Tag: gardening

A Slug/Snail Art Day…

May 23, 2021

Many of my regulars to my blog know that I have been volunteering at a local community garden since COVID made me stay closer to home.

As with any garden or garden season there are challenges with the balance of nature. Nature knows what is needed and what is not needed to maintain a balance. We humans think we are so smart so most of us try to “fix” what we perceive as “problems” in our personal or community gardens.

I usually don’t get too wrapped up in “fixing” what nature is throwing my way. Although frustrating to see my Dahlias being munched to nothing overnight can be a bit overwhelming.

Or all the sweet little pumpkins that I raised all Spring with love and care to become a wonderful salad for the snails and slugs at the community garden once they were planted.

My sweet little pumpkins heading out into the big bad world full of unknown threats!

Then, I had an idea… what if we give these creatures some job appreciation! Everyone is trying to kill them, or relocate them.

The pumpkin patch can be a cruel world!

I am going to try snail/slug art appreciation to see if I can encourage them to relocate out of my garden and into the art scene. Once they become famous they can buy small greens and will leave my pumpkin plants, dahlias, and broccoli alone.

Here is the first of the Snail/Slug art exhibition…

U-turn: A portrait in travel by Sam Snail
In Search of Peace: A one slug journey on plastic. By Sidney Slug
Just Hanging: Art on irises, Modern. By Sir Herman Slug Black
Early to Rise: On Onions, Modern. Sir Herman Slug Black
Death of Friends: The Real Tragic End from Alcoholism. By Unknown

Whatever your challenges in life, more will always follow…

© The Cedar Journal, 2021, all rights reserved.

Watching Spring

March 22, 2021

We had a short escape recently to Limburg. The beady eyes are from the EMU that lives down the street from the Meen’s B&B where we stayed. I surprised myself, how just a few hours outside the house on a road trip made me feel a little less stressed about the restrictions we are still under.

The problem is that where we live is very populated. People are stacked ontop of each other. Normally the crowded conditions don’t bug me, but after a year of being mostly in our bubble of the house and garden it has me feeling a bit of “Minnesota winter cabin feverish”. We embraced the outing.

When we woke the next morning we had a light frost on the grass.

The view out the B&B

Now back in Amsterdam, the Spring season has started and I am busy with starting plants for the volunteer garden. Spring is everywhere…

The blooming bulb mix that edges the walking path here in our town.
The tree at the volunteer garden starting to bloom.

The daffodils are blooming everywhere.

So the seasons change here as in the rest of the world. We are still on restrictions for at least until 23 April. Then… who knows?

Hopefully when we get our vaccination (now predicted June). A bit more freedom of movement. I would just like to walk down the sidewalk without fearing that someone will breath on me and get me sick.

We are setting our eye on our first canoe paddle for next week. Fingers crossed.

Stay safe everyone and let us know how things are in your world in our comments section as we love hearing from all our blog followers.

The bees getting busy with Spring

© The Cedar Journal, 2021, all rights reserved

Friday Floral

January 15, 2021

Cold, gloomy and a chance this weekend of snow makes for a ho hum sort of walk, until you see these.

These happy daffodils put a smile and sunshine into my gloomy walk.
Bright in the gloom.

Now, inspired, I looked for other signs of brightness in the gardens I passed.

This periwinkle is protected by the rock wall.

The shrubs in this moderate climate provide colorful eye catching berries.

Bright red berries pop color from this garden.

© The Cedar Journal, 2021, all rights reserved.