magical, mist-ical manor

 

Framboise Manor is a magical, mist-ical place when the fog and the mist set in. have a look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

see what i mean? you can't even see our mountain ridge of trees and Strachan's Brook has all but disappeared!!! it's been a misty, magical, foggy couple of days and it looks like we are in for a few more. so Helga, dear sister, no beautiful blue sky pics for you but i found something almost as good for you....diamonds!

 

there are diamonds to be found all over the Manor!

 

here's some diamonds on the chicken wire.

 

 

 

diamonds on the clover.

 

diamonds on the rocking chair.

 



 

black diamonds in the pond. these are leopard frog eggs filled with little tadpoles! welcome little frog babies - we'll be sure to set up a pile of frog houses all around the Manor.

 

diamonds on the pussy willows.

 

 

diamonds in the grass.

 

diamonds on the daffodil petals.

 

diamonds on a raspberry leaf.

 

diamonds on the grape vine.

 

lil' Frankie Blue Eyes...he's a diamond in the rough.

diamonds and a necklace.

 

another beautiful necklace...this one is yours, Helga.

 

this one is mine.

 

diamonds on the apple tree.

 

 a diamond faery tiara.

 

diamonds on the raspberry vine.

 

grass that is just dripping diamonds.

 

beautiful diamonds on the baby pine trees.

 

more diamonds in the grass.

 

another faery tiara.

 

faery silk spun from diamonds.

 

 diamonds on the tree branches.

 

beautiful diamonds with a shade of rosey-pink.

 

after spending the morning searching all over the Manor for diamonds - it's time for lunch. a yummy greek salad with baguette for wiping up the olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

 

 well, i hope that you all enjoyed finding diamonds with me. i tell you, this Manor is a very magical place!

woohoo - first naked gardening day of 2013!!!

it was awesome. yesterday, wednesday, may8, 2013. we gardened naked for the whole day! it was absolutely fantastic!

next up - the always promised sky pic for my mole sister, Helga. look Helga, the green is starting to come back!

 

and here's out front:

 

and again:



there's lots of green slowly coming back. we had an excellent winter - no staying snow until the end of february and that only lasted for about 2 weeks. for the first 2 weeks in march it was bare ground and we were looking forward to getting into the garden in april. and then we got hit with an unexpected snowstorm. and that snow stayed for 2 weeks and froze the ground so that there was no working on the raised beds or tires...and worse, jambaloney couldn't start work on the greenhouse that he is building for us - he had to wait until the ground was workable.

why? you ask. well, because we will need proper drainage in the greenhouse. meaning trenches needed to be dug as well as the railway ties that he has been gathering for years now needed to be sunk in the ground. here's a sneak peak at my new greenhouse floor:

 

 isn't it awesome?!?!?!?!? when completed it will be 8ft by 20ft, plus 6ft high on the short end and 8ft high on the tall end...our roof will slope and the greenhouse is being built facing south - it's going to be a wicked season extender and early season starter. i can't wait for it to be built! he has been working on it like mad! also, we had our Framboise family's help in getting the railway ties sunk and levelled. our dear friend E's 2 boys, H & N, came over the weekend before last to help dig out trenches for the railway ties to be laid. then they went to the beach with jambaloney and shovelled a truck load of sand onto the truck bed. then they unloaded all of the sand. the following day they shovelled the sand to level the floor and the railway ties. then E's other son, M, came over and needed a ride into a nearby town in order to get a job on the fishing boats. so jambaloney downed tools to give him a life and H & N just kept on working. they knew what they were doing and they did a mighty fine job. i was very proud of them! we will be getting them back to help when jambaloney is putting the roof on the greenhouse. imagine - a greenhouse built out of all thrown away windows! it's going to be sooo awesome. oh, and jambaloney has gone to the beach 3 more times to get truckloads of rocks as you can see in the picture. then he shoveled the rocks off of the truck and onto the sand in order to finish the floor of the greenhouse. the rocks, sand and trenches will provide good drainage as i intend to spray all of my plants using the garden hose....and i intend to have many plants in the greenhouse! jambaloney will do future posts on step by step instructions - i just wanted to give you all a sneak peak.

