Clematis

Our  spring-blooming clematis is really a wonder (geek shot above). It's the one featured in my blog photo (up to the right), covering the arbor over the gate on the way into the back yard. The only year it didn't give us this mass of blooms in April was when I indulged in extreme, therapeutic pruning after Grandmama passed away in February of 2008. (Wrong season!) Although the blooms were sparse that year, since then it has rebounded with admirable vigor.

Here it was in April this year - look how high up the corner of the house it had climbed!

Actually, it was starting to freak me out. I've never really recovered from being assigned "Day of the Triffids" to read in junior high school, and it sure looked like this thing was trying to get into my attic. Truly creepy!

Here's what it looked like late on Friday afternoon...

...before I did this:

Ha!

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Whole lotta snippin' goin' on! Some of what I hauled down was actually white, instead of green - proof that it was already exploring under the roof!

Of course, there's still the huge canopy on top of the arbor itself that I didn't quite get to. Yet. We have to duck our heads to get under it. Pretty in the afternoon light, though.

Campanula carpatica "Blaue Clips" and other stories

A year and a half ago, we planted some "Blue clips" campanula (common name "Carpathian Harebell" - I love it!) in one of the back beds by the deck.  Following the rule of three, we planted three of the little sweeties. This summer, one of the clumps has finally flourished!  Here it is, along with the indestructible "Lamb's Ear" (stachys byzantia) and another blue charmer, some sort of anemone (?), over to the left.

It's very handsome, and a welcome bit of rich colour as the rest of the garden gets a bit bleached out in the dog days of summer.

Just to the right of it, in the next photo, you can see the second campanula (marked with the little plastic tag), which is very dead.

And a little further to the right is the third one, which is doing its very best but is looking pretty pathetic. Now that I have remembered where it is, I will make more of an effort to keep other stuff away from it, and to give it some water.

Meanwhile, further back, to the right and in front of the pergola, is a little scene I'm proud of.

The low, handsome mound is some cranesbill (alpine geranium). These guys bloom in May and then get all floppy, so I hack them right back. This time, though, I noticed that some of the floppy stems had made their way up into the camellia bush behind . They were still blooming away merrily, and the glossy camellia leaves hid most of the bare stems, so I just left them.  And they're still blooming - very pretty all threaded through the camellia!

A little further back, the site of pulmonaria-under-seige-from-the-comfrey (I am still digging out that wretched stuff, and you can see some new bits coming up over to the left, below) is a wee plant that Mum rescued from the other side of the pergola last spring. Anyone know what this thing is called? I love the fringed "bottle-brush" blooms it is producing.

And one more little scene that is a nice contrast from all the pink and blue I've got going elsewhere: frou-frou shasta daisies and crocosmia, tucked in by the neighbour's fence, almost under the pergola.

As I am waltzing around, snapping these photos on a hazy, warm, late afternoon, Ozzie is curiously AWOL. Usually he's right there at this time of day, reminding me that the dining hour approacheth. Harriet had to fill in for him.

"Listen, could you just put the stuff in the dishes?"

Taipei jardins

I went to a conference in Taiwan, where it was very HOT, and we mostly moved from air-conditioned hotel to air-conditioned bus to air-conditioned convention centre, and then the same in reverse, except for stops at lovely, air-conditioned restaurants for fabulous banquets on the way back to the hotel. I loved what I saw of the city from the bus and from my hotel room window. Here are some views from said window. Sadly, it was little too hazy for the camera to pick up the fabulous lumpy mountains out behind the skyscrapers, but at least you can see the wonderful variety of rooftop and balcony gardens.

View to the right:

Love the clotheslines and palm trees and water tanks.

View to the left, including (in the distance) the third tallest building in the world:

(The most elegant banquet was on the 85th floor of the second-tallest building in the world, "Taipei 101". Ears popping in elevator! Surreal, airplanesque view!)

I particularly enjoyed the closest rooftop, which was clearly prime outdoor living space for the whole family.

I watched the owners watering the plants and doing their calisthenics one morning. The next day I realized that these activities were being supervised by a couple of happy dogs! Can you see them being given breakfast in this next photo?

I feel very fortunate to be slowly learning about Asia. It is amazing how one short visit can start to pull a big, blurry, mental map into focus.

Hot days, cool kitty

Lost in translation?

I've been reading Temple Grandin's "Animals in Translation" and have been discovering many interesting things about autism and about animals. However, I believe the relationship demonstrated below needs no explanation beyond that which is already obvious to the uneducated observer.

"Whatchoo lookin' at?"

Ozzie and the cistus x corbariensis

     Last Sunday I finally really noticed that one of the bushes in the back yard had an awful lot of dead branches. I knew it did, because Mum and I had made a start on clearing them out in March, but I had sort of developed a blind spot about it as all the spring blossoms got going. This bush, which grows as a mass of tangled stems, normally has some pretty light pink blossoms that open into little white flowers.  Seen from the geek's study, the flowers seem to float on a pleasant light green backdrop. Except I was sitting in the geek's study on Sunday, procrastinating, when my unfocused gaze out the window suddenly focused on all the rusty bits that were where the pretty floating blossoms should have been.

     I am telling you all this because the next thing I did was rush out the door and grab the clippers, hacksaw, and bypass chopper thingey, and attack... without taking the requisite "before" pic. Indeed, I realize now that I have avoided taking pictures of this nice bush for well over a year. One whole view in the jardin neglected by the camera for months and months, all for the want of a bit of pruning! 
     So all I have to show you are the "after" pictures. These document that I am indeed a procrastinatory pruning diva. And that Ozzie did a thorough inspection, and approves.

Finally, here it is, your moment of zen:

All hands on deck