Pickin Rocks

When we moved to this house about 6 years ago, one of the annoying things I wanted to change was the hideous red lava rock in the front 'flower' bed. I don't know why the previous owner bothered to create an island in the middle of the lawn with 'alan block' and then proceed to fill it full of lava rock.
I hate the stuff.
So the last two days I have been picking it out. What a back breaking job. My glutes feel like they are made of rock. Or at least it feels I am sitting on rocks.
I don't know what I am going to do with the stuff now that I have it out but I will ponder its new location and let you know where its going to reside.

On Wednesday a big bag of soil arrives so I needed to have the bed prepared for some of it before I start trucking it down to the back yard. I have been to the nurseries and started my plant collection. I hope to get rid of the layers of weed barrier that has been moldering under the lava rock.
I think there must be something really powerful in the rock...like a lot of iron or something that will be toxic to my poor green babies. I have ordered a soil for them that will be soft and nutritious.

I also plan to put a few vegetables in between the perennials and amongst the annuals. Like herbs; parsley, thyme, dill. I found some funny little round carrots which I hope will pop out like cherries but I fear will be pulled out like threads.
My strawberrries are poking through and so are the bulbs...I see leaves budding on the trees and I think it won't be long before I have apple, hawthorn and cherries blossoms.

It has been a while since I have enjoyed the garden, the first year here we went to Gabriola for July so the garden looked after itself and if I may say so it did a poor job of it.
The next year we struggled with a new plan for the garden and just got to know it before we dove in to make changes.
The following years I spent travelling to Burnaby to help the old folks and that killed my garden maybe I should say Bryan and Ginger killed it with neglect.

Then the year of the deck and the year of the reno and now I am really enjoying my lovely garden. I think I will buy a swing so that I can enjoy the deck as much as we enjoy snoozing in the swimg on the patio below.

Special Visitors

Visiting us this weekend, Phillip and Emily and Sebastion. It was lovely to see them. I think Emily looks like her mother Wendy.

A day off for this little family from the rigors of the opera. I look forward to hearing Phillip sing Marcello in LaBoheme at the end of the month.

We always try to get a picture of our visitors. I fed them homemade pizza and salad and trifle. I think they lked it...I know Phillip did. I wonder if I made enough. Next time he comes I will try and fill him up. Its hard work being a baritone.

House Finch April 8th, 2012



He's back!!! I thought he had been murdered by magpies last year. Well, if it is not him it is indeed one of his relatives. Singing his little heart out. I don't think there is a sound more cheerful and uplifting to my soul than the trill of a house finch.
He doesn't get up too early in the morning unlike the robins whom one can learn to hate by the middle of May. The robin's chirp so longed for all winter, turns to an annoying shrilly caw by May and thoughts of pegging him off with a rifle if I only had one, flit through my mind.
Un aware of what I was really seeing, I watched his relative being torn to shreds by juvenile magpies last summer. They had their backs to me and I thought they were stealing strawberries. I was willing to forgive them for their fruit theft and thought their antics were quite comical until I went outside to see what they had stolen when a little pink feather floated past my face. And then another and then I saw the still warm body...headless now, of my beloved little finch.
Now I find it difficult to feel much for magpies. Except that they are so ingenious, and smart and crafty and gynmastic and well they gotta eat too.
Photos courtesy of Ashley Morrow. She has a new whiz bank Nikon