Community Spirit

Our community has had a "community association" for years. Their main task is to improve life in the community. A few years ago, one association group created a garden in an underused part of the neighborhood.

Our current association leadership has done something no one has done before: It held a community supper that was free for seniors.

They were hoping to get more seniors involved - and to get ideas for how to improve the lives of retirees who live here.

It was a lot of fun - and an opportunity to meet new people. There was musical entertainment!

(The Capital Chordettes)

Terry and I met a woman who built a house in the community in 1968 and has lived there ever since. She also walks an hour and a half a day! I was very impressed.

The mayor of Ottawa showed up, too - and presented us all with Ottawa 2017 pins.

To my surprise, they were actually made in Canada!

Overwhelmed With Weeding

Ottawa has had a rainy spring this year - and the week we were away brought even more rain.

Our son had cut the grass while we were away, but flowers - and weeds - had grown profusely.

What to do to get rid of the green and white gout weed leaves - and other less noticeable plants I don't want overgrowing my lovely flowers?!

Where to start?! I have so many flower beds all around the yard.

I finally decided that aiming to fill one plastic garbage can with weeds every day would work for me. That way, I'd be satisfied that I'd done something, even though there was still a lot left to do.

That's what I did for several days... but then the weather changed and it started to rain again!

You can't fight the weather!

Practical PEI Souvenirs

I love to buy practical souvenirs to remember my travels by. Years ago I hunted down a quilting shop in Paris in order buy some fat quarters of French cotton fabric.

Eventually I made this pinwheel quilt... which reminds me of  that quilt store in France.

Another time, I purchased fabric from Liberty of London. I'm still looking for the perfect quilt pattern for that bundle of flower prints.

Then, a few years ago, my son and his wife surprised me with a gift of Icelandic yarn when they returned from their honeymoon in  Iceland.

I wasn't looking specifically for fabric or yarn souvenirs on our recent trip to Prince Edward Island. In fact, I didn't even know that Canadians produced yarn. But when we wandered into the Northern Watters Knitwear shop in Charlottetown, PEI and started to look around, I knew I just had to buy this colorful hand painted Canadian Mineville Wool Project sock yarn as a souvenir for myself.

Terry decided he wanted a knit souvenir, too, so he bought this toque knit by the Northern Watters hand knitters.

In a nearby shop that sells crafts by local artisans, I got these felted local wool balls for the dryer. My latest plastic ones were just breaking apart, so the purchase was timely - and a lovely way to remember PEI every time I do laundry!

Gardening Update: Wild Violets or Creeping Charlie?

A while back I wrote about the growing "creeping Charlie" problem I have in my yard. The lawn and flower beds are being invaded by masses of round leaves - with purple flowers - that grow low to the ground - so, if I manage to catch them early enough and when the soil is soft, I can lift them out quite easily. But I suspect that any remaining white root hairs will continue to grow...

I assumed that these weeds in our yard are "creeping Charlie." I had no idea that there was yet another similarly invasive blue plant that looks very much the same. Reading my blog post, my neighbor Mary commented:

I looked at your blog posting on creeping charlie.  

The picture you are showing is actually WILD VIOLETS.  

The leaves are more heart-shaped and the flowers are little bigger and look like miniature violets.

Creeping charlie's leaves are rounded and have strings showing how it creeps across the yard.  I definitely have more creeping charlie in my yard then violets.

Mary's plant leaves definitely are more "ripply" than mine - though the flowers - to my eye - look almost the same. Lucky I didn't eat the plant, I thought... Somewhere in my online searching I discovered that Creeping Charlie's leaves are edible - and have a minty taste.

I googled Wild Violets - and discovered that they too are edible and have a nutty taste!! (I haven't been able to find that website to show as a reference either.)

Dare I risk it and add either (or both?!) to a salad? I think I'd better check more sources online. Many websites that mention the two have suggestions for getting rid of them - what works and what doesn't. But one suggested letting these invasive flowering plants take over the lawn - no cutting required!

Irises... and Reflections on Perennial Gardening

We returned home from our Prince Edward Island vacation, wondering how our perennials were doing...

There had been lots of rain, so there was a profusion of growth...

New flowers were in bloom, mostly irises...

Large purple ones (surrounded by gout weed)...

(Lots of weeding to do!)

Bunches of smaller irises.

Other low-lying mauve flowers...

These look like they've finished blooming.

Are they carnations? Geraniums?

I don't know.. And they're interspersed with other flowers.

