Come on Spring....

So today started rather dismally. A nice inch or so of snow blanketed everything and... well really I'm just glad it didn't happen next week after things started sprouting.

I found this pretty but soon to be dead planter as well as some rabbit prints on the way to work.

After a rather average day at work I stopped off at the post office to get the modem that was shipped. 

I picked up the package and sent of a birthday surprise for my lil sister. I know she reads this... but it's not like I said what the surprise is. :)

Compost Update

There's not much to be done in a garden like mine while it's covered in snow...

but the compost always needs taking out. 

Obligatory before shot. Please note the multiple inches of snow, and the slight excavation in the centre.

Some critter had decided to dig for buried treasure but it wasn't very disturbed. I scraped off as much snow as I could before putting the kitchen scraps and used pine based cat litter down and covering it all with shredded newspaper. The cats were using the great outdoors as their litter box but it seems the cats have decided it's now too cold and snowy to go outside so they're using their litter again.

Yay me.

I moved one of the stick bundles and a log to the in-use pile as cover. It probably won't keep the snow off but it will keep the newspaper from blowing around and discourage digging.

You can see a bit of the snow layer left around the edges. 

Sheilds Have Been Breached!

Looks like the squirrels got curious. Damn. I don't think any of the garlic was disturbed though so that's good. Fingers crossed that because they didn't find anything they'll leave it alone now.

Squirrel? Cat? or Raccoon?

Sheilds are Holding Cap'n

Made of nothing but a layer of newspaper and a few sticks to keep it from blowing away, the squirrel shield seems to be holding! It's been at least 18 hours now and no signs of trouble. Knock on wood but I think this just might work!

What do you use for critter protection?

GARLIC!

Got the garlic planted today. Good thing too because the ground is bound to start freezing soon. I planted twelve blocks of nine so 108 all together.

Sorting/Counting on the table.

Each set had some old(sprouted) and some new.

Newspaper and sticks laid over the bed to discourage scavengers.

Hopefully my plan to cover the bed for a week or so with newspapers(and sticks so they don't blow away) will keep the squirrels from digging it up. I know they're not digging by smell or they'd know they don't want to eat the garlic before they dig it up. If this doesn't work... I don't know what we'll do next year... chicken wire?

Here Comes Trouble

Saw this lil squirrel digging around the garden today and I couldn't figure out what he would be looking for. We haven't planted anything new or even turned over the soil in a long while.... Then it hit me.

He's not looking for food, he's hiding food.

We're going to have a lot of weird "weeds" in the spring..

They Grow Up So Fast

Two of the "baby" raccoons.

I Know It's Been a While But

There's not much to say.
The raccoons learned their lesson and are growing fast. (I see them about once a week in the mornings)
The food is growing.

Purple peas!

The Return of the Cat

Willow's twin, Gracie

There's been another new cat hanging around and I had assumed it was another like Dribble who had been left behind by students. It looked a lot like Willow and had a habit of napping on the neighbour's porch/yard.  A few days ago I found a missing cat poster in the local laundomat and called the number. I got "the voice mailbox you are calling has not been set up yet".

I tried again yesterday and it turned out to be a neighbour from down the street. She came right away and called her kitty over to her. They looked very happy to see each other again.

Raccoon Rescuers!

Last night, we watched Thor and The Incredible Hulk so Meg and I had all the backgrounds before we see The Avengers. This made for a long evening, and as everyone was headed to bed, Racoons were heard chittering out back. Looking out the window revealed Momma Racoon extricating one of her young from the netting hung from our conduit garden trellis's. We thought it best to just leave her to it because at the very worst she'd just chew through the net.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, the chittering had escalated to screaming, and further investigation revealed the first Kit freed but a 2nd Kit was caught in the chain link fence. It's a double fence along the back and he had managed to get himself through one fence but and had one arm forward and through with his other arm back and stuck in the second fence. Not only that, he had somehow flipped around so his belly was facing the sky. Momma Raccoon was unable to get him forward because his shoulder was stuck but she couldn't get him back wards because in wasn't possible to manoeuvre his panicky butt backwards through the other fence.

