Flicker

Saw a northern flicker flying across the back of the farm. They always seem to come through this time of year. I made a cross between a flicker and a red-bellied woodpecker.

Garden Experiment Number 2

We built a cold frame to try and produce some fresh herbs and greens over the winter. We used four straw bales and an old patio door for the frame. We dug into the soil about four inches, and then lined the bottom with old newspaper. We added leaf mulch and manure, and then added soil (about one third of the compost volume).

It was pretty cold when we rescued the plants from the greenhouse. They look a little raggedy. We shall see if it works!

If the plants die, I am sure the slugs and rats will enjoy its spa-like atmosphere.

Snow Geese

In the back field there is a very large flock of snow geese. Their cries sound like Christmas. It is almost like they have bells in their throats, if that makes any sense at all.

Sometimes, they get startled and they fly up into the air. Like a black tipped white cloud they circle the field and then come back to land.

Bird Making Time

It is getting colder and wetter. It is harder to stay outside and work in the garden. This weekend we will try and build the cold frame and then after that, it will be time to go for short walks and stay inside and make birds. So far, I have made a golden finch, a kildeer, and one lost bird. I will post the picture soon.

Cranberry Harvest

It is harvest time in the cranberry bogs. The sunsets are amazing reflected in the flooded fields.

New Oven

We managed to find bricks in some road fill so we built a brick oven in our garden. We haven't mortared it yet. We are still experimenting with it.

All Good Things Must End

Summer is in its final stages. It is hot in the sun, but in the shade the cold lurks. I see geese collecting in park and fields, getting ready for their long journey. People seem to hate geese, especially Canadian Geese. When checking my Google Analytics, I find people coming to my site with search terms like "Kill Canadian Geese" or "Get rid of Canadian Geese" or Hate Canadian Geese." Now, more people looking for the above terms will come to my site! So all I can say, if they read this is, WTF?

So geese are big and they tend to eat a lot and deficate. I can understand farmers concern over the geese, but there are many methods for scaring birds from crops. If the fields are fallow, then the geese will help keep the field fertilized as they gleam the last of the crop. And in parks, the geese dung is good for the grass.

We do all have to learn to live together. There are just under 10,000 species of birds in the world and 10% of them are endangered. I have been writing about bird and human interactions for orato.com under leannej. Check it out.

End of Days

The air has that milky quality that can only mean that fall is on its way. The sun is hot, but the air has a coolness that takes the crispness out of the sun's bite. The tomatoes are ripening faster every day. We have had many salads. Soon we will have to begin canning the tomatoes and peaches.

Sunset

We have been experiencing the most beautiful and frightening sunsets lately. Last week, the sun was setting, and there was a rainbow cutting through the pink sky. I felt like I was watching the sunset on mars.

Summer Garden

Summer is full-on now. We have been experiencing the hottest days on record. The garden is about 3 weeks ahead of last year. The corn is ready and there is a large pumpkin growing in the middle of the garden. It just appeared out of nowhere.

The sweetpeas are growing tall and sweet smelling. They are my favourite scented flower. So lovely.


The corn will be ready, like the beans, all at once. I will eat as many as I can. But like every other year, I will tire of the corn before it has finished producing. Later, as soon as all the corn is gone, I will start craving it all over again.

The garden Circa July 15 Night

Rasberry Pickers

Fresh

We picked the last of the Richmond strawberries. They were so juicy, they almost melted in my hands.
We cooked the first of the new potatoes. It makes me sad to think how soon they will be gone.
The peas are full on now. I miss them most of all. When February rolls around, I start craving something fresh and green.

Humingbird and Honeysuckles

The honeysuckle bloomed and bloomed.
The wind carried its scent, like a warm caress.

The Garden Circa July 4

The Cherry Harvest

Another generation learns gram's pie recipe.
We managed to wrestle a few cherries away from the starlings. And now the cherries are gone.

Chic-a-dee with Bee

The Garden Circa June 28

Birds moving north in response to climate change

This study was reported by Brad Sylvestor in the Manchester Bird Watching Examiner.

"According to information released by Audubon and BirdLife USA, an analysis of data gathered over the last forty years has shown a dramatic shift in the natural ranges for as many as 177 US Bird species in response to climate change. The shifts correspond closely to average winter temperatures over the affected regions."

For the rest of the story, visit http://www.examiner.com/x-13230-Manchester-Bird-Watching-Examiner~y2009m7d2-Birds-moving-north-in-response-to-climate-change

The Garden Circa June 6

Sparrow photos by Teresa Keefer

This little fellow was all a twitter as we were eating our lunch too close to his nest.

Eventually we reached a truce.

Crow photos by Teresa Keefer

Michael Pollan Gives a Plant’s-Eye View

Garden Circa May 31, 2009

One week. What a week will do! I did cheat a little. I added bedding plants and I bought a few plants that already started. Soon, zucchini.

