A Story - "Muddy Waters " and Cedar Planter

A Story

Muddy Waters

When Laura's mother died, Laura had mixed emotions.  She felt she had lost her mother years before as dementia and frailty had taken over. There was something else as well. Her inheritance. 

 For quite a long time, Laura had been frustrated and annoyed at her husband. He didn't like to communicate, he didn't like to travel, he spent most Sundays watching sports.  Videos online said she deserved better. Why be miserable for her years of retirement? Her inheritance would give her the financial independence she needed to leave Lazy Len.

"Len, I'm not happy," she began. "I think I'll move into Mom's house."

"You want a divorce?" he answered sharply, more alert than usual.

"Well, a separation, I guess to start with."

Len studied her.

"You have been mopey lately.  Maybe time away would make you feel better."

That was it? He didn't care if she left? After 40 years this was all she got?

The next day, she began the process of moving into her mother's house. It was exciting to be stepping out on her own. She couldn't wait to be queen of her house.  Len didn't comment on the move.

Living  in the new house was glorious.  Laura decorated it in her style.  None of Len's mess got in the way.  She invited friends over for dinner and served the wine that she enjoyed.  She imagined that Len was probably eating frozen entrees.

One of her friends invited her to travel to Portugal with her.  They had a blast driving to small towns and sampling the local food.

The next year, her friend suggested they go to Portugal for two months.  She readily agreed. This time, however, the weather was rainy and they were stuck in their apartment for much of the time.  Her friend had an annoying habit of humming and expected Laura to do the cooking. Her friend, out of boredom, started online gambling and pressured Laura to join in. When Laura refused, it made for an uncomfortable tension. She decided not to travel with her friend again.

Back home, she saw Len once in a while at family gatherings. He even showed up with a girlfriend at one of them.  She wondered where they had met. Online dating? Laura didn't think she could brave that quagmire, but she wouldn't have minded finding someone. But looking around, no one seemed at all appealing. Where were the men that women like her deserved? She noticed her single friends weren't having much success either.

One morning, about three years after moving out, Laura lay in her bed and listened to the silence. It wasn't a peaceful silence, it was oppressive. She remembered how Len used to clang around in the kitchen making his breakfast and how the noise had bothered her. Now she missed it. Not that particular noise, but the noise that someone else living in the house makes. Had she made a mistake by moving out? Len wasn't a terrible person, just annoying and sometimes inconsiderate. She thought about what it would be like as she grew old. Lots of silence. Some people liked silence but she wondered if that was really what she wanted.

Living on her own had been refreshing at first, but now she wasn't so sure that she was any happier than when she lived with Len. 

When her daughter called to ask if Laura could stay with Len for a while after his hip surgery, she actually smiled.  She would test the waters.

My daughter gave me this cedar planter made by Cedarcraft, which is a US company, but this particular planter is made in Canada. It's 48" long and 22" wide.

Super easy to put together as the sides just slide into the dovetail slots of the posts.  No tools required.  I put it together very quickly. The top of the posts have black plastic covers to protect the posts from the rain.

A cute watering spout with a little floral float to tell you when you've watered enough.

The bottom of the planter is two plastic trays, one on top of the other.  The top tray has lots of holes so that excess water will drain into the lower one.

I'm excited to plant in the planter as soon as it warms up which probably won't be before early May. I plan on putting in herbs, a couple of lettuce plants and a bean plant.  I have a rabbit that frequents our yard so it will be great to have a waist height planter that he (she) can't access.

A Story - "When Baby Came" - Calla Lily, Native Black-eyed Susan, Astrantia, Hostas and Cherry Bell Campanula, Bridging colours, Aggressive Purple-flowering Maple.

A Story

When Baby Came

 Lisa sighed gently as Peter brushed her hair, stroke after stroke. His hands tickled her neck as he gathered her hair together to make a ponytail.  He playfully swung her hair and then kissed her on the cheek.  She turned to him, and drew him into a full kiss. They had always been deeply in love but now that she was pregnant, they felt even closer. Peter rested his hand lightly on her swollen belly and smiled when he felt the baby's foot pressing outwardly. They were already connecting.

A few weeks later, Lisa went into labour.  Peter, who had attended pre-natal classes with her, knew to massage her back. He sang her favourite songs and wiped her brow with a cool cloth. He told her how much he loved her and how special it was to have a baby with her. When she was finally delivering, he held her hand and never flinched when she squeezed with all her might. Lisa was so thankful to have such a devoted husband.

Baby made a grand entrance, crying heartily and turning a bright rose red. Lisa cuddled her and laughed at her comical face.  Peter, on the other hand, stared at Baby mesmerized, totally enraptured with her.

That was the beginning of the competition between Lisa and Baby.

