Last Week in the Sunshine...

Ever since then it's been pouring with rain. But you can see my Siberian Iris, Heuchera, Bleeding Heart and Serviceberry tree all going strong all around us. Heaven is a garden, for sure.

First Vegetables

I've grown and picked culinary herbs for years now, and last year we grew our own tomatoes and salad greens for the first time. But this beautiful bunch of chard is the very first vegetable I've ever harvested. I got such a kick out of gathering this bunch in! The leaves and stems were cooked up into a risotto with lentils—and there's leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Yum.

Declaration of War

Whereas Old Mrs. Groundhog and Family have committed repeated acts of war against the Deeply Suburban Family and their Garden; therefore be it Resolved by the D*S Family Council that the state of war between the D*S Family and the Groundhog Family which has been thrust upon the D*S Family is hereby formally declared; and that Mr. D*S be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire manpower, technical ability and resources of the D*S Family, including the use of our most vigilant and faithful Guard Dog Moxie Crimefighter, to carry on war against the Groundhog Family; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the the resources of the Family are hereby pledged by the Family Council of the D*S Family.

Initial Assault:

The Last Straw:

Mr. D*S and Defence Works:

Catching Up

Instead of a traditional birthday cake, we celebrated Panda's 15th birthday with these Toasted-Almond Caramel Dacquoise. Yes, they are the same ones featured on the cover of the February issue of Canadian Living. I already had 4 egg whites left over from a dinner party chocolate pudding and plenty of almonds, so it was a stroke of serendipity. They were amazing.


What a disappointment when I realized that moving to Ontario would mean no more fresh herbs from my balcony in the winter. (Duh!) So my solution is a fluorescent tube set up in the basement on an old Ivar bookcase. I hope to extend our little grow-op to include salad greens and, of course, we'll start our seeds for the garden here.

This is my current home decorating project. It may be a long, long time before it is finished, but when we finally have new pinch-pleated drapes for the family room, I'll post another picture.

Apologies for the quality of this photo, but it's darn hard to catch something like this on film. So now you know why I must keep our kitchen counters absolutely clear of anything remotely edible. Or even chewy.

Things I have rescued from Moxie's mouth:

• $20 bill & $5 bill
• socks
• panties
• oven mitts
• kitchen towels
• chicken legs
• dead mouse (found on a walk, NOT in the house!)
• reading glasses
• paring knife
• CD's
• envelopes, paper scraps, toilet paper rolls
• guitar picks

Things missing in action:

• $12 worth of Oka with Mushrooms cheese
• three days worth of vitamins and anti-inflammatory medicine from pill case (found in pieces)
• bruxing guard (only some pieces found)
• many kitchen sponges, which do turn up eventually, if you know what I mean

Mox, we love ya, but man, you are one dumb doggie sometimes.

The Fall

What can be more deeply suburban than lush green lawns? Mr. D*S has developed a surprising affinity for lawn care. Who knew? We applaud his efforts, especially if it leads to this kind of fun:

(This photo was taken in '08, our first summer here.)
I am more concerned about flowers and salad, so this part of the backyard is especially mine. As a gardening novice, I am taking it slow and easy. It has filled in a little more this summer:

I never dreamed vegetables could get so out-of-control and sprawling. The cherry tomatoes, the ones we could reach, were a revelation. Arugula, tarragon, parsley, basil and radishes were terrific, the lettuce less so. Next year we hope to grow some better varieties from seed and I'll know better than to crowd everything in together like that. Also the bricks must go. They are far too tippy.

This is the very spot that I took a tumble in July, losing my balance while gathering baby arugula leaves for a salad. Annmarie next door must have heard me cursing, because she asked if I was OK. "Oh sure, fine," I gasped. "Just got the wind knocked out of me." Except that I developed the strangest case of indigestion two days later. Three days (and a lot of antacid) after that, I was so uncomfortable lying down that I had to sleep in the Lazyboy I inherited from my Dad. Finally, pain, excruciating middle-of-the-night pain, convinced me that an ambulance was in order. Several hours later, lying in the hospital corridor, I remembered the fall out of my garden. I went home 10 hours later with a diagnosis of a fractured rib and fluid in the lungs, and a prescription for antibiotics and painkillers.

Trudging Around My Garden

Your thermometer in your garden might be registering 23°C--and so is mine! But that's quite a different 23°, on the opposite side of zero. Shoulda taken a picture of that!

How fondly I remember February in Vancouver, with snowdrops and crocuses, pink buds of rhododendrons, birds gone wild, singing madly. The ground soggy, but green. This is the brightest spot in my Ontario garden:


Am I bitter? Never!

