Garden meanderings ... and Lasagne.

If any of you have really, really good memories, or are even vaguely interested, I shall offer you one more update on my lasagne gardening saga. Calm yourself - this could be very exciting.

OK - it's not exciting at all actually - nothing much has been happening. This lasagne has been cooking for 13 months now and that stubborn bloody grass is still under there!

Can I just say we have had a really crap summer here in Alberta. A distinct lack of warmth and sunshine, with enough rain and dull, cool, cloudy days to make me think fondly of a British summer! Surely the composting organisms should be going nineteen to the dozen? (Did I mention it snowed last night? OK, we won't go there). Call that a summer Alberta? Shame on you.

So my harsh, angular garden design (purposefully so, by the way) has not yet been softened by new plantings - which now puts my garden another year behind in some proper growth and height - I don't really like new, young gardens, but it's exciting to watch them mature. See all that bark up there in that photo? That is mostly flower-beds-to-be.

So right now, my view of this quick-cheat lasagne lark is disgruntled disappointment - but then if I wasn't such a lazy bugger to begin with, I'd have just dug up all that grass and been done with it!

Of course I had visions of sweeping new borders, with tastefully scruffy blasts of colour and the joyous pleasure of flexing the credit card at garden centers this year - but lack of new planting space has kept me alternately swearing and praying that the composting fairies get their respective fingers out, and get on with rotting down last year's discarded lawn.

On the plus side, the collection of miscellaneous bargain-priced, end-of-season shrubs and trees that I manically planted last September all survived the winter and did well this year (why pay $180 for a tree when you can get it for $60 at the end of the season - admittedly, you are offered no guarantees for your $60 but I am optimistic - well, you have to be, to try and garden here).

My husband was quite pleased with the general lack of plant-related spending this year - right up to the point I brought home some stone pavers so he could finish off a pathway. Ha!

Anyway, the rest of the back garden looks respectable, if just a little bare - only a few splotches of colour from small old flower beds not yet incorporated into the would-be new large areas.

But all in all, the mini-veggie patch did quite well. However, the tomatoes refused to grow, ripen or redden after about June - so not sure what their problem was - stubborn buggers - I think they threw a wobbly at all the far-too-cool weather this summer and they just lost the will to live.

So Autumn officially starts today I believe - or perhaps it was back in June. The mountain ash provides some splashes of juicy colour, ready for the Bohemian Waxwings to return for their seasonal feeding frenzy.

And the hardy Potentilla - ugly and messy as heck for most of the year, let's be honest - earns it's keep, to offer some late-season buttons of sunshine.

Oh well - 'till next year.

Cheese Grater Skies

What is this? No, it's not a cheese grater ....

It's one of these. None the wiser?

Well, it's a large metallic panel, about 2 feet square.

All the little cut-out circles are placed at different angles.

So you put lots of squares together, and then you get ......

A giant picture. Of clouds.

This is the outside covering to a new car park (parkade) where I work.

How cool is that?

Much better than giant slabs of grey concrete.

The clouds "move" as you move and the angles change.

Metallic skies.

Skywatch Friday - Misty Morn

Beautiful pink start to the day in Alberta.

Cooler September nights produce low lying mist, shrouding my hometown in the foothills and hiding it from view.

Below those rooftops you can see, several thousand invisible inhabitants are waking to a very misty morning.

The Rockies have a new white covering.

When it rains on me, it snows on them.

Another day dawns.

Have a lovely weekend and happy skywatching.

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Ramblings of a mad woman in September

So the kids went back to school last week - sigh. That's a sigh of relief , by the way, in case any of you mad parents actually like having the kids around for ten weeks solid - in which case, sorry, I don't get it! Love 'em to bits, but ten weeks - come on, that's just cruel.

Anyway, by day three, we'd received the phonecall we all love to get.

"Can you come and collect your daughter please - we think she's broken her foot."

Day three of the new year for goodness sake! And dance season kicks off next week.

Well, not for Daughter Number One, it doesn't - not now. Yes, she broke a bone in her foot in gym. At least 4 to 6 weeks in this air-cast apparently. Can't see her joining her tap class before Christmas to be honest!

But she's still smiling, so that's good. She's not your average build for a 12 year old - she's 5'8" and it is not easy to maneouvre a hopping heffalump into a shower, let me tell you. Poor love - this is gonna take a while.

Meanwhile, to continue my random comments for this week, do you remember my kitchen drawer from earlier this year - my sad case of airing my slovenly ways to you all?

Well, look at me now. You'll be so proud.

It's amazing what eleven bucks spent at the Dollar Store can buy you - a whole new mind set.

