Stream of Dreams Mural

In September, the kids and I painted wooden fish for a Stream of Dreams mural, during the World Rivers Day celebration in Burnaby, BC.

We were told to watch for our fish to be displayed on a fence in the park in the near future.  But we didn't return to the Fraser Foreshore Park.  At least, not until this weekend, when we went for a walk on the beautiful clear Sunday afternoon, and discovered our fish, in a Stream of Dreams mural.  We were happy to find our fish swimming happily in the stream:

For more photos of this particular mural, see this page, or to learn more about the Stream of Dreams, see their website.

Insect Art - Painted Stick

On our trip to Otter Lake this summer, we found a stick which had insect tunnels all over it (under the bark, which had peeled off).  I brought it home, intending to paint it in contrasting colours to bring out the funky patterns the insects had carved.  I finally found the time this past week.  I think it turned out pretty neat.

I originally planned to paint in red (for the tunnels), and finish in contrasting black, but as I started painting the red, I came up with the idea of painting in red and yellow stripes, evocative of a poisonous snake, which the shape of the stick suggested.  So that's what I did, making sure to get deep into all the tunnels:

However, at this point, the tunnels were not very evident:

Until the black was painted on (brushing a light coat of black using the side or heel of the brush, so as to avoid filling the tunnels):

I am pleased with the final results, although I am not sure where to display it.  For now, I have it sitting beside a large wooden eagle head carving and stone salmon carving, both of which we bought from real (successful) artists.  So there is a sort of loosely west coast nature theme to it, even if it doesn't look like any of our local snakes.

If I get any compliments, I'll give most of the credit to the insects, for creating their patterns in the first place.  All I did was recognize and highlight it for them, so their artwork would be enjoyed.

Rattie Boys Introduction

Our latest pet rat, Archie, is about 3 to 4 weeks old, and is now beginning to show that he is a male.  This is good news, since our poor boy Bear (who we hoped was a girl when we bought him 6 months ago) has been without a companion, and going crazy not being able to visit the 2 girls in the cage next door to him.

I decided that I would let the boys sniff each other through the bars of the cage, and when it seemed friendly, I opened the door and let them sniff each other directly.  Archie fearlessly jumped into Bear's cage, and that was that.  We watched them for some time, and the interactions have been friendly, and unlike the girls (who still tousle often, ending with Sam on top, and Jen squeaking at her), the boys chased and sniffed each other.  In fact, our dear gentle giant Bear seemed a bit afraid of little Archie buzzing about and climbing on his tail.  Often, Bear retreated to the top of his food dish, watching Archie from above.

So I secured the second platform which we picked up at the dollar store.  The original cage was designed for birds, thus the vertical bars and lack of accessories.  We borrowed the ladder from the girls' cage, since they easily climb or jump up to their platform without it.

Bear seemed very interested in this new lower platform.  Archie was interested in everything, it was all new to him.  He figured out how to climb the vertical bars in no time, checking out the lower and Bear's upper platforms with no problem, not even bothering to use the ladder we provided.

It looks like a successful introduction.  Just in case Archie needs a place to retreat, we added a small tunnel which he can fit through but Bear can't.  But I don't think that will be necessary.

Here is a short video clip of the boys exploring together.  We are very happy for Bear that he finally has a friend to play with.

Five Year Blog Anniversary - and Thanks!

It's hard to believe I've been writing this garden blog for 5 years now.  It was my blog's 5 year anniversary this past week.  No hoopla.  No big giveaways.  But lots of good memories, photos and reflections on my garden to look back on occasionally, and an appreciation for the wonderful people I've "met" along the years, who share my love of plants and bugs and crafts and gardening.

I remember when I started my blog in January 2006, thinking that I would offer gardening advice and share my expanding plant knowledge.  My early posts included such advice as "Flowering Shrubs to Hide an Ugly Fence", and articles like "Mint : Lovely, useful and invasive!".

