gardening cartoons & exploded alien heads

Thanks to my brother-in-law Kaarel for his inspiration for the above comic. :-)

The comic at the bottom of this page is inspired by the current lack of rain in Toronto. Lots of predictions of precipitation, but no follow-through. Very frustrating. I never used to get this worked up about weather before!

But I'm enjoying watering our garden, I have to admit. It gives me a chance to get to know every corner, watch the changes. I've expanded our small herb garden a bit; it now contains mother-of-thyme, lavender thyme, lemon thyme, rosemary and oregano.

Renovations going well, except the paint colour I chose for my office walls sucks. Instead of nice pale yellow, it looks like the stuff left behind when aliens explode in science fiction movies. I thought I didn't really care what colour the walls would be since they're going to be mostly covered up in bookshelves, but the awfulness of this colour is so over-the-top that even I can't stand it.

I don't understand...it looked so HARMLESS on the paint chip! Ah well. Sean already bought two gallons of it, so Jeff and I are going to add some white to it tomorrow to try to tone down the alien exploded head factor.

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Lord Korak, orange explosions, package

Story from the first morning that Jeff and I owned the house:

We arrive bright and early, only to find yellow caution tape blocking off our driveway and across the front of the house. I theorize that perhaps the neighbours put it up to discourage children from exploring the garbage bin. I'm impressed that they have yellow caution tape on hand for this kind of thing.

Then Jeff notices an ominous-looking piece of paper up on the door.

Uh-oh.

We duck under the tape and go up to the door. Here's what we find (click image for bigger version):



So how far did YOU get before you realized it was a joke? :-)

Jeff said he realized something was weird when he reached the second paragraph, skipped down to the end of the notice to see if there was someone he could call...and saw "Chief Building Dude". And then I recognized "Lord Korak" as the online pseudonym of a good friend of ours. We're planning to frame this and put it up in our new house when we move in.

:-D

We're going to get him back, of course. He just won't know when.

(insert maniacal laughter fading into the distance...)

Bonus points to anyone who recognizes the significance of all the numbers in the document.

So I went to the Toronto Herb Fair yesterday morning. Lots of herb-y goodness, and I bought a Lemon Thyme and Lavender Thyme. I know I already have Mother-of-Thyme (Wild Thyme) but I figure one can never have too much Thyme. :-)

I also had a four-course herb-theme lunch for $10 at the Fair, with different choices for each course. For those interested, here's what I chose:

Orange Explosion Soup
(sweet potato, squash, garlic, ginger, sage and lovage)

Spring Baby Greens and Arugula with Garlic and Thyme Dressing

Sunflower Sprout Humus Wrap with chick peas, sesame seeds, onions and lettuce

Carrot Anise Hyssop Caramel Cake

My drink: Anise-Hyssop Mint (served cold)

All VERY yummy. Browsed my Richters herb catalog while I had lunch. Yes, I can tell I am doomed. I am already planning what seeds and plants I want to order next year.

A QUESTION FOR YOU GARDENERS OUT HERE:
Any recommendations for Canadian seed and plant mail order catalogs?

Thanks SO MUCH to those of you who have helped identify some of my plants, and have offered advice. To Harald: You'll be pleased to hear that I've decided to empty out our birdbath. Too hard to keep clean, and I didn't like the look of the scum that was accumulating at the bottom.

Jeff and I spent yesterday afternoon at the house again, working outside in the garden. Here are some pics...

I was going to pull these out, but then decided they looked nice as they are:



I think they're mini-Lady's Mantle, since they're situated right beside some bigger versions and the leaves look very similar.

Discovered this tiny flower yesterday, growing beneath the cedars:



Anyone know what this is?

Also, is the following photo of sweet woodruff or alyssum?



Looks like those mysterious iris/lily-looking things are starting to open:



Turns out my sister has very similar-looking plants at the same stage, so it looks like "trollhagen" (in LJ comments yesterday) is right about it being a Siberian iris.

Interesting-looking grass:



Hey, I think we have peonies. At least that's what this looks like:



Can't wait to see what the open flower looks like!

