Sitting on the Garden Bench

Watching the sun creep across the garden and into the woods.

Chive Flowers

Chives Allium schoenoprasum

Planted.  Culinary herb. Perennial. Smallest of the onion family. 

Cut right down to the ground when finished, it always comes back. Divide every three years.  Water weekly during dry spells. Feed half strength fish fertilizer every two weeks. 

Flowers: Lovely purple edible. 

Leaves: Narrow spiky mild delicate onion flavour. Snip no closer than 2” to ground for shoots to regrow.

Uses: 
Companion for carrots, sage and roses
Cure for melancholy.  Drives away evil. Fights bacteria
High in vitamin C, folic acid and potassium
Eases stomach distress, protects against heart disease, stroke, stuffy nose, flatulence.  
Aids in fat digestion
Add too salads, egg dishes, sandwiches, baked potatoes. 
In dried flowers arrangements. 

Mocha Gardening

Strawberry plants are blooming

Amongst the Forget-me-nots

Strawberry Rosaceae fragaria

Planted in 2012 in the Strawberry Jar in the garden, seedlings from eldest daughter and seedlings from youngest daughter in orchard.

Good companion for borage, marigolds, bush beans, lettuce, spinach, onions, pyrethrum. 

Means: blossom – foresight. 

Pinks

Pinks (Firewitch) Dianthus Feuerhexe

Planted.  Perennial. Evergreen. 

Flowers: Fragrant single magenta pink.  Blooms most of the summer. 

Leaves: grassy blue green foliage.  

2008 From eldest daughter for

Means: woman’s love

Stone Spiral Resurrected

This art piece in front of a bench in the woods was completely covered in moss. Our daughters unearthed it again. Happy to see it again, I missed it when we walk that path.

Thimble Berry Flower

Nice healthy thimbleberry bush at the front of our yard. They are edible but sort of fuzzy, I don’t like the texture but I do like the flowers.

Choices

“If you are given two choices in life, always take the most adventurous”
Dr. Wilfred Grenfel

Summertime Sights

Like colourful prayer flags
towels dry on the line
in the summer time.

Apricots

We’re going to have lots of apricots this year. The little tree growing up agains the house is loaded. They are about the size of grapes now but there are lots of them. Mmm canned apricots for winter desserts, or picked and eaten fresh for our morning fruit. Christmas lights remind me to save some for winter days.

Stand Off

This robin has been dive bombing the owl, trying to make him leave the neighbourhood because the robin has babies somewhere the owl wants to take home for dinner. I love this shot, just look at the way the owl is looking at the robin out of the corner of his eye. Is this a disdainful response to a tormentor or a change in dinner plans, I wonder.

Who, who

Barred Owls live in our woods, we hear them often. This one was bothering the robins who were dive bombing him, trying to drive him away. They were like mosquitoes to him. He does look wise.

Beautiful Mermaid Quilt

Eldest daughter made this for her friend’s birthday. Absolutely beautiful!

Views From My Hanging Chair 4

Looking up into the branches of the walnut tree in front of me. Birds flit in and out, enjoying the day as much as I am.

Views From My Hanging Chair 3

Looking up and behind me is the grape arbour where the green grape leaves are just beginning to open. Soon we’ll be picking seedless grapes to enjoy.