Spring Reading

I've been reading 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith and finding it a pleasant bit of light reading. I first came across his books  when I found the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency at the library last year.  That book is the first of a series that takes place in Botswana and features a middle-aged woman who owns a private detective agency.   Mr. Smith spent several years in Botswana and he shares the culture in a very gentle and engaging way.  In 44 Scotland Street, we are taken to Edinburgh where we meet a colourful cast of characters who weave their way through each others lives. The book was originally published as serial segments in The Scotland so each chapter is short - only 2 or 3 pages long. Each chapter has a specific focus but still is closely tied to the larger story.  He writes in a humorous style, but his comments on Edinburgh society, which are also relevant to  Western society in general, are very much to the point .  A good read for anyone who likes character books.

Dogwoods

 The red-stemmed dogwood is especially attractive at this time of year with its clusters of white flowers.  It is a hardy native shrub with multiple stems that grows to about 3' high. Usually it prefers a moist location with sun.

 The alternate-leaf dogwood, another native, is really a small tree that can grow up to about 12', but usually is closer to 6'.  On our property, it prefers to be on the margin of the woods where it gets sun, but the roots are shaded by the other trees.  Lots of flowers at this time of year for the little pollinators.

The wild anemone often grows in the poor soil by the side of the road. It's only about 6" tall.

We had stormy weather a couple of days ago with lightning, high winds, rain and hail.  Across the Ottawa river in Quebec, a couple of small tornadoes touched down knocking down some silos and ripping off some barn roofs.  Thankfully, all people and animals were safe. The system went through quite quickly that one evening, and now we are back to beautiful sunny weather with slightly cooler temperatures.

My Trusty Lawnmower

 Here is my trusty lawnmower, Pepper, in the sun,

 and in the shade. As well as feeding him hay, I usually hand-graze him for about an hour a day since we don't have any pasture for him, and he likes to keep our lawns cut.

 Wow! He looked up! In the whole hour, he will maybe look up 3 or 4 times.  He takes his job very seriously.  Horses can chew and swallow at the same time, I guess, because he just chews non-stop and somehow the grass gets into his tummy.

 "Hay, I want this blade of grass over here."  He's usually pretty good about not trying to drag me around but sometimes something is just irresistible.  Note the big knot in his lead at the bottom of the page.  A number of years ago, he broke the tough nylon lead  when someone tied him up.  Yup, just snapped it.  After that, I spent some time teaching him to stand quietly when he was tied and not freak out if he felt pressure on his halter.  Now, I rarely have to tie him up anyway since he is on his lead when he is outside of his yard, and he stands quietly in his yard if I am grooming him or working on his feet.  When he broke his lead, I thought I might as well just knot it together instead of buying a new one for him to break. And it's still holding together after quite a few years.

I thought I would include several pictures to give you a real sense of our outing. Not much action, but a very relaxing hour spent with my four-legged friend.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, False Solomon's Seal

 The Jack-in-the-pulpit is an interesting native plant with its striped capsule and curved hood.  It lives in hardwood forests and grows to a height of anywhere from 7" to 2'.  It will transplant successfully as long as you take a good chunk of soil with the bulb and plant it in loamy soil in a shady location with medium moisture. Very hardy to zone 2.

 False Solomon seal has clusters of small white flowers that later produce red berries.  It grows to about 2' high and prefers partial-shade.  It will tolerate poor soil, and it can be invasive as it spreads by underground roots. 

 True Solomon's seal has clusters of bell-shaped hanging flowers which are mildly fragrant.  Bumblebees like it.  It's a very tough plant and can handle quite a bit of sun, although it's preference is part-shade with loamy soil.  Also can be invasive.

 It makes a good groundcover for difficult areas as it can handle being quite dry.

On a hot day, it's always refreshing to see a patch of ferns.  These are possibly wood ferns, but I need to spend some time comparing them to the pictures on Ontario Ferns to get a proper identification.
All the above plants are native to  Eastern Ontario.

Ornamental Onion

 The ornamental onions are blooming giving the little green bees something to feed on.  Although they prefer full sun, I have some onions growing in part-shade and even some in shade. Because the bulbs are overcrowded, these flowers, at 4" across, aren't as big as they can get. They are a really easy plant to grow and they fill in the blooming gap between the other spring bulbs and most perennials.  Deer don't normally eat them so that's another plus. Colours are restricted to purple, pink and white . Very hardy -zone 2.

 A purple verbascum (related to our wild mullen).  I would say it is a somewhat disappointing plant in that the stems are very floppy.  It would do best in full sun with loamy soil- neither of which this plant is getting because  I don't like it enough to give it prime real estate in my garden. But in spite of the neglect, it keeps coming back so it's pretty tough.  It's a biennial.

 The center is quite interesting to look at though with its fuzzy black and yellow stamens.

 The first iris of the season.

 A tree peony just beginning to open.  It is borderline hardy here (zone 4) and can only manage to grow to about 2 1/2 ' high.  The few flowers that it produces are quite beautiful when they open, but, if the weather is hot, they quickly wilt.  Right now it's pretty warm outside so the flowers may not last long this year.

Lots of cloud shapes after the rain we had last night.  We needed the rain so that was good, but now the mosquitoes are out in full force.  They should moderate in a few days.

Baltimore Oriole

Usually the oriole's are high in the treetops, but this morning a male oriole was in a hawthorn bush and I was able to get some pictures.  Click on the pics for a full view.

 I like the way his tail is fanned out.

 I don't know what he is eating - either insects or nectar.  He stayed on the bush for a while pecking at something.

The mourning dove posed very obligingly while I took a shot. The delicate markings aren't flashy like the oriole's but they are still very attractive. 

Flycatcher Nest

This is the nest of an Eastern Phoebe , a kind of flycatcher.  They are inconspicuous small greenish-grey birds with a white front that flip their tails up and down when they are perching.  Their song sounds a bit like fee-be.  Many years they build a nest on this window frame and I did see them flying around it earlier this month but not recently.  I have seen and heard them nearby though so I'm wondering if they decided to build the nest in a tree instead.  They are quite calm birds and once a fledgling actually flew down and landed on our daughter.

Although I didn't see any cardinals at our bird feeder this past winter, now I am hearing them and  yesterday I saw first the bright red male and then the duller female fly through our trees.  Hopefully they are nesting in the area.  Also I think that this spring I have seen a mockingbird on three different occasions in three different locations.  The first time I heard it, I was struck by the unfamiliarity of the sound and also by the incredible variety of its singing.  This evening I got a closer look and I do believe it is a mockingbird.  First time I've ever seen one.  I checked on the computer and we are just at the very northern edge of the range of the Northern mockingbird.  Another bird to add to my list.