It's been a week since I heard the cicada bug sing its summer song & Grandpa Haynes had the theory (in SW Ontario) 6 weeks until the first frost. Here along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline with warm summer water, it is more like 8 weeks. I'm counting each Saturday & adding to that theory.
It just makes me savour the hot summer days all the more!
The garden has been beautiful this year with all the rain we've been having, so lush & so colourful! Come with me as we take a walkabout around the yard to see some new vignettes that have been added!
The black hollyhocks gifted from the Toronto kids several years ago are blooming again!
This pic of me with them was two weeks ago & they have really grown higher & thicker since then.
The bees are in heaven with all the pollen these beauties have to offer!
This is the last photo of me without bangs, I caved & had my hair cut last week. I've my father's high forehead & I like it better with a thin fringe to cover it.
Remember all those seeds that were planted inside? Well, this is a pansy from that packet, there was only one that bloomed!!
This is my prized pansy flower, I think I shall enlarge a pattern from it to make a rug hooked round mat for a side chair in my potting shed.
The marigold seeds are flowering beautifully & I've retrieved seeds for next year from them!
The sweetpea has climbed so high that a metal screen was added to help it climb even higher! I get a photo for the next blog to show the screen & the flowering sweetpea.
I wish you could hear the buzzing going on in those hollyhocks!
The hydrangeas are huge this year & look lovely into the night with their glowing white flowering balls.
The clematis climbed & flowered this year, it was slow to start & then it was off & blooming!
The hydrangeas help keep clematis feet 'cool' with shade from the flowers & leaves, so the vine can climb to the sunshine!
I do like white in the garden the white 'gnome hat' flowers are blooming!
I will be drying more flower heads this year for use in the winter months decor.
The lamb's ear is so thick here & the seeds have spread everywhere! We've relocated quite a few & just left others alone as the bees & butterflies enjoying them.
This too is a buzz of activity when you walk by!
The tomatoes are doing very well as are the grapes! Those are the only fruits in our garden this year.
The plan is to add 1/2 dozen blueberry bushes to this garden for next year.
The plastic clips are working very well for keeping the stem strong whilst the tomatoes grow & the wind blows!
I never tire of looking at the colours of blooming flowers, summer has such a colour palette!
These dollar store lily bulbs surprise me every year with more flowers & the colour seems more vibrant this year, maybe because of all the rain we've been having.
Just gorgeous, nature is so perfect!
Lovely!!
The delphiniums bloomed & multiplied too! It's such a joy, aren't you too enjoying this virtual walkabout in the gardens!
Be happy that it is virtual as a day in the gardens requires deet spray, a head net, & Marks Workwearhouse mosquitoes/tick repellent clothing!
The mosquitoes are horrible right now, 100's around you on these damp days, prime breeding conditions for them!
I never thought I'd see the day that I enjoyed being in the garden wearing such clothing! lol
Bill was in the lane picking the wild raspberries & the blue caught his eye...
Carefully without disturbing anything he snapped this photo. Again look at the beautiful colour & texture of nature, so stunning it makes my heart sing!
An Idea, Swims In My Head
I have just finished reading the Beatrix Potters Gardening Life by Marta McDowell & enjoyed it so much that I wanted to do a tribute to Miss Potter. The idea began from her book & I gathered from thrift stores & my fabric stash what I thought would work!
These are the idea pages, one from Hill Top Cottage & one from her Peter Rabbit book.
With the little blue jacket made, now for the installation & help from my handsome & handy husband.
Bill also has curious helpers to join him, maybe this is something for us to play with?! It does have some nice sticks to it!! lol
And here is the idea out of my head & into the garden! Thank you Bill for helping me with this idea!
The man behind the netting, Bridget just wants to play ball with Baxter but Bill is not noticing them.
I was pleased to see the jacket & shoes installed as our 'Mr. McGregor garden scarecrow'.
Thank you Bill for helping me get this idea off the pages in the book & into the garden!
One down & now one more to go. The next blue jacket is smaller to go with the smaller shoes & will go beside the potting shed in the mint garden.
This little jacket is a bit different with the collar & one more brass button.
