So This Is Spring?

Pardon my temporary leave of absence, but the month of March has been quite a busy one with Wayne's mom visiting for a couple of weeks, Sam finishing up swim lessons and continuing to enjoy her preschool days! March also brought us our first day of spring, however a lot of Western Canada has seen anything but! Alberta continues to be pummelled by a couple of snowfalls, while crocuses are still struggling to push through the soils of the South Coast!

Vancouver's below average temperatures for this time of year and the unusually extreme weather we experienced is adversely affecting our sub tropicals. Palm owners all over have been left to deal with severely damaged or even dead plants. One of my little windmill palms suffered a lot of rot and even the centre spear pulled out with ease. The other palm is definitely going to be okay, although it too suffered lots of frond damage. Not much I can do at this point, except be mindful of next winter. Once the very top growth is dead, so to the plant is effectively dead. Very sad to happen, as we all cherish our palms who usually thrive on the West Coast. I don't want to write it off until June, as it's a wait-and-see situation. My banana tree even flopped over after protection which is unheard of. I cut it to the ground but luckily these palms just grow up more pups from it's rhizome. Certainly a year of bad timing for a rookie palm buff! I've already made a trip to the nursery for a look at new and bigger palms to replace my possibly dead one, although they are a bit more pricey. Will definitely post pics if it's planted! Meanwhile, here are a couple of the good, the bad and the ugly....
Palm #1 (the green is promising -okay okay, laugh if you must)


Palm #2 Oh my goodness, as I type this I glanced out the window to see snow flurries...see what I mean?? The good news is it only lasts for a couple of hours as temps hover at the 7 C mark and this weekend we'll see warmer air temperatures. Will be good for my purple Phlox that's been bursting through the soil the past couple of weeks!

So Wayne's mother, AKA "Ya Ya" to the grandchildren, was quite taken by my attempts at growing tropicals this year. I'm giving her updates on their recovery now that she's back in Ottawa. We sure do miss her! She and Sammy spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking all sorts of goodies...from Rice Krispie squares to Irish Pan Buns! We celebrated St. Patrick's Day in honour of the Cassidy heritage....lots of BLARNEY and good eatin' of the Irish Lamb Stew, made with Guinness of course!






Ya Ya also enjoyed walks to the park with Sam who rode her new Dora bike all the way there!


Ya Ya was able to attend Sam's last couple of swim classes and watch her recieve her certificate. Sam passed Guppies 1 is now onto Guppies 2!


Okay this really must be an April Fools joke.... the snowflakes are getting thicker...and bigger.
and bigger. So this is spring huh? BLARNEY!