Ducklings!

It's hard not to feel good about life when you have a barn full of fluffy, yellow ducklings all quacking and woddling around their proud mother AND you've been swimming in the sea 3 times in one week!!
The ducks are the cutest things. We even have one who, thanks to Jamie and his heart of gold, has taken up residence (illegally) on the kitchen counter.
Sunshine is here and despite weeds of mamoth proportions, we are harvesting peas, beets, chard and.... flowers. We are even remembering to enjoy the summer and make it to the beach. Hurray! We might even allow ourselves to feel a little bit like a flower farm now, albeit in minature. Due to less than perfect weather conditions, stem lengths on many blooms leave a lot to be desired. We are wondering if there is a market for tiny posies or home decor for doll's houses! Asiatics suddenly exploded at the weekend and thanks to our fab local florist we have moved them all to the cooler there until we can get them to market or until we finish our cool room which hasn't had a look in since Dad left in May! From everything being purple for a while, now it's pink. So many pink snapdragons we don't know what to do with them, and thanks to the wind power of Nova Scotia, the stems are knarly and bent, let's hope that we can start a trend for that!
However, the most exciting thing is that we could resist no longer and Sunday was the momentous "unwrapping of the jamon". What joy! It's a blessing that it miraculously escaped all the flies and appears intact. It tastes a little salty but we are not complaining since that just means we have to drink more when eating it which makes it all the more delicious! Though we have refrained from sherry (for the mo). So Jamie gets top marks for his first ever Jamon, he has also been fishing (while I skive off to the boat) but hasn't yet bought home anything tastey. He expertly captured a curious young ground hog in one of our traps that he hadn't even got around to setting. While it was interesting to see one up close, we felt relieved after we had set it free a few miles away across several rivers so that the darn animal wouldn't be making it's way back to create havoc. I am still beavering away producing pickles and jellies for the market, rose petal jelly all sold out so lavendar and lemon is the latest addition. It's just me, Jamie, Eddie and the ducks for now since we don't have any volunteers this week. Lovely to have the space to ourselves once again - plus it means we get to shower outside in peace! (well until the neighbours pop by...)

Illegal duckling in kitchen!

Jamie and Jamon and amazing hawaian shirt

Fire Flies and Garlic Scapes

Without wishing to jinx the weather and shorten this year's growing season any further, I would dare to dream that this week's balmy days, bbqs and sun means that summer may be upon us. Farmers are haying and dropping by at odd hours to borrow pieces of rusty machinery that we never knew existed and I think our flowers may be growing. The garlic is doing well and since the scapes are beginning to curl into that lovely green pig's tail, we have been cutting them and selling a few along with our fresh herbs for folks to add to their barbie.
Rather annoyingly our beautiful field of squash and pumpkin has been hit by the beastly cucumber beetle which is chewing its way through the leaves and blossoms. Being organic, picking them off and squashing them is really the only method. It is as monotonous, back breaking (and murderous) as it sounds. The ageratum and oh so gorgeous veridiums are in bloom and are truly delightful, not long now for the asiatic lilies, eryingium and snap dragons to follow which will hopefully kick off our season. So in the meantime we are chugging away, braving the bugs, battling the weeds and when the daylight fades and we are drawn inside, we are able to look out into the pitch black night at tiny sparks of magic. Fire flies are here, flickering in the darkness, bring on the summer!