There is every indication that winter is behind us.
We pruned the apple trees in January. Today, we pruned a maple tree, the plum tree and the roses. While I spent those few blissful moments in the garden, I noticed the temperature in the greenhouse was 34 degrees. I plan on starting my vegetable seeds next week but I will keep them in the window here at the house until I am confident of a reasonable temperature in the greenhouse for 24 hours. It still goes down to zero at night with a high during the day of six. All of my seeds arrived in the mail last week from Ontario and I am eager to get going… I will be so happy for fresh vegetables at my door.
The fish seemed to sense that we were in the garden and came up for some food. Although less ice than this picture taken last week, we still had to chip out a hole to give them some food. We haven’t fed them for months. They all seemed just fine though.
It has been a very cold winter and we have used more firewood than normal. We have been out hunting windfall this past week. Our neighbours and a December wind storm provided a few trees and we have a nice pile of bucked wood ready to be split. We fell behind on our wood supply while preoccupied with the reno, so we have some catching up to do. The rounds we gathered were huge and I was lifting weights unimagined before my shoulder replacement surgery.
My friend just came back from Bali and brought me 4 gorgeous jelly rolls of batik material for a quilt I want to make for our bedroom. A roll of Bali batik in the Nanaimo quilt store is 65.00. They are 13.00 in Bali. Anyone else going to Bali? I could always use more..
Normally, I surround myself in blacks and greys. My clothing, my house, my quilts, my boat. But, I have jumped out of my comfort zone and picked bright reds and oranges for this quilt… After hours and hours on Pinterest looking for the perfect quilt pattern.. I have found one which will work well with the batik material. I can hardly wait to start! I need to get at it so I can finish before the garden demands all of my time…
My lack of postings lately is directly related to my limited consumption of wine. I find wine definitely enables my verbiage and since October I have strived to only drink when entertaining or out with friends. These spirited opportunities, while appreciated by my thirst for a dry red don’t lend themselves to my sitting at a laptop updating my blog.. So, to answer inquiring minds, everything is fine. Thank you for caring, but I just need to learn to
write while unimpaired.
Off the Grid Islander 
I was beginning to wonder why we hadn’t heard from you for some time…thought maybe you had gone south for a bit of a warm up. Definitely a good winter for that. It seemed so mild to begin with. But in the past 5 or 6 weeks we have burned through an enormous quantity of precious, good quality firewood. Probably a normal whole winter’s worth in the last month! As for the garden: the ground here is still frozen solid so it will be some time before any planting happens. The good news for me is that i have an extended window of opportunity to finish pruning the apple trees. Nics to have you back again! Cheers!
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Thank you! I agree, I bet we have used twice as much wood as usual too. I can’t see me ever choosing to go somewhere warm for very long in the winter time. I really enjoy it here in the winter. Storm watching… I don’t know why I haven’t really felt like writing.. I’m dieting so no wine and no Sami laying beside me.. Kind of broke my routine… I’m back in the groove!!! Stay warm and thanks for your patience….. 🙂
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Lithuanians, it seems, drink the most. Approximately the equivalent of 170 bottles of wine per year or almost 1/2 bottle a day. South Koreans are next and Russians are about fifth or sixth. Canadians and Aussies very close. Thank God they judge by nations. If they went by regions the gulf islands might register higher than they do homogenized by the rest of the country. There is the very real risk of us leading the pack. All I can say is Dylan Thomas, Hemingway and Churchill drank and wrote in copious amounts. It can’t be ALL bad. I am pretty sure Christopher Hitchens, Robt. Hunter, Truman Capote and Malcolm Lowry whet their whistles, too. Cut yourself some slack, pour yourself a wee dram and write your guts out!
Jus’ sayin’…..
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I appreciate your support..although the wine might help my writing not so sure how good it is for quilting!
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