Very early on, I also discovered the joy of just posting "Garden Glimpses" or photographs of my garden and plants throughout the various seasons.  I still enjoy looking back on these, and comparing the garden and blooms from year to year.

In early 2007, I started my Garden Painting project, and posted my step by step series of additions to the painting, until I finally hung it on the wall, half finished, where it remains today, waiting for my next period of inspiration.

Early on, I used to track my visitors, and what searches led them to my blog.  Early on, it was photos and descriptions of my espalier trees which seemed to bring the most visitors.  Now, other than my regular readers, it seems to be Google Images searches which brings about 100 visitors per day.  Many who click further, and others who don't.

For the longest time, it felt like I was writing mostly to myself.  My brother checked occasionally whether I was making any progress on my garden painting, and then eventually gave up on me entirely.  Then somewhere along the line, I discovered the occasional joy of visitors to my blogs who actually left comments.  One of my first regular visitors and commenters I remember was Irena from My Roots Run Deep, a fellow Canadian gardener in the Toronto area.  I treasured those comments, which were a sign that someone "out there" actually cared enough to read or look at my posts.

I discovered the joy of reading and "following" other garden blogs, and leaving the occasionally comment to let them know, too, that someone cared and appreciated their posts.  Now I can spend entire evenings just following my regular blogs, and following their links and commenters to discover more good blogs to "follow".

In my reading, I discovered that although I loved reading about plants and enjoying photos of new plants (and bugs and crafts and recipes and photography...), I also enjoyed little glimpses into the blogger's world, their moments of pride or joy or sorrow, and quirky observations or discoveries or personal anecdotes they were willing to share.  That has helped to open up and share little quirky thoughts and experiences from my life also.  Whenever I have done so, I have felt very supported and encouraged by my regular readers and other blog visitors.  It is for EACH OF YOU that I am so very thankful, for you have enriched my life as I have poured a little of myself and my love of gardening into this blog for these past 5 years.

New Baby in the House

My son often surprises me.  Recently he decided that he would like a pet rat of his own.

When we bought our three rats earlier this year (see posting of Sam, Jen, and Bear), he was hesitant to hold them, and we didn't force him.  Now that they are nearly full grown, they are a bit intimidating.  So although he feeds them through the bars of the cage, and touches them, he is scared to hold them.  I offered that he could start with a baby rat, which is not scratchy, and he could get used to it.

Today we went to the pet store, so my son could try holding them.  I didn't expect that he would be ready on the first visit, but he found a rat he liked, held it, and decided to bring it home.  So we did.

He doesn't have a name quite yet, but that will come soon.  But he (at least we're hoping it is a boy, but not sure about it) is very cute.

We hope this latest little rattie is a boy, so Bear (who turned out to be a boy, so is in a second cage on his own) will have a companion.  Sam and Jen also have room in their cage, but since they already have each other, don't really need another friend.  But we're okay either way.  We'll find out in another 4 weeks or so.

Making Room for New Furniture - I'm Still So Excited

A most amazing thing happened a few days before Christmas.  We were driving back from a dinner with friends, and we passed our sofa (something told me this was the one!) in the window of a furniture store.  I shouted to my husband to circle the block again, and I wrote down the name and phone number (they had a Grand Opening sign) of the store, before we continued home.

The next morning, Dec 23, I phoned the store, and we arrived there in the afternoon, to check out their furniture offering, and ended up buying the whole living room of furniture before we left the store (which is very amazing for us, usually we need to go home and analyse and measure and think about it some more).  But after 6 1/2 years in our house, looking for the perfect furniture to match our living room, suddenly we had found it.

