Spring is on the Way

 I've been able to do some work in the garden this past few days.  Although I have aches and pains by the end of the day, it's a great feeling to finally get outside.  Today it's -4 c so I'll not likely get much done today.  I have two large sheds that are packed with all sorts of stuff.  One of the projects once the weather warms up is to go through them both and start getting rid of things I don't need.  I'm a bit of a  pack rat I'm afraid.

We've had a brush of snow overnight which disappeared as the day wore on with much the same prediction for the next few day.   Well it is April and we can't expect much different.  

The work on the small bedroom is finished and it looks wonderful.  Now I have to get one end of the deck replaced as the wood has rotted.  I also need to get a few heavy tree branches cut and two shepherds hooks that a bear hauled bird feeders off last year and bent the hooks to the ground.  I'm hoping these can be straightened out. 

A gift made by my daughter.  A deer head made of bits of driftwood she finds on the beaches and bits of mosses she finds in the woods.  

It's been a while.

 The other day I was telling a friend that I use to blog at one time and this got me to go back and have a look at Wytchwood Ramblings.  This inspired me to start again although my life seems so uneventful that it's hard to know what to write at times.

This past few days, as my Grandmother would say, I'm in slings.  I'm getting the smaller of my two bedrooms renovated so this means that everything had to be taken out of that room, and believe me it was an awful lot of stuff.  My house is small so now there is just room enough to get through it.  I'm so looking forward to it being finished.

As I'm an older woman living alone, I find the winters here hard on me.  The shoveling and hauling wood in every day in particular takes it's toll.  My joy are the crows.  I have twenty to thirty plus coming each day at daybreak for their breakfast. When they see me come out the door with their food, the place goes up.  Oh how I love it. 

I had an amazing visitor in the garden last week.  A Northern Goshawk.  A big, fierce bird.  A magnificent creature.  I was able to get this photo.

There's still patches of snow on the ground and not much above zero each day.  I'm longing to get out at the garden again.  Soon hopefully.

Month of March

After a winter, so far, with very little snow, we've been dumped on this past two days and it's still coming down.  Well over a foot of snow so far.  Thankfully there hasn't been much wind.  My body is a wreck from shoveling.  I was outside at six a m this morning hoping to get a start on it all over again, not realizing that it was still coming down.  I did the steps and a pathway to the door then came back inside.  I'm now waiting for daylight so I can clean off the feeders and put food out for the birds.  There were loads of birds here all day yesterday looking for something to eat.  I put food out a few times during the day.  I suppose it's difficult for them to find food with all the snow covering the ground and trees.

Still, you can sense that spring is not far off now.  For a gardener like myself this brings  a feeling of excitement.  I even brought all my seed packets out of storage a few days ago to plan on what to start inside. 

I've had some leaks coming through the roof on the back part of the house.   This will be taken care of once the snow goes and the weather warms up a bit.  The back deck is starting to rot so that will also have to be re built.  I suppose after almost forty years, I can't complain. 

Here's some recent pictures.

Morning Visitors

Some of this mornings visitors.

This little squirrel is peeking out of the tree trunk where she's building a nest.  I've been watching her bring bits of plants inside.

I've been making another sign for the garden.  I'm getting anxious for spring these days.

Imbolc.

Not quite the end of winter for us but it's been looking very hopeful.  We've had unbelievably mild weather off and on this season.  Above zero temperatures on many days including today.  I've not had to shovel snow very much which in itself is a blessing.  And here we are, into February and a short month at that!  Yes, I've been thinking of spring and planting, moving plants from one spot to another, weeding, cleaning up the beds, etc.  I always feel and have said many times that once we're into March, hope is in the air. 

So...there's a squirrel making a nest in one of the Aspen trees.  I saw her today going in and out a hole in the tree, bringing bits of greenery inside.  There have been lots of Juncos here most days and of course Chick a Dees.  Not many Jays which is strange. 

Some pictures I've taken this week.

Malachi

I believe this is the squirrel I've seen nesting.

Nice to see the Woodpeckers around again.  I was missing them for a while.

And a little beauty of a Hawk here one day.

The new year and snow.