The summer before last I got these calla lily bulbs for free at the end of the season in August.  I potted them up and they grew a bit before the frost.  I overwintered them in their pot inside, basically just neglected them in the basement.  Last summer, I put the pot outside and they grew nice leaves but no flowers. Finally this summer, I have blooms.  Very pretty and worth the wait. They like a sunny location with ample moisture in the growing season.

Gardening is always full of surprises.  This year  three native rudbeckia (hirta) have popped up around the garden. They are a biennial plant unlike the usual perennial rudbeckia (goldstrum).  Their leaves are narrow and hairy. I guess some bird dropped their seeds in our yard. I'm enjoying having them.

Astrantia is such an unusual flower - spiky yet soft. The white ones have subtle colour variations with touches of green and pink here and there. They form a nice big clump but do not wander.  They prefer a half-shade location and adequate moisture.  A mulch around them to keep the soil from drying out is preferable.

Some of my favourite hostas, especially the green one with buttery yellow centres. I don't remember what varieties they are.  In front of them are some cherry-bell campanula which for some reason decided to make a nice ground cover this year in an area that I have struggled to find a plant for.  Campanulas in general like sun but also adequate moisture. These ones are flopping because they are not in full sun. However, they are growing well because the soil is not drying out.

To transition from the hot orange campion to the cool pink lily, I planted in a couple of miniature red roses.  The red serves as a bridge colour.

Purple-flowering maple has attractive flowers and will later make red raspberry-like fruit.  It is native to my area (zone 4).  It makes a shrub up to 5' tall. Sounds nice? Not really.  It is very aggressive and I would gladly do without it.  I spend considerable time trying to root it out of my gardens. It is sometimes sold as a garden plant  but it is a real thug. I didn't plant it in my yard - it was already here as it is a native plant. The bees like it though and birds will eat the edible, but not tasty, fruit.

A Story- "The Page Turned" - April Posey , Chickadee at Feeder

The Page Turned

The story had been moving along in a fairly mundane manner. Minor difficult disturbances and small pleasant surprises dotted the pages.  The overall curve of the plot proceeded along predictably, and glimpses of foreshadowing hinted at the probable denouement. 

But life can be special. You meet your soulmate in the most unlikely place.  You suddenly have a wonderful job opportunity that you never imagined you could get. You travel to a place that you always dreamed of visiting.

Yesterday does not predict tomorrow.  In the blink of an eye, the page turned for me and new excitement and life came streaming in. A new home full of family.

 

Some sweet April flowers.

In order to enjoy the frilly snowdrops, primulas and blue scillas, I put them in a glass bowl.

The small winter birds are still coming to the feeder although they aren't eating as much.  This feeder is squirrel-proof. The pegs that the birds sit on are spring loaded and will close access to the seed if a squirrel gets on it. Sometimes the squirrels try to stretch from the top down but the tube is just a bit too long and they end up falling to the ground.  After a few unsuccessful attempts, they go back to picking up the dropped seed on the ground. 

We will only feed the birds for another week. Feeding them in the summer is unnecessary and can attract mice and other undesirables.  In fact, a raccoon has been coming the last few nights and taking the lid off the metal garbage can that stores the seeds. We have tried tying the lid on with bungee cords but that doesn't stop the raccoon one bit. Surprisingly, he (she) doesn't spill all the seed on the ground - quite tidy about snacking on the seeds.

A Story - "Silence" and Dried Flower Arrangements

 A Story

Silence

After the funeral, friends hugged James,  They promised to deliver casseroles, arranged to do chores, shared memories of his lovely wife who had died just before her sixtieth birthday.  His daughter assured him she'd call every day.  His son encouraged him to come with him on holiday.  Robert was glad to see his friend being supported.

Reluctantly, Robert returned home because the carer was due to leave.  His wife was still sleeping.  He mindlessly made a sandwich after noticing the message light wasn't flashing.  Silence engulfed him.  The lonely emptiness of caring for someone with dementia left him swaying precariously.

It can be fun to experiment with drying various flowers.  I was surprised at how well pink peonies dried.  They're the main feature in this arrangement. As well as the usual statice,  some astrantia, sedum, ornamental onion seed heads fill out the arrangement. For some longer wispy accents, I used coral bell seed heads and grape hyacinth popped-open seed stems.

This little posey has quite a few dried roses - some regular size, some miniature. In the back are some ornamental onions that still have petals, some yarrow and some astrantia.

This is a more traditional collection of dried flowers.  I didn't grow them. So there is strawflowers, statice, gomphrena, and a bit of wheat. I have in the past had good success growing gomphrena and the flowers keep their colour for a long time. Gomphrena usually comes in pink, red, and white.

