A Story - "Where to Go?" and Gaillardia, Wood Aster, Zigzag Goldenrod, American Bittersweet, and Emily Olson Art Book.

A Story

Where to Go?

It had been a year since Steven had died. Paula missed the travelling they had done together. Some of her friends had recently gone on cruises, or trips to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, or down to Costa Rica to do a little birdwatching. She felt she should go somewhere before she got too old to travel at all, but she was nervous to go alone.  Steven was such a confident traveller and she always felt secure with him by her side.

She almost booked a cruise to Alaska but being so far away from home in a wild environment was scary.  A bus tour down to the Maritimes? More manageable but what if she got a seat mate that drove her crazy with their chitchat.  She'd never taken the train across Canada . She could book a little roommette so she could have privacy if she wanted it. But Canada was so big and she didn't know if she wanted to be on a train for that long.

Suddenly something on Youtube caught her eye. Something fun, something she'd never done before, but something that didn't look intimidating.

It was an art trip to Spain with one of her favourite Youtube artist creators. The small group would stay in a lovely villa and practice their painting under the encouraging guidance of the artist.  And she noted, looking at last year's group photos, the participants were all women. No couples, no men. 

She clicked on the link and sent off her payment. Now to buy some new clothes...

 

The gaillardia is giving the garden a nice punch of colour. It is a low-growing, spreading plant which may be why it is also known as blanket flower.  Barely hardy in zone 4, but comfortable in zone 5. The man who sold me this plant said his plants self-sow in his garden.  They are considered a short lived perennial so a bit of self-sowing would be good.

This is wood aster and zigzag goldenrod. I was not familiar with zigzag goldenrod, just the regular fluffy flowering kind, but the zigzag grows happily as a native flower here in central Ontario. Both of these plants are good pollinator plants and provide a source of nectar late in the season when many other flowers have stopped blooming.

It can form nice little clumps. Although the tall regular goldenrod likes full sun, the zigzag goldenrod seems to prefer some shade. It is only a couple of feet tall so shorter than the regular goldenrod.

I keep finding plants I didn't notice earlier in the year.  Here is some American bittersweet. It is a vining plant that can curl around trees and eventually girdle them so I'll have to keep an eye on it.  The berries are eaten by birds but are poisonous to people.  The bright orange berries are attractive for now.

I recently bought this watercolour book by Emily Olson.  I have followed her Youtube channel for a few years.  This book consists of  52 small paintings of simpler subjects. Also included are  some landscape paintings. Only 7 colours are needed for all the projects. This book would make a great gift to anyone you know who likes art, or give it to yourself. Available on Amazon or Indigo  and some other online booksellers.   Her Youtube channel, Emily Olson Art, is really helpful if you are trying your hand at watercolour painting.

A Story - "The Candy Wrapper" - Short Bellflower, Yarrow, Carnations, Boxwood, Lettuce. North Beach Provincial Park

 A Story

"The Candy Wrapper

Out for their usual walk, Julie and her yellow Lab, Sweetie, were strolling down the wooded path that ran behind their housing development. It was always pleasant to smell the leaves, notice the wildflowers and hear the birds sing. Sweetie, always on the lookout for something edible, took a lunge to the right and grabbed a candy wrapper.

"Sweetie, drop it!" demanded Julie. Sweetie wasn't about to give up the treasure without an argument so she ignored her.  Julie leaned over and grabbed the dog's collar.  With her other hand, she pried open Sweetie's mouth and extracted the wrapper.  The dog sighed and started walking again.  Not wanting to leave the litter on the path, Julie stuffed it in her jacket pocket.

A few days later, Julie saw on the news that an assault against a woman had happened one evening on the path that they usually walked on. She shivered thinking about someone lurking about in the area that she enjoyed so much. 

The police asked the public for any information that could be helpful. Anything at all. Julie remembered that she had picked up the candy wrapper and that she had forgotten to put it in the garbage. With a tissue covering her fingers, she gingerly pulled wrapper out of the jacket pocket and looked at it. Surely the police wouldn't want it. But then again they said "anything".

