Holy hot one! It's 30C in our backyard; I think the "official" temperature in the city is 22C. Ducked out of work early and hit the greenhouse...made room for a new big hosta after removing a mostly-dead shrub. Was able to pick up another H. 'Captain Kirk' for the spot (lost one of those last year, only hosta that didn't make it through the winter).
To quote fancyvan.."oh my DOG"... I love summer... LOL.
Joanne Ü
What's Happening in YOUR neighborhood today #5
"QUACK, QUACK, QUACK !!!!! Thunder Bay is AGAIN on the brink of yet ANOTHER huge amount of rainfall ... all we can say is 'OH MY DOG" :-) Enough already !!
Am heading to Minnesota with DH and our son tomorrow .. just for the day .. I am searching for an outfit for my best buds sons wedding in August .. as well .. we are celebrating my sons PROMOTION !!! He works for CP Rail and has been successful in attaining the position of Operations Manager .. not exactly sure what it entails .. but I know it's something that makes HIM happy and thusly, DH and I as well. The kids and DinL are away camping with friends, so we get Murray to ourselves .. mind you .. we'll be travelling south in IKKY weather.
Betty .. the pics are "WUNDABAR' :-) IF it doesn't rain too much over the weekend .. I'll take a pic of my one Lavatera that has TWELVE blooms on it WOOO HOOO !!!!
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend ..
~M~
Marilynne - congrats to your son. I hope the little trip south gives you some relief from the rain. I'm afraid my Lavatera are only about 8" high. They won't be blooming for awhile yet.
I'm gonna get into the garden for awhile.
Lordy, couldn't get out of town without picking up more plants and a 'wisteria' vine..now to figure out where it will be the most striking..will it be sun/shade, on an arbor, along a trellis, come on you guys, help me out..was going to plant it on the backdoor arbor of the secret garden but it really is very shaded?
Hope you get the weather you are all hoping for this weekend, I'm off till Wednesday..
"M" good luck shopping...
Sailor is waiting for me to unpack the car and start throwing the ball..lol
The weather has been great this week and I am putting the finishing tweaks on the garden - hoping this hot weather will make the WS annuals out front grow some! And the little veggie seedlings too!
Today bought a few more annuals to fill some forgotton pots out in the shady veggie garden sitting area and some cute pansies to put in thetomato pots along with the left over sweet potatoe vine.
I week to entry deadline, 2 weeks to judging.
Wishing you the best of luck..you've worked hard at it...
Bought some sweet potato vine today as well for hanging baskets, think I should go back, they had beautiful varigated, anyone have any luck with them?
Wow, what a storm last night, hope your gardens fared well..everyone busy, no one to gab with lol so I'm off for a walk around in the garden to see what might have been destroyed...
Mornin ...
Rain again last night .. but the flood warnings have been cancelled !
Left Thunder Bay Saturday morning to head south to Duluth (about 300 miles) left in the rain and were into SUN after about 20 minutes in Minnesota .. and it remained so .. going home .. well .. we drove into rain once we entered Ontario .. how weird is that !!!
Saw OODLES of outstanding gardens in Duluth .. they use LOTS of Hosta there and it looks just awesome .. and .. fields of Oriental Poppy .. blazing Crimson .. not to mention the very prolific LUPINS .. have never seen them in quite the masses as I did yesterday ..
Today we have awakened to someone either 'fire crackering' a bear .. or 'shooting ' at it .. it was 5:15am and i was less than impressed .. poor Lilly was shaken especially since the cacopheny of neighbouring canines filled the morning air instead of birdsong !!! Our property looks fine .. not that I ventured out much past Lilly's fence ..
I'ts quite windy here .. and cool .. a Septemberlike day ..
My Lavatera has bloomed .. will try to get a pic today ... seems I'll be busy with laundry for a bit ..
Hope anyone who was 'stormed upon' didn't sustain too much damage !!!
~M~
Another hot day yesterday and one predicted today. 'On duty' at Lougheed House yesterday afternoon for a wedding of one of the current Lougheeds. Unfortunately for us they asked that we wear our 1904 outfits ( which are really our winter outfits!)
Fortunately we were inside the house! The house is not air conditioned but there is constant cool air flow and it is not unusual to see the interpretors standing over the air outlets to get the cold air blowing up their skirts! We do have summer dresses now not very elegant but certainly much cooler!
Sounds as though you had a nice day yesterday Fancy, despite clothing and heat !!!! Was the wedding awesome? I can only imagine it was :-)
Am sending along some pics of some of my potted flowers .. everything is coming along now ... they certainly do NOT need any MORE nature watering ..