We had a great respite from winter when we had a spring thaw a couple of weeks ago.  Just about all the snow disappeared and it had me thinking about stuff to do in the garden come spring.  Alas, it didn't last and now everything is white once again.  I woke up to more snow overnight so I'm now waiting for daylight to go outside and shovel steps, deck, pathway and driveway.  Also have to get some of the snow off roof and shed roof.  The only good part is that I'm getting lots of exercise.

Lots of little Juncos around these days.  I was a bit concerned as I hadn't seen any woodpeckers or squirrels in the garden for some time.  Usually they are here all the time summer and winter.   Lately I've been seeing some at the feeders which gives me great relief.

The cats, of course, are grumbling about the snow.  They don't go out very often and spend a good part of the day sleeping.  The youngest one will occasionally race through the house jump up in the air and land on one of the older ones.  Trying to release some of his energy I expect.

A couple of snow shots.

The End of 2017.

My father passed away in mid December.  He was 97 years old so lived a long life.  He was only in the hospital for a couple of days before he died and didn't suffer any pain.  I went into the city to stay with my  mother for a while.  She's doing really, really well.

Christmas was very quiet.  I didn't have my usual Xmas Eve party but did decorate to some extent.  New Years Eve saw me in bed before eight pm, read for a while then went off to sleep.  I was awakened around midnight by the sound of fire works going off down on the beach.  Years ago they would fire rifles off to bring in the new year but now it's fire works.

This past few days we've been having an unusual spring thaw.  Yesterday the temperature when up to eleven degrees.  It's put me into an excited spring mood but I have to stop and tell myself that winter has hardly begun here yet.  It's nice to see most of the snow gone though. 

Here are some recent pictures.

My Angel collection.

A box I painted as a gift for a friend.

A new addition to the Xmas stuff.  I saw him and just couldn't resist that face.

The Tree.

The Cat.

The Crows.

About Bears and Stuff.

A funny thing happened today, well we did have a bit of snow but that wasn't it.  My computer was giving me problems so I shut it down.  Then I thought of a tablet that my brother had given me for Xmas last year that I had put away on a shelf.   I used it once if I remember correctly.  So I decided to give it a go.  I wanted to use messenger on face book to get in touch with my daughter.  I'm not all that savy when it comes to computers or indeed tablets.   I managed to get the facebook page and then I had to install messenger.   My head was splitting by the time I got that done.   In fact I was feeling quite flushed.  So I was writing her to say I was using the tablet as I had shut the computer off.   You know, and I can't believe it, I was so frustrated that I couldn't figure out how to make the spaces between the words.  The letters were small enough that I had to touch with my fingers and I was looking for an icon to make a space.  Well, not finding one I sent the message off looking garbled and all one long word with a couple of mistakes.   I finally, of course, realized that there was a space bar there so wrote the message again saying "I'm using the bloody tablet."  I didn't have that written out when the phone rang....it was my daughter, who had read the message and was quite concerned, thinking I might be having a stroke.   It was hilarious!

It's gotten quite chilly now.  I don't think it got much above zero today.  A grouse has been coming to the garden most days lately.  And last month a few bears came to the garden.  Not all at once but over the space of a couple of weeks.  Wildlife caught two of them in a live trap and transported them further away.   It's usually May and October when I see them.  Gorgeous creatures.  I managed to get two photos of one but not very good pictures.  One by the deck and one of him going off towards the woods. 

He was standing up with paws on the railing sniffing the air but just as I was about to take the picture he was getting down. 

And the grouse.

This Past Year!

It's hard to believe that 2016 is coming to an end.  It's been a stressful year for a few reasons.  April brought leaks in the ceiling in two rooms.  Called for an estimate on fixing the problem and the quote was $6,000.00.  I simply couldn't afford that price so when summer arrived I bought some sealant and did around each shingle with hopes that it might help.  I really don't have much hope for it as that part of the roof is on a very low slope and when the snow piles up and the heat from the house gets up through, the snow starts melting and the water can't run off so the water seeps in through the shingles.   Next year I'll have to come up with something else.  Maybe a thick coating of tar.

I had a dental appointment in early spring because some pieces were chipping off the bonding I had done on my front teeth many years ago.  This wasn't the first time this happened and was repaired.  The dentist told me that as this was happening more often I'd be better off getting those teeth extracted and get a partial plate to replace them.   As he's also a dental surgeon and I'm a frightened mess anytime I have to see the dentist, he said he could remove them at the hospital while I was under anesthetic.    After giving it a lot of thought, I decided to go ahead and have them taken out.  The appointment was made for June.  So, saw the denturist and went through the procedure of having a partial plate made at the cost of just over $1,000.00.