At the police station, she handed over the baggie with the candy wrapper in it.  She explained the circumstances around finding it and that they would find her fingerprints and her dog's slobber on it. The policewoman looked skeptical but she took it anyway.  Another useless piece of nothing from the public trying to be helpful.

A month later, the police still weren't making any progress on the case.  A junior officer reviewed their paltry pieces of evidence.  Pictures of footprints that could belong to a thousand different people,  some hairs that probably belonged to a poodle,  some dirt that maybe came from elsewhere.  Then he picked up the bag with the candy wrapper. What?  He read the note that was attached.  Had anyone tested the wrapper for DNA? Apparently not.  He arranged to have it tested and the results were surprising. Julie and her dog's DNA showed up but also the DNA of a convicted violent criminal.  

With this new-found lead, the police were able to apprehend and eventually tie the him to the latest assault.

Sweetie was hailed as a heroine and had her picture featured in the local paper. Grateful citizens dropped off bags of fancy treats for her.  Julie was thankful that the crime was solved and that, for a time, the man was in prison. Sadly though, she never felt like walking on her favourite trail again."

This pretty little bellflower (campanula carpatica) is a variety I got from W H Perron near Montreal. I had a hard time sourcing this type of bellflower. I used to buy them as small plants at the local stores in the spring but this year I had to buy seeds and W H Perron was the only source I could find. They are a good seed company so that was fine. This variety, Rapido Blue, is replacing Blue Clips. I started the seeds inside in May and now they are finally blooming. Next year, they should bloom in July.  They are hardy to zone 3 but do not like being wet through the colder months.

I wanted a short mounding plant to go with the 4 miniature roses I planted out.  The roses are the usual grocery store variety which happens to be hardy. They have been blooming all summer.  The campanula will work well with the roses because it stays low and although the mound will get larger, it is not an aggressive plant. It should bloom for about six weeks in the summer.

I like the feathery leaves of yarrow and the fact that it is quite drought tolerant. This lovely variety is called Apple Blossom and I got it as a bare root plant from Veseys this spring. I am really pleased with it. It is shorter than most yarrow and the flowers start out as vibrant pink and slowly fade to almost white. Great plant. There is some pink agastache and sedum near it so it is my very pink section of the rock garden.

The Chabaud carnations that I started in February are blooming like crazy in a wild sort of way. Although each stem is quite stiff, it often flops at the base. They will enjoy the cooler temperatures and I should get flowers right up until frost, likely in October.

Such a lovely deep red with a rich cinnamon scent.  The more orangey red flowers don't have much scent.

I'm not a big fan of boxwood. This one came with the property. Now it's really not adding anything to the garden.  I was busy dog sitting for a couple of weeks and wasn't paying attention to the boxwood. It had been growing very nicely, full of dark green leaves, but now, obviously, some bug has stripped it. Perhaps boxwood mites? Fortunately, whatever attacked the boxwood hasn't gone after anything else. I'll leave it for now and see if it regrows next spring.

Every summer I try to do successive plantings of lettuce and every year I fail. The first planting always does very well but when I try to get seedlings going in late June, they never survive. This year, it was earwigs that ate them even though the lettuce was planted in a raised planter. Finally, in August I have managed to get some going.  The days are already getting shorter so I am not anticipating a great harvest in September but I least I will have a bit.  The onions are green onions that I bought at the grocery store. My daughter-in-law planted green onions from the store last year and found it handy to have the green leaves to pick if she just wanted a bit of onion flavour. I did the same this year. I'll pull the whole onion out when a frost is expected.

This is North Beach Provincial Park near Belleville, Ontario. It is on the shore of Lake Ontario. A really nice beach with lots of space and accessible parking. It's busy in July and on summer weekends but it is a large beach so it can accommodate quite a few people comfortably.  Only day use - no overnight camping.