SURROUNDED BY FLOWERS

During this morning's slow breakfast on the patio, I became aware that I was totally surrounded by flowers. The hostas that I planted eight years ago are as big as shrubs and are in full bloom attracting both bees and hummingbirds. Nasturtiums that were planted in large pots directly from seeds are now profusely blooming. Day lilies, feverfew, clematis, thyme, and minature roses complete the patio area. I enjoy them all while they are still in their glory. Soon the hosta's flowers will be gone and their leaves will loose their freshness. My beloved nicotiana has been slow to grow for me this summer  --  normally the plants would be tall and laden with highly fragrant flowers by now. My hope is that the few plants I have will fill the places of those that have faded.

The home made trellis in the photo is supporting a kiwi vine that I planted this spring. It is supposed to be very hardy and is self-pollinating. I bought a vine for my friend higher up in the hills -- he hopes to harvest kiwi fruit directly from his second story bedroom window.

Tip the Border Collie looks forward every morning to frisbee and ball catching. I have to be careful that she doesn't drop the toys into my porridge bowl. She disgraced herself once by dropping a slimy tennis ball into a guest's tea.

MORELS

The morel season has just reached its end here, but my friend's son a few days ago found more morels than he could carry. I was told that they feasted for two days on the harvest. They live higher up on the escarpment than I do -- my area just to the east has been finished, I think, for about a week.

The photo shows the lunch I made of the last of the wild leeks and morels. The eggs come from Willow Lane Farm in Mansfield -- they have a little roadside vegetable and egg stand. All very local food. 

I especially miss the wild leeks. Maybe part of the pleasure we get from these wild foods is how very seasonal they are and that we need to actively look for them.

ANDY AND HIS ROOSTERS

My friend Andy used to have chickens when he was growing up and thought that he would enjoy having them on his rural Mansfield property as a source of fresh eggs. One of his water customers (Andy owns Mansfield Springs Water Company) was happy to give him four Bantam chickens a year ago. There were two hens and two roosters when we picked them up and brought them home. One of the roosters slipped out of the crate before being placed into the chicken coop -- he was around for about two weeks before he met his ultimate fate. Several mishaps later, including an invasion of the chicken coop by a black bear -- it took off with a full bag of chicken feed -- only one hen was left with a clutch of six fertile eggs. Andy naturally hoped that the odds would be in his favour as to hen/rooster ratios.

I wondered if the black bear shock to the mother hen somehow skewed what should have been a 50:50 ratio, but there were five roosters to one little hen in that clutch of eggs. The Hazletts have been putting up for months with almost continuous crowing starting often at 3 in the morning. The hens are feeling harassed and egg production isn't high. Andy talks about how he has to reduce the number of roosters, but meanwhile has managed to make pets out of them. The nuts and seeds that he keeps in his pockets at all times have much to do with the friendliness of the chickens.

It is relaxing to watch them as they go about their chicken business, but the crowing is admittedly tiresome after awhile. We are also wondering what vegetables will be safe to grow in the garden -- chickens are fairly omnivorous and will eat almost anything.

note: The photo shows Andy reaching into his pocket for a chicken treat. Three of the roosters are perched and waiting.

WILD LEEKS

Wild leeks are one of my favorite vegetables -- nothing tastes quite like them. I pick only the leaves, one from each plant. The entire plant with the root is what was traditionally harvested in the spring and eaten as one of the first greens of the season after a long winter. The onion flavour is distinctive and sweet but with a bit of a bite. After years of steaming them, it was suggested to me by Dr. Werner Fabian, our local anthroposophical physician, that I might instead simply eat them as a salad. With a dollop of mayonnaise, that is how I now like them best. Another great method is to chop a handful of leeks on top of soups or sandwiches.

The season for them will hopefully last until I tire of them -- eventually they become too strong as the plant matures and flowers. Weather here has become quite suddenly unseasonably hot and that might accelerate development.

photo: The photo was taken in the hardwood forest to the south of my property. Going out to harvest the leeks is a big part of it -- a great reason to go out into the forest.

