Haskapberries or honey berries

There is a large trench, along the border of the store and house properties.

honey berry plant, May 2013

It was cut in when the house was connected to the towns new sewer system. I had dreams of a blueberry patch along it but that hasn’t worked out too well. It turns out that rabbits consider the branches to be a tasty, winter-time snack. They’ll eat all of the new growth, as well as anything else they can reach so the plants get a bit smaller each year. On top of that, the birds are extremely determined about eating all the berries before they fully ripen. Since it’s not the best soil, and over the sewer pipe, I did want to stay with shallow rooted, production shrubs. With the blueberries being a failure, last year we decided to try some haskapberries. We put in a group of nine, and they were little more than sticks. With the drought conditions, they got watered, but not as often as I would have liked for new transplants. As a result, I was pleasantly surprised to see some vigorous growth, this spring. All of them have popped up with new branches and lots of leaves. A few have even set flowers. We’ll see if the birds let us sample the fruit!

new frames in stock!

I just got back from the yearly sale at Fotiou frames.

11×14 frames

It’s their once-a-year blow-out of discontinued moldings. In the past, this sale usually is on over the winter, but it’s happened a bit later this year. Not only did we get some beautiful new stock moldings, but also picked up a select few assembled frames. They will make standard frames out of the off-cut pieces that build up, and that means incredible deals. These two are 11”x14”, on the inside. Hard to believe, but the moldings are five inches wide! All the assembled ones are one-of-a-kinds, of course, so I’m not sure if they’ll stick around long enough for me match them to some art, or if they’ll find homes on their own!

plum flowers

The pair of plum trees seem to have fully settled in.

plum flowers, May 2013

(and don’t seem to have had any set-backs from last years drought, unlike a few other things) We’re keeping our fingers crossed that there won’t be a late frost, that kills the flowers, like last year. I have hopes of getting more than one plum, per tree, this round. The one we did get was delicious, so it would be good to have enough for eating. At least there are lots of flowers, and the pollinators are hard at work. We’ll just have to wait and see how many set, and if the trees are old enough to keep a decent number until ripeness.

my little Hippocamp

I’ve continued to try and make more of the classical creatures out of the stuffies.

altered stuffed animal, “seahorse”

The hard part is finding the parts. It’s one thing to go through the collection and then match parts just based on how the work together but it’s another thing to go for a specific combination. Not only do I have to find the right parts but they have to be in the same scale and I like to have colours that look good together. It’s much harder! One idea I’d had for a while to do was a “seahorse” or Hippocamp. This one isn’t quite perfect, the tail should be more of a serpent, but I’m still pretty happy with it, as a first attempt.

Bunny battles

It appears that there was some sort of bunny territorial dispute that  went on this morning. (we haven’t been paying much attention to the bun issue since the mini fence has worked to keep them out of the sorrel, this year) We knew there were still some around since they did a number on the blueberries, over the winter, but they’ve been keeping a low profile. Not so this morning. I went out to open the store and a mad chase was going on around the building and the the east lawn. Standing at the door of the shop, one dashed past the front and came within a couple of feet of me! Unfortunately, by the time I was able to get to the camera, some sort of victory seems to have been achieved and I was only able to grab the one, blurred shot of a bun in motion.

Asparagus!

Two years ago now, we put in an asparagus patch.  We went with the root crowns and one small pot that had been sprouted from seed. They’ve done pretty well, but the early spring last year meant that they popped up and then got killed by a hard frost, so it was almost as if we had picked some. As a result, I’m a bit torn about cutting any this year. Technically, we should be able to take a small amount, but it might hinder the long-term growth of the patch. I think we’ll probably take just a few spears, so we can see how they taste in comparison to the commercially grown stuff, and let the rest have another year to expand.

spring flowers

Our daffodils have been struggling through all the random bursts of cold,  snow, and even a batch of hail, the other day. We’ve been impressed by their endurance. After the hard freeze last week, all the greenery went limp and I thought they were finished but they managed to recover with no visible damage. The tulips, on the other hand, are still alive, but their leaves look terrible. The only bulbs that are looking actually as they should, are the hyacinths. Now that it finally seems like spring is really here, it’s time to get to work on the garden again.