CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in July 2016?

I hope this is OK - I couldn't find the July thread?

Is there an easy way to insert/upload pictures?" />

Thanks for starting the Canadian Region July thread.

I use Photobucket to host my pictures. I use their IMG function to grab the URL for each photo which I then copy into the Forum post that I am writing. I can also post slideshows of groups of images using Photobucket.

There are instructions somewhere on the forum for at least one other method which may be preferred. I remember seeing one thread about posting photos directly from your computer. I'm sure someone will provide a link to instructions for an easy way to do it.

Margay, This thread is out dated but it does show the correct button to select to get the process started.

If anyone knows Windows 7 and how to take a shot of a page, crop and add red lines and arrows, please let me know how!

Margay77 wrote:I hope this is OK - I couldn't find the July thread?

Is there an easy way to insert/upload pictures?" />

Thank you Margay for starting the July thread.  Saves me the effort, as you know I have been absent but I will be back in harness tomorrow.  As you know, I an grieving the loss of my Jazz, but I am much better now as I know he is in a better place.

As for your question, I am rather (very) illiterate with regard to computers. It's like me driving a car.  I get in and drive.

sanderson wrote:
If anyone knows Windows 7 and how to take a shot of a page, crop and add red lines and arrows, please let me know how!

Here is half your questions - to take a shot of a page, get the exact view that you want then hold the control button down and hit the print screen button.  Then put your cursor where you want the picture to go and then right click and hit the paste option.  

I have no idea how to edit pictures.  PM Hass, he seems to use the arrows.

Well, that is screwy.  I tired to print screen the above and then paste it to this post but it would not paste it.  But I was able to paste it to Word.  I bet word has some editing capabilities.

Kelejan ... I was saddened to hear of your loss. You know you have the support of your many friends here on the forum. It will be good to see you taking care of things in the Canadian Region again.

Well, I am back. Thanks TD for carrying on as pro temp RH for Canada.  It is much appreciated.

Today was catch-up day in the garden, finishing up mowing the lawn that I started yesterday and was just too tired to complete in one go.  Today, to my delight I finished it, trimmed most of the edges, picked strawberries, then the rain pelted down just to stop tiring myself out again. I am not thinking of the weeding I have neglected; so much for my spending half an hour a day doing that; I am sure I will catch up sometime.  In any event winter will come once more and take care of everything.  That is one reason I like being prevented to be able to do all-year gardening.

Indoors I finished filling in some paperwork to claim my GIS, hopefully getting it to the government in Victoria before a possible postal strike.

After that doing some painting of two wooden planters given to me made by a friend of a friend who made them for me.  I still have to paint the surround that I am putting together to put over Jazz's grave.  They will be added to the planters, also a stone angel given my one of Jazz's admirer, together with  the dogwood tree.

I am feeling better now, he is over that Rainbow Bridge no doubt bossing the others around. I smiled to myself this morning when I was able to place the tea towel I was using, on the towel rail in front of the stove.  Jazz always pulled it off with glee, knowing he would get a treat when he brought it to me.  Sometimes he would appear with a sock in his mouth that he had stolen from the laundry basket.  Enough of Jazz, I can talk about him over at our pets' thread.

Welcome back Kelejan.  We missed you.

It sounds like you are right back into your gardening activities which is great! How nice that you will have a special place for Jazz. I am sure it will get your special attention.

As for my time as "pro temp RH for Canada", I feel that I let down our side in that I did not start the "Canadian Region: What are you doing in July 2016" thread. Thankfully, Margay came to the rescue and got it going, for which I am thankful.

Td -  Thank you so much for covering! We just wanted to give Kelejan as much time as she needed.

Well done, TD and Margay in Kelejan 's absence. Time does heal, as contrite as that sounds.

Thanks again, TD, and do not worry about starting the new monthly thread for Canada, we'll just make sure not to vote you in as Prime Minister to run Canada.   It would have been sorted out eventually.  I know other Regions run their posts differently, continually or yearly, and some like ours as a monthly.  Kudos for Margay for stepping in and the great support we receive from our sanderson as the other Regional Hosts. This is what makes our SFG Forum so great.

Today is windy and a lot cooler with some heavy rain at times that will save me from having to do some watering. Another couple of thunderstorms forecast.

