Merry Christmas

 Well, it's been a merry old time here.  We put the tree in the kitchen this year - an interesting experiment that has allowed us to monitor with unprecedented immediacy the yuletide phenomenon of cats-behaving-badly. Bless you, all those O&H fans who sent along the nip!

(click on the photo to see carnage more clearly)

"Who, me?"

As usual, it's pretty easy to tell who's been naughty and who's been nice. H is clearly the junkie, although O certainly did his share of drooling on the tissue paper. He just doesn't quite get the debauchery part.

Outdoors, it was busy being December.

 And at the end of the day, all's well that ends with a cat in a box.

Happy Solstice!

C is for...

Well, yes, cats, of course. But also columbines, which were in their prime at the end of May.

"Well, sure, but cats are the real deal, no?"

Retrodocumenting....from May 23

As promised, I did put on my wellies and go out and take pictures on the May long weekend.  So pretend this is six weeks ago - here is what was going on in the garden. The euphorbia was in full bloom, the cornflowers were coming on strong, the Japanese maple had leafed out, and even the (clashing) calendula were up and at 'em.

For the first time, I looked closely at the euphorbia through the macro lens, and really saw the flowers, which are actually sweet little yellow stars! (Click on the photo to get a bigger version.)

(Aside: jump forward six weeks to weeding in the sun next to defunct euphorbia bloom stalks...the seed heads explode in the heat! pop pop pop. Explains why the little buggers get everywhere.)

Also on deck, the alyssum, isn't it sweet? It is normally an annual, but is sort of perennial here, or at least it seeds itself prolifically and then tries to bloom in all sorts of unexpected seasons. It seems to like the gravel paths up by the raised beds. Please note the water droplets.

The triffid that poses as an early-blooming clematis was working its charm. Note blurry splotches resulting from pointing camera upward.

 The variegated iris that Mum planted for me a couple of years ago is coming along nicely - it had multiple blooms this year. The stuff behind is some sort of mallow-variant, it will have tall spikes of dark pink flowers later in July. On the right at the back - phlox, flowers in August. To the left in front is the leftover foliage from the hyacinths; the silver starry petals is artemesia, and the needle-leaves are some early, self-sowed nigella. And yes, that is a whopping big thistle right in the middle. It is not there now!

Further over by the big oak tree, there are a bunch of bearded iris.  These photos made me realize that either the burgundy iris or the raspberry rhododendron has to go - yikes that hurts the eye. The pale pink cranesbill geranium and blue cornflower aren't helping, either.

The rhodo is somewhat beleaguered - the oak drops branches on it every winter, I forget to water it every summer, and there's a mexican orange next to it that is overly vigorous. So maybe I should put it out of its misery. It does look pretty with the tiarella, though...

Finally, over past the euphorbia, next to the raised beds, the rock rose and the lbf* were a very satisfying combination.

(*lbf = "little blue flower" - help, Mum? Lithadora?)

No cats here, right?  Happy Queen's Birthday! It is raining.

The geek does daisies

 

This was at the end of May. Not sure if the Lensbaby was involved, but it's a great take on the field daisies, with lupins and loosestrife in the background (left), and a poppy (salmon pink, on the right). You can make it bigger by clicking on the image.

May long weekend

Here is a photo that was certainly not taken today, on the Queen's birthday. You can tell because the sun is freaking shining. This was last week. Gorgeous, eh? That is some fine specimen of a euphorbia. The candytuft (white flowers in shade) is still going strong even though it started blooming way back in March, and the armeria (clumps with pink flowers, in shade at the left) is just getting going. Can you spot the sphinx? Here's a closer look at the most elegant thing going in the jardin:

And here is what happens when divas get bored:

Not even Little Blue Flowers can hold her attention:

The following photo was also not taken today, but you can see that the weather has started to head toward its usual May 24th aspect. The feline ennui holds steady, though.

Stay tuned for some soggy photos documenting what's in bloom in the late spring/early summer garden. Gotta go find my galoshes.

Pruning the baby apple tree

 

There was a brief interlude of dryness and sun the other day, so I undertook a project I've been meaning to try for some time.

 This little tree has been producing more and more sweet little apples (literally) each year, despite its rough start in life. Last summer its very long branches were almost touching the ground under the weight of all that goodness. I started to worry that it would split its trunk. Anyway, high time for pruning. So I got out the gardening book I've been using since Cindy gave it to me in Vancouver about twenty years ago (!) to look again at those little diagrams with the "cut here" lines drawn on them.

"That Barbara Damrosch is really something, isn't she?"

Oz was out helping me because the sun was over the yard-arm. That meant dinner could conceivably be forthcoming at any moment, and it wouldn't do to let me get out of sight.

First I needed to clear out the dead phlox (left) and peony (right) under the baby so I could see its arms clearly.

Baby dephloxed:

 

Baby depeonyed:

The thick-looking branch toward the bottom is actually a piece of another tree that Mum tucked in there to help prop up the baby. I'd like to adjust it more and make the baby even more upright, but I am hesitant to mess with the bits of the trunk now anchored in the ground.  ? But I snipped away at some branches anyway, to help clean up the centre of the tree and also bring its weight back a little closer to its trunk. My colleague Frank says the branches should be thinned sufficiently that birds can fly between them all. I didn't quite achieve that, since doing so would not leave much baby behind! I am counting on this being an ongoing process from year to year, so I can balance healthy growth with healthy stature. Not a bad model for effecting change in life in general, come to think of it!

Finished product:

As you follow the progression, you can see that the sun was steadily disappearing. At this point, I could feel those little gusts of cooler air that run in front of the rain clouds. Sure enough, about an hour after this there was a huge downpour. We were already inside and cosy, though, because Ozzie had insisted.

"I think we're done here, don't you?