Baby chicks

Haha! I wish! If only I could have backyard chickens. Alas, I have to suffice with the rooted variety. I can’t wait to find interesting little nooks and crannies to stuff these guys into. I planted some last year among the huge bank of armour stone we have around the front yard, but they were singletons…

Brrr…

What the hell May? Last night the low was around 2-3ºC. Today it was all manner of weather: freezing rain, sleet, snow, regular rain and sun, windy as all get out and damn cold, only about 5-6ºC. Needless to say I covered up my veg garden last night, and I’ve kept it covered all day…

The lazy mom’s guide to beautiful planters

Last year I was shopping at a garden centre with my mom and trying to figure out what plants to get for my front porch planters (and vaguely wondering how I’d find the time to plant them, with my then 6 week old baby). And of course my mom being the brilliant lady that she…

I Scream, You Scream: Global Vanilla Shortage!

Have you heard?! I learned from my sister in law last weekend that vanilla prices have suddenly skyrocketed in the last few weeks due to a crop failure in Madagascar. My SIL does a lot of baking as a side business: cakes, cupcakes and cake pops. We consult regularly on vanilla purchases because I live near…

The garlic is in!

Back in August I harvested my 2015 crop of garlic. I’m still tallying up the totals (everything I do these days is done in the fastest, most efficient way possible, but not always with the same attention to detail as I used to give; having an infant around will do that to you). This weekend…

Tomato Roasting Season

It’s been a busy couple of weeks holidaying out west and at the farm, so I’ve been a little preoccupied. When we got back to the city from each trip I had a huge cache of tomatoes to deal with (even though I only planted four tomatoes this year!). The first batch became roasted tomato…

Jamming

One of my favourite jam recipes is Canadian Living’s Strawberry Vanilla Jam. It’s been a couple years since I made a batch, due to our renovations and such, so I was really craving getting some going this year before strawberry season is done for the year. But of course I now have an infant, so canning…

Infestation

Look! It’s a post about gardening! Obviously with a newborn baby virtually all my hobbies have had to take a back seat this year. But since I missed out on gardening the previous two seasons I just had to get something going this year. I managed to sprout some tomatoes and our beloved mystery chile…

Mommy time

My husband told me I should update my blog, because people are concerned. So here I am. Everything is okay. I’m finding my way with this new mommy gig. So breastfeeding. Yup, we’re still doing it. But I did have another blocked duct about a week ago. It sucked. Again. But again, it cleared up…

Struggles

  Last time I managed to catch up with my blog I posted about how we had finally gotten breastfeeding going. Well it hasn’t been without its ups and downs. I hear this is pretty normal but I think for us it has been especially difficult. My first Mothers’ Day started out very sweet: a…