A face in the park

 Many, many peeing dogs over the years on an old tree bark has produced this artwork of a very creepy face. And no I don't think looks like Jesus. After all this face is bald on top.  A friend seems to think it looks a lot like Shakespeare. I wonder if nature is making a poetic statement that life just gets more and more scarier every day ? Or is it really a ghost of the Victorian times past, crying out for some reason? Who knows? Maybe its just a face? Or maybe not? None the less, what a cool find. 

 

Random Pics

 This time from my pics collections we have some random pics I took two years ago now that I recently got a chance to prepare. 😛

I forgot to include some of these the last time I shared my jam making process which is probably a few blog posts down. Here's a link to my jam post in case any one is curious. There are probably some older posts as well but you can search for them if you like. 

Anyways here are of some Ontario strawberries I got and prepared for making jam.  So yummy and sweet. Not like those plastic things you get off season. Actually jam making season for this year is coming this June. But not sure how much they're going to cost. Hopefully not too expensive? Yeah, I know, wishful thinking. Hoping I can afford the expense. 

Usually we purchase about 4 plastic containers. 

I so wish I had my old strawberry patch I had growing up. I would never need store purchased strawberries.  They were the absolute best, juiciest and sweetest you could ever have. They also left a deep red colour too.

 

 

Some cherries I picked from our tree. I guess I was picking these for my mom. Usually if I end up picking all of the cherries, I normally get a big bucket full and usually one pot full as well. These must have been a sampler. 

 

 

 That white stuff in the back of the fridge behind in the jar, is bacon fat or the fat collected from pork cracklings. Nasty to most but still great for cooking stuff. Just wouldn't use it too often. 😬Also when the stuff has been sitting the fridge for some time, it starts to taste like some kind of wall paper paste. Not so good for flavouring your cooking. 

The pork cracklings really are tasty but like its relative, consume/cook with sparingly. 

PS I hate it when my dad makes his famous cabbage rolls and he adds some of it to his dish. I occasionally find blobs of it in the broth. 😝  Otherwise his CR are really tasty! For him the extra fat is alright since he's old and skin and bones. But not for the rest of us. 😣

BTW the link I provided is very similar to the rolls we or my dad makes, visually. Not sure how this one tastes, but I'm sure its really great. This one does not contain whole tomato sauce. But we do add a bit of tomato paste to the salty broth. 

 

Some mulberries from our tree and probably from the park. I usually add them to my strawberry jam in small amounts. Good for a bit of sweetness and colour.  

 

 

A random bowl (colander) of carrots. One of them has eyes!

Yikes! 🙃

 For the next blog post, some kind of animal in the park. 😃😁

 

Sweet pink miscellaneous blossomes.

 Got some more pics of spring flowers. Taken from 2 season ago and now maybe 3 years ago. I'm behind as usual. Sigh..... But still, a sweet, sweet taste of the coming spring isn't so bad in the dead of winter, whether bad or mild. Winter still bites after all!

Not sure what this bush is called but every year we get these really showy flowers that attract all kind of bees on them. Mainly bumble bees. I would imagine some humming birds too. After all, they have a nice trumpet shaped flower that might be attractive to them. These are from a bush near my pond taken about late June. I have another bush in the front. This year they probably won't be as showy as I did a thorough trimming of all the bushes and most of the trees on our property. Not sure what to do with our, out of control ceder trees. They have now pretty much taken over the back yard. I believe they are contributing to the deterioration of all those brick and masonry fence posts that my previous cat use to enjoy. Quite frankly its beginning to look a lot like the secret garden despite my maintenance. If only I had people to help me out. Sigh......

None the less please enjoy my showy blossoms. 

Spring for a few silver dollars.

 Took these two years ago in the early spring, of course. 😛Those were slightly more cheerier times cause that's when I had my little sunshine Meetso. 😞

Well anyways these are some lovely silver dollar blossoms before they get their distinctive silver dollar looking seed pods? Or are the called something else? But they're definitely silver dollar flowers. Didn't get as many this year though. Just as well. 

Lovely purple spring of last year.

 Thought a post a "catch up" post relating to last year's spring. Sorry. But I post when I can. 

A few pics of our lovely crocuses from last year. This year they weren't as nice. But every year you have something that can catch the eyes. This year it seems our little cherry tree seems to be the star of the show. I ended up picking and cleaning ten cups worth of sour cherry beauties. But I won't be making jam from them this year. Cherry jam is not that popular in our household. Still delicious though. 

As for more images and recent ones, maybe eventually I'll get to the summer images. Eventually! 😛

 

 

Not imPossumable

A curious possum visits my yard, one night in August of last year. He decided to climb the terris covered in blue wisteria vines. Not sure if its the same possum but we usually get one every so often. Its probably due to the old propane barbecue covered in decades of rotisserie grease. I really don't know why, there is always an issue with getting things clean around here or to even have modern enmities but it is the ways it is. I really don't understand much about this life and family of mine even after living with them a life time. I just shake my head and just go on with my sometimes confusing and complicated life. But at least moments like these take some of the sting out of it doesn't it? Always nice to get some unusual moments you don't see every day. 

