50 Memorable Events

Sorry readers, this one is definitely just for me, unless you've had the privilege of attending similar events.

1. May 5th 1990, Our Wedding Day
2. Jan 11, 1992, Birth of Eldest
3. Sept 16, 1994, Birth of Youngest
4. August 1989, purchasing the Addison farm
5. June 30, 2008, purchasing our new home
6. Southern Ontario Iris Tours 
7. Working at the South River Cattle Barns
8. Young Farmers Week in Ottawa, 1989
9. Trip to Picton to get Heritage Apple Varieties Scionwood
10. Camp Iawah, Eldest's Grade 7/8 Trip, chaperone 
11. Celtic Thunder Concert, Kingston, April 2009
12. Sunday School trip to Toronto, 1969
13. Prince Edward Island vacations 
14. Buying my first cows 
15. Dunchurch Fall Fair
16. Shear Madness in St Jacobs
17. Day I met my Missus, May 1989
18. Trip to Blythe and Goderich, 2005
19. Saturday Evenings with Don and Orma Quinn 
20. First Day at Potsdam State University
21. Trips to North Bay to visit my sister when I was a teen
22. May 24th weekends with the aunts
23. Day with Cousin Loreene, going to Grimsby, looking for genealogy information
24. Graduation from SUNY Potsdam as a Qualified Teacher
25. Christmas Day 
26. Getting out of the hospital after my eye injury
27. Rittermere Bus Trip, 1974
28. Any day at Upper Canada Village
29. Week with both sets of parents in PEI 
30. Addison Garden Tour
31. Free Leahy concert in Cape Breton Island
32. New York City Trip 2007
33. Renaissance Festival, 2011 
34. College Dances 
35. Niagara Falls Vacation - Butterfly Conservatory
36. Black Creek Pioneer Village visit 
37. Picking Wild Blueberries back on the burn
38. Winter Weekend Getaways in Ottawa
39. Attending the Elmvale Livestock Auction with my friend Reg
40. Heart Concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, 1985
41. Trips to Wonderland
42. Marineland trip
43. Family Weddings
44. Josh Groban concert in Ottawa
45. School Trip to Wye Marsh and St Marie Among the Hurons, Grade 6
46. Grade XIII Graduation, Parry Sound High School
47. Catering Special Events Dinners in our home
48. Graduation Day from University of Waterloo, BA, 2001
49. Lancaster, Pennsylvania Trip, November 2010
50. New Liskeard Agricultural College Final Royal, April 1982

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Plants - My Top 50

Today's Top 50 are my favourite plants and in no particular order.  This one was a hard one to narrow down.  After all other than dandelions, crab grass and wild parsnip I pretty much like anything with roots and leaves.

1. Tall Bearded Iris
2. Squash
3. Tomatoes
4. Hepaticas
5. Potatoes
6. Petunias
7. Ferns
8. Gladiolus
9. Morning Glories
10. Apples
11. Lawn Grass
12. Columbine
13. Delphinium
14. Day Lilies
15. Maples
16. Water Lilies
17. Carrots
18. Asiatic Lilies
19. Elm
20. Rosemary
21. Flowering Crabapple
22. Bottle Gentian
23. Calla Lily
24. Cilantro
25. Blueberries
26. Hostas
27. Jewelweed (Touch Me Not)
28. Hydrangea
29. Roses
30. Clematis
31. Bleeding Heart
32. White Paper Birch
33. Tulip
34. Daffodil
35. Phlox
36. Garlic
37. Morels 
38. Ornamental Gourds
39. Lady's Slipper
40. Gloxinia
41. Jack In The Pulpit
42. Castor Bean
43. Bottle Gentians
44. Trillium
45. Spruce
46. Spring Beauties
47. Violets
48. Strawberries
49. Lupins
50. Adder's Tongue

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Just A Few Of My Favourite Things

So here is the next of my lists leading up to my momentous occasion.

There are some things in life that make my heart sing.  You know, those things that lift your spirits just at the mention, or sight, things that give me little 'happies'.  As I go back over the year of blogging, I see a lot of trends and topics of interest.  You can click on the coloured hyperlinks to go back over the corresponding entries for the year. However I also note there are a lot of my favourite things that I have no entries about yet ...... hmm.... there is still lots of fodder for the blogging cannon.

