Category: cedar strip canoe

Hummm…Earth Day Reflections

The Cedar Journal April 23, 2023

The day after Earth Day 2023… my head is clear as I have recovered (mostly) from jet lag. Since the Hubby and I landed at the first of the week we have experienced darn near three of the four seasons that Mother Nature offers in my former homestate of Minnesota!

Hummm… where to start…?

How about water? Lots of water!!!

A late Spring snowfall and record breaking winter snow cover in Duluth area then a few days of crazy warm. This video of Thomson Dam at Carlton, MN shows the amount of water exiting the Northland and heading into Lake Superior.

Most April visits this lake welcomes me with nice open water for paddling. Not this year!

Swing bridge on the St Louis River. Hummm… a bit unsafe due to water levels.

A smaller river in Carlton County at high levels… still unsafe to paddle. Hummm…

All that water in Northern Minnesota that doesn’t flow into Lake Superior flows towards the Mississippi River. St Paul, Minnesota; Minnehaha Falls.

Then as usual there are the host of other things that give us time to stop and ponder the Hummm…

Like the following…

Rest stop education on septic systems and how they work. Hummm… yes, a study of how the “can” works while sitting on “the can”! Maybe we need a closer look…

Why anyone with a brain would even think of placing any of those items down a toilet is begone my brain to comprehend. Hummm… closer…

Nice to explain how “sh*t flows” and sponsored by the UMN! Good research and education money providing education to all who stop at this rest stop between Barnum and Mahtowa, MN.

We had to pick up a book on how to negotiate this strange weather. Hummmm… not sure it is helping.🥶

What better way to start the season than with a little outdoor cooking! Hummmm…a bit cold but sure tasted great! We are all about solutions and not about weather stopping us from enjoying our few days of vacation!

From outdoor cooking to just enjoying Earth Day with a book from the local library. We hope you consider your relationship with Mother Earth for our future generations!

Tulip Thursday 2023

The Cedar Journal April 13, 2023

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

The Cedar Journal April 9, 2023

Most my blog followers know that I volunteer at the Historical Garden in Aalsmeer, that I also worked at the largest bulb garden in the World, the Keukenhof in Lisse. I have something in my core relationship with nature that gives me strength, provides me with energy and heals me in difficult times.

This week was finally warm enough and sunny enough to make the bulb flowers pop into full bloom.

The bulbs in some fields are in full bloom near Lisse.

From my volunteer day at the Historical Garden (where I got plenty of exercise hauling wheel barrows of worm compost), to working in my straw bale garden, to hopping on the bike for a long ride through the bulb fields, the following pictures capture it all.

Worm compost that was delivered to the Historical Garden Aalsmeer has to be hand hauled over the canals into the gardens via wheel barrows by staff and volunteers.

Writing this, I am flat on my back! Yup…it was a bit too much for my old back injury so I will be enjoying (not really) some pain killers and doing nothing for a couple of days.

This year is the year of the Lilacs at the Historical Gardens. The garden forces some of the Lilacs to bloom early by placing them in the warm greenhouses.

More show of color inside the greenhouse at Aalsmeer.

A view of the lilacs that are in the garden from the inside of the garden shed. Shhhh…don’t tell the boss I was resting after hauling the wheel barrows.🤫😊

Then there is my garden… weeds, slugs, new shoots, new community, just trying to find my place. So I tried an American thing, pumpkin bread (for free) stop by my garden for a chat. First time…no one came, second time…two people came…

Trying to be Minnesota Nice in my own garden.

The straw bales are now starting to fill up with what will be a summer harvest. Planted spinach, carrots, onions, basil this week. Pulled weeds and tilled dirt. It is a constant work in progress.

Then it was on my electric bike and out for a ride in the sun around the bulb fields of Lisse.

This display I stop at every year in Lisse was popping with color.

More color on display in this small front garden.

