Autumn Jewels

It has become much colder the past few days. My nasturtiums that edge the vegetable bed have completely wilted, a sure sign that the growing season is behind us. I brought in the last few vegetables that were in the square-foot garden. There's something very wonderful about pulling up relatively nondescript leaves and finding jewel-coloured vegetables at their base. Above are the beautiful purple-topped turnips which have a more of a rosy hue at this point in the season. Below are carrots and beets.

We ate the beets in a lovely risotto. Usually when I have beets in the house I make the late novelist and cooking writer Laurie Colwin's Beets with Pasta (from More Home Cooking) but the past two times I've made risotto. It is so pretty how the beets tint the rice. I added the beet greens too so the contrasting colours were lovely together.

Below are some of the most beautiful leaves and stems of my vegetable garden: the rainbow swiss chard. So pretty and so delicious! We often eat them in pasta or just steamed with a little garlic and olive oil.

Harvest always seems like a celebration tinged with a sense of mourning. It's exciting to be able to see and eat the vegetables you planted in the spring but sad to think that there are months before the whole process can start again.

And finally, after days of cleaning my studio, I sat down and painted. I say it so often but I should have done that days ago! It's like a restorative tonic. I painted that sweet little pumpkin that has been waiting patiently on my studio table since before Halloween. It didn't come from our garden, but from a local farmer. Here it is 'in progress':

And here it is finished (I think). I'll know in the morning. :)

The Year of the Giant Tomatoes

Every year brings its own surprises in the garden.  The weather is always the biggest wild card. Depending on conditions, certain plants can suffer or thrive. This year has proven to be the 'year of the giant tomato plants'. All that light and heat we have received so far has provided the tallest tomato plants I have ever had in my garden. The plants are actually taller than me right now and are full of tomatoes, green for now, but promising one of the most abundant harvests ever. I can't wait!

I didn't plant that sunflower. A bird did.
I just love its position, leaning out at the corner of the veggie garden, as if to say 'Welcome'!

These are Opalka heirloom tomatoes. Isn't their pepper shape cool?

Pineapple heirloom tomato. I am very intrigued by these and can't wait for them to ripen.

Green Zebra Tomatoes

Look at how the veggie garden has changed since May!

May

June

July

Happy days!

June Blooms and Harvests

The weather has definitely turned summery.  It almost is summer so that's good! Chloé is officially finished exams and is on a 4-day end-of-year school trip to Tadoussac to see whales among other things. She's never been away for more than one night so it feels quite strange and the house is definitely quiet without her. Emma still has two exams to write.  It's only two weeks now until she graduates from high school.

This week, Chloé and I took Meeko for a walk where we knew there was a patch of wild strawberries growing.  We picked quite a few (Meeko too) and just in time.  The huge municipal lawn mowers appeared on the horizon just as we were getting up to leave.  There was talk of making custard tarts topped with the wild berries but, with exams, there wasn't really time to make elaborate recipes.  We ate them on cereal and mixed into yogurt instead. I particularly love their sweet smell.

Proof of my strawberry picking time (the hole was already there)

My square-foot vegetable garden is doing beautifully.  

The above photo was taken the day the vegetables were planted.  Here it is four weeks later:

Yesterday I picked some lovely French breakfast radishes and ate them. Delicious. The mesclun is beautiful right now and ready for a lovely salad tonight.

Yesterday afternoon, I thinned out the beets, swiss chard and turnips, planting the seedlings I removed in some squares I had left empty.  I also fed the tomatoes some organic fertilizer.

In our front yard, the 'Royal Wedding' Oriental poppies have just bloomed.  I showed them to Emma yesterday and she said 'You show them to me every year.' Imagine how boring I am to live with. :)

And finally, here's a photo I took this morning of some tangled shadows.  I love this.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend. Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!

Torn

Trowel or paintbrush...or spade?  I've definitely been torn in past days. I didn't look after my garden the way I normally do last year because I was involved in a huge volunteer project for my youngest daughter's class in May and June. So I am definitely committed to getting my garden up and running in a more respectable way this year.  The biggest task right now is cleaning up my vegetable garden, an even bigger job than normal because of it having been so horribly neglected last year. I'm taking photos as I go, so I will post a step-by-step transformation of my sweet little veggie patch in the next week or so.

