Thursday, April 15, 2021

New Year Celebrations

Roses for my Mother

April 13 and 14 are when we celebrate the Sri Lankan cultural New Year.  It is known as Sinhala and Tamil New Year because it used to be celebrated mostly by these two major ethnic groups, but, almost everyone in Sri Lanka celebrates this event, so I prefer to call it the Sri Lankan New Year.  I've written about it in previous years (here, and here, for example) so I won't go into details about it, again.  It is a holiday in Sri Lanka.

But, it isn't a holiday over here, and daughter had to work, today.  However, I did my best to mark the occasion with a small celebration.  I picked fresh flowers from the garden - jasmines for the altars and roses to place next to my mother's picture on the mantelpiece.  Then, I cooked kiribath (milkrice) and seeni sambol (spicy onion relish) for brunch.  

It was a chilly, cloudy day, today.  I spent the afternoon reading blogs and playing sudoku, etc.  In the early evening, I watered the back garden and did a little more weeding, in the side yard, this time.  I had put down flattened cardboard boxes in the side yard in an attempt to control the weeds and it is working for the most part.  However, a few weeds had found a few openings where the boxes left some gaps and they were coming up!  I managed to pull most of them.  

Afterwards, I tried to make a barrier of sorts to discourage the garden cats from trying to dig around and fertilize my tomato and pepper plants:

Cat Defense

   

Tomato "Cage"


June, over at Live and Learn-Toss and Turn, has posted pictures of the beautiful fences her husband and son had built to protect her raised beds vegetable plots.  Now that's what I need for my vegetable garden!  Proper raised beds and sturdy fences!  But, that's a "someday" project.  

In the meantime, I collected some sticks and placed them around each plant to deter the cats.  When I ran short of sticks, I broke a few branches from the curry leaf tree and used them, instead.  I am particularly proud of my tomato "cage" made of three sticks tied together with a long strand of runner grass stem that I had weeded, earlier!  LOL!  Is that natural and organic or what?  

The tomatoes and peppers are planted next to the bed with the green beans and I noticed that a few of the beans have started to sprout!  The tomato and pepper plants were an after-thought!  Otherwise, I would have asked M to make the bean planting bed a little wider and planted the tomatoes and peppers in the bed.  Maybe something to consider for next year!  Or when we plant the next cool weather crop!

Meanwhile, the wildflowers are enjoying the cooler weather:

Mixed Wildflowers and Irises


Bachelor's Button or Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)

Later in the evening, I watched news, practiced the piano, and spoke with friends A and R.  Daughter and I also placed a grocery order to be picked up, tomorrow.  

Dinner was rice with leftover chicken and green beans stir fry.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- Being able to celebrate our New Year with daughter, this year
- Flowers from the garden
- Being able to order groceries online for curbside pick up
- Water for the garden
- Chatting with friends

Today's joyful activities include celebrating the New Year and gardening.

Plans for tomorrow include picking up the groceries.

How was your day?  What are your plans for tomorrow?




27 comments:

  1. Happy (belated) New Year. Your roses in the vase are so beautiful. I do like your all natural tomato cages. As you know I am a cat lover but I do not like the roaming neighbourhood cats in my garden & their little gifts left behind. My girls never go outside & so bother no one.

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    1. Thank you, Mary-Lou. I am the neighborhood crazy cat lady! I feed all the stray/feral cats. I don't mind, but, they do mess up my garden! Dancer, on the other hand, is a strictly indoors cat (although he's curious about the big outdoors and would love to go explore!)

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  2. I love the fact that you tied your tomato cage with weeded grass. That's using what you have on hand! Will you use a tomato cage to support the plant when the plant gets bigger or stake it, or let it vine on the ground? If you plan on a cage, I guess you could use one sooner rather than later to help deter the cats.

    And I am very happy with the fences that my husband and son built. Now we'll see if they work.

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    1. I was laughing at myself for using the grass, but, I was too lazy to go inside and cut a strip of fabric! M had asked if he should buy tomato cages and I said to go ahead and get some, but, if he doesn't, then, I still have that huge tomato cage I built a couple of years ago, which can easily be made into two smaller cages for the 2 plants.

