Wheh! Seems so long since I had time to post.

Well it has been a few days since I felt I had time to sit here and write something. In that time we have renovated a stairway, started yard work and planting, traveled to Ontario and this past Saturday celebrated our sons wedding to a very wonderful young woman. We are very thankful for her. They will live in her small condo for the time being so I am sure house hunting will be on the agenda as he has a number of pieces of shop equipment and other things still here. It is very different to be by ourselves in the house after all these years. And today we celebrate 31 years of marriage so that is good!!!

So what's been happening? Well this past week to 10 days has been cold and snowy and windy. This morning we woke up to this -

 

We have had about 2 inches of rain and snow over the past 10 days. The moisture is very welcome but it has also been hovering around 0C all this time. Very cold when plants are popping out of the ground and flowers are ready to open. Even the greenhouse has been hard to keep warm. And we bought 15 hanging baskets to put out for the wedding but it was so windy and cold they had to stay in the greenhouse.

The robins and blackbirds are fighting for territory even in the snow. They are both trying to build nests in the spruce trees in our front yard so the challenge is on.  There have been many birds around the yard while this bad weather has moved in. We have also had deer passing through the garden and see their hoofprints in the soft garden soil. We were surprised to see tulips coming up in front of the house as I thought I had dug them all up to transplant after over 30 years in the same place. My mother in law planted them there some time after 1963 and before 1981. There are now 2 short rows in the garden and surprise surprise a few survivors coming up in front of the house. I was so surprised when I dug them up as they were in hard clumps from all the years of being  undisturbed. I could hardly believe they had survived.

There are many things growing in the greenhouse, potted lilies (again some from when the MIL had planted them), Blue Honeysuckles, Daylilies, annual flowers, and of course the hanging baskets. (Walmart at $10 per pot).

Lily seedlings still germinating in the basement as well.  And Clematis from about 10 different op or crossed sources. I will be flooded with Clematis by the time summer comes! I really love Clematis but it can get to be too  much of a good thing!

I took action to dig some of my Polish lilies grown from seed as they were starting to rot in the wet ground. Hopefully they will do ok in pots. I treated them all with a mild bleach solution and potted them into Sunshine #4 mix which has good drainage but of course I have not been able to keep the greenhouse as warm as I would like so no signs yet of growth. 

 Yesterday I re-potted Morning Glories into hanging baskets and when the weather is better I will lift them out of the basket and pop them into the ground. They are in groups of 4 with at least 2 different colors. I did this last year and it worked so good. An inverted tomato cage makes a good climbing place and if they are close together they will reach over to meet each other making a Morning Glory fence. About 3 feet apart worked here. 

The flower theme for the wedding was based on lilies which were mostly white, yellow and orange. So here are some pictures of the lilies. We also bought some for decoration. There is a pixie size yellow and orange in pots and a cut pink which I really like.

 They are still doing quite well although the blossoms are fading. Very nice colors and arrangements. Our new DIL is a Hair Stylist and one of her clients asked to do the bouquets and flowers for the wedding. Then her friends did the arrangements for the reception. Very nice indeed. Center pieces on the tables were glass containers with sliced oranges, limes or lemons on a piece of the opposite colored cloth. We hope to get some pictures and I will put them up.

Finally our trip to Ontario was a very quick trip with 2 short visits and attendance at our Annual Church Conference. The Conference was at Stayner Brethren in Christ Church about 15 minutes from Collingwood, Ontario. This was our first experience using GPS. It took us on a merry ride from Fergus, ON to Collingwood. We still don't know why we went where we did but we got there. We had a great time as always with our friends in Fergus who live on the banks of the Grand River and always show great hospitality. Their daffodils were in bloom and made a very nice display.

Once Conference was over we drove over to Listowel where my wife's Uncle and Aunt  live. We had fun not going where the GPS wanted to take us. On the way we passed this very large wind farm which stretched out for several miles. As you can tell it was a growly day there too!

So there you are. Mostly caught up. I should have time for some better pictures in the next couple of weeks and some better stories on how things are going in the greenhouse and garden.

Till then "Stay well folks!"