I mean there is still as much crap in the drawer - there is probably even more rubbish in the drawer than ever before - but it's organised crap, and that makes such a difference in one's life. Tidy crap - I can highly recommend it.

In the meantime, I think I must have a flea up my bum - I've heard of spring cleaning - is there such a thing as autumn cleaning?

My exterior walls need a facelift. Patched up, stained and washed out pukey peach coloured stucco is not doing it for me. What do you think of these options?

I like the top one - a clean and bright creamy-with-a-hint-of-yellow. But I don't think this is very Canadian, and I seriously think that while I might totally love it, no-one else would; the neighbours might not talk to me and it would negatively affect re-sale value. Sad, but true.

The middle brown-ish option is, well, beige. Very popular in new homes, and well, beige. (What is this obsession in new builds to choose one of four shades of brown - inside, outside, brown, brown, brown. And breathe.)

And the bottom square of elephant-grey would go very nicely with our new dark grey roof shingles, but not much else - and I fear that when it's dull and rainy or we hit the depths of a bleak, colourless winter, I might just slit my wrists with drab-exterior-wall-induced depression.

However, regardless of the colour I choose, now that we have 12" multi-coloured squares all over the wall, I will have to make a decision - or maybe I should just opt for the matchpot look this season?

What else, has been happening? Oh yes, autumn is arriving.

There's a distinct chill in the evening air, and the leave are a-turning.

We don't really have many of the red hues to the autumn foliage out here in Alberta - but we do a fantastic line in yellows.

See, if I pick my favourite paint colour, my house could match nature for three weeks of the year!

The Aliens have landed

I have absolutely no idea what this is, but it landed on our windscreen the other day and made me laugh. Hello Mr Bug. Now that is some big insect.

It looks like a photoshopped alien, but nope, it's real alright!

And he managed to actually stay on the glass for quite some time, despite our increasing speed - good wind resistance obviously!

And I presume this is a garter snake, minding his own business and sunning himself along our dog-walking route. Luckily, the dogs were off chasing a tennis ball and did not see him.

But look how small he is - tiny wee thing. Good job we saw him in time or that shoe could have done some damage!

Moraine Lake - Alberta

It's surely time for one more lake/boat/mountain post - then I promise not to bore you with such beauty again for a while. Maybe.

This was MyWorld Tuesday two weeks ago.

Most visitors to this part of the world have heard of, and therefore visit, Lake Louise. I find it a complete disappointment during the summer months, mostly because there is no glistening snow, and also it is smothered in tourists. Seriously smothered, you cannot move up there. And the famous hotel is dead ugly too, in my humble opinion.

So if you are ever in this part of the world, ignore Lake Louise and take the time to drive 15 minutes further up the road to Moraine Lake. It can also be a bit of a tourist trap, and parking in July and August can be challenging - but the colour of the lake alone makes it worth the trip.

Then join lots of other tourists and hire a canoe. It's only a small lake but it's a pleasant way to kill a sunny hour or two. (You can also choose one of several walking trails if you wish).

Take the dogs into the canoe with you. They'll love it - kind of - after getting over their suspicion that the floor keeps rolling around.

Honey agrees the water is beautiful.

So much so, in fact, that she had to launch herself into the water to check it out. Yep, it's cold.

And lifting a soggy, heavy, wriggling dog back into a canoe, while trying not to tip yourself or your fellow travellers into the lake is actually not easy, let me tell you (and then she refused to sit down in the massive puddle that she had created, thereby walking up and down the boat causing hilarity and consternation in equal measures).

This was me trying to be all arty-farty and get a "reflections" shot - I like this one.

There is still a little snow at the summit - this is part of the The Valley of the Ten Peaks. The water seems to be the colour of your average local swimming pool. It's to do with the refraction of the light on the silt brought into the lake by the glacial erosion, and the particles are so small they are suspended in the water making it seem cloudy.

You see quite a few lakes and sections of rivers throughout the Rockies in this seemingly unnatural turquoise colour. Fabulous!

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Proud !

My first veggie bounty from the garden !

There comes a time in everyone's life where they must embrace their inner-ancestor/farmer/gardener and just plant some seeds!

And I have grown something - and it's edible! Yay me!

I am so proud, I can't tell you - hee hee.

In the meantime, my cucumbers are a mass of leaves, which have had a few flowers, and there is no way they will have time to do cucumbery things in the last couple of weeks of this season. It's likely to get cold and/or frosty within a month.

Oh well - wait and see - and learn to try and get in earlier next year.

We have such a short growing season, I'm delighted with any bounty at all.