A stop for coffee, I noted how many tourist bikes were sitting outside. This restaurant is in the old Lisse train station and is a favorite for tourist snd locals alike who are out viewing the fields by bike.

My bike ride finished with a stop at my long time favorite places.

Annemieke’s Pluktuin

https://www.annemiekespluktuin.nl

I placed my two bouquets of tulips into my bicycle bag and headed for home. My back was in pain as I entered the house but my heart was full of the joy that Spring brings, blooms of nature.

Sunday Sun April 2023

The Cedar Journal April 2, 2023

Thank You, my dearest blog followers!!!! It worked! Mother Nature heard me and each of you and granted me here in The Netherlands some wonderful sunshine on this first Sunday of April.

To all my Minnesota readers who just received more snow and to any of my readers that were in the destructive path of the most recent tornados, I will keep asking Mother Nature to stop this extreme crazy!

Until that happens maybe a few pictures of our garden will help ease the pain for your bad weather.

When I wrote my blog on Friday it was buckets rain falling from the sky! I went to the garden anyway to lift the black clouds of my soul. As I entered the garden I could hear laughter in the rain! There was an entire level 6 (9-12 year olds) planting this garden. It lifted the black clouds as the rain continued to fall. “Thanks Mother Nature!”

Alfalfa with a garlic that are doing just fine in the rain and cold.

Can anyone ID this plant? New sprout coming up in a fellow community gardeners plot.

Even with the sun out today the wind was cold and biting off the North Sea. Tonight they are calling for a freeze. This cotton cloth cover will hopefully protect my young carrot seeds that are peeking through the soil of the straw bale.

NOT WEEDS! This is rye grain that I planted last fall. You can tell that the plants closer to the bales are getting more heat and protection. I will most likely get a staggered harvest. That is perfect for my needs.

These young plants all have glass covers for tonights freeze, the homemade wind screen needed to be on the other side of the bale today. “🙄🙄 Oh well, that is gardening”

What is growing or not growing where you live? Lets us know in our comment section.

Spring 2023

The Cedar Journal March 31, 2023

The calendar tells me it is Spring 2023, but when I am still busy with three to four layers of clothes on, I do wonder if it will ever really arrive!

Now, my friends in Minnesota have been sending me pictures of piles of snow. Maybe I shouldn’t complain…

My friend in Northern Minnesota sent me this picture this week! *Picture taken and*©️ *K. Parker*

Really, it hasn’t been all that bad. I see my daffodils blooming out front from my office window. A beautiful mix I purchased last fall from a local dealer through an English website (crazy that I couldn’t just bike the 4 km last fall to pick these up in person and save delivery costs!). I digress..

Weeds seem to have no issues with the weather! Weeding is the best therapy I know to improve any situation.

Fellow gardeners, these are not weeds! This is rye grain! It likes the cool weather.

My garden is greening up ever so slowly. I even have a small onion sprout peeking out of the straw bale. The brave little onion! I almost biked home to knit a small sweater for it to protect it from the cold biting wind.

This is my protection of my early greenhouse plants that found a home in my straw bales. Not sure if any of this worked as I placed it yesterday in gale force winds and today we have rain…

As I was thinking of that poor onion and trying to get some work done for when the Spring season finally comes along, a huge gust of wind blew my electric bike over! Now, what escaped my mouth went straight to the universe that I was not pleased! I have had it! Now a damaged, new electric bike is sitting in our shed waiting for the bike repairman to return from vacation.

Change is never easy. Mother Nature also seems to be having a hard time with the changing of seasons.

How can I encourage her to move along?

“Hello Mother Nature! I am ready to shed my layers of clothes. I am ready to plant all those seeds from all those beautiful plants you have on this Earth. I am ready to let Father Sun burn my skin when I am tilling the soil. Please bring me Spring and not four seasons in 15 minutes.”

Not sure that she reads my blog, so maybe my readers can pass the message along in your own voices and she will bring us all some Spring normal weather.

Thanks in advance to all that help!😊