This first one is one of my Lavatera and some Geraniums .. of course Lilly walked into the pic :-)
~M~
My Morning Glories .. they are coming along so well .. I stuck the bamboo sticks into the pots as this week they'll likely start to climb :-)
~M~
One of my Wave Petunias .. they are doing very well .. have 6 pots of'em .. this one is probably the showiest so far ..
~M~
Lat one .. my begoinas with the Ornamental Millet .. the colours are so vibrant :-)
~M~
Great pictures! I spent the morning helping out at a community BBQ run by our local city counselor and at which the Food Cupboard has quite a large presence. Was rained out of the garden about 11 am yesterday and need to get back in it now.
Ann
Fancy - your garden is looking so awesome - good luck to you on the judging :-)
Your garden also has a good mix of sun/shade, which is really nice.
If I could get transplanted into my favourite garden, it would be yours!!! The water features, statuary (peeking out from hidden places........ lol) is juuuuuuuuust right. Not overly done, and certainly ............. oh, what's the right word.............. just right, too! I like the "come upon it, when you look, not 'in your face' " kinda thing.
Everywhere you look, it's something new, surprising, and unobtrusive.
Very well done, girl!!!!
I'll be thinking about you during the judging..........!!!
The forecast for today was for a cloudy morning with rain arriving in the afternoon. Which would have been okay - except they got it backwards. The rain drove us back inside after only an hours work and the sun came out at around 2 o'clock. Too bad the ground was so wet we were actually sliding on it when we went out to see if we could maybe get a little more work in!
So, tomorrow's another day, and we'll try again :-)
Re: standing over vents to get the cold air up your skirts...Did it make you feel a little Marilyn Monroe-ish fancyvan :-)
Love the pics Marilynne! Lavatera is one of my all time favourites.
Heya :-)
Hope everyone who has today OFF will have a 'stellar' day !!
The crows started at it at 5:15am this morning .. I am none too pleased .. wish they'd have their morning meetings somewhere else instead of up in our Poplar and Birch trees !!!
Looks to be ANOTHER super day in Thunder Bay .. yesterday made us all cross our fingers and hope for MORE !!
My Landscaper bud spent 3 hours + doing the trimming on the property .. my gosh it looks so nice .. seems the older I get the more I want to take in the beauty of this time of year, and save it up for 'Winter Flashbacks" .. pictures always help .. but reality rocks :-)
Specialing a Hospice patient today .. so .. off I go .. only have to work 4 hours .. wooo hooo ..
Take care everyone .. and .. ENJOY !!
~M~
Morning, what a downpour, all my tall pretties are laying on the ground, do hope they decide to stand up again..lordy yesterday was weird, hot muggy, then rain, then beautiful sunshine, 10 minutes later rain...poor Mother Nature is confused to say the least..
Did work on new area in the back, taking away the sod takes a lot of energy..this area will be my DG friendship garden..quite a size, don't know why I always think "BIG" lol
I'm painting faux windows, signs, making flower boxes to change the look of the bad storage area..hope to pretty it up..
Am working from home today so will have time to play inside..Dianne who also loves to paint will join me shortly..
The working from home only consists of answering the telephone should it ring..so really can't call that 'work' can we...
Do hope you all enjoy you day...I've a few rose plants showing me their beauty today..
Poor flowers, trying to rise..
Am hoping it will not rain tomorrow so the 2 loads of topsoil can be put into the new gardens..
Flower beds, shrubs will hide a multitude of 'yuk's in the neighbors yard..am sure some of you have them..lol...
Don't you love it when you take photo's and see how really badly somethings needs to either be cleaned or painted..poor bench has seen better days....must paint another insert and redo the wood..yet another project..fix one thing and 2 others pop up...lol
I will though focus on this back shed..before fall it will be pretty as a picture, very country..that's my goal...
Betty I stencil and here are the doors of my shed - 4 years ago now so starting to fade a bit. Im about to stencil the rain barrel too.
fancy van- want to come to Ottawa and stencil a shed? That looks wonderful. What a great idea, but I'm not that patient.
Betty - great pics. I love the old chair hold the plant and the bench too even though you say it needs painting. It's that sort of touch which is missing from my garden. I sure hope you have good weather tomorrow so you can deal with all that soil.