I am still giddy with excitement, and thanking God for that chance drive-by.  We have been shopping on and off for a long time, and not quite finding what we were looking for.  Disappointingly close, but the colours or fabrics or something was always wrong.  This one is beautiful, with a neutral-tone floral tapestry fabric, and intricately carved mahogany:

If you are thinking that we sound like spoiled people, you are absolutely right.  We are very blessed, with consistently good health, great jobs, a wonderful kids and supportive extended family, a spacious and beautiful home we designed and built, and many good opportunities in life.  We are VERY blessed, and we know it.

We arrived back from our trip to Otter Lake on Jan 2, and had the furniture delivered Jan 3.  So that meant tearing down and chopping the beautiful Christmas tree, which this year was amazingly fresh, even though on our instruction my Mom, who was watching the house for us, didn't water it the whole week we were gone.  It took us about 3 hours that night, before we could go to bed.  Here's the tree on Christmas Eve, before we tore into the presents:

That morning, our living room was bare again (as it is most of the year), with only the piano on one side:

Then came the furniture:

It is everything I had hoped.  I don't even mind that it is quite floral, since the colours are so neutral.  The fabric is really strong, it looks like it will last 40 years or more.  I know, since it is similar to the fabric on my first sofa, which has survived some 18 years as our main sofa, and when we bought our set of 4 LaZBoys for the family room this summer, we moved the old sofa into the basement, since it still looks as good as new.

The neutral tones, and pink highlights in the floral pattern are very similar to our dining room set.  The wood styling / carving is also very similar, although a bit more reddish in tone.

Now we just need to buy a rug (I think that would tie it together nicely, and soften the look of the wood floor), some lamps, and we are done.  Hopefully it won't take another couple of years.  ;-)

Winter Wonderland

We are at "our" cabin for New Year's again.  At least it feels like our cabin, since is the second year we will enjoy New Years here - we were here last winter, as well as during the summer.  The cabin was recently sold (listed for just under $1M), but we were glad that the new owner continues to make it available to rent.  We have already pre-booked for New Years next year.

We are on Otter Lake, in the interior of BC.  So instead of rain and mild temperatures in Vancouver, we are enjoying snow and clear cold weather.  The snow here is drier than we are used to, and due to the cold, hangs in the trees for a long time.  In fact, there is no sign of it falling.  It makes for some beautiful winterscapes.  Enjoy!

I wish you all a happy New Year!

Spreading the Christmas Cheer

...but not intentionally, this time. 

Yesterday my kids came home from school to find a package on the front porch.  It must have been dropped off during the day, giving one of our local squirrels enough time to tear his way into the box, and, being that there were only 23 cookies inside, to sneak one.  Well, at least he didn't bite any of  the others, so we have been enjoying the remaining 23.

I wonder if I should let the sending party (a company we have done business with during the year) know about the squirrel's break-in?  So they will know not to leave cookies on front porches anymore?  Or just let it go?  By default, I will likely not say anything.  What would you do?

Last weekend we finally made time to decorate our Christmas tree (click photo for larger view).  Since at 14' it is much higher than I can reach with our step ladder, I decorated the top from the loft.  I was a bit skeptical when my husband brought home icicles for the tree.  They seem to me a bit old fashioned, and also can be pretty messy.  But I am quite pleased by the effect, and how they shimmer with the light, and sway when someone passes by the tree.

We stayed with the lighter ornaments, not placing all of them this year.  But I think it's still pretty loaded.  Many of them are hand made creations my kids made at school or church, so it was fun pulling those out.  My son cut a lot of paper snowflakes for the windows.

I feel like I'm not quite in holiday mode yet, but by next week, hope to start taking time off work, and enjoying the family.  We are scaling back the shopping this year, or at least that's the plan.  I hope for spending time together and enjoying Christmas carols and Christmas concerts.  My daughter planned out the songs yesterday which our family will sing around the piano, including a couple songs she will perform as solos, and the kids are practising "We Three Kings" as a guitar duet.  That will be highlight of Christmas for me.

