Lucy

I just returned from spending a few days chicken sitting. And egg collecting. And garden, dog, cat and goose sitting while YoungerSon and family visited my daughter-in-law's aunt. I took lots of photos with my trusty little point-and-shoot camera, and then stupidly left the camera behind when I came home. Oh well.... I'll get it next time I visit again in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, here's the only photo I can show you of Lucy the goose. She's an Embden goose, 3 months old and is getting bigger every day. She is very used to people being around and likes to have her head scratched and her wings petted. She loves her blue bucket of water, and sometimes tries to get into it, not an easy task seeing she is quite a bit bigger than the bucket. 

Snoozing with your head on the edge of a bucket seems hard but she manages to look very relaxed.

She's got an old kiddie pool that she splashes about in.... sorry, no photos until I get the camera back!

A couple of photos from my container garden on my deck. These tomatoes are Oxheart variety, a heritage tomato. They are really lumpy, strange shapes, but I'm told they are very tasty.  I'll be able to taste them when they're ready to harvest in August.

And my Scarlet Runner beans.... doing really well, full of flowers that I hope will provide lots of beans.... and the bonus is that the hummingbirds love the red flowers.

Lots of vigorous growth this year, probably due to the well rotted cow poo that was dug into the soil in the spring. 

Fairy Tree

My friend has fairies living in a tree at the bottom of her garden.
How do I know?
Sssshhh be very quiet......

 I knocked on the door, but nobody was home, out attending to some fairy business no doubt..... or perhaps they were hiding?

 And there's even a magical alligator guarding the lily pond.

Garden

The last location on the garden tour was a small plot of land behind a bright blue country cottage. It was obvious that the owners are madly in love with their garden. It was a riot of flowers, shrubs, vegetables, mature trees, all accessed by flagstone walkways. A little pond with chubby goldfish. An enclosure for ducks and chickens. Even a busy beehive tucked away behind some shrubs by the back fence. Perhaps a harvest of honey and beeswax in the fall.

This wire trellis supports an arch of peas. Look closely and you'll see the maturing pea pods hanging. The little wooden bridge takes the path over the fishpond.

There was no wasted space in this tiny garden. Every piece of ground was put to good use, growing flowers, herbs or vegetables. And there were even plants for sale, but I have no room for more plants in my tiny front garden, although I'd love to have a garden like this. I'd be out in it every day, rain or shine.

This was my favourite garden of all the places on the tour. I loved the fact that it was so full of life and love of nature.

Garden Again

Two of the gardens are owned by artists who have been featured on the local Artist Studio Tours.

This secluded garden and summer house are both decorated with the artist's creations of fabric garden art sculptures. Fairies, elves, gods and godesses, witches and wizards populate the flower beds and peep out from behind shrubs. They are made of all natural materials; cotton, bark, moss and wood. Most of these creations are no more than 18" high, but some are life size.

I didn't take a photo of the next garden, although I should have because it's so tiny and charming, or of the artist's studio which is in a late 1800s coach house where wagons and carriages were once built. However, this is her garden shed! I loved the colours.

And a village of little houses decorate the grounds, along with all sorts of whimsical objects scattered among the vegetables and flowers.

More to come.....

Gardens

Saturday dawned dull and grey with a threat of showers, but by noon the sun came out. A $20 ticket bought me a tour of 6 lovely gardens in the hamlet of Claremont, and a stop at the Claremont Masonic Hall for freshly baked scones, home made strawberry jam and a cuppa tea served in elegant bone china cups and saucers.
The gardens varied from grand and exquisitely manicured without a single blade of grass out of place, to small and humble and obviously a work of love.

This garden on a 2 acre lot featured a magnificent six tier waterfall and pond. Lots of mature trees, and at the top of the slope was a fire pit surrounded by comfy Muskoka chairs and a grassy labyrinth to walk around, which of course I did!

Across the road was an enormous house with a spectacular back garden. A large pool with a cabana surrounded by stone walkways, a flagstone outdoor living room, a pavilion, an outdoor bar with a huge flat screen TV (Blue Jays were playing!) and a fireplace with a roof, all beautifully landscaped..... everything you need to spend the summer outdoors, no need to go into the house at all! I didn't take any pictures, sorry, it was all a bit overwhelming and more like visiting an expensive resort and spa than somebody's private back yard. I prefer simpler living, but I certainly wouldn't say no to a swim in their beautiful pool! More gardens to come......