In my years of perennial gardening, I've discovered that there are three stages to a perennial garden:

First - when the spaces between the flowers are larger than the flowers themselves...

Not sure when this picture of our front garden was taken - but we traded in our white van in 2010, so it must be before that!

Doesn't the flower bed look tidy?!

The second stage is when the flowers fill out a bit and the garden beds look lovely and full. This usually takes about two or three years.

Here is a picture of our front garden bed at that stage...

But then - a few years later - things get overcrowded... That's the stage my flower beds are at now...

Like a parent of grown-up children, I've lost control!

Moon River Memory

When I was sixteen, my goal in life was to travel, to see the world... A hit song of the day, "Moon River," became my personal travel theme song...

A few years later, I did start to travel - most significantly spending 10 years in Israel, studying at the Hebrew University, then teaching at the Anglican International School. When I returned to Canada on vacation - three times in those 10 years - I spent a few days in Europe. Traveling became an important part of my life.

A few months before finally leaving Israel to return to Canada, I attended a Henry Mancini concert in Jerusalem. Mancini had written the music to my theme song... Listening to him play "Moon River" took me back to the young girl I had been... and to my travel dreams...

Something equally surreal happened as Terry and I were returning from PEI...

We spent our final vacation day in Quebec City.

Sitting in a French bakery, we were entertained by an accordion player.

I didn't pay much attention - until he started playing "Moon River"...

I sat there dumbfounded - again remembering the 16-year-old with traveling dreams - that I had been.

Back in Quebec City Again

Our last stop before returning home from our PEI vacation was Quebec City.

This time we noticed a big cruise ship in the port...

During the day, as we wandered around Old Quebec, we met several people who had disembarked from the ship.

It was traveling from Montreal to Boston, sailing by night and stopping for the day in different places along the way, allowing passengers to get off and visit different sites.

This was their first stop - Quebec City. They would be stopping in Charlottetown and Halifax as well.

I might like to see the Maritimes from the water, I told Terry (who doesn't share my enthusiasm for planes and boats).

I prefer to drive, he replied...

Before leaving Quebec City, we headed over to see their new hockey arena.

We also had coffee in our favorite pastry shop in Old Quebec...

And stopped in at the daily farmers market in the old port...

So much to see and do! We have to come back soon!

The St. Lawrence River Coast

Traveling back from PEI to Quebec City, we took the coastal road along the St. Lawrence River,

The weather was rainy, but we stopped from time to time to walk around.

At one point I noticed a motel called the Gaspesiana... We had stayed there a few years before with a young couple - friends of my son who were visiting from Germany. I had taken pictures of beautiful sunrises and sunsets... Our young friend, Caro - a dietitian - had organized wonderful picnic breakfasts on the beach for the four of us. Wonderful memories! One day we had visited the Reford Gardens...

I looked for the picnic table where we had sat... This wouldn't have been a good day for a picnic.

A ways down the road later we stopped at a marine museum...

It wasn't open yet for tourist season. Terry was disappointed - he had hoped to tour the submarine which was part of the museum display.... So we continued on.

Later we came across a cheese factory with wonderful cheeses (and baked goods).

It had stopped raining, so we had a simple picnic - cheese curds and bread - on a picnic table overlooking the river.

You never know what you'll find when you leave the highway and take the back roads!

If we ever bought a cottage, this is where I'd want to buy it - in one of these tiny old towns on the St. Lawrence River, I said.

Campbellton, New Brunswick

Let's head home a different way, I suggested when the time had come to leave Prince Edward Island.


So we headed north on a coastal road along the Acadian shore.

Having heard of the trials and tribulations of the Acadians, I wanted to visit their part of Canada.

I became aware that there was an Acadian flag.

We drove all day, spending the night in Campbellton, a New Brunswick city across the river from Quebec, within sight of the bridge.

Judging from statues in the city park, it appeared to be serious fishing country!

Interesting Yarn Store

I'm not sure whose idea it was to walk into Northern Watters Knitwear shop in downtown Charlottetown - but once we got in, it was hard to leave!

Terry enjoyed chatting with the owner's husband...

(I think his job is to keep husbands busy so that wives can shop!)

I enjoyed browsing through local yarns...

... and watching the hand knitters - all knitting on different types of knitting machines.

I loved these Newfoundland-style mitts - with tufts of wool knit into the stitches, to create a soft and furry interior.

I made mitts like this years ago. I still have them - but these are more colorful!

The longer we stayed, the more we bought!

(They have an online store as well!)