July sky!

The annual Canada Day project

This is a small pile of dead buttercups. It represents just the first 10 minutes of this year's July 1 long weekend project. I confess, I only spent the better part of a day doing this, and my back and shoulders and arms are now telling me that was quite enough, thank you very much! 

Supervised by Oz, who was a little concerned I might be heading toward the catmint with that trowel... 

...I headed under the apple tree, by the back deck, to deal with this:

It's actually really pretty, right?  Except that this lovely little shady bed was being absolutely choked by those sweet buttercups.  The keen-eyed among you will also note the handsome variegated leaf of the devil incarnate, goutweed. Believe it or not, there is very pretty fern, lilly-of-the-valley, geum, saxifrage, and sweet woodruff under there, along with the hellebore and brunnera.

Here's the discard pile by the end of the day ( well, photo taken the next morning, but still):

And here are the views all that digging opened up (note one sparkly blue toenail for scale):

The poor old sweet woodruff is pretty trampled. I'm hoping with some warmth and water (and no buttercups) it will make a recovery.

And the catmint got off unscathed.

Well, that's alright, then.

New Year's resolution...

...is to stand up straighter, even though it seems to be against my nature. Whatever it takes.

Ah, New Year's Day.  A time for looking forward and looking back. For getting the best view while staying close to the pretty lights and the heat vent.

Those of us willing to look outdoors were treated to the optimistic early blooms of the viburnum and the stalwart rosemary.

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.