Time flies

Wow, it's been such a long time since I posted an update! So much has happened since the end of Avalon Gathering. Let me bring you up to speed.

We had house guests until the end of August (Hannah and Jacob, our volunteers from Utah) and they were a big help. They also gave us an excuse to be tourists for a couple of days! We visited the Gaelic College, where we browsed tartans and toured the weaving room.  Then we took them to the Lobster Galley in St. Ann's for dinner, where Hannah sampled her first lobster: she loved it. Here is a picture of the newlyweds on the beach at Margaree Harbour:



As well, we drove up the coast to Gampo Abbey, which is a working Tibetan Buddhist Monastery just north of the National Park.  It was really interesting, and we were lucky enough to be able to take meditation instruction with one of the monks.  As Hannah and Jacob are Mormons, I wondered how they would react, but they were very open-minded and joined in the meditation session with everyone else.

Of course, eventually we had to get some work done!  So Jacob went with Paul to learn how to use a chainsaw, and how to split firewood (important skills for a young husband), and Hannah went with me to do some long-overdue weeding of the vegetable garden, to pick raspberries and blackcurrants, pick herbs for drying, and to learn how to plant out tomato seedlings.  She also helped me split and transplant a couple of old, under-achieving rhubarb plants.  Here is Hannah with the baby tomatoes:



I'm pleased to report that they are now two feet tall and giving us baskets full of lovely big tomatoes! 



Hannah after a long, exhausting day.  Never let it be said that we don't work our volunteers hard here at Willow Retreat!

The guys also got along really well with Molly, who was pleased as punch to make two new friends.  Who wouldn't love this kind of attention?



It was great to have some help around the place, and especially from two young people who were so willing and cheerful.  We even broke open the marshmallows around the evening fire! 



After Hannah and Jacob left for home, it was time for me to get busy preserving all the lovely ripe fruit that Hannah had helped me pick.  I made raspberry jam, blackcurrant jam, blackberry jam, oregano jelly and lemon balm jelly.  Later, I tried my hand at making marmalade, but it turned out runny, so I have to re-make it.  The herb jellies came out well though.  Next year I'll have to beg, borrow or otherwise acquire some mint, as it's one thing I'm missing in the herb garden. 



Herbs hanging to dry.  From left to right, basil, two bunches of winter savory, St. John's Wort, and oregano.



A mystery herb, which I still haven't been able to identify. It has oval-shaped, wavy-edged leaves, purple flowers, and smells like apples.  It is not apple mint though.  Anyone?



Here is some oregano after being dried.  Just crumble the leaves from the plant and discard any flowers and stems.  It's now ready to go into an air-tight jar for storage.

Speaking of which, I repurposed an empty cable spool to make a herbs & spices carousel.  Here is what I started with:



I then painted it with white primer:



When that was dry, I used green paint from a spray-can (it gives a much better finish on cardboard than a brush could) and left it overnight to dry, then painted the lettering using acrylic paint and a small brush:



Et voila!  :)



Of course, Molly supervised the entire proceedings:



Okay, I think that's it for now.  More to come!  

Crop Report

So I was out in the garden, turning the compost (don't ask) and gathering the last of the raspberries (raspberries give a "second sitting" of crop ... so now these fresh ones will be added to the earlier batch that are sitting in the freezer, and I can get going on the jam!) anyway I turned my attention to the potatoes, some of which needed hilling up ... and then, I spotted this:



Note: this is not a tomato.  This bunch of fruit is actually growing from a potato plant.  For comparison purposes, here is a tomato plant:



See the completely different leaf shape?  

So the question remains ... what exactly is growing in the potato patch?  There were no tomatoes planted there.  The soil was thoroughly tilled before the potatoes were planted.  The plant this fruit is growing from has potato leaves, not tomato leaves.  So what is it?  A pomato?  Watch this space.

Anyway, the garden is coming up like crazy, despite the extremely hot and dry summer.  We've got pole beans:



We've got peas and carrots:



And as you've no doubt gathered, we've got tomatoes:



And the corn is as high as ... well, maybe not an elephant's eye, but it's as high as my eye, and that's good enough for me:



Oh, and finally, anyone for squash? 



No, seriously ... someone come and take this squash away.  Please!

This week we're finally getting some rain.  It's sorely needed for the creeks are bone dry.  The apples and grapes seem to be growing regardless, but I'm sure they could do with a drink.  Speaking of fruit: I was walking past the old pear tree this afternoon and it's actually put out a few pears!  Just four ... so I picked them all.  Here's the evidence:



Not in the greatest of shape, but I'm sure I can make something out of them.  Hmmm ... pear and raspberry jam ... ?

In the meantime, if anyone has any clues about that mutant potato/tomato plant ... let me know!  

EDIT: The mystery fruit turns out to be the fruit of the potato plant ... yes, it actually bears fruit from time to time ... you can save the seeds and propagate your own potato variety!  Who knew!  :)

Here there be dragons

Hi everyone, wow, what a month!  It's nothing short of amazing that we've come out the other end still standing and (relatively) sane!

