ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Sept 21, 2021 8:18:45 GMT
I'm awed by all that you do, Maeve. You are always working so very hard. Thank you for the information about quality bulbs. I like to take my chances with the "bargain" stores. So far, the bulbs I buy produce lovely blooms, which is all I ask of them. You're reminding me that I need to include a look for bulbs, the next time I'm out. It was election day in Canada today. A very expensive and unnecessary election that the prime minister called early, expecting he'd earned extra support with things his minority government accomplished. He was hoping to have a greater number of successful candidates this time around, than last time and be able to form a majority government. Calling an election in a pandemic lost him any goodwill he'd earned. When all the votes were counted, nothing much had changed, except our country is even farther in debt than it was before. Voting was open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.. Since I am a night owl, I stayed up a little longer to be at the voting place when the doors opened at 7 a.m., then came home to sleep. The only thing, other than voting, that I was able to accomplish today was mailing a letter to a good friend on the other side of the border.
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Sept 21, 2021 17:38:40 GMT
Interesting choice for your PM, then. Too bad!
Yes, I buy bulbs in local stores too. Sometimes one manager will (accidentally?) order a bulb offer that includes excellent newer varieties I've waited for. Other times, I find an older variety locally that bigger companies have discontinued.The last several years I have mostly bought in bulk, hoping to have a spring paradise well established before I'm 100. This week's small parcel from Brent and Becky's Bulbs has an assortment of fall blooming crocus- my focus from that company for this year. You may enjoy looking them up, so here's my list (as the Red-bellied woodpecker teenage male squawks outside the window): Crocus speciosus Crocus speciosus 'Alba' Crocus speciosus 'Conqueror' Crocus speciosus 'Oxonian' Crocus ligusticus
That reminds me: before I go mow that too-high lawn, it's time to collect Regale lily seeds- from bulbs given to me 11 or more years ago, by a late friend who owned a local hardware store. Tree peony seeds are about ripe, too. Colchicum are blooming. Adding: I picked many of the Concord Seedless grapes from our arbor. I wound up with ten pounds, most of which I plan to dry for raisins.
Bye for now!
(Megan, I hope all is going well for you and Roy as you stravaig around, back and forth.)
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ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Sept 22, 2021 3:26:23 GMT
Maeve, I've never heard of fall blooming crocus. I'll look them up. Ten pounds is a lot of grapes. I hope they will dry well for you.
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Post by meganl on Sept 22, 2021 10:53:06 GMT
just got back on the late boat last night reception at Roy's is terrible. the boat was horrid at one point there was the ominous sound of breaking crockery, a lot of breaking crockery then one of those car crash moments happened the ones where you see something going to happen and it seems like slow motion but in reality was so fast no one had time to prevent it.
I knew it was going to be rough so I went to the restaurant and managed to get my usual seat that allows me to have a wall at my back and in this instance a table screwed down to the floor and the right size for me to grab both edges should it be needed. just after I heard the first crockery smash the boat lurched as I grabbed my table as I watched in horror as an older man in a wheelchair was tossed to the side the couple with him tried to grab the chair but it landed on its side.
the crew and other passengers were quick to respond well as quick as the pitching and rolling allowed and managed to get him upright once more without serious injury and set about unlocking chairs so his chair could be wedged against the wall with his family chairs on either side no doubt though he will be stiff and bruised today.
hope everyone is safe and well in these troubling times
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Sept 22, 2021 16:50:23 GMT
Heavens to Betsy, Megan, what a shock. I'm glad you had a secure spot of safety and that the gentleman got prompt assistance. I agree- bruises and aches are likely. We are OK here, getting in whatever harvest we can and here's me trying to process and store as much as I can. We are filling the pantry as efficiently as possible, and fully expect to again be restricted from visiting my mother since rates of transmission of the corona virus are rocketing up. Such a strange year or two it's been! Today I pruned out tomato leaves and nonfruiting shoots (the tall cherry tomatoes are still producing) so the last tomatoes will hurry up and ripen before a hard frost. I picked about half of the Hidden Rose apples, doing some summer pruning as I go along, to reduce weight on the branches and let in sunlight better next year. I need to dig two of the potato varieties (Caribe and Carola, if memory serves), but the other three are still growing so I'll give them another week before cutting back the tops so they'll be ready to dig and store in a couple of weeks. And we're mowing... long, juicy grass and weeds from the heavy rains of August. The push mower engines are not happy about it, but until the new used mowing machine for the tractor is repaired that's our only option.
