Thinking About Elderberries

I've been thinking about getting a few elderberry bushes for a while now. Why do I want elderberries? Because I want to make elderberry syrup. From all I've read this syrup is a pretty good preventative for colds, flues and related illnesses. Sure could of used it last year when dear Don was sicker then ever with a cold he just couldn't shake and turned into a lung infection. Apparently if you take a tablespoon a day, it acts as a preventative. And if, by chance you do catch a flu/cold, you up the dosage to 2 tablespoons and the cold doesn't hang around as long. So they say. I won't know until I try it. But I figure even if it doesn't work, I have a syrup for pancakes.

Last year, I did try to get some. I figured it would be a fairly simple procedure. Go down to the local nursery, announce I want some elderberry bushes and be directed to the right area of a immense greenhouse conglomeration that not only includes numerous greenhouses but wandering paths, garden paraphernalia (what's with the gaudy painted real ugly gnomes? Really, they are enough to make any garden give up and not grow anything) and bunches of people, some with carts laden with plants others wondering where they are and more importantly where they are supposed to be. (WOW, I think I just became the unofficial queen of the run-on sentence. Wonder if the the Guinness book of Records has that category).

Unfortunately, it was not the case, getting elderberry bushes, I mean. First I was asked if I wanted the decorative type or the common type. That got a blank stare from me. I said I wanted the one that I can make syrup from. The blank stare was promptly returned to me. After a bit of a discussion the nice helpful lady and I decided that I likely wanted the common variety. Then I was told they didn't have any. She said she'd order some in and she couldn't order any because they're all out. I thanked her for her time and did not say "You could have saved me 45 minutes simply by saying you were all out of both the common and decorative type." But I learnt more about elderberries and about patience and that's worth 45 minutes.

So home I go to find out more about elderberries. I know they are native to PEI which makes them very attractive to me. I'm not crazy about evasive species whether they are plants or wildlife. I figured it would be good to have their botanical name so I get the right type of elderberry. The elderberry bush I need is Sambucus Canadensis. I also found out the the PEI Forestry Department GIVES these things away because they are indigenous to PEI and they want to encourage people to grow native plants. Unfortunately the department were all out and so that ended my plan to plant elderberries last year. So today I will phone the department and order my elderberries. Hopefully that will go well, but based on my experience last year, I'm not counting my elderberries before I grow 'em.

Another Cat!!!

If this keeps up, I'm going to be starting to be referred to as The Crazy Cat Lady (as opposed to The Crazy Chicken Lady or The Crazy Rabbit Lady...but I guess anything's better than just plain old The Crazy Lady. Sometimes you just gotta look for the bright side.) Last winter I noticed a very large, fluffy black and white making its way across the snow cover towards the chicken coop. She moved slowly and gingerly as if she thought she might fall. It hurt to watch her. I got the impression she was old and probably arthritic. I opened the door and she ran(ish) under our porch.

I saw her on and off through the winter. It appears she has taken up residence under the veranda, on the farthest corner. Probably an old feral cat too tired to try to make it through the winter without some sort of shelter. My heart went out to her. (I'm calling her 'her' but I have no idea if she's a 'her' or a 'him' , but I know she's not an 'it').

I started leaving food out for her. I know, I know, I know, you feed 'em, you'll never get rid of 'em. But I didn't want her starving to death under my porch. Besides, it was obvious she was heading to the coop to eat Coop's leftovers anyways. At first, she ran and hid from me. Then she didn't run as far and did stay in sight waiting for me to put down food and leave. She started at about 30 feet away and over the months, she has gotten as close as six feet. She moves cautiously (painfully?), and sits daintily with her tail curled around her front feet.

She has learned, I imagine, to be patient, to be invisible, to be cautious of humans.

She gets along with Coop but not Whisk but then again, Whisk hates EVERY cat in the world. I'm hoping one day I will gain enough of her trust that I will be able to take her to the vets so she can at least be spayed or neutered, which ever the case may be. We call her Toc which stands for The Old Cat and as long as people don't start calling me TCL (The Crazy Lady) I figure I'm ahead of the game.

It's Not Goodbye If You Don't Forget

I lost my biggest fan of this blog. Mom passed at the age of 86 after a monumental battle with cancer. She passed as she had lived; quietly with a grace and love I have never seen matched.

Mom loved my blog and if I hadn't posted for a while I'd get an email from her. Typically, she never told me to post something it was always how much she enjoyed it and were there any new posts on the way? Pushy, she wasn't. Supportive and positive was the way she liked doing things. When I told her I was taking a break from it, she just said could read the old posts over and over. She had three favorites: http://wwwmindwanderings.blogspot.ca/2010/09/pumpkins-on-gate.html
http://wwwmindwanderings.blogspot.ca/2008/07/my-moms-peonies.html

http://wwwmindwanderings.blogspot.ca/2009/01/to-special-lady.html

I must admit, the last one is my favorite, too.

I decided to stop posting for a year or so because I found myself repeating the same thing: Today I grew something, today I harvested something, today I butchered something... Same old, same old. Over a year has gone by so it's time to start again. At least it will be a record of my triumphs, failures and everything in between.I'm going to start again once things settle a little bit around here. But it won't be quite the same because Mom was my biggest fan and not only of the blog.