Frosty

A beautiful sunrise this morning. It's foggy up here among the tree tops and you can see tendrils of mist weaving silently through the branches, shot through with oranges, pinks, violets and framed against a soft blue sky. The greenhouse is covered in frost and little puddles are frozen. It's a beautiful winter morning.

One of our silkie hens has decided to hatch eggs. Did I tell you already? Our incubator is full and once they hatch we'll likely raise them indoors until the weather warms up considerably.

Yesterday marked a day that will go down in US history. President Barack Obama was inaugurated the 44 th president, and the first black man to hold this office. His speech was very moving and i was awed that over a million people there watching could be so quiet and enraptured as if they didn't want to miss one word. You truly get a sense that he was born at this time in these circumstances to do this job. He made people hopeful, and personally responsible for their own happiness and told them that if their forefathers could endure war and cold and famile, that they could too. That America became a great nation because of hard work and sacrifice and that this generation need to stop polluting and over consuming and work to build a better country and planet. Amen!

In the Garden:

The apple trees we've ordered are:
Gascoyne Scarlet
Merton Beauty
Bramley
Mallings Kent
Laxtons Fortune
Winter Red Flesh
Belle De Boskoop

They're pretty much all English Heritage apples and represent variety of colours, there are eating apples, storage apples, cooking apples, early apples, later apples. I can't wait to report on their progress over the next several years. These are one year old trees so we don't expect any fruit for several years yet. But that's ok with me. They're a promise for the future. And we have one tree for every child and grandchild under 13. Next I'm going to look at getting a cherry, pear and plum. I might even indulge in a fruit salad tree. I know that Art Knapp, a local garden centre sometimes carries them. If I get a cherry it will be a multi variety graft and I hope it has rainier cherries, because those are my favourite. I don't suspect that the nurseries will get trees in for another 2 months yet. I'd like to get mine all planted while they're still dormant. Maybe I can take some suckers from my existing trees and root them. I'll do more research and see if that will work. Also, while trapsing through the bush yesterday, Steve found a fruit tree burried in the pine trees. Maybe we'll relocate it, if it's possible. Some of our grape vine cuttings took last year and I will take more dormant cuttings in the next few weeks too. It's going to be a busy spring.

Gotta run. There's triple points day and a case lot sale on at the grocery store so I'm off to stock up on canned food and basics. Have a great day!