now with extra baby-duck magic...

i entered the living room a short while ago, only to find a scene that set off all the alarm bells. my favorite animator was stretched out on the chesterfield with my little brown blanket pulled up over his head. there beside him were the two cats. everybody was fast asleep. on the other side of the wall of glass, just beyond this blissful slice of domesticity, two squirrels were investigating the balcony filled with plants... my plants... my very-recently planted plants. everybody was in trouble!

having got this year's garden off to a decent start, it is time to turn my attention to discouraging unwanted guests (of the non-human kind... although human visitors are equally discouraged at all times). i prefer to stick to bio-friendly deterrents (especially when growing edible things), so i gathered a few items from the kitchen (the tea was for drinking)...

then returned with a couple more things from the cupboard under the sink, and i was ready to whip up a batch of my favorite pest-be-gone spray.

i use the same approach when fighting common garden bugs, but the object of this current exercise is to discourage pests of the furry kind. think of it as a do-it-yourself preemptive chemical warfare... with common household ingredients. the key to this approach is twofold: 1) use oil-based natural irritants, and 2) suspend them in water through the magic of soap. my go-to irritants are garlic and hot peppers (peppermint is also a good choice, but i have none on hand), and i use regular dish soap for the 'magic'. i am reusing a spray bottle (this one contained some sort of tub/shower cleaning product, if you really need all the details) which i rinsed thoroughly and filled most of the way with tap water.

note that the garlic cloves have been smashed (which the culinary world reminds us is the best way to release the natural oils in garlic), and i used a sharp knife to cut a long slit through the middle of each pepper to allow for better contact between the liquid medium and the oil-bearing innards of the pepper. basically, i try to avoid small bits that will clog the sprayer. chili oil or even a prepared hot sauce (the hotter, the better) can be used in place of the fresh chilies, but i like the touch of old-school alchemy that comes with starting from scratch.

my soap of choice is Dawn detergent in the original scent. we usually refer to it around here as the baby-duck scent, as that is the stuff they use to clean the ducks (and other animals) who have made the poor life choice of swimming just where we humans decide to spill crude oil. there is usually a picture of a baby duck on the label (hence the nickname). this particular one is the three-times-stronger Ultra Dawn formula... with, one presumes, three-times the baby-duck magic! [disclaimer: i am not suggesting that the people at Dawn use baby ducks in the making of this product. however, should that prove to be the case, please direct all the angry comments at them, not me.]

the rest is quite simple. add the garlic and peppers to the bottle...

then add in a generous squirt of dish detergent (i did not measure, but i used about a teaspoon or so of soap for a standard-size spray bottle).

seal the bottle tightly before inverting a few times to distribute the soap... then just wait.

i offer one word of extreme caution when using a spray that contains hot peppers... remember that it contains hot peppers!!! it becomes dangerously potent the longer it sits. i do not use this stuff when it is windy outside, and i always take the precaution of spraying it away from my person, and keeping the cats indoors until it has had a chance to dry on the leaves of the plants. in addition to facilitating the mixture of the oils with the water, the soap will help to create a slightly sticky film that bonds them to the surface of the plants, but it washes away with water. this means that i have to do a respray whenever it rains (or if i use some sort of sprayer to water the plants). i also make a point of washing my hands thoroughly (with extra soap) after handling the plants, because there are few things in life as unpleasant as the combo of garlic, soap, and chili in the eye. ask me how i know!

i do not use this spray indoors, for obvious reasons, but it is a simple, effective method for discouraging bugs (and the larger pests) away from the outdoor plants. sprayed on already-buggy plants, it acts as an irritant that can penetrate past the protective outer covering of some bugs and their eggs. i would put on a lab coat and launch into a discourse on polarity in soap molecules and their ability to denature cellular membranes... but no one needs to be exposed to such a thing. just trust me when i say that it works! as for the squirrels... a few nibbles of peppery leaves tends to discourage them from turning your garden into an all-you-can destroy salad bar. not gonna lie, i find a special (twisted) joy in that part.
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it is Sunday morning, and i am sitting here enjoying my first cup of coffee and scowling over the latest news, when i am distracted by a sudden burst of activity outside. the rustling in the maple canopy tells me that there is a squirrel headed this way. the pet-deterrent formula has been sitting for just one day. is it too soon to put it to the test? i put down my cup and move quickly toward the door, grabbing the spray bottle along the way. i give it a few vigorous shakes and a quick pull at the trigger to make sure it works, then i go to work spraying the three troughs of greenery (the only things that were not encased in their own metal cages). satisfied at the light mist that has settled across the leaves, i return to my coffee and my comfy sofa... and i wait.

