While I might not be great with Dahlias – things are going well with the edibles! Almost everything is in bloom with evidence of veg soon to come

Like the squash above.

I expect to be picking beans very soon!

And the peas and cucumbers aren’t far behind!

And that looks like the start of broccoli heads!!!

It’s so rewarding to enjoy the literal fruits of your labour!

Despite repeatedly saying I’m not buying more plants….

I’ve totally bought several more plants. Clockwise from top left

Double Scoop Coneflower: I actually bought two of these, but it’s Dave’s fault. 1) These are SUPER expensive through my plant catalogues. Basically two of them at Home Depot were the same price as one from the Catalogue. 2) I asked Dave which colour he liked better (there was red or dark pink) and he couldn’t decide – so I got both. Of course, when I got home, they seemed to be much closer in colour than they were under the canopy at Home Depot. The one pictured is Strawberry – and it’s only slightly more red than the other (not pictured) which is Watermelon. I put one out back and one out front, so no one will realize how close they actually are.

Pink Clematis: I feel no guilt for this – my pink Clematis didn’t make it this year, so this is just a replacement. I didn’t put it back on the catio fence though (there’s a rose bush there now) – it’s on the new arbour. I have some perennial sweet peas there, but only one side is growing well. So I put the clematis on the other side, and they can share.

Purple Veronica (aka Speedwell): Also a replacement. I lost both my pink and purple Veronica’s this year. Both were in the catio, and I think Lemmy was just too hard on them (he’s currently working on destroying a coneflower and a black-eyed susan). This one is much more robust than mine ever was, but it won’t be going back in the catio. I also got a pink one too – just no picture.

Peach Agastache: Agastache is a plant I’ve wanted for a while, but never see it at the nurseries. Lowe’s had it but they wanted too much for them (they only had it in big pots – I prefer to buy smaller and cheaper). But… eventually it came on sale, so I snapped it up. Not only do I love the colour, it has a lovely licorice smell when you brush the leaves.

Also not pictured is a new rose. Well actually and old rose – one of my first. Walmart is also clearing out their garden centres and all their roses already cheap ($15) were on sale for $10. Most were not in great shape, and I’m not great at bringing roses back to life so I passed on most, but I found one Tournament of Roses (ToR) that was pretty healthy.

Long-time readers will recall my ToR that bloomed beautifully for several years at the the townhouse.

Not my pic, but it’s a beautiful peach pink rose that just blooms and blooms! Now I just have to find a spot for her!

And this last one is for Vera

This is not a new addition, but a Dahlia I bought at the start of the season. In fact, I bought four dahlias… one died off completely and this one is doing the best of what’s left! I love Dahlia’s but they just don’t love me! Guess my green thumb doesn’t work on everything!

Rupert would like to remind you – that even though that OTHER ginger takes up most of the screen time – he’s still here…

And don’t mind his scratched-up face. That’s just from repeatedly putting that other ginger in his place (Lemmy is a VERY slow learner).

Now if you’ll excuse him – he has a shark belly to nap on.

You may have seen this on the Bearbottom Facebook page already – but in an effort to have some Seasonal items in the shop in time for December, Mom and I having a little Christmas in July – or Yule-y – if you will. For the rest of the month we’ll be focusing on Christmas-y quilt projects.

Mom’s already got a few in the works. I’m hoping to complete three small (lap-size) tops by the end of the month. Of course, July is a pretty busy month in general so that may be hoping for too much.

But Burton helped me get off to a good start. We decided to start off with a chandelier quilt, using some of our leftover Christmas Gnome fabric and some fat quarters I had in the stash.

While the Chandelier quilt looks complicated, it’s made of one block and it’s SUPER easy. It’s also super quick. In a long afternoon we had all the blocks cut and sewn together.

And we even ended up adding two more fabrics into the mix because four just wasn’t enough for a good visual variety.

But that was enough for one day, so we left top assembly to the next afternoon.

I’ve gotten quite good about on-point assembly. The hardest part is not mixing up the order of your blocks. We had to do a little ripping a couple times, but overall the top assembly went pretty well.

The Chandlier pattern is just perfect for a Christmas quilt…

It’s almost like strings of dangling ornaments. Here’s a closer look at all our fabrics.

