Wednesday, August 31, 2011

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.

    Tuesday, August 30, 2011

    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.

        Monday, August 29, 2011

        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 CuttingsGraftingSeeding
        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.

        Sunday, August 28, 2011

        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.

          Saturday, August 27, 2011

          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.

          Friday, August 26, 2011

          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.

          Thursday, August 25, 2011

          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.