".... as time goes by"



  13th May - Snow!

Today - things are looking greener for sure!

.... Jiggety-jig!

Home again - as the rhyme goes.

An 8.00pm flight makes a long journey; and not delivering food (it's the least good bit about Transat I'm afraid) until 20.00 (03.00 UK time) when you're due an 08.00 UK arrival is a bit dire!

So we were safely returned to the UK; Gatwick is a well organised airport.  The long-stay car-parking worked well; but we were deeeply tired or jet-lagged or both. We made a navigational error joining the M4 which added a huge detour.  Then we stopped at a service station and slept int he car for about half an hour.  Advertised delays further West decided us to detour through Hungerford and Malmesbury so it was about a 5.5 hour journey home, instead of 2.75!

Oh well, better safe.......

Spring is surprisingly little further advanced here than our Canadian experience; the garden looks savable but there's work ahead!

We've both lost weight - hooooraaaay!

Here's to the next trip.

On the move again!

But not before this chap appeared in the meadow!  Since we had had deer literally bounding around the meadow during supper with K&D, we though it best to try to do something to protect our hoped-for new plants.

Oh well, at least he looks the part!

It's amazing how many chores you can find to do when you don't have a departure deadline.  Usually, we have to be out by about 13.00 in order to get down to Montreal for an evening flight;

but this time we were driving firstly to Ottawa to overnight with friends and then on the next day (today) to Toronto for our flight home on Thursday.

A rather long but very gentle farewell to Canada for now.  But who's in a rush when the woods are looking like this?





and when the lilac is absolutely on the point of bursting in to blossom?

All through the woods; ALL through the woods, there are lily of the valley right on the point of flowering.  Imagine the smell in a week's time!  Doesn't bear thinking about.




So, at last, in a much more leisurely departure than usual, we took our standard end-of-trip photo...






So - to Ottawa, and an amaaaaazing supper with P & N.  Apparently it's Lobster season (May is lobster season in Canada it seems?) and we were treated to a huge plate of the beasts each; with butter soft asparagus.  Can you think of anything better?

And then Key Lime pie!

YUM.

What a lovely evening.  Very many thanks for making the transition from the wilderness to our other lives just so memorable.


There are two main ways of driving from Ottawa to Toronto - down the motorway (divided highway) or cross country down Route 7.  We like the latter.

What motorway would enable you to stop and take pictures of woodlands like this?  These are the Ontario Provincial flower, the Great White Trillium, trillium grandiflorum.  They didn't carpet the woods as blue-bells do in England or France, but they are clearly visible from the road like bright, white stars.  Lovely!







It's a long way - at 80 kph - but it's restful and peaceful and no-one hassles you.  Drivers are very considerate here, very few "speed".  The top speed limit is 100kph -62mph.  Most people do little more than 10kph faster than that.  And if they do, the roadside notices are very clear.  150 kph (93mph) is a $10,000 (dollar) fine, immediate banning from driving and roadside confiscation of the vehicle!  Wow!  Imagine how many of those there'd be in the UK!


At last, we came down to Toronto, the expressway cuts right though the commercial centre of  the city.  At night it sparkles like something out of Star Wars!  But this evening it was warm (28 degrees) sunny and the CN tower was a welcome sight!

 



Great supper here;

and a great reception for the Teddy Bear made and costumed by Granny :-)


Slow day tomorrow we expect and then an evening flight!

And back - d.v. - to our other lives!

 

Including YOU Oak! :-)

You just HAVE to be joking!

For reasons I can't explain I woke, from a very strange dream, at six this morning to a surreal landscape; something was wrong with the quality of the light.  I pottered (quietly) downstairs to find - snow.  May the 13th and it snows!  This place is crazy - but we love it.



And it's gone on and off all day - sunshine, never very warm; then, as the weathernetwork has it "mixed precipitation".

It hasn't again settled as it did this morning; but it's not for want of trying!

 

Here's the roof to the basement access - also at 6.00 am.



 

And here's the view across our finger of the lake - later in the afternoon.  This was really snowy!

But - some things are unchanging; Denis turned up (bless the man!) to help cart away the last of the old fence posts to the great rot-spot in the back lot! 

