You have to see these to believe it...

Hi everyone!
It looks like Calgary is going to get hit with more snow again tomorrow and the cold weather is going to return.  Too bad!  Today we hit a high of 13C and broke a record high from 1934.  It has been so beautiful with the snow melting everywhere, driving through the big puddles and forgetting that it is only January and Winter is not over yet.

So today I took some outdoor Christmas decorations to my shed that is on the East/SouthEast side of our house and I could not believe it...look at this...

My first flowers of 2011 - taken on Jan 27, 2011!



I have Sweet peas starting to sprout

 I couldn't believe it, I have Violas blooming in the hot little corner of my yard...in January...In Calgary!!  And my sweetpeas have started to sprout.  So of course I had to run inside and grab my camera and take a little tour around the yard. Some of my perennials look great and ready to continue growing just like winter has never been here.  But I know better, I just got my utilitiy bill yesterday and I almost chocked!  Natural gas was almost $200!!!  The total bill was $405!  Egads!

So I found a few little jewels in my yard,



I can never remember if this is Oregano or Majoram



Lemon Thyme growing in my barrel, it almost looks alive.

I have Dianthus growing like springtime

I love Polyanthus...one of my favourite springtime flowers.  I think I originally bought my polyantus at Safeway for $1 each...4 years ago.

I love the colour of this Sweet Woodruff

More Dianthus growing on the West side of my house.



This is a pretty little sedum, I should label all my plants next season because I can't remember what colour its flowers are.



Campanula and a mystery creeper

Creeping Phlox

My Vinca collection in my shade garden, I love the beautiful Perriwinkle beautiful flowers and my little Bergenia.

Ajuga or carpet bugle or Bugleweed, great ground cover  for the open shade

Lamium, speads well with lovely varigated leaves.

I can't remember this plant right now but I love my Dragon and he guards my gate to the back yard. 

Shasta Daisy I think... and one of my sedum collection.  Can a garden really have too much sedum?

This bed gets the most sun, but I have had the Dusty Millar come back...sometimes. This Creeping Phlox has white flowers.

So this weekend, the weather forecast is for snow and cold weather.  I am so glad that I went out in the sun today and got these pictures.  By Sunday they will be buried in the snow again.  I just hope that they survive the thaw and freezing this winter.

Oh, and by the way, I sent in my seed order to Richters!  I will have to wait until another payday to order my plants from them.  On my order, I also ordered some dried Peppermint, Lemon Balm, Spearmint, Stevia and a few other herbs for tea.  I have had some interest in my Mint Tea, but I have run out of the herbs from my garden, so I will have to use another source until my crop starts to grow in the spring.  
Ellen's Fragrant Garden LIVES!!

I know that it is warm...somewhere else.

Another day of cold, winter weather.  As an Albertan, I really should be used to this, Winter happens every year, that is a given fact.  So why am I amazed everytime I hear the weather forecast of a HIGH of -21C.  That isn't a high, that is just a joke!  Whine, whine, whine!

Last night I started my spring planning.  I took pen in hand and went through my Richters and T & T Seeds cataloques.  The dreaming stage has begun.  Some of the goodies that I circled were :


Lemon Balm  Melissa officinalis (Ordered Dry Leaves on Jan.27, 2011)

Lime Balm


Dolly Basil Ocimum basilicum 'Dolly'  (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Bay Laurel

Rose Scented Bergamont


Betony Stachys officinalis  (Dried leaves ordered 27/01/11)

Double Chamomile

Sweet Cicely

Dukat Dill ( seeds ordered 27/01/11)

American Ephedra


Chameleon Fish Mint  Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon'

Lemon Sculture Pelargonium

Herb Robert (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Lion's Tail (also known as Wild Dagga...WooHoo!!)

Red Gem Marigolds (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Mignonette (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Welsh Onion (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Pennyroyal Purple Snowcones

Rampion (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

STEVIA ( dried leaves ordered 27/01/11)

Valerian (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Lemon Verbena (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Vervain (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Verba Buena

Mammoth Melting Peas (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Crookneck Squash (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

Black Beauty Squash (seeds ordered 27/01/11)

...and that is just from Richters Herbs in Ontario, Can.
(to be continued)

Now, if I order from T&T Seeds in Manitoba before Feb. 15, 2011,  I get 10% of my total price.  My next paycheque will come just before the deadline.  And the pay after that will be plants from Richters.  Wow...am I organized or what??

Cobblestone Year End Party

On Friday night I travelled with my two daughters and our dog, Maggie to the home of Trish and John Ingram, the owners of Cobblestone Gardens.  Everyone was there except for a couple of folks - Lori , Zack and Lloyd.  The food was great, love your ribs, Trish!!  The adult conversation-excellent!!  I really enjoyed catching up with some of the folks that I had spend the spring in the greenhouses.  Like Carrie said...moving the soil from one place to another and then doing it over again, but I think she called it shit...LOL  We all called it shit after awhile and our lungs were full of it especially when we were filling up those thousands of pots.  I really enjoyed working with the Cobblestone crew, they are an amazing group of people.

