MAY BROUGHT ME SO MUCH BEAUTY, BUSYNESS, AND HEART ACHES.

May is bringing me lots of joy, lots of garden and yard work, fiddlehead picking, office paper decluttering, some long-awaited tests at the hospital since November, and my heartache is that my brother's 14 years old granddaughter has gone missings since May 11th, and no clues as to where she is. 

 A suspect has been arrested on evidence they found in his truck but he's not speaking and the police are not giving any details as there is a publication ban. It is now a criminal investigation.  And Blogger is not being nice to bloggers today.  

Creeping phlox and white daffodils

Creeping phlox on the rock wall

Crab apple tree suffered damage by armyworm this year.  I took down three big nests and a large patch on the trunk of the tree after I noticed that they had eaten buds and leaves.

The large daylily bed.

Creeping phlox and white daffodils and yellow Leopards Bane 

Daffodils by the big rock.

One of my many bags of mulch of garden debris that I'll be using to mulch some flowerbeds. I do this every year instead of throwing it away.  This year, I used the branch shredder instead of my lawnmower as my husband got a young mechanic to change the motor since it had been in the flood twice. It was much faster.

Blogger didn't want me to remove this duplicate photo.  They no longer have "delete" in the settings and I had to drag the photos in. I have done this at other times with success but I could delete photos then but now there is no "delete button"   or I haven't figured it out yet.

Golden alyssum  on the rock wall 

 Some of my many red tulips just before they finished blooming.

My first asparagus crop, grown from a package of seeds that I planted last year. I only harvested these as I want to let them get established before harvesting next year.

Nice fat fiddlehead after washing. The ones in the sink have been blanched.

16 pounds of nice big juicy fiddlehead that I blanched. I only went to pick once this year. 

I've been shredding old files for the farm business and this is only a tiny sample of what I will be shredding over a period of time. I just hope the old shredder holds off. In the meantime, the office is in a mess.

More old files that were shredded and it's just the beginning.  I only shred on rainy days but I need a new cord on the old shredder before I resume the gigantic task. I shredded 16  large blue Glad recycle bags so far. It's very time-consuming as I have to check every file before shredding.

It's been a long time since my last post and I hope that I'll do a better job of blogging next time. 

Stay safe and well. Thanks for your comments.  

Hugs,  Julia

 

IT'S BEEN RAINING EVERY OTHER DAY BUT I'VE KEPT BUSY

Today, it's raining again. We have had a day of sun and a day of rain, a day of sun and a day of rain all spring it seems.  While waiting for fair weather to work outside I've been working inside making a bed skirt from a very old bedspread. I won't say how old it is, you'll think I'm crazy for holding on to it for this long. It was way too short for the newer thicker mattress and the backing was falling apart. It was quilted from the factory and the thread was very flimsy so it was relatively easy to take apart.

Since the skirting was too short, I had to add another section to make it long enough. I used a white cotton sheet I bought at a Value Village a long time ago, it was like new. It's been sitting in the linen closet all this time. You can see the mattress on the floor on the right. Now my boxspring doesn't show.

I baked some lemon pies from scratch. 

While the sun was shining I put together a raised bed I bought on special at Princess Auto about a month ago.  I bought 6 in all...I planted some carrots called Yaya. I hope they are as nice as they claim. I have a blogger friend called Yaya. I hope they are as nice as she is.


I picked fiddleheads on our land by the side of the river. We couldn't pick last year because the flood came while the fiddleheads were up and Health Canada thought that they would be contaminated. This year, the flood came early before they came up so they were deemed okay to pick.

I know they look disgusting but after many, many baths the little brown skins that protect the tender fronds will all come off.

Here they are blanched for 2 minutes and then drained. I used my salad spinner and it makes the job so much faster. This is a delicacy that we look forward to eating every spring. At our Co-op they sell for $4.99 a pound.

The peas, onions, spinach and kale are all growing nicely.

The spring bulbs and flowers are growing as well as the lawn and dandelions. I've been pulling dandelions every day to try to keep them at bay.

Today, a rainy day, I posted on my blog to pass the time before dinner.
I hope that you all have a great weekend and Happy Memorial Day to our friend in the USA.


Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.
Hugs, Julia

FEELING GUILTY

Yep, I'm feeling a bit guilty for not posting. I have just too many things going on that I can't seem to be bothered to select what I want to blog about.