Found this flower beside a drainpipe. Have no idea what it is:



Another unidentified flower:



The garden seems to be changing so quickly from one day to the next. I'm reluctant to miss visiting even a single day in case I miss something, but I have to be patient.

Our contractor just called and said Canada Post left a "package waiting" notice for me at the house. Hm...very curious. I'm going to the house tomorrow, so will take the slip to the post office to see what's there.

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garden pics

Enjoyed the Erasure concert last night. SO fun; everyone was dancing and singing throughout. Loved the set design and flamboyant costumes as always, especially Andy Bell's sequinned Elvis-type outfit. Thanks to Luisa for organizing the ticket purchase!

Does anyone know what kind of plant is in the above a photograph? When we went to visit the house yesterday afternoon, it was just after a rainfall. I love how the water droplets look on leaves, the contrast of textures, the perfection of each jewel-like bead of water. Spent way too much time admiring the leaves; I'm sure any observing neighbours must have thought I was on drugs.

Jeff ad I visited Rona's before our house visit and we picked up some GARDENING TOOLS. I never thought I would be able to get so excited over a hoe. We had to exercise an enormous amount of restraint...holy cow, there were huge aisles full of every gardening tool and supply you could possibly imagine. And this was before we started looking through the plant nursery.

Fortunately, common sense and recent expenditures (particularly that of our new house and renovations) helped curb our enthusiasm.

I worked in the garden for a couple of hours yesterday. During that time, two chipmunks ran past me and I also saw a red squirrel AND a black squirrel; the red squirrel was drinking out of our birdbath. I might plant annuals in the stone bird bath next year (that's what the last owner did), but recently have rinsed it out with water to see how well it works as a bird bath. I have do some online research to see how to keep a bird bath clean.

Our dwarf lilac is flowering!

I was thrilled to find the dwarf lilac beside the deck (and outside my basement office window) starting to flower. LOVE the scent of lilacs. The dwarf lilac bloom isn't as strong-smelling, but the fragrance is just as sweet. During a break, I sat on the deck and read my book (All The Way Home by Patricia Reilly Giff, just finished The Hidden World by Alison Baird yesterday), listening to the birds.

In my last post, I wrote: "I find myself inexplicably excited by conversations about hostas, soil acidity and mulch." I was highly amused by my pal Graham's response: "Hey, I'll talk to you for hours on end about compost. I am an expert on that. Some of us were born to greatness, others to fame and fortune. I was born to promote decay."

And I definitely saw the truth in Brenda's reply:

"You'll find your shopping cart drifting out of Electronics and heading toward the Gardening section. Spring Hill catalogs will appear in your mailbox. Clogs will suddenly become an attractive form of footwear. Pumice soap shall grace your sink, along with a good nail brush. For Christmas you'll receive leather and canvas gloves and trowels and 'Make Your Own Stepping Stones' kits. And, oh, the day that you discover herbs!

"It only gets worse... There's butterfly houses and ponds and wind chimes and bat houses and toad cottages and whirlygigs and pottery and river stone pathways and benches and lighting and decks and wrought iron gates and raised flower beds and composters and and and...

"I'm very sorry, but once you sucumb to Gardening, there is no cure. You, however, are going to have so much back-breaking, freckle-making fun. I for one can't wait to see the pictures.

"Tee hee. (You could grow tea!)"

Some garden pics from yesterday...

Thought this rose plant was dead, but looks like it's starting to perk up after all:



Found this bed of flowers starting to flower:



Sadly, I don't know what kind of plant this is! Here's a close-up of the bloom, if anyone out there can help identify it:



Baby spiders, probably newly hatched:



Yes, I left them where they were.

My first own addition to the new garden, some mother-of-thyme:



I planted it the first day we were official owners of the house.

Can't wait to see what flowers these turn out to be:



Some kind of lily, perhaps? Iris?

I've also noticed plants creeping over from neighbouring gardens. I'm very happy about this, and plan to do what I can to encourage them. I especially like the following:



Anyone know what kind of climbing plant this is? A kind of clematis, perhaps. Once I get to know my neighbour a bit better, I can ask her myself, of course.

