Cornelia stands alone

Well, not quite. At least, not right away.

This morning when I dismantled Cornelia the scarecrow's three sisters' raised bed (of "corn, beans, and squash the patriarchy," as my friend Quinn's hoodie says), I discovered the rest of the produce that was growing at her feet. I was also amused to see that one of the bean plants grew right around her compact disc left hand!

Cornelia's collection:
One large field pumpkin, three pie pumpkins,
three spaghetti squash, three kabocha squash, 
the last pail of scarlet runner beans 
and a few little leeks that lost sight of the sun!

We enjoyed several feeds of peaches and cream corn and lots of yummy scarlet runner beans thanks to Cornelia's vigilance, and will also have some good pumpkin soup and baked squash over the next while. Maybe I'll make a pie.

Now that her "charges" have moved indoors, Cornelia deserves a rest from her labours. She's moved into our sunny greenhouse space, where she can keep an eye on the birds' comings and goings through the winter.

Good work, Cornelia. Just so you know, the sparrows are already missing your garden domain's many hiding places.

Watching the birds bathe, and other stories

 It's been a busy end of summer and early autumn. You can tell by these two pictures that we've been working hard to put the garden to bed...

September 14th

October 7th

What you don't see is the missing flagpole. It was right in the middle of our onion patch, and had to be removed so our neighbour's power lines could reach his renovated home next door to us. Lee worked extremely hard to move mounds of soil because its base was encased in concrete that went down six feet. Then he had to take a sledge hammer to break up the concrete, and we managed to give the pole away on Kijiji a few days later.

All that's left in our garden now are the pepper plants in the covered box, a few carrots and beets that can wait until after frost, and the garlic that I planted this afternoon. I'll leave the borage and other flowering plants until they no longer provide food for the bees that are still buzzing around, then compost them, too.

The real reason for this post is to share a little video. While I was planting garlic this afternoon, there was quite a commotion behind me in our garden birdbath, and I realized that I was being splashed by a noisy group of sparrows who hadn't noticed me. 

Of course, when I turned around, they all took off, and the next thing I knew they were bathing in our little fountain instead. Our greenhouse/shed window faces it, so I went into the shed, waited for a few minutes, and took the little video below with my daughter in mind. She loves the birds in our yard, but doesn't see them as often since she left home last spring. 

So Suzanna, this one's for you... and, of course, for the rest of my handful of readers. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

A belated anniversary moodling

Next spring's bulbs (178 of them)

When the leaves change and we reach Autumn Equinox, these Simple Moodlings close another year. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking to start my online moodling (love letters to the world) at harvest time, when there's so much to do in the garden before that first frost, which seems to be arriving late this year thanks (but no thanks) to climate change. It's definitely not the best time to be marking a moodle-versary, with produce to process, spring bulbs to plant, and a garden to put to bed.

But at the same time, it's a season for slowing down and taking stock. The colours change, the days get shorter, and my spirit starts to relax into a deeper awareness of light and darkness, warmth and coolness, and the gift of time in general. As I watch the squirrels tucking our oak tree's acorns away for the winter, I am tucking away summer memories, and relishing the good muscle aches from spreading compost and collecting leaves to make next year's good black humus.

Life is a never ending cycle, and seeing the leaves fall in this covid season brings to mind the many losses and changes created by this pandemic. I think of all those we have lost to the virus, people who are slowly recovering from its effects, our medical people who are struggling to move forward as our healthcare system is being overwhelmed, and I wonder, at times, how our world will continue to function. Some days it's hard to imagine. But we keep on going.

On this feast of St. Francis, at this time when so many are so seriously ill with covid and there are still so many on our planet to be protected from it -- especially those with no access to vaccines, and children under 12 -- I ask the little saint of simplicity to pray for us, that we all do the right thing, not only for ourselves, but for our world as a whole. As I move into this 12th year of online moodling, I wish all my readers safe journeys through the darker months ahead.

May we all have the resilience of the bulbs I've buried deep in my front yard, and emerge into next spring's sunshine after a period of protecting the vulnerable through our patience, perseverance... and peace.

