in my garden somehow but I'm not sure where or how.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

It's about one foot in length and is quite heavy metal.  I love the look of it, it sort of reminds me of a violin or treble clef.

So all input, advice, suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 


And finally, I "found" this item 






Over at my friend Java's awesome blog "Never Growing Old".  If you want to participate (and you're lucky enough to be over 40) head on over and check it out!

An Archeological Dig in my Garden

Yesterday when I was planting our garden, I came across a selection of broken china shards that have surfaced since we last cultivated.

It reminded me so much of when I was a child and would spend hours playing outside in the summer. One of my favourite "games" was to play with all the pieces of broken pottery and china that would turn up every time some part of the farm was tilled. This was especially true of the garden closest to our house.

I loved to play with each piece of china and imagine what it had been in its previous life - a tea cup?  a dinner plate? I would spend hours making designs with the broken pieces - temporary mosaics that changed at a whim. And then I would try to imagine the very first person who owned the china and wonder what they were like and what they served to eat on the china. I think this is probably where I started to fall in love with fine china. And now, years later, I have many lovely (and unbroken!) tea cups, plates, etc. to play with.

And yet, still, when I came across these pieces yesterday,

they caught my fancy in a way that the cherished fine pieces that fill my china cabinets don't quite do. These two pieces look like they might have come from a plate. They are fairly heavy china and remind me a bit of the kind of plates that were used in old diners. Perhaps they belonged to my mother-in-law. I wish she was still here so I could ask her, because my husband is not likely to remember. He will remember a delicious meal in complete detail but never notice the plate it is served on!

It's probably partially caused by nostalgia for my childhood, but I still think there is something special about found china pieces. I think the mystery of the broken pieces is what attracts me ... I know that they were once something of beauty, treasured by a household and if they could speak, they would tell me the story of where they have been and whose lives they have touched. Which inevitably leads me to wonder who will find my pieces of china one day down the road? Will they turn up in some garden hundreds of years from now, shiny surfaces and colourful prints hidden beneath clumps of dirt?

I hope someday that my china will give another little girl great joy. That she will find the pieces and play with them, solitary games that fill her with a sense of beauty and of history, and teach her to love vibrant colours and delicate prints they way I do.  It almost (almost, but not quite) makes me want to leave a codicil in my will, that all my china be broken into pieces and discarded rather than leaving it intact to sit unused and bored on a cabinet shelf, when it could be scattered like seed in a garden, waiting to be found.

Marvelous Monday!

So, it's Marvelous Monday take two --- a tradition recently started which you can read about here if you are so inclined. Oh, I've had a WONDERFUL weekend so it's very easy to find lots of things for which I am thankful.

I am thankful for amazing Greek food...

eaten at one of our favourite beach side restaurants...

followed by a peaceful  lakeside walk with my husband.

I'm thankful for white sailboats against a blue sky...

that I can admire from afar while my feet are firmly planted on the shore, so there's no risk of me getting horribly seasick!

I'm thankful for my beautiful purple bearded iris that popped open this weekend...

and for our newly-planted garden and it's promise of delicious things to come.

I'm thankful for our first campfire...

and wiener roast of the season...

and for this male oriole who sang such a beautiful love song to his mate, providing us with the most incredible dinner music that no money can ever buy.

But mostly this long weekend, I'm thankful for this lady...

because even though I'm a complete anti-monarchist, I love having a long weekend in May. So Happy Birthday Queen Victoria! God save the queen. And God save the peasants from the queen. Because peasants rock and queens don't. The end.  :)