Bloom Day, But There's Nobody Here But

It's Bloom Day, but there is nobody here but

us,

chickens!

That's right, 10 cats and one small dog were not enough so now I've added a few chooks to the mix as well. They are Australorp chickens and hail from the land of Oz originally. There's 3 of them; Kylie (the blue one) and Possum and Skippy, the black grrls. Pretty, aren't they and great egg producers or so I'm told. They arrived chez Bliss last Saturday and are settling in nicely. Hopefully they will start laying eggs soon.

I didn't get the chooks for their eggs only, but also for the manure they produce which will be used to fertilize the potager and borders. Apart from that chickens are very handy when you want to get rid of kitchen scraps, especially those you cannot bung on the compost heap. One chicken eats about 50 kilo's of kitchen scraps per year.

But enough of the latest addition to the Bliss Team, here are some pretty blooms for your delectation:

A bashfull white Helleborus orientalis hybrid with purple freckles

Hellebore nigercors Emma, with upright-ish flowers instead of the usual droopy ones

Hamamelis intermedia Diane, in flower since last December

 Primula vulgaris, one of many about to burst into bloom,

Bergenia cordifolia,

Violets,

Jasminum nudiflorum, it's called nudiflorum because it flowers on bare branches. This baby has been in flower since last November.

Viburnum bodnantense Dawn, she's been in flower since last December, and she has a wonderful scent, bless her.

Snowdrops and winter aconites flowering their socks off,

and not Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds but Crocus in the Earth with Diamonds. Aren't those brave little troopers gorgeous?

When I started the Bliss garden my aim was to have flowers in the garden all year round and so far I've managed that for the last 5 years.  Flowers all year round are a joy and they are particularly precious at this time of year.

Happy Bloom Day!

copyright 2011 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Grow Your Own Mushrooms

Every year I'd like to try something new and this year is no exception. As you have gathered from the title I thought I'd try my hand at growing my very own mushrooms. I'd seen starter kits in a shop in my little village and as the price was very reasonable I'd thought I'd give it a go. I love to experiment, that is one of the bonuses of being a gardener, isn't it, you get to experiment every year to your heart's content.

So last Saturday I bought a starter kit for chestnut mushrooms as I prefer them to white mushrooms.

In the box you find a container of well-rotted compost containing the mycelium (on the left) and a small bag of covering soil. You let the box stand for 3 days with the lid slightly ajar, temperature 20 to 25 C, to promote the rotting process of the compost even further.

well-rotted compost with the mycelium (the white, fluffy bits)

There is only one place in my house where the temperature is constantly between 20 to 25 C, day or night and that is in the bathroom where I have underfloor heating. So I put the mushroom box there.

I also knew where the very bestest, cosiest. toastiest place in the whole bathroom was. If you are wondering how I know this.....

the above picture says it all. ;-)

Today I'll have to make a few slits in the bag of soil and bung it in half a litre of water for roughly 8 minutes. Then remove the bag from the water and let it drain for half an hour. After that spread the soil evenly over the compost. Within 6 to 9 days the mycelium will start growing in the soil. As soon as the mycelium is visible I'll have to place the box in a cooler space say 13 to 18 C.

It will be awhile before I can show you my chestnut mushrooms but fortunately here is a box I prepared earlier.

About two weeks ago I bought my first mushroom kit and this is the result after 2 1/2 weeks. Those are yellow oyster mushrooms, one of my favorites, I love mushrooms, how about you? It won't be long now before I can start harvesting them. If all goes well I will be able to get 3 to 5 harvests from 1 box. Not bad, eh? You just harvest the mushrooms and then wait for a new crop to pop up.

In the garden more flowers are starting to appear. This is my pretty Hamamelis that is currently flowering its socks off.

And everywhere in the garden little green noses are poking through the soil. It won't be long now before crocus, winter aconites and snowdrops will be laughing their little flowery heads off, bless them.

And in my living room these tulips are doing an excellent job of cheering the place up. January days can be so dull and grey so yours truly needed a bit of colour like a shot in the arm.