it takes about ten minutes before there is a springboard-like action in the nearest cluster of leaves, and a squirrel pops into view atop the railing. this is the point where i usually make my presence known to deter any further advancement into my domain. instead, i take a sip of lukewarm coffee and continue to wait. (s)he moves cautiously at first, climbing onto the nearest metal cage and continuing along the line of impregnable steel (they work!) before spotting the troughs of green on the ground. this is the real test. i sit perfectly still, lest i startle the intruder by shifting my position to get a better view. it takes less than a minute before a quick blur of grey fur goes rushing off in the direction from which it came and launches back into the canopy of the maple tree. think i will celebrate with a second cup of coffee.

the art of joyless gardening (a book by me)...

who knew that dragging a corpse-weight worth of compost up four flights of stairs would result in so much pain... who knew! we spent most of Sunday working on this year's Balcony Garden Project, and i seem to have hurt my everything! it is Wednesday, and the muscles at the back of my thighs still scream in protest every time i try to squat or walk or stand. standing is overrated.

with the compost safely inside, we caught our collective breath and sucked down fluid in large quantities (not gonna lie... i started out drinking water, and ended up drinking wine), then it was time for the real fun to begin. i spent the rest of the afternoon dragging large planters from one spot to another, mixing compost into the ones that were already filled, filling up a few more empty ones, and changing my mind about a hundred times as to what should be planted in each one. meanwhile, my favorite animator (who luckily does not share my aversion to high places) dismantled the screen on the balcony railing, replacing it with a thin wire mesh that should serve the dual purpose of keeping the cats in and the squirrels out. that last bit is wishful thinking, as the squirrels adamantly refuse to recognize any man-made boundaries, but we figure we would give it a try.

with so little space for growing things, extra precautions have to be taken to protect our precious seedlings, so we (mainly he) constructed cages to cover the planters. they will remain in place until the plants are large/strong enough that a single chomp from a furry intruder will not mean the death of the whole thing. it looks a bit bonkers right now, but it would be heartbreaking to have done all that work, then to wake up the next day and find it all destroyed. i would probably be slightly less insane with a conventional backyard garden where you can afford to lose one or two plants, but when your whole setup consists of twenty-something plants dangling precariously several stories above street level, there is no such thing as being too cautious. still, i cannot wait until the cages come off.


me: look at it.
him: yeah...?
me: it's kinda sad.
him: what's wrong with it?
me: it looks like a vegetable garden... in a prison yard. this was supposed to be my joyful activity. there is no joy.
him: that could be a thing. you should write a book about it. The Art of Joyless Gardening, by N Ayisha M---. 


so, for the next few weeks, i will be staring at a whole lot of this.

it is like modern art... with future-food inside!

while we were out shopping for compost, i kept walking past a display of plastic strawberry pots filled with assorted herbs, and i made the mistake of petting some lemon balm, which only served to remind me that i really like lemon balm. i have never actually cooked with it, but the stuff is a-ma-zing in pitchers of iced tea and lemonade. it is also quite lovely in boozy summery drinks, especially the ones made with vodka and/or gin. naturally, i had to find a lemon balm plant. two-and-a-half employees later, and it turned out they were sold out except for the ones crammed into those strawberry pot arrangements, so i bought a plastic strawberry pot just so i could get the lemon balm. i removed it from said container and replanted it in a bigger pot so that it will have more room to grow and spread, because you can never have too much lemon balm. i also repotted the curly parsley that was planted on the other side, so now i am left with a plastic strawberry pot with two empty slots. there is a joke in there somewhere.

