Some itty bitty little ladies

The biggest excitement this week for me think was the arrival of 35000 ladybugs at our local greenhouse, where I go almost everyday (sometimes 3 times a day) to get my green fix. They came all the way from California by plane and then by bus from Edmonton and then by DHL to the greenhouse, quiet a journey for itty bitty little lady bugs. The little ladies were brought in to keep the aphids under control, our greenhouse does not use pesticides of any kind, they bring in different types of bugs to kill other bugs. I did manage to get some shots, not very nice ones, for some reason the last few days I haven't gotten very nice close up shots, not sure what is going on.

All that black stuff is poop, they pooped a lot.....it was a long journey

Aww, here is Grace, the greenhouse rabbits who eats the weeds. There should be baby rabbits for sale here by Easter......Lord help me not to buy a rabbit, I have fantasies of rabbits and chickens in my backyard....and a goat, maybe a sheep..anyway

Then I just meandered a bit with my camera

Sp pretty and green

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The last of the ladies

What else happened this week?

I've been spinning some pretty funny blurry lookin yarn......I know now why they call spinning art but haven't discovered why it is referred to as therapeutic and peaceful.....oh what a tangled mess we spin we at first we set out to...

What the heck is this you ask......why it's art

The pea fence got hung up.....ok so it's just a funny lookin net but you wait until the peas are climbing it. If it looks half as good as it does in my pea fantasy I'll be happy. 

Some leaves got raked and some snow melted

The greenhouse got heat and water today, a trial run tonight and then tomorrow the plants move in

The bird feeder got some action finally

The cucumber are stretching their necks for sun.....and getting a little leggy

My second batch of sprouts got started......I am loving sprouts in my salad. My the way, don't sprout pinto beans......taste terrible

My vegetable bowl art is back to being invaded by fruit......I'm trying to make it look better and maybe it will taste better, which I think is working, I had a great fruit salad for breakfast today

My down time projects, a knitted head band to keep my ears warm and the very lovely Jane Eyre

A batch of fresh home made yogurt....weird picture again. 

So aside from the tax prep (which is running around the house scratching my head saying "I know I saved that somewhere", and "now, where did I put that" ), running back and forth from the golf course, still having internet problems and no phone yet..grrr.......that was my week. I've blown a week away again it seems. Oh....and I made delicious fruit ice creamy/sherbety/creamy dessert which I will share another time, my picture were not nice at all.

A cheesy fire

Two days ago it was windy, cold and even snowing a bit outside so I decided I might as well have a cozy evening beside the fire. Even though I do not like winter, which is why I winter in Mexico, I can appreciate a cozy evening by the fire. So I lit the fire, which is done by flicking a switch.....I know, so cheesy. I have fantasies of one day having a wood burning stove in my home, just like I fantasize of one day of having two chicken in my backyard....these are my dreams people, seriously. Anyway, I flicked on the cheesy fire and made myself a pot of tea and gathered my bags of wool and sat down and drafted the wool into long thin strips as I listened to wind howling outside.....it really was howling I am not making that up. It was nice.

Yup, I still have 2 squash under my chair that survived the winter....right there under my chair, I am saving them for a special dinner. 

The end result was 4 balls of light, fluffy and creamy colored wool, I am still thinking I am not going to dye this batch. 

Yes SIr, Yes Sir two bags full......

It's official, I am an old spinster now, GUESS WHAT I HAVE?

A friend of mine's brother called a few days ago from Value Village in Edmonton and said there was a handmade spinning wheel and would I want it for $89....yes please, yes please yes please. Two days later I became a spinster....well not really, I haven't actually spun anything yet. I have no idea how to use this but I am so willing to learn....because, I've had 2 bags of wool stashed away since last fall. I got 2 bags of wool given to me from a farmer that didn't know what to do with it and just gave it away. I have always wanted to go through the whole process of getting wool right from the sheep to a wearable garment but when I got the bags of dirty, poopy, and oh so smelly wool I was a bit stumped at what to do next, it didn't look at all like the how to videos said it would look so I sent it to a place down south and they washed and carded it and sent it back to me all soft and fluffy and ready to spin. (16 lbs of it) It is so beautiful, so pure wool and so real. The funnest part I always thought would be the dying (I wrote about my dying daydreams last year here) but now when I saw the beautiful pure natural wool I have lost the interest in dying it.... for now. I can see a beautiful oatmeal colored chunky sweater...natural and real. Who knows, the dying bug might come back.....first, I need to learn to spin with this baby. I have found many videos, just need to get started.....but, it''t tax time, yup, I always come back just  in time for tax time, so that must happen first before I can sit down and spin.
No end to the excitement around here...oh and it's snowing.

