Pollenatrix

Just stuff

It's been a while, I guess with the excitement of the power blackout last weekend and the aftermath this past week, blogging hasn't been on my radar. The power went out just after 4PM on Thursday. I had the presence of mind to realize that the subways and streetcars would be out of action, and grabbed the first cab I saw. It was a smart move, because moments later it was clear from the radio reports that the blackout was no ordinary event. I got home, pulled out my coleman lantern and candles, and was relatively comfortable until hydro came back on in the wee hours Sunday morning. It's quite a jaw dropping sight to see a sky full of stars in downtown Toronto. I slept on the deck all weekend and did battle with racoons, but then so did the majority of my neighbours. This past week has been....interesting. My office building downtown has taken the call to reduce power quite seriously, so most mornings the lights didn't come on until 10 or 11AM, and were flipped off again at 4PM. Lucky for me my office has a window, but the poor cubicle dwellers were literally in the dark, the only light coming from their computer monitors. To top it off, the air conditioning was turned off, and competition was stiff for the one elevator that was in operation to serve 1500 people. Ah well, it's all part of the adventure, I guess. And a good lesson in how much hydro we do use every day. Anyway, even without the lights I had one very bright spot in my week. Gayla, of You Grow Girl fame came over to take pictures of my balcony garden. We had a great gab about all things gardening, the kind of conversation that only gardeners can have. Non-gardeners flee from this kind of shop talk (like Laird, who kept a low profile in the living room), but we had a wonderful visit and I was sorry when it came to an end. She is tremendously knowledgeable and interesting, and very talented, and I'm looking forward to her upcoming book on urban gardening. We escaped the city this weekend for some hiking along the Bruce trail. At a trailhead we ran into a couple who were accompanied by a truly gorgeous Coonhound, a very unusual dog in these parts. I toyed with the idea of kidnapping him and bringing him home to put to good use on my balcony. When I got home the racoons had done a number on my deck. They'd broken through the plastic cover to my orchid "greenhouse", and tossed my nicest phrags around ruthlessly. My water garden....oh my water garden. :-( Well, what's left of it came inside tonight, to the safety of my bedroom. I wrapped the "greenhouse" with chicken wire, and pulled what's left of the cover over top of it. The finickity dendrobium, which is finally in bloom and will blast it's buds if you so much as look at it the wrong way, was on it's side on the ground, the nicest of the flowers tattered and torn. I cut the spike off. Oh well, there's always next year. Maybe I'll invest in chicken wire in a big way, and just enclose the entire deck in it.

Worms for breakfast

I ventured into the worm bins this morning to add some vegetable peels from last night's meal preparations. There certainly are a lot of worms in them -- red crawly wiggly worms. I was a bit taken aback to find a dozen or so clinging to the inside of the lid of one of the boxes, so that when I removed the lid a few of them fell on the floor. Ewwww. I picked them up and threw them back in, took a deep breath and reminded myself that they are my pets, that worm composting is good for the environment, that worm compost will make my flowers grow like crazy. Still, it was a bit more than I was ready to handle first thing in the morning. I was far more tentative about removing the lid of the second box. Once I regained my composure, I realized what the problem is. The material at the bottom of the bin was too soggy, and anaerobic. Most of the bedding has been transformed in to dark rich compost. I tore up strips of newspaper and threw them in; they'll soak up some of the liquid, and add much needed carbon to the mix. I stirred things around a bit with a trowel, hoping that I wasn't squishing too many worms in the process. There's still quite a bit of  plant material in them that still needs to decompose, but I can see that the time is nearly at hand to separate worms from worm poo. Now THAT will be an adventure. If my boundless enthusiasm has inspired you to try it for yourself, you can buy worms & supplies at Cathy's Crawly Composters in Bradford (she does travel to Toronto frequently), or Vermitech Systems at the far end of the Beach. # discuss