Coffee shop at the B’s yesterday. Nine in attendance. Once again, I went to the B’s for the coffee but stayed for M’s scones. There was a lot of talk about European canal trips and food for bees. The requisite food for the future yellow and black residents was the more relevant to my foreseeable future. 
Two of the women are going to raise bees here this year. I will post pictures when the bees arrive and try to tell you a bit about how it goes but I am not really involved in the process until the honey is made and ready for my toast… I will be first in line with my $$$$ for local honey.. I will ask them nicely if I can document their process for the blog.
It was a gorgeous day with 7 degree temps and sunshine with no wind. We had no desire to be indoors. Quilting could wait. All the talk of honey bees got us thinking about pruning our fruit trees. E parked the truck under the branches for ease of pruning and got the job done fairly quickly. 
We have three large apple trees with a total for four types. (King, Gravensteins, Jonagold and Bramleys seedling), a plum-tree and two pear trees. The wraps on the bottom discourage the racoons and stop the deer from rubbing. 
My supervision of E’s work wasn’t necessary so I spent an enjoyable afternoon in the garden, my first for 2016. I was pleased with signs of life on all of the new plants we put in during the fall. The fish too, are all alive and have thrived without either food or water filtration. I got out my pruners and started on my roses. I have nine roses…
Following the advice of the experts on my trip last summer to Butchart Gardens I was confident to be quite ruthless. One of the beautiful roses I inherited in the garden was extremely unhealthy in its flowering last summer and I know it really needed some serious attention. BR what is the name of the one by the shed/old burn pile? You did tell me it needed a good solid prune but I had forgotten…..
For the climbing roses ( I have three) I found the three strongest stems and cut back all others to the ground. The three strongest were securely entwined on the lattice and then all other branches pruned off the stems … Completely!!!… I am pretty sure that is the trick which the gardener told me at Butchart .. It’s too late now if I got it wrong.. I will let you know how they produce this summer.
Walking back to the house I checked for life on the new trees we planted in October. The two cherry trees we were given and transplanted from H and E’s garden are alive!! They have buds on them …. Who hooooooo! No signs of life yet on the Hawthorne or Dogwoods. Planting the trees in the fall with the good solid rains we have had will have soaked their roots and was probably the best thing we could have done for them… The green tops of the daffodil bulbs are starting to poke thru the soil on the hill.
No quilting or reading done yesterday… So glad to be back out in the garden, it is indeed my happy place.. or at least
one of them……
Off the Grid Islander 
Well, M, you may have just taught me how to prune my climbing roses! Time to pull out the cutters nad the ladder. Any last minute changes to your instructions?
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The last step…. Once you have your stripped down strong lead stems.. Secure them back and forth sideways.. Not straight up.. In a zig zag pattern.. Does that make sense??? Not guaranteeing anything….. I probably have it all wrong.. But .. It’s this years experiment.. Can’t hurt 🙂
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Well, M, you may have just taught me how to prune my climbing roses! Time to pull out the cutters nad the ladder. Any last minute changes to your instructions?
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The last step…. Once you have your stripped down strong lead stems.. Secure them back and forth sideways.. Not straight up.. In a zig zag pattern.. Does that make sense??? Not guaranteeing anything….. I probably have it all wrong.. But .. It’s this years experiment.. Can’t hurt 🙂
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Yay, so glad about the buds. Now that you have mastered the pruning,please feel free to be ruthless with my roses.
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Will do… Next sunny day.. Will send a report :). Safe travels…
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Yay, so glad about the buds. Now that you have mastered the pruning,please feel free to be ruthless with my roses.
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Will do… Next sunny day.. Will send a report :). Safe travels…
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Gawd! You sound like my wife! Quilting, honey, flowers, sunshine, coffee and scones…. aaaaaaaaaccccckkkkkkkkk. Put E on the line, would ys? 😉
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This is the Distaff side of off grid living… E’s too busy digging a trench down the driveway to figure out why the remote start on the generator has mysteriously stopped working.. You will just have consider his empathy….. implied. 🙂
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Spearside loves distaff but there is no understanding. That dstaff loves spearside is incomprehensible to both. It’s the honey and the honeypot we have in common.
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Seems to work though!
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Gawd! You sound like my wife! Quilting, honey, flowers, sunshine, coffee and scones…. aaaaaaaaaccccckkkkkkkkk. Put E on the line, would ys? 😉
LikeLike
This is the Distaff side of off grid living… E’s too busy digging a trench down the driveway to figure out why the remote start on the generator has mysteriously stopped working.. You will just have consider his empathy….. implied. 🙂
LikeLike
Spearside loves distaff but there is no understanding. That dstaff loves spearside is incomprehensible to both. It’s the honey and the honeypot we have in common.
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Seems to work though!
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