garden-y goodness

As Adam was stacking wood this evening, I took some more pictures of the 'goings on' (is that a unique phrase to this neck of the woods? I can only recall hearing my mother use it) in the garden. Enjoy!

bokeh spider

This amazing arachnid spun her web outside of our window at Adam's parent's house in Saint John. I think she's quite lovely, and very productive.

home again. home again

After a lovely visit to New Brunswick for awhile, we are home again. And the garden has been hard at work since our departure! The nasturtiums are out and about, as are these tiny delicate poppies I planted in the Spring and had given up on. What lovely things to come home to!

today in garden history

It's finally a lovely morning in Yarmouth, after insane fog and rain. There was an UNBELIEVABLE thunder and lightning storm the other night. I have never felt anything like it. I could feel the electricity in my arms, as the deafening thunder shook the house and lightning lit up the room. I love storms! Adam didn't like it as much as I did.

Daylilies. I especially like the red ones, but the orange ones make me feel as though I'm on a beach in the tropics with a piña colada in my hand.

Goutweed. Evil, evil stuff that is seemingly impossible to get rid of. I'm almost to the point of embracing it (meaning I'm too lazy to weed it all out) but I don't want it to kill everything else. Maybe next Spring I'll be more diligent and get it gone first thing. I have kept on top of the flowers though, so it shouldn't proliferate from seeds. Nice leaves for nature printing, though.

Thunbergia (I found the real name). I still adore this little plant - it's like essential oil of happiness in a planter. And it's growing really well, climbing all over the frame I made for it.

Chinese lanterns. I love how they hide way in underneath the leaves and stay green, blending in nicely, until pow! in the fall when they turn beautiful orange. They're one of my favourite things in the garden. I guess I have a lot of those!

virgil's new favourite toy

My Dad was kind enough to give us bunches of strawberries, with which I made jam a couple weeks ago. (I bought some more berries today and made yet another batch. I don't want to buy store jam this winter. Ick.) The boxes were set on the floor by our back door for me to remember to return to Dad so he could re-use them. (Although my remembering skills have been slack lately. I had a bag by the door to take to Mom with a couple things in it. I grabbed it on our way to their house yesterday and only realized when I went to pass it to Mom that it was in fact a hand sander on its way to Matthew. Sheesh.) Even though Dad has stopped by several times since the initial jam batch (mostly to deliver firewood for the winter, yipee!) (I feel like the ants in the ant / grasshopper fable... getting jam and wood all stored up for winter) they have stayed by the door, and Virgil has taken an intense liking to the cardboard-y one. He'll spend 15 or 20 minutes with his head shoved in it, rolling around gleefully on the floor. Yesterday and today he's been kneading it and scratching it to bits (literally - there are little green bits all over him and the floor). He looks kind of suspicious in the lower picture - "Don't touch my box or else."

the yard this morning

A few things in our yard this morning... yellow traily flowers are in a hanging pot by the back door, white rosebuds are ready to burst, tomatoes seem to be doing well, pink roses are lovely, and I think these little purple darlings are so sweet!

nature printing

My new favourite thing to do is nature printing. I just started yesterday, and have been using watered down paint and leaves to begin. Hopefully I'll do some flowers before the summer is out! As you can see, it kind of takes over my space. :)

Queen Elizabeth Cake

I think dates look like junebugs. This is Queen Elizabeth Cake. I got the recipe from Adam's grandmother. It is a yummy, moist cake with a heavenly topping. For those who may be interested, the recipe follows.
Queen Elizabeth Cake
1 cup dates, 1 cup boiling water - Boil together on stove while preparing cake batter.
Cream 1/4 cup butter and 1 c sugar. Add 1 slightly beaten egg and 1 tsp vanilla. Add sifted dry ingredients (1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt). Add date mixture to which 1 tsp baking soda has been added. Mix.
Bake in greased 9x9 pan at 350 for 1/2 hour.
Topping: Combine in saucepan: 1/2 cup brown sugar, 5 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup coconut, and 3 tbsp cream. Boil for 3 minutes. Add 1/2 cup chopped nuts. Spread over warm cake, and place under boiler until brown.

shed, before and after

Four hours of steady work this morning resulted in the transformation of the shed from faded ho-hum to fabulously improved. :) I even got the can of paint for $10.00 because someone had it mixed and didn't like the colour. It was well worth it!

another perfect peony

Another of the peonies in our yard. I didn't realize that this plant was a different type of peony (and my favourite!) until they bloomed. They're very feminine and pretty while still showy and huge.

camping

Adam and I had a lovely weekend camping at The Islands Provincial Park in Shelburne. The park is lovely, the staff friendly, and the campsite was great. I finished reading Pride and Prejudice over the weekend, which is quite a feat considering I was just over halfway through. The bookworm (aka inchworm) only read a page or so with me. That's my idea of a relaxing weekend... laying on the hammock and reading for ridiculously long periods of time with a good book. Ahhhh.

humpback whale

At approximately 8:14 last evening, we received an insider tip from a source in Sandford, indicating that a large object of great interest had appeared on the beach. We geared up, picked up a partner in crime, headed to the beach, and these are pictures of what we found. Apparently it is a male humpback whale, belly up. It's about 32 feet long, missing its tail, and its black skin is peeling (mostly peeled, really) off. If you stand downwind, the smell is UNBELIEVABLE. The very blurry picture is of a barnacle that was on the tip of its fin - it's the size of a ping pong ball! I have never seen a barnacle even close to that size. There's always something interesting at the beach! And it was a beautiful evening, with a gorgeous sunset. You can't get a better start to summer vacation than that!