DAFFODILS AND TIP

Spring flowers are doing well this year -- last spring was so hot and dry that nothing did well. A cool and wet early spring was just what was needed. Crocuses have long since finished blooming, and now the daffodils have just begun to open. I was taking photographs of them this morning while they still were dewy when my Border Collie, Tip, joined me.

Tip has a tank top on because she managed to injure herself when jumping for a frisbee.... she jumped to catch it and landed on a log, tearing a large gap in her skin. It needed stitches from Dr. Mckee at his fine Headwaters Veterinary clinic in Shelbourne.

My maple sap collection was disrupted by my being overseas for two weeks -- when I was home to check the pail, I found it full of cloudy sap that had to be discarded. I will return to pull out the spigot and to plug the hole.

MAPLE SAP

The days have suddenly become warm and sunny and the nights are frosty -- the perfect conditions for tree sap to start running and just what many rural people have been waiting for... time to start tapping their trees. A true sign that winter is over.

Tapping trees and dealing with the sap can be formidable work -- I've helped with the annual tapping at Camphill Village Nottawasaga -- but I decided that I just want to drink the sap, not evaporate it into syrup. The syrup I can buy later at Camphill -- they started tapping their trees last week.

This morning I collected everything that I needed: a drill, a bucket, a hammer, and an antique spigot that I had bought last fall as a curiosity. Just drilling the hole resulted in an immediate rush of sap and with the installed spigot the sap neatly drops into the pail.

My pail is admittedly improvised -- I'm worried that it might give way from the weight of the sap once it becomes full. No protective lid either, as there would be on a proper bucket. I will go back this evening to bring it home.

WINTER BEE HIVES

My neighbour Hans allows a friend to maintain a set of bee hives on his land. They are tucked away in a far corner and are a perfect goal when out for a walk. It is pleasant to 'visit the bees', especially in the winter when they are snug in their wrapped up hives -- on a sunny day I can hear them buzzing inside their houses when I put an ear against a wall. Their emergence in the spring is a special time -- these hives seem to be doing fairly well, maybe because there is minimal use of agri-chemicals in our area.

Hans rails against them because they can clog up his sugar-water feeders for his beloved hummingbirds, but he likes to receive his 'rent' of honey when it is harvested.

I wanted for several years to keep a hive or two of bees but finally decided against it because of the responsibility -- I was afraid of the difficulties involved in keeping them disease-free.

I grew up with bees and have always had affection for them. We had a nest of feral honeybees in the east wall of our family house in Chippawa. The only time I was ever stung in the twenty-four years I lived there was the time I managed to step on one. We let them live there because we believed it was in some way lucky. The people we bought the house from in the '50's made my parents promise that we would keep the bees as they were because to destroy them would bring misfortune. Sadly, when my family sold the house in the '90's, the hive, by then much diminished, was destroyed by the new owners. Not sure how their luck, or lack of it, went.

Avaaz recently had an on-line petition for a campaign to eliminate agi-toxins known to harm bees. I was happy to sign it.

THE LARGE BREAD LOAF

The photo show the surprisingly high bread loaf that I baked this afternoon. Admittedly, it is easier to accomplish such a thing when using close to 50% white flour. I've never been able to get as much loft when using whole-grains, and as well, I mill the spelt kernels myself, so the flour is not as fine as store bought flour. My vintage Braun mixer does a great job of kneading and that helps to make the bread fine-grained and high.

I had yet to cut the bread when the photo was taken, so I wasn't sure if the dreaded 'flying crust' (crust separates from the crumb) might yet be hiding within. I've had that problem a lot recently -- apparently I was not mixing in enough flour and the dough was little too moist. That has been corrected and these last three loaves have been fine.

SNOWSHOEING

Tip and I did our usual walk this afternoon, but because of the recent heavy snowfall, I was wearing my snowshoes. The rest of the year they hang on the porch wall as decor -- I admire the handmade beauty of the old rawhide designs and am sorry that the metal framed snowshoes appear to have taken over the market. The shoes themselves are light and well-balanced but I've yet to figure out how exactly the bindings are supposed to work.

Last winter saw very little snowfall... conditions might revert to that again but so far, it is very pleasant to engage in some winter activities. Today, the first day of the new year, was sunny and minus seven Centigrade, which these days counts as being cold.