It has the same construction as the decorative 5X sewing edge for strength with the weather elements & both are totally reversible when the blue has lost its colour from the strong sun.
I'll show that installation next post!
I loved this fabric in 2010 when I purchased it & I love it now... it is so summering with the movement & colour used!!
I'm making a shopping 'all day' bag from it & ran out of iron-on interfacing for 3 pieces! The bag takes 5yds of 22" interfacing. It will be my summer shopping bag.
I also have a quilt kit with that fabric in it. If I ever get caught up on my projects to start that one, I know my heart will sing for summer. Maybe in the winter/spring months, I'll make that beautiful quilt!
Bridget & Baxter have been enjoying the summer with cooldowns in their pool & shoreline swimming trips to chase a heron or seagull. They enjoy the warmth of summer way more than the wintery snow days.
Every week I work on a new block in the Wild & Wonderful Stitch a Long Under the Harvest Moon.
It is the same size & has the same designers as the last one. I'm still working on the border for that one!
I've all the green leaves sewn down & have an idea for silk ribbon flowers rather than wool ones, something I thought of & will try. I think it will add dimension to the border to enhance the blocks.
Block #3 From the 'Wild & Wonderful' here's Fox In The Grove by Karen Yaffe of Pieceful Gathering
Block #1 - Tasting The Harvest Designed by Susan W. Davis of Aunt Susie's House. How could you resist not doing this little fellow? And I was doing another project!
Block #2 Whitetail Beauty by Patricia Sanabria-Friederich of Patterns From Grandma's Trunk.
I'm enjoying these 9" X 9" squares of fall-themed 'Under The Harvest Moon', now 6 more to go & the border. I have a lot of hindsight with doing the border now with the next one. It will finish so much quicker!
I harvested the first batch of lavender from the lavender bush.
I filled vases to have the wonderful smell everywhere in the house, I love the smell of lavender!
I do have some hindsight with this too as I did this last week & the lavender no longer is standing straight!! It must be hung upsidedown to dry & remain visually straight. Oops
It did look & smell so lovely when I was doing it! lol
Thank you for stopping by for a summer garden tour & I hope that Peter Rabbit's jacket & shoes made you smile!
Did you know that at the time of Beatrix Potter's death, she had purchased with the money from her books, 4,000 acres of property in the Lake District of England & willed the property to The National Trust to keep it as land for the animals/humans to enjoy? That book is well worth the read of a very positive strong-willed woman with a heart larger than life itself. Beatrix Potter 1866-1943 The Artist And Her World by Frederick Warne With The National Trust is my next read. I purchased a book in 2002 whilst visiting the Lake District for a weekend with our English friends.
She is a woman I've always admired & even more with reading different peoples perspectives of her & the times at the turn of the century.
I hope I've aroused interest in this woman & in gardening as others have done with me.
This Friday at midnight we will go green in the province of New Brunswick & will return to the new normal of everyday life.
Our youngest son Nicholas will be arriving with Leslie at that midnight Friday, for a much-needed vacation from Toronto life. They have the smog & smoke there every day with the forest fires burning out of control in northern Ontario. I hope & pray the rain comes for those with such life-changing fires to help with the firefighters & the forests that are up in smoke! God Bless All Of You
Enjoy your summer as it shows nature's beauty in trails & parks for those of you in busy cities, stop, listen, look, beauty is everywhere.
Thank you again for visiting. Wishing you health & happiness.
Cynthia
I never thought I'd see the day that I enjoyed being in the garden wearing such clothing! lol
Wow, your lavender really did well. I can almost smell it from here. I had lavender plants at one time and they only lasted a few years and died. It could have been because of the flood. I was given a tiny lavender plant which I just put in the ground last week and I'm sure it won't bloom this year.
ReplyDeleteYour gardens are really doing well and I love those dollar store lilies. Such a pretty eye catching color.
Your little quilt is amazing. You have so much patience for details.
The deers have eaten most of my giant oriental lilies buds, just before they opened and also a lot of my Asiatic lilies.
Thanks for the garden tour.
Hugs,
Julia
Absolutely love the Peter rabbit garden xo
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