The Spring Garden

This blogger has been a bit remiss just lately, but life changes slowly sometimes.

The spring garden is doing well enough now. Most tulips have faded, but the Canada 150 tulips that I featured not long ago are still hanging on albeit for not much longer,

Although they are much less extensive this year, we still have a few patches of Dad's forget-me-nots.

There are some beyond the newly planted heuchera (coral bells) in the next photo. The heuchera is new because it's a decent shade plant, and the more sun-loving ones that were there languished somewhat as the tree grew and threw more shade, I do like the burnished leaves.

Ground phlox don't do all that well in my garden, but we do have a bit of a showing along with tulips that have since joined the ranks of the dearly departed.

And the park is so very green all of a sudden. And the fishers are out too.

Tiptoeing Near the Tulips

As I speculated in the previous post, I did wander about taking Canada 150 tulip photos yesterday morning; most of the beds were not in glorious sites, but by getting close, one can compensate.

This first shot it from Market Square,

You can see what I mean about general background. The view from the other direction was worse.

Then, I went to the library where the raised beds were next to the wall, which you can glimpse a bit in the first photo especially. Zooming in and using a wide aperture does help.

Next, we were off to town hall, which is more interesting.

The beds were thicker here.

But I still took some close-ups.

There were other stops, but the last that I will show is from St James park, which was the nicest setting by far.

....

Spring Flowers New and Old

Canada is celebrating its 150th birthday this year, with festivities occurring all over, particularly as we inch closer to Canada Day on July 1st.

In honour of the occasion, a special tulip was developed: the Canada 150 Tulip, sometimes, but not often, known as the Maple Leaf tulip. It is red and white, the colour of the flag, and when it works just right, you can see a resemblance to the maple leaf.

Online, I found an image in which you can see the maple leaf motif fairly well (above), but in practice, things don't always work out perfectly.

I planted about two dozen bulbs last fall, and about half of that number have actually come up, and some haven't bloomed yet. I scattered them around, so I couldn't get a picture of a good drift of them, so I ended up focusing on this one in various shots. The maple leaf motif is visible on the left side; perhaps we will see more as the flower continues to unfold.

In the first two photos above, there is a flower in the right background that looks gnarled and misshapen, but it at least came up, and perhaps it will do better next year.

Many people have reported problems of the flowers coming up pink or faded, but some of mine are doing alright. The following one looks a little creamy, but it may turn whiter as it develops more. It has also not been the best spring for flowers, so we'll see what happens in future years.

Meanwhile, my dad's forget-me-nots are back. Due to changes in the garden they aren't as plentiful as in past years, but it is good to see some return.

I have posted of them more than once in the past, but the brief story is that my dad planted forget-me-nots in our property about 35 years ago, and they kept reseeding themselves every year. When we moved way across province 12 years ago, we brought some seeds with us, and they keep coming back and help us not to forget dad.

Today, I think I'll go around town and look for more of the Canada 150 tulips, and maybe I'll take a few more of the forget-me-nots too.

Tulips and Lilacs

Aside from one extremely hot day, the weather has been fairly spring-like here, perhaps on the whole a little cooler than usual. And it has been windy — very windy. So windy that our decrepit fence seemed to be in great danger the other night, swaying back and forth.

With the more seasonal weather, the tulips have arrived in our front garden. I did some playing around with textures to try to add a bit of pizzazz to the photos.

In the backyard, our lilac bush has also come into bloom.

The two raised stepping stones were made by the kids for Mothers Day, and Shauna gave her the pot of yellow begonias (above and below).

You have no doubt noticed that we have no grass back there. Living in a townhouse, we grew tired of pushing the lawnmower the somewhat long route around neighbours properties from the front to the back. That plus the fact that the soil and lawns are not exactly great here caused us to mulch the yard last year, and we are happy enough with that solution.

As a parting shot here are closer shots of the two stepping stones from the kids. They are too fragile to actually step on, but they add a nice touch.

48 Years

You have got to be kidding!

As of today, Sue and I have been married for 48 years. We get along very well; I do what she tells me, and life is good. In point of fact, I swear that it only seems like 47 years. 😃

As is usually the case, but not always, celebrations will be low key. We will have the kids before and after school, and we will do nothing exotic.

