The spring gardening season is upon us with even more speed than it usually arrives, because regardless of what winter does, that’s the way time works: every year accelerates. So it is time that the Ville’s annual “embellissement” campaign (“embellishment,” or rather “beautification”) is coming again to many boroughs in just a few weekends.
A pepper plant I received from the garden giveaway as a seedling, once it matured and produced two peppers!
This annual event gives residents of Montreal a number of floral, vegetable, and herb seedlings for their gardens and balconies. Past entrants have been impatiens and begonias, echinacea (cone flowers), sage, rosemary, basil, and mint, and peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Always included: as much compost and wood chips as you want to take. Bring your own bags, baskets, buckets, and a wagon to cart it all away! Oh, and don’t forget your ID. You have to prove residency in the borough in which the plants are being given.
When? Well, you’ll have to check the Montreal.ca website and consult the calendar or the page for your borough, or other community listings, to find out when the “distribution” of plants is (that’s the search word to look for), but it typically happens on the long weekend in May, and for some, the weekend after that, and lastly, the first weekend in June.
I know it seems late for gettting them in the ground (last-frost date seems to be happening in April, if you’re in the city), but frankly, it takes time for the seedlings to grow up and “harden off” (acclimate to the outdoors) before they can be distributed for public planting. Though outdoor plants that are well-established are now as lush as can be, the seedlings I’ve planted are hardly ready for planting; the ones the Ville distributes have been started in greenhouses.
Everyone loves a red door, so the first year I owned my house, I painted the front door red. (It was a beige matching the trim, very boring when you could do otherwise.) You can even see the red front door in my Squirrel Buster blog post here!
But after a good oh FIFTEEN YEARS, even a fire-engine red door can look a little tired. It was time for a change! All I knew was that I wanted a velvety, flat finish, so I got some advice and picked up my paint chips to test and get approved by the most important constituents: house guests.1 (These house guests were also good friends-from-out-of-town.)
I was tempted by the two darkest greensGo light, or go dark?I think I went with the one in the middle
After choosing the colour, it was simply a matter of applying a primer to go on top of the old Tremclad oil-based paint. Primers can be in latex or in oil, and either one can be used for a latex paint finish — but it’s usually best to use oil-based primer to prep a former-oil-paint surface. (You cannot paint latex on top of oil paint and expect a good result.)
In late November, 2020, I took a video of a very busy squirrel perched on the ladder in the back yard. It was stripping a burlap bag of material to put into its nest (probably the squirrel cabin outside my bedroom window). The squirrel looked a little wobbly, but I thought little of it. They’re wild animals with wild lives. Until I saw it again in January, hanging upside down under the park bench, wobbling around while looking for bird seed.
A couple of days later, I saw the squirrel spinning around the base of the tree:
Oh boy. I had an injured or neurologically impaired squirrel to look out for. So I tossed it out an acorn, which it found in short order. OK, so not helpless, just having extra challenges in getting around.
Assistance measures for a disabled wild animal
Over the next few weeks, I keep an eye out for it, and made sure it always found a supplemental tidbit. I was glad to have already put “squirrel ramps” out there: old boards propped on the ladder against the fence and to the patio. They made it easy for squirrels to get up on the patio from a different part of the yard.
You can see the fur has been barbered or else is growing in from a previous episode of mangeEven disabled, it could climb! (The cabin is up one storey from here)Climbing in action – upright and upside downYou can see a bit of mange
I continued to monitor the situation through February, where I found out that he/she had no trouble climbing the wall, and even hang upside-down using its back legs, no problem.
Considering that the squirrel had plenty of compromises, I also put out a “bus shelter” for it, so that it would have a secure space sheltered from the elements in which to eat its snacks and maybe catch some repose. It got in the habit of retiring here to eat its daily ration of chestnuts and peanuts:
The “Bus Shelter” with the squirrel approaching!Neuro-Squirrel using the Bus Shelter.
I also found out Neuro-Squirrel had a friend, as I saw them both climbing the wall at the same time, and hanging out together, having their food (video):
Unfortunately, over the course of February and March, Neuro-Squirrel degenerated and needed even more help. I fixed up a heat lamp in the corner of the patio door. Infra-red heat transmits through glass, and it would help him or her feel more comfortable; I added extra straw to the Bus Shelter.
Neuro-Squirrel in the bus shelterSleeping comfortably
Here she/he is looking a little worse for wear. In fact, she (I had to handle her to get her out of a jam, and she really didn’t like that!) was having a really hard time getting around. I could see that, though she valiantly survived this long through the winter, it was end times for her.
The posture and condition of a very aged or decrepit squirrel: thin fur, hunched back, looking pinched…
On her last night and her last morning on earth I kept the heat lamp on her, and –though protesting my presence if I imposed upon her a little too much – added softer Polyfill bedding to her Bus Shelter. She had as good a sleep as I could imagine her having, without her friend to keep her company.
SleepingMore sleepingSome more sleepingAnd waking up.
On this day, after her early morning runabout, she took this long nap in the box. When she next got up, she wandered off…and never came back.
RIP, Neuro-Squirrel. May you have enjoyed your short life to the fullest, and may your death have been an easy one.
This post is a bit of a departure from usual topics! The pandemic has brought a lot of people home and made them appreciate a few things. Some of them are obvious, like decluttering (my low-key favourite!) and home decoration (that too) and house plants (I’ve got lots of those). One of the many other home-bound themes, though, has to do with the clothes we wear…and aren’t wearing, as we’re not going out in public much these days. In fact, we’re wearing a lot of
Schlep-wear, schlepwear | house-schlep clothes. 1. No-longer-stylish or imperfect yet comfortable clothes you only wear at home, to preserve socially-appropriate clothing for repeated use and greater longevity. I changed into my house-schlep tights as soon as I got home. I slung my work pants over the back of the chair for Friday morning. 2. Stained or worn out clothes worn over other clothes for the purpose of getting dirty while working on household or outdoor projects. I split the seam of this pair of pants, so now they're schlep-wear for the next time I paint.
I must say I was surprised and a bit annoyed to read about people feeling the “need” to buy house-schlep clothes, as in, the ultra-comfy casual wear that found a new market this pandemic. They can spend the money if they have it, but didn’t they just overburden all the charity shops by getting rid of too much (too fast: all at the same time), and now they’re buying more? This is ironic. Or just poor decision-making.
I hope that merchants are selling their overstock, the stuff previously going to waste in this incredibly wasteful industry. Otherwise, workers are in the factory at great risk to themselves right now, or at their sewing machines at home, merely to supply a frivolous need.
Because in my view, people were already wearing house-schlep clothes. And there’s a ready supply of second-hand clothes both online and in charity shops, even if in-person shopping is a limitation. Except for pyjamas, you don’t need new house-schlep clothes because…
This is a long-running “lifestyle” blog about the pleasures of living like a farm kid in an urban context. There’s a big focus on ecology and wildlife because this has brought me joy – and this is also the greatest potential we have of restoring some balance to nature where we live.
I write practical content for people to do little projects that basically make things beautiful, but also support climate readiness (energy efficiency, heat reduction, drought tolerance, flood prevention, and more). I’m a relentlless promoter of having a live-and-let-live attitude towards biodiversity.
Comments and questions are welcome! And if you’re anywhere near the Montreal region, you can also use my “Rewilding” service to landscape your property using native plants, convert to a green driveway, and prevent your windows from killing birds.
