Busy September days

September 8, 2025

With these cool, dew-wet September mornings, my days are split between doing indoor stuff in the morning, and outdoor stuff in the afternoon.  Everyday, a little bit more gets accomplished in the processing and preserving department, and a bit more of the worn and weary looking garden, is cleared out. 

One morning it was bread and applesauce.

Another morning it was making another batch of sauerkraut with the last cabbage. What a beauty!

Here it is, just harvested, laying beside the fall greens bed.

These guys are loving these cooler days and nights.

We have had a couple of good downpours of rain, thankfully reducing the wildfire risk, and relieving me of the weekly watering routine. In the squash patch, I've been fighting powdery mildew, but as of now, am letting it go. The fruit are very mature, and I'm going to let nature take it's course. 

Last night and tonight we are under a frost advisory, so the covers are out over the pepper and tomato plants, and the still producing zucchini.  Warmer nights are forecast once we get through these couple. 

Today, I dismantled the cucumber fence. I am cucumbered out! The pickle shelves are as full as they need to be in the storage room, and the last pickings are fermenting in a jar with some dill and garlic. There are always a few mammoth green cylinders hidden in the greenery, how on earth did I miss them? 

What I did miss, was this..

A bird had built a nest in behind the screen of cucumber leaves, perched partially on the fence wire, nestled in the old pea vines. Inside was one little brown-speckled egg. One assumes and hopes that there were more, and that they hatched successfully. 

Hummingbirds are still visiting the flowers and the feeder, but expect them to become scarce very soon. They are usually gone by mid-September. Today a low flying flock of geese, in V formation, flew over. Coloured leaves are starting to show up, and a definite chill in the night-time air heralds the changing seasons. 

We had some gusty winds one evening, and the bean teepee took on a decided lean, so we buttressed it up with some guy ropes.

Some late-sown sunflowers have started blooming, and bees are loving them.

Hubby has been busy building me a new, taller shelving unit to hold my cookbooks. Can't wait to get them moved into their new home.

Beautiful clear blue September skies.

 

Bird Magic, and its almost Strawberry season!

June 17, 2025 

Apparently the Blue bird nest box was not empty! The Bluebird parents were still going into the box with food for a few days after the male had called the young ones out. We watched the adults exiting with what we call 'poop packets', flying away and dropping them away from the nest. The 'poop packets' are white fecal sacs that the young deposit for the parents to dispose of. We figure there was a least one late hatchling.

One morning, earlier in the week, on heading out the back door, Hubby called me to say the Tree Swallows were fledging. There were more than two swallows swooping and chittering around the yard, and not fighting. The sounds are different if it is a territory dispute, as are the airborne acrobatics they employ to shoo away interlopers. One of the little guys lit on the top of the clothesline pole, a perfect small edition of it's parents. The nest remained somewhat active for a few days, but now is quiet....until I heard a Bluebird calling from up there...our bird or another?? A female joined him sitting up on the box. Tree Swallows are usually 'one and done' when it comes to nesting, but Bluebirds will have more than one clutch in a season. Perhaps they are thinking of taking over that nest box? The hole is slightly smaller than that on the Bluebird box. Sure hope no one gets stuck!

Last night at dusk, the Whip-poor-wills were very vocal. One flew in and landed right on the top rock of the front step.

Hubby walked slowly and quietly out through the screen door onto the verandah and over to stand looking down on the bird through the screen door above the step. The birds are very, very loud at close proximity, and one wonders how they notice predators, as they do maintain their song for several moments in one position before moving on.

Things are really drying out now, as we haven't had any rain since June 4. There is some in the forecast for the near future, and I sure hope it materializes, as I've begun to water the gardens. Everything I've planted so far, has shown itself, and we have gone from the 'not enough' greens stage, to the 'too much' greens stage.

Broccoli are starting to head up, safely under their net cover,

and yesterday the cucumbers were up enough that I got their leaf mulch down.

The bottomless plastic tubs keeps the mulch at bay until the plants are larger. The idea was to have the peas (up the middle) produce and be done before the cucumbers get into serious production. We'll see how that works. The next bed over has tomatoes and a couple of eggplants, and you can see the healthy garlic plants in the next one over from that. The far end of the foreground bed has peppers under shade cloth. They have not enjoyed this stretch of cool weather, and are somewhat pale and stagnant in their growth. 