Tulips are very good in providing much needed colour on dull, drab days and so is Maine Coon Dolly Daisy with her snow white and firy red garb and a disposition that is frighfully cheery-uppy.

copyright 2011 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Indoor Winter Harvest

We are in the midst of winter and not much is going on in the Bliss garden. The Viburnum Bodnantense Dawn is in flower and fills the garden with a delightful scent, the Winter Jasmin is doing its best to cheer up a bleak winter's day with its golden trumpets.

And there is of course the stalwart Viburnum Tinus, bless its brave little heart, about to burst forth in flower but apart from that, it's a bit dull outside.

So we turn indoors for our garden entertainment. Let's go to the conservatory where there is much to delight a gardener's heart.

 I have 3 citrus trees overwintering in my conservatory and they are such a fount of joy as they flower and fruit pretty much year round. Both my orange and kumquat tree are full of fruits so it's time to harvest them and turn them into

marmelade. I make about 7 to 8 pots a year. Not a vast production but enough to keep me in marmelade all year round. And of course there's nothing better than spreading your very own homegrown &made marmelade on a hot bit of toast. Yum!

Another useful plant I grow in my conservatory is Aloe Vera.  Not everything I grow is for eating; from my Aloe Vera plants I harvest 1 leaf about once a week and spread the contents of that leaf all over my face, neck and hands. Aloe Vera is added to many a skin care product because it is so very good for human skin. I go one better and use pure Aloe Vera. If you want to have a go at growing and harvesting Aloe Vera be my guest as they are so easy to grow but, please pay attention,  do NOT rub the stuff all over your face before trying a bit on the inside of your elbow. Wait 24 hours to check if you are not  allergic to it and then, and only then,  you can put as much Aloe Vera goop on your face as you want.

About  a year ago I bought 1 Aloe Vera plant and now have 5 of them. They grow like the clappers and produce babies by the bucketful. I love taking a bath after I'd put on a face mask of pure Aloe Vera as it's utter Bliss!

For my regular visitors:

It can't have escaped your notice that I haven't been blogging regularly these past few months and my visits to yours and other blogs  have been few and far between. Not by choice but of necessity as I haven't had much time on my hands lately. Both my aged parents are not very well and need a lot of extra care and attention. My mother has Alzheimer and is trying to cope with a body that doesn't function as well as it used to after suffering a minor stroke. My dad was rushed to hospital last November with an severe infection of bladder and kidneys. Shortly before Christmas we received the news that my dad also has cancer (prostate) and has to have an operation soon as the major artery in his belly is about to burst. Not good news as I'm sure you'll agree.

copyright 2011 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Christmas Time

The Mora clock is ticking the hours away. Not long now before it's Christmas. It's going to be another White Christmas this year, same as last year. Very unusual as we've had only 7 times a White Christmas in the last 100 years. Aren't we the lucky ones to have 2 in a row?

If there's one who's extatic about the snow it's the Ickle Pup Tara. Tara? Tara! Get your widdle face out of the snow!

Dogs!

 We had snow this month and then some more snow. All in all we've had 30 cm so far. And it's been cold too.

So cold in fact that we've had some unusual sightings chez Bliss.

Some highly unusual sightings......

Polar Bears, whatever next?

Russian Blue Angels?

 A miffed Christmas Coon?

A Christmas Puppy Faerie? This is getting ridiculous. Better stop while I'm still ahead.

Merry Christmas/ Heavenly Holidays/Knisperende Kerstkransjes!

Peace on earth

From the united species of Bliss

Copyright 2010 Y.E.W. Heuzen

Hanging With Merlin

 Tara and Merlin (R)

 This year I had to face two of my worst fears concerning my cats. You've read about one of them here but in March of this year another of my worst nightmares came true: Merlin was diagnosed with Diabetes. I have friends with diabetic cats and known for years that that's not a picnic.

My vet was making rather light of the whole thing but I've known for a long time that diabetes can be a killer as cats are notoriously difficult to regulate. Of all the diabetic cats I know quite a few of them were never feeling that well while on insulin and some of them, after struggling for months, even died. So I was not a happy bunny to put it mildly as Merlin was only 7 at the time.

The vet gave me Caninsulin, a bunch of syringes, instructions and a bag of low-carb catfood and that was it. I was not happy with Caninsulin because of all the diabetic cats I know who are on it and although alive, not exactly thriving. The risk with quick working insulins like Caninsulin is overdosage resulting into death if you are not quick to administer sugar (dextrose) and rushing your cat to the vet's. Because of this risk you are advised to keep the glucose levels higher rather than low-ish, within normal range. Unfortunately too high glucose levels over a long period results into organ and other damage.