 So, it was  a delight to welcome them both for our last supper here for a while; but SUCH a shame that  we had to wait such an inordiante length of time for any food - even if it was OK afterwards - that A took to her knitting and K & D to a game of Crib!

Ah well; on the move tomorrow!

Getting there!

There is a tradition here of having breakfast at Giselle's (restaurant) in the village on Sunday.  So, since it's our last Sunday here for a couple of months, we met up with K & D for just that.  My "proper Canadian" has lasted me all day!

It's been a day of mixed weather; cool throughout but some rain, some sun - what I remember being called "growing weather" in the past.


I thought that hail was a BIT much though!  These are just a few of the blighters that bounced off my head at one point!

But generally it's been OK to work in shirt, fleece and windproof - a lot more than a week ago!  Bug spray is beginning to be more of an essential however....

So - the meadows are planted with clover-grass mix, some fancy prairie grasses, and the wildflowers - of course.

 

I have put a patch of black-eyed Susans at the turn of the drive; I have seeded the lawns around the house, scarified, cleared, seeded and raked in - here's hoping!  I have trimmed the little conifers around the bird-feeder - to make it a bit harder for the squirrel (black one sighted) and chipmunk (none seen at all :-( ) to leap on the the grain feed from the bush!

And we discovered these delightful beauties whilst planting shrubs in the Dell......

A has unwrapped all of the furniture from Ottawa / England and G and J's table is now "stored" in the back "study".  A bit of "antique" suits the place - hope it's a while before they want it!

We have to tidy the basement, clean and return tools and cook supper for guests tomorrow; Oh!  and pack to return to Toronto via Ottawa Tuesday and Wednesday - before our flight on Thursday.  

 



Oh well, here's an evening shot to remember!

Gosh!


What a lot we did!  This has been such a busy day! A finished hand-forking over the biggest of the wildflower areas to the depth of six inches; I decided to inset logs on their sides at the top of the slope into the "dell" in order to slow down any flash flooding from the drive. 


And then I seeded the dell; and then we went into town to buy "black earth" (essentially potting compost) that was on special at the hardware store.  $1 for 25 Litres - limited to 10 bags per person.   We bought 20 bags!



So, we have now seeded two areas of wildflower meadow; you mix this tiny bag of seeds with a humongous amount of peat - which makes it very easy to broadcast.


And then you rake and tread the seed into place.

Note the wellies - it's wet!

And at the end of the day we got carried away and scarrified the lawns all around the house.  And A raked the front ones - Wonderful!

And so we're tired - and sore, and happy (because the meadow seed has started to germinate!!





BIG smile (despite the rain and cold - did we not mention the rain and cold????)

More of the same.....

A decided that the areas we have marked out for wildflowers are just tooooo stony, so she's started a campaign, digging down 6 inches to give the new seeds something to get their roots in to.

I've taken advantage of the new supply of stone (!) to build walls around the septic tank access pipes....

The Blue Jays are taking up residence on the feeder! 


And it's rained!  And I've got the fibre-glass cloth on to the outside of the new canoe - with only minor mishaps!

And we heard from Parents via Skype, J via text and Oak class today - Hi kids!

Towning around!

We woke early - the light, the coolth and the peepers - and then fell asleep again; to be woken finally by the phone.  It was the delivery lady, ringing  from the village to check that we would be in.  No sooner had I got some clothes on than here she was.  Either I'm even slower than I thought, or she drove very fast from l'epicerie to here.  Anyway, she brought the flower seeds, with packages full of dire warnings; we have definitely prepared the wrong field in the wrong way!  Ah well!


So, nothing daunted, we went with K in to St Jovite ( / Tremblant - they're joined together politically) to do a whole series of shoppings, including spending my birthday present from G and J on Deep Woods Off! (fly repellent (Bug spray - they're starting)), some fishing tackle and three bags of "Black earth" - loam.  Thank You!  We ended having really good sushi for lunch in town!

We bought these chairs, too!




As you can see, simply all our birthdays have come at once and it's rained!  Hooray.   

 

So; we shall plant the other seed tomorrow but, for now, I've put the first layer of epoxy on the outside of the new canoe; Ali listened to Mr Murray taking forever to win his match in Madrid, 


I walked down to see Yves - his sciatica is awful; bangers and sprouts for tea, and apple pie!  Still tired from yesterday really.....

