back at it...

It didn't take long for me, once I smelled the soil and spotted the plug trays, to want to get to planting..., and the day it was set up us die-hards were there at the planting table. It's the only part of the greenhouse season I can't miss out on - the first in years being last year at this time, when my mother was in hospice. I feel disjointed if I don't plant.
I don't mind the cold temperatures of January and February because they usually come with bright sunny days, and crystal clear starry nights. March and April are often dreary, dirty, damp, cold, and generally miserable. To spend those two months surrounded by warm soil under a blue sky roof - who could complain?

The last thing I expected to do this year was be back at work. I knew I would plant, and "hang around".... but, commitment wasn't something I was entertaining. It turns out I just don't know how to sit still, no matter what is holding me down.

Euphorbia graminea ~ Diamond Frost

Grief - of this kind especially, is defeating. There isn't a day, a moment, a conversation, a thought, that passes without Finn heavily on my mind. As much as it weighs on me I've come to conclude it also gives me strength. In a strange sense, I've never felt more empowered. I'm all too aware that worse could happen, the tension in my gut won't let that go - but, there aren't too many lower lows than what I've experienced in the past year.

I'm still standing.

The clarity that comes with the energy of being in the greenhouse again has helped in so many ways. My focus on our new garden is pretty clear; I even know how we're going to solve the new-garden-no-vegetable-bed problem so that once outdoor planting weather finally arrives I'll have some place to get my seeds dirty. (stay tuned)

I've already decided to focus on the trees, learning about our new trees, pruning and disease concerns of our new trees, adding birdhouse and feeders to the yard, dividing/moving/transplanting favourite perennials from Pearl, moving/transplanting favourites from around the new garden beds, and the addition of rose bushes.

The rose bushes I add this year will fill our yard with my mother's favourite childhood scent thanks to the wind sweeping across the Port Arthur Ridge to and from Lake Superior. By autumn I hope the yard will display some sort of transformation from bland to beautiful, useful, prosperous, and fruitful.

My father's scientific mind, my mother's artful eye, and my precious son's energy are a part of everything I do now. They'll grow in ways their bodies couldn't, and my only hope is that what comes of it makes a positive impact on the small parts of this earth I can help.

Big Boreal Adventure

Big Boreal Adventure

There are 35 of these cedar posts around Thunder Bay, each topped with a plaque designed by a local artisan depicting relevant nature-based images. Refer to your free guidebook (available at Thunder Bay Public Library locations) to learn more about each location, as well as clues on getting there. Guidebooks also include blank pages for rubbings at each post.
This is such a clever way to encourage people outdoors, and to explore the incredible nature trails within the City. It's sort of amazing that these places exist between the lanes of Thunder Bay traffic - between a place filled with lousy drivers and ignorant "specials," but it does. Tranquil is one word, a deep breath is a feeling. Sometimes I wish more people around here appreciated these places as travel routes, ...but most times not - for as well travelled as they are they are still underappreciated, even unknown, to so many in #TBay.
They've also now included geocaching - with GPS units available through the TBPL - something perhaps I'll rope in T & W to explore in. ;)

The new trees along the McVicar Creek recreation trail are amazing, simply amazing. Imagine this path in a few years when those maples gain a little weight. I walked this path every day to and from work for years year round; my love changed and grew in so many ways every day.

If there is anything in Thunder Bay that people need to appreciate more, this is it. How lucky are we to live here, and to have this steps away from home? Peace in the City.

Favourite Trees of Waverley Park I

24 September 2012

an edible back lane

Our back lane.

Yesterday, R built a new fence & gate along the back of the dog run. With that I now have a gate that I can open (the previous one was wobbly and tied together in such a way I couldn't manage it on my own), and access to the back lane.

M salvaged one of the pieces of the old fence to use as part of a fort for her two adventurous little men - it can be seen in this photo leaning against her back fence. She has plans for back lane raspberries, while I have plans for pumpkins. What will be next? Back lane chickens? ...we could only wish..

tbay urbanforestry

A favourite tree
on Court Street, across from Safeway

fowl-less waterfront habitat

Prince Arthur's Landing
15 March 2012

Considered in the waterfront's rejuvenation was a well considered planting plan, deterring geese naturally: smart and pretty. #TBay

Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning swooped into the front garden late Monday afternoon while R was at a meeting. It brought cold beer and a rake, and took about half and hour to make a disaster of it all, and another hour to clean it (ish) before R returned and we went on with our never ending list of things to do.

I feel a huge relief for doing it, but also slight unable to move comfortably - in a good way, bad but good - not sick bad in any way, which if fine by me. My body just wasn't prepared for the sudden session of garden yoga. I cleaned back to the mass of ferns, and broke them down as mulch - that seems to have kept the ferns going thus far, so we shall just continue. Everybody else seems to be returning with enthusiasm.

Lady's Mantle
from Heather's garden

Pulmonaria, Lungwort & Heuchera 'Lime Marmalade

Columbine, 'Songbird Goldfinch'

I planted peas on the weekend: mammoth sugar heirloom, two rows of early snap, one sugar pod, and one sugar daddy. Short rows, but enough to enjoy an early harvest, then move on with the space. They're planted in our micro-climate nook, which has been ready for seeds for weeks. I'm brave enough, are you?
Peas like cool soil, cold even - and can tolerate light frost and snow. Pansies too, and radishes, lettuce too.

We have peas and lettuce coming, radishes soon, just had to find the seeds...

I can not wait to start digging in the new bed.., just a matter of time.

I've decided that the greenhouse is going to thoroughly consume me this year with dirty green wonderfulness, and I'm just going to let it have its way with me. I'm going to try to photo document as much as I can without being a pain, and getting the job done, and not killing my iPhone ...what a blessed thing the iPhone is.

reflect