Then, my doctor asked me when I last had a mammogram.   Good heavens, I said, about twenty years ago.  He said he was making an appointment to have one at the hospital.   I think this was in July and I had the appointment in early August.  Anyway, it doesn't matter the date.   So after that I got a call from the doctor's office saying he wanted to see me.  Something showed up in one of my breasts and they wanted to do a more in depth mammogram and an ultra sound on that breast.  Back I go to the hospital and have that done.  The report came back that they couldn't figure what it was so wanted me to see a cancer surgeon.  Went to see him, he examined me and said he couldn't feel anything but wanted to do surgery on the breast and take out what was showing up.  Now it was getting scary.  I didn't know what to think or do.  My mind was going in all directions thinking what I would do if the news was bad.  I'd have to leave here and move closer to a hospital, etc, etc.  I didn't have to wait long.  Everything happened so fast after the results of the first mammogram.  My daughter came to stay with me and take me to the hospital, etc.   I don't know what I would have done without her.   I had the surgery and now it was a waiting game.   I got an appointment with the surgeon within days.  Went to the appointment, very stressed out.  When I saw him he said all was well, it was a benign cyst.  What a sign of relief.  He said it was nice to be able to give someone good news. 

Whew!  haven't talked so much in ages.  So, all is well and as usually once fall came in I started preparing the house and garden for winter.  All done!  At least as much as there's going to be done. 

A picture I took the other day of the Pet Cemetery, or part of it.  Some lovely moss and the Phlox still showing but certainly on it's way out.

A few in the House. Oct 28, 2017

Long, long Winter

It's been a bit of a rough winter.   We had a lot of snow, I'd say parts of the garden had four to five feet on the ground.   The park benches that I have were no where to be seen as they were hidden under the snow.   There's still a bit around but most of it has finally disappeared.   Temperatures are down most days.   I woke up this morning to the trees covered in glitter from the freezing rain that fell and the deck was slippery with ice.

I've come to the conclusion after going through this winter that I'm going to have to invest in another source of heat other than the wood stove.   I find with each year now that it's harder on my body to be lugging wood in a couple of times a day from down in the driveway.  Climbing on the roof every so often to clean the chimney is no fun either when there's a bitter wind blowing.   Also, the back part of the house which is a relatively new addition, has an almost flat roof so ice dams build up with all the snow and it causes leaks in the ceiling inside.  The ceiling is ruined at this point.  I've gotten up on the roof after each snow fall to try to get as much snow as possible off but it still leaked.   I'm going to have to find a roofing company to give me a quote on what can be done to prevent this happening in the future.   It's going to be an expensive year.

There's more activity in the garden now.   I didn't have many Blue Jays over the winter months but they've come back and are courting.   A grouse has been showing up most days.  It picks at the seeds that have fallen from the feeders.  It's a sweet bird.

Last fall I cleared a bit of ground to make a Fairy Garden.   Over the winter I've made five stone houses and a half dozen mushrooms out of clay which I then painted.   I'm anxious to get going on it once all the snow has gone and the ground dries up a bit.

I imagine the cats were as disgruntled as I was with the winter.   All has changed now because they can get outside whenever they want.   I'll soon be doing spring things like cleaning up the beds, etc.  I'm so looking forward to it.

Tommy enjoying a bit of sun.

Overcast Friday.

Woke up to a brush of snow on the ground this morning and temperature at one degree.   I wasn't long putting a fire in the wood stove.   It was a wee bit nippy in the house.

My daughter came for a visit last week and stayed for five days.   I really enjoyed the visit.  Too bad that it was wet and miserable for most of the time.  She brought me a couple of great gifts.   She's a wee bit like me when it comes to strange stuff.

The cats are a bit ticked off with regards to the weather.   They've been inside sleeping more than usual.  Malachi was out on the railing the other day in a light rainfall.   He was not happy but wouldn't come in.   He had a terrible grumpy look on his face.

A few pictures taken last week.   Nothing terribly exciting.