Pelargoniums

OK, Pelargonium is the fancy word for the plant generally known as a Geranium. A friend is the current president of the local Pelargonium Society and he can waffle on talk for hours about the various shapes, colours, scents and blossoms, but I know very little about them, other than they make a nice show of colour in the summer.

This bright scarlet red geranium came in a mixed hanging basket as a gift on Mother's Day. Most of the other flowers in the arrangement have finished now but the geraniums will keep blooming as long as I keep watering it. Or it rains.

This pink geranium was given to me as a small twig last September. I put it in water until it grew some roots, and then planted it in soil, talked to it nicely and sang it some encouraging geranium songs, gave it some nice nutritious plant food and now it's decorating my deck and covered with blooms and buds. The pink flowers are small, and never really open wide.

Citronella ... also known as Mosquito Plant Geranium. According to the internet, the mosquito plant geranium came about from taking specific genes of two other plants – Chinese citronella grass and African geranium. It gives off a lovely lemony scent when the leaves are brushed, and just look at those sweet little flowers. And I haven't seen many mosquitos buzzing around here recently.

Rhubarb and Beans

Living in a condo situation doesn't leave me much land for planting, but I make the best of it, although I'd love to have a big veggie garden. I planted two tiny baby rhubarbs at the end of May, and the constant rainy weather through May and June has really given them a good start. I tried to grow rhubarb last year but I planted it in a place that wasn't sunny enough and it failed. So perhaps I'll be making rhubarb pie next year, I hope so.

And another of my favourites is scarlet runner beans, often grown as a decorative red flower, but the young beans are delicious. Just top'n'tail them, cut off the strings, slice, and steam. The plants are climbing up the poles nicely, but the leaves look a bit dogeared, something is chewing on them. That's OK, as long as they leave the beans for me. I see the first red flower is starting.

Beware of the Dragon

Wildlife in my tiny garden....

Immature male Common Whitetail dragonfly or Long Tailed Skimmer (plathemis lydia). 

His body will eventually turn white.

Dragonflies are the world's fastest insects, capable of reaching speeds of between 30 and 60 km/h (19 to 38 mph). A study has shown that dragonflies can travel as much as 85 miles in one day.

Dragonflies are among the most ancient of living creatures. Fossil records, clearly recognizable as the ancestors of our present day odonates, go back to Carboniferous times meaning that the insects were flying more than 300 million years ago, predating dinosaurs by over 100 million years and birds by some 150 million.

Dragonflies have excellent eyesight. Their compound eyes have up to 30,000 facets, each of which is a separate light-sensing organ or ommatidium, arranged to give nearly a 360° field of vision. Odonates are completely harmless - they do not sting or bite.

Dinnertime

High drama amongst the runner beans.

I think this is a zebra jumping spider about to dine on a green stink bug. Yummy!

Garden Art

As summer is here, and the gardens are looking lovely, the art group had a garden and flower workshop. A local gardener, Carol, arrived dressed in her gardening clothes, and brought an assortment of her gardening hats, garden tools, flower pots, flowers, and posed for us.
My quick sketches of Carol needed a bit of help, so I added coloured pencil (a whole box of them left over from my sons' school days).

Then it was time for some sketches of flowers. I used to enjoy drawing and painting flowers many years ago when I was at school but haven't done any since.

Sketched in my sketchbook in light pencil, then inked and the pencil erased and coloured later with watercolor.

White geranium, proper name is Pelargonium or so the people in the Canadian Pelargonium Society tell me. Sketched in my sketchbook in pencil and then inked, and coloured with coloured pencils

I liked the white geranium so much I decided to try painting it. This is acrylic on masonite, 9"x12". I just bought a new tube of Quin Magenta so that's the lovely deep pinky red that you see in the background. Still some more work to do on this.

Blue

If your favourite little tree dies.....

.... paint it blue to match your favourite little garden potting shed.

