We had planned to be away on a little road-trip to visit my mom and dad this weekend, but sadly the weather was stormy so we postponed the trip. And since we had not anticipated being home we didn’t make any plans. So instead we just played it by ear.
This first section comes with a warning that it might be uninteresting if you’re not into gardening, so you can just look at the pictures if you want :)
I didn’t plan it this way, but it being Earth Day today, I guess it’s a good time to talk about the garden though.
Not wanting to rake and clean up everything out there yet because there are still frost warnings at night, I am keeping things under a warm blanket of mulch and leaves. But there are still some early spring blossoms making things pretty.
I posted here last fall, talking about our trip to a garden centre specifically to buy bulbs. That was in response to my disappointment with our dreary garden the previous spring. We had lots of tulip leaves come up from bulbs I had planted in previous years, but only a couple of sad lonely flowers. Frankly I really don’t know why some tulips bloom year after year and some don’t, so I just assumed that the old ones were destined to never bloom again.
So we bought a variety of new bulbs last fall, including these red ones. They were included in a mixed bag of early blooming bulbs, and if you’re interested in hearing about what happened to the crocus bulbs that were also in that bag, you can read about it here, (where you will also see a whole lot of cute squirrel business).
All the other bulbs I planted last fall are looking healthy and will be putting on their show within a month. (You can count on me to show you pictures when they do, Earth Day or not!)
So back to this cold week-end, I got all bundled up and headed out to pull up all those leaves from the very old bulbs that hadn’t bloomed in years. I mean who wants the leaves and all their promise, but no flowers? I was just going to pull them all out, but, what I found exciting was that amongst every tuft of those leaves are buds that look very much like they are going to blossom after all. There must have been something about the winter conditions this year, that sent those long dormant bulbs back into blooming mode. Either that or the decade-long composting efforts we have made are paying off in a better nourished yard.
[Aside: when we first moved in here a gardening neighbour took the time to stop by and tell me, as I was out there on my knees planting mums (that immediately died), that the thing our yard needed was an entire new supply of earth. As in, a dump-truck load of dirt would have to be purchased and spread over the yard in order for anything to grow. Insert long-ago disappointed face here. But in truth, as much as I didn’t believe him back then, he was probably right, as the ground was what I now know to be called ‘dead soil’. This was my first garden and I just didn’t know that soil could be dead. But fast forward a decade with two compost bins in constant rotation, and things are looking decidedly more alive out there. ps. if you don’t plan to live in your home for a long time and the soil is not already good, consider planting things in pots.]
I am really not sure where this (empty) snail shell came from and why it’s in our garden. It is about an inch across. Are there really snails in Toronto that walk around with that big thing on their backs, and if so, why have I never seen one out there on the sidewalk? It’s a mystery.
This early bird got the worm.
One more bit on gardening is that, through trial and error, I have figured out how to successfully propagate Forsythia bushes (which are bushes with bright yellow flowers that bloom in early spring, pictured below). If you’re interested in knowing how, leave me a comment and I’ll tell you more.
Alrighty then, moving on from the garden, what else did we get up to on the weekend?
We learned the hard way that we have to drive our car at regular intervals because if we don’t the battery dies. We got our Mustang a couple of years ago and before that we didn’t have a car, so didn’t really know much about the workings of new cars. We don’t drive it every day though, so have to either keep it plugged in, or take it for a spin every so often. So, we took it out for a little drive between bouts of sleet and snow on Saturday. Here’s a snapshot I took out the window of the Princes’ Gate. It is at the entrance of the grounds of our yearly fair, and was built in 1927. If you’d like to see some pictures of us visiting the fair, they are here, including the gate at night.
Back home, I played a bit of Xbox with my furry-friend watching the action from his perch on a pillow on my lap.
Speaking of whom, this guy really has Spring fever these days. His toys are getting the run around like they haven’t had in a long time.
Nick made a pizza for our dinner on Saturday. It had onions, peppers, grape tomatoes, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and olives on it, and his homemade pizza sauce (the recipe for which is here.) Mmmmm good.
We were going to watch a movie on Netflix after dinner but I fell asleep. And then was wide awake at 1 in the morning. I am a terrible sleeper and often grab my Ipad in the middle of the night and read what you guys have to say, so you might see signs of my nocturnal surfing. Your blogs are my favourite things to read late at night. I used to be a magazine junky but since getting an Ipad and discovering this wonderful world of blogs, I have saved significant money that used to go towards magazines.
On Sunday, the weather was clear but still freezing cold. We took a walk to the grocery store. I had suggested that Nick wear a hat but he decided to brave it, and then had to pull the hood on his hoodie. I was wearing this hat.
I guess that’s about it. An uneventful weekend but sometimes those are the types you need once in a while to rest up. And rest up we did do!
Oh yes, and there was some wine drinking in there too. An Australian 2010 Pinot Gris, by Cooralook. It was very nice. (There is only one glass in the picture but we did share the bottle!)
I hope you had a good weekend. What did you get up to?
xo loulou