Anyways here's some pics of this curious fellow. My cat was there too. But he usually doesn't do anything and just watches our strange pouched company. If anything he just wonders when will our company leave so he can leave his mark on his many scratching posts. 😜😸

 

Boston cream pie

Yet another cake. Made a few months ago. Still have a piece of it in the freezer. OK whats wrong with me not finishing the cake? Well can't eat it alone after all. Cake is meant to be shared after all. Nothing wrong with the taste so that's not really the problem. But you can use your imagination for the latter. 
It turned out really well and the custard in the middle is top notch. 
A successful tasty experiment. Yum! 

 

Welcome to the mushroom forest.

Found this interesting little forest of mushrooms last season growing all around a former beloved old peach tree we had to cut down a few years ago. As always, a little behind on things such as this "show and tell" thing. 
Oh well, enjoy. 😊

Sorry the quality couldn't be any better but I can only do so much with this old digital camera.
 

The Safflower of my eye

Last season of course I decided to plant some safflower seeds in one of many pots we have here. Mostly they contain oleanders but a few have some various citrus trees and even a few fig trees. Nice and not so nice when indoors in the garage. Try looking for hiding pet doves that don't wanna go in just yet. That's where we keep them when the weather is just too cold. 
So yeah I thought I was going to end up with some beautiful orange flowers but instead of orange I got a whole lot of yellow. OK I don't mind too much but they look a lot like dandelions so why bother. But in the end I did get some more seeds to feed my doves. I guess they come in more colours then just orange. Oh well. 

Summer Happy sunflowers

Ok so its still winter but here's a little bit of summer to wet your summer whistle. 😜 Besides I already saw Easter cream eggs already being sold during the Christmas holidays and just last month and only a few weeks into January I first heard what I thought were the sound of robins while on my way to pick up some KFC. Not a big KFC fan but the people in this household really seem to love the stuff. But the walk to the franchise is a body of a treat for me. I love a good walk. So yeah anyways the sound of what I thought at first, thought was my imagination and was really the sound of a whirlybird. Those whirling mushroom things on top of roofs that made the strange chirping/squeaking sounds. On my way back my eyes confirmed that I was not hearing things, it was indeed a very early robin. Although there were probably a pair I saw in a tree, I only saw the one. OK but how are they going to get enough food? There really are no worms at the surface this time of year. Only a scattering of small dried fruit still on some trees and bushes and not really the good kind. If someone knows tell us all? 😮
Oh and don't worry, spring is just around the corner. 

These are some lovely pics of last summer's sunflowers. Very successfully grown. But at the beginning a bit slow going with the squirrels stealing the seeds and seedlings and other mishaps. 
In in case you are interested,  I made a little green house for each seedling out of a half cut water bottle with vents cut onto the what is actually the bottom of the plastic bottle and placed them on top of each space. It gave them much needed protection till they can get a start. Then after removing the protection, I surrounded the sprout with small sharp sticks to discourage squirrels digging the plants up. You can also use plastic forks for this as well. Remember to have the pointy bits up.   After that its just a matter of watering them everyday on hot days. Later they provided a great meal to all the birds in our neighborhood. Such as gold finches. Sadly I never got a chance to take pics of them since they're really flighty type birds. Maybe when I have a go-pro cam or critter cam. Oh well.

None the less enjoy.  😊

Sadly that year. I saw no honey bees. Oh and they're still approving "round up" to be used in our municipality. Stupid bone heads!

Meetso in the fur

Just some ravenously hansom pics of Meetso taken last year in late spring I think. As you can see he still had not shed his lovely fur off for the summer. 

Oh a small progress report. Still lots of bush hacking to do, pulling of ivy vines, pulling of butter cup weeds to do and not to mention pull out all that grass around the pond too. Besides I don't think Meetso can really enjoy that overgrown tall grass anyways. I'm also thinking of now hacking that overgrown bush near my bedroom window in half because of a incident of a peeping tom last night. I don't know what those guys get for disturbing my evening anyways. 1. He can't see anything anyways. So what is the point of knocking on the wall? Practical joke? Really no point and not funny. Also stupid. next house he does that could involve a gun pointing at him. He should really consider that. Get a life dude! 
Oh did I mention I broke a tooth? Yeah I broke a tooth on an already cracked tooth one of 2 a few years ago by eating something stupid. So now I have to make an appointment or two to get it crowned and oh yeah my gum cut. Yup gum cut cause the tooth as in molar is a bit short so they can to get at the problem area. Fun. 😿
Oh and yeah getting my hair done tomorrow too. For awhile at least I'll look like a different human. 
Actually going to look more like my kitty besty friend Meetso. 😺