A Story -"The Invisible Woman" and interesting Fungi, and pretty Mare and Foal

 A story:

The Invisible Woman

At the restaurant, elderly Patricia spied two Italian-suited middle-aged men sitting a couple of tables away from her.  They kept leaning towards each other, speaking in low voices.  Patrica turned up her hearing aid until she could hear what they were saying.

"We need to get rid of the Attorney General.  He won't work with us."

"Georgio can do the job."

Shocked, Patricia turned on audio record on her phone.  As they were leaving, she discreetly took photos.

She e-mailed her information to the police.

The puzzled looks on the men's faces when they were arrested, made her smile.

This fungi looks like layered rock.  Very attractive design.

With doom and gloom in the news,  I think it's nice to see a peaceful picture of this lovely mare and her foal.  This is a picture I took a few years ago. The horse belonged to my neighbour.

Another month to the shortest day and then we turn the corner.  Take care.

Dried Arrangements, thoughts on growing potatoes and geraniums

 I found that peony flowers dry quite nicely and I made this arrangement using them as the main feature.  Also in this arrangement is some purple statice, white astrantia, red yarrow, grape hyacinth stems with seed pods, coral bells spent flower stems.

I have been growing some potatoes in reusable grocery bags (woven fabric ones) and having pretty good success. I really like just being able to dump the bag and find the potatoes without digging. I was thinking that next year I will place some of the bags on top of the big plastic containers I use for growing.  That way, the roots of the potato plants can go down into the soil of the container but all the potatoes will be in the bag. I could also place the bag right on the ground of a garden area.

This patch of geraniums is actually 3 plants each in a 8" pot.  I started them as cuttings in the spring - 4" cuttings dipped in rooting hormone and placed in soil.  I pinched out any flower buds until the middle of July forcing the plant to put more energy into leaves.  Now I have a lovely display of flowers blooming all at once. I will bring one of them inside before winter and repeat the process next year.

Geranium and Evening Primrose, Native Milkweed, Victoria Blue Salvia

Sometimes you plant two plants side by side and it really works. I find this combination of perennial geranium and evening primrose is one that I'm happy with.  

The native milkweed is blooming. I've always liked the look of them and they have a sweet fragrance.  The leaves are soft but, at the same time, sculptural. Of course, the monarch butterfly larva feed on them. I hope to see some caterpillars soon.

I tried to grow swamp milkweed which grows wild in some damp places around here.  I was able to start a few plants from seed but the swamp milkweed leaf beetle, a round red and black beetle, ate them.  Last year, I planted some butterfly weed which is the same family as the wild swamp milkweed.  It grew over last summer but this spring when it was about 2' tall, the swamp milkweed leaf beetle totally stripped it  in a couple of days. The beetle will sometimes eat the regular milkweed but perhaps that is more toxic than the swamp milkweed so the regular milkweed never gets totally destroyed. 

It's so interesting how some insects have such specific plants that they eat. I'm glad my whole garden isn't being eaten by beetles.

This is Victoria Blue salvia.  I've often grown it and never had any issues with it.  It isn't in bloom in May so it is a somewhat overlooked plant at the plant centres. I find it pretty and it blooms steadily from June to frost.

 It has very sturdy stems which make it good as a cut flower.

Having Fun with Pots, Camassia and Jack-in-the-Pulpit

It's always fun to go to the garden center and buy some plants and put them together in a pot.  I got a little carried away with this pot and it is crammed full of plants. It will definitely need regular fertilizing.

This one looks scraggy right now.  There is a geranium that I overwintered in the middle of the pot so I am hoping the geranium will grow some new leaves and bloom in a little while.

This is my pot of leftovers.  It should fill in nicely later in the summer. The hummingbirds will be attracted to the fuchsia and red verbena and purple salvia.

The wild jack-in-the-pulpits are in bloom.  As our bush opens up as the trees get bigger and further apart, we have more of the woodland wildflowers.

Blue camassia is a wildflower in some areas but not around here.  Years ago I had planted some down near our ditch and they happily grew there for several years and then, I suppose some little creature ate the bulbs, because they disappeared.  But a bird must have deposited a seed up nearer to the house and now it is growing on the edge of a garden.  Perfect place for it.
 

Thoughts on Colour Combinations

This planting is relatively new and I'm pleased with how it's coming along.  I really like the combination of the magenta perennial geranium and the evening primrose.  It makes sense for them to look good together as they would be opposite on the colour wheel and they are both on the cool side.  On the left is a campanula which would be closer to the magenta on the colour wheel but it also is a cool colour. Not quite in bloom yet, behind the big stump, is meadowsweet which will have a cool pink flower. I like the way the strong colours of the geranium and primrose are framed by the paler colours of the campanula and meadowsweet.  A bit later in the season, some pink phlox and lemon yellow lilies will be in the space.

This is a very flash combination but for me it works because the petunias are  the same intensity and form.