Garden circa May 14, 2009

Hawthorn Tree

The Hawthorn tree are just at their peak. There are several of them on the farm, as they are indigenous to the area. Right now, the blossoms are alive with the sounds of bees and other pollinators. I saw a bee as big as my thumb!

The Snowball Tree

All the tentative reminders of spring--the violets, the balm of Gilead, the lilacs--are finished. Suddenly, all the leaves on all the tress are out.


This snowball tree is very old, but it had been languishing in a grove of birch trees. It was only about three feet tall, when we decided to move it to its present location. Suddenly it grew and grew. They are right, it is all in the location.

Garden

The garden is in. Finally. It's the biggest garden we have ever planted, and probably our last at the farm, so we decided to go big. I hope we will have lots of extra produce to give to the food bank. The farm is getting eight new chickens, so there will be extra eggs for the food bank too.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed one of the chickens had trouble walking. Poor old peg leg had a broken foot. I have been watching her, bringing her extra feed, but every time I did, the other chickens came and took it away. Even if they had their own food, they would not leave peg leg's alone.

This week, I noticed that peg leg never went outside, just stayed around the roost, moping, so I picked her up and set her outside, and all of the chickens started to attack her. I must have looked insane, crying out "no" and "bad chickens."

I guess, I am still pretty much a city girl. When I mentioned it to Scot and his uncle, they both said the same thing, "That's nature." Nature is not always pretty. I know it's common knowledge-- a cliche even--and that I should know these things, but I guess we have to learn and relearn everything.

The Derby Peregrine Camera

Check it out.

http://195.224.106.202/peregrine/webcam.htm

White Hawk

I had good weather all weekend, so I worked in the garden. I found a part of a robin's egg nestled in the garlic patch. It was such a wonderful shade of blue. The lilacs are out now, and their scent kept wafting towards me as I planted.

Throughout the weekend, I noticed this white hawk flying over the garden. I imagine the garden must have been on its flightpath. I think it must have been trying to get at the songbirds in the nearby trees.

It was an amazing hawk. Its colour is diffcult to describe. It was, as I said, white, but a kind of chalky white--like it had been carved out of marble and then aged for centuries. That kind of white. If that makes sense?

CBC feed: Don't kill Canada geese in Kelowna,

Perhaps we should have thought about this when we eliminated their habitat.

" A humane society in Kelowna, B.C., is up in arms about the city's decision to shoot and kill Canada geese blamed for damaging city parks.

Kelowna city hall said the geese have congregated en masse in city parks and are causing damage to park walkways, turf and people's overall enjoyment of the facilities."

More:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/05/06/bc-kelowna-shooting-geese.html

Rain and Rumination

It has rained all week. Last weekend's sun seems like another lifetime ago. I am hoping the rain will clear enough to get some more of the garden in. Last week, we used the big rototiller to break up the clay laden soil. We broke two shovels trying to break-up the ground.

Last week we had a couple of good asparagus feasts. They are really starting to produce now. We also had hot and cold running rhubarb. I wish I liked it, but everybody else loves it. Scot made a couple of pies so far.

We visited our favourite vegetable stand in Richmond, Tai On Farms. So far they only have chinese greens and spinach. We bought one of everything and ate them all. The greens were picked that morning. I can't wait until they have their green onions and carrots. Fingers crossed.

From the Telegraph:Birds Can Dance

It's this kind of patronizing attitude that makes birds hate us...

"Researchers have revealed that birds – and parrots in particular – can bob their heads, tap their feet, and sway their bodies along to a musical beat. Now they believe that other "mimicking" species such as dolphins, elephants, and pinnipeds, a group including walruses and seals, may also like to boogie."

More:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5252413/Birds-can-dance-in-time-to-music.html

From the Daily Item: Bird could have started fire

NORTHUMBERLAND -- The idea that a bird might have started Monday afternoon's fire at Strong Industries by picking up a smoldering cigarette butt and dropping it inside an abandoned area of the plant isn't as far fetched as people might think, a high-ranking state official said.

More: http://www.dailyitem.com/0100_news/local_story_119003051.html

Another Sunny Day

Another sunny day today. I went for a short walk this morning. The cherry and plum blossoms are out in full now, so are the magnolia blossoms. Even in this inner city, there is some greenery, you just have to search for it. By the new drug court there are a couple of maple trees that are just coming out with their leaves--the leaves are so new and green, almost fern-like. Behind the courts fencing, sits these small privot like plants that sweetly scent the air when they bloom in the early spring. One of the few times, I enjoy smelling the air around here. 

It is a shame there is little in the way of boulevards in this section of the city. Everything is cemented over. Once I was walking, and in a crack in the sidewalk, I noticed some grass, and stuck in the grass was a tiny sign that said, "Keep off the Grass." I know it was silly, but I think about it a lot.

Happily, I am riding out to the farm later today to finish digging the garden. I am only about a third of the way done. The weather has been so cold, that I don't think that anything I planted will be up yet. I try not to think about what life will be like without the farm. 

