Attila sounded good this morning, he went to sleep around 8:30 last night, and was awakened by my call on the cell phone at 6:00 a.m., as he requested. He slept well he said, and sounded good. He has two more nights to catch up with his sleep before he faces another drive home.
Our garden is doing well, at least parts of it. The borage continues to bloom for the bees, as was intended. I love borage, and find it quite beautiful. The nasturtiums are still blooming, there are even a few blooms on the red runner beans. Our basil is doing very well, considering that the squash has taken over and tried to crowd it out. The green beans and squash are our prize crops this year. We have harvested enough green beans that we have eaten them for dinner daily for the last four weeks. Last night, just as the light was failing, I spent some quiet happy time picking another big bowl of green beans, which I cooked immediately to keep in the refrigerator for quick meals. The squash is plentiful, the plants have taken over a whole corner of the yard, and have taken over parts of the vegetable garden. It is not harvest time for the squash just yet, soon though. Attila tells me there are over a dozen large butternut squash to be harvested.
We brought down a root cutting of my Granny’s roses, hoping to transplant them here at Mist Cottage. Attila says they didn’t get enough TLC with the move and all, so he doubts the plant will survive, although he did plant it along the back fence. This is the second failed attempt to get a cutting of Granny’s roses. Maybe we will be three times lucky, when we go back to the camp next summer.
We successfully transplanted a sapling of the French Lilac that my girls gave me for Mother’s Day, that first year at the country house. I can see it from the kitchen window!
I do miss gazing at blooms from the kitchen window, and so will be researching late blooming fence climbers for next summer. Blooms in September!
The unpacking of the kitchen is progressing! Now, it has become apparent that several boxes are yet to be located, I know what is missing! The boxes are here, somewhere, and will be found, someday.
Things will move more quickly when Attila comes home, as he can move heavy boxes around and find the kitchen boxes, move things away from the furniture doors and drawers so that they can be used for storage. Right now the kitchen is the only area on the first floor where there is accessible storage space. The basement has a few shelving units up, but chaos reigns down there. There is no urgency to any of this process, it is actually restful. I think it might be referred to in some circles as nesting.
I thought about taking pictures, particularly of the borage in bloom, but the camera is still hiding.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
Mist Cottage
21°C
Date: 10:00 AM EDT Thursday 17 September 2015
Condition: Mist
Pressure: 102.1 kPa
Tendency: falling
Visibility: 10 km
Temperature: 21.4°C
Dewpoint: 20.2°C
Humidity: 93%
Wind: S 16 km/h
Humidex: 29
Camp Tank
21°C
Date: 10:00 AM EDT Thursday 17 September 2015
Condition: Sunny
Pressure: 102.0 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 21.0°C
Dewpoint: 14.8°C
Humidity: 67%
Wind: SSW 9 km/h
Humidex: 25
Quote
“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”
Benjamin Franklin
1706 – 1790
I love it when you say “when Attila comes HOME. I love that you have A HOME, and not one in the city, one in the country. Although in some circles that would be quite an elite way to live… having two homes complete… but now you can “nest” and snuggle down in.
All those plants, are they there at Mist Cottage? Wow, that’s a lot. I envy you. I used to grow things here at various stages of our life but can’t do it now. Luckily we have lots of choices for produce etc. all around us. ((love))
It is a great word isn’t it Bex, home! Yes, I know that some people think that having a “cottage” is something to strive for. They can have it! Attila and I don’t plan on ever having two properties, with buildings on them, ever again. We would like to have vacation time so that we can camp at “the camp”, but we don’t want to build anything, as then we would need to maintain it and worry over it every winter.
Yes, all those plants are at Mist Cottage. We planted seeds last spring, and had our success with squash and beans, moderate success with tomatoes, basil and savoury, and no luck at all with our swiss chard. Attila feels the swiss chard suffered from our absence, it needed constant watering and didn’t get it at the crucial stages.
If you have access to fresh produce you don’t really need a garden i think. Attila loves to garden, I think it feeds his soul. I love fresh produce, and if Attila wants to grow it, I am only too happy to eat it!
And now you have the ability to really enjoy the one property to its fullest! As well as garden to the fullest. For some reason I believe that next spring will find you and Attila enjoying all the benefits of that garden, including some herbs!
Fresh herb, oh that does sound good Lee Ann! This year we grew savoury, which I only use in one dish, macaroni salad. I now have a lifetime supply. 🙂 And fresh basil for pesto, our favourite “fast food”. I am looking forward to next year’s garden.
I think I’d like having lots of fresh green beans around to eat. Might have to talk to DH about planting some next year. Now that we have a fenced backyard that becomes more of a possibility. DH makes a fantastic Green Bean Almondine, but usually only at Christmas. If we grew our own green beans maybe he’d make it more often. 😀
We had quite the run on cherry tomatoes for several weeks. But things hit overload with 87 tomatoes one day, 102 the next, 112 the next, and then 82 the next. That number’s pretty hard to keep up with for only 2 people. And that was with only 2 plants!
We did love having fresh basil and cilantro this year but the plants never seemed all that happy. Not sure what’s wrong. Could be they aren’t getting enough sun, as they’re getting leggy.
Yes, it sounds good when you say “home”. There’s only one now. That’s wonderful!
I’ve enjoyed your journal entries so much! Although this is my first response, I signed up a while ago and have been following your move and re-organization with a great deal of interest, having done much the same thing many times over. I’m a Canadian as well, and feel very blessed to be living in this country.
Teri, that Green Bean Almondine sounds delicious. I have been boiling the beans and eating them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Yesterday I tried them with my homemade croutons, that was very good too.
That is a lot of tomatoes! I have frozen whole tomatoes from last years garden, but this year the tomatoes did not do well for us. I bought the plants at a discount grocery store, so I think the problem was starting off with substandard plants, then not watering often enough, as we were not here through most of the summer months.
It is great to be home, the one and only!
Welcome Diane! Moving is a big job, I wonder if, in doing it more often, one becomes better at the job, 🙂 I don’t really want to try it more often to find out though!
I cannot imagine living anywhere but Canada, it gets into your blood I think.