September in the Garden and passionate Weaving

September 28th, 2012

A small record of the town garden in September, - I have to say it is much quieter and more refined than what we left behind, growing in the hillside garden - but equally appreciated and loved!


Here is the little patch of wild flowers that we planted in the spring, next to the compost heap and in behind the Stella D-Oro day lillies.  I expect it will spring up again next year, early in the spring, and we will be able to enjoy it
all summer long.


The delphinium in the back garden are still blooming next to the phlox, and they make a pretty picture at night, glowing in the night lights along the edge of the raised bed. 
Early morning shadows on the back lawn and I am tempted to take my first cup of coffee here in the quiet shade of the willow tree, away from
morning traffic.

I miss the view to the south, where the long reaches of the valley cross the border at Chapaka, and the changes in colours and shadows on the Cawston hills, but this little garden has many compensations as we grow older and appreciate the surroundings as much as the exercise required to keep everything within bounds!

Last year we watched the quail come up across
the meadow from their home in the burn pile of prunings down below the house.  This year their village cousins scurry across the 'parkland' from the old creek bed that runs along the bottom of the benchland to the north of us, eager for the feed that Flo, the neighbour, puts out for them.

This afternoon I saw a dozen of these lovely creatures checking out the walnuts that lie on the roof of the neighbouring shed, just outside the bedroom window....

Yellow is the predominant colour of the autumn gardens -  small daisies, huge petalled sun flowers and starry coneflowers.

A few autumn crocus, some late roses and the ubiquitous Chinese lanterns that I mentioned before, in a previous blog, - somehow smuggled down from the hill garden  to establish a branch in the village proper for all the town blooms.

 

The roses are particularly beautiful.  I want to pick the Abraham Darby but then again, I want them to last as long as possible, and so I leave them where they grow and visit often.  Mister Lincoln has grown very tall and lanky, as befits his name, I guess.  The gorgeous deep velvety bloom atop the highest stem could easily be taken for a top hat.

 

 

 



These are volunteers - cheerful daisies against the blue of the raised bed.

 

As are the snapdragons that hide amongst the roses and shasta daisies.

 



 

A perfect bloom, faintly fragrant and appealing.

 



 

The bee balm is looking as little tattered, but still a great attraction to the bees.



 

I spoke of the passionate weaving, and the passion arose when I found I had been too hasty and enthusiastic when I was tying on the warp by myself, and had made a real mess of getting it tight and even.  So evenutally I faced up to the problem, unwound the back beam, inserted new brown paper to separate the rolls, rolled it up again, carefully and with great attention, and now I have about six wonderful inches woven.  And I am as delighted as I was when I first started to weave, forty years ago.  This is a funny little loom, with quirks all its own. but I think we will manage nicely together.

 

Life is good.....

Happy Songs with Doris Day

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

In case you're out of sorts and feeling peckish here is a happy song to cheer you up!  And who is cheerier than Doris Day!!!  Smile!

 

 

 

Blue Monday

Monday, September 24th, 2012

Yes, Monday....why is it so often a gloomy day??? 

 

Not gloomy weatherwise, just spiritwise, it seems to me.

 

I did finally make the apple sauce first thing this morning, and that should have been enough to raise the spirits, but somehow, after I had done the floors and the beds and the bathrooms the day seemed to get away on me and I napped a bit in the afternoon, and was just generally out of sorts......

 

So I will post some pictures I took in the garden at coffee time,

and they at least will be cheery and upbeat. 

 

 And perhaps I will find a few sweet words to say at the end.....

 

 

Charles took this photo of Mr. Lincoln against the morning sky

 

 

 

 

and Abraham Darby is looking quite chipper these days

 

 

 

 

 

Colour in the peony leaves, and another of Charles' pictures -

the Mountin Ash against the blue sky

 

 

 

Fiddling about with a cloud photo from long ago

I included an excerpt from the New Zealand Prayer Book

which seems like good night time advice.

double click to enlarge and read unless your eyes are exceptionally good.....

