Flowers in the Garden

Every time we arrive in Oliver, the first thing I look at is the two flower beds at the front of the house, to see what's blooming.  Since we haven't owned it yet through a full year, it's fun to see what plants there are.  These two pictures are about April 10th.  All the daffodils that I hurriedly shoved in last Fall were blooming.  There were a few already there, as well as few tulips and a hyacinth.  There were the cutest little yellow Irises blooming at the back.  Almost full size flowers on little short stems.

This last visit, at the end of April, the

bulbs were all done and now it was the wallflower's turn.  They make me think of England.  Must be one of those far back, buried, childhood memories.

The primulas were blooming too.  At the front of the house, which faces south, the garden was so dried out that most of the primulas were wilted.  Laid on the soil, flat out, with no more substance than a piece of tissue paper.  As soon as I had a chance I got the hose going and soaked the soil.  Thankfully the next morning, they were on the road to recovery.

These primulas were fine.  They are up the side of the house, shaded for quite a bit of the day.  The 'hen and chicks' makes a great edging.

This is the west side of the house.  More wallflowers, not quite as far along, and hen and chicks along the rocks, and a big clump of candytuft at the corner.  The soil here too was dry as a bone.  It is very fine, sandy soil.

So while we were there, we watered everything.  Then I bought a big bale of peat moss, mixed it in to the soil where I could, and just added it as a mulch where I couldn't.  Soaked everything again.  Hoping that the peat moss will help retain some of the moisture.  The grass, in spots, already felt kind of crispy.   We have to remember that Oliver is in the only desert area in Canada.  Unless we put in an automatic irrigation system, we have to be prepared to lose some plants.  Hopefully we won't, but it all depends on the weather and how often we are there.

And on a fitness note... Yep, I've been working somewhat at maintaining the fitness level I achieved with the Sun Run training.  Tonight Larry and I went on a 13km bike ride.  As a bonus, we found a piece of plywood on the side of the road,  perfect for a project we have in mind. We want to change (improve) the rack that we hang the aprons from at the farmers market.  Yes, we stopped and strapped the plywood on the back of Larry's bike and took it home.

Flowers in the Kitchen

We've just come back from a few days in Oliver.  My computer access there is limited ( an hour a day at the library).  One of these days I'll get a laptop, although we aren't willing to pay a monthly internet fee for something we aren't there to use very often.  Guess I'll have to hang out in Tim Horton's for their free WiFi:).  Anyway, just a bit of an explanation as to why there tends to be dry spells, blog wise. 

It was a working holiday, well for me anyway.  Not that Larry got to sit around drinking wine and reading his book.  There was grass to mow, a hedge to be trimmed, etc. I had wanted to go back to Oliver when the lilacs are blooming.  We did, and they are.  Everywhere.  Although we don't officially have lilacs at our place, there is a hedge of them between us and the elderly lady on one side.  The hedge is on her property, but it tends to hang into ours. So one of the first things we did when I got there was to pick a bunch and stick them in a vase.  The scent of them is wonderful.

Since one of the things I had to do there was make jam, the smell of raspberries overpowered the lilacs for a while one day, and the lovely scent of cooking lemons (for marmalade) another day.  In between though, it was lilacs.  And I swear, that even walking around the neighbourhood, I could smell them too.

In The Frame

We've lucked out and had sunny weather from Sunday afternoon until lunchtime today.  Rain is coming, just in time for me at the market tomorrow morning:(

The early morning light was so beautiful.  This is looking through the double pane of the back door.  Did catch some reflection from inside, but avoided the dog nose and cat paw produced 'frosted' glass near the bottom of the door.

I seeded some basil under that plastic tunnel on Wednesday.  Hopefully there will be enough heat created under there to get it germinating.

Blooming and Growing

(My apologies to anyone still under a blanket of snow.  Don't want it to feel like rubbing salt in a wound)

Mother nature is going wild now.  There is green everywhere.  Yellow too.  The dandelions are in full bloom.  First choice of grazing sheep, and Pride likes them too.

Spring hasn't been early for us.  The  Bartlett pear tree is finally blooming, and so is the cherry tree (although we don't get any fruit off it, but the birds do).  The plum trees also are in full bloom.

Grape hyacinths and Forget-me-nots.

Ornamental cherry with regular cherry in the background.

