…is a beautiful time in the garden

Today, on this most auspicious Friday Felines.. Lord Burton and I would like to wish a very happy birthday to Mom!!!

Over in the corner of our diningroom is a small metal table. Dave calls this my “Rage Crafting” table.

Dave calls it “Rage Crafting” because many of these projects (especially the ones that require me to paint details) usually end up with me swearing at some point. They usually work out fine in the end, but in the middle it can seem a little dicey, especially if you’re on the outside just listening to me… well… rage.

Anyway, as you can see, the table is a little over-loaded. It’s been collecting projects/pieces of projects for months. I decided Sunday, after my chores were done, was a good day to try to get at least one of them done.

I bought this pair of fabulous skellies from Michael’s, as soon as they put all their Halloween stuff on Buy One Get One Free. You may recall, I painted a craft like this two years ago, and was pleased with how it turned out. I feel in love with these two when I saw them online.

In the end, I was only able to get Lady Skellington done.

Or mostly done anyway. I want to get some metalic paint pens and some plastic gems/cabochons to dress up that frame a bit.

So I’ll wait until I have them to tackle Lord Skellington.

On the weekend I shared a pic of the Goldfinches that have been visiting the garden on the daily.

They absolutely fascinate me. They aren’t big birds… but they still look like they should be too heavy to hang off the stems and heads of the sunflowers.

But they aren’t!

The other day, there were several of these Ruby Meadowhawks flying about the yard.

I even captured a pair of them mating!

I caught this lovely lady admiring herself in the reflection on our big front window.

And it’s proved to be a popular resting spot. I got this shot from inside a couple days later.

All this critter watching this summer has been exhausting! I think this guy has the right idea!

My fluffy handsome overseer was firmly in place over the weekend.

That means I made some very good progress on the stitching.

We’ve got all our crows, a couple of mice and the fantastic boots of two witches.

Now I’m off to Mom’s this weekend, so there will be no stitching, and no Tiny Needle Tuesday next week. But I’ll be back at it for the first weekend in October!

Dave’s been a little on the grumpy side lately, and our regular thrifting trips didn’t seem to be lifting his spirits. I needed something a little more drastic.

So Saturday morning, first thing, I told him to get dress – we were going on an adventure! And we headed to one of our favourite places!

Colasanti’s Tropical Gardens. Nothing like a petting zoo with some goats to cheer a guy up!

Just look at that smile!

Of course, it’s not just the goats he loves – but the parrots too.

This is Blue and Scarlet – and I think they liked Dave as much as he liked them. He had them both right over to him in seconds. Long time readers may recall that Dave had a small parrot through his teens/twenties named Jack.

I took the fancy camera this time to get some really good pics but it’s tricky with the lighting and cages. I did get these awesome ones of Blue though. Just look at that beak!

Last year when we went, they had two Lemurs. I assume they still do. But one must have been off sleeping somewhere and the one that was out wasn’t feeling super social. This is the best pic I got. Oh well – Lemurs need time off too.

They had some beautiful fancy chickens.

And an army of odd-looking guinea fowl.

The llamas were feeling especially chill. That one on the left was having llama dreams… his feet kicking while he slept.

They seemed to have less animals than last year – but they did still have my favourite lizard

I do love a Bearded Dragon and this guy was a very handsome specimen.

After our time in the petting zoo, we headed in and checked out the arcade. Dave somehow talked me into playing a first-person shooter zombie game (definitely not my favourite type of game)…. and I managed to live a few minutes longer than he did, which was pretty funny.

And of course, before we left, I picked up a few new plant babies… but I’ll share those another day!

It was a pretty dry summer. And the first few weeks of September have seen barely a drop of rain. As such, the gardens aren’t looking quite as vibrant and lush as they could be. The coneflowers – one of the main stars of the late season, are usually still going strong. But their colour is fading fast and many are turning into seed heads. Last weekend I did a bunch of deadheading, hoping to get a bit of a second flush, but we’ll see.

The Sunflowers are all doing pretty well still. And the Vanilla Icecream Sunflowers have been a HUGE hit with the goldfinches. I will definitely plant them again.

The birds even paid us back by planting a few of their own. These ones are along the back fence where I lost all my sunflower seedlings to the squirrels.

The Japanese Beetles are still kicking around, but there are definitely fewer of them. Good As Gold has taken the opportunity to shine again.

The lack of rain was hard on the daylilies. They can survive without lots of water, but they certainly don’t thrive. But I’ve got a couple blooming here and there again. Sadly, I can’t remember the name of this one but it’s a lovely pale buttery shade.

The driveway walk garden doesn’t get a tonne of sun, but that also means it hold the moisture better. And as you can see – these multi-coloured Susans are thriving there.

And the native Sneezeweed is in full bloom. It’s a little floppy this year – despite a Chelsea chop – but covered in flowers.

They say rain is coming (possibly today). I hope they are right.

Just realized I forgot to schedule a post for today!

We’ll be back tomorrow with a proper post!

Pure Beauty. Pure Burton.

Our temps shot up up again so the butterflies have been sticking around.

I suspect, warm weather or not, I think the Monarchs will be gone soon. But for now, they are filling up on the abundance of nectar in the yard.

There have been a few Red Admirals flitting about.

Like the Monarch, they migrate south – though not all the way to Mexico.

I’ve seen a few of these Checkered Skippers, but this is the first one I’ve captured this year.

And speaking of first time captures…

I give you the Mourning Cloak butterfly!

It’s a big one! Around the size of the monarch. And just look at that colour – especially those bright blue spots! Beautiful!

But the leaves are already changing, the warm weather won’t last forever. So we’ll enjoyed our beautiful visitors for as long as we can!