Here the strong orange lychnis (campion) does not go well with the pale pink lilies.  The lychnis is definitely hot, the lily is cool.  The lychnis just makes the lilies look very washed out.

The lilies would look much better near this lavender clematis.  Both flowers have similar forms (six petals) but are just different enough to be interesting.  The colours are close in the colour wheel, are both cool, and are of similar intensity.
 

Practicing some duplicating on Gimp 2.10

 This is not rocket science but I have been struggling to find clear instructions on how to duplicate an image and merge into one image.  

I have finally worked out a fairly simple way to do it - not sure why the techies make it so complicated. So here we have a duplicate image of some merry bells.

I like this photo of the red trillium so I decided to put it on a mug for my zazzle shop :              zazzle.ca/store/purpleasterdesigns .  I did an oval crop and made a reverse image so the mug has matching images. I'm gradually adding wildflower images to a collection of mugs as I think it would be cool for someone to be able to collect wildflower mugs. I also used a picture of dogtooth violets.  Soon the Virginia bluebells will be open and they are very pretty.

Very chilly and windy the last couple of day but tomorrow promises to be better so I will plant out the pansies and some lettuce that has been growing nicely on the windowsill.

Knitting with Leftover Yarn

I decided I should use up some of my leftover yarn. This pink in the shawl is acrylic, the beige and old rose stripes are a mohair blend.  The shawl is 200 st. across at the top using 4.5mm needles. I decreased one stitch each end every 4 rows at first and, after about 18", I switched to decreasing every 2 rows. It's a nice lightweight shawl that I will enjoy wearing on a chilly day when I sit at my computer.

I knit this afghan a little while ago.  The off-white yarn is acrylic, the cranberry is an alpaca blend, and the strips between the squares is a mohair blend.  The pattern was determined by how many squares of each colour I could knit from the available yarn. I did have a different arrangement in mind but I accidentally sewed two rows of the off-white consecutively and I didn't feel like undoing it so this is the end result. The alpaca and mohair yarns give it extra warmth without bulk.

Next project? Probably socks.

I'm not surprised that people have taken up knitting during the pandemic. A creative project with a defined beginning and end makes the days feel more structured. I have to say though that when I first starting knitting years ago, it made me tense. Now I have enough muscle memory that it's relaxing.

Keep well. Spring is coming.

 

Late May Flowers

After the spring bulbs have finished, there is a bit of a lull in the perennials. Some flowers are blooming though.  Here are some pretty Virginia bluebells. I like the way they start out pink and gradually mature to blue.

 The gold-leaf bleeding heart is a nice addition to the garden. A hummingbird stopped by the bleeding hearts and had some nectar.  I have seen both a male and female hummingbird in the last few days so I am hoping they will nest nearby.

A couple of late lily-flowered orange tulips. I noticed that a bee, who was struggling to figure out how to get inside a rounded tulip, had a much easier time crawling down the outward facing petals of the lily-flowered one.

I thought some bright celosia would contrast well with the lobelia.

The bleeding heart, brunnera, merrybells and trilliums are all past their prime, but they still give a little colour.

I have ornamental onion in sunnier locations, but these ones are growing in full shade near the Solomon's seal. In the shade, the flowers are smaller but they bloom reliably. Not many plants will bloom in full shade.

This is a tiarella. I like the leaves and delicate flowers and the fact that it looks so much like a native plant. It's hardy, and unlike heucheras, does not pop up out of the soil.

 This is a native foamflower (tiarella). Also very pretty, but more delicate than the nursery produced one.

 A little jumble of plants. At the bottom left is a hickory seedling . I'm always having to weed out trees. I can't let this one grow as it's too close to the house.

 Silver dollar growing in a patch of forget-me-nots.

Wild strawberries that produce delicious, tiny fruit. The berries rarely grow bigger than 1/4 across. It's an attractive plant anyway and the blossoms are cheery.
We might get a thunderstorm tonight which will freshen everything up.

Squirrel-proof Feeder

 I finally have a squirrel-proof bird feeder - Perky Pet brand. I bought it a few weeks ago at Home Hardware and it is perfect for the little birds. As you can see, the chickadees think it is great. I have a steady stream of chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches and juncos that feed at it, and no squirrels have been able to access the seed. The birds knock some seed on to the ground so the squirrels get a bit there as well as the birds that prefer to feed on the ground like the cardinals, red-poll finches and juncos.

The mechanism is a spring-mounted perch that will close the seed portals if something as heavy as a squirrel lands on it but will stay open when a little bird is on it.  A downy woodpecker was able to feed at it the other day but I doubt that a blue jay would be successful. We were so pleased with the feeder that we bought a second one.
Now I just have to figure out a way to keep suet cakes away from the squirrels.