These tulips are just about done, although we do have some that haven't bloomed yet.  The weeds are going wild.

The greenhouse is full of seedlings.  Kales, cabbages and broccoli.  Tomato plants in the one gallon pots.

Zucchini and lemon cucumber seedlings still on the hot mat, which is an old waterbed heater.  I have two, and had better look after them, as I don't seem to see them at garage sales and in thrift stores any more.

I've put some of them outside to harden off.  Poor things, it wasn't gradual as it should be.  I've forgotten to pick them up and put them back in the green house at night.

Carrots finally coming up, with garlic in the background

My best success story this spring.  I got lazy and didn't move the pea fencing.  Usually my first planting of peas isn't totally successful.  I lose a lot to birds, and then the slugs of course.  This year I planted them under some narrow strips of gauzy fabric, like stuff that sheer drapes would be made out of .

I clothes pegged the strips together, and to the fencing, and germination and survival has been almost 100%.  I think as the peas get taller, I'll move the fabric up a bit, and it will hang down the outside of them and help lean them in towards the fence so that they wrap their little tendrils around  it.  Usually I have to help them out, but I think my idea will work like a charm.

This morning I finally got some potatoes planted, only about a month and a half later than I like.

And a note about the Sun Run.  There was a lady in the 80-84 year old category that did the 10 K a minute faster than me.  Is that motivation or what?

Or how about the lady in the 95-99 year old category (yes, there were two participants in that division).  They both finished, the fastest one in 1 hour and 35 minutes.  I find that mind boggling.  

Planning on going out for a run after supper tonight.  I've got a lot to live up to.

I Hate Running

Just wanted to remind you of that.  I've never found running easy, and I've never  liked it.  I do like that feeling of success, that 'yay, I did it' feeling after a difficult workout, but doing AND liking the workout are two different things.  Would running be my exercise method of choice? No way.  Give me the option of a brisk walk or a bike ride any day.   So why did I run?  Because it's there I guess.  The Sun Run that is.  Do I have a bucket list?  No, I don't, but if I did, this would have been on it.   So I've done it twice now.  Will I do it again.... probably.  Why?  Just to say I did.  Kind of makes you feel good.  Kind of like name dropping.  You happen to talk to someone, and just happen to mention that YOU ARE GOING IN THE SUN RUN.  Makes you feel like you are a bit special, are part of an elite group.  Maybe I'm a bit of a snob.

So yeah, Meredith and I survived.  It was raining this morning.  That hadn't really been part of my wardrobe plan.  I changed it up a bit.  It was cold too, and we have to do a lot of standing around before we actually get across the start line.  45,000+ people take an hour to all get across the line.  Luckily for us, we managed to feed into the back of an earlier group, as we gathered on the sidestreet because the actual starting street was full.  Which meant for less standing around.

Easing onto Georgia St. for the start

30-35,000 runners behind us, waiting to start

  The actual race started, with the elite runners heading out first,  while we were still standing in the line up for the portapotties.  It was kind of nice to start with a faster group.  There seemed to be less people that we had to pass this year.  Well except for those annoying walkers that start way ahead of where they should, and then don't keep to the side and walk a few abreast and block the road.  Or the runners that are running, and then suddenly decide to walk when you are right behind them. By the time we hit the first kilometre, the sun was out and I had my long sleeved top tied around my waist.   We remembered a few things from the last year.  Stay to the middle of the road at the water stations, since we didn't use them.  Couldn't believe the people waiting to use the portapotties  about 1.5 km in.  We did manage to keep running the whole way.  About kilometer 7, my legs felt like they had 100 lb weights attached.  Meredith was struggling too.  She said later that if I had suggested walking, she would have jumped at it.  Things got a bit better and on the last half a kilometer on the downhill side of the Cambie Bridge we were able to make a feeble attempt at a sprint for the finish line.  Grabbed hands and ran across it together.  Our times were identical.  Felt sick and light headed at the end, so walked around a bit to recover and then did our stretches.  We went into the stadium for some free food and drink,  and managed to get together with two of my nieces that ran.  We all finished in times that were no more than four minutes apart.

