Rue-barb

Ok, take the good with the bad, right? This week the lovely stonemason came to repoint, and replace many bricks, and fix parging in the basement. He did such a good job that he's lucky I saw the house when the bricks were missing or I'd be reluctant to pay him - check out the evidence below. This is GOOD. (I figure by the end of the summer it will be indistinguishable from the rest of the brick).

Not so good. This is the rhubarb patch that was against the wall where he was working. He did mention it to my husband but Joe said, "don't worry about it"(!). So, this is the result. BAD.

But it's a big freakin' patch and much of it was not mangled so here we see the sprouting rhubarb. GOOD.

I think I may be able to rescue the rest of the patch with a good application of compost and some love. I will start the love by sharing my Rhubarb Cheat Sheet. I got the idea for a recipe cheat sheet from Angry Chicken, the blog of Amy Karon. In fact, hers was the first real cake I ever made (i.e. not from a box of mix). Yummy. So, here is my Rhubarb Cheat Sheet in anticipation of repairing the patch in time for the Gilmour Street Garage Sale, traditionally the start of Rhubarb Season at our house.

(I just tested this and for some reason it is REALLY small so use the link to my original post to get a version that's big enough to read!)

Much Too Early

We had FREAKISHLY warm weather last week - norms for this time of year in Ontario are around the 3C mark. It was at least 20C all week - 29C Wednesday I think. Lovely in a way but all the flowers are popping up and are about to be blasted with regular cold weather.


For instance, the forsythia in our yard is  starting to bloom - it's usually the latest in town blooming near the end of April or early May.

Crocii have just burst out in my front bed and the lilac buds are popping into leaf. Way too early! I even saw some irises (which always make me panic that summer is waning for some reason)  - they usually bloom here in June!

It's all too much too soon. And, almost two weeks of warm temperatures has meant today's return to cool (about 8C) felt desperately cold. My teeth were actually chattering while I stood talking with friends after breakfast. Eek.

PS Pictures this time are my OWN from my OWN garden and my new-to-me OWN camera (bought from my daughter after she bought a big fancy one).

Plural for Crocus?

Yup, today I saw the first patch of crocus+crocus+crocus+etc. Tiny purple ones and tiny yellow ones. Sigh.

(Camera is still broken so I borrowed this picture from PublicDomainPictures.net).

Snowdrops and Robins... Hope Springs...

Saw my first robin late last week and my first snowdrops on Sunday. Didn't have my camera (it's busted again- grrrr) so I give you this picture instead. These are always the first flowers of the season here in Ontario. Sometimes they even poke up through snow to bloom. Next we'll see some crocuses (crocii?) - if I find a camera that works I will take photos and keep you abreast of the developing spring.

It has been UNSEASONABLY warm this week. We are enjoying March break and the weather has been lovely. Around 15 C each day (!) and sunny. Today the sky is blue blue blue.

This is my favourite time of year in this house. The first morning that we slept here I awoke around 7:30 and the sun was attempting to blaze through the MANY curtains on the east side of the house. I tore down old dusty curtains as I made my way to the kitchen - bathroom curtains (yup, there was a tiny bit of peach in the wallpaper...too bad I never got a photo of the matching peach shower curtain getup-eek!), (bathroom now)

...balcony door curtain, small window on the stairs curtain, door to the side yard curtain and finally two sets of layered curtains in the kitchen - that matched the wallpaper no less!

Waaah! it was sooo green in there - green floor, counters, wall and windows! I still have this fabric - looking for the perfect project - I thought about a nice retro sun dress but the fabric is not in great shape so it needs to be a quick easy project. I have lined a few bags with it. (kitchen now)

The sun was glorious. There is always a lovely nostalgic feeling whenever the sun is at exactly that angle, and it happened this morning. Ahhhh.

Hello!

Oh my gosh! People in Australia, Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany, Latvia, Romania and Canada (oh and the US but that's my mom!) have been checking out my blog. How exciting! I feel responsible to you all now. I will really try to post something interesting. Soon. Really. Something really interesting really soon! Here's a picture for now.

This is Charlie Bubbles (left) and Mr. Li (right) in their highland dancing regalia. They have matching tartans - Modern Campbell.  Here they are watching a competition.

"It don't mean a thing If it ain't got that swing..." This is Mr. Li doing the sword dance. 

Fourteen Years

Can it be FOURTEEN years since my first try at delivering a baby. I managed it in about 12 hours from start (water breaking) to finish - 9lb baby girl! With a GIANT head, I might add. Well she's turned into a beautiful, talented, charming, funny, smart, kind, etc. young woman. Happy Birthday Charlie Bubbles.

(pictures to follow - I can't seem to find any on the computer right now - I'll have to scan a few...)

Occupy the Airwaves

Lots of political action in my life these days, or at least political agitation.
First: There is an election fiasco happening in Canada called "robo-calls". Apparently people received calls the day of the election misdirecting them to the wrong polling stations. My local MP has been standing up for the PM in the house calling it a "smear campaign" again and again. I would have thought if they were innocent, they would have been outraged and promised to get to the bottom of it...

Second: The provincial government is taking aim at teachers and threatening to circumvent our collect bargaining rights.

Third: A local company is using tritium (radioactive hydrogen) to make glow-in-the-dark signs and the result is higher than normal tritium levels in local water, soil and APPLES! That news circuitously led me to attend a local OCCUPY general assembly. I have to say it was one of the nicest meetings I have been to in ages. They have managed to avoid the normal raised voices, interruptions, long-windedness and digressions through a set of simple hand signals. The result was a warm and welcoming group of "autonomous individuals" who although coming from diverse backgrounds and desires managed to make quite a few decisions with calm good humour. I'd like to introduce this to our local school board! Consensus making. What a concept!

Fourth: Anyway, feeling somewhat overwhelmed about the possiblity of actually doing anything, and noting the timing of Putin's election troubles and our own skirmish here in Canada, I decided to write to a program called "As It Happens" on our national radio service, CBC. This is the letter I sent.

 Vladimir Putin wins?

Dean DelMastro sputters...

Dear Mr. Putin,
I am so sorry to hear about your election troubles. I only wish you had contacted us in Canada last week. We have experience in insuring the results you want without the potential mess of recounts, protests, or external election observers.  

Our approach can take you right to the seat of government without the hassle of winning fair and square. The approach focusses on the high-tech "robo-call". It's simple to use and virtually impossible to trace. You hire a company from outside the country to make calls that will confuse and befuddle voters likely to oppose you, so they don't even get to the polls and so don't get to vote. Why mess around having your supporters stuffing ballot boxes and voting more than once when you can stop opposition voters from voting at all?  

If you need help to get started, you can borrow my MP, Dean DelMastro. We don't know yet if he's good at the robo-call tactic but we do know that he has memorized the "smear campaign mantra" required if anything happens to surface down the road.  

Heck, you can HAVE him. 

Yours truly, etc.