Talking about rain etc., I was talking to some visitors from California who came  specially to view our Seventh Annual Sculpture display. She was amazed at how green everything was, and the beautiful flower displays that complimented the sculptures.  She told me how her garden was non-existent, and how she could not afford to water anything so everything died.  It really brings it home to hear an actual person tell their personal story and makes me appreciate even more what we have here in our part of Canada.  This year for our seventh show, we have about 30 new  sculptures situated around the Down-Town for everyone to enjoy for several months.  A total value  of about 3/4 million dollars. Only in one year was damage done to two of them, which is pretty good.  In addition many of past years' works have been purchased by the city and others leased out by businesses. I love approaching these people when I am out walking and asking them if they are visitors or whether they live in our little city.

The strawberries I picked yesterday are getting smaller and the rewards are also smaller.  In a bit I will go into the freezer and gather together all the bags of berries I have frozen then weigh them to see what the total yield is. I am not including any that I ate as I picked them, or put aside to eat for for desert at supper, you know, the that are not perfect and would never make the shelves in the grocery store, the ones that are misshapen, or too small or flawed due to other creatures having first bite. You may  assume that at times I am a numbers person; hence the experiment I did earlier this year with the two-worm bin. In case anyone does not know, it yielded about 75 worms over the time that I was looking after that yogurt tub.

I read that Toronto is having a heatwave with heat warnings.  Is it affecting you there in Ottawa as well, TD?  this morning here the temperature dropped to about 24F after the rain and I felt  very invigorated.

I am going out shortly to get some more painting preparation done, sanding down some rough wood and keying what I have already painted.  People, please do not allow yourself to receive planters made by your friends who want to give you some of their handiwork. It always causes you more work when you have a ton of other stuff that needs doing.   One I will cut down on is the rendition of turkey and chicken carcasses that I am given. It was great when I needed food for Jazz, it really cut down the cost, but naturally I will no longer need these birds.

I fully expect in the season to come I will be able to produce more food from my garden.  So far this year I am getting food from long term plantings; strawberries, garlic, apples, cherries and next year my new rhubarb plant will take off.  The little root I planted now has three flourishing stalks. New studying is needed by me as to how to treat it, and for that I will first look into our SEARCH feature that has a wealth of information. That also applies to the blueberry bushes I got last year, I know they will need pruning this time.

The hollyhocks and larkspurs plants I got last summer have really come through on their second year in the ground. It teaches me to be patient and to know that plants never produce much in the first year, but come good in the second and subsequent years.

Kelejan ... wow you are one busy person. You really are amazing. 

The heat here is almost unbearable for me. I can't work outside for very long when it is like this (i.e., above 30 Celsius). Mrs TD and I did some geocaching yesterday afternoon and we were wiped after about one hour of searching for caches. The A/C does not keep the second floor of our house cool. Thankfully it cools off outside when the sun goes down and we can open the windows in the bedrooms. The forecast is for cooler temps into the weekend.

Concerning your new rhubarb plant. I am sure it will do just fine. We had rhubarb in our yard when we first moved into the house 29 years ago. We've relocated the plant(s) a few times. We've split off portions to give to other people. It just keeps on growing and growing. We don't amend the soil that it is growing in nor do we put on fertilizer. We had leaves on it this year that must have been two feet across. Mrs TD uses it for pies and other deserts in addition to freezing some for later use.

Here is a link to the sculptures in Kelajan's city of Castlegar, British Columbia

http://www.sculpturewalkcastlegar.com/sculptures-page/

The heat sucks the energy right out of me too, TD. We are in for a bit of heat for several days. A/C and fans are going!

Gorgeous sculptures in Castlegar! Thanks for the glimpse!

I'm between Toronto and Ottawa, and can vouch for the abundant heat. I don't mind not mowing as much, but i'm worried about my tomatoes. We have 2-3 days of rain coming up which will be nice. I've started picking spinach, cilantro and lettuce. I was expecting my cabbage to grow as a big head but it's just giant leaves. Is this normal? Also is there a rule of thumb of when carrots are ready? I don't want to take them out if they're not done...


On a separate note, I built myself 3 birdhouses and a bat house on the weekend, just need to paint them and put them out. Nothing special but it was fun.

SAM, I am struggling with the carrot whispering thing! They don't look ready...but how do ya know? And yay on building habitat for our friends in the garden!

StrongAsMeat wrote:... I was expecting my cabbage to grow as a big head but it's just giant leaves. Is this normal? Also is there a rule of thumb of when carrots are ready? I don't want to take them out if they're not done...

SAM my cabbages are just big leaves as well. Look right down in the middle and you may see the small beginnings of a head of tight leaves forming. Just give it some more time. I think it is OK to use some of the outer leaves (e.g., to make cabbage rolls) but others may want to comment on that. BTW keep an eye out for green caterpillars.

http://www.almanac.com/content/cabbageworms

For carrots I sometimes push aside some of the MM around the top to see how big the "shoulders" of the carrots are getting before pulling them up. Mine are not ready yet. Sometimes I'll take just one out to see how big it is. The baby carrots are great to eat raw.

