March - some Lion and some Lamb

I think the lion ate the lamb and became stronger and more ferocious.  As of this morning, March 22 it is -23 with windchill to -27.  Much the same for tonight and returning to a bit warmer temps for the week day. Thank you winter, you big fat bag of ... *ahem*

Anyway, that concludes the wine and cheese portion of the blog - on to the trivial entertainment section.

Oh but first!! Before the trivialities:  Happy Birthday to sister Koko for tomorrow, Happy Birthday to Don for yesterday.  Even more notable - Happy Homecoming from the hospital Dad!  We all hope that you will continue to feel better and better with each day,  and get back out to do some walking and feeling more comfortable and stronger.

Alright then:

This past few weeks renos were a bit tedious.  I finally was able to recaulk the windows in the living room, prime and paint the sills  and put the casing back up.  Makes a nice clean look.

I patched and sanded the stairs but once I was ready to paint I just wasn't happy with them  The edges were just not nice and clean and sharp.  So I scraped them back down and filled with caulking along the risers and the stringer and whatever else is along the side of the wall.  If is much nicer now - no gaps.  That takes a while to dry but I was super anxious to see what the colour would look like.  So I painted one step.  I love the colour and surprisingly it matches the accent beach colours I have in my mind for the rest of the house.

It is kind of hard to judge the colour with the bright green tape but you get the idea.

These were the accent sort of things I picked up a while ago.  I intend to put old photos in the bottles ... of which there are a number of around here.  Then I need a bunch more shabby chic small frames as well.

So my thoughts have turned to spring and planting, much like most people who have had way too much winter.  We still have a LOT of snow - many places we can't walk out here because the snow is still way too deep.  In looking for plants I have ordered from Botanus, where I got some sour cherries, glads, some milkweed and some other things I forget.  I was trying to find some white sage to plant, as we have some here on our land but I need a lot more in order to make the smudges that Shari likes.

I came across this site, and they have wildflowers - almost all my faves except most of the ones I want are not available.  I still was able to get some seeds and some plugs for avens. Western red Lilies, the mauve prairie crocus. more milkweed and lots of shooting stars.

maybe check them out if you're into native plants.
http://www.wildaboutflowers.ca/




As well I came across this interesting site and so guess what!  http://www.houseplantsforyou.com/how-to-grow-an-old-fashioned-sweet-potato-vine/

I just thought the possibilities were too much fun not to try.  I also have an avocado starting and some Meyer's Lemons, though I am sure that I will not be as lucky as mom and dad but you never know and hey, didn;t cost me much to try.  The meyer's lemons are so sweet that I like to drink a LARGE mug of hot water with a lemon squeezed into it while I wait for the coffee to perk.  It tastes good and is apparently really really good for you.

This link had neat ideas.  I intend to get some organic ginger from the grocery store and probably some garlic and see what grows!

http://parade.condenast.com/164153/juliebawdendavis/save-that-old-sweet-potato-grow-houseplants-from-kitchen-scraps/

 What kind of got me intrigued about what I could start indoors is when I went downstairs to check on the Peruvian Daffodils that I had in pots last year.  I brought them with me when we moved and my good gardener friend Lorraine told me to store them in wood chips in a box.  Much to m happy surprise not only did they all not rot, they were sprouting!

Here are the white ones but I also had yellow.  I wasnt smart enough to separate them when I stored them though

But look how well they overwinter in a dry box of wood chips!

This one even had a baby hibernating with it !  If I remember correctly there were a  lot of babies in the soil when I dug them up in the fall

These really do well in pots and I started mine indoors last year about this time. They were almost finished blooming by the end of june though :(

I expect to plant these sometime this week in the two clay coloured plastic planters I used last year.

This is a little fiddle head from my birds nest fern.  I have had that fern for as long as i can remember and it really loves this house!  Coem to think of it so do all the plants - my Christmas cactus has beeen blooming continually since September!

This is Stinky.  She has been coming along with us on our walks every day.  No idea why but I think she just likes human companions.  Lord knows she hates the dogs and only tolerates her feline companions.    She really should be someone's indoor princess as she is about the sweetest most endearing little thing to me. 

Waiting for the dogs to do whatever dumb things dogs do on walks.  We have some spots on the road where it's down to bare gravel and so she lies in the sun and waits until we are ready to keep walking/

Stinky walking with all her friends haha.  She and her shadow.. strolling down the meridien

Ok I don't have much else to report and I hope to post some pics when I get the stairs done so this will just be a short one.  Everyone take care - extra get wells to you Dad

I love you all <3

mi vida loco

Oh wow! Tuesday Feb 18 we actually hit just above freezing and IT  WAS   GLORIOUS!!!  I can't even believe that I had to take my parka and snow pants off and put on lighter mitts because IT WAS TOO HOT when I was shoveling!