I’ve got a couple options for back and binding, but I’m going to wait until I finish my other tops to decide. Now this weekend is fast approaching – we have an engagement on Saturday… but I’m hoping I can keep Sunday free to churn out another top – stay tuned!

One of the things I love most about my little garden is how much wildlife I can see without even leaving the yard. Some days I could happily sit out there all day with my camera and long lens.

When the weather has been nice, I’ve taken to working from the sun porch. I don’t get as much work done on those days. but I do get some wonderful pics.

Like this one of Mrs. Cardinal. The cardinals are VERY elusive here – especially the females. But this one hung out on top of the catio fence for quite a while.

And do you see that orange streak behind her????? I didn’t notice THAT until I downloaded the pics. I’ve been seeing orioles quite a bit this year – but always in flight. So I was delighted when this one stopped for a wee second on top of the squash tunnel.

And in anothe moment of “Hey – I didn’t notice that when I took the pic” – see the second bird on the right? Well – I saw him as soon as I put the camera down. Thankfully, he stuck around longer than the one on the left did!

A fledgling oriole!!! Isn’t he a cutie?

He flew off just a few minutes after the adult, but I was beyond THRILLED to have seen him, and get pictures!

Now these next pics are not quite as good, because I was shooting through the screened window of the sunporch

But I finally got a picture of the darn hummingbird. There hasn’t been as many as last year – my Honeysuckle had a bad case of aphids this spring, and it didn’t get many blooms. It’s set to bloom again though – and my neighbours trumpet vine is starting to bloom so I expect to see them a little more.

This one was making do with the Culvers Root. Though they do like the bee balm as well and I have lots of that.

Of course, it’s not just birds that come to visit.

There’s butterflies too. Other than the Red Admirals (above) and the Cabbage Whites, I haven’t seen too many other butterflies. I did see my first Monarch on July 1, but it didn’t stick around. There’s lots of Milkweed in Willow Grove now, so I expect more will be visiting.

I chased this Banded Hairstreak for days before I was finally able to get a few pictures. By the time I did, he was missing the little blue bits that are normally on the end of his hindwing. Hairstreaks are VERY tiny butterflies – the centre of that flower he’s on is only about the size of a nickel.

And speaking of those Cabbage Whites – they are the most abundant butterfly in the garden. And I do love them… but I’m struggling with that love because their caterpillars are just munching away on my poor broccoli! I think I’m staying on top of it enough that I will still get a harvest, but I’m pulling the little green guys off several times every day!

And a backyard nature post is never complete with out our other regulars – our funky red-tailed black squirrels… and…

The beautiful bluejays!

Who are the regular visitors to your yard?

I got plenty of stitching done this long weekend.

Mr. Moth now has his hind wings mostly outlined and is starting to look more moth like. I have to do some ripping back on the left side of the the dangly bits though – I’ve got a couple stitches that are over two, instead of one, and it’s thrown the count off. It’s definitely a downside of the black aida – it’s a very easy mistake to make! But, boy does it make the colours pop!

It’s Canada Day here… a nice, welcome long weekend!

The Gnomes are in full celebration mode!

Looks like quite the party!

While there are many wonderful plants in my garden, today I’d like to sing the praises of one I only discovered a couple years ago.

Yarrow has so much going for it. It’s a native plant (though these above are all cultivars). The polliinators LOVE it. It bloom allllll summer It has a very pretty, feather, fern like foliage. It reseeds, and competes well with weeds, as it’s a wildflower that grows in grasslands.

The medium pink on the top left made the move from the Townhouse. It was my very first yarrow. The lighter pink in the top middle was a nice surprise from the previous homeowners. It was growing in the middle of the back lawn, but of course, repeatedly mowed down (though I could see the leaves in the grass). When I built the borders around Edible Alley, it took full advantage of the open ground and made itself right at home. I was thrilled to discover it’s beautiful colour when it bloomed. The red and the white were added last year, and are both spreading nicely. And the two yellows are both new this year. I just adore the peachy yellow of that one on the bottom right.

If you come across yarrow in your travels, I highly recommend adding it do your garden!

June is about to give way to July, and to me, July is always the month of the Lily.

As