Ralph’s squash... and tomatoes, and a bunch of other produce

With a four-letter s-word dreaded by all (but especially gardeners!) in the forecast for tomorrow or the next day, perhaps it's time to wrap up a few harvest moodlings. I went out to pick today because I'm afraid covering my cucumbers and tomatoes won't work too well if 10-15 cm of white stuff arrive by Thursday morning and flatten my blankets. Lee and I harvested the last of the peas and beans on the weekend, and it sounds like it's time to bring more produce indoors...

But first, I want to show you Ralph's squash plant... It did pretty well in spite of the fact that I wasn't around to tie it up at the right time, and I probably should have removed half its branches and blossoms if I wanted a six-foot squash like the one for which Ralph is famous. 

But a six-foot squash is more summer zucchini eating than our family wants to do. The large gold squash  (below) will give me seed for next year, but the small ones are tender and probably better for eating, which is what we prefer! The seeds are in the large bulbs at the ends, and if any of my readers would like to try growing their own, I'm guessing I'll have seed to spare! Just say the word and it's yours!

I planted two of Ralph's roma tomatoes... and got at least 30 extra large, almost seedless fruit that will be great for tomato paste. And three of his banana tomato plants gave me at least three gallons of long skinnies, which  means I'll be making spaghetti sauce for a day or two. And there are lots of other tomatoes for eating, salsa and bruschetta...

Ralph's romas

Ralph's banana tomatoes

Our peppers did well enough that I picked a small peck...

We got decent crops of cukes, cabbages, and corn on the cob. I think I'll leave the root vegetables to fend for themselves in the coming storm. There's more than enough to do with what's come in just today!

Thank you, God, for an abundant harvest, and thanks, Mom, for the extra buckets!

Sunday Reflection on a Monday: First fruits

Today's reflection is brought to you by
James 1: 17-27.

You,
O God,
are the source of all perfect gifts
and all generosity.

When we give,
it is your bounty that we are giving;
nothing
that we have to give is ours
because you created
everything.

All our freedom,
memories,
knowledge,
possessions,
gifts,
and talents,
are your presence in us,
meant to be shared.

We are to offer ourselves
like the first fruits of harvest
laid on your altar.

We are to give ourselves
by serving you
in those who are today's widows and orphans:
our sisters and brothers in need,
and receiving the gifts of self
that they offer us in return.

We are to be
"quick to listen,
slow to speak,
slow to anger..."
and more than hearers of your word,
but doers.

Otherwise,
there is no point to any religion.

Help us all to share ourselves
without concern for what it costs us,
and without thought of any reward.

Doing everything and giving all
for love of you,
in love with you and your creation,
is already enough.

+Amen.

* * * * * 

This Sunday reflection is a bit late because it is harvest season. We picked over 60 gallons of pears this Labour Day weekend, and would be happy to share our first fruits with anyone who would like some!!! Send me an email (contact info on the sidebar) if you need an address to come and get them (bring your own container).

Today's harvest

It's really a terrible time to be heading off for our family vacation. So much is happening in the garden. See what I mean?

Fortunately for me, Charlotte, our niece and dog/house sitter might be convinced to pick a few things. And my parents and sisters are welcome to pick and eat to their hearts' content, too.

I forgot how much I love making dill pickles... below is a pic of the first batch of 2015 along with our tomatoes and two winter squashes. The 2000-year-old squash isn't a delicata, I've decided -- it's a plain yellow banana squash. Not that I mind. Eating from the back yard is awesome, no matter what the veggie might be!

Scrambling with produce

It's been a wonky week, mainly because we woke up to snow flurries on Monday morning.
We haven't had the accumulations that Calgary is getting, but still, I groan.
Snow in early September?!! Ugh!!
It means we have to scramble to take in the garden before it freezes tonight,
since I don't have enough blankets to cover everything!

Codie McLaughlan took this pic for the Edmonton Sun a couple of blocks from our place.
Fortunately, Edmonton didn't get much whiter than that.

I donned my most waterproof clothing (which didn't turn out to be very waterproof) and spent almost five hours in the garden, salvaging vegetables that, fortunately, hadn't frozen. It was one degree centigrade, and the wind whipped the snow around so that I wondered if a blizzard was on its way. I found myself shivering a few times, which made me decide it was time to change my soaked and very chilly garden gloves. I went through a pair an hour, with little cotton mitts inside them that kept some of the warmth until they got too wet.

My Belgian friend, Gaby, tells me that I look like some sort of astronaut!