1. Homemade butter tarts
2. Grey tabby cats Tessie, Wesley
3. Family The Missus, The Eldest, The Youngest
4. Our Baby Grand
5. Bach
6. My wife's and daughters' voices Opera Night, Godspell Solo
7. Getting the Christmas Tree
8. Tall Bearded Irises Irises, More Irises, And Still More Irises
9. Gladiolus Gladioli
10. Spotted Faced Beef Cows Cows
11. Chickens Elswood, Baby
12. Chocolate Cake
13. Cheese
14. Live Theater Godspell, Cirque, Fiddler On The Roof
15. Hot tubs
16. Writing Favourite Books
17. Prince Edward Island
18. Cooking Plum Pudding, Tea Biscuits, Apple Dumplings
19. Sunny Slope Farm Cows, Sunny Slope
20. Wild Flowers Spring Flowers, More Wild Flowers, Still More Wild Flowers
21. Picking Wild Berries Berry Picking, Black Berries
22. Genealogy Genealogy Project, A Sad Little Family Tale, Lady Catherine Booth Wharton
23. Old Photos The Big Ten, Mom And Dad, Oval Portraits
24. Christmas
25. Blown Glass Christmas Bird Ornaments
26. Keeping Up Appearances
27. Accompanying on the Piano
28. Plant Propagation Cuttings, Grafting, Seeding
29. Ice Cream
30. Josh Groban
31. Forest walks, Forest Walk, Woodland Dumps
32. Celtic Thunder
33. Olivia Newton John
34. Vegetable gardens  The Veggie Patch
35. All Creatures Great and Small
36. Plastic Farm Animals A Little Farmer, Tin Barn
37. Attaining the Goal
    
38. Good Friends Neighbours,
39. Sunday Afternoon naps
40. Rototilling I Love Rototilling
41. Job Satisfaction 
42. Chocolate Cake
43. Antique Shops/Flea Markets Flea Market Finds
44. Cattle Auctions Cattle Auctions
45. Ebay
46. Walking Winter Wonderland, March Break, Summer Hike
47. Facebook Forgiveness,
48. Building with Reclaimed Material Wheelbarrow
49. Composing piano
50. Scrabble Scrabble

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Its All About Me

So while the east coast of North America buttons down the hatches in preparation for the arrival of the unwelcome visitor, Hurricane Irene, I must turn the focus inward.  IT'S ALL ABOUT ME THIS WEEK.

Sound pretty egocentric I know, but I am about to celebrate the momentous half century mark.  So for the next few days, you must indulge me and endure many obsessive lists, primarily about..... you got it..... ME.

Here goes. I tried to come up with 50 adjectives to describe me.  I also had them approved by the missus and daughters - just so it not partial, entirely.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Mother Nature's Harvest

There seems to be an abundance of fruit, both wild and cultivated around this summer.  On my walk the other morning I snapped the following.  Some I'm not even sure what the species are.  Clue me in if you have ideas.

Elderberries

The Mac tree in my back yard - ignore scabs and worm holes - it is organic.

Deadly nightshade - not edible, but quite attractive just the same.

Horse chestnut?  Walnut?  Not sure which.

Wild asparagas gone to seed.

Wild grapes - pucker up!

High bush cranberries

Not sure - almost an electric blue colour.

Again, not sure - no they are not grapes, but it is like a grape vine somewhat.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Tigridia - Mexican Shellflower

So I will have to admit, the accompanying photo is not from this year, but rather 2010.  These are tigridia and you don't see them very often.  In fact, unless you grow them yourself or live in Mexico, where they grow native, you may have never seen them in real life.  They are not a cut flower, because they only last a few short hours (think four o'clocks and morning glories).  But for those few short hours they are out, they are pretty eye-catching.

I first grew them many years ago.  It was one of those free bonus bulb deals that I got with the purchase of some other plants.  I threw them in the ground and then promptly forgot about them.  Late August I happened to come across this amazing little pink three petalled blossom, with a dappled and spotted center. Well maybe they are six petalled.  Come to think about it, they are a bit like an iris with three standards and three falls, although I'm sure most true horticulturalists would be 'tsk tsking' at my analogy.  Hmm, I think I will have to do some research, I've just stumbled upon why I like these plants so much!

I kept the bulbs and even saved seed (they are quite easy to reproduce).  However, eventually I found I was ending up with just plain yellows and reds.  Those must be the more dominant colour patterns.  Last year I came across a package of bulbs in the store and thought I would dredge up some horticultural nostalgia.



This year amid the spring rush I forgot to put my saved bulbs in - I came across them yesterday in my cleanup.  I realized just what I had missed.  Just when everything else in the garden is starting to get seedy and think about packing it it, I could have had a pleasant clump of Mexican shellflowers ( as tigridia are more commonly known) showing their cheerful little faces.  Next year...............

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.

Blue Blossoms

My blue morning glory has finally started to put forth a few of her cerulean blossoms.  There aren't many flowers that compare with morning glory heavenly blue.  It got me thinking back over the year and trying to remember what blues were most impressive in the garden.  In doing so I realized that blue is a very limited pallet in my garden, actually most gardens for that matter.  I must try to rectify that for 2012 - any suggestions from out in blogland?  Sorry I have seen the blue poppies - would love them, but realize their innate propensity to failure in our Canadian climate.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.