Beauty of Winter

the beauty of our winter chose today to cover the city in freezing rain. i have chipped the car out of a crystal case three times this evening, it is now safely in the garage waiting for our morning adventure/aging exercise as it is forecast to rain and freeze all night

that which does not kill me makes me stronger!!

Freezing rain is one of the worst, I hate it.

They are forecasting that for here too.......our car was only encased once today. Speaking of dying we also had a death here. A local man (54 yrs old) fell off a ladder and wasn't discovered.......he froze to death in his yard. Everybody be very careful out there.

I just spent a good part of yesterday downloading pictures from my new digital camera. I think I've got it working now, but I was getting pretty frustrated. We've had some cold here of late. Yesterday morning the thermometer on my porch registered 10F, and a friend said they reached -30F with the windchill at her house. The cold, crisp weather does offer some nice photographic opportunity. Here's a picture of the sun hitting three snow capped mountains visible from my diningroom window.

Now that really is a mountain! ;) Spectacular view and colors Weezingreens!!

It's difficult to get good pictures of mountains. I need to learn how to adjust the camera so that the peaks and the sky do not blend together. It seems to work best when the foreground is dark like this.

Breathtaking Weez

Thanks, Echoes. I don't mind the sunny, cold days at all, but the drippy, dark, gray (grey) days get pretty tiresome. That's when I come up here in the loft and look at my summer photos on the computer, or visit on DG.

Here's a picture of my elder son heading down to the river that borders his property down the road. On dreary days this sort of picture is comforting.

You're sure right about that. I feel like I've been snowbound for months.

Our big snows will likely come in the next month or so. It's disheartening because you can feel spring in the air, but the snow keeps coming.

Here's a nice 'bowl' of salad greens for munching while viewing pics! LOL

Great! Trouble is I crave butter tarts.

What the heck is going on, Jeanne? In that I came close to visiting with you, ......was it last year with Dawn and Liz???, I haven't seen your place, so why do they keep taking it out on your property? And, by the way, that is the most unique split rail arbour and fence, I've seen yet! Do you plan to grow climbing roses up it? E

OK, what is a butter, tart?... I mean, what is a butter tart?

Tart - little pastry like a pie. Butter tart - little pastry filled with gooey syrupy mess of nuts and raisins. Must have butter in the mixture to melt the brown sugar and grease the egg mixture.

Good one Weez (giggle)
Pati

Sounds yummy, echoes! Caught the punctuation faux pas, eh, Pati!

Oh, thought it was a regional culture thing. Maybe I wasn't wrong.

It sounds a bit like pecan pie... or perhaps mince, Echoes. Whatever the case, it sounds wickedly good!

LOLOL

Lilypon, it puts me in mind of an old Benny Hill skit in which the actress said, "What's that in the road... a head?" The director cut the scene and explained it was, "What's that in the road ahead?"

OK, I'll leave it alone.

Yep.......gotta love those plays on words.

You'll never guess what just happened. I just got home from work to have lunch, sat down at the computer and felt something in my ear.......a ladybug!! Obviously I've got enough indoor bugs to have kept it happy. Not so sure that's a good thing tho. ;)

Yep, they love aphids... I think they look upon the larve as ripe little watermelons.

I think your explaination was the safest echoes. ;)

I hope he devours em.......I made sure I found him and set him back in the plant room/

weez - a butter tart is indeed like pecan pie. since our settlers didn't have access to nuts like the southerners they made it with raisins or (in my humble opinion) preferably currants
it is the quintessential canadian dessert
we have to have some at ru there are so few items that are truly canadian
bloody caesars and butter tarts, anyone??

I had no idea that butter tarts (my absolutely favourite no-no) were uniquely Canadian!

Lovely mountains Weez but right now--with grey on grey--I liked your summer pathway picture better!

I often have to use Photoshop to bring up the mountains without washing out the sky.

Ladybugs in the house--I'm jealous! Best I can do is to winter my incarsia wasps (like a fruit fly in size) by keeping a few whiteflies on my datura leaves. If I don't, the whiteflies take over the greenhouse as soon as I open it up in spring and it's usually too early to have any incarsia mailed to me. Took me 3 years but I finally have a good balance.

Where did you get your incarsia from Rosemary?

Lynn I'll take both..............................................................seperately! ;b

Elaine, here are some summer pictures of the pergola bed. Rob made these structures, I designed them. There are tons of roses everywhere, last count was 270 different ones with more ordered.

The other side of the pergola bed.

Wonderful garden, Jeanne.............where are you finding the split rail posts, please?

Elaine, Rob split them all himself years ago. We have a split rail fence that is over 6 feet high all around the property on Denman. Rob likes to find the most labour intensive way to do things.

Lovely garden pics... the split rails really set off the beautiful perennials! Here's my south bed in May....OK, what's a bloody caesar?

Beautiful pictures Jeanne and Weezi. Gives me a little Spring Fever.

The Bloody Cæsar

A Canadian peculiariy. In 1969, Walter Chell, a Calgary bar manager, invented the drink to celebrate the opening of a local restaurant. It is now the most popular cocktail in Canada.

What is it?

This is info for the rest of the non-Canadian world. A Caesar is kind of like a Bloody Mary. With clams. A basic Bloody Caesar consists of the following:

Clamato juice (a concoction of tomato juice and mashed clams -- how did someone think to mix these together?)
Vodka (min. 1-2½ US fl. oz.)
Tabasco (or other acceptable pepper sauce)
Worchestershire sauce
Celery salt
Lime wedge
Celery stalk
Ice
Find a glass. A clean one. Wet rim of glass with lime. Coat rim of glass with celery salt. Add ice. Pour vodka and clamato over ice. Add Tabasco and Worchestershire sauce to taste. Garnish with celery stalk. Drink liquid. Eat celery. Suck on lime. Lick celery salt off rim. Crunch ice.

Ta Da!!

Heavens Donna, you'll give Weezi the wrong impression---the JUICE from mashed clams, surely! Another Canadian specialty that I hadn't realized was unique. You make it sound so good, and I've never liked Clamato juice. But the vodka certainly does spice it up. Are you sure the glass HAS to be clean????? I thought alcohol killed all nasties.


I ordered the incarsia from Knapp's Garden centre. They sent it in an insulated foam box, with ice paks.

Jeanne, your gardens are so lovely! What is the tall yellow flower with the big heartshaped leaf? Property on Denman--how wonderful.

Lynn, you are right about the currants. That's the way my mom always made them when she was young. My family prefers them with raisins. I've had them in many different combinations, even with chocolate chips. Never turned down any. Caesar's aren't too shabby either.

Jeanne, I still think you should put up a pile of rocks, maybe a nice big boulder garden on that corner to protect your lovely perennial beds.

sunrise tuesday just after feeding

the girls eating

loading shavings for the next few days

Nothing like early morning on the farm. Glad to see you survived your trip Lynn!