Monday 10 October 2016

Time for Bed

It is enormously satisfying to eat food grown in your own garden for Thanksgiving. All fresh picked to boot. I know, however, it is time to put the garden to bed.

I've picked the last beans, cucumbers and zucchini and the foliage will be dug in or added to the compost. The strawberry bed is long overdue for a clean up. The parsnips, turnips, beets and carrots are ready for a blanket of straw. Heads are forming on the last of the red cabbages so I'll leave them alone until I'm ready for some sauteed in red wine. The Brussels sprouts are still a mystery-will they go dormant or might they come through for Christmas?



A late cosmos hangs on with its delicate beauty.



Thanks to the AMP the greenhouse is cleaned up. It will need a new cover for next year. Basil is the only thing still in residence but must be picked soon for one last meal of fresh pesto and pasta.

We had our first storm of the season and the first power outage. The storm threw up massive amounts of seaweed on the beach. Kelp makes up a large portion, nature's way of pruning the kelp beds although I wouldn't want to see much more. Kelp is wonderful for the soil so we will be down there today filling our buckets.

I've joined a choir-pause for family to recover from choking on their coffee. It is a rough voices choir which fits my skills, or lack of, nicely. To find ones voice, in whatever form, is a powerful thing.

The AMP is working on our high tech drainage system aka the ditch. Fortunately he enjoys digging. Even more fortunately our neighbour wants our run off for his pond so we are connecting up to his pipes.

On Mondays I help at the nursing home garden club. The residents have been deadheading and throwing the flowers in labelled boxes. Our leader took everything home and dried and sorted. Now residents and helpers are making up packets of seeds to sell at the bazaar. Our work bees are wonderfully cosy and social.

This week I asked about reports of food shortages. Yes, they have been running out of food and some residents, perfectly capable of tucking in to meat and two veg, end up with a bottle Ensure, or the like, for dinner. One of my sweet ladies told me she had 3/4 of a very thin, white bread, peanut butter and jam sandwich with a side of peas. How disrespectful! It is all a result of privatisation. Frozen meals now come from Saskatchewan which is like going from Wyoming to Oregon. The kitchen is used solely to reheat and there is no staff to whip up extra in case of shortage. Men in suits have made a brief visit to investigate and disappeared back to the halls of bureaucracy. Time to dust off my picketing skills.

Rather sad to think of the above at Thanksgiving. Something more cheerful...the blueberry bushes are a lovely colour in the Fall.


19 comments:

  1. That is bloody sad. We are faced with similar as my Mother-in-law is tucked away in a shared room this week for extended care as no private beds are available except in other towns (not a possibility). I keep thinking we should get a generator too - but haven't needed it in the 4.5 years we have lived here, just short outages. Perhaps I am pushing our luck :( Happy Thanksgiving for those things we do have to be thankful for

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    1. Happy TG to you. The shared room thing is not great.

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  2. Blueberry bushes put on quite a show indeed! Gorgeous!

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    1. Wonderful plants-give us tons of healthy fruit which we enjoy all winter and look beautiful as we go into the grey season.

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  3. That is just outrageous! So often the elderly are put at the bottom of the list - we ran into that attitude with my dad's doctor. Ensure is a poor substitute for a tasty bowl of soup and a nice roll or two. It makes me want to spit. On a happier note, that is one lovely blueberry bush! Happy Belated Thanksgiving to you!

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    1. I was ready to punch someone on the snoot but of course the culprits are safely hiding in the capital.

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  4. The food shortages are so terrible. It scares me to think of what my future might be like. Your Brussel sprouts are bigger than mine. I need a magnifying glass to find them between the leaves (which are huge and healthy looking). I'm getting ready to transplant my blueberry bushes into larger pots. I bought them last spring and they have about tripled in size already. Do you need to prune the bushes at all, or just let them grow as they desire? One says it will get about two feet tall, the other could go up to 4-6 feet. - Margy

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    1. I'm not sure when you should start pruning but with our well established bush we take out about one third of old wood each year making sure it is nice and open so air can circulate. We also have four newly planted bushes-with them I am just cutting back any growth which has grown much taller than the other new growth.

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  5. Hi Susan, I haven't had too much luck with my blueberry bush. I even moved it this year hoping it will do better. Yours is gorgeous! Reminds me of our burning bushes.

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    1. One of our's died after 10 yrs-not sure why. It has been replaced in the same spot so fingers crossed.

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  6. I can't believe it's the end of another growing season, where did the time go? It's sad to hear about the food, or lack of, that the seniors have. We will all be there one day, if we're fortunate enough, none of us would want to be treated that way. Hope things improve there! Take care, Kelly.

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    1. I'm already in planning mode for 2017 and it is only October! A public meeting coming up re the food shortages at the nursing home-fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

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  7. Good for you doing such great volunteer work. Reading your post I am extra grateful my parents are in a great apartment in wonderful facility. They have breakfast in their apartment and then a three course lunch and dinner in the dining hall. The staff are amazing. How luck I am that I don't have to worry that they won't be well cared for.

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    1. It is a little bit grim here although the staff are kind and do their best to nurture everyone.

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  8. I'm horrified to read about that. Is that food shortage at a seniors residence? Or individual seniors on their own? Either way it's utterly unacceptable. Is there a way to donate some of our extras?

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    1. Yes, at the extended care facility. There is a public meeting next week so will have to see what comes out of it. Our garden club volunteers have decided to bring in a fruit tray each week. Family members often bring in fresh food but if you have no family then you are out of luck.

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  9. A food shortage sounds like the worst kind of mismanagement. So much food is thrown away! Who ever is running that senior center needs to be fired!

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  10. Your garden is lovely. Reading about the residents with not enough food makes me so angry. My Mom was in a nursing home for a short time and they used their own kitchen. This is criminal that all seniors cannot enjoy the same treatment. This makes me sad and angry. Good luck with those pickets. HUG B

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  11. Thank you for your very kind comment Susan - may the New Year be a good one for you, and that you enjoy your garden again when it wakes up in the Spring.

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