There will be breakfast out; there will be fudge; and, there will be pizza. These are traditions that must not be abandoned.

Since May is our gardening month, we will consider plants and other related items to be our gifts to each other.

I will give her this little token, call it a card of sorts if you will although it is printed on a 13x19" sheet, so it won't be folded, and I don't have an envelope. 😄

It's the little things that make a good life.

Family Heirlooms on My Mother's Birthday

One day in March, Danica got to exploring some of the treasures that my mother has left behind, which, in turn, were mementos from her forebears.

I was elsewhere in the house at the time, but they noticed that my mother's notes had faded over the years. So, Danica typed out the faintest ones. She also took pictures.

The next day, we decided to make a collage of the notes and photos in Photoshop, and this is what she came up with, which I think is pretty doggone impressive.

I decided to wait two months to post this on Danica's Great Grandmother's birthday. She has been gone for 14 years, but her treasures and photo albums frequently remind us of her. Mom would have been 103 today had she lived this long, but she made it to just one month shy of her 88th birthday, so that is not bad at all.

Back to the collage: Danica did it all — typing, photos, and page design. Yes, I was mentoring the layout part by her side, but she was in charge of the mouse and wouldn't have had it any other way. And I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

She made choices about editing the photos: cropping, sizing and aligning them. She also decided that she wanted a flower background, which I thought was the perfect finishing touch.

I added the note at the bottom right, which you probably can't read, so here it is.

Aside from Danica doing such a great job, it feels so satisfying, somehow, to have five generations represented in this one image. Items were passed on from my great grandparents to my grandparents, and then onto my mother and me, and then the work that went in the collage was done my my granddaughter.

I hope that these items, or at least some of them, eventually go to Shauna and then Danica, and that will be six generations. Will there be more? 

Glorious Poutine

First off, it's pronounced  without the terminal 'e', so it's pou-TIN. I must admit, however, that I tend to pronounce it with the 'e' as in 'teen' because that's the way that I learned to say it before I supposedly knew better.

Secondly ya silly, old people, we have Google, and Google knows and tells all, so why are you asking me as you did in the previous post? Huh? 😀

But for those of you who need this poor Canadian gaffer to lead you into the glorious but arcane and esoteric promised land of poutine, here is Wikipedia's initial description:

Poutine (/puːˈtiːn/; Quebec French: is a Canadian dish, originating in the province of Quebec, made with French fries and cheese curds topped with a light brown gravy. This fast-food dish is typically found across Canada and in some places in the northern United States. In Canada it is sold in small "greasy spoon" type diners and pubs , as well as by roadside chip wagons  ...

There's much more on Wikipedia and elsewhere.

A few images.

Whatever you think of the appearance, I can assure you that it is pretty darn yummy.

I once heard an interview on the radio from a guy who claimed he invented it by requesting the ingredients be made for him at a diner in Quebec. Who knows whether it was true, but someone invented it in relatively recent history.

From Quebec, it has spread into Ontario, and I presume all other parts of Canada. I have even seen photos of poutine stands at USA fairs. but from the questions from the previous post, it can't have reached far beyond border states.

One doesn't eat it very often for rather obvious reasons, and it can be a pretty filling meal when one does decide to indulge. I think I have had it maybe only once or twice in the past decade, which is probably a good thing for my system if not my taste buds. 😅

Although the basic dish is as stated above — fries, cheese curds, and gravy — you can pretty much add whatever your little heart desires. Make it with chicken, lobster, shrimp, eggs, meatballs, and so on and so forth. You can even put it on pizza if you're so inclined although I can't imagine that combination.

Personally, I would stick with the basic dish, but chacun à son goût as they might say in Quebec: to each his own.

It has become such a thing that the city of Ottawa has it's very own Poutine Fest. In fact it was held last weekend. I have not attended and most likely never will, but according to the images below, it appears to consist of many food trailers offering their version on the Sparks Street Pedestrian Mall.

As you can see from all of this, we Canadians take our poutine rather seriously. As well we should.

😉😀😛😈🙌