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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tranzac, postcards

My irises are blooming!

Last Tranzac session for the summer took place last night; I didn't realized this because I had missed the last session (my tendinitis was acting up).

Seems like ages since my first Irish music session at the Tranzac, but it's actually been a little over six months. I remember how scared I was back then!

Back then, I only knew a handful of tunes and had very little experience with sessions. Half a year later, I'm at the stage where I can play on at least a few of the tunes each session from memory (with varying degrees of competence), recognize others well enough to play along with sheet music, and can recognize many more by the sound of the tune though not yet well enough to look them up or play along.



Last night, I brought along copies of the sheet music to St. Mary's Polka, also known as Gurteen Cross and Paige's Polka (the tune Dave Clement taught me). I used the sheet music from TheSession.org since that was closer to the version that some people at the Tranzac seemed to know. Denis went through each part of the tune slowly with the group, we played through the entire tune several times.

I still feel incredibly lucky to have picked the Tranzac as my first Irish session experience. The group is friendly and welcoming to newcomers, and I've found the learning sessions led by Denis Lyons and Bob Gardiner to be very instructive. Denis was at the session last night, and I made him a little thank you cartoon. :-)

After Jeff and I move to North York, it will take me a bit longer to get to the sessions but it would take more than mere distance to keep me from attending. :-)

Thanks so much for the postcards, Parki, Becca, Gary and Ju! It was a nice surprise finding them in my P.O. earlier this week. You can see their postcards in my Flickr Postcard collection.

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Why I take photos

I've had a digital camera for as long as I can remember. I actually did bring myself to finally toss the old print camera. It weighed about a ton, I believe. I cringe when I remember how much I spent on developing prints, and usually only liked a few shots per roll of film even then.

I have two types of photo-taking modes:

1. Archival: To help me remember or capture the essence of a trip, a thing, a person, an event, a moment.

2. Because I like how something looks. I tend to like interesting patterns, textures, colour contrasts, play of light.



I've noticed that context matters a lot when it comes to appreciating photos, and that part of a good photographer's skill is to be able to crop an interesting photo out of a mediocre one, to see the beauty or photo-worthy elements in what most people would barely notice. Almost anyone can take a good photo of a gorgeous sunset or a beautiful flower.

I'm still working on this.

I tend to enjoy photographing people more than I do inanimate objects. It's a challenge, because most people feel self-conscious in front of the camera, or they're moving. I'm happy when I manage to take a photo that captures the essence of how I see a particular person, especially someone I like. It's why I try not to post unflattering photos (distorted mouths mid-word or mid-chew, etc.) unless they're mugging on purpose. :-)



Because of this, I never post ALL the photos I take; some people have asked me to do so after a convention, but I say no. Main reason: I take a zillion because I know I'll end up dumping at least 3/4 of my photos, probably more. The only times I keep a bad photo is when it's my only record of an event or object I'd really like to remember. And even after my editing, I'll only post a fraction of the ones I keep.

Anyway, I started thinking about the whole photo-taking thing while I was archiving some of our Japan trip photos from 2001 on Flickr; feel free to take a peek if you'd like. Somewhat sobering to see the photos near the end of the trip; Jeff and I were supposed to fly home on Sept.11th.

Speaking of Japanese things, I'm going to kill my friend Ray for sending me a link to this MPEG, whose insidious little jingle has been going through my head over and over AND OVER recently AAAUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.

Going to the new house later today...

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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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