Munstead Wood rose bushes the color of purple-red garnets are to be delivered on Friday (replacements for first-year plants that died under guarantee, and own-root this time so likely to do better), so I'll give them a soak and hope to plant them between raindrops on Saturday!
Best get back out there.
Warm regards to Megan and rags!
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Sept 25, 2021 12:54:15 GMT
Froze 2 gallon bags of kale (more needed), and two of cherry tomatoes. We hauled and stacked firewood, another couple of cords to go.
Today I'm taking several very good house plants to our local swap/recycling center in the village- time for space and light and also making places for future house plant trials. After canning a few quarts of sour cherry pie filling, I'll be baking zucchini bread and banana bread for freezing, after I get several pounds of pears cored and jarred for processing. I still have several dozen peaches to be dealt with, but I found a used small refrigerator for such holding crops, so apples may be next for freezing, drying and canning as sauce. ] The Concord Seedless grapes are slowly transforming into raisins; another 6 hours in the dehydrator should about do it. Oh yes- I must pick the (many pounds of) Frontenac seeded grapes today between rainy weather systems, in which case I do need to clear peaches out of that small fridge to hole the grapes, which may well become juice again. It would be much easier if we had a juicer, but simpler time-eating methods will work again.
The roses arrived in their tidy quart-size pots. They must be planted forthwith with compost and mulch, but after the rains move out so I can dig over the ground first.
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ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Sept 26, 2021 11:05:05 GMT
Megan, your boat ride sounded terrible! I'm glad that you made it across safely. Sad about the man in the wheelchair. I hope that they won't discover more serious injuries. How long will you be able to stay home now?
Maeve, You are amazing, the amount you manage to accomplish every day. I hope the new roses will do well. What will you do with the grass and weeds you've been mowing? Will you dry them and bale them?
I hope that you'll continue to be able to visit your mother, or that the restrictions won't last for long.
I find it worrisome that in spite of a large portion of the population being "fully vaccinated", the disease seems to be flourishing and worse than before vaccines. My area has the distinction of having the most confirmed Covid cases. They are saying that 75% are unvaccinated, but that means that 25% are vaccinated and it hasn't kept them from catching it.
One of my grandsons contacted me two days ago saying he misses me and wants to visit. He has no intention of being vaccinated. I had to tell him he can't come until I'm able to be close to unvaccinated people.
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Sept 26, 2021 22:19:48 GMT
Not so amazing, rags- I didn't have time for baking or grape picking! It took four hours to cut and core the little pears before canning them in very light syrup with a touch of lemon juice and a shake of Chinese Five Spice. The 6 quarts of canned Seckel pears look good though, and what I thought were forgotten frozen sour cherries turned out to be very nice blueberries, so they are now 3 quarts of blueberry pie filling, needing only a crust and cornstarch thickening when pie time arrives.
Usually I use a bagger with my mower, so I can use the cuttings as mulch wherever there is most need. This last time with the very long grass I removed the bagger and used the side discharge chute to sort of aim the cuttings at the beds I was working around. We don't own a bailing machine and our open land is really too small for such equipment. The only way I could bale would be hand raking and tying, and I will not do that. In the orchard the cuttings fall back into the grass roots, making it mulch and fertilizer at once. We leave the wildflowers and clovers to seed out and die back before mowing there.
Regarding vaccinations- you stick to your vaccination boundaries, rags. The vaccines are not designed or expected to prevent the disease, rather they keep symptoms to a non-life-threatening level for most people. I have friends/neighbors who refuse to be vaccinated (although they have other vaccinations!) and they have come to understand I will care about them from afar; they are not permitted to visit us.