I won't add more pics here, but I worked on front gardens and posted a couple of pics on yesterday's Coffee ... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5179742
and http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=5179758
If time permits before we head to Vancouver later this week, I will put up a thread about my gardens but I haven't decided whether to put it in Canadian or Hosta Forum.
It's a good morning. I've done aquafit and coffee. Better get into the garden before it decides to rain.
Ann
'HAPPY CANADA DAY' everyone :-)
AS always the pics are wonderful .. gives us all some great ideas .. I have 2 white sheds that are in need of 'something' .. perhaps stencilling is an option .. course .. my fear of SPIDERS may put the KIBOSH on that :-(
Expecting rain later today which will no doubt affect the Fireworks over the Sleeping Giant down by the Lake .. a sad thing for lots who await it .. but for some folks who own dogs with a great fear of those loud noises (like me) it'll be OK .. Lilly is OK with ONE loud noise .. but a multitude of them and she just shakes!!! We're far from Lake Superior but have neighbours who like to 'light up the sky' ..
Enjoy your day where ever you are and what ever you choose to do .. stay safe .. AND .. MAKE A MEMORY :-)
~M~
Happy Canada Day!
This is the first sunny day in 4 days and I plan to take full advantage of it to finally get some more work done on our re-landscaping effort. It's really starting to take shape now, so of course I'm impatient to see it done :-)
Enjoy your day everyone.
--Ginny
Happy Canada Day!
Just got back from a few hours downtown in Ottawa. We got there just in time to see the flypast by the Snowbirds. had lunch at the National Gallery which has a wonderful cafe. Hiked over to the National Arts Centre hoping to take in the Unisong concert, but it was full or at least the part of the hall in which they were letting people was full. Made a detour through the Byward Market for a large basket of strawberries and then back to where we ditched the car some distance away. That's enough of the Canada Day throngs for me. Back to the garden and dealing with those strawberries.
Ann
Happy Canada Day!!
Just got back from Cochrane, watched the Flag Raising ceremony @ their legion, and did a walk-about through the town. Very pretty little town, in the valley, and lots and lots of horses :-)
Got some good pics of the Mounties in their Red ceremonial uniforms. Very nice.
We're going out for steak dinner this evening.
Later, hoping to hear some fireworks, but don't know if we can see them from where we are, and really don't think taking my mom (89yo, and very tiny/frail) hoping to get a good spot to view and then to sit around waiting for them is a good idea.......
We MAY be able to see them off our deck.
Hope your Canada Day is as nice as ours has been :-)
G'day :-)
Hoping everyone had as awesome a day where they are as we had in TBay .. holy cow .. it sure did threaten rain .. and we had a few plops of it around noon .. then .. POOF .. out came the sun, and with the humidex, we hit 32C.
Spent most of the day pruning lilac bushes and dead heading and weeding the gardens. Had some friends and family pop by for brief visits ..but .. I was asleep well before any 'fireworks' went off.
Locally grown strawberries will be ready for picking in approx 4-5 more days !! Always a great way to spend a few hours .. DH and I usually take the grandkids .. altho Brooklyn is a BIG strawberry lover and tends to eat more than she picks :-) I always tell her NO EATING til they're WASHED .. it helps a bit .. oh to be a kid again .. when I think back on the things we ate that were NEVER washed .. well .. I wonder how we all made it :-)
Today is 'FIX IT' day .. the Central Air guy is coming .. we never were successful in getting it to come on :-( AND .. this evening an ELECTRICIAN is coming to install the light fixture in the kitchen and fix the plug in in the garage .. the beverage fridge I bought at Home Depot has been sitting idle in the garage for a month now :-(
Weather wise .. a 50/50 day is looming .. right now it looks kinda overcast though ..
Off to get the paper and more than likely feed a few mosquitoes !!!!
Enjoy your day
~M~
Morning, although they had called for rain the entire 4 days the rain came either early morning, late evening or during the night, so all and all it was a great weekend...
Got the back gardens done, filled with top soil and now all that remains if filling them with shrubs/flowers..that might have to wait a week or so as I've an extremely busy schedule this week and next Wedn. off to just north of Chicago to visit with DG friends..am excited, so this part of the garden just might have to wait...
Worked 12 hrs. in the gardens yesterday, thank goodness it's a workday and I get to relax..lol.. Bernie, my brother called at 8:00 am yesterday and said he'd come over to do the work I wanted done on back deck..white metal ceiling and troughs...he had taken Monday off and thought as it wasn't raining he'd get it accomplished..so amongst many other projects planned I had to removed all the furnishings from the back deck..looks terrific, bright and light now..another corner of my world completed...