Here are some violas from the veggie garden dug up and ready to be transferred to pots and other parts of the garden

So I have my vegetable garden as well as flower beds to clean up. Seeds to sow. Annuals to plant. And yet there are so many lovely things begging to be painted in the garden right now! Like lilacs. Oh, if you could smell them.  I can't walk through the backyard without stopping to bury my nose in them.

I cut some to paint a couple of days ago.  I started my painting in a very loose way with lots of water on the paper. Then I added paint and let it spread in a pretty free way.  It's not my normal approach but I felt the need to do things in a less structured way. Maybe because of all of the emotion of last week. I'm using a different paper (my experiments continue!) and I quite like this one. It's Fabriano Artistico 300 lb. hot press paper. It has a very smooth surface. It is noticeably smoother than the equivalent 300 lb. Arches paper.

This is just after the initial washes and a first few details were added

This morning I had planned to continue my work in the garden, but then I realized that if I didn't work on my lilac painting, the lilacs flowers would be gone. That's the thing with a spring garden. There is constant change and the blooms of one week are gone the next.  Even just two days later, I had to go out and cut new branches to use as my references. The first ones were already wilting. That's a flower that I wish would last a little longer in a vase.

Here's my work on it this morning.  You can see how I'm starting to add more detail. One lovely side benefit of painting lilacs is that you get to smell them as you paint!

I'm writing this while listening to birds chirp outside and sipping on green tea steeped with fresh mint leaves from the garden. How I love this time of year. Now up to the studio to continue work on my painting!

As Visions of Vegetables Danced In Her Head

This past week was an odd one.  Both Emma and Chloé had their spring school break. Chloé ended up sick for half of it. So, many plans for the week were set aside. She perked up towards the end of the week.  I was able to go downtown shopping with her for a spring coat on Thursday and with Emma for her high school graduation dress on Friday.  Both daughters present their own shopping challenges. Chloé likes shopping (a little too much) and Emma doesn't like it (at all). Both expeditions were very successful although I felt like taking a nap after each of them! On the weekend, we also managed a short trip to Trois-Rivières to visit my husband's mother.

Over the past week, I came to truly appreciate the power and immediacy of Facebook for the first time. My 16-year old niece is on a school trip in Africa and I have been able to chat with her on more than one occasion. It sounds like she is having a wonderful experience. She even said that she had taken a photo of an African village garden with me in mind. I was very touched.

On the art side, I didn't get any painting done but I added a few new prints to my Etsy shop at the beginning of last week.  I also had someone inquire if I sold my originals which has launched a huge wave of thinking. I have sold many original paintings in the past but haven't for the last while and never before online. My paintings tend to be small but I can spend days on them. Sometimes making the decision to sell them can be difficult as I become very attached to them. I've talked to a number of people in the past few days--fellow artists, friends and family members--trying to figure out which ones I would be willing to sell and the best way to go about it. Chloé, who is 12, has offered wise words on more than one occasion. It's interesting and quite wonderful when you start to receive sage counsel from young family members. I'll keep you up to date here and on my Facebook page.

This past weekend has brought warm weather that is melting the snow.  Hurray!  Some of my flower beds are still covered but they won't be for long.

There are warm temperatures predicted throughout this week. I took a photo of my raised vegetable bed yesterday (the photo at the very top).  It doesn't look like much at the moment, but I look forward to showing you its progress and evolving prettiness throughout the growing season. I'm very fond of it. It's a 'square-foot garden', a lovely idea for gardens with limited space. So along with dreams of flowers, I have dreams of vegetables these days.

A little watercolour sketch I did of a cherry tomato and pea pod from a past harvest.

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I am counting down the days until the first day of Spring! In the meantime, I am offering a 20% discount in my Etsy shop. Use the SPRING2012 coupon when you check out. (From now up to and including March 20, 2012)