My mom is spending the days with us now, as she recovers from the insertion of a pacemaker to keep her heart from leaping wildly from 50 to 170 beats per minute. I'm sooo glad to be able to keep her company and help in a small way. We're reading David Copperfield aloud as a family and I think she's enjoying it.

And boy, we don't let the snow stop us from getting out into our little garden. Mr. D*S has shovelled a path around the perimeter so that we can throw the Kong around for Moxie.


All is well and we're patient.

Now get yourself over the Sheila's and see what's happening in her garden:
Greenridge Chronicles

The Garden Grows

My new neighbour asked me the other day how the painting was coming along inside the house and I had to confess that other than the inside of the kitchen cabinets, nothing at all had been done. But that is only because we've been working on the outside instead. Do you remember this from July?


Well, a few weeks ago, it looked like this:


And now we have this:


Although the grape arbour was beautiful, there are only so many times you want to clean racoon poop off your deck. You could hear the rustle of the little scoundrels up there every evening, and what a mess they would make. Does anyone know if there's a such a thing as a grape vine that doesn't have fruit?

Only the maple tree, a couple of sedums and hostas, and a burning bush in the front were left. I've added a serviceberry tree and a lovely little red-twigged dogwood to the back. They're tiny yet, but they'll grow.


Years ago, a friend amused me greatly by confessing that she took the Reader's Digest Gardening in Canada to bed with her every evening. Now I must also confess a growing fascination, although I tend more towards the Marjorie Harris books myself. Within the next few years, I hope to fill that raised bed with trees, bushes, vines, perennials, etc. in soft soothing colours. This is my very first garden, in our very first house, and already I'm wishing I had more space! Maybe something like Sheila's terrific garden back on the West Coast?

Home Sweet Home

June 29, Ontario

We're still camping, but now it's in our own home. We arrived Thursday night, the 26th, after nine days travel. The family welcomes us with such generosity and I'm overwhelmed by happiness and gratitude. The garden is now like a jungle,

and now that the house is empty, I notice so many little annoying details of shoddy workmanship that I have to consciously direct my mind from seeking them out and spoiling the whole effect. Because really, this is the perfect house for us. Only four minutes drive from my sister's and mom's house, and a five minute walk from a park and a conservation area. The park leads into a municipal trail that is 14.5 km. long. It takes us to the library in 20 minutes, and we can bike from one end of the city to the other if we like. We're 2 minutes from a major highway that will take us into the city in 30 minutes (if the traffic co-operates), yet we're in a quiet 30-year-old subdivision, close to shopping. The house is huge. After 19 years of always being near enough to carry on a conversation with someone at the other end of the apartment, we're constantly losing each other in here. And my knees, after 9 days of sitting in the van, are protesting the number of stairs in a big back-split like this. 26 steps from my bedroom to the laundry room. 16 stairs just to get from the car to the kitchen.

Dan the mover arrived yesterday morning with our stuff and we spent 4 hours trying in vain to check off all the boxes and items from Dan's master list. I think we've got it all, but only time will tell. In the meantime, we're still using our camping gear and and wandering around the house in a daze, full of ideas, and dreams for the future, trying to take it all in. This is going to be a big adjustment for us all.

The search for a home is over!

After almost 4 weeks of traipsing through a wide variety of houses, we've finally found our new home in Ontario. It's a 5-level backsplit, with 4 bedrooms, 2 bath, air conditioning, fireplace, full basement and single garage. Quite a departure from the little 2-bedroom apartment we've spent the last 19 years in.

I think I was so overwhelmed by the huge size and great condition of the interior of the house that I didn't see the yard very clearly until I got home and showed the pictures to Mr. D*S. So this is what we'll be working on this summer: trying to make something out of this space before we tackle anything else.


Good grief, it makes you wonder, what were these people thinking? Or did they just sit under their grape arbour and shut out the rest of the yard?

Any design ideas, any advice, gratefully accepted. We may yet save up our pennies and get professional help, because this is truly way beyond a novice gardener's scope. The drainage seems quite crucial, with the way the yard slopes up at the back, and slants down at the sides to direct water away from the house. As is common in Southern Ontario, the soil is dense clay. It actually looks like very little has been done since the builder laid some sod over the clay 30 years ago.

I so want to be able to enjoy my little back yard. After all these years in one of the most beautiful city neighbourhoods in Vancouver--or the country for that matter--we want to make a green oasis for ourselves in this deeply suburban community. Vancouver nights are quite cool, so I'm looking forward to being able to sit outside late into the evening again.