making many from one

Buying plants every year is really expensive.  I spend way too much money every year to fill up my containers with beautiful plants.  And then I hate to throw them out and let them die at the end of the season.  But over the past few years, I got smart.  I potted up geraniums, a purple sweet potato, iceplant, and a giant citronella in the fall, and set them on my bright windowsills.

This citronella has happily spent the winter in my bright basement.
If you look closely at the base of the plant, you will see Whitie the cat,
who has found a new favourite nap site.

There he is!

In March, I cut 10-cm off the tips of many of the branches, making sure there are at least 3 nodes (where leaves join the main stem).  I snap off some of the lower leaves and set the branches aside for a few days.  This is an important step to let the ends callus and prevent them from rotting.

I pack small pots with moistened, good-quality potting soil, use a pencil to make a hole in the soil,  pop in a stem or two, and firm the soil.  The small pots go into a waterproof tray, and then they are popped into a clear plastic bag, with a few props to keep the plastic from touching the leaves.  I close up the bag, and voila!  It's a make-shift greenhouse that forms its own atmosphere.  The pots don't need to be watered because the mosture condenses and falls back onto the plants.

Citronella cuttings covered by plastic held up with a variety of bottles. 
Condensation has formed on the inside, which will keep the plants watered.

Ice plant cuttings in the make-shift greenhouse

When the weather finally warms up in June, I will harden these off by putting them outside in a shady spot for an increasing amount of time until they are ready to withstand the harsher light and wind, and then plant them in containers.  What a beautiful way to save money!  And this year with the COVID-19 shut-down, I don't know if we will be able to go to nurseries to buy plants.

As you can see, my efforts don't always pay off.  The greenhouse method worked ok for the ice plants, but definitely didn't work for the citronella.  What a mouldy mess.  I'm thinking I should have rooted these in water.

racoon visitor

A sure sign of spring is when my bird feeders get trashed overnight.  That's how I know that the racoons are back in business.  I can't understand how they can digest sunflower seed shells, but they lap them up.  Now every night I have to bring in two seed feeders and a suet feeder and the frozen water dish.
Last night, we were Skyping with our son at midnight, when we noticed a little masked face looking in at us.  I opened the door to get a better picture, and the racoon was in no hurry to get away.

this picture looks like a double exposure, but it is Wayne's reflection in the window
and the racoon outside.

signs of spring

As the snow melts, we need to walk further and further into our back yard before we can strap on our skis.  And as the soil begins to poke out, we have had to detour and develop a new route through the fields.  But there is is still plenty of snow out there, although often it has water underneath.  I have noticed that snow over plowed ground melts faster than snow over grassy fields.  My theory is that the dark soil attracts light and heat even under a snowy cover. 

Around the house foundation, things are definitely happening.

Snowdrops are blooming, and donkey's tail euphorbia are snaking over the bare soil.

Winter aconite is tiny in stature, but produces 2-cm flowers that smell like honey.  The bees love them and are already buzzing around.  This flower comes from a small bulb planted in fall.  Once established, they keep coming back year after year.

Another yellow beauty is this crocus, which is also visited by bees.

Iris reticulata is another beautiful flower that brightens in early spring.

Even the moss growing in a crack of pressure-treated wood is greening up.

These tiny leaves promise poppies in June.

making suet

Many birds love suet, including chickadees, bluejays, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, northern flickers, nuthatches, and unfortunately starlings too.  If you don't feed suet, these birds will not show themselves, and you won't even know they are around.
Suet provides protein and fat for the birds that can't find insects in winter.  At my feeder, a cake of suet can disappear in two days.  It can disappear overnight if I forget to bring it in and the racoons get it.
I started feeding purchased suet, but as with most ready-made things, I could tell it was much inferior to home made.  The wonderful magazine called Birds and Blooms carried a recipe, and I decided I could do that.

First, melt two pounds of lard (not vegetable shortening - these birds are carvivores) and mix in a big scoop of peanut butter.  

Take the pot off the stove, cool to room temperature, and add handsfulls of peanuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, oatmeal, and cornmeal.  This mixtue smells as good as oatmeal cookie batter!

I saved plastic trays from purchased suet. Two pounds of lard makes 5 squares of suet.

Set the trays on a cookie sheet, fill with suet, and freeze.  When solid, stack them and wrap in a plastic bag, and keep them in the freezer until needed.  And if you are plagued with racoons, be sure to bring the feeder in at night!

at the bird feeder

The bird feeder is a busy place these days.  Yesterday this lovely purple finch paid us a visit.

A tiny nuthatch, which usually appears upside down, helps itself to some suet.

The ravens are huge, but so shy.  Could be because they are clumsy fliers and need to be extra careful as they can't quickly take off to avoid predators.  These guys really love peanuts, and swallow them whole.

The hairy woodpecker (just a bit bigger than the downy, and hard to tell apart) daintily tries a bit of  suet and takes much time in between pecks.  A huge contrast with the greedy starlings.

The mourning doves love fresh water, and get right into the pan to drink their fill.  This morning, Whitie the cat reached up and grabbed a dove.  As I ran out, the dove got away, leaving a cloud of feathers behind.  Hope it is ok.  Whitie is grounded for the day.

Here is our apex preditor, wanting in.

If only White would go after starlings!  They are much more wily than the other birds, never landing on the bird table, only going after the suet safe on the railing.  They can demolish an entire cake in one day!

One more little guy who loves sunflower seeds.

skiing in the time of COVID-19

I wish my legs really were that long!

At this time of confinement, we are practicing the required social distancing, but that does not mean we have to stay inside all the time.
Although it was +5C today, there is still plenty of snow in the fields behind our house.  Only today did I see any bare earth peeking through anywhere.
The snow is starting to collapse, but I hope it does not melt away too soon.
It is hard to ski on mud!

In the back yard

Wayne, my ski buddy

A tough hill to climb with frozen icy snow and slippery skis.  The winds always blow against us going uphill.  But sometimes we get help on the downhill, so we can just spread our arms and let the wind push us

My favourite part of the trail winds through the woods.  
Last week I looked up and saw a ruffed grouse perched in a branch just a few feet above my head!

trees are iced with vanilla frosting

wildlife at Paradisus Resort, Dominican Republic

Egret checks out the fish in the pool in the front lobby.

Flamingos hang out in the pool by at the front lobby.

When I wasn't being dazzled by the plants at Paradisus Resort, the wildlife peeped out at me during unexpected times.  Along with spying common mourning doves that were smaller than at home in Canada, the birds that sang the loudest were plain black.
The most exciting thing I spied was this:

a pencil-thin black snake about 50 cm long trying to find a place to bask in the sun can't catch a break with people like me trying to get a picture.

Moorhens are small swimmers who competed with the turtles for handouts from the tourists.

Turtles gather under the bridge, hoping we will throw them some tidbits.