Yesterday and last night until noon today was pouring rain ending 3-4 inches with localized flooding before the sun returned. This afternoon we walked down to the beautiful bridge Himself built for my Christmas surprise last year and were happy it still remains where he built it although there is rushing water up to its "gills".
Afterwards I won a soapy battle with a mound of dishes and pots, then ventured forth in similar frame of mind to move our emergency/power outage supplies to a different storage shelf to make room for a full shelf of the aforementioned jars of blueberries and pears, soon to be joined by their brethren. My mother wistfully mentioned how much she loves Seckel pears, both fresh and pickled, so sometime very soon I'll have to process some pear pickles for her. I'll take some of the fresh ones when I visit tomorrow.
Still waiting for attention: the last of the peaches, Seckle pears (2 bushels), Luscious pears (1+ bushel), Hidden Rose apples (2 bushels picked, two more on the tree), Bellflower/Bellefleur apples (on tree), Asian pears, and many, many little red crabapples. In the vegetable gardens there are still 3 kinds of potatoes, cherry tomatoes, kale, chard, peppers sweet and a somewhat hot paprika-type), and beans in flower, and I sincerely hope I'll get out there to plant late season carrots.
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Post by meganl on Sept 27, 2021 8:59:21 GMT
rags hold your ground on vaccinations they have not yet found the golden bullet that will kill covid and it mutates so fast the best we can hope for is to lower the risks. Scotland has about 4.454 million people including children and those who cannot receive the vaccine for medical reasons as of yesterday "4,176,832 people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccination and 3,827,110 have received their second dose" with such high numbers vaccinated it is helping but as long as there are unvaccinated people they will be the breeding ground for new variants that the current vaccine might not be able to help against. I hope to be able to stay till early december barring emergencies hopefully that will let me get the third jab as a booster. Stay safe lass.
Maeve you have been industrious, exhausting but at least you have the pleasure of knowing you are well prepared for winter
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ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Sept 27, 2021 11:14:28 GMT
Thanks for the vaccination encouragement, friends. You make very good use of your mowings, Maeve. I'm sure that your mother will be pleased to have your delicious pears. I hope she is doing well. I hope the weather will cooperate and allow you to complete the tasks that you listed. Megan, the TV news announced today that there is an outbreak in a second area of our local hospital. So far 24 people in the extended care ward and another nine patients, and one staff member, in the Primary Care Medical Unit. There is an order that all hospital staff must be vaccinated by a date in October, if they wish to continue working in the hospital. Some have been protesting vigorously about having medical procedures forced on them against their will, but each of the outbreaks initially included "one staff member", which I find very suspicious. All non-essential surgery has been postponed because hosp[ital beds are occupied by Covid patients. Under the circumstances, I'm happy about the postponement. Even though it's long past time for my first knee replacement, I'm in no hurry to spend time in that hospital. My son in Alberta and I spoke on the phone this evening. They had been watching someone cutting hay on a neighbour's land when the mower came through onto their land and kept going. My son hurried out and managed to stop the mowing. There was a misunderstanding, the machine operator was hired by someone two properties away, who must not have given clear instructions about boundaries. He'd managed to cut on two properties not owned by the person who hired him. A woman living nearby, who has horses, usually cuts my son's hay, takes most of it, and pays him, but he's hoping eventually to be able to get attachments for his tractor to cut and to bale his own hay. Last year he let that woman keep ten or eleven horses in one of his pastures. They were lovely to watch and fun for his children to feed treats through the fence. This year the hay was much taller there than on other parts of his land. My big excitement this past week came from noticing a strange dark object on my back lawn. When I went out for a closer look, it was clearly black bear scat. (Photos available on request ) I know how the bear left my yard. It stepped on the (now broken down) sides of my compost box to boost itself over my five foot high fence, but how, and why, it came into the yard is a mystery. There was no sign that it was eating anything in my yard. My bird feeders are all high above the ground, the raspberries and Saskatoon berries are long gone, and it didn't bother with the vegetable peelings, etc. in another compost box. I asked neighbours on either side if they had seen any evidence of it being into their garbage bins, which are both out at the front of their houses begging for bears to visit. They hadn't. The scat indicated that it was mainly feeding on apples, or crab apples of which there are plenty fallen on the streets and lawns in my neighbourhood. With such easy access to so much tasty food, I guess that bear had no interest in garbage? I regret that I didn't see the actual bear, but that might be a good thing? Today I drove for 45 minutes north of town to join people from my church in an outing to a park with "heritage" significance. My husband was largely responsible for the establishment of the park and and overseeing the restoration of existing buildings and recreation of buildings that had been there over a hundred years ago, but hadn't survived. It was lovely to be able to spend time there, and good that I didn't have to go there alone. I realize that a hundred year old building might be considered a "new build" in your part of the world, Megan, but I live where fewer than two hundred years ago, Indigenous people were the only inhabitants.