we did manage to make one mildly-thrilling discovery while working on our tiny garden. about a month or so ago, i sprinkled seeds for beets and sugar-snap peas into a couple of the containers, so i decided to top them off with some compost to give the plants a bit of a boost. he was removing the cage of joylessness from the sugar-snaps when he paused and told me to come have a look. do you see it?

my insect identification is worse than my bird identification, but i am fairly certain that this is a Lettered sphinx moth (Deidamia inscriptum). the larvae feed primarily on grape plants, and there is a massive hedge of wild grapes that runs along the railroad track at the bottom of our street. the vines continue on for a mile (or more) along the tall fence that separates the tracks from the public roadway, so this area would be ideal for Lettered sphinxes looking to lay their eggs. i usually panic at the appearance of even a single moth (especially the ones that look like they are in search of a wooly meal), but this one can stay as long as (s)he likes. welcome, new friend. welcome.

the combo of black, greys, and browns with the splash of bright green in the background calls to me. i may have to pull out my dye pot and translate this image into a color scheme for some yarn.

for now, i am going to finish my coffee and stare out the window for a while. if i look hard enough, i may just find some joy.

(still) my kind of holiday...

it is a long holiday weekend in most of Canada, and i have been abandoned for the whole thing. my favorite animator is off at his folks' place for a combination of celebrating his dad's birthday and helping them plant this year's vegetable garden. there also seems to be lots of grilling and much merriment with his nephews from the reports i am getting. meanwhile, i spent the day buried under a down blanket trying to weather a truly spectacular head-cold-type-thing. i blame this entirely on my mom who saw fit to pass along a familial affinity for maladies of the sinus cavity. so much for the 'unofficial start of Summer'. thanks, mom.

this holiday technically has something to do with Queen Victoria's birthday and that of the current Queen. however, most people have moved on from caring about silly things like monarchy. in fact, i am fairly certain that Quebec law prohibits even thinking about members of the British royal family. the day is dedicated to "national patriots" in said province... just do not ask which nation the patriots are meant to represent, or you might set off World War III.  the whole thing is more commonly referred to as the "May long weekend" or as "May two-four". the former refers to the holiday having been moved so that it always falls on a Monday (ensuring a long weekend), while the latter is a double entendre referring to the actual birthday of QV... and the number of cans in a case of beer!!! i kid you not. that, ladies and gentlemen, is my kind of holiday!

truth be told, we are not big on celebrating stuff around here. having long abandoned any pretense of religiosity, and having very little inclination toward flag-waving on behalf of our respective nationalities, there really is not a whole lot left over by way of holidays. the rest of them fall either into the category of 'things you do to appease small children' (like Christmas or International Beg-For-Candy Day) or 'holidays that exist only to prey on your guilt' (uhm... happy Mother's Day again, Mom). exactly. speaking of which...

i was talking to my mom last Sunday, when a quick, darting movement caught my attention. there was something colorful flittering about in the canopy of my local maple tree. do you see it?

i grabbed my camera, tucked the phone firmly against the side of my neck, and started snapping away through the double-glass doors as i did not want to scare it away.

bird identification ranks very low on my otherwise-impressive list of useless life skills, but i am inclined to think it is an Orange-crowned Warbler. (s)he lacks a true orange crown, which is common according to the description, but there is a distinct orangish blush to the top of its head... or maybe that was just shade from the maple leaves. in either case, should my identification prove to be incorrect, i am blaming it on the folks over at the National Audubon Society.

while we are on the subject of societies, there was a brief meeting last Tuesday of the Wednesday Watercolour Society. actually, we sat on the sofa and took stock of our supplies, then reorganized them in a new box, as the old box was falling to pieces. he purchased a series of instructional videos by some artist whose work he likes, so the plan is to go through them one at a time, with paintbrushes and loaded palettes in hand. his paintings will probably be on exhibit in a local museum by the end of the Summer, while mine will (still) look like the artwork of a blind chimpanzee. sigh.

