Temperature 19 C (67 F) Humidity 52%
Barometer; 102.2 and steady,
a cool Northerly wind at 15km/h chilly day!

Hm-m-m a good day for Chili for supper?

So the jam is done and delicious! Beautiful jars filled with purple sunshine line my counter, their little lids stuck tight. Ready to grace the pantry shelves.

The garden is now wound down enough to start dismantling the larger structures in it. I have a greenhouse to move to one side, as well as additional framework leftover from when the greenhouse was much larger that will be removed, dis-assembled and re-located in various places. Part will become a gate in our lane way, with a little bench and a storage area for things like shovels and other driveway maintenance tools. This gives us the barrier we wanted to provide for Keisha, our Jack Russell rescue, a safe place to play without need of a leash. The rest of the garden is already fenced in.

Another section will be used to provide some shade and shelter for the barbecue area, just off the kitchen, which is often flooded with sunlight; fine on a cool day but often too warm to cook in direct sunlight in the heat of summer and early fall here in southwestern Ontario.

With what's left we may have enough to start the framework of a small outdoor sauna, and we're looking into that aspect right now. I love a good sauna in the middle of winter, and would love to build one I can use anytime it suits me! I know there are kits available in our area, likely I can improvise a shed of sorts and get one of their heaters!

Something to look forward to this winter perhaps!

Obviously, this was no small greenhouse! It was a cool shape and I didn't want to just tear it down when it might serve some useful purpose. And it was not suitable in the middle of the garden;it was blocking much needed light. This we truly observed when viewing some old pictures of the garden from when we first purchased the property. I'm glad the time has come we can finally get this done as it essentially reclaims the yard for us in a way, and just makes the whole yard a more cohesive and multi-functional space that takes nature more into consideration..

It's no wonder I consider our garden enchanted, and we love to play and create and assist nature in its development. John and I, and we are constantly inspired to putter with it more! I am currently building a website, to be launched by this spring that will give a better format in which to highlight the garden proper with a web cam, a map, and tour guide type of atmosphere. Some of the garden's inspiration seems to send me back into the realm of programming and design work but with an artistic, back to my college days, bent, rather than technical (I'm an old Auto CAD user, drafts person), and so I welcome the adventure of foraging into the www world.

Trial and error and discovery - these are my tools when I work with my garden and these will be my tools with the site as it develops in step with the garden herself. Ah -h-h, stories to tell around the fire pit and under Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, shining high in the sky above!

Until then there's more muscle needed outside so it's high time I got myself to work in the garden and give myself some opportunities for more adventures and more stories to tell!