 

 

Hopefully I will awaken tomorrow feeling more like Pooh Bear and

less like old Eyeore!!!

 

 

Welcome to Autumn

Friday, September 21st.

A faint blush in the Eastern sky where autumn makes her first hesitant steps through the  hills and vales of the Lower Similkameen. 

 

Along the creekside waterways the poplar and the alder leaves are golden in the sunshine, where summer still lays claim to the afternoon, tossing her head at the calendar; warming the valley to shirt sleeve and shorts weather and leaving to autumn the alchemy of frosty nights.

 

In the garden once more the Abraham Darby delights

with its tightly packed petals, its perfume still as perfect now,

in its third flush as it was in June, newly blossoming.

 

 

A few feet away a passenger from the Chinese Underground Railway

alights at the new Depot, securely established as a Branch

from the hillside garden!

 

 

 

Yesterday afternoon I visited one of the many fruit stands

that line the highway west of Keremeos

looking for farm fresh eggs.

 

The market was bustling with travelers

and crammed with colourful bins of apples, pumpkins, squash

and nectarines side by each with all the wonderful fall vegetables.

 

Sid brought us two boxes of apples and I will set a large pan full of MacIntosh to simmer

for apple sauce and enjoy the marvelous combination of

apples cooking and cinnamon.

 

'By all these lovely tokens

September days are here

with summer's best of weather

and Autumn's best of cheer'.

Morning Road Trip

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

Up early and on the road to Penticton to keep an 8.30 driving exam appointment.  The sky was the deepest blue and the sun was brilliant, - still low over the hills and shining directly into one's eyes,  which made things difficult for Charles, who was the one being examined, esecially as his eyes are very sensitive.

I find that one of the drawbacks to growing old is the enthusiasm the licensing people have for getting the elderly off the road and into a taxi or on to a bus, if your rural area happens to have such amenities.

The other is the sly way young whipper snapper clergy have of encouraging the elderly out of the traditional church to make way for The Emerging Church (secular...) - 'clearing the decks', the Archbishop called it.....

But I digress from our Road Trip.

We didn't linger in Penticton and on the way home I opened the window and snapped pictures as we flew along.  For the 632nd time I missed the lightning fast view we have of  Marron Lake and
the Kaleden Dam, through the trees and hundreds of feet below the road edge.

Charles, sweet man that he is, turned in a few yards up the highway, on to the Marron Valley road, which runs midway across the hills, through the Indian Reserve, coming out at Kusler's Ranch and joining the Green Mountain road through Allen Grove.  We never did get a view of the Lake and Creek, but what a beautiful drive we had.

The fall colours are not yet flamboyant, but rather soft and subtle and gently blended.  Here and there a clump of Rabbit Brush is a radiant yellow globe, crying to be taken home and turned into dye for sheep's wool, carded and spun and woven into a warm incandescent blanket.

 

 

 

We came home and had a nice afternoon nap.

Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces

Life consists in this

That two solitudes

protect and touch

 and greet each other

For many years this quotation from Rainer Maria Rilke stood framed, above our bed.

When we moved the frame got broken, and so now

the quotation

lives on the front of the fridge, with various pictures of dear ones

and beloved poetry, an ever loving reminder of 'LOVE'

and the complexity between simplicity and richness.

I am not sure what brought this to mind, except that I was adding to the grocery list on the fridge

and it caught my eye, my heart and my imagination

and I realized how very true this observation is as age creeps up on us.

Today is Similkameen Sizzle Day!!!!

the 11th anniversary of this unique festival during which

the Similkameen Valley praises the pepper, either hot or cold,

but preferably hot!!!

There is a contest to see which foolhardy person is able most effectively to

burn his throat and esophagus (I think only men are required to prove their bravery

in the face of hot jalapenos)!!!

When the Royal Purple Ladies quit 'manning' the

Quesadilla table a few years ago I stopped braving the crowds,

but the hot Mexican and Spanish music reaching us from the park

where the Festival was being held was enough to set the toes a-tapping, or the hips a-twirling, 

whichever were most nimble!!!

