This is a lengthy blog with lots of pictures of the glorious summer that has arrived! Welcome/Bienvenue, get yourself a cuppa & settle in for a beautiful visit to the northeastern part of Canada.
The summer-like hot humid weather has arrived & the last two days have come with a heat warning with the temps feeling like 43C.
The plants are thriving in this weather, so I took these photos & others from the last two weeks with my surprises!
Bill is on top of my potting shed (makes me nervous when he climbs higher than a step ladder!) he's going to install two solar panels & this wee shed will have electricity & be off the grid!
Baxter & Bridget want him down too, to through the ball for them!
Bill also installed a new garden along the top of the ditch. He used stones from the son's property that had been piled for the levelling out & was not needed & heaped by the lane.
With our visits to England, we've seen so many stone walls & I like the look that it adds to the potting shed. The best thing was it was all reused & repurposed for a wall & the garden came from thinning out the ones we already had!
I can't believe that the potting shed was just moved there last year! Bill has been making it look so established like it has seen years in that spot.
This fall when the lily of the valley gets cut back, they will be moved to grow in the black areas of the walk way. Next spring it will be a wonderful journey on that cement walkway.
Bill finished & now the Boston terriers can finally play. They love his strong arm throws & get to have a good run with him...my throwing not so much.
See the panels on the right of the photo & my new weather vein! I don't know who loves being outdoor play, Bill or the Boston terriers, they're very vocal with him when they want him to go outside to play.
The stone wall wraps all around the potting shed, I love the natural charm that it adds to the gardens as they mature.
The lawn needs some working on but the birds eat the grass seed as fast as it's put down.
Here is the shoreside of the potting shed, I love the view from this window! We're now waiting for the invertor to come in to start the charging of the solar panels.
The rooster has been replaced by the raven & I love it!
The detailing in the laser cut is amazing!
And now to get those panels working, they will work an outside light & a water fountain on the small deck out front. & a light, glue gun for projects, & vacuum for clean-ups.
Let's Go To The Shoreline
With low tide, we have so many more sandbars this year.
We have more sand on the shoreline too!
All along the shoreline, sandbars are now visible. It changes out every year!
Grass Is Cut And Is Oh So Green!
The backyard has been cut & looks so golf course-like after a cutting. Bridget & Baxter love their freedom in the backyard.
The mosquitoes & black flies are out so now is the time for the smell of Ode to Deet wearing!
We have settled in nicely to our waterfront home but miss not being able to share it with our family & friends. Soon I hope we will all get our lives back to a somewhat normal way. It has been heaven for me & the Boston terriers having Bill home so much!
Until the borders of the provinces are open, we shall enjoy what summer has to offer us!
Bill installed another flagpole to the front of the house, you can see it beyond the deck on the right.
Every season brings its own beauty & after all the snow how glorious is this?!
Bridget cooling down in the pool after all that running. The pollen is so high right now that the pool fills quickly with pollen.
See her holding her ball so Baxter cannot get it, how can such a little dog have such a long tongue?! lol
She watches for him & will grab the ball & run or if she sees Bill run for him & drop the ball at his feet to give it a throw for her. She lives to play fetch!
The lilacs are in full bloom & when they are opening they look more pinkish but are now a soft white.
Bill's mariachi band in the new ditch side garden.
The white bleeding hearts show very well with the dark siding background. Beyond the maple tree, the baby evergreens that Mitch & I planted are now visual & growing stronger each year. Hopefully, it will help with the erosion over the years as the roots provide a natural netting in the ground for stability.
I love the sandstone garden wall... the grass needs to grow in & it will before the fall.
To the left is the new flagpole & at its base is a limelight hydrangea that should flourish there.
And now Baxter is in the pool for a cool down.
Dogs cool themselves through their paws, he likes his belly done too!
The violas are everywhere & I just let them grow around other plants. They sit low & let in the light to the plants that they surround, here it is a rose bush.
You cannot even tell that this rose bush has been thinned out, it is so healthy & thrives here.
This is the new bee bath for the bumblebees this summer. You really have to keep an eye on it as it's shallow for them & dries out very quickly with the wind & sun. They can stand on the stones & get a drink on those hot days of summer.
Summer Sewing - Wild & Wonderful Stitch Along
This was block eight of the nine blocks.
And the final block number nine is now done!
Here they all are & the border has been revealed, wow it is going to be a lot of work with more applique but I've got some ideas... I just have to stop procrastinating & get started.
I use the quilt as you go technique so I need to think through how to bring it together, I think I've got it!
I was one happy person to finally get this in the mail! I ordered/paid for these four patterns from Silhouette Patterns in Texas USA. They were mailed March 9th & I just got them last week, snail mail indeed! It took three months to crawl here! I can't wait to try Peggy Sager's clothing pattern out.
This Mornings Photos
I hope you are still with me, I told you it was a long visit.
Let's take a walk around the property this morning & then I will say goodbye to you.