TD, thanks for posting the link to ou rCastlegar City's exhibition of sculptures.

Looking at the pictures they all look to be the same size but that is because they have to fit in the frame size..  Do not be deceived, some of them are very large.
there still one to come that weighs about a tone but so far it has not arrived, maybe not finished yet or perhaps too expensive to transport.

I have yet to see of them so far this year. There are free, beautifully printed brochures available, well worth keeping as sovenirs of your visit.

Incidentally, each year's sculptures, except for the ones retained by the city, are passed on to other cities in our area, Nelson, Creston, etc.  All the pictures you see in their websites, the background is of Castlegar itself, so you can see how lovely our place is becoming. On my daily walks around Downtown, I pass many of these so I get to know them quite well.  I do seem to miss a few that can be in out of the way places, so it is time for me to do the tour properly.  We also get to vote for our favourites, so at least one is purchased outright in remains here. So this year we have the thrity newcomers, plus seven of our own, and also several purchased or leased by businesses and other dedicated Castlegar people.

Castlegar is beautiful in the summer. Thanks TD. But snow and ice in the winter?

Kelejan wrote:... Incidentally, each year's sculptures, except for the ones retained by the city, are passed on to other cities in our area, Nelson, Creston, etc.  

Kelejan ... Do you know if there are any of the sculptures in Salmon Arm, BC? We will be there for just a couple of days visiting friends during our Western trip. I wish now that we had booked a longer period for our trip and then we could have come down to Castlegar to say hello.

I read that Toronto is having a heatwave with heat warnings.  Is it affecting you there in Ottawa as well, TD?  this morning here the temperature dropped to about 24F after the rain and I felt  very invigorated.

Toronto is indeed having a real heat wave today, I have been out in the garden early (just sitting) but will have to water this evening....again.

So, let's see if my picture will show today!

Margay those are good looking radishes.

Same weather here in Ottawa. This afternoon I tied my tomatoes to stakes and the heat and humidity outside really got to me. So now I am relaxing watching Portugal and Wales play in the semi-finals of Euro 2016 (soccer).

I agree on Margay's radishes.  Mine are always hit and miss.  I do better later in the fall.

Just harvested four pounds of cherries, the sour ones.  They are almost good enough to eat without sweetening. I am going to make some cherry jam as I am a jam and marmalade lover for my breakfast toast and cherry will make a change from the marmalade.  I prefer the  Seville Orange marmalade, and strawberry is my least favourite jam.  I love fresh strawberries with cream or yogurt. Department of useless information.

Margay, good looking radishes

KJ, cherry jam, yum.

Kelejan wrote:I agree on Margay's radishes.  Mine are always hit and miss.  I do better later in the fall.

Just harvested four pounds of cherries, the sour ones.  They are almost good enough to eat without sweetening. I am going to make some cherry jam as I am a jam and marmalade lover for my breakfast toast and cherry will make a change from the marmalade.  I prefer the  Seville Orange marmalade, and strawberry is my least favourite jam.  I love fresh strawberries with cream or yogurt. Department of useless information.

Thanks!  I love cherries!

I don't eat jam, but I do love strawberries, and all berries really.  I have a hanging strawberry plant this year and I am getting a few berries off it each day.  My cherry tomatoes (in a patio pot) are ripening and lovely.

Another really hot day here in the City of Toronto.....I never did get out to water last night, will have to get the hose going as soon as hubby has had his shower.....soak those veggies!

Pretty cool here this morning, 9C/48F, but it is only 5:30am. Rain expected tomorrow and for three days after so must get out in the garden today.  When the rain comes I can get on with some painting under the car porch.  Perhaps even some housework?

Prepared all the cherries, have to go out this morning to get some pectin as I can't find mine here.  I reckon I will make about 6 x 500ml jars.

This cherry tree I have is an ancient one and I think has not many years left in it. Over the years branches have broken off and it has never had any TLC.    It was old when we came in 1996, and  has produced heavily on a few years.  This time it is overloaded with the best tasting crop.  the trouble is that I cannot harvest much of it because it is out of reach of me even standing on a ten-foot ladder.  The problem with the ladder is that the ground underneath is not level and I dare not go up more than a rung or two,  as it wobbles.  What I need is some scaffolding.

The downside to processing cherries is the time spent pitting them when there are so many other things I want to get on with.  But rather cherries than black currants,

Checked on my tomato plants,  they finally seem to be taking off, but not the peppers. Of the four pepper plants I have, two of them are very small.