Wow

After all the excitement tonight... I'm going to bed.

I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

River Update

Some poor fish died in the shallows.

Some still swimming in the deep runs.

Sharing and Caring

These lovely plants are ready to go to work with me tomorrow.
I had a few too many so I'm giving them to my boss for her garden.

Bell pepper, cucumber, and cherry tomato.

And now that I've finally found a supplier of slips... the last ditch effort that hadn't been thrown out yet,
started sprouting. I suppose we'll have to find a home for it now. :)

Two big ones here and a smaller one just started on the other side.

Speaking of homes, we still haven't found the owner of this new stray in the neighbourhood. If you are in London Ontario and missing a (mostly) black cat, please let me know.

I didn't actually make it out back today before the sun went down but John watered earlier today so it'll hold til tomorrow. Our water barrel is helping greatly but it only has 1/2 usable capacity right now due to being flat on the ground. John's planning on building a platform so we can use that other 25 gallons between rains.

Suddenly Geese!

I was walking home from the grocery store when I came upon this scene. 

After I made sure I was far enough away and that the adults could see I wasn't getting closer I took a quick pic and back-tracked to a side trail. Last thing I want is to be mauled by geese for going near their brood.

Down By The River

The baby geese seem to be growing quickly. The little yellow puff-balls have become large grey puff-balls.

Two adults with their two young.

Even with all the recent rain, the river is low.

The white mark below the bridge is the normal waterline and this bridge is often flooded in spring.

Anxious

• I'm awaiting word on sweetpotato slips from a seller since I can't seem to sprout my own
• I'm waiting for my mom to call so I know when I see her tomorrow(she lives 1 1/2 hrs away)
• I'm waiting for all the little green things in the garden to get big enough to ID as food or weed
• I'm waiting for someone to claim the stray cat that showed up in our neighbourhood last week
• I'm waiting for the salad greens to mature and start to look like leaves not sprouts.
• I'm waiting for various job posters to call me about my resume
• I'm waiting for the day's to get longer and warmer so I can get more into the garden

Lovely Afternoon

Out is the garden, weeding and tidying:

These are radishes,

and these are garlic.

As I was digging a worm just kinda popped up nearby and started squirming away.

Run-away worm!

Closer view.

When the weeding was done I started to tackle the piles of sticks, papers, rocks all over the grassy area.

Too much stuff is/was on the grass making naked dirt.

Hopefully it'll green up again easily

Raked, watered, seeded.

And that was my afternoon. How's your garden coming along?

Goose Daycare

I've been noticing that although a pair of geese will have only 3-5 offspring of their own, it's common for a bunch of them to drop the kids off with babysitters and go for a swim/dinner/stretch their wings.This communal/reciprocal  type of childcare allows the adults the freedom they need while keeping the kids safe.

Awesome. 

They're hard to count but there's between 15 and 20 little gosslings here and only 2 adults to be seen anywhere nearby.

Walking on the Riverbed

Realizing I may not have another oportunity like this, I decided to walk along the river and see what there was to see. I started by Blackfriar's bridge and figured I'd walk along the edge to down-town.

Facing Blackfriar's Bridge

Facing Toward Down-town

Some industrious person made little stone towers.

I only got about this far before a mother goose in her nest hissed me away. At that point I decided it best to just turn around and go back.

Walking back I noticed something boxy in the river...

Closer inspection revealed it to be a printer! Unfortunately being full with river silt made it too heavy to lift.

The cement curb looking edge I was walking along when I came upon the goose nest is the normal water level for this river, and most springs the park on the other side gets flooded.... so by my non-measured guestimate, I'd say the  river is about 3-5 feet too low right now due to lack of winter snow.

Happy Squirrel Saturday

I'm told it's the new thing...