Three very busy days!

Monday - more stone picking, then I went fishing.  Two and a half hours gently puttering around the lac - "trolling" lures and great big worms.  Result; a very pleasant way to spend 2.5 hours!




M came for dinner - in good form!
Tired, late, to bed.

Tuesday - to Ottawa (via St Jovite / Tremblant to buy the meadow seed) and back.  There to collect furniture and other things that we'd almost forgotten about since P had them firstly in store in the UK and then shipped over here since she emigrated - lucky girl (although we'd miss you all so much that there's no chance!).

M loaned us his brand new, umpteen litre, effortless to drive truck.  You have to climb up into it!




Home about 6.30 but weary, so no great activity after supper.

Today - BIG effort on the meadow.  Almost completely stone picked (But if you use a rake, you'll find as many stones again.  It's about 50% stones and boulders - mostly buried - and 50% sand; next to no organic matter.  So we have added inorganic fertiliser - that's the first spreading.  And we have grass and clover mix seeded the main meadow (the second spreading; ran out of seed! - and energy), which leaves the back part and the glade to do when we've bought some more, and the wild flowers when their seed arrives - the tracker says it's in Montreal at the moment.


And we were filthy dirty and very tired.


So showers; a pizza cooking in the oven and then to take the truck back to M....

 
Oh! The trees are making a BIG effort...


And the geese are heading back north!

... and some fell on stony ground.

It's late and I just wanted to get this down; I'll add images tomorrow perhaps.

 
Jesus told the story of a sower who went out to scatter seed, some of it fell in the good ground, some on stony ground and some amongst the weeds.  In due course, the seed on the stony ground grew up and withered in the noon sun; the seed amongst the weeds grew but was choked off by the weeds; the seed that had fallen into the good ground grew and gave a rich harvest.

The straightforward message is that the seed falling on stony ground is us when we don't listen to God; the seed amongst the weeds is us when we get side-tracked and ensnared by things of the world; the seed in good ground is us when we listen to God and grow as he wants us to do.

Clearing the meadow-to-be today, at 26 degrees at lunch-time, Ali thought of the slaves in the Southern States who had had to do very similar, physical work under much hotter conditions.  Hmmmm.




I thought of the farmer in the parable and the way in which he, too , must have spent ages, generations even, preparing that piece of land in the hope that some of the seed would give a good crop.  And I wondered whether we are in our turn properly preparing "the land" of those around us, in terms of their spiritual lives,  so that they can flourish in God.

Anyway - that's all for now; pictures and earthly matters tomorrow perhaps.

Tomorrow's here!

 
Spring presses on apace!  These are maples, bursting golden against the sky, like candy-floss.

And the daffs are now fully out; to work!

Transformation!

The morning was taken with a trip to the Pharmacy - the local chemist's - which is 45 minutes' drive away....  Managed to get myself a large blister on the whole of the under surface of one of my great toes.  Silly - should have noticed at first discomfort......

So, back for the afternoon's labours - here was the drive after the removal of the surface stone;

and here is is transformed into a woodland walk!

Our back-hoe operator was something of an artist and seemed to enjoy placing these huge boulders within six inches either way!

And no sooner had he placed them than D was off into the woods liberating little trees!  Of course, there has been the usual blow-down of trees in the wood over winter so that necessitated  clearing the track with the chain saw! And then the trees had to be dug in properly and the surface smoothed a bit and (after supper - Tourtiere!) it all had to be watered in place - and then I fell asleep on the sofa!

and got up in time to go to bed. 

 







Ah well, in the mean time, I did manage to notice the buds at the very tops of the trees - maples and birches here - are beginning to break; it won't be long before it's all green.

















And this is is a Trout Lily- named (apparently) for the dappled makings on the leaves.  It's present everywhere, although I have only found these very few in flower.  Perhaps it's just early

All change!

Here was the Meadow at about 10.00 am yesterday,  and what follows is the meadow at 16.00 today!
In the meantime, a simply enormous "back hoe" has been worked all day, levelling, clearing and removing rocks as big as me - but cubic!  And it just picks them up with the grabber and carries them off.  We now have a pile of what I'm told is very saleable rocks!  As if there weren't enough of them around here!


