Green heron

I wish I could say I took this picture....but it's one I got off of the internet. I wanted to post this beautiful bird because we have one on our pond! He is very shy though and I haven't been able to get close enough for a picture. (I will have to get out into the duck blind by 5:30...as he was on the pond when I got up at 6am) We have had them for about 3 years now and think/hope they are nesting somewhere down at the pond. Yesterday he was at the pond for most of the day, just standing in the water and catching frogs and tadpoles too I guess. They have an amazing sound too!

Duck blind

Aidan and I decided to sneak down to the pond to take a closer look at the wood ducks (via the woods, so they wouldn't see us approaching) and decided we needed a duck blind at the pond's edge so we could watch them. We used pine branches that we had trimmed off some trees a couple of weeks ago. We stacked and piled them on three sides so we would be able to see them on both ends of the pond. I want to be able to sit down there and be hidden so that the ducks won't notice me. Maybe I'll be able to get some photos too.

Birthday money

Annie bought more Lego..this time a farm!

A Poem.... by Kate Nicholas

Home Again, then Roam Again

Grey sidewalks and blvds,

as far as the eye can see.

Chewing gum and parking meters

on every single street.

Buildings tower, the sky they scrape.

Oh how I wish I could escape,

the sewer smells, polluted air,

the "getting hit by a taxi" scare.

Oh how I long for the country,

sweet smells and starlit nights.

The wolves howl to the moon lit bright,

their howls sound like men

saying "oh damn! let me catch that bus

so I can be home again".

I love Spring for it’s renewal. Everything begins again and I find it the most hopeful season. ANYTHING seems possible! Out here, it begins with the pond. First the ducks come, usually a few mallards, then the wood ducks arrive. Greg and I saw the female try out the wood duck box! So hopefully we’ll have baby ducks on the pond again this year. Then we begin to hear the frogs calling…spring peepers, wood frogs, leopard frogs as well as the trill of the American toad. We haven’t heard the call of the green frog, which sounds like the twang of a banjo string, or the bullfrogs yet, as they are the last to join in the singing. Soon we’ll be able to see the clumps of frog’s eggs and the strings of toad’s eggs. On Sunday, Greg and I were down at the pond and saw a painted turtle and 2 snakes! They looked like black rat snakes…so cool! (from a distance..) We also have a muskrat on the pond, only visible with the binoculars from the house, because he slips under water if we try and get any closer.

The yard too is filled with signs of spring.
There are several robins around, digging

through the newly raked garden beds for

worms, and building yet another nest on

the posts of our porch.

(we’re up to 6 now!) Today, while I was

raking I uncovered a very cold, very

slow-moving salamander.

The early blooming flowers of Hepatica and Lungwort are lovely spots of colour in the otherwise brown gardens. (A walk in the woods will reveal more blossoms of the many wild flowers that will soon be up…that will be another day’s blog)

The tomato and pepper seedlings are still tiny, but coming along. As long as it’s sunny, I am able to put them into the little greenhouse/coldframe, as the temperature in there is always much warmer. Right now we’ve got 9 trays of seedlings, but they are still only in cell paks. Once they are transplanted in to their pots, the trays will only hold about 12 or 15 plants, instead of the 48 plants they hold now. My hope is that by the time the plants need to be transplanted to a pot, the temperature at night in the greenhouse will be steady at about 7 degrees and then we will not have to bring all of those trays in every night and back out every morning…usually we do have to do that for a couple of weeks, but I started the seedlings later this year, so maybe we’ll only have to do it for a few days.
Either way, I do love that little contraption and am thankful that I am able to grow so many plants. The onions, lettuce, greens and chard have been able to stay in the greenhouse overnight for a while now. They are not so tender and aren’t hurt by the cold, but I’m sure a bit more sun would really get them growing too!

Another thing I love about spring is the fact that although it’s too wet to get into my vegetable gardens, I can still work outside on my perennial beds! I have started 2 new ones. One near the compost area ( where the old pile was) and one near the house along the front walk, where we have a few big rocks that needed a garden around them! I built the front garden as a ‘lasagna’ garden. I laid wet sections of newspapers all over the grass where I wanted to garden to be, they covered it with a layer of leaves, then some soil and compost, then hay, then more soil, then more leaves. I then covered it with a black tarp to really get it ‘cooking’. I had to cut a few holes in the tarp, because I actually have a few plants started in that garden…a little bush, and a hosta from zee last year, and I transplanted my hydrangea into that garden too. I hope to let that sit for a few weeks and then start planting more things into it. If I could, I would spend all day outside in my gardens!


In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
- Margaret Atwood

Feeling crappy today:(

I am getting a cold..Im taking oregano oil again hoping to nip it in the bud and should have taken it as soon as Kate and Annie got colds.

I feel like a slacker...I should be doing some fundraising for the Relay for Life. So many things I could be doing outside. The house is messy. I have no energy. I'm going for a walk today even tho I dont feel like it but I know I will be happy I did. aaarrrrgggghhhh.... Sigh.....(hoping that sums up how I feel) Lee

a day spent outside

Annie so desires a tree house, that for the time being, she has created a little perch for herself. She made a shelf and a basket with a rope and even made a flag...I had to hoist up (the 4 feet) water and snacks and her novel and stuffed animal.

And look!!! I have lettuce mix growing in my cold frame!! Not sure what will happen to it but it will be fun to watch!!