The red poppies are starting to open by the flagpole,

as are the iris, this one a wild Blue Flag, 

and peony buds are getting fat.

The perennial bed is mulched.

There has been some repositioning, addition and removal of plants, and it is still very much a work in progress. 

It is almost strawberry season, and I spent a fun morning in my sewing/craft room making a couple of these strawberry-shaped, re-usable bags.

And this is the real thing, almost there!

Some kitchen time resulted in a couple of batches of cookie pucks in the freezer for later fresh-baked treats. Someone in this household appreciates cookies, and this way we can bake off a half dozen at a time in the toaster oven, out on the verandah, and have fresh cookies, when the days get hot. 

We had to make a journey south last week, and stopped at Furnace Falls on the Burnt River for a break. 

 This Northern Water snake was on the rocks below the falls.

It was a cool breezy day, but the rocks would have absorbed some warmth for it to enjoy. 

Just a random bush shot of a cinnamon fern with its fertile frond. 

The aftermath, shedding new light and averting disaster....

February 26, 2025

 Lots of blowing, ploughing and shovelling ensued after the second dump of snow on the weekend of the 16th. Then came the slogging to get our trails walkable. I might have overdone that a bit, as the old knees complained bitterly for a few days. Hubby did most of the trail breaking after that! 

Some pictures of the beautiful white stuff.

The garden picnic table after the first dump of snow...

Then after the second dump over the weekend, wind included...

The bare outline of our previously packed snowshoe trail.

Despite the lightness of the snow, it was still fairly heavy going, as one's snowshoes sank a lot. Along one of our trails, Hubby breaking trail in the lead, a sudden flurry and beating of wings, as a grouse exploded from right beneath his advancing snowshoe.

Anyone who has experienced this will know what an adrenaline rush ensues. The grouse was comfortably ensconced in its comfy little  snow cave when we came along. Must be startling for it as well! (I had to darken the picture to see the hole, and if you look closely, you might see it's wing prints on the snow.) That very same day, we actually laid eyes on a Snowshoe Hare in the same area. It took off, running easily on top of the snow, stopping beside the trunk of a big pine briefly, where we got a good look. It's white is just slightly off-white, and when it moves, easier to spot.

There are a couple of deer still up here on the hill, although the snow is a bit deep for them now. This is the furrow their belly ploughs through the snow as they move about. 

Family Day weekend, the weekend of the second snowstorm, our son made it up and gave me pictures he'd taken a few weekends previously. We have a female Pileated woodpecker visiting our bird feeders. She loves the hanging suet cake, and clings to it, pecking out chunks, then drops down to the snow beneath and eats them. This is her beneath the suet feeder, another bird visible flying on the right side. Those are all bird foot prints in the snow.

Family Day, and family pizza...No delivery available up here!

 One of the pot lights in the kitchen started misbehaving, so Hubby has installed new LED lights that are making a huge difference to the lighting out there. Yeah! Happy dance. I'm sure the previous lights were as energy efficient as any that were available at the time of their installation, but Wow..these new ones are wonderful.

As far as the disaster...my computer started making strange cracking noises when attempting to shut the lid. Leaving it sitting with the lid up was not an option. Mr. Fix Anything had a look and found the case was cracked and spreading apart, even though the screws were still there. A judicious application of crazy glue and some clamps. Much better, but I fear that we'll soon be shopping for a new beast.

 

 

The Polar Vortex, trees, deer and pie....Oh my!

 January 18, 2025

We've had a lovely run of cold weather, although today the temperature is just above the freezing mark, and icicles are dripping off the front of the verandah. The Polar Vortex is apparently heading our way later this weekend, so that will firm things up. On our snowshoe walk around the bush this morning, the snow was a bit sticky. It tends to ball up under one's feet on the snowshoe webbing, when it is really mild, and you end up tapping the shoe against trees along the trail to dislodge the lumps. My old-fashioned webbed shoes are much quieter than the modern aluminum and vinyl (?) decked ones, but the modern ones don't have as much issue with sticky snow.