Seen on a recent garden tour.
This is a scheduled post while I'm away.... please leave me a comment. I'll be back to read it in a couple of days.

Bike in a Garden

Encountered on a recent garden tour....

"Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride." John F Kennedy.
Pre-scheduled post - I'm away from home for a short break. But leave me a comment anyway!

Bloomin' Luvverly!

Last week I went on a tour of back yard gardens created by the talented members of the Horticultural Society of nearby Port Hope.
It poured with rain all morning, and we almost decided not to go, but by lunchtime the sun had chased away the grey clouds and it was a gorgeous afternoon. No need for captions on these photos, they are self explanatory.

Christmas Remembered

December was a hectic month totally taken up with shopping and baking and Variety Show rehearsals and trying to stay warm during diabolical bad weather, and so I didn't post much about Christmas. In fact, I'm always relieved when the Holiday Season is over and life can get back to a normal routine. But Christmas memories remain.

The skating rink (in summer it is a reflecting pool) in Nathan Phillips Square outside Toronto City Hall. The rink was closed.... big notices saying telling the public "Skate at your own risk" due to chunks of ice falling from the overhead arches.

 Some of the amazing Christmas decorations at Brookfield Place. Mind boggling!

And more Christmas sparkle looking up into the ceiling of the Chrystal Cathedral of Commerce inside Brookfield Place.

The wonderful "Lights of December" Holiday Concert by Singing Out, Toronto's LGBTQ Community Chorus at the Jane Mallett Theatre. Great holiday music with a quirky touch, loved it! So much fun to see friends up there on the stage, singing their hearts out.

And the Ice Storm! This beautiful corkscrew hazel tree in YoungerSon's back yard normally stands 35 feet high, but here the top branches are touching the ground due to the weight of the ice. Amazingly, now that the ice has melted, the tree has bounced almost upright again! Thank you, Mother Nature! We thought that tree was a gonner.

Cambridge

I recently enjoyed a bus trip to Cambridge.... no, not the one in England, the one in Ontario.

"Twilight" - Andreas Gehr

The pretty city of Cambridge is made up of a number of separate communities, Galt, Preston, Hespeler and Blair. It's located on the Grand River and there some lovely old buildings and churches in it's city centre.

After a leisurely wander through the extensive Southworks Outlet Mall (no worries, I managed to stop myself from buying anything I didn't need in spite of the temptation to spend megabucks) and a lunch of a homemade peanut butter sandwich, we walked across the road to the Sculpture Gardens on the banks of the Grand River.

"Twilight" was commissioned from Swiss born artist Andreas Gehr by the Toronto Harbourfront Art Gallery in 1984. In 1985 it was part of a sculpture exhibition in Cambridge and was moved here in 2000.

The small holes have been taken over by birds nests.... maybe that was the original idea.... who knows?                                  

"Silver Key" - Dave Hind

 "Silver Key" is the product of Hamilton artist, musician and metalworker Dave Hind. A giant maple key

He uses reclaims materials in his work, and focuses on the interaction of industrial and natural processes that recur in the materials and images that he explores.

This sculpture was installed in the Sculpture Gardens in 2010.

And  it wasn't only sculptures to be admired, there was the garden part too. Colourful blooms everywhere including this lovely day lily.

Neil Aitchison as RCMP Constable Archibald Finkster

Then it was time for an afternoon at the brand new Dunfield Theatre. We saw a show called "Sorry ... I'm Canadian".

Do Canadians really say "Sorry" a lot?  The show said we do!

RCMP Constable Finkster was the Master of Ceremonies, telling lots of off-colour jokes with a Canadian theme.... but nothing too offensive of course!
And the wonderful Ballagh family of 2 brothers and 2 sisters (and at the end of the show joined by their mum) entertained us with amazing fiddle music and stepdancing.... very Canadian!

All the Provinces and Territories of Canada coast to coast to coast were represented in song, in both official languages. Now you can't get much more Canadian that that!

Dinner was at the beautifully restored Cambridge Mill.... a wonderful location affording a great view looking across the Grand River. And the dinner was definitely yummy. Pan seared trout and potatoes and veggies and chocolate torte to follow. Mmmmmm.