Esperanza 10:00
Yesterday was soggy, today is gorgeous. This is not a new thing: here is a nice little sketch from the guestbook in the 1880’s showing the plight of some Esperanza guests who had the temerity to try to go out in a boat on the nearby lake.
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Esperanza 22:48
Well, bother.
I suppose that bit of roof had to go someday. But, did it have to leak all over the place? Thankfully, there were a few strong guests about to help move the rather large bureau, mirror, and other items. And it didn’t fry the wiring in that corner nor has it gotten down to the library on the floor below. Now the question is will the rain stop coming down before the plaster comes down?
That was not in the plan for this year. At All.
And heaven knows where we will find red shingles in order to match the rest of the roof.
To top it off, we then had to extract a rather mad, but very healthy bat from the basement. Maybe his roof got wet and he moved down a few floors?
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Esperanza and Landscapes 20:12
But not today’s. Today, there is a thunderstorm rolling across the hills. There is nothing one can do about a thunderstorm. One can prepare as best as one might. But the storm will come and go unchanged by man. An act of God, but a God untempered by mercy, justice, or reason.
Anyway, just before evening, you’ve seen this picture before but it is always, always different.
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We gardeners tend to chase after the more difficult colours: blues, true reds, dark almost black shades. White, however, is rather overlooked. Yet, there are many ‘white’ flowers which aren’t white at all: Goatsbeard, most astilbes, most roses, elderberries, lilies, hydrangeas, etc. Varying shades of ivory, with peach, buff, or pink overtones are much more common. True white is much less common. And getting a true white that is highly reflective (a matter of cell structure I suppose) is even harder. But when you do get it! Some of the tall, peach leaved campanulas will produce a bright, reflective white. A few roses do: the little fairy rose, the straight wild white rugosa, the York rose (alba semi-plena), ‘Casa Blanca’ in oriental lilies along with the true Easter lily (lily longiflorum, which usually isn’t sold to gardeners, but can always be picked up at Easter).
The pure glistening white of cold, new snow? That is the white of those flowers, and a lovely thing it is on a hot, mid 90’s, humid day.
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gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography, roses 21:29
David Austin’s ‘Crocus Rose’, one of his tougher ones, a reliable bloomer that grows well with minimal care. And (like essentially all of his roses) looks elegant. It doesn’t care much for the heat and humidity of course, dropping its petals much faster, but that is simply a rose being a rose, it seems to me!
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gardening gardening, vegetable gardening 20:56
a nice normal, wet spring to deceive one about a hot, dry spell. Lulled into false security and all that. Hopefully, the peppers will perk back up over night. And the beans, and the tomatoes, and the…. Actually, it is finally looking like a vegetable garden. The peas are going along in good style, as is the lettuce, the beans are about to start setting flowers, the squash almost look like squash plants. The parsnips can be found (especially easy to find is last year’s missed parsnip: at six feet tall with flat chartreuse flower umbels, one ought to be able to find it!) After umpteen tries we have a row or two of chard and beets. I think I beat the Colorado potato beetles, so an eggplant might be a possibility. Oddly, the Japanese beetles have yet to show up. This makes me nervous, I am waiting for a sudden infestation.
An interesting, random tip, if you want a lovely, purple, long blooming flower in your garden? Don’t cut your common, ordinary garden sage back. Second or third year growth rewards one with elegant lavender purple flowers all through June. I still can’t figure out how to use it in cooking, but it certainly is a good garden plant on aesthetic principles!
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Uncategorized 22:05
Really in lieu of content! But also hours of interesting reading
(in other news, the grey fox has two lovely cubs: one apparently quite bold, the other not so bold. And they are quite happily living under Happy Thought, with a most impressive network of paths under and around the garden.)
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gardening gardening, native plants, rubus ordoratus 08:36
Also known as (purple) flowering raspberry has got to be one of the most under-utilized native plants out there. I was first introduced to it growing as an under-story plant on Mont-Royal in Montreal. It likes well-drained edge/woodland openings and grows throughout the Appalachian mountain chain. A member of the raspberry family, but pretty far out there. It is thornless, grows to about six feet, spreading by runners, with large maple-like leaves, the bark on old canes (at least three years old) is tan, exfoliating, with darker cinnamon colored bark beneath. The flowers begin to appear in June and run well into July or later. They are about an inch and a half across, light purple with gold centers. The fruit is relatively dry, some people like the taste but it is not the selling point; the flowers are.
I got some a few years ago from a friend. It has happily spread where-ever there is sufficient soil moisture. It appears to be largely pest free. Here a stand has happily taken over an otherwise difficult area on a slope under an apple tree and blue spruce, at the edge of a parking lot.
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Uncategorized 11:08
It is oddly hard to concentrate on getting anything done in the summer. There is a lot that needs to get done, but somehow….
Inertia strikes! Summer simply seems to lack the urgency of either spring or fall. Especially on cloudy, humid days like today when what one is really waiting for is a big thunderstorm to come rumbling through. I do hope it doesn’t bash the baby beets and chard to badly….
Or maybe it is the fact that the days are so long, so there is not drive to get things done before dark.
Wake me up in the fall?
Or maybe I am just procrastinating….that does seem most likely.
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It always seems to arrive suddenly, and just about on time too: hot, humid, and sunny. I need to go water the vegetable garden….and see if the gamboling fox kits (really) ran through it again last night. They are very cute, the kits that is.
A few lightning bug about, always nice to see them. If sometimes a bit odd to see a little green light floating past a second story window.
The roses and foxgloves are blooming away, the peonies are almost over, as are the iris and the first, early clematis.
The house is mostly open for summer now, there probably are a few windows here and there that could be opened still. But the attic and the basement are the big two: letting the hot air out and the cool air in, and convection does the rest. Who needs an air conditioner on a rural hill top?
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Acair Fearann 