I am going to stop talking about rain soon, really

This week the TransCanada highway in Sask and Alberta was closed due to flooding and we had 3 days with sun. Today was one of them and it was beautiful.

Yesterday we spent the morning trying to catch up on the weeding. I also replanted the beans, and transplanted some others from where the washed away into the path. The girls did the mowing and sweeping, and Mike helped the weeding. He even refrained from complaining constantly, which was great, as he hates weeding. We spent the rest of the day out at Mike's cousin Scott's house in Harris. All the Pollards and various others were in attendance, so the girls had tons of people to play with and opted to stay the night. This left Mike and I with some early morning time to enjoy the yard before some friends came over.

We used that time well this morning. Although the mosquitoes have been unrelenting even in the heat of day, they were oddly quiet and we had morning coffee on the deck. I had some of Mike's homemade yogurt and picked salad greens for supper. We puttered around the yard picking flowers and watching bugs. Other than putting some laundry on the line, we did nothing but enjoy the sun. That set the tone for the whole day.

When the girls got home, they made brunch. They gave Mike is homemade light box to use in his photography, and then we walked downtown to see the Karate Kid remake for Father's Day. We stopped and did a little parkour in each park we came across and played games with Mike's hack sack. We also bought frozen yogurt. On the way home we played at a spray park. It was a wonderful day in the sun and we got in 10 km of walking.

We have begun eating things in the yard regularly. We have had a few strawberries (that's all we will get at a time)  and even had some peas out of the greenhouse. The rhubarb will need picking again this week, and I get a bowl of salad greens ever couple of days. Spices are all great. The things I am eating are similar to what we had two weeks earlier last year. I just finished harvesting asparagus.

The worms have eaten all the beets as they come up, and the beans are still pitiful. I am also worried the squash etc. will do nothing. Other than that, I think things are doing well, although they are far behind.

The flowers, however, are unfailingly lovely. This next week is my favorite in the yard all year. I may actually miss an number of my favorite spring flowers when we head to Ontario, even though they are spring flowers, but I have enjoyed everything much longer than usually due to the lack of sun.

Things are (looking) up

Well, the rain took a three day break (set to return tonight for a couple of days) and we, the plants, Mike and I, used the time productively. I was feeling pretty depressed about everything being destroyed, so the fact some things are alive seems really great. It is all a question of perspective. I was actually happy yesterday when I saw that 7 of 90 beans came up.

On the real upside, Mike is making productive use of all this rain. He has put up a third rain barrel in the front of the house where all the driest beds are. Mike made this barrel by reusing a grease barrel he bought for a couple dollars. I insisted on the new paint job, and the result is quite fetching.


James and Mike hauled a whole bunch of rocks to add to the bed where we took out the gout weed. We are using just rock under the eves where it is dry, then adding rocks and succulents to the part of then bed where conditions are dry but not drought. Mike has a vision of a dry stream bed with cascading plants, and I have been helping with that (see the pics).

The other main project this weekend is hanging up the upside down tomatoes. I have grown these plants from seed and in one pot, they kept snapping in the wind without support. Now that they are against the garage, the wind is less and the plants are larger, which I hope will mean success. I have planted three varieties of various sizes so I can see what is most successful. I was dubious originally about growing plants out the bottom of plant pots, but am interested to see how it will do. We often have blossom end rot due to under watering, so we'll have to be careful to water them well. I'll also add more soil as they get larger. Mike also put up the trellis I have been wanting on the side of the garage.

On the upside, the spinach appears to be recovering from the worm onslaught and we are still enjoying asparagus. The strawberries, blueberries and raspberries are all flowering and I even have a cucumber that has started. I replaced some dead cucumbers and a pumpkin and hope we will have an okay year.

Gratitude for a Second Day of Sun

I had the last of the wisdom teeth I need to get out yanked on Friday, so I was at home in bed to see the return of shafts of sunlight about 3 pm. From that point on this weekend it has been at least sunny with cloudy periods - glorious!

In a way, our experience with the sun reminds me of when the girls where babies. Even if you got 8 hours of sleep in a day, it was never more than 3 hours at a time, and those progressive bits of sleep never made you feel rested. It has been the same with the sun this spring.  Yesterday on the news they announced that they are now predicting this will be the worst crop year for Saskatchewan in all the years they have been keeping track (including the dirty thirties). We'll see - it has definitely been depressing. On the upside, this weekend I felt like I have been "sleeping through the night" for the first time in 2 months, even with the gap in my mouth screaming at me.

I don't have my usual list of stuff in the yard I got done this weekend, as I mostly lay in the hammock. However, two days have sun is starting to give me hope for parts of my garden.  At this point, my bean and acorn squash crops are not there, although I have hope for my beans in the front yard.  My spinach is starting to recover, and my peppers are doing suprisingly well for all this rain. They are small and stunted, but flowering well. I have 4 surviving cucumbers and a living pumpkin, which I am augmenting with purchased bedding plants. I did the same with 5 tomatoes. The one thing that is doing well are the flowers, although they are still about 2 weeks behind. After another few days of sun, I will have so many types it will be amazing.

My whole family (and the rest of the city as far as I can tell) is feeling more perky too. As I write, Mike and Anwyn are out doing the 5 km fun run called the Bridge City Boogie and Leora is making french toast for breakfast. I am sitting on the deck squinting happily through the sunshine and gazing at my recovering yard.

Deluge Continues

It was another rainy week last week - every day except one had rain. Luckily this weekend had a bit of sun in between the rain, and it was enough to make the weekend better.

On Saturday, Mike and the girls were out at Gale and Bob's for the morning and I dug up all the gout weed in the front bed. This was prompted by Mike commenting he really wanted the gout weed gone (I've wanted it gone for a while too). It has been invading the lawn, so it is a good thing that it has left. Here's a picture of the before on the left.

I'm pretty sad about the state of the garden. When Anna saw my tomatoes on Sunday, she thought they were pitiful (this was a generous assessment).  My beans have had a whole week and aren't up, although the peas and carrots are up. Anything that doesn't love flood and no sun hasn't shown its face.

On the upside, well-established perennials are doing well, especially my clematis and the prairie lilac. Currently blooming (see pictures of the yard in the start of June):

• lily of the valley
• purple geranium
• orange poppies
• johnny-jump-up
• yellow iris
• anemone
• lilac
• purple clematis
• pink and white bleeding hearts
• phlox
• chives

Last year at this time, roses, strawberries, pumpkins, zucchini etc. were blooming right now (see early June post). This year all tea and hybrid roses have no leaves, all the gourds are squashes have died (even the cucumbers after 2 tries) and both my neighbours lost most their strawberry plants just like I did. Some of the roses I lost are 7 years old. Sniff - darn you deluge. On the upside, Mike and I are eating all the same things we were last year at this time.

I did have some lovely time relaxing in my hammock, got all my laundry dried on the line and went with my nephews and my family to a playground and pool. Those were great summer time things to do!