Niece, Aunt, Niece and Daughter

Cute grand-niece in her 'Go Mommy Go' t-shirt

Meredith's and my time was 1 hr 2 mins 50 secs.  Nearly 4.5 minutes faster than I did it last year.  I was pretty pleased with that, and it was about 20 minutes faster for Meredith, who was hobbling along with plantar fasciitis the last time.  We started off slightly faster this year I think.  I had wanted to do that.  It's okay saying to start off slow, but you can never make that time up.  Maybe that's why our legs felt so dead at 7 K, who knows.  I know I didn't have the oomph at the end this year that I did last year.  I'll settle for the faster time though.  You know what I find the most amazing about all this though?  The fact that I CAN run for an hour, non stop.  I actually find that mind boggling.  Who'da thunk it?

There were a lot of blue and yellow ribbons in evidence, in support of Boston.  We had some pinned to our numbers.  Did we think about bombs.  Yeah:(  Meredith and I talked about it at the end.  If we were of a terrorist mentality, what were the places we would have picked to do the most damage.  There were a few 'good' choices.  Sad that the thought even crossed our minds.

The Winery Tour

I've been in a bit of a funk this week.  First the bombing in Boston, and the whole story of finding the bombers, and how it will or will not affect the Sun Run tomorrow.  Then I had to sell thirty chickens because we have new ones arriving on Monday.  The whole selling on Craigslist thing and how you never know for sure if the person you think is coming is actually going to show up.  Buying and selling on-line seems to make some people think they can be rude and inconsiderate.  Anyway, long story short....they did all sell to one person last night.  Larry got the coop cleaned out today, and between us we got it pressure washed.

I've been going through my running outfit for tomorrow.  The forecast is for cloud, clearing near noon, and a 30% chance of showers.  I'm running in shorts and a tank top, but have a very lightweight pair of pants and top that I'll wear until just before the start, and then stuff into the pocket on my water bottle belt.  I'll be glad of something to put on at the end.  Another fleece top will be tossed to the sidelines when we start running. We have to do a lot of waiting around before the start, and it might be a bit cool.  We are driving to Surrey and taking the skytrain the rest of the way.  Hoping to meet up with two nieces who are also running, at the end.  Better go and have another drink of water....which will mean I'll have to get up in the middle of the night.  Trying to keep hydrated....

Nearly a couple of weeks ago now, when my sister was out from Ontario, I took her to a winery in Oliver.

Most people go to wineries to taste and usually buy a bottle of wine.

Not us.  I had put an ad on the Okanagan Craigslist, looking for some free manure.  I was contacted by the owner of a winery who told me just to come any time.  We went there one afternoon.  The guy (who probably could get a gig as Santa Claus at Christmas) sent us over to the horse paddock.  Two old horses.  DO NOT let them out of the gate he said.  Were we used to horses he asked?  Oh sure, no problem.  They were a couple of old-timers, showing their age.  Not as old as Pride I don't think, because I mentioned we had a 31 year old, and he looked surprised, but definitely showing their age more than Pride.  I think if I wasn't a horse person I would have been nervous going in the paddock with them, as they definitely checked us out.  Once they realized we didn't have anything edible for them, they left us alone.

We had naturally assumed that there would be a big manure pile that to shovel from, but no, the manure was just spread all over the ground a few inches thick, and had been walked over.  At least it was dry, so not heavy, and much easier to scoop up  than we thought.  It wasn't long before we got our bins filled up.

Back at the cottage, we dragged the old gates open off the back lane (very handy) and backed the truck onto the lawn by the garden.  Dumped the bins, spread it out, and rototilled it into the vegetable garden.  Probably not the best thing as it wasn't rotted yet, but I decide just to go for it.  Planted some potatoes and some carrots, and then tried to devise a plan to keep the cats out of it.  (There is an abundance of cats in Oliver it seems) Since the dollar store is very handy, we made a quick trip there and bought four packages of netting. Or maybe we went there to get chocolate bars.  We came back with both.  There were no dimensions on the netting package, but the thing turned out to be huge and we only used one.  The rest of the garden that hasn't been planted was covered in some pieces of cedar lattice we got off a 'free' pile, and some odd bits of wire.  There are a few herbs and some garlic that I planted last Fall.  Hopefully next trip, the carrots and potatoes will be up, and there won't be any cats tangled in the netting:(

Well Worth Reading

http://www.astraean.com/borderwars/2013/04/marathons-are-why-were-better.html