There was a lot of organic matter for composting, 

Nine bags of leaves layered amongst bean and squash plants.

and more fruits and vegetables than I realized!  (14 spaghetti squash!)

As always, there were a few cukes that had hidden themselves well and had grown to outrageous size. 

I also harvested Ralph's Romas, 

and found that the biggest, four-fist-sized tomato had a little frosty spot on it...
so 1/4 of it was my lunch for today.
There was definitely more of everything than I realized!

We harvested our pears last weekend, thank goodness, so all that's left to deal with are the pumpkins, kale, chard, onions, leeks, beets, carrots and kohlrabi. 

I managed to salvage four tomato plants growing in my compost bins

and move them into the greenhouse on Saturday (we'll see if they amount to anything),

and our pepper pots are happily settled there, too. 

There should be lots of lovely peppers for spaghetti sauce making in October.

We are extremely fortunate that it didn't freeze outright. There's a lot of work ahead to make the most of all this produce, but it's worth it for a fifty-foot diet. And there's nothing like tomato and cucumber sandwiches this time of year. My favourite!

Thanks again, God, for our garden, and your abundance!

The garden takes over my life

Twin squash! And more where they all came from!

Online moodling gets erratic when the garden is doing things like this. For the last few evenings, it's been processing time. Tonight I worked on pickles, jams, zucchinis and beans. There are already two pails of tomatoes in my freezer waiting to be turned into spaghetti sauce. I haven't even looked at the kale, broad beans, and beets, and the spaghetti squash is a story unto itself! In short, the garden has outdone itself this year, and I'm struggling to keep up. (Mom and Dad K., shall we bring you some spaghetti squash? Anything else??)

Even as I deal with produce, there's plenty of moodling going on in my head... and I promise, once the garden has been cleared out, more than video clips will appear here... Watch this space.

Harvesting in the dark

My hubby and I attended the annual Master Composter/Recycler appreciation event night last night (some of my colleagues were appreciated for 1,000 hours of volunteering!) and when we got home at 8 p.m., we decided that we'd better bring in as much garden produce as we could. The temperature was supposed to dip to 2 degrees Celcius last night, and when it goes below 3, I get nervous. There's frost on the roofs this morning, but I think the garden would have been safe. Oh well.

As it got darker and darker, Lee helped me to pick cukes, pumpkins, the larger tomatoes, one zucchini, and we covered the cherry tomatoes. It was a little crazy working with no harvest moon in sight, with only the back alley light to help us to see. We may have missed a few veggies, but even so, it was kinda fun. After an hour of work, here's what we brought in.

We're wondering if the green pumpkins might be because we planted them next to the cukes. If a bee pollinates cukes and then pumpkins, do we end up with a cucumber/pumpkin cross? A cucumkin? A pumcumber? Hee hee. My neighbour seems to think it will be an odd tasting thing, but I'm not so sure. I guess we'll have to see if the green ones turn orange over the next month. They have a slight orange tinge around the edges.

The top two pails have oregano and basil for the spaghetti sauce I plan to make today with the three gallons of red tomatoes I've been keeping in our freezer. There's enough help in the Clothing Room that I've let them know that I'll work at home this morning, and do one last Terry Fox walk with my youngest daughter at school this afternoon (next year she'll be in Junior High, and parents aren't invited any more, sigh).

Next week I'll probably have enough red tomatoes for another batch of salsa. Maybe there will be one more batch of dill pickles... and some zucchini loaf -- or zucchini brownies? Oh, the possibilities are endless! Especially since there are three more zucchinis on my counter. Do you have any special zucchini recipes to share??

It's been another abundant garden year; thank you, God! There's more work cut out for me, but I don't mind... it will be lovely to taste summer's goodness in mid-winter!

Harvest...

Look left...

Look right...

And you'll see that it's harvest time. The potato plants are starting to turn and there are big fleshy potatoes under them. The tomatoes are reddening a few at a time. The cukes are blooming to beat the band. The kohlrabi is big and round, and there are lots of beets... and probably too many carrots. It's my favourite time of year!

Here's an afternoon's worth of work... beans and peas mostly picked, and enough cucumbers for a few jars of dills. It's taking some time and effort, so I haven't been moodling much, and I'm not sure when I'll get back to my Simple Suggestions, but does it really matter? Written creativity is being superseded by garden work, but don't worry -- I'm in my happy place!