The heavy rain we got on Saturday did in a lot of the taller plants, am hoping with sunshine over the next few days that perhaps they'll stand up again...can only hope..
YAWN !!!!!!!!!!!!
Well .. it's going to be 'A DAY'! I was awakened at 3:30am by Smokey meowing under the bedroom window .. seems I'm the only one in the house that can HEAR him .. crawled back into bed only to hear 'something' scratching something on the patio .. got up .. here was a SMALLER skunk trying to dig a hole into a garbage bag full of twigs and weeds .. I bravely tippy toed over (half way) we made eye contact (ya know, they ARE cute) I explained to him/her the fact that I would be very annoyed were he/she to rip open the bag and strew the contents all over the patio .. I watched carefully to see if 'the weapon' got any fuller .. it did't .. and .. miraculously .. the little guy/gal turned and scooted away ..
I, however, do not go BACK to sleep well .. so will have an extra early day ..
I am sitting here under the gentle light from my new light fixture (YES Virginia there IS a Santa Claus) :-) and .. my beverage fridge is good to go in the garage. The electrician, Jason, took 30 minutes to complete the jobs and charged me $40. !! I gave him $50. and he said I could put him on my speed dial .. nice to see a young person with such a wonderful personality .. he's getting married in August and was quite excited to tell us all about it, PLUS .. he is the gardener .. so he had to look at my perennials .. all in all a painless experience :-)
Today was to be 'grocery day' but .. as the hours wear on here I'll have to see if I feel AWAKE enough to drive into town .. I could go now, but, have found that even though the nights are meant for re stocking shelves .. that doesn't always happen.
Betty, good luck with your new gardens .. and I do so hope your plants that got thumped by the rain will POP back up ..
Goin surfin :-)
~M~
This message was edited Jul 3, 2008 4:24 AM
Morning, rise and shine...soft rain falling this morning so no need to water tonight, but, Kathy, a friend drops by to let Sailor out and the last 3 weeks she's cut my grass so with the rain, guess I'll be doing it myself..
Fancyvan, meant to tell you I love the stencilling..looks pretty and country..great project for you..
Moving slower than normal this morning, I taught last night and the girls were so close to finishing their projects that we just worked until they did..
Some went home with Muskoka Chairs but my favorite was the large floormat that Rita finished...
Better get something in the tummy and get ready to leave for the city..gab when I get there...
Here I'll share the floormat..colors will be magnificent when she gets all the finished coatings on it..
SHEW .. I have about HAD IT !! Been up way too long but wanted to share 3 pics .. the first 2 are of my Oriental Poppies .. how I wish they lasted longer ..
~M~
One more of the Poppies :-) and a Tiger Lilly .. soon there will be MANY Tigers !!
~M~
Last pic is of my Mugo garden. I salvaged these purple flowers from a business that was going to plow them under .. there's a Bee Balm in there as well .. and on the other side .. Hens and chics and some Forget me Nots and a Sun Rose ..
Anyone got a name for the purple flowers ? DH says it's a weed :-(
~M~
WOOPS .. sleep deprived !!
M
Can you get a closer shot Marilyn = cant see it very well.
Hi MarrilynneS Your purple flowers look like Cluster Bellflowers from this distance. They always put on a beautiful show. hope this helps. sandra
Hiya ..
I'l snap another photo when I go out to get the paper in a bit ..
Sandra you're sure right about them putting on a show!! Last year they were so so .. but this year they have multiplied and are 'bloomin nuts' :-)
Had a real good look at my Hostas that I transplanted into their bed after having been started in the house in March .. well .. I am delighted to say that .. despite their 'gangliness' .. new tight growth is coming from the middle .. WOOO HOOO !!!!
Feelin a bit 'odd' today .. I rarely dream .. but last night I had a FULL BORE all night long EXTRAVAGANZA !!! I dreamt the QUEEN was in Thunder Bay, and for some reason, I was sheperding her around !! We went shopping at the Mall .. went for a BEER at the Keg .. totally missed some ceremony she was to have been at .. frig .. I feel like ol Liz is me best bud now !!! Prince Phillip, however, was very aloof !!
HAD to have been the Tiger Brownie I had before I went to bed LoL
Big sale on at M&Ms starting today .. and DH has a docs appt .. gonna be a blissfully warm and sunny day .. so .. I forsee more weeding once we get home ..
Will go and take the pic of the Purple Mystery now :-)
Enjoy everyone
~M~