I went and checked the river bank yesterday and I picked some fiddleheads.  A lot of bloggers have never heard of fiddleheads so I thought that I would make mention of them here. Our farm has a riverfront property so we can pick fiddleheads to eat in the spring. These delicacy can be found in the fresh vegetable isle in grocery stores and are pricy since they are labor intensive to pick and clean.


You can click on the picture to get a closer look.

Sorry, I didn't had my camera but this is a picture I took of fiddleheads on May 19, 2011  They are all washed many times until the little brown coverings are all removed.  Maybe I'll do a better documentary on fiddleheads next time.

If we don't pick them early, people go on our land and pick them before we have a chance at picking for ourselves and it's not fun.

Yesterday I picked about 21 pounds and it took me a little over 3 hours counting the time to go and come back by car.  I gave away all to family and kept 3 pounds for ourselves. I may go back to pick again and will take my camera this time

I had  forgotten to take my camera as I was just going to check if they were ready but I wish I would have taken it with me because  I saw a big fox watching me for a while and I saw a cormorant bird on a log in the brook that connect to the river. I watched it for a good 5 minutes and it just stayed there. I had never seen one in our area before. It was pretty cool and I saw an adult eagle in a big tree scanning the surroundings.

Today I planted some beets in the rain, and pruned one of my thorniest Grootendorst  rose bush using a pair of leather gloves to protect my hands... Very pretty when in full bloom.

Here is a older  picture of  my Grootendorst as it's just starting to bloom. This is a 2011 picture as well. You can see it's covered with buds ready to bloom.

The grass is starting to green up and the spring flowers are popping up here and there. Nothing spectacular yet.

Thanks for stopping in. I appreciate your comments.

JB

THINGS THAT PUTS SMILES ON MY FACE IN THIS RAINY WEATHER

It's been raining and raining here this week too and I managed to get one section of my garden weeded when the sun came out for a short time last evening. I weeded till 9:20 pm and it got dark. That brought a smile on my tired face.

The cool weather and the rain is making my crabapple blossoms to last a lot longer this year. They are so beautiful that it brings a smile on my old face. I took this picture yesterday when the rain stopped for  short time.

I love those blossoms. Just can't get enough of them.

Isn't Mother Nature grand. Thank you Mother Nature, they are beautiful.

My daughter picked, clean, blanched and froze 6 bags of nice fat fiddleheads for me. Now that brings another smile on my greedy face.

I've been begging for a genuine smile from Daniel. Today my daughter Christine sent me some photos in an email.  Now that's a genuine smile and it's catchy because it has caused me to smile the biggest smile of all. Thanks Christine.

Here's another one for good measure.

Seeing updates of James also is cause for smiling.  Hope his dad has picked up playing his guitar again.

It's good enough for another smile. I hope that my post has caused you to smile on a dreary day. I Hope that you are keeping dry.

My  blogger friend Kim is celebrating her birthday today and that should make her smile. It does me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kim.  http://milliesmat.blogspot.com/

Having 142 followers  is cause to smile too. Thanks for visiting and keep on smiling.

Happy Memorial Day on Monday to my American friends.
JB

THE FIDDLEHEADS ARE FINALLY HERE

Yesterday my daughter came by to check on the state of her garden before the planting begins  and for a little chat while her son was  at the cadets at the Army Base and I suggested that since she was here maybe she could drive the truck down the fields by the river to go see if the fiddleheads  were out.  We are glad that we did as we found a nice crop and we each picked a large pail and she returned today with her husband to pick some more. I had enough so I opted out to work in my garden instead.

We never have to buy them as they grow on our land. They can be quite expensive at the grocery  store as they are  a delicacy. There is a short window to pick them before the fonts unfurls into a fern.

Today as I was pulling weeds from my vegetable garden I saw three men in a motor boat close to the shore looking through the debris that was floating and I went over to ask them if they were looking for the body of the young man who drowned. They said yes. There were 5 men in a 12 foot canoe who overturned while on their way home from picking fiddleheads.  Three were wearing life jackets and two were not. The three were rescued and one who swam to shore was taken to hospital suffering hypothermia and the other has not been recovered yet.  I can't believe how 5 men fitted in a 12 foot canoe. A few years ago someone was walking by our house and saw a floating body face down  and they were looking in the same place as the current swirls there when the water is high. I hope that they find him soon. It must be very sad for the family.

I worked in my gardens but I'm having difficulty with uploading pictures this evening.  Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Have a great weekend.  JB