Christmas Tree - Beauty and Beast

We are blessed with a beautiful living room with 18' ceiling, so when we pick a Christmas tree (we've been cutting a fresh one for the last 6 years we've been here), it needs to be big enough to fit the proportions of the room.  Every year I think we find a bigger and prettier one.  Yesterday we cut down a monster of a Noble Fir - 14' tall, even after we took about 2' off the top.  The kids (who insisted they keep their brooms for the photo, after sweeping up needles we left on the ground from dragging it in) give the photo an idea of scale:

I strung up the lights on it today, reaching from the loft to string up the top branches, and a from a ladder for the remainder.  The two strings of lights sparsely cover, but still look lovely (click for a slightly larger view):

  

It was fun driving home, a lot of people were staring at us, thinking we are crazy.  Of course, once we got home and had to tackle the tree off the car, up the stairs, and into the stand (wow, it just barely fit, leaving almost no room for water!), then we also knew that we were crazy.  But what a beautiful tree it will make for Christmas.

By next year, hopefully we'll have furniture in the living room (we've been shopping for some time now, but haven't found the right furniture yet), and then maybe we won't be able to drag in a monster tree anymore.  So in the meantime, we'll enjoy it while we can.

Stick Bug Unsuccessful Hatching

In the couple of years I've been keeping stick bugs, I have had a lot of babies hatch, but have not been able to witness any hatchings - until a couple of days ago.  Or sort of.  I saw a stick in the bottom of the cage, which looks like it had a failed attempt at hatching (I've had a couple of those).  But as I reached to remove it from the cage, it moved slightly.

I gently picked it up, and took it into the kitchen, to watch it more closely, as it attempted to free itself from the egg capsule.

At first it looked like it was pushing with its front legs, to free its tail from the egg.  Then as time went on, I realized that the front legs were also helplessly attached to the egg, and only the middle two legs were functioning normally.  One of the back legs were broken off (perhaps by my picking it up the first time).

It struggled valiantly for a number of hours.  Finally I tried to help pull off the egg capsule, which came off but left behind an unidentified clearish white material, in which the 4 legs were firmly and hopelessly attached.  Unfortunately I managed to also break off on of the good legs, in the process.  So the situation was pretty bleak.  Without legs, this little guy would have no means of survival.  I tried to console him that evening with a moistened blackberry leaf, but while his mouth parts moved a bit in response to the leaf, he didn't make any noticeable attempt to chew it.  In the morning, he was dead.

Poor little thing.  It was sad to see him in that predicament, and not be able to help.  But at the same time it was neat to get a little glimpse into the hatching process, even if an unsuccessful one.  I still hope one day to witness a successful hatching.

Preparing for a Harsh Winter

On Friday night, it started snowing, and by midnight, everything was blanketed in white.  This is VERY early for the Vancouver BC area.  My daughter snapped this photo Saturday morning of our wooden bench on the back deck (which I've since pulled closer to the house, to avoid further snow and rain):

It had been a long week, so I didn't get up early enough on Saturday to get a nice photo, only this one after the snow was already starting to melt, and fall off the branches:

Note the small banana tree on the bottom left.  My landscaper gave this to me (an offshoot of his tree) only a couple of weeks ago.  So hopefully it will settle in and survive this winter, which is predicted to be a particularly harsh one.  Here is it before the cold hit it:

Yesterday I was able to take advantage of the clear weather to provide it with some winter protection.  I have wrapped it in straw, held in place by a roll of chicken wire, which is held in place by a few small posts, and wrapped in twine.  Then I covered it with a clear plastic bag, also tied with twine.  Fortunately, both the chicken wire and plastic bag were just tall enough.  Hopefully it will give the banana a head start in Spring, so it doesn't die right back to the ground.