i finished a few new crafty projects recently, but i will talk more about them in my next post... maybe later this week... maybe. i have been keeping busy stalking sheep online and making a nuisance of myself to people on multiple sides of the globe. that too will be explained in greater detail next time around. for now, i am gong to refill my teacup and maybe muster enough energy to work a few rounds on my current knitting project... maybe.

the yarn was repurposed from a project i started (and abandoned) early last year.

me: i think i'm gonna frog this, because i am never gonna wear it.
him:  but that's your Amy Herzog cardi.

you could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather. this coming from the man who cannot remember the security code for the main door of our building.

the yarn is (still) pink and i am (still) uneasy at the prospect of wearing such colorful things, but i am slowly getting over that fear. i must be sicker than i think. [ignore the sticker on my 'puter. it is the please-spend-more-money coupon-code-thingie that came with the latest edition of Making magazine.]

if it is (still) Sunday where you are, i hope you are having a happy Rapture Party Day, and if it is Monday... happy Sherlock Holmes Day. even if tradition dictates that you celebrate it with a large mug of cocoa and a well-worn copy of a favorite mystery, that is (still) my kind of holiday!

somebody somewhere somewhat somehow sometime...

i finished that blanket for somebody's baby, and it is currently sitting in a post office somewhere in Brooklyn. i hope mom likes it, and that the lady she intends to gift it to likes it even more.

this is the Daisy Garden Baby Blanket by Stephanie Boozer. the yarn is a light clayish-beigey-taupelike color, as mom instructed requested that it be gender-neutral, but non-white, in case the recipient wanted to use it for future babies. i could have made a sweater in the time i spent working on this thing. that being said, it is rather lovely (she says modestly).

the alternating solid and textured blocks separated by bands of seed stitch create a patchwork effect. i opted to go for seven blocks across and seven blocks high, because it is the most awesome of all the numbers. i was not willing to risk my life on a ladder to prove that there are in fact forty-nine blocks, so you will just have to trust me on that one.

there were a few balls of yarn remaining, so i picked up stitches all around, and extended the seed stitch border. said border could have been wider still, but i had to tap out before i completely lost the will to live, so there are a couple balls of this yarn floating around in the stash.

a quick flip of the corner reveals the ridge created by the picked-up stitches.

the blanket is lovely and squishy, thanks to a round yarn that allows the textured stitches to pop.

it feels like you are running your fingers over teeny tiny bubble wrap.

i wanted that dimensional element to carry through to the bound-off edge, so i opted to finish with an applied i-cord. the i-cord was only two stitches wide, but it was enough to provide the desired definition along the edge.

there is somewhat of a picture-frame effect with the added border and the i-cord edge. i like it!

this is a lovely design for a blanket (for a baby, or otherwise), and i would recommend it to anyone looking for the same. [i mentioned in my last post that i had trouble finding the free pattern in the location linked on Ravelry, so i contacted the designer who sent me a copy. the link has since disappeared from the pattern page, so it may take a bit more effort to track it down in future.]

i was absolutely drained by the time this was done, so i needed an instant-gratification project to recharge the crafting spirit. i purchased some lavender last summer, a tiny portion of which was used in my soap-making adventure. [aside: that soap with all the nubbly bits of oatmeal is a-maz-ing if you, like me, enjoy serious exfoliation when you bathe]. this seemed like a good time to (finally) put the rest of the lavender to the original intended purpose. note three containers, each one a different variety of lavender.

what was the point of buying three varieties if they were going to end up mixed together, you ask? because i do so love a blend, i reply.

i had an assortment of those little bags people use for handing out favors at cheerful events. keeping moths away from my fiber stash seems plenty cheerful to me.

the next part is a bit tricky. grab a bag...

shove a bit of lavender in there somehow...

and tie it all up. repeat until you run out of bags or lavender... or both.

i made about thirty moth-repelling sachets in total, most of which have since been tucked away inside bags of yarn. i may toss a few into my clothes drawers. sometimes you want a bit of floral freshness, even when you are just searching for socks.

