More Signs, More Fun
06/04/10 12:35 Filed in: Garden
The beautiful weather is finally running out but I'm
glad to say I took full advantage while it lasted.
With rain in the forecast for the next four days here
in Nota Bene, the gardens and lawns will thrive while
the walks with the dog will only get messier and
muddier.
Monday was a holiday for government and
quasi-government employees here in Nota Bene so two
friends and I took advantage by travelling an hour
south to St. Andrew's on the Sea, a resort town on
the Bay of Fundy famous for its whaling and its golf.
It's too early in the season for the former so we
took the Algonquin Golf Resort up on its offer for
lower greens fees for early-season players.
The course was in decent shape for the first of April (well, the greens were a bit of a disaster but the rest was not too bad) and the back nine of Algonquin is as pretty as any I've seen. Most holes between 11 and 16 run along the shores of the Bay and the views are spectacular. The view from the first tee is gorgeous (see top picture) but the first nine holes are, in fact, merely average. They are made quite challenging by the fact that most greens are
hidden when you're standing on the tee, meaning
first-time golfers like me were at a distinct
disadvantage. It's also a long course but the beauty
of that back nine makes all the challenges worth
overcoming.
The back nine, as I said, is amazing. We're told that the 12th hole, a short par three where you feel like you are actually driving the ball into the Bay, is the club's signature hole. It really is a glorious location and, I have to admit, that view (see second picture) makes the tee shot all the more difficult. I am pleased to say that I dropped my drive right on the edge of the green and, if my memory serves, made a par by two putting from about 18 feet. Not at all bad, if I do say so myself.
The fact that I didn't play too badly in my first effort of the year made it all the more fun!
On the garden front, my indoor seeding
experiment is working well. I've planted seeds for
tomatoes (beef stake and grape), zucchini, cucumbers
and beans in the small plastic trays and placed them
on the desk in our spare office. After a week's
carefully moistening of the soil, the results are
amazing. I've got growth from all five of my veggie
varieties, with only the beef stake tomatoes and the
beans lagging behind. I'm very impressed but, since
they all seem to be growing so well (especially the
zucchini: see the third photo), will I have to repot
them in something larger as an interim step until the
risk of outdoor frost ends?
It's a nice problem to have. After last summer's debacle where my tomatoes and cukes emerged on the vine just in time to freeze and rot in November's cold, I am hopeful that I'll have something more like a bumper crop this year.
The course was in decent shape for the first of April (well, the greens were a bit of a disaster but the rest was not too bad) and the back nine of Algonquin is as pretty as any I've seen. Most holes between 11 and 16 run along the shores of the Bay and the views are spectacular. The view from the first tee is gorgeous (see top picture) but the first nine holes are, in fact, merely average. They are made quite challenging by the fact that most greens are
The back nine, as I said, is amazing. We're told that the 12th hole, a short par three where you feel like you are actually driving the ball into the Bay, is the club's signature hole. It really is a glorious location and, I have to admit, that view (see second picture) makes the tee shot all the more difficult. I am pleased to say that I dropped my drive right on the edge of the green and, if my memory serves, made a par by two putting from about 18 feet. Not at all bad, if I do say so myself.
The fact that I didn't play too badly in my first effort of the year made it all the more fun!
It's a nice problem to have. After last summer's debacle where my tomatoes and cukes emerged on the vine just in time to freeze and rot in November's cold, I am hopeful that I'll have something more like a bumper crop this year.