The bush is absolutely riddled with tracks, predominately of deer, but because we've been getting lots of little snow flurries, the tracks are mostly blurred out. One track is distinctive though, that of 'Stumpy'. That is a name we've given to a large deer, probably a buck, whose walking track is well spaced, sinks into the snow further than other deer, and each foot makes holes in the snow the size of a small tree trunk. 

This doe and her fawns show up quite regularly on the cameras..

Here, they are gathered near a salt block we've placed with a camera.
We have had some lovely cold, clear days..

and others, milder with hazy sunshine....

both of which are great for getting exercise and fresh air.

Tree harvesting continues, preparing for the 26/27 heating season. The snow is not too deep, there is only about a foot in the bush so the plough on the ATV keeps the trail drive-able. Most of the beech trees are past their best before date for firewood now, due to the Beech Bark fungus which is decimating Ontario's beech trees, so we've turned to birch, which puts out a decent heat when burned, and they are not long-lived trees. Here and there along the trail, we pick ones that are not in optimum health, and are more accessible.

Timberrrr....

 

This big poplar was more of a handful, but a bit of poplar is better for the 'shoulder' heating seasons, when not a lot of warmth is needed.

The beginnings of the pile behind the barn...

A couple of the latest 'builds' from the sewing room...

Needle books... one for regular sewing needles, and the mauve one for darners used in sewing up knitted goods.

A better solution than rattling around in a little tin box getting their points blunted. 

A bit of mindless crocheting for these dark evenings...

A Tunisian crocheted afghan to use up yarn left over from this Corner to Corner afghan I made a few years ago for our son.

As always, one needs food to keep body and soul together, particularly in the cold weather. The makin's of potato-bacon soup...All the vegetables from my garden.....

And to use up the lemons purchased for Christmas baking, (waste not...want not!) a lemon pie, cooling in the 'back porch refrigerator',

Happy Winter Solstice

December 21, 2024

 Well, this weather is more like it! It is clear and cold at -14C (7F) this morning. The stars are twinkling in the dark velvet of the sky. Last winter was just endured with its rain and mild temperatures. This is Canada...it is supposed to be cold!! 

We have a good base of snow now, and one can see the deer migration trails, clearly grooved into it by all their hooves, in all the usual spots, as they start to migrate through to their winter yards to the south.

(Had to darken this to see the tracks cutting the snowbank and coming across the road.)
With the deer, come wolves, and we heard their long, drawn out howls one day recently.

There is a particularly verdant patch of grass by the pond here, and the deer know, and have been pawing through the snow to snack on it.

In the bush, under any large oak tree that bore fruit this year, the leaves are all scuffled up from the foraging deer eating acorns.
 The season is beginning quite a bit more normally than it did last winter. There is nothing more invigorating than donning ones woollies and heading out into the crisp air.  A new pair of mitts and a hat to celebrate!

Most of the Christmas goody baking is done, and is stored in tins in 'the other fridge'...the shelf in the unheated back porch. The Christmas pudding steamed on the wood stove for a few hours yesterday. It's a beauty, fat and sassy, full of fruit, and carrots and spuds.

The turkey will be coming out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge tomorrow. 

Earlier in the fall, a few days were warm and sunny, and hoping to avoid cooking the contents of the hot frame, I lifted the lid a smidge and propped it there, thinking to keep out the hungry deer. Well, I forgot about the hungry voles....who promptly entered through the crack, and toppled my beautiful row of carrots like little trees, all in a row...and ate the roots.... I should have lifted the lid properly and put the screen in place. Lesson learned!  I was looking forward to savouring those 'candy carrots'. Better luck next year I guess. Yesterday morning, early, when there was just enough light out to see, we watched our resident fox scouting around the garden beds and rock fences. I was cheering him on and encouraging him on the vole hunt!

Another denizen of our bush...

A fisher going by a trail camera, and how Christmassy is this? Deer in the falling snow.

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Christmas.

Header picture was taken at Combermere one morning, with hoar frost coating the trees along the Madawaska river.