Going home...
I knew that I had a long drive home so I only had half a glass of wine with supper, but I was not prepared for our drive home.  The first sign was that I had gotten stuck backing up in their driveway.  But I really do like my Hyundai LOL!  I could not believe how thick the fog was that night.  I could not go any faster than 40-50 kph and that was fast enough.  It was impossible to see any farther than10-15 metres in front of my car.  I am very glad that I had taken Carrie and Cam's advive about taking the Langdon road, because the less time on a major highway the better!!!  It is not very often that I will pray while driving, but I even had the girls pray with me.  I was thankful that animals chose not to jump out on the road in front of me.  So all the way home with my highbeams on, driving slowly, and just following the lines on the roads that I could see in front of me.  White knucle driving!!  I was so thankful to see the traffic lights entering Calgary, they were so beautiful!! 

This is Winter in Alberta!

Snowed in!

Happy New Year everyone!

My family is snowed in and I had to phone Aspen Lodge to tell them that I can't get out.  Well, I could have pushed the door open, marched my body through the snow drifts to the bus stop and taken public transit, but I didn't.  At 8 AM, there were snow drifts across the road in front of our house and NOBODY was able to move their vehicle.  There are times when I love where our house is located.  We live across from a green belt, on the other side of the greenbelt is a major road, and across from that road is the dog park. On really nice days I can sit on my lovely wooden swing in my north facing front yard and enjoy the peacefulness and privacy with no houses blocking my view.  Not bad for living in a city with over a million residents.

Today I don't feel that lucky.  I recently got a Hyundai to save on fuel costs.  Well my little car is buried in a snowdrift and there are snowdrifts blocking the entrance and exit to our road.  The wind has been howling all night and the temperature is a balmy -15C (is that all??) and the wind is 37 kph from the NNW, which means that it is going to blow more snow directly across the road.  I wonder if I will be able to get out and get the girls to school in the morning???  (One of my neighbours is trying to maneuver on our road and not getting very far...think they will be stuck in the next 50 metres.  Now they have managed to turn around and try the opposite direction.)

I really shouldn't complain...during the past month or so, the heavy snowfall has really made the folks out east suffer.  So I will stop whining.

It was wonderful to get up this morning, finish reading a wonderful book, "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd, (I highly recommend it!!) and climb back into the warm bed with my hubby.  My gosh!!!  I woke up again at noon!!!   Guess I was tired.   After another coffee, I cooked up some bacon and scrambled eggs, toast, sliced oranges and we had a very RARE Sunday Brunch!  So this is what a Sunday is like with my family.  The sun is setting right now so it will start to get dark soon.  (4:51 PM)  Another day over.

Eight more sleeps?

Big Sigh!
...and so this is Christmas, and what have you done?
Another year older, and a new one's just begun..

A couple years ago I was introduced to Flylady.com.  Basically Flylady teaches you how to get organized and get your home clean in 15 minute spurts.  It is an amazing thing!  It has been awhile since I have been back to Flylady, but some of her ideas have stuck. 

• Just get in there and start, jump in anytime.
• You can do anything for 15 minutes
• F.L.Y. (Finally Love Yourself)

One of the most important things was not to stress yourself out about all the things going on in your home, workplace and family.  Of course there are so many things to do before the BIG Day but I will not get crazy about it.  I could make a list and continuously add more and more things until I am overwhelmed, but I ain't gonna do that. 

Today I did alot of running around, but it was ok.  I feel close to being finished my shopping and I haven't even been to the malls yet.  WOW does that feel good as I pat myself on the back.  I do not have money to spend and why should I?  I have talents that I am taking advantage of...I love to bake so I am making a pile of cookies.  So far my freezer has Pinwheels, Checkerboards, and Cherry Pecan Icebox cookies.  Today I made three batches of dough; Gingersnaps/Gingerbread men, Shortbread, and Sugar cookies for my Lactose Intolerant best friend.  On Monday after my stove is fixed...
Dang!  Did I tell you that the bottom element of my oven blew while my first pans of Shortbread were baking????  LOL
So, while I'm at work tomorrow, my dear hubby is going to replace the element in the oven, and the dough is in the fridge, then we will do a mass baking session and get it done.  Then cookies will be packaged up, mailed delivered or stashed in the freezer for Christmas eve deliveries to our neighbours.

I also bought some beautiful Salmon bellies from work and made some Salmon Jerky.  Very easy, really tasty but I do need to spray the dehydrator trays with Pam and slice the salmon thicker.  If I have anything left, I will be sending some of the bigger chunks to my parents with some cookies.

Last minute but it will be done!