Two more neighbours introduced themselves to Jeff and me yesterday (and to Ray, who was visiting), a couple from across the street. Very friendly neighbourhood!

I'm going to the Toronto Herb Fair today. I am going to just look, not buy anything. I really am.

(Why do I sound unconvincing, even to myself?)

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brain mutations, gardening, books and no tv

Thanks to Judith and Dave for the housewarming card (and the first piece of mail I've received in my new P.O. box.)!

So the part of my brain that was always somewhat bored by gardening talk has suddenly mutated. I find myself inexplicably excited by conversations about hostas, soil acidity and mulch. I'm suddenly noticing what everyone has in their gardens, the tulips in the park, the hanging flower baskets in restaurants and street corners.

To put things into context: I am not a good gardener. I once spent an hour and a half transplanting seedlings which turned out to be weeds. I killed the first meaningful gift that Jeff ever gave me, a spider plant. Yes, I know spider plants are impossible to kill. Jeff won't let me near any of the houseplants with good reason.

Yet I find myself drawn to our garden first whenever we visit our new house. I'm still not used to the fact that we'll have our own private space outdoors we don't have to share with anyone else; in our condo, whenever we wanted to sit outside, we either had to get in the car and drive somewhere or we had to find a public park. I would have loved to have a balcony oasis space like Allison's.

My partly insulated basement office.

Going to the house today! Jeff's doing some indoor stuff; I'm going to work outdoors. Unfortunately my grubby clothes and shoes are all still in the storage locker. I did find ONE pair of shorts; I remember throwing this into my "to keep out of locker" pile at the last minute just in case we hadn't found a place by spring. HAHAHAHAHA. Shows you how naive I was about the amount of time involved in the whole househunting and buying process. Until we finally move and unpack, I'll be wearing and washing these shorts quite a bit, I suspect.

Have I mentioned how much I'm looking forward to getting my things out of the locker?

We've decided not to get cable tv in our new house; we've already been four months without tv and haven't missed it. When we feel like watching something, we rent it. Doing a lot more reading as a result, as well as walking outdoors, cooking from scratch, playing music, etc. And actually talking to each other instead of staring at the screen! :-)

We'll probably subscribe to cable again eventually, but so far it's been an educational experience, seeing the ways we've each been filling the time we used to spend in front of the tv. I used to rely on tv for entertainment sometimes when I didn't have energy for anything else, but I'm realizing that watching tv often made me feel more tired.

Books I've read recently:

The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton (adult)

- Love Hamilton's writing style, her characterization. Depressing story, but I still felt compelled to start reading her next book.

Insulated walls and ceiling. Next: floor.

No Small Thing by Natalie Ghent (juvenile)

- YA fiction. I was never into the whole horse thing like all the other little girls, but still quite enjoyed this book. Again, for me it's the characterization that's vital to hook me into a story. And I was definitely hooked.

Naomi's Road by Joy Kogawa (juvenile)

- The story was so engrossing that I wasn't even distracted by the fact that my sister illustrated this book. Not surprisingly, of course, it was a pretty depressing context (Japanese internment during the war) but Kogawa manages to tell the story from the young protagonist's point of view without heavy-handedness or dwelling on gruesome details.

Black Rain by Masuiji Ibuse (adult)

Speaking of gruesome details...I bought this in on our Japan trip but never managed to finish it. I tried again recently. The story focuses on one young woman who was caught in the radioactive rain that fell after the bombing of Hiroshima, and is drawn from real-life diaries and interviews with victims of the atomic holocaust. Couldn't get through this again...the explicit descriptions literally made me nauseous.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (adult)

Read this collection of short stories a little at a time, finally finished it. Some of the pieces are definitely in the horror genre. Quite enjoyed this.

Going to the Erasure concert with Craig, Derek, Luisa, Andy, Christine and others tonight!

Photo I took at the cottage several years ago. (Later note:
Chris Conway used it for one of his CDs.)

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