It all started when our two kids and five of their friends, plus our daughter's dog, descended on us.  They had decided to make it a road trip, and drove all the way from southern Ontario to Cape Breton in two days!  I had been by myself for the previous three weeks (with Molly of course) and it was a bit of an adjustment to suddenly have the house full of excited, energetic twentysomethings, not to mention the extra dog.  By the time I met Paul at the airport I think I had a few more grey hairs.

And of course poor Paul, coming off a 3 week tour of work, the first thing he had to do when he got back was fix the well pump, and relocate the gravity feed line as the creek had gone dry!  Then, it was full speed ahead to get the wash cabin finished and operational in time for Avalon Gathering!  Oh, and did I mention we also had our volunteers arriving on the Friday from Utah!

So I went and picked up Hannah and Jacob from Baddeck on Friday morning.  They were a very sweet pair of newlyweds, and I warned them that they would be thrown in at the deep end.  Work continued on the wash cabin, parking signs, gravel walkways and a million other things pretty much until 9 am Saturday, when people started to arrive.

I don't think I've ever been as hot as I was on that Saturday.  I very rarely wear skirts or dresses, let alone a long skirt with a bustier!  I can't imagine how women in the medieval era got anything done, having to hike all that fabric around all the time!  Anyway somehow, everything got done, the vendors got set up, and people started to arrive.  As seems to be normal for Cape Breton, people arrived on their own schedule, and everything got started late, but the weather was glorious and everyone seemed to have a great time.  There were some wonderful costumes, too.  All the photos I took can be seen here:  http://www.facebook.com/avalongathering  but here are a few selected pics:



The archery was very popular.  This young lady certainly looks the part!



A display of medieval helmets, swords and a rather nice looking drinking horn!



It's always fun to play with swords ... even when they're made of wood!





A work of art by one of our vendors, Liam Tromans of Woodswork Art.  All done with a chainsaw!





A gypsy with a painted tummy.



Reinhard and Cathy, who ran the archery range.  It was great to see so many wonderful costumes.




Of course, Molly has to get in the picture!  Here she is with Paul.



Another beautifully costumed lady.




The dragon that Liam carved for us.




It was great fun making banners for the Gathering.  This one represents Glastonbury Tor.



Another banner, this time representing Stonehenge.




A lovely young lady in a costume she made herself.



Liam Tromans carving our dragon.




Fin MacDonald, blacksmith, brought his portable forge and gave a demonstration of his trade. Here he is showing a guest (Brian Dean) how to work the iron.



It was not only the ladies who had great costumes!



If you get put in the stocks, you just have to man up and take the punishment - in water balloons.



A very pretty fairy by the name of Morgaine.

As you can see, a good time was had by all.  We'll be doing it again next year, and this time it will be bigger and better!  We learned a lot, and of course there are a number of things we'll do differently, but in general I think it was a great success.  A very big Thank You to everyone who attended, and we look forward to making Avalon Gathering a regular annual event here in the Cape Breton Highlands.

I'll update again soon!

Hot Hot Heat

Hi everyone!  Wow, it's hot!  34 degrees C on the deck today at 7 pm!  As we're off-grid, water is one of the basic needs for which we had to implement a backup plan last year.  Remember the well we had drilled?  We might need it soon!  I took Molly up the hill the other day to check out the creek that supplies our water, and this is what we found:



As you can see, the creek bed is bone dry.  We walked further up to the source of our household water, and luckily the pool that Paul moved it to last year is quite deep, but still, the intake is only just covered.  The forecast says 10-15 mms of rain tomorrow, so here's hoping they're right.

The garden seems to be surviving, despite the lack of rainfall.  I've had the sprinkler on sporadically, but as our own water supply is dwindling, I don't want to lavish too much on the veggie patch!  Here's an interim crop report, in pictures of course!



Pole beans, with zucchini in the background.



Proof that we can grow our own food!  A baby zucchini making an appearance. :)



My little field of corn, basking in the sun.



I planted 3 different kinds of onions: white, yellow and red ... I know I have some white and red coming up, but what happened to the yellow?!



Tomatoes, and in the back, carrots and peas.  You can see how dry the soil is in this picture ... and this was after a watering!



Of course, we have potatoes.  These are Chieftains, and we have Russetts in the other bed.



This is a spinach plant that has been allowed to go to seed.  Cut down the whole plant, dry it, then store the dry seeds in a cool, dry place.  Because this plant was grown from non-GMO seed, it produces viable seeds that can be planted next year.  We got these seeds from Mountain Valley Seeds in Utah, but Halifax Seed sells non-GMO and organic seeds, right here in Nova Scotia!

I bet you're bored with all these vegetable pics!  How about some flowers?



Roses are doing very well this year.



As usual, we have thousands of bees!  This one is having a good time on the borage flower.



And this guy is loving the mallow flower.

I'm glad to see, even in this crazy heat, there is no shortage of bees, birds and butterflies.

We're ridiculously busy here at Willow Retreat, preparing for our upcoming medieval faire, Avalon Gathering.  Signs are being painted, campsites are being cleared and costumes are being made.  I'm pretty sure I won't have time to blog until after it's done, but I'll be sure to take lots of pictures for a later post!

Until then, here's another pic of Molly (which I know is what most of you tune in for) enjoying the summer!