anyway, the last few weeks have been spent getting the garden ready for planting. some of those days included wearing gloves, boots and scarves which then changed into t-shirts and workpants, which then changed into tank tops and shorts - and finally yesterday it was full-on NAKED GARDENING DAY - woohoo!

well, we had to down tools in late afternoon to go to our Fourchu family's house, C & B's, in order for jambaloney to try and fix B's laptop, and to set up a new router for all of their computers. it was good as gold in regards to the router - not so good for the laptop. the darn thing wouldn't even start!!! jambaloney had everyone laughing when he said "ok guys...my job begins after the thing powers up. if there's no juice, there's nothing i can do!". so they have to send it back to the manufacturer and get it replaced. after that, it was off to the Volunteer Fire Department meeting where we all received our Level C CPR/AED certifications which are valid until 2016 - woohoo!

for those of you who don't know, Level C in Canada means that you are qualified to do single, or two-rescuer cardiopulmonary resuscitation and choking maneuvers for adult, child and infant casualties. the AED certification means that you are qualified in the knowledge and skill to safely use an automated external defibrilator. for this course, i think we had 16 of our members now qualified at these levels. we also have 3 fully-trained Medical First Responders. being that our VFD only has 28 members - over half of us are trained to help in a variety of emergencies. and that is a good feeling.

anyway, back to the garden - woohoo! we have amended our soil by adding sawdust and a truckload of year old composted horse manure and hay - the stuff smells delicious, looks delicious and i was very tempted to try eating some. honestly, the guy we got it from has been making organic horse manure/hay compost for 18 years. he filled our truckbed with that gold and we have been adding it to all of our raised beds and tires! to get ready for planting - which i have spent the past 5 days doing - woohoo!  have a look:



that's all-season blend broccoli, all-season blend cabbage and french breakfast radishes! next up, have any of you had problems in years past with making plant markers for your beds and having them run in the rain even though you used permanent marker?!?!?!? i sure have! this year, jambaloney made me markers from old siding. i then used a paint marker and some spray adhesive stuff and hopefully these will last for years to come - have a peak - i love them:

back to the garden - 
 

all in all - here is what has been planted so far:

Bush Peas - 4 varieties
Pole Peas - 5 varieties
Carrots - 6 varieties
Beets - 3 varieties
Radishes - 3 varieties
Onion - 3 varieties
Chives - saved seed from last year
Kale - 3 varieties plus saved seed from last year
Swiss Chard - 1 variety
Spinach - 2 varieties
Cauliflower - all season blend
Broccoli - all season blend
Cabbage - all season blend
Brussel Sprouts - 1 variety
Pak Choi - 1 variety
Chinese Cabbage - 1 variety
Daikon Radish - 1 variety
Rutabaga - 1 variety
Garlic - 1 variety

so that's what is in the ground for now. however...in our crappy, little make-shift greenhouse in the kitchen we have:

72 tomatoe plants - 6 each of 7 varieties, and 8 each of 3 varieties. have a peak:




the styrafoam that you see is silver on the front and therefore reflects the light and the heat.

also in the greenhouse is 40 pepper plants - 4 each of 10 varieties - woohoo!

can you say 24 tires of potatoes??? oh yes you can!

this year we are doing irish cobblers, red chieftains and brown russets. oh and the absolutely amazing thing is that we are still eating last year's potatoes that were harvested for the final time in december. those potatoes are still as fresh as the day they were harvested. better yet - we used our harvested potatoes for seed this year - no need to buy seed potatoes when you already have your own!

continuing on, jambaloney had to clear some land to give us extra room this year. in clearing the area he had to cut down a bunch of alders. we felt bad doing it but knew that we would put those alders to good use! in the interest of waste not/want not - we used the alder branches to make teepees for our pole peas. we will do the same for the pole beans. we will use the alder branches as stakes for tomatoes, peppers and anything else. those alder branches will not go to waste!

 well, to wrap up this long, drawn-out post, i will leave you with some food pics. you can't do all of that planting and building and seed-starting and whatnot without some good food in your belly. how about some delicious liver, mushrooms and onion with rice, some quinoa salad and grape tomatoes and olives:





 certainly not to be outdone by a delicious plate of vietnamese noodles with bok choi, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot and green onion with some mandarines on the side:





mmmmm. and then there's coconut curried chicken with a ton of fresh cilantro, a parlsey, tomatoe, cucmber and sprout salad with some pineapple:

 

 i know that it has been a while since i posted and i hope that i am making up for that with this looooong post. as it is gardening season, i will want to keep an almost daily diary of what's growing and stuff. plus soon we will be swimming in the river. so expect more regular posts coming. good luck to you in all of your gardening endeavours - i promise to hit up all of your blogs this evening and tomorrow!

