Hole in the Ice

Here is the Fish Pond to-day. A rather cold one -5 o C. The ice is about 2 cm thick so not to bad. I leave the fish in the pond all year round and they do not mind it. The biggest and most important key to over wintering fish out doors is to have the pond opened up even a small bit through the ice. Also to have a little water movement. This helps remove toxic gasses from the water which is the killer.

As you can see what snow we did have is gone. Still a bit would be nice now for Christmas, and winter protection

A week to go!!!!

 Christmas decorations in my Dinning-room.
With a week to go till Christmas, I hope every one is enjoying the season at hand.
I always have Christmas set up on my Grandmothers Birthday which is to-day :)

My Grandma's Birthday

To-day December 17th would have been my Grandmothers Birthday. I am only mentioning it here as this site is dedicated to her. She would have been 96. She just passed 3 short years ago.

Anyway this picture of my Grandparents was taken in 1955 at the time of my Parents wedding in Dunnville, Ontario.
Personal side note I miss her very much.
Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

My Back Door

Here are a few pics from the other evening. I hope that they are enjoyable to see. Yep the trap. The Falls are still very beautiful even this time of year. We have big Christmas light shows which are amazing as well. And the Friday Night Fireworks.

The First pic is a LED  light display at one of the garden lakes above the Falls
The Second is of the Skylon Tower. from below the cliff
The Third is of the Niagara Falls, City Sky-line, from one of the huge parking lots, near the Falls
The Fourth is the top running edge of the Canadian, or Horseshoe Falls
The Fifth is as well but at the very edge at Table Rock, also my new display pic
The Sixth is the Bridal Vial Falls, on the USA side
and The Seventh is the American Falls, also on the American side

I am heading back there this weekend so I will share some pics of the LED light displays.

It's Winter

Home Sweet Home!!!!!
It had to happen and it finally did. We have the snow. YUCK. If I can think of a bright side to it I would!!! All in fun.

Anyway everything is ready now for winter and in good time as well. Christmas is just two weeks a way and I am going crazy with that idea. I get really smart and stay away from all the hassle.

The December Garden Look

The garden is just about completed as of now, and in good time to boot. We had some small snow flurries this morning. The first of the year. Did I use that horrid 4 letter word (SNOW)? "What can I say", it is all about being a Canadian. How I wish at times I lived in Victoria, British Columbia, or that Canada was an Imperial Force and conquered a small Caribbean Island. This way we could have palm trees, 30 o C winters, and never leave home!!!!.
By spring we will have this very unique Canadian look, all pale and deathly looking!!!!!

4 Churches in Dunnville

Here are four lovely churches in our town, we have many of these treasures here. The top one is Knox Presbyterian, second is St. Paul's Anglican, third is Grace United, and lastly  that one is Christ Church Anglican out near Lake Erie in Port Maitland.

I will post a few more in the near future.

Storage of Tropical Plants

O wow, here we go again for another 5 months of having plants in the house. This is just one bunch of them. All said the reward is wonderful in the summer. Here it is important to slow down the growth as the light and other conditions are poor for these guys. I backed off on fertilizer in August, this helps to slow them. In September I potted them all so they will get used to the conditions of being potted. Then I backed off on their watering in October. All this stops them from growing. I really try to leave them all out side as long as possible. This year I was lucky and was able to wait till the other day, Dec 01. This is a slightly heated back room to the house so the average temp stays around 5 o C. They do not freeze so all is cool for them.

the Harvest

I just took up a bunch of tubers, bulbs, and corms. Lots of fun doing that. Can be a lot of work getting them all ready for winter storage and next years garden showing.

The real trick to this is "not" to store them damp, dirty, or with imperfections still on them. I wrap mine in news paper however, saw dust, or packing material works very well also. I also add a bit of fungicide powder to the wrappings as well. This can be important to do, if you have a fungus anywhere in the packaging it can or will spread through everything.

What I am showing here are Cannaceae:, Canna Lillie's, Iridaceae gladiolas:, Gladiolas, and Ipomoea batatas:, Sweat Potato Vines (two types). This is just a small part of the whole. Now to bring in the Dracaena:, Spikes!!!!!!!

This house does get taken over by the garden during the winter months. I will show a pic later to-day of how this can look.

The Big Fish

I posted a while back a picture of the uncompleted Monument as it was being erected. It is now completed and I thought I would share it with you all. This Fish is a representation of the Mud Cat. It is about 18 meters long and wonderfully realistic. It is the largest fish monument in the world to-day.

If I have a compliant at all it is that the pole that holds up the tail is distracting. It takes away from the whole. Maybe they will add a green water leaf or something to the pole to hide it.