Spring is Springing

 At last! At last! Methinks it is Spring at last! (Don't hold your breath though...it may change) Went out to poke around in the dirt and see if anything is growing. Found lovely Epimedium ( Barrenwort), all white and fresh. It is drought tolerant and is very good at surviving.

 New pea shoots popping up everywhere in the gooseberry patch. Kind of cute, aren't they?

 New gooseberry bushes, planted last fall. They made it through the winter! My huge rhubarb in he background. The same one I have transplanted all across Canada, from the Maritimes. It made it as well.......

 These are very cool.....Chocolate Rose Leaves. The roses actually have the scent of dark chocolate.

 And this is White Cat. She likes to hang out in our garden and chase the pigeons and birds, and fluff around my feet telling me about her exploits. She is one of seven cats who hide, just like she is doing, below one of the terraces to stalk birds.  Hysterical when they all chase pigeons...

 Leopard's Bane.....kind of like a big daisy. Sometimes has bloomed again in the fall, but not always. Love the name........

                      The last of the Star Magnolia blossoms.......almost done for this year.

Dragon ( Final Proect)

30 x 18"  ( odd size paper only allowed for final). Pencil. Over 57 hours of work.

 Here's is Morgan's final project for this term. We're not sure if NIC will be taking her on full time in the fall. She has to wait till June to find out if she is definitely in. There are some issues that the college is facing. So we all have to be patient. There is about a 50% chance that she will have to wait another year. It's complicated. But for now she has finished her first course by drawing a Dragon in his castle. He is concocting a potion,and eating peanut butter sandwiches on the side.  I took extra photographs of the details ............

 "Are you under a Spell", "Curses to keep them Guessing", "Usefulness of Human Skulls", "An Advanced Guide to Poions".

 "Rotten Eggs", "Black Mamba Juice", "Dyed Hair"

 "Rune Interpretations", "Nightmares", "Illusions in Fogbanks","Dragons in History","Messages in Smoke", "Fairy Circles",  "Sun Spells", "Moon Secrets", Dream Interpretations", "A Dragon's Guide to Relaxation."

 "Seeds: More Useful than you think.", "The Big Book of Secret Spells", "How to get Revenge on a Wizard", "Chaotic Cures"  "The Book of Eternal Youth", "How to Overthrow a Mage", "Saltwater",

 "Caution: Blister Bush", "Fairy Essence", "A Guide to Giants", "Desert Legends", "Outsmarting Sorcerors", "Dandelion Fluff"

                                "Bamboo, Thick and Thin"

Lunch for a Dragon: Peanut Butter Sandwich, Tea Cake, Tea, Fruit, Hawaiin Punch.

Dragons and Moons

 Not much gardening these days. Very cold, very  bitter outside, and not much growing...but it will come.My greenhouse is getting full of  "stuff", green and happy, waiting for warmer days. So for now, thought I would show you Morgan's almost completed  final drawing for her first art course at NIC. When it is completely done, which should today or tomorrow, I'll post  the finished version, but this is it in  it's creative process. She only has the last portion to complete. So much detail..........
    And this great big cold moon is the reason it was so frosty and clear last night.....I think the dragon was howling at it.
  As you can see, I am desperate for something green to grow........maybe we will go straight back to winter...now wouldn't that be a concept??

Big Head

 New Head....Easter Island variety. Saw it in a Flannel City Hardware store, and just could not resist. He is the strong silent type......

 Kind of looks down his nose at everything.......

From his vantage point he can guard the 2nd compost bin............

Face in the Mountain

 My, my, my....look what has appeared at Mount Washington. A face. A great big face. Now, who do you suppose it is? I think it resembles Wilfred Laurier, the 7th prime minister of Canada. But I could be wrong.He died in 1919, and I don't think he's come back to haunt us. But that is a face.........

Another big pile of dirt.  the adjoining range,the same day. Thunder and hail, on a spring day, that has turned ominous because Wilfred Laurier's face has appeared on Mt. Washington. What does it all mean?

Garden Centre Day

 I was really going to the garden centre for Moss and Dirt and to poke around at the new plants. Well, I did get the Moss and the Dirt, but the garden Centre cat decided to go for a ride on my shoulders. She just appeared from nowhere, all drooly and lovey dovey, then proceeded to plop herself down. So we went for a little tour of the centre, complete with cat in tow.  It was hilarious!

Then she decided that Morgan would be a good candidate. We still had not picked up the moss or the the dirt, or anything else. Just this cat, who wouldn't stop drooling and purring and hanging onto a shoulder or two.

Oh, look, I did manage to find a bale of dirt.The cat decided to toddle elsewhere. I did manage to get moss, but will show that at the next blog entry, when I start to stuff it into the wire hanging baskets. The moss I did get was lovely, sweet, green and fresh ( is there such a thing as "fresh" moss?)

 Back home after piling the dirt and moss at the side of the house, white cat showed up again. She is always around somwhere.

My girls with  white cat.  What is it about our place and cats?

Oh look,   get to see White Cat....loves her coat  and tail stroked. She has the fuzziest white pants.....very clean cat. I wonder how many birds she has eaten from my garden. Tomorrow I am getting out to weed some more and clean things up on the terraces. I wonder in White Cat will be there, fluffing and prancing.......most likely.

Frosty morning for Hunting

 Supposed to be spring......hmmm, not likely, at least not today...frost, and ice and freezing. Bird baqth frozen....

 And the neighbourhood cats are calling. Very early.Orange Fluffy is back.  must have been about 6:30 in the morning.....

Mountains had a new sprinkling of snow. Things just aren't blooming all that fast in the garden. Makes me wonder . I want to take pictures of roses. Not going to happen at this rate.

Orange Fluffy has her special hang out at the front hill She will lie in wait for hours, not moving. Just watching. And the birds come. In flocks.

 Back yard. Wild Rose bush.  A hang out.

Frozen again...and again...

And the birds are still coming..

And White Cat sits in her perch under the rose bush, waiting, and waiting.  Hunting. She's very good at it. Likes to eat the little ones and purr at the same time. You'd think the birds would get wise.

Orange Fluffy

Oh, so pretty. Not exactly a plant...more like an animal....a fluffy orange one. New to our yard. That makes 5 neighbourhood cats that come calling on a regular basis. This one is  very sweet, and rolls and rolls and rolls....not sure what her name is. We jsut tell her that she is pretty and she preens and props herself up and purrs like a little model T Ford....

 Beautiful cat. She loves to look in the windows at the porch side of the house.

An attempt to ignore.

An attempt at looking surprised.

                                                             No attempt at all...............

                                  Wonder how many more cats will come calling.....