A Weekend with MarieOlive

Hello dear friends,  

Having a farm and both working full time in the city can make it very hard for us to take time out to have fun.  Fortunately for us my sister in law MarieOlive traveled from Montreal to spend this  weekend with us.  She has never been to St. Jacobs and although the weather was very cool and drizzly we had a great time visiting the market.

The market is open year round and even at this time of year there were many outdoor vendors.

There were buckets and buckets of tulips.

There was a horse auction and we paused for a few minutes to watch and take some photos.  The gentleman in the picture is a stranger to us but the event was very crowded so he was captured!

We did not buy any horses!

We did enjoy viewing all of the indoor vendors with an incredible assortment of meats, cheeses and baking!  It was a lovely day and after a little rest we were able to savour the delicious products we purchased.  

We are looking forward to additional visits over the summer when the weather will be warmer.

Thank you for visiting and have a great week.

Early Srping Ice Storm

Hello dear friends, the weather forecast last week predicted a significant storm for us this weekend.  Originally we were expecting up to 60 mm of rain but as the temperatures have been hovering around freezing in the end it turned out to be a 2 day ice storm.  At the farm we received quite a combination of freezing rain, ice pellets and even some snow.  Now the temperatures are hovering just above freezing and it is raining.

I hope that you enjoy the photos of the confused birds that have much to say about the weather!  We kept our feeders topped up over the weekend so that they would have lots to eat.

Let's all wish for more springlike weather soon!

Looking For Signs Of Spring!

Hello dear friends!  According the calendar we should be experiencing spring so I thought that I would take a little walk around the farm to confirm that spring has actually arrived.  😩  The temperatures have been much colder than we should have at this time of year and last Friday we had about 10 cm of snow.  There are a few glimmers of hope!

I love mosses in the garden.

Some daffodils are breaking through the ground.

This looks like a large stone but is actually a big puffy mushroom.  

The rabbits have been very bold this year.  We have had rabbit tracks on the verandas that wrap around our house.  Their boldness astonishes me considering we have 3 large dogs.  Perhaps noshing on my tulips is worth the risk.

It must be spring if we have a robin?

The maple by the little garden shed has buds.

More moss.

This pin oak tree always holds its old leaves well into spring.

Yellow crocuses.

This purple crocus has papery petals.

Lake Ophelia still looks cold although most of the ice has melted.  A heron made an appearance last week and we have a pair of Canada Geese that have stopped by as well.

There are about 25 lambs in the barn.

A particularly porky lamb.

We use marking paint to identify lambs and their mothers.  This allows us to quickly identify if the lamb is a single or twin, and the colour of the paint allows us to match which lambs belong to which ewes.

Our farm renovations are continuing.  We are doing the work ourselves and it is amazing how easily other more pressing issues seem to push the renovations to the side.  We are slowly making progress on our kitchen and I am working the second guest bedroom.  Optimistically I hope to have some updates soon!

~Thank you for visiting~