Hi Folks B)
I am back in the city for a quick visit and thought I would share some random notes and observations.
1) A drought is a mixed blessing. The mosquito issues we had at the beginning of the summer are mostly gone. There just aren't any places handy for them to breed when it doesn't rain. On the other hand, gardens like rain and are not overly happy with well water being sprayed on them. I have a mostly drought-proof garden and have settled for using the watering can on the most vulnerable species.
2) I made a new garden area and was reminded all over again about the legacy of the glaciers. I dug up a four by six foot square of dirt and got four wheelbarrows of rocks out of it within a two foot depth. I stopped there because I hit bedrock. :o This miserable little area also had yet another chokecherry growing in it and that took the combined efforts of my teen-aged son and me to dig out all the roots in it. This will be yet another of my experiments in seeing what flowering plants will survive both drought and (very) limited light conditions. I am getting tired of hostas and astilbes. I already have lots of periwinkle, bedstraw, ferns and lily of the valley. So, now that the space has been filled with many bags of soil and some new species, I get to wait and see what survives of it next year.
3) The children are getting bolder. We took an expedition to the Georgian Bay side of the peninsula and I had the fun of watching the smallest son bravely jump off a ten foot ledge into the water (a feat for him as he is an extremely cautious lad) only to see him trumped by the ten year old and sixteen year old who climbed up to jump off a fifty foot ledge.
4) Even after thirty years of knowing someone, they can surprise you. I had no idea my husband was terrified of skunks. He had managed to bravely hide this fact from me, but recent events have forced his hand. The next door neighbour discovered that an animal had taken up residence under the cottage. Skunks had been sighted previously. When my father in law was spotted wandering around toting a gun as he fulminated over them, I knew I had to take action. I borrowed a live trap, set it outside the entry point under the cottage and caught and disposed of a female skunk. Now, dammit, there are three lost teenager skunks wandering about in confusion, sowing terror into my husband. So what is the ethical thing to do now?
5) My favourite swimming hole remains safely in legal limbo and the greedy bugger who wants to claim it for his own is still constrained by a judicial order to allow access.
6) There is water at the end of my dock! :D I even have boats tied to the dock again, after a four year hiatus when the water was too low for the docks to even touch the water. Now it may seem odd to get excited about a whole foot of water depth change, but there is something about having a boat actually in the water that just feels right. Edit:
having finally installed a FTP program that works for me, here is what the dock looked like for a while. Forlorn Dock If any of this summers pics look worthy, I will post one to show the contrast.
7) Light pollution is a sin. There is a cottage on the other side of the bay that has an outside light that can make me cast a shadow when I stand at my own waterfront. This wrecks my night vision and makes me unable to appreciate starry nights waiting for moon rise. I have had a quiet word with the owner, but she rents the cottage out and renters are less interested in the neighbours opinions than owners tend to be. This can be cured by dint of changing the angle of the beam, but, in this case, it means some tricky climbing to get to the specific light fixture and I may have to pester some more before that takes place.
8) A question: I logged on this afternoon to try to prevent my characters from expiring. (I always knew I had too many mules.) What is with all the Tristram run games? Is there some new thing that makes this a beneficial area to farm?
I am back in the city for a quick visit and thought I would share some random notes and observations.
1) A drought is a mixed blessing. The mosquito issues we had at the beginning of the summer are mostly gone. There just aren't any places handy for them to breed when it doesn't rain. On the other hand, gardens like rain and are not overly happy with well water being sprayed on them. I have a mostly drought-proof garden and have settled for using the watering can on the most vulnerable species.
2) I made a new garden area and was reminded all over again about the legacy of the glaciers. I dug up a four by six foot square of dirt and got four wheelbarrows of rocks out of it within a two foot depth. I stopped there because I hit bedrock. :o This miserable little area also had yet another chokecherry growing in it and that took the combined efforts of my teen-aged son and me to dig out all the roots in it. This will be yet another of my experiments in seeing what flowering plants will survive both drought and (very) limited light conditions. I am getting tired of hostas and astilbes. I already have lots of periwinkle, bedstraw, ferns and lily of the valley. So, now that the space has been filled with many bags of soil and some new species, I get to wait and see what survives of it next year.
3) The children are getting bolder. We took an expedition to the Georgian Bay side of the peninsula and I had the fun of watching the smallest son bravely jump off a ten foot ledge into the water (a feat for him as he is an extremely cautious lad) only to see him trumped by the ten year old and sixteen year old who climbed up to jump off a fifty foot ledge.
4) Even after thirty years of knowing someone, they can surprise you. I had no idea my husband was terrified of skunks. He had managed to bravely hide this fact from me, but recent events have forced his hand. The next door neighbour discovered that an animal had taken up residence under the cottage. Skunks had been sighted previously. When my father in law was spotted wandering around toting a gun as he fulminated over them, I knew I had to take action. I borrowed a live trap, set it outside the entry point under the cottage and caught and disposed of a female skunk. Now, dammit, there are three lost teenager skunks wandering about in confusion, sowing terror into my husband. So what is the ethical thing to do now?
5) My favourite swimming hole remains safely in legal limbo and the greedy bugger who wants to claim it for his own is still constrained by a judicial order to allow access.
6) There is water at the end of my dock! :D I even have boats tied to the dock again, after a four year hiatus when the water was too low for the docks to even touch the water. Now it may seem odd to get excited about a whole foot of water depth change, but there is something about having a boat actually in the water that just feels right. Edit:
having finally installed a FTP program that works for me, here is what the dock looked like for a while. Forlorn Dock If any of this summers pics look worthy, I will post one to show the contrast.
7) Light pollution is a sin. There is a cottage on the other side of the bay that has an outside light that can make me cast a shadow when I stand at my own waterfront. This wrecks my night vision and makes me unable to appreciate starry nights waiting for moon rise. I have had a quiet word with the owner, but she rents the cottage out and renters are less interested in the neighbours opinions than owners tend to be. This can be cured by dint of changing the angle of the beam, but, in this case, it means some tricky climbing to get to the specific light fixture and I may have to pester some more before that takes place.
8) A question: I logged on this afternoon to try to prevent my characters from expiring. (I always knew I had too many mules.) What is with all the Tristram run games? Is there some new thing that makes this a beneficial area to farm?
"Last seen wandering vaguely, quite of her own accord"