Back in the Great White North

I arrived back in Canada without incident, landed in Edmonton Alberta and then made my way another 8 hours north to High Level Alberta......my other Home Sweet Home. There are always a few adjustments to coming home, the first one I always notice right at the airport when I flush the toilet....wow! the pressure and the sound it makes when it flushes can be a bit startling the first time and then I always burn my fingers when I wash my hands at the sink the first few times. We do not have hot water like that in Mexico and gravity flushes our toilets or a bucket of water in my case.

Almost immediately after getting home my fingernails all break off one by one, the dry air makes them hard and they just snap off....oh well, not a big deal. Sometimes if I arrive when it is really cold my nose bleeds too but that didn't happen this year.
The crazy price of things is a bit shocking for about a week or two, especially the price of food, and we won't even talk about the quality of the food, it's just something I have to suck up and deal with.....plus people get tired of hearing me whining about it, I'll just close my eyes as I walk past the meat section in the store. But I will say my first bowl of fruit tasted like dishwater but that too will start tasting better in a few weeks, soon I won't notice.

I don't miss baking bread when I am in Mexico because the tortilla is a so good and replaces bread but as soon as I get home I like baking bread first thing. It gets my house smelling like home again and gets me started on a regular routine.....love that regular routine. Gotta  have a routine here or else we get nothing done..right? If you get nothing done in Mexico it just doesn't matter, but it's different here, we need to get things done, and fast. Why? I have no idea, it's just how it is....busy busy busy.

Other very exciting thing for me when I get back is having a bath instead of a shower. After only showering for a few months you start feeling like you can't get completely clean, it's difficult to scrub your feet when you are standing in a shower, and I tend to be in and out of the shower quicker than in a bath....hence, not so clean.  My first bath here is always such a treat. Thats all I'll say about that.

One of the first places I go when I get home is the golf course and I find this;

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So I figure I can at least get a quick round done in my snowshoes, and since they are always in my trunk I put them on and head out, but soon realize I am too late. The snow is too soft and slushy underneath and I just keep sinking, oh well, thats what I get for laying on the beach during show shoeing season. So I went inside and putted two buckets of balls in the lounge, I figured it was safe since the windows are all still all covered in  Styrofoam. Thats how we keep heat in up here in the north, we cover the windows with Styrofoam and/or plastic. My windows are still covered in plastic, I think I'll wait one more week, it could still get very cold. Not my first day here. I won't be fooled.

The next thing on the agenda is getting some garden seeds planted, I need to have some windows installed in my greenhouse so while I am waiting for the guy to show up I planted some seeds in trays in my house. This is a very exciting time for me and I like to get at it as soon as I can. I even took a chance and planted some spinach, arugula, radishes and mustard greens in a bed outside.....I know you are thinking it;s way too early and you are probably right, but I couldn't resist. I covered the seeds with a thin layer of vermiculite and then covered the raised box with plastic, this is why I love raised beds, so easy to work with. I know most of my family members are tired of hearing me talk about my raised beds but wow...I love raised beds.

7 trays with tomatoes, cucumbers, all kinds of herbs, eggplant, some flowers, broccoli and peppers

I need an early salad to go with my sprouts I've started in my kitchen. I've never done sprouts before and am quite excited about them and love checking them everyday for growth...ok ok, every half hour.

The two jars on the left were started 3 days behind the others, this is very exciting for me.

Then I also find out that Telus has been having problems with their wireless modems, most annoying. So I borrowed a phone because I have no phone yet because Telus annoyed me muchly last year when I tried to get a phone so this year I opted for a Magic Jack which hasn't arrived yet. They finally get it all working and it works for 2 days and then not so much anymore, so here I am paying for wireless internet and my living room looks like this.

Wireless looks a little different in Canada than in Mexico..... seriously, 3rd world countries have even got this stuff figured out already.  

I wanted to post some more pictures of my yard and the snow but for some reason when I plug my camera into my laptop nothing happens, I think it't confused about all the things that are plugged into it now, every plug in hole is filled, it might be maxed out, I'll try again tomorrow.
By the way, in case you're interested I had a high of 27C and a low of -6C in my greenhouse yesterday, quite the range.

And I know the picture on the top header is all out of whack but I have noticed that if I leave it alone sometimes it fixes it's self.

My little early salad garden

I talked to the lady that runs our local greenhouse yesterday and she covers her whole garden space with black plastic and she just pokes holes in it to plant her seeds, I 'm debating whether I want to try that.....no weeds ever, not that I had a big problem with weeds but it also heats the ground up for earlier planting.