I was worried that it might look like an eyesore, but I think it actually looks pretty good.  Maybe with a bit of decorating, this little column of plastic-wrapped straw will look like a small snowman:

Today I also removed the hoses from the 3 outdoor hose bibs, and put away the hose reels and sprinklers.  I unplugged and covered the transformer for my low voltage lights, and wrapped the glass fixtures in bubble wrap.  I also removed the solar light fixtures from the front yard, leaving only the stake and aluminum tubes in place so it will be really easy to replace the fixtures in Spring (I'm not sure if I should leave them there, or also remove them - any advice?).

Yesterday I noticed a small dead bird, partly covered in snow, in the bottom of our outside stairwell.  Today when I went to remove it, I found it already gone.  A crow or other scavenger must have found it and done the job for me.  So today I am thankful for scavengers, who tidy up for us.

I have cut the gunnera leaves, and piled them over the crown, to protect it for winter.  This method has worked for me in previous years, and this year I had a lot of leaves and very large ones, so hopefully that will be enough.  I cut some of the flowered ends of my beautiful big floppy butterfly bush next to the front driveway, since the wet snow was weighing it down too much, and I was afraid that more wet snow would break too many branches.  I also trimmed back some hydrangea branches which we already breaking under the weight of the snow.  Normally I would wait until Spring, but again, it is better to cut back than to wait until they break.  I could do some more trimming and clean up, but I think there is nothing really critical remaining to be done.

I think I've now ready for winter.  At least in the garden.  Driving may be a different story.

Congratulations Ola! One Million Giraffes!

Do you remember the One Million Giraffes project I heard about just over a year ago, and submitted a photo of my giraffe sculpture, then some drawings of giraffes which the kids and I made?

The project was started by Ola Helland, as a bet with his friend Jorgen, that he would be able to collect one million images of hand made or hand drawn giraffes.  That was a lofty challenge, and one which I was happy to lend my assistance, as did many people in 102 countries.  I am happy to hear the Ola has recently reached his goal of one million giraffes, after 440 days of collecting giraffes.  The web site One Million Giraffes continues to collect more giraffes - so if you missed being part of the first million, there is still a chance to submit your photos, perhaps toward the next million giraffes!  A nice coffee table book (a sort of Where's Waldo? of giraffe images) containing most of the one million giraffes has emerged as a result of the project.

The book is available from Amazon.ca here or Amazon.com here, or possibly at your local bookstore.  More photos and information about the book can be found here.  So if you participated in the project, you can purchase the book and look for your giraffe.  Or if someone is looking for something to buy me for Christmas, this is one possible idea.  :-)

Squirrel Attack Makes a Snack of Jack

This post is not for the faint of heart.  Remember that fearless and menacing Jack O'Lantern we set out on Hallowe'en? 

He has met his match.  He has been reduced to a cowering, whimpering, suffering Jack, his eyes and teeth and chunks of his head viciously chewed by the real dark menace - the neighbourhood squirrels.

It's a funny thing about squirrels.  They wave about that big bushy tail, and we all think they are the sweetest thing.  Even I have been known to fall for their sweet mischievous looks.  And judging by how the squirrels shamelessly mobbed us the last time our family took a stroll through the park, many others have succombed to their charms as well.

I have to admit, even when rushing straight towards you, isn't this one cute little creature?

Or look at this little charmer.  Who wouldn't agree that she's adorable?  Even if she's only after your nuts.  Or in my case, my apples, pears, cherries, plums....

On the flip side of the rodent family, there are the rats.  Since we have added 3 rats to our household, we have found them to be friendly, gentle, inquisitive, intelligent, and very affectionate - snuggling and licking and enjoying being handled.  Quiet, clean, and full of fun.  Look at this little face, isn't he a cutie?

Or this little girl?  Wouldn't she just melt your heart?

But when God was handing out tails, and the squirrel picked his big bushy tail, the poor rat picked the wrong one.  The one which makes us gasp, to stop and stare, or to just turn and run in fear.

Poor dear rats.  If only they had picked the bushy tails, I'm sure they would been the hit of the small pet market.  But instead, sadly, most of those born in captivity are destined to be snake food.