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Post by meganl on Sept 28, 2021 16:26:05 GMT
those buildings are lovely as I worked with Dauvit in our Joinery business I appreciate the work that went in to making them. The first house we rented after we got married was built in 1730 by hmmm it was either the son or the brother of the folk that built the leigh( pronounced Lay) which was at the foot of our road. there is a two story house there with an old strippit cottage at its side, the cottage would have been the original house so it would have been built before ours I am so glad I now live in a modern house with insulation. Glad you had other folk with you on the visit .
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Oct 22, 2021 22:47:08 GMT
Sorry, rags- I see I have not yet responded to your lovely post and photos. Thank you for showing us and telling us about this interesting park. How very special it is, particularly knowing some of your connection via your dear husband. It is a fine piece of work to have saved these beautiful old buildings. I too am glad you were with friendly people. A bear would be very interesting although not very welcome here. We have not seen any bears near us, and hope that continues, for there are too many people, barking dogs, and traffic for a bear to be safe here. It's dangerous enough for moose (and anyone who annoys them!). I hope you are left with a good story rather than a confrontation.
Mowing out of property lines is nearly as upsetting as someone lumbering off your woodlot- which has happened to us. I'm glad your son could stop it, and glad the misunderstanding was cleared up.
Megan, I enjoyed learning a bit about the joinery business you and Dauvitt had. Old houses- our cape was built in the late 1700s, as evidenced by the cuts and framing. I too am grateful to live in a newer house now, although a kitchen sink would be quite nice now during harvest and putting by for winter.
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ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Oct 25, 2021 8:48:38 GMT
You both live in areas that were settled by people from Europe long before they settled here. It must be interesting to have so much history to look back at. The Indigenous people have a very long history here. We settlers are learning about their history and their cultures as the slow process of "Truth and Reconciliation" takes place throughout Canada. Maeve, I am usually very cautious about bears. If I venture out into my yard or carport at night I turn on lights and have a good look around before stepping out from the door. I don't wander down forest trails without other noisy people letting the bears know we are coming. Black bears are very good at disappearing if they have a little warning. City bears are not worried by traffic. In daylight one will stand on the side of a road, look around, then dart across. Vehicles slow down and let them cross. The resident foxes wait at the roadside too. I went for a walk by the confluence of the rivers, late in the daylight,Saturday. As I drove away from there I was pleased to see this little fellow where I usually see it, or one of its kin, near dusk. The foxes hunt in the park and return to their burrows in or beyond the rail yard, every evening.
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Oct 27, 2021 20:17:15 GMT
Interesting coat on that little fox. There are so many color and tone variations for foxes! Bears and foxes here are not so traffic aware it seems.
Indigenous culture continues here, yet the threads are so worn and hidden we cannot even trace my husband's grandmother and great-grandmother's people who were just an hour or two northeast of us.
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ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Nov 12, 2021 6:09:34 GMT
Maeve, it's sad that your husband's ancestry has been so difficult to trace. Using a DNA site might help, but only if descendant of his grandmother and great-grandmother's people have also registered to receive matches?
Our weather has been wavering between ground too frozen to dig, and too wet and windy. On several above freezing wet days I managed to replant all the tulips and crocus bulbs that I'd saved when they were revealed while I was weeding or planting geraniums, (about 50 0f each, tulip, and crocus), 40 early double tulip bulbs, and 40 ordinary tulip bulbs. It's a big relief, knowing they are all safely in the ground.
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