We had a really nice visit this afternoon.

Shaun, the son of English parents, was brought up on a ranch

in the Similkameen, joined the army and then served as Sergeant-at-Arms

in the local Legion before he moved to the Fraser Valley.

He has been a friend who has the utmost respect for Veterans and it

is always a pleasure when he comes to see us.

I was particularly pleased when he said he had found us in our town house by recognizing

the flagpole at the gate - the one which I had written about on my Blog,

and which he had READ about.  Gosh!  

Is this what fame is all about!!!!!

To put the icing on the cake our son arrived even before I expected him

after a long trip from the Cariboo with his cat, Big Paws (BP).

Lovely to give him big hugs......

And those are all the bits and pieces that made up the day. except for the neighbour's

 elegant yard sale where nothing was junk and everything

was clean and polished and laid out on lace tablecloths.

I wish I had a picture to show you.

I bought a nice cheese cutting board with a handy ceramic

drawer in which to keep cheese knives and pickle forks.

Do I need this?

Not really, but I thought it was pretty.

A Loom, a loom.....!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

I am absolutely delighted to have a LOOM in our home again!

It is only a small loom; a two harness table loom, - one that rests in a corner until it is time to come out and create lovely objects.

A far cry from the eight harness glimakra counter-balance with whom I had this wonderful relationship until the stiffness in my knees made it impossible for me to re-tie her treadles to produce intricate designs.

Nevertheless, I am already planning a two harness warp and a tabby weft with maybe a Brooks Lace border, - a scarf, woven with the lovely skeins of mohair and soft sheep's wool that I bought from Doe G. today.  It was Doe who lent me the little table loom, too, when I went to visit her this morning.

Charles was off to the first singing session of the fall season

Another beautiful Fall day......

Hazelnuts and Biscotti

Monday, September 10th, 2010

Weather Report:

Lovely cool morning, - sunny skies, a few white clouds in the delft blue heavens.  Just a bit over 20 degrees C at eleven a.m.  Wonderful!

Inspired first thing to mow the two little hankie lawns at the back and side gardens - as the light hand mower mower whirred away and spoke to me of the same sounds rising from my grandparent's garden, and the  carefree summers I spent there, I was interrupted in my reverie by the mower skipping over hazelnuts, blown free of the tree in Saturday night's wind storm.

Last year there was a bumper crop from the hazelnut tree, but now as I gaze up into the branches I see very few little brown nuts wrapped in their frilly overcoats.  So far I have picked up fifty-seven - hardly enough to chop up and decorate a cake.

On the other side of the house the neighbor's giant walnut trees are laden with bright green balls and the heavy branches rest on the roof of her tool shed, from where they will slide over the edge and land on the walkway between the two properties.  The walnuts we garner (with some encouragement from the owner) are enough to keep us supplied until the next harvest.

After years of growing veggies and having our own fruit trees, etc. I don't have to feel guilty about being bereft of any harvesting, - people who are still gardening are so grateful to find someone who will take their surplus tomatoes and cucumbers and squash and apples and peaches, - and especially the odd zucchini or two!!

Anyway, I do love Hazelnuts, ground up and used as flour in cookies, or chopped for muffins and cakes.
I like to make hazelnut biscotti at Christmas time - it makes a nice little gift with a mug and some hot chocolate powder. This is the recipe I use.....

3/4 cup of butter
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of hazelnuts

Cream together butter and sugar, beat in eggs and vanilla.
Sift together the dry ingredients and mix into the egg and creamed mixture.
Stir in the hazelnuts and shape the dough into two equal logs, about 12 inches long.

Place the logs on a baking sheet and flatten out to about 1/2 inch thickness.

Bake for about half an hour in 350 degree oven, then remove from oven a let cool.

Slice the loaves diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices and return them to the oven to bake for an additional 10 minutes, turning over once.

Cool completely and store, - delicious!

While I was in the garden this morning I found two fall crocus - a white one and a pale purple.  I had forgotten about what a lovely autumn surprise they were last year!