Outdoor Flower Pots

I don't always get around to making outdoor flower pots for our porch, but I like them.

After coming across some deeply discounted geraniums, I decided to go for it.












There! That's done... (Maybe I should add a few more plants!)










 

(I hope they bush out within a few weeks!)

New Mailbox

Canada Post has informed our neighborhood that our door-to-door mail delivery will soon end - in favor of a community mail box where we will have to pick our letters up a block away...

Thinking of our icy winter roads and the four or five months I don't venture out on them, I'm very annoyed. Will I have to drive to the corner just to pick up my mail?!

But I'm trying to be open-minded. I think of my mother's favorite comment: "Life is a constant change."

Like most people, I'm not adverse to change - if the change is an improvement! It's the other kind that are a lot harder to accept!

Daffodil Season

Our neighborhood community association recently sponsored a talk on mature gardens - and how to deal with them. I inherited a "mature" perennial garden when I moved here - and it inspired me to keep adding more perennials. I love to see flowers emerge all spring and summer long, without my planting them again and again.

The gardening expert gave a list of nine "marker" flowers - three for spring, three for early summer and three for late summer or fall. I should have written them down, but I didn't! (I thought I'd remember!)

I did remember her three spring flowers: crocuses, daffodils and tulips. I had to stop and think... I had always thought that daffodils and tulips bloom at the same time, but apparently they don't.

It appears that we are currently in daffodil season. I did have a few, and my tulips aren't in bloom yet.

These were taken in a neighbor's yard. I only have half a dozen and they tend to face down. 

I don't have any crocuses. I'll have to plant some bulbs for next spring. Early spring blooms are such a treat! In my garden, "crocus season" sees scillas and hellebores in bloom.

"Daffodil season" sees a whole host more:

Tulip tarda (pictured here), bleeding heart...

Periwinkle...

Hyacinth...

One piece of advice shared by the local gardening expert: Buy perennials that will increase your blooming season. 

For me that will be early spring ("crocus season") and late fall ("sedum season").

New Stage in the Algonquin College Soccer Field Face Lift

Algonquin College is in the process of enlarging its soccer field to professional FIFA dimensions.

Living nearby, we have been keeping tabs on the progress, watching with interest as they removed the old AstroTurf, built a new, larger base, and installed new AstroTurf...

Now they are adding rubber pebbles to the newly installed turf.

Dozens of big bags are waiting to be emptied onto the field...

...where one machine spreads them out...

... while other machines mix them into the grass.

(Not sure how many days this will take. It's a big job, too!)

Happiness is...

Do I need to re-think what happiness is?!

I was recently reminded that "... Happiness is not a period of time in anybody's life. It is a different moment every day."

This thought explains my mother's contentment at small pleasures - like going outside for a breath of fresh air, after a long winter indoors, or her joy in singing.

To the comment above, Joan Chittister adds: "We spend so much time wanting what we do not have. Be careful that your longings don't erase today."

Good advice for anyone - regardless of age or stage of life!

Maple Syrup Festival

Last Saturday Terry and I headed to Perth for their annual maple syrup festival.

Perth is a lovely little city with wonderful old buildings.

Could we live here? we usually ask ourselves, caught up in the beauty of the town. An hour away by car, it would cut an hour off of our five-hour drive to Toronto, where some of our children live...

Should we buy a piece of land and build a pre-fab dream home?!

Hmmm. No rash decisions!





 

Back to the event!

Thousands of people attend this big open market, which offers more than maple syrup.

There were sheep shearing demonstrations - one every few hours.

(I was surprised that the shorn sheep didn't seem any colder than the ones waiting to be sheared!)

The weather was perfect for walking outdoors.

After tasting various maple syrup samples, we bought a bottle of "light," Terry's favorite. Our one regret was that only a few of this year's prize-winners were selling their syrup at this market.

We also stopped at a fund-raising booth where potters and restaurants got together to sell soup in hand-made pottery bowls.








 


(You can never have too much hand-made pottery!)









 

This, the first of our seasonal weekend market visits, was a great success.

(Where will our next one be?!)

How to Get Rid of a Nest in the Compost (as Humanely as possible)??

We have several compost heaps in our large yard, and I try to dig them out every fall. But last year, I didn't get around to digging out our biggest one (seen here under the pine trees).

In spring, I told myself...

But now that spring is here, I've noticed first one... and now two... burrow holes at the bottom of the pile. I don't want to encounter an angry animal when digging it out - so I'm wondering how to encourage the animal - squirrel? skunk? ground hog? - to leave, before I start to dig...

A few bricks almost blocking the holes? A hose fed into the holes to make the new nest less desireable?

That will be my project for next week. I'm not looking forward to it! (I like to leave nature alone, whenever possible. And, of course, I don't want to encounter an angry skunk!)