lilacs

Considering

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First, here is a morning smile for you!

The orange ones now have names. The bigger one is Turmeric. The tiny one is Saffron. :-D

As I write this, Beep Beep is curled up with them, but things were not so peaceful, a little while ago. I heard some strange squealing and looked over in time to see her jump out of the nest, with Nicco in her mouth, then dash over to a corner under my crafting table. There is shelf under there that’s empty, since it’s unreachable, and she was starting to move him into it. I had to move some storage bins to be able to reach Nicco and bring him out, but she tried again, later. I’m hoping I’ve dissuaded her from moving the kittens into there. Aside from this being a hard, colder, smaller space, they would eventually damage the wood of the shelf, and the carpet in front of it, as they get bigger and start pooping and peeing all over.

I now have storage bins all over my bed. With the area uncovered, it’s less tempting of a potential nest!

Meanwhile…

While doing my rounds this morning, I paused to take another look at one of the chokecherry trees among the lilacs, and consider some possibilities. Here is how the tree is growing.

It’s hard to see among the lilacs, so I put in the lines to show how the main trunk is leaning.

Here is a closer look of the base.

While I was not planning to work on the lilac hedge for some time, I am debating with myself on whether I should just go ahead and clear out around this tree. It is pretty choked out by the lilacs, so on the one hand, it would make for a healthier tree and higher yields of berries as quickly as this summer. Now would be a good time to clear it out, before the leaves are in. On the other hand, this tree is leaning so far over, I think the lilacs may be the only thing holding it upright. Whenever I do clear it, I would add a support of some kind, and start training it to grow straight again.

What do you think? Should I do it now, or stick to my original plan of doing it when we work on the lilacs a year or two from now?

The Re-Farmer

Storm clean up: the little stuff

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It’s federal election day here in Canada, and I’m happy to say that there was a local polling station (according to the elections Canada website – and the agent I spoke to on the phone while trying to find where the nearest polling station would be – our little hamlet doesn’t exist) and I was able to register and vote without any problems. What a difference from the last federal election, when we were still living in the city! It helped that the registration officer happened to be a “neighbour” that I finally got to meet. Since she lives on the same road we do, a mile away, she had no issues with the fact that there are different names for our road. I’ve got the road name on my driver’s license, which no longer matches the signage. She’s had the same issue we have, since the stop sign with the road name got knocked down, and the sign with the name of our road disappearing. It has not been replaced, so there is just the numerical designation on the other stop sign.

I got to vote, and later on I’ll be going back with my daughters, so they can register and vote, too. :-)

Until then, I’ve got a bit of catching up to do, and will be splitting things up into several posts, rather than one big one. I was finally able to get the tree damage from the storm taken care of, as well as putting stuff away for the winter, the day before we had my mom over for a surprise second Thanksgiving dinner. With this post, I’ll start with the last things I cleaned up; the little things!

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A little bit of progress. And kittens

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Today was a statutory holiday, and the pharmacy my daughter works at is closed for those, so my daughter had the day off. We still made a quick trip into town, as there was a festival going on. It was the market we wanted to check out, after I mentioned some of the vendors I saw. Unfortunately, half the market wasn’t set up today, so it was a bit of a wasted trip.

Except we got churros. Which makes up for that. These are a once a year thing, so it’s a really special treat. :-D

Another treat we had was when we got home and found the little furry bean, lying in a sun spot.

Is this little guy gorgeous, or what?

While things are starting to cool down, it still wasn’t until evening that I headed out into the yard to water a few things. I was pleasantly surprised to see Guildenstern coming into the yard with her baby.

After watching them for a bit, Junk Pile Kitten ran into the lilac bushes, so I settled myself on the steps at the door on that side and watched.

I was not disappointed.

What a beauty! Just look at those eyes!

He came pretty close to me, playing with a couple of the sun room kittens that came by. Including his brother, Keith. :-)

I was able to get a bit of pruning done in the yard. Some of it was getting rid of low hanging branches that were starting to hang too low. Some of it was in the lilac near where I’ve planted the haskap berry bushes. Some of the branches were hanging low enough to be all stabby at me when I try to mow around the bed, but most of what I cut away was dead branches, twisted among and around the live ones. That opened the bush up quite a bit.

The kittens immediately took advantage of that.

There was 4 of them in there, at one point! :-D

As I was hauling the branches off to the wood pile, my husband went around to get some photos of the sun going down through the trees. We could see a cat off by the pump shack. After putting the wheelbarrow away, I decided to see which cat was out there, because Beep Beep has been pretty vicious about chasing Rosencrantz off in that direction.

It was, indeed, Rosencrantz, but I had another pleasant surprise, too.

She and her baby are using the pump shack again! It looks like the little guy can squeeze himself through that hole in the bottom of the door.

The hole was not that big before.

He is such a dark grey little kitty!

The other kittens came around, and he did play with one of them that came over, a little bit, but for the most part they stayed away from each other.

I’m really glad they have stayed nice and close. I hope Pump Shack Baby will make friends with the sun room kittens and start coming to the house for food.

I may not have gotten a lot of work done outside, but seeing the two other kittens is enough to make up for that. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Critter of the Day: chickadee on a lilac branch

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Take a closer look at the branch this chickadee is perched on.

This and other more horizontal branches of the lilac tree are worn down like this.

It’s from all the birds pecking the sunflower seeds they hold in their claws, open!

Good Morning!

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It was lovely doing my rounds with morning, and I just wanted to share some of my flowering finds. :-)

One of my mother’s fancy lilacs is now blooming. Last year, while cleaning up this flower bed, I took out a maple tree that was growing in the middle of it!

At its base, where I had pruned and cleared quite a bit, there is now massive new growth of this lilac.

Swallowtails love lilacs, we’ve noticed. :-) I wasn’t able to get a picture of one this morning, though.

The first couple of my mother’s poppies opened this morning. This one is near the lilac bush in the above picture. The large leaves you see to the left is a small cherry tree. Small enough that I hope to transplant it to a better location, by next year.

Another poppy that opened up this morning is under the bird bath.

We’re going to have lots of these blooming, this year!

I tried making my way through an area of the spruce grove this morning, but there were too many fallen trees and undergrowth blocking my way. The wild roses scattered throughout, however, were blooming enthusiastically in the mess. It should be interesting to see how they do after the area is cleaned up, and they have more light and space. :-)

This is one of the plants I’ve been seeing growing all over the places where I had pruned branches and cleared away deadwood. This one is near the south fence of the spruce grove, where I’d managed to do some clearing before the snow fell, last year. This is the first of the flowers I’m seeing from this plant. I don’t know the name of it, but we’re going to have quite a lot of these, all over the place! :-)

I also did a bit of patriotic decorating today.

Canada Day will be here soon, so I set up four sturdy little flags that we have, on the East fence line, facing the road.

Kinda wishing I had more! I love how they look. :-)

The Re-Farmer