Life in rural Ontario

It's been a busy week. Into Ottawa to see the doctor, yes, MaryG, we must have been near one another! They are marathons with traffic, and construction. 

 The flowers cheer me! I mowed a path so that Joe could pick up has daily walks. These are Devil's Paintbrush, my mother used to call them. They are delightful, a yellow carpet.

The yellow ones bloom first. 

Next, it'll be the orangey red ones.

Then, there is Goat's Beard! 

Dame's Violet are doing well. I transplanted some, and they thrive.

You can see how the Dame's Violet is doing in the garden↓.  

This photo is supposed to be showing my Itoh peony. You cannot really see it, the yellow in the lower middle of the shot. 

2025↑

You can see the growth between 2025 (above) and 2021 (below)! I am doing something right!

I chose not to grab a new photos this year. The bugs are awful and I didn't want to get in there.

🐀Fred & Family

Of course, the Fred family are thriving. There is one kit bolder than the other. I saw him at the shed (burrow #2), while the sibling was with Momma under the deck (burrow #3). 

While I was looking forward to the kits, they sure keep us all busy.

Freds on deck:  

 Then, at the shed doing 'bear!' They have to be vigilant. They are fairly safe here, since we don't normally see coyotes in the day time. Mind you, we've had a busy week.

 

Now, this might be silly, but they were under the deck, burrow #3. There was a lot of squealing. I think Fred is letting the little ones know that the dairy bar is closed!

 

The garden grows...

 Friday was a hoot. We lost power for a half hour. I did some vacuuming later – after the power came back! Then the storms rolled in after I squeezed in some weeding. A massive storm with much thunder and lightning. 

🎾We sat down to TV, after JB brought home groceries, and the TV satellite went down. So much for tennis! 

The rain gauge over flowed as the tube holds 1". We had 1.75" and the goldfish pond overflowed. 

We have veggies! Not ripe yet, but you can see them growing. Cheery cherry tomatoes. With all our critters, this is the safest way to grow them. I water them daily, which is handy, as well.

The horse chestnut tree has finished blooming. Little chestnuts are forming. 

The Clematis looks amazing behind the deer fence.

This was a find, this plant. An Itoh Peony (Paeonia 'Bartzella' ). It was too hot beside the dark brown walls of the house. I transplanted it and it is thriving. I think I counted 9 buds!

They are tricky to photograph! They keel over with the weight of the large blooms. The plant has doubled in size since I moved it.

 

The pink peony blossoms after the more fragrant white:

The milkweed are more than knee-high, waiting for Monarchs. I either saw one, or spotted a Viceroy. Too far way to tell. Either way, we are ready. 

Heading down to the trailcam, it scurried up the tree in fright.

A sweet little sapling in the sun.

Fred continues to build a nest in the burrow. 

Where did the weekend go?

Goodbye to the old licence plate. We decided to go for a generic one. My name has been in the paper a couple of time. Just because you are paranoid it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!

I filled up the fountain, we snacked for dinner after our late lunch. Then I built a strawberry rhubarb crisp. The strawberries and rhubarb are from Miller's Bay farm nearby. I covered it up with the bee's wax cover. (It was a gift, Lee Valley Tools!) We will have this for dessert for a few days, although we don't normally have a dessert.

We watched our most recent online show, Dalgliesh, and I konked out by 9 p.m. 

Sunday morning, for Father's Day, Nutmeg nuked some veggies sausages for her daddy. I helped, of course. He is a wonderful step-father, and a terrific grandfather, and we love him!

It's a beautiful time of year, aside from the bugs. We await the monarch butterflies. The milkweed plants in the front are just about to bloom. The smell will be incredible.

 

Clematis and allium. 

The Bartzella peony have set 4 blossoms. I've pink and white peonies, as well. Only the white have an aroma.

We cannot ignore the simple whites.

I cleaned out the pond pump. Percy is still alone in the pond. I've not decided what to do with Percy and his yummy friends. Normally, I get a break shutting down the indoor 60 gallon aquarium. 

I nearly stepped on the spider. It appears to have eggs on its back. This is just with the iPhone. 

Fred is obviously pregnant, the poor thing looks like how I felt when I was 9 months pregnant!

Fred yawns from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Kiwi Gardens and the grandies

 The girls came by for a visit Friday night. JL had some family stuff to do in Ottawa.

Grampa was getting rid of some hats, and all were carefully examined. Two found a good home! They left after school Friday (Jos only has 2 days left), and by the time they arrived it was time to begin dinner.

Caitlin had made a cabbage slaw. She fried up some asparagus we'd bought from down the road, while I BBQ'd the steak and chicken Caitlin brought. There was wine involved, as well! 

We eased into Saturday and decided on an adventure: The Kiwi Garden art show. Things have changed up at the art show. You have to preorder tickets and book a time: the Tickets Please fee was $5.83, in addition to the $5 parking fee and $5 per person fees. Grampa stayed home so that we could have a girls-only day! 

We'd last been, as a group, in 2017.  I'd texted them all the blog post URL to remind them of last time, and see if they were interested, and Caitlin reprised a photo. 

If you compare photos, you'll find that Isabelle have grown some! 

Then there were these mushrooms. Look at Josephine in 2017! They'd recognized this pieces, and had a wee play!

girl play from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Paeonia 'Bartzella' (Itoh Peony): I do love them. This is the kind I have!

Here is the entrance. It is such a lovely location! Lots of parking on their fields in the trees.

Caitlin drove, I rode shotgun! 

Lovely objet d'art!

This man's art is amazing. Here is a hippo! By: CHAKA CHIKODZI.

Three eggs in a barbed wire basket, and a sheep radiator!

Bird houses, and clever art by Logan's Stone Forge and ironworks.

Then there is Scott Dobson, our fence man! He did our fence here many years ago, and a new gate from old cedar! Also, we bought an  arbour which he created! 

Scott spent some time explaining his collection to the girls. They were quite intrigued!

After a visit with Scott, we kept on moving!

Every time you moved to a new spot on the 10 acres, there is another piece of art for sale! Or another flower or plant. Below, right, I recognized a tulip tree! 

Josephine decided to buy herself a wee sketchbook from this woman. (Grampa gave each girl $20 to spend.)

Cedar Spiral Designs

Isabell bought herself a cactus. It was a carefully thought out decision. There are hundreds of choices. I never did get a photo of her final choice. It sort of looked like a wee purple aloe vera! 

Love the licence plate!

TAHHDAHH

We headed home for lunch (we finished lunch after 2 p.m.), and then they toodled on home. The show is open again today, it's a three-day affair. Today, Father's Day, our Ottawa family are going strawberry picking, their family tradition!