(wo)man-listening and other attempts at tying up loose ends...

i am working on a baby blanket, and i may have to disown my own mother before it is done. now, let me just take a moment to clarify (for anyone who may be jumping to so-not-ever gonna-happen conclusions) that this blanket has less-than-nothing to do with me.

mom: one of the ladies who works downstairs from me is having a baby.
me: uh huh... [but mostly wondering why she is telling this to me].
mom: i have to get her a gift before she goes on leave.
me: uh huh... [i think i see where this is going].
mom: i was wondering if you could knit a blanket for the baby.
me: uh huh... [just as i suspected].

i do not usually take special requests, but mom is extra-special, so knit a blanket i did! the pattern is the Daisy Garden Baby Blanket by Stephanie Boozer. it is a free pattern, but i could not find it where it was supposed to be posted. i contacted the designer, and she emailed me a copy. thank you, Stephanie! there is technically enough blanket to call it quits at this point, but i really want to get every last inch centimeter of this yarn out of my home, so i am going round and round the edges to use up as much of it as i can before giving it a quick wash and tossing it in the mail. hopefully i will remember to take a few quick pics when it is done. till then, it will remain a scrunched-up mass that i carry from room-to-room like my very own ball-and-chain. thanks, mom.

there is also the never-ending project i like to call the "slow burn", parts of which are currently housed in a box that once contained a pair of men's snow boots (sized US11, if you really need all the details), but i will soon have to find it some more spacious digs.

open the top to reveal... a colorful square.

it is actually a whole stack of colorful squares.

i mentioned, somewhere back in August last year, that i had unearthed some yarn from deep-stash that i planned to use for a long-term project.

that project is the Bright Star blanket by... you guess it... Norah Gaughan. you probably already know how i feel about Norah, but i was genuinely obsessed with this blanket for at least a few years before i found the courage (and the yarn) to give it a go. the blanket consist of large mitered squares that will be joined together to magically form the overall design. i am almost done making the first set of squares (all sixteen of them) before moving on to the next motif. for the record, these are not dainty little squares. oh, no no no! note Altoids tin for comparison. the people over at Altoids are gonna owe me big time when this becomes a universally-recognized unit of measurement.

this is a paid-for pattern, so i will not go into any specifics of the design, other than to say that it employs a whole lot of intarsia, which involves using different yarns to create blocks of color within a piece. an eponymous technique is commonly used in woodworking to create end products that are pieced together almost like a jigsaw puzzle. in knitting, this requires the juggling of more than one ball of yarn within the same row. for this project, i am using four balls at a time to create most of the square before switching over to the lilac section.

this is the setup at the start of a new square. note the use of four balls of yarn at this point.

for the sake of sanity, i keep the active balls in a plastic bowl. yep... not gonna touch that one. moving on.

to make things even more joyous, i am using the yarn doubled (as it was too thin for the project), which means twice as many ends to weave in when it is done. yep... definitely gonna be taking my time with this one.

in other news, the seedlings are coming along just fine. i added a light over the table to give them a bit of nocturnal encouragement. it is not a regulation grow-lamp, but i figure every little bit helps.

the kitties have had already had a go or two at the cat grass, so it looks a bit mangled. i would like to say that it is a reward for good behavior, but there are no words for that concept in their language.

as expected, the zukes were the first thing out of the soil, and they are already outgrowing the container. if you look closely, you just might spot a cat.

seems she has found a new fave place to nap.

then there was that minor epiphany while washing shampoo out of my eye. [random aside: do not ever try to make sense of life while soap suds are sliding down your face]. i had just finished a long conversation with mom before hopping in the shower, and i was replaying the conversation in my head. well... i was replaying my behavior during most of the conversation inside my head, when it hit me. that must be what man-listening feels like.

she said something, and i responded with "uh huh". she even paused a few times to ask if i was listening, which is when i switched briefly to, "yep... still here", before going back to the standard "uh huh". i could not wait to share this new revelation with my favorite animator.

me: i have to talk about this in my next post.
him: you know your mom will kill you if she sees that, right?
me: she doesn't read my blog.
him: you told her about it.
me: i may have mentioned it once or twice... but i doubt she was really listening.