      Oh, I'm sure your fences will work! They have to!

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  3. Happy Sri Lankan New Year Bless!

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  4. Belated Happy New Year! Once again some lovely flower photos. The blue flower is amazing. I love the wild blue chicory that we see around in summer by the roads.
    I was listening to a garden phone in and learned why the blue poppy is so hard to grow. Apparently you need fresh seeds, not some that have sat around in a packet in the store. I've never tried to grow one and now I won't waste my money on a packet of seeds! (I thought I'd share that in case any of your readers have had trouble trying to grow them.)

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    1. Thank you, Bushlady. I remember seeing the blue chicory flowers when I was in Wisconsin.

      Thank you for sharing the information about the blue poppy. Fresh seeds and acidic to neutral soil, from what I've read.

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  5. I'm a bit late but Happy New Year to you both.

    The flowers add such a lovely splash of colour, especially the cornflower with that glorious shade of blue.

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    1. Thank you, Eileen.

      I'm loving the flowers in the garden, this year. I, too, love the blue of the cornflower and am wondering why I never thought to plant some, earlier!

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  6. Hi Bless, Your flowers look beautiful. Happy New Year. I love how you always make time to celebrate.

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    1. Thank you, Stephenie. I try to observe all the different occasions to the extent that I am able. Celebrations are an affirmation of life and who I am. :)

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  7. Happy belated New Year! Your garden is wonderful! And such lovely flowers you placed to honor the memory of your mother. Its still too cold to plant here,bhut I have ordered lots of organic flower seeds. I did try to grow two cherry tomato plants last summer. The plants got very large with only a few tomatoes. I won't bother this year! I'll go to the farmers market for veggies. I'm not sure what blue chicory flowers look like. I'll have to look those up. Best, Celie.

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    1. Thank you, Celie. My mother loved roses. :) Your tomato plants might have received too much fertilizer and that might be why you had lots of leaves, but, few tomatoes! Or, perhaps not enough sunlight (they require 6-8 hours of direct sunlight). But, perhaps it's a good idea to concentrate on growing flowers and buying your veggies. The chicory plants used to grow on the roadside when I was in Green Bay. I'm sure they grow in your area, too. It's an edible plant and the roots are roasted to make a sort of coffee.

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  8. A belated happy Sri Lankan new year to you and your daughter. May you both have a blessed year.

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    1. Thank you so much! Please, would you let me know your name?

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    1. Wish you and your family the same, Nil. I thought of you and wondered if you made kiribath, but, figured you'd be too busy with your work!

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  10. Happy New Year to you and your daughter. I always enjoy hearing about different customs from different areas of the world.
    I think you marked the day nicely with the flowers and your mike rice and spicy onions.
    While I admire your ingenuity, I think its time to order a roll of chicken wire or hardware cloth ( much cheaper then chicken wire) from Walmart and do a curbside pickup because those sticks are not going to cut it all by themselves.
    lol
    And maybe get a pack of tall bamboo garden sticks too. I know having them has come in handy for me.
    A few years ago I got some nice rubber or plastic coated metal stakes and they were worth every penny I spent on them. And you know I don't like to spend money if I can make do with what I have.
    I got them at Home Depot. They were not expensive and work great with the chicken wire.
    Anyway, just a few thoughts to keep your garden pals in check.

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  11. Thank you for the New Year wishes, Debra. I could have ordered some special Sri Lankan sweets for the occasion, but, I decided not to.

    I got as far as looking at chicken wire to order, but, didn't actually order it. M did buy me two tomato cages for the tomato plants and we set them up in place, today. I had some of those green plastic coated metal stakes, but, I am down to about 3 of them, now. Probably time to buy a few more?

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  12. Belated Happy New Year wishes to you and your daughter, Bless.
    Your wildflower garden is looking beautiful, especially the cornflower - such a gorgeous colour. X

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    1. Thank you for the New Year wishes, Jules.

      I'm thrilled with how the wildflowers are providing some color to the garden. I, too, love the blue of the cornflowers. :)

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  13. Happy New Year to you! I love the flowers. So lovely and bright. I hope your cat deterrent works!

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    1. Thank you, Sharon. Cat deterrent seems to be working well, so far! :D

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