Don't get me wrong...I'm NO Martha Stewart, but I like being creative without having to spend alot of money that I just don't have right now.  I also have Blueberries, Blackberries and Saskatoon berries in my freezer to make jam with.  My kids and my nieces love jam so that is another present, AND my family loves jam all year round. 

Other than that, I will get what I can get done, decide what is important and let the rest go.  I DID clean the bathrooms yesterday...THAT was a priority!! 

SO...Merry Christmas to you all and all the best in the New Year!!  May you always have a great book to read, a hot cuppa tea and the time to enjoy them both!  Salut!

I am so glad that the weekend is over! (or how I got my OWIE)

This is for my son Terry, the apprentice Chef.  Sorry for the graphic details.

It was so hard to get up this weekend at 4:30 to be at work for 6, but it was fun, and I was very productive.  I made 26 Blueberry pies (I added some frozen blueberries to the pie filling to make it less sweet for the diabetics and everyone who didn't need the extra sugar) , 2 1/2 sheets of Cherry Squares, 22 Dozen Yorkshire Puddings, 6 dozen muffins, 4 pans of Coffe Fromage that I changed into something even better (Coffee Fromage is a dessert made with whipped topping, gelatin, milk, sugar and coffee.  I changed it to Mocha Fromage by adding Cocoa, Ginger, and Cinnamon to the mix.  If I say so myself...it is going to be awesome tomorrow for lunch!!)  I even changed an old sheet cake that I found in the freezer into a lovely Raspberry Sqare.

But sometimes I just get too over confident using a knife and the knife has to teach me a lesson!  I accidentally sliced off a piece of my left hand index fingernail. BUMMER!!  I was chopping some fruit for my muffins when the knife told me to pay attention to what I was doing.  Yes...I did recover the chunk of meat before it went into the baked goods.  Sorry for the graphic details.  LOL

The BIG SALE

On Dec 3, 2010 I packed up all my wares into my Blazer and headed to the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community centre for the Holiday Craft Sale.  I had made a little inventory of everything I could possibly sell that evening and I had over $500 worth of items.  I had lots of my Mint tea from my garden, and the "store bought" blend that was still really good but not as great as my own mint.  I had framed all my "Forever Flowers" and I had sprayed each picture with Sealer, finished the back of the framed picture, and made sure that each picture was ready to be hung.  My catnip and herb bundles were ready from the last sale.  My daughters and I had decoupaged some old black photo album pages, cut them into Bookmark size and "laminated" them with packing tape. I had even printed out my price list to put on my big chalkboard sign, and IRONED my tablecloths.  (I NEVER iron!)


So I had high energy and high expectations from this sale.  I wanted to sell enough to buy my business license and give my husband back his $80 just to say that this could work.  When I got there, I had a great table facing the doors. The girls helped set up my table and it looked good, better than the first sale.  I was ready!  Bring me your money and tell me how much you love what I do.  LOL

Here I am, ready to go!

I didn't sell as much as I expected. 


I don't know why.   There were lots of people who looked at my stuff, but I didn't sell a whole lot.  It was disappointing, but the lady beside me was very interesting.  She will be a really great contact because she teaches small business courses and we are going to meet for coffee one day soon.


Of couse my Mint Tea sold, but only a couple of packages, and that is okay because I can still give them as presents.  I like to do that and I know that the ones who will be getting it at Christmas will enjoy it.

I had open containers of my teas so that my customers could smell my product.

Nobody was interested in my catnip and herbs, so I will be making a blend of the herbs for my own use.  Perhaps that is what I should have done in the first place?  Perhaps I didn't have them packaged the right way?  I will use them, one way or another.  I know some folks with cats who would like some catnip for Christmas.


I sold a few "Forever Flowers" but only the 5x7's.  The people who bought them really liked them and seemed pleased to be giving them as Christmas presents.  I even traded two little ones for a really cool knitted hat that I liked.  It is fern green, thick soft wool and looks like an elves hat with the point.  I think I made a good trade!


The girls had a great time there.  I gave them each $20 to spend with the instructions to buy some Christmas presents.  They came back with all kinds of stuff, beaded ornaments, jars of Jelly Beans, a little basket of hand cream (I think it is for me) and really unique necklaces, you know what I mean??


It was a good experience, gave me lots to think about.  I am not discouraged and I know what I want to do. The next time I do a sale like that, I will set up my table with layers so that I can put more of my product out and arrange it into sections so the small area isn't looking cluttered.


I have been looking at the T&T Seed Catalogue with a different mind. My sweet peas were pretty, but I want darker, brighter colours, and different sizes like Asters and maybe some tiny Marigolds.  LOL...maybe I could ADD some of the brighter coloured flowers to the exhisting pictures to brighten them up and enhance them?.

So there are still possibilities!  I still want to do some landscaping, and I am not going to quit!

                                                                    Wait until next year!!