The Great Outdoors

When the heck did it become July 26th? Summer seems to be zooming by and I'd be hard pressed to say how I've been spending my time. Today, I awoke to a cool, drizzly morning. When I got dressed, I put on shorts, and a long sleeved top. It just felt too chilly for short sleeves. After the light rain passed over, I got outside to do a little weeding in my vegetable garden and a perennial bed. My goal has been to dig out the "baby" trees that have shown up where they shouldn't be. Many of these are walnut trees, no doubt planted by squirrels. The others are what I call Manitoba maples. Yesterday I got started on some and had to call on my husband because they were just too difficult to dig out. Well, naturally a small job became a big job and after much cutting, lopping, digging, and loading up of the Gorilla cart (three times) and dumping in the burn pile, most trees were gone. They had grown up in and around a giant old mock orange and some other shrubs.

I set my sights on smaller trees that had to go. I didn't start without my two best friends:

-gardening gloves and bug spray!

I managed to get rid of a few more, although there was one that I must confess I just cut off close to the bottom. I never would have been able to dig it out without a complete massacre of all plants and shrubs around it. I also tackled some basic weeding.

With those jobs being done, I moved on to the next one. It is an apple year with our old apple tree which only produces every two years. Someone else is also aware that it is an apple year.

Now, don't get me wrong, they can eat as many apples as they want. We don't use them as they are too tiny, sour, and insect ridden for us. However, they don't stop at apples. They enjoy beans, peas, and parsley.

They apples need to be raked up so that the grass can be properly cut. As well, they quickly rot and attract wasps. I got my rake and tackled the job.

The apples get raked into piles.


Then, the apples are scooped up and loaded into the Gorilla cart (what would we do without that thing??) and pulled by the lawn mower and dumped elsewhere. This process will continue several times throughout the summer until the apples are done dropping from the tree.

I did stop to admire my window boxes. They are doing well now, filling in nicely.

I really like creeping jenny in window boxes and urns. It makes them look so feminine and pretty.

Did I mention how much I love crocosmia? It is the reedy looking plant with the red flowers.

I came in to have a snack (and to bandage up a blister that I still managed to get even though I was wearing gloves), and then naturally it started to rain. So I did not get the raked apples loaded up into the cart yet, but they'll certainly be waiting for me when the rain does eventually end.

Guess who isn't the least bit bothered by the rain?

Welcome, Spring!

Here are some hopeful signs from two or three days ago. I think we might actually be enjoying spring and that it is here to stay.

Forsythia is just beginning to bloom. I have this type of shrub in three locations around the property. Very pretty right now, not so thrilling later.

There are little wee clusters of tiny purple violets in the lawn. They're so delicate and such a nice shot of colour.

Peonies are emerging with their wine coloured feathery tops rising up over last year's stalks.

Hostas are just starting to poke up in a new bed that I planted last year. I'm hoping for even bigger clumps this year.

The pink hydrangea from that same bed are also showing some nice growth.

Early tulips are putting forth leaves.

The rhubarb is even bigger now.

Husband and I cut down some dying / dead scrubby little trees and lilacs from the edge of the property, cleaning things up nicely. The bigger trunks will be cut up to add to our firewood. The more branchy stuff goes to the burn pile (which will be a towering inferno if we're not careful).

Since I took these pictures, things have greened up even more. The air is full of birdsong and it just feels lovely.

Speaking of birdsong and on a completely different note, Husband and I were sitting on the front porch after work this afternoon, telling each other about our days and just relaxing. I saw Scooter the Cat with No Tail coming along the rail fence. I could tell he had something in his mouth and it looked big, but I couldn't see clearly because of the fence. At first, I thought it was a black squirrel because there was so much on either side of his face and it seemed to still be moving. The cat kept trotting along, coming toward the house. Of course, I shouted to my husband to do something, but by the time the cat came up to the front walkway and husband got up to "do something", we could see it was a bird. He had the bird more or less by the head and both wings were stretched out, very much alive and moving. I don't like the thought of animals suffering and the cat just came right up the steps onto the porch where I wanted Husband to pick the cat up and force him to drop the bird. The bird, by the way, was a mourning dove. They are not small birds.

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The cat saved us the trouble. He opened his mouth and the bird flew out, scattering small feathers across the porch. The cat turned to look at us with a couple of small feathers still stuck in his mouth and whiskers. I think he was so proud to have caught this bird that he was bringing it for his humans to see and the whole thing just backfired on him.

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This is likely what I would have done:

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Actually, Scooter is black and white, much like Sylvester the Cat (except of course, with no tail).

                                    Looks rather innocent there, doesn't he?