Spring at last

I kept waiting for spring to come. Watching the fields for new signs of life. Of course, spring truly arrived in the air first. It arrived in the Balm of Gilead and the white currant blossoms.

The snowdrops and the crocuses came up, even though it was still snowing, they surfaced none-the-less. Slowly, the ground dried out enough for us to start digging the garden.



I planted peas and kale and onions. The cold hardiest of the vegetables. The garlic overwintered nicely. Even a few sweet peas volunteered. With all the new life it was with great sadness I learned that they will be selling the farm. It may be as soon as next spring. So as I look at my garden, I keep thinking this may be the last one I will ever plant here.

It shades everything this knowledge. This may be the last spring, and so I go from enjoying the new life, to mourning its eventual absence.

CBC feed: Pastures Unsung

Every June hundreds of Canadians and Americans volunteer to participate in the Breeding Bird Survey, helping to track trends in bird populations. Four decades of these counts show that the birds that are declining the most rapidly in North America are the prairie birds at the heart of the continent — the birds that need grassland. Forty years of data is enough to prove that grassland bird decline is for real — not merely cyclical or temporary. Yet it doesn’t give much in the way of historic background. How many Sprague’s Pipits were there 60 years ago? What did the prairie sound like before it was settled, or even shortly after settlement?

For more from this story: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/pastures-unsung/index.html

Violet Icing

Tree Planting

Years ago, the Government appropriated the back of the farm to build a highway. For the last ten or so years, we have been collecting trees and planting them along fence right next to the highway. We tried to collect trees that are indigenous to the area. Digging them up from lots that were being developed and from trips to the river. The trees were all young and small.

This morning, I went for a walk along the treeline. The trees have filled in, and once the leaves come out, they should completely hide the highway. One of the trees, a cottonwood, is about eight metres tall now.

Today, I saw a small downy woodpecker sitting in a birch tree. When I see birds nesting and perching in the trees that I helped plant, I sometimes think this is one of the best things I have ever done.

A Sense of Spring

It was such a beautiful day on Friday that it inspired us to ride our bikes out to the farm. This is our earliest bike ride to the farm since we have been riding out -- about five years now. Last year was our record, when we rode out on February 23rd, but we beat it by twd days.

I had a largish amount of homework, so I couldn't spend too much time outside, but I managed to prune the raspberries and tulameens. They were already producing some green buds. The crocuses were in bloom. The snowdrops are almost done, and the daffodils are poking up through the soil. The violets have greened up; this year I am going to candy the flowers and make a spring cake with candied violets on top -- maybe for Easter.

I was sad to come back to the city today, although you could still smell spring in the air, but it was spring at a great distance. As I walked through Chinatown, I passed the courthouse where they have a row of this highly scented privet in bloom. They have an amazing scent, so it was a little bit of life in an otherwise grey place.

Conversations and Understanding

I ran into my friend in the hallway of my building. She is older and wiser than I am. We had the oddest conversation, where I was sure, neither of us knew what the other was trying to say, but I was certain that eventually we would.

Mouse Trails

Since the snow melted, you can see mouse trails along the farm. It's like there are miles and miles of these trails. The mice must have made them when the snow covered the ground. It's amazing to see. And a tad scary to contemplate how many mice are underneath me as I stand gazing at their trails.

The mice populations have been increasing. I know they have cycles and they must be getting to another peak population. I think this is why we have been seeing so many different smaller raptors: Sparrow hawks, and I was sure I spotted two peregrine falcons, and there have been a couple of owls hanging around too.

Of Figs and Birds

My balcony has been filled with birds. Their calls wake me in the morning, and all day I can hear them rustling around. The balcony floor is full of husks. When it warms up, which seems to be taking ia long time, I will go out and sweep and clean. The plants are all covered with bits of fabric, towels, old blankets, whatever I had in hand, to cover the plants and protect them from frost. I know a few plants may not make it. The geraniums, which I have overwintered for years, are all dead. I am worried about the big fig tree, but I have a young cutting started, so I will have figs if worse comes to worse.

I had to stay in town this weekend, so I am trying to make the best of it, but it is not the same. I miss the long open spaces, and my walks, but the birds on my balcony carry with them an echo of the fields and skies, so I persevere.

How Far Spring?

At the Farm:

This morning I saw the short woodpecker. He was walking upside down along the bottom of the bird feeder, stealing sunflower seeds and flying off with them.

I can see the garden now. Everything has been killed by the frost and snow. I dug out the last of the beets and celery and threw them in the berm for he pheasant to eat. I am itching to start my new garden, but so far, only the snowdrops are coming up. On some clumps, I can see the small white buds forming.

I went for a walk today. The snow has melted. It has been foggy for the last couple of days and I could only see a few feet ahead on me. Every now and then a bird would emerge out of the fog and then disappear again. All I could see was a black silhouette and then it was gone.

Winter Walk

Grackles