As soon as I got home I made Merlin comfortable and went off to search the internet for information about diabetes in cats. I researched for almost a week but then I knew pretty much everything there is to know about diabetic cats and how to take care of them.

Merlin, shortly after we came home from the vet. As you can see they shaved his neck in order to draw some blood for testing his glucose levels.


I found a fab site with a wealth of information at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, of all places, where a lot of scientific research on diabetic cats (and dogs) has been done by Dr Jacquie S. Rand et all. I learned that the best insulin to give was Lantus (glargine/levemir) as that had the highest incidence of remission in cats and because it keeps your cat extremely well regulated and thus healthy & happy.

Although humans and dogs can become diabetic as well, it's only cats that can have remission which means that they do not require insulin shots any longer. Also with Lantus you can regulate your cat quite well and keep him/her in the safe zone. With Caninsulin you do not check glucose levels and actually administer insulin without really knowing how much your cat requires. That is soooo not me as I am an INTJ (Rationalist Mastermind) and want to know what the heck I'm doing and, almost even more importantly, why!

With diabetes you're between a rock and a hard place, a very hard place: too much insulin results in very low glucose levels, brain damage and then coma and death, not enough insulin and thus far too high glucose levels also leads to coma and death. So it's a fine balancing act you have to perform.

Twice a day I check Merlin's glucose levels; at 8.30 in the morning and 8.30 at night. I just prick the vein in his ear with that little blue lancet you see above. Then I put a testing strip in my glucose meter, dab the end in a pinprick of blood and hey presto, within a few seconds I get the result. According to how high his glucose level is I calculate the dosage of insulin he needs.  Merlin needs to be between 2.8 to 5.6 on my glucose meter ( made for humane blood). If he scores higher than 11.0 his kidneys will get damaged  if it continues over a longer period. Other organs can get damaged as well. I can keep Merlin pretty stable with Lantus, so stable in fact that he is very happy, perky and unaware of his serious illness.

After measuring his glucose level I give him his insulin shot, also twice daily. Another good thing about Lantus is that it is very difficult to overdose it as it is a slow working insulin and works over a long period of time. Many a cat has died from hypoglycemia; an overdose of insulin/too low glucose levels, when treated with other kinds of insulin.

As I said I was not keen on Caninsulin and I was right. One week after treatment with Caninsulin Merlin got very ill with ketoacidosis, a too high level of ketones in his blood caused by a far too high glucose level. It looks like he hardly responded to treatment with Caninsulin. We had to rush him to the vet where we spent hours and hours while he received emergency treatment to lower his ketones and glucose level. Fortunately the Lantus pens I had ordered the day before had arrived and he was started on it straight away. We got him home at 2 in the afternoon and at 11 at night he perked up and started to eat. And he's never been ill since. The first few weeks I checked the ketones level in his urine on a daily basis but as he got regulated on Lantus very soon I was able to stop checking.

 Surprise and Merlin, in a head to head

Checking glucose levels and giving insulin shots are now part of our daily routine. It is not difficult to do, nor very time consuming. Merlin is a very sweet and gentle boy and doesn't struggle when I treat him. But treating your cat for diabetes twice daily does put the kibosh on your social life a bit as you always have to be home at certain times.

 United species and breeds of Bliss

This year I learned a lot of new skills courtesy of Vita and Merlin. Vita taught me how to become a detective and to persevere and Merlin has taught me a lot of nursing skills. He also taught me much about catfood and why most commercially available catfood is NOT good for your cats at all. More about that in my next post.

 Mummy Delia (l) with son Merlin

If you have a cat or even cats, please bookmark this site. You'll never know, you might need it one day.


Here is a list of websites that contain valuable information about diabetic cats and how to treat them:

http://www.uq.edu.au/ccah/index.html?page=43608&pid=0

http://www.tillydiabetes.net/en_6importantfactors.htm

http://felinediabetes.com/

http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Lantus

In Dutch:
http://forum.suikerkatten.nl/





Copyright 2010 Y.E.W. Heuzen