I still have more annuals to plant around the gardens & window boxes. They have been living on the porch to harden them up from being inside on the desk in the great room. I can't wait to see the sweetpeas flower, they sure have climbed the lattice screen.
The Iris are going to bloom soon, the lupins have flowered everywhere! The lilac has such a heavenly scent around the garden & when the wind blows it shares that scent everywhere.
See the fountain on the potting shed deck? I love what Bill has done with the extended view through the Anniversary Garden trellis!
Yes, I know the photo would have looked better without the hose!
These lupins found their happy place softening the corner of the house, the violas joined in & I think they are beautiful together!
Lupins, bleeding hearts, cornflower, lady's mantle, other flowering annuals that will flower later.
And look what is coming up for flowering this year! The biannual hollyhocks that Nick & Leslie brought out for our anniversary on one of their drives from Ontario before Covid. So happy that I will see them by Thanksgiving again. So thankful to be able to see all my children again.
The peonies are all budding & the ants are here to take in their sweet nectar, these are so fragrant & beautiful. Yes, this is my happy place with nature.
Such a deep beautiful pink!
Heathers' pom tree that she gifted me a few years ago has a life of its own!
Look at these Russian lilacs, they have bloomed from head to toe & I wish I could send you their fragrance through this virtual walk with me!
This garden has really started to thicken out with the hot humid weather! Iris's, lambs ear, lilac bushes & behind all them the lupin seeds that were planted have started to sprout, next summer they will be mature & show their little gnome-like heads.
Another rose bush is placed to soften the corner of the potting shed, the flowers will be pink.
This is the backyard view from the dining room bay window. The tulips that Leslie sent us are still in bloom, remember these are this morning's pics. Yes, our season is slow to start but oh the is worth it!
Daylilies are all cleaned up thanks to Bill & he was busy with 40+ bags of black mulch to enhance the gardens & keep the moister in & weeds out!
Thank you Lynn for the climbing hydrangeas they are liking their location in the backyard.
One more than the other but it survived the winter so it is here to stay!
Neil's two grapevines have found their forever home in the new cedar box that Bill made. He planted 18 tomato plants in the other cedar planter box. There is a trellis through them as they will soon have strings to grow up & be secured to.
The new grapevines have their own trellis too! Grapes & tomatoes are the only food we are growing & we'll support the local farmers in our area for the rest!
This is a cedar garden& the home to two bird families. We hear the baby birds chirping Sunday night when we were working around the garden. I love the sounds of nature's life.
This is Jocelyn's retirement plant & it too survived the winter & has come to life! She said you can't kill that plant & she was right!
This is my favourite evergreen tree with its full skirt to shelter wildlife through the seasons.
The dogs run has the cottage garden from Eel River & I love the phlox's colour & the pink bleeding hearts. The chives have really taken over & I dry the flower tops & eat the greens cut up fine with scissors for egg salad. Such a taste of summer!
The garden will be thinned out next spring to allow room to grow.
This was a pleasant surprise to see! The iris had bloomed on the east side yard. Nature has such a beautiful way with colour, opposites on the colour wheel purple & yellow creating the highest contrast in colour! Beautiful.
Let's take a walk through the gate & go inside the dog's fenced-in yard.
The garden along the garage wall has done well with the dogs being more mature, they are four now.
These are flowers from my childhood, they ran along the west side of our yellow brick home in London ON. Then along the porch of our London home, I think my kids may remember these as they were always brought inside the house to enjoy their fragrant scent.
These will line the walkway to the potting shed next year!
Lungwort is just such a sight to see with its pink & blue flowers!
This flowering plant with the white bells has really taken off, I'm not sure what it is called?
The two bushes have been taken out & replanted, one by the new flagpole in the front yard & the other is by the rain barrel by the potting shed.
If you look into the shade you will see one of the two transplanted limelight hydrangea bushes.
The other is next to the rain barrel. They are both thriving. Bill planted his metal garden to the left of this photo, see the four rusted flowers? This is such a charming potting shed now with all the accents & living gardens around it.
We are now in the front yard on this breezy hot morning, breezy is good as it keeps the mosquitoes at bay.
I can't wait for family & friends to come up the laneway to visit!
The woods by the firepit side have been thinned out & Bill has added interesting wood pieces in them.
This is my happy spot though, looking & smelling so beautiful this time of year!
I hope you enjoyed your visit outside with me this morning, I'm happy that you did!
With writing this blog I found many of my friends' generosity of plants inside my garden.
They say that a garden is a friend you can visit time & time again. It's nice to have friends in a garden at this time in our lives to lift our spirits & senses.
This is my Druther's - druthers are the things you HAVE the right or chance to do.
So many things to do & dream of doing! And I'm always losing myself in a creative Kyrotime whilst creating.
A garden is nature's way of singing.
Thank you for visiting, & have a wonderful week.
Cynthia
Here is my summer happy place. 