This was a new addition last fall, I think it's a great place for pea, I have netting that will hang on the fence for them to climb up

The Last day

My time here is over, today is my last day here. I was going to write a story about the things I will miss while in Canada and the things I won't miss but for days I couldn't figure out what I wouldn't miss and I didn't want to write such a one sided story....because there is always supposed to be two sides to a story , right? Then a few days ago I came across something I won't miss. I won't miss having to continually defend my garden from the Iguanas. The last 2 weeks it has finally really warmed up and then out came the Iguanas and ate the blooms off of my Geraniums and ate some of my watermelon plants...grrr! They annoy me so much. I won't miss them.

Nasty bugger

The other thing I won't miss is always having dirty fingernails, because of the sand my fingernails are always dirty, partly because I have a bad habit of always running my hands through my hair or scratching my head, I feel it gives me a more intellectual look, like I am always deep in thought...actually no, it's just a bad habit and there is always sand embedded into my head and so my fingernails are always dirty, plus everything you touch is sandy, you can't get away from it. So, those are the things I will not miss.
At the top of the list of things I will miss are the people here. I have made so many new friends yet again and they will all be missed. A few of them are contactable by the Internet but most are not.

This is Augusta, she comes all the way from Mazatlan everyday and walks the beach all day selling her beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings. It is not easy to walk up and down the beach all day long. Her husband is a painter and is in Los Cabos right now trying to sell his art as the tourism in Mazatlan is the pits right now. So until he comes homes she is left to feed and mother 5 children. One little guy came to work with her today (this was taken on Saturday) 

Augusta's jewelry 

I bought the green one on the left

Next is the ocean, I does one ever get tired of gazing at the ocean, whether it's at sunset or sunrise or the bright sparkley afternoon, it;s never the same, always new and fresh.

Another thing I will miss is how the groceries come to my door everyday and I can buy just enough fruit and vegetables for the day.

This is Israel, he is one of the produce guys, we have 2 on the Island, which is great because sometimes you miss one. They have a regular morning route and will come by your house at the same time everyday. Once they have done their route they just randomly cruiser around all day, so even if you weren't home in the morning you can still catch him somewhere. 

I will miss my quirky house, all my quirky things and my quirky neighborhood and all the quirky noises that I have come to know what they are. From a certain honk to a certain stereo playing I can tell who is coming up the road.

 I feel in love with this red/blue table when I first saw it last year, it's been the backdrop for many of my photos

Wish I had a counter like this at home, it is rock solid and does not move regardless of what you are doing on it and it is just the right height for once. 

I will miss hand scrubbing my laundry

and I wish I had a BBQ like this at home

I will miss laying in my hammock watching my laundry dry

And of course I will miss the view from my hammock, I have a hammock at home but the view isn't the same

I am going to miss my Hibiscus blooming, it is so close

The sunsets over the ocean

Not only will I miss sunsets over the ocean I will miss sunsets all together, I rarely see a sunset at home because the sun sets so late and I am usually in bed by then, however I rarely miss a sunrise as I am up at 4:30 am almost everyday. I like how here sunset is a time of day, most of us refer to the sunset as a time. We'll say " oh, it was just after sunset" or " about 1 hour after sunset". We (the snowbird community) will usually take the time to sit and watch the sunset, it's a time of day most of us look forward to. Well....I do anyway, I make a point of having tea at that time.
So, how did I spend my last day here, worked all day long packing and cleaning up my house. Of course I left laundry to the last day....again, which is so risky, if you have an overcast day laundry doesn't always dry in one day and if you pack anything that is even remotely damp it will be stinky and moldy when you come back. I was lucky the morning was hot and windy, it was a bit overcast in the afternoon but I got everything dry. I pack every single thing in plastic to keep the sand and humidity out. Of course every year I have a little bit more stuff and this year the big item is a futon, which I will be sleeping on tonight so first thing in the morning I have to wrap it up in plastic too and tuck tape it up. Tuck tape is the Mexican version of duct tape....it is not the same but it is tape. When I went to buy it a few days ago the guy at the store said he has been selling tuck tape like crazy the last few weeks, it;s a sign that the snowbirds are packing up. Just in case he clues in to a good opportunity and raises the price of tuck tape next March I will make note to buy mine in February next year.
Anyway thats it, the next posting will be from the cold white north, High Level, Alberta. I know I still owe you a story about my trip to Lake Chapala, I'll post it yet, I promise.