The driver has been very careful to bury all but the biggest stones, before skimming them over with a layer of our very sandy soil - all part of the glacial ground that we're on. It doesn't look very different, but it really is.  We have gone from dips four to five feet deep to a gently rolling golf-course.  Inevitably, there are still stones close the the surface - anything from book size (smaller doesn't count!) up to breeze-block size.  We shall pull a harrow across the field behind a quad bike and then go and pick up - or bury - the worst ones!  I'm trying to buy some wildflower seed on line - as well as the grass and clover mix that everyone recommends - to brighten up the overall space.


At the same time, we're closing off the drive and re-installing a previous, curved one, so that we don't look straight at the road from the sitting room.  They didn't finish this today, but the have pulled out all of the old crushed stone of the old drive and spread it on the new one.  Tomorrow they will come and use some (more!) of our huge boulders to block the road entrance to the "old" drive, as well as pulling in some top-soil saved from the meadow!


 
Brown is very rapidly turning to green; this is a flower I have longed to see; it's a trillium, trillium erectum - the purple trillium in fact.  It's an oddity in many ways - the leaves that you can see - aren't!  They're bracts; the leaves are reduced to papery coverings on the rhizomes (roots).  Secondly, the seeds are spread by ants - Wikepedia says:

Seed dispersal

Trillium is one of many plants whose seeds are spread by ants. At maturity, the base and core of the trillium ovary turns soft and spongy. Trillium seeds have a fleshy organ called an elaiosome that attracts ants. The ants extract the seeds from the decaying ovary and take them to their nest, where they eat the elaiosomes and put the seeds in their garbage, where they germinate in a rich growing medium.

But I think they're just pretty.  The White trillium is the official flower of Ontario - the province next to (three hours' drive away!) us.

Heatwave!

WHAT a fabulous day!  The temperature was over 20 degrees C by noon and got hotter.  I had to take my shirt off; and then had to put another one on because it was too hot to be without!  Plenty of sunscreen on the exposed bits, too.

Despite this, there is still a little snow around in the north-facing banks.  This stone wall is about ten feet tall, the snow is getting less but there is no water running away; come on Oak, what's happening here?

The landscape is still very brown; there are green shoots rushing through but the overall look is brown - which is just fine; it's why we've come at this time so that we can level the meadow a bit.  We don't want it as flat as a billiard table but some of the ridges are silly and we couldn't get a cutter over it at all.  

 

I've been pulling out the old fence between the house and the meadow so that we can blend the two together a little; the "back hoe" (JCB!) is already here but the guys to drive it arrive tomorrow at 08.00. I just hope that my French is up to it! The old fence was repaired and repaired and repaired.  The previous owner of the house was a great one for re-using things, a policy that I think is great, but old hockey sticks to re-enforce the fence?  Yeuch!



This is our pond; easily seen from the kitchen window.  It shrinks right down in the summer but at this time of year, although the surface of the sandy ground is very dry - in fact, there's a fire warning out for the forest - the ground is still full of the snow melt.

You can see some of the rocks that are all over the place. This is glacial ground; a very long time ago this place was under 2 Km of ice.  And the ice, the glaciers, moved, and carried broken off rock with them.  Just behind the little building in this picture you can see the moss-covered top of a rock that's nearly as tall as me; these huge rocks, left behind when the glaciers melted, are called "accidentals".  They're too big to move without dynamite so people usually just work around them.

As I write - 20 past 8.00pm Wednesday, Canadian time, 01.20 Thursday UK time, the "peepers" are making a huge clamour around the pond.  They have taken over from the bigger frogs that make the day noisy with their croaks!  You can read more about peepers, and hear a sound file of their noise (sorry, calls!) here.  The sound file is halfway down the page, on the right.

Tired with all the fencing dragging, I did a bit more work on the new canoe.  It's the first time it's been outside for work (It was out for a photo shoot in January!); the temporary green tape is to protect the rest of the wood whilst I fill the outside of the seams.  I really hope to get it finished this holiday....

Oh!  and I quite forgot because I didn't manage a photograph!  Whilst we were in for lunch, a male wild turkey walked right across the front of the house!

He was about 3 feet tall at the tip of his supercilious beak, and looking very grand with his blue and red!

I KNEW I'd heard them yesterday; gobble, gobble, gobble!

All for now - digger tomorrow!