(p.s. - today we had a few hours of naked gardening but then it got overcast! and it looks like we are in for a week of overcast/grey skies/showers/etc. but i just know that naked gardening season has started and i can't wait to share more naked gardening adventures with you all!)

bathroom support/cold storage - part 2

jambaloney here!!

as always, a great sky pic for helga ;-)

and a picture of my third hand @ framboise manor..

back to the cold storage/bathroom support chore - need boards and a jack...

 

first off - jack up the bathroom floor a bit..

lay in abeam on a concrete tile and repeat...

make sure they are level of course ;-)

next step a cross beam - this is for cold storage AND support.. actually, all of this is

i am using pretty crappy/used boards for the next part

an angle grinder gets rid of old nails faster than prying them out:

i used 3 old 2x4s to make studs/beams from the front to the dirt

and then covered those with old tongue and groove... some came from cleaning out the foundation (see previous post)

the end result supports the bathroom floor AND provides a nice cold store shelf into the dirt. The basement is usually 3-5 degrees  C from october to april which is great - right now we are eating 4 month old potatoes (note the cardboard boxes with old towels on them) and they are firm as can be... the bins i use on the ground to keep the moisture from seeping in... i'll make wood boxes one day.

after sliding the boxes in place, i put the water bottles with berkey-filtered water in place...

and staple a sheet up to keep the light out! rough, but functional..down tools!

it was winter when i did this....so here is an appropriate pic..

and for all our american friends, the grand river bald eagle!!!

cheers all - spring is FINALLY here!!!

sooo many tears....and also for Boston.

i feel for all of the families and everyone who is affected by the Boston Marathon bombing that recently occurred. i have many tears. many, many tears.

and you should know that my province, Nova Scotia, and Boston have a very close history. You may not know that during the Halifax explosion of 1917, that the city of Boston were the first responders and saved sooo many Nova Scotian lives. Boston has always been a true friend to us and that is why we send a Nova Scotian Christmas tree to the city of Boston for over 100 years. Boston and Nova Scotia have an incredible history that most people, both Canadian and American know nothing about.

i cry for Boston...i cry for everyone, everywhere, who has been affected by this terrible tragedy.

but i cry harder for a Canadian folk singer who just passed. her name is Rita MacNeil. she was from Big Pond, Cape Breton Island. my island. she was not beautiful but beautiful was her spirit and her voice. she represented what my island...and the people of my island... are all about. she was a lovely human being. you can learn more about her here.

she was a heroe. and many of us cape bretoners are hurt. please pray for all of the Bostonians, their friends and families and everyone else who has been impacted by the horrible events that happened at the Boston Marathon.

but please also pray for all of us Cape Bretoners....whose hearts are heavy. we have lost an angel. an angel that we loved so much.

this is one of the songs that she is most famous for. she sings it with the backing of "The Men of the Deeps", which is a male chorus of coal miners here in Cape Breton. the song, which she wrote, is about working in the coal mine.

my father was a coal miner and could never hear this song without crying. i could never hear this song without crying. at most of our community dances this song is played. and everyone cries.

please listen to the song. Rita MacNeil, although loved by Canadians, Brits and Australians was never properly famous. she should have been. but she wasn't.

she will be sorely missed by her beloved island....which is my beloved island. please, listen to her song. check out some of her other songs on youtube - she made 24 albums!!!! and read her wikipedia page.

she is a beloved angel of this isle....and we are hurting from the loss of her. our island will recover...but we will never forget.

Rita...you were one in a million...and an angel to many. i know that you are in the arms of my Lord and Saviour...where you belong. thank you for everything.