Trudging Around My Garden

Your thermometer in your garden might be registering 23°C--and so is mine! But that's quite a different 23°, on the opposite side of zero. Shoulda taken a picture of that!

How fondly I remember February in Vancouver, with snowdrops and crocuses, pink buds of rhododendrons, birds gone wild, singing madly. The ground soggy, but green. This is the brightest spot in my Brampton garden:


Am I bitter? Never!

My mom is spending the days with us now, as she recovers from the insertion of a pacemaker to keep her heart from leaping wildly from 50 to 170 beats per minute. I'm sooo glad to be able to keep her company and help in a small way. We're reading David Copperfield aloud as a family and I think she's enjoying it.

And boy, we don't let the snow stop us from getting out into our little garden. Sebastian's shovelled a path around the perimeter so that we can throw the Kong around for Moxie.


All is well and we're patient.

Now get yourself over the Sheila's and see what's happening in her garden:
http://greenridgechronicles.blogspot.com/2009/02/perambulating-in-garden.html

Interiors

More than thirty years ago, I pasted this cheap and cheerful paper onto the walls of my laundry room.

I couldn't have known that 4,500 km away, someone thought it would be just perfect for the long wall in their living/dining room. After bitching about it for over 6 months, we finally rolled up our sleeves and did this:

And this:


After Sebastian washed and primed the wall I was truly on the hook, so I picked my colours and invited the family over to help with this:


That's my incredibly hard-working brother Bob, cheerfully finishing up that evening. Thanks also to Emil, my brother-in-law, who was volunteered for the job, and laboured like Hercules nevertheless.

How I obsessed over that colour. For months I sat in libraries scanning decorating books and mags for colour ideas, worried that I would pick something and hate it later. I wanted a calm room with light colours, but felt hamstrung by our humongous black couch. When I found Shadow Grey and Sweet Innocence by Benjamin Moore, I worried that it would be too dark. But as it turns out, it was an inspired choice: greys with just a touch of blue. The long wall is a little darker and the lighter wall colour ranges from violet to charcoal depending on the light and angle but it's hard to see in the photos.




It's just the beginning, of course. I'm just starting on freshening up the paint on the baseboards and we have plans for stripes on the end wall in the dining room. Then it's fabrics for drapes and pillows, moving up the piano, looking for art, a mirror, side tables and lamps, maybe a rug. I don't know how long it all will take, but it feels so good to finally start to make this house our own.

Wordless Wednesday

Moxie Crimefighter

The Family Salm Grows

If you've ever taken on the task of raising, housebreaking, training, cleaning up after, entertaining, worrying about and paying for, a new puppy, you'll know I'm a little pressed for time. And stressed out. Bijou's Moxie Crimefighter lies sleeping for the moment at my feet. But not for long.

Sure, she looks sweet. But what you don't see is those razor-sharp teeth that she obsessively tries to attached to anything that passes. Your ankles. Your couch. Your down-filled ski jacket. Your snow boots. Yes, even sprayed with "Bitter Yuck," those boots are irresistible.

Did I mention ankles? And fingers? And the soft, fleshy part behind-the-knees?

The Garden Grows

My new neighbour asked me the other day how the painting was coming along inside the house and I had to confess that other than the inside of the kitchen cabinets, nothing at all had been done. But that is only because we've been working on the outside instead. Do you remember this from July?


Well, a few weeks ago, it looked like this:


And now we have this:


Although the grape arbour was beautiful, there are only so many times you want to clean racoon poop off your deck. You could hear the rustle of the little scoundrels up there every evening, and what a mess they would make. Does anyone know if there's a such a thing as a grape vine that doesn't have fruit?

Only the maple tree, a couple of sedums and hostas, and a burning bush in the front were left. I've added a serviceberry tree and a lovely little red-twigged dogwood to the back. They're tiny yet, but they'll grow.


Years ago, a friend amused me greatly by confessing that she took the Reader's Digest Gardening in Canada to bed with her every evening. Now I must also confess a growing fascination, although I tend more towards the Marjorie Harris books myself. Within the next few years, I hope to fill that raised bed with trees, bushes, vines, perennials, etc. in soft soothing colours. This is my very first garden, in our very first house, and already I'm wishing I had more space! Maybe something like Sheila's terrific garden back on the West Coast?