The Best Day!

Art in the Garden 2014

A few weeks ago I was able to attend Art in the Garden Tour in Port Moody. This has been something that I have wanted to do when I saw signs posted a couple of years ago and wasn't able to attend. For me this was a double pleasure. Viewing artists and their work and seeing beautiful gardens.

At the beginning the day was not promising. After many beautiful sunny days previously, that day promised rain and it did deliver. It sprinkled on and off but that didn't dampen my enjoyment. It was a wonderful day. It stands out for me as one of the best days I have had in a very long time. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Midway we stopped at the Arts Centre where we learned about worm composting (something I might like to try) and I even bought a subscription to Gardens West magazine. We ate some very good  perogies and than headed out for more. There were a wide range of different art on display from sculpture and pottery to paintings and fabric arts.

My idea of heaven!

These lovely little bird feeders were done by one of the
members of the tri-city potters

Again this earwig house was done by one of the members of
the tri-city potters

Food truck stop

Mmmm, perogies!

Sculpture in one of the most lovely gardens I have ever seen

The view was spectacular

Paintings under the eaves to protect from the elements

Lovely lilies

This was a very interesting heritage food garden

Echinacia

 A beautiful arrangement of hens and chicks

 

Last but not least hydrangea

Trying to keep up

Fresh

I have been very lax at posting anything these days but I have been crazy busy just trying to keep up with my life. Keeping up with the garden, work, family and getting ready (in shape) for my big walking adventure has definitely been a challenge.

I only have five weeks left with my garden until I leave it in my husbands capable hands. I hope anyway. At least he has promised to come out and water and hopefully pick any wayward zucchini.

The garden has been great. The garlic is harvested and drying in the basement. The cucumbers have had a bit of a hiccup this year and now I know what not to do. I started some from seed in my basement but they really really didn't like being transplanted. Never will I do that again. Seeds directly in the soil from now on. Live and learn. I have had a couple of cucumbers so far which is great. The swiss chard also kind didn't grow so I had to reseed.

The peas were the best that they have ever been. We actually had enough to eat peas for a couple of weeks. Oh, were they good!! I had the brilliant idea of planting them along the wire compost and they seemed to enjoy that and it gave them something to hang onto. Along with that of course it hid the compost.

The beans and tomatoes were are just starting to harvest and we have had two zucchini so far. The beets, carrots, kale and lettuce are also doing well. All in all it has been an awesome start to the growing season. Now it is just trying to keep up with it!

A beautiful sight and worth all the work!

It doesn't get any better than this!

Belated Sunday Snaps

These have actually been taken over the last few weeks but have just gotten around to posting!

 

A beautiful hummingbird at the bee balm.

 

 Blue Thistle

Young Bee Balm

 Owl at an abandoned building

 Clematis

A lovely place to sit

Bittersweet Rhubarb

I can never look at a rhubarb plant without thinking about my father.  I promised to make him a pie this year as soon as my rhubarb was ready. My mother hated rhubarb because she got too much of it when she was young so she would never cook it.

I made a wonderful pie with purchased rhubarb a couple of years ago and it was probably the best one that I ever made. He loved it but I still wanted to make one with my own rhubarb. Since this was the magic year three of growth for my rhubarb I was looking forward to harvesting as much as I wanted.

My father passed away in April, before I could make him a pie so it is kind of hard to look at it now. I'm trying to find other uses for it as I don't really have the heart to make a pie right now. I know eventually I will probably make another pie, eat it with friends or family and think of him. I know he wouldn't have wanted me to waste it so I have made some rhubarb jam with rosemary and some rhubarb chutney. I don't know whether he would have approved, he probably would have wanted me to make that pie!

It never gets old (Sunday Snaps)

 It never gets old

 

 Rhodo blossoms

 

 Colors

 

Clematis

 

A wonderful organized garden

 

Creative use of space and cool fence top

 

Garden Art

 Last but not least, the boot

Looking for Spring

Officially it is the first week of Spring so on Sunday I went looking for the signs. I decided to take my wire compost bin to the garden and see how my little plot fared over the winter.

As you can see it is looking great!

For the most part the leaves pretty much stayed on top of the beds and even the garlic is coming up.

The bark mulch is still looking pretty good and I love the way it looks with bits of acorn in it.

After setting up my composter and checking out what is coming up (mostly flowers) I took a walk to search for more signs of spring. They weren't hard to find.

 Hyacinth popping up in my flower bed

 The swallows have returned in full force!

 And the robins too!

Even the boot has survived!

 One of my favorite garden plots waiting

 Reflections in the water soaked grass. We have had a lot of rain!

The beautiful tree shapes near an abandoned building

Sedum Autumn Joy just waiting to burst open

Moss on a tree branch

Last but not least some wonderful colors!

Small batch canning

Over the past winter I have been thinking of better ways to save and use my harvest.

I used to love to can jellies and jams and at one time I made pickles but I don't get enough of anything to make the large batches that the recipes call for. After doing a bit of research online (I love the internet) I found a blog on canning small amounts. Perfect for me because then I can do it as I go and get a variety of things. It looks like an awesome site.

I was so impressed and I had a book credit to use up so I bought this book and am really looking forward to trying a few of the recipes. One I wish I had last year was for green tomato pickles. I had so many last year that I had to pick green and that would have been a great idea as quite a few went to waste. I'm not sure if I like green tomato pickles but if you don't have to make a huge batch it gives you the opportunity to try it first.

I have a big hiking holiday planned this year in September so I'm not sure how much canning I will be able to do but with any luck I can try a few things out.

I love the way everything looks so beautiful in jars.

Yummy pizza!

This I had to share. It is a lovely pizza that is so easy to make and if you are like me you will start making these pizzas yourself they are so good. You can change it up a bit like I did and add whatever toppings you like. The original recipe again I got off Pinterest and here is the link to the website. It looks like there are other yummy recipes there as well.

I think the trick is to not make it too loaded with sauce. For mine I used whole wheat tortilla shells and to that I added some of my home made pesto sauce (from last years garden) along with some olive oil. I then spooned over a thin coating of pizza sauce, some thin red peppers, capers, sun dried tomatoes (in oil) chopped. After you have added your toppings I put a sprinkling of romano cheese, just cause I like it instead of parmesan and a sprinkle of pizza cheeses. Not too much. You don't want it to be too heavy.

Place pizzas directly on rack in oven that has been preheated to 375˚. Bake for 7-8 minutes. You might want to put a drip pan underneath in case the edges fall a bit.and the cheese drips. Thank you Daydream Kitchen!

Spring is coming...

Well, it has been an interesting winter. I thought we were almost going to get off scot free with no snow but Mother Nature decided to intervene. I can't say I wasn't expecting snow but I was sort of expecting it a bit earlier, like December or January.

I took these shots in February and it was beautiful. Still wet but green. 

So lucky to live near this beautiful walk!

Gate near Bert Flynn Park

Bert Flynn Park

Scarecrows at a deserted community garden

A few weeks later I awoke to this. 

View outside our back patio two weeks ago

It is pretty though but hard to get too excited about gardening when it looks like this. We even had to get out the snow blower!

It has all melted now and I have gathered up leaves from the flower beds in the back and put them in bags to take down to my compost at the community garden when I go. Not sure when that will be as it is very very wet. I haven't been quite as excited about things yet this year but I'm sure it will come. I guess there is too much going on for me at the moment but hopefully things will change and settle down soon.

Spring is coming..... I know it is. I saw my first hummingbird in the yard this week.