The kitties came and laid out on the garden bench on a nice warm bathmat which I purchased for that reason at Value Village for $1.  They think it is wonderful and when it is all hairy and gross, I will not be upset throwing it out.  It occurs to me that there is no waste in discarding something that is not safe or used up.  The waste comes in buying more than you can use.

Anyway guess what! Finally it was clear enough to see the northern lights, and though they didn't dance across the sky, and they only came in green, it was a pretty end to a productive and warm day.

I thought the solar lights were kind of pretty the way they shine onto the snow that way

That was about the only warmth we were to get again until March10, but we didn't know that then.  probably a good thing.

Zoom forward to march 12 - guess what!!!!!!  BEES! 
We usually walk down a number of roads every day and today it was 6C and I thought why not walk in that field where the old building are and the snowmobiles have made some packed trails.  So we did... got walking and went to take a picture and there was something on the camera.

WHA???!!!  A BEEE!!???

It is also the same filed where the beekeeper raises his hives and apparently the bees have also had enough of winter and decided to get some fresh air. They were every where..! Crawling in the snow, drinking , buzzing... you could just hear them humming ... so amazing. Then we got the heck outta there haha
Did you know that honey bees don't hibernate? They stay awake all winter, shivering to keep the hive warm!  They eat honey for their food supply and then take turns being on the outside edges of the crowd of bees.  When they get too cold along the edges, they work their way into the inner portion of the group.  Man what a long winter that would beeeee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf1w1Rq9ahQ&feature=youtu.be


Ok back to the past...  mostly this is just a bunch of random pictures because it's hard to sort them out if you are lazy.  i had some more which I was in the process of editing, but the internet farted and kicked me out.  Now I gotta go back and dig through to find them.

Looking up the clean and painted staircase ... just trying to decide about the stairs

White risers and green/blue beach glass coloured treads??

Thoughts?  I like the top colour but maybe the second one from top? 

My first selfie haha. And I haven't got facebook to show it on .. but check out the cutey cute cute kitty tshirt that mom sent me a while ago!!  Finally was warm enough to wear it one day when the sun was coming in the windows!

So we were back and forth to the farm while Dar's mom and dad were off to their trip and convention.  One day I couldn't find Kira and she had hopped over the fence and was upstairs in the hallway laying with all her friends.  She got up too fast for me to get get the camera. Oops

Curiosity did not kill these kitties teehee.  There was some bison meat in the freezer and it was getting a little old, although when i cooked it Dar asked what smelled so good.  It was nice and no freezer burn but I tossed a couple pounds in the slow cooker, with some old sweet potatoes I had and some stale steel cut oats that were in my freezer forever.  It was -50 with windchill a number of days and these little farm kitties and Sumi were just so grateful for a little extra warm supper.

Check out this stitching ... it is on a little cloth doily.  The top chevron stitches were the "right" side and the running stitches were the "wrong side, turned up.  Such beautiful stitching Dar's gramma used to do.

You;ve got CILUX!  haha. hey guess what! Enamel in French is "Email" and so the french actually have the official name for email which is courriel.  However, most french people use the colloqial word "email"

Snuggling up the blue eyed farm kitty who looks all the world like a pure bred Siamese.

Our little barn buddies at the house

Kira made a little bed on the deck upstairs at our place and then the sun got warm around her and her little bed got smaller... and smaller haha. Silly Kira

She was playing out at the farm and got super tired so she dug and bed and it was too bright... so stuck her head in the snow.  It was -36.  Silly little thing ...

This was taken yesterday march 11. yes we have a lot of snow still.  They are saying we are likely to have excessive run off again this year but we will hope for a nice slow thaw. This is kira hunting mice

More of that pretty stitching

This is a random bee from the hive that was coming alive March 12 - there were hundreds of them and I wonder why they would come out and freeze to death in the snow ... many of them did.

Frost

Pretty colour - I think they call it green

Star anise - I was sorting cupboards fro something to do at teh farm and came across some old spice bottles and thought I would play with some of them

I wonder if ginger was hard to buy fresh a long time ago?

Never heard of such a thing! huh!

Prettiest pink dishes. I would eat my cereal frmo these every day!

The prettiest things!

Hey if you're going to paint, might as well do it all fancy like.  (AHA also known as repurposing rolls of wedding table cloth covers.  Those have been handy things and cheap too!)

Ok well I had lots of other pics but now I am tired and don't really need to bore your further.

We did have some news last week and Dar got a new job that is NOT home inspections.  He was encouraged to apply for an IT position with the local school board and thought he would apply.  There were 60 applicants and he didn't feel there was any chance of getting the position, but he made the short list and then was called to say he was being offered the job.  He would have done really well with the Home Inspections of that I have no doubt, but I think he was getting tired of waiting for teh season to come around and also wanting to get back to gainful employ.  He seems to like it there ok although he is just into his second week.

I am making plans for the yard and looking forward to planting and all the other good things that come of spring weather, except for the muddy paw prints that will be pretty hard to keep after.

ok everyone - hope it warms up for you where ever you are ttfn!