2022 Is plodding along

[ragdall]

Here in western Canada, we've survived two whole days of Daylight Savings time, adjusting to getting up an hour earlier. We're looking forward to next Sunday when we will celebrate the Spring equinox and will be told that it's Spring, even though there is still two feet of snow covering most of the lawn on the north side of my house, and, beside the road, even higher piles of snow turning to ice that was pushed up there to make the road passable after deep snowfalls.

The south side of my house brings me hope of future warmth and sunny days, with the emergence of short sprouts from the crocus bulbs and tulip bulbs that I planted along the house in the fall. Swans and geese should be returning to our part of the world very soon.

[maeve]

What a realistic and lovely description!  Yes, we still have snow here, although not at the levels you are seeing.  Our ground is still frozen with no sign yet of the bulb shoots we shall see in a few weeks.  However, chickadees, cardinals and bluebirds are all singing spring songs.  For only the second year in a row we are battling the House "sparrows" who are invasive finches who want all of the bluebird houses but won't be allowed to nest in any.  I saw the first skein of geese a couple of weeks ago, and my husband saw several flocks yesterday, when out cutting firewood.  We've seen returning flocks of ducks as well as the geese, and while we have overwintering eagles, a returning group of five was calling and soaring overhead yesterday morning- two adults and two juveniles.  Let's see... oh yes, osprey have also returned.  I see someone down in Washington DC has introduced a bill to keep Daylight Savings Time all year 'round.

 We have a Ukrainian flag flying in our grape arbor, and I have researched plantings using Ukrainian favorites (medium height sunflowers (for seed), wheat, shorter sunflowers (for cutting) and cornflowers intermixed with red annual poppies) as a display /cutting garden.  I may use Purple Majesty millet between the taller sunflowers and the wheat, then the other annuals in listed order.  I'd like to plant a decent area of hull-less oats for our use in a separate block, if I can work up the soil there sufficiently with good compost and my broadfork.

Greetings to rags and Megan.

[ragdall]

Is Ukraine part of your heritage, or are you flying the flag and planting Sunflower seeds to express your support for people under siege? It is a very sad situation.

The ice is breaking up on one of our rivers:



Breaking up

Mallard Drakes (and a duck) seemed to be holding a meeting along a backwater with open water and safe from the ice floes. Hundreds of ducks have overwintered, fed by volunteers from a hunting organization.

[maeve]

We are human, so we support other humans in need. My ancestry (as far as known beyond American) is Scots, Irish, German and French with very likely additions of other cultures, skin tones, and nationalities along the long way. Friends in Czech Republic have family members in danger in Ukraine, which gives us a deeper understanding than we might have simply from news stories.

I feel for that poor lone Mallard hen stuck with so many drakes! Lovely photos!

[ragdall]

One of my descendants was married in the Ukraine in recent years. The spouse now lives in Canada but their family lives in Ukraine. I am very sad about what is happening to their beautiful country and the people there.
My dear husband came as a refugee from a neighbouring country, as a result of conflict there involving Russian aggression. It's horrible that the cycle repeats over and over.

The Mallard hen seems quite content. I believe that the closest drake is her mate. There are many other pairs among the hundreds that are in that area. I'm wondering if the group of drakes are all young bachelors?

[maeve]

Yes, you have ample cause to empathize with all people yearning for peaceful lives.

Snowdrops are finally up. No other glimpse of green, and a continuing fiercely cold wind reminds us to be patient.

[ragdall]

It has been warming here during the days. Along the south wall of my house, crocus are ready to bloom and the tulip leaves are getting longer every day. I need to remember to take my camera out to photograph them.

[maeve]

C-C-cold here still. Snowdrops are starting to open and I saw one little green daffodil tip but that's about it. In theory, a friend will stop by to measure for endwall materials for my greenhouse. We'll see if it happens.

[ragdall]

Hi Maeve, I hope it's getting warmer now? Did your friend have a chance to measure for greenhouse materials?

[maeve]

It's a bit warmer. Still need a fire in the wood stove each morning and often another in the evening. Friend stopped by to measure but it was hard to follow his plan- easily distracted person- and who knows when we can buy the materials.

[ragdall]

It looks as if, after another snowfall last week, we will be getting some spring weather now. I hope you're warming up too, Maeve.

April 19th


Yesterday it was spring

[ragdall]

Today I saw the first bees this season, working through the crocuses that are blooming in my garden.

[maeve]

Well rags, since we seem to be posting garden information here, I wanted to mention that you may find this new truly perennial digitalis/foxglove to work well. It is said to bloom all summer and into autumn, grows to about 2 feet tall and a bit wider,  it self-seeds true to the original plant, and is just so pretty.

We found five small starts at a discount to make a wee colony of them along with native wildflowers and narcissus in one of the gardens.

 Arctic Fox Rose Foxglove - Digitalis hybrida

[ragdall]

Maeve, the Arctic Fox Rose Foxglove looks very beautiful. I haven't had foxglove for many years. I don't know why? Maybe they are not suited for a northern climate? Growing up in Vancouver (aka the banana belt of BC),they were always in the family garden.

I checked the links for the Arctic Fox Rose Foxglove. Sadly, it shows it as being rated for a much warmer climate than I deal with.

I am in the process of planting my geraniums outdoors that I overwinter in basement window and realizing that I am not really able to take care of them well enough anymore. I enlisted the help of my twenty-year old grandson to plant twenty of them along the front and back of the house, last week, the day before he had to fly back to the gas pipeline camp where he works three weeks a month. Yesterday, I planted fourteen more in my window boxes, along with petunias I bought at the nursery. The geraniums all look spindly and badly neglected.

[ragdall]

First walk in the woods after the winter ice melted, my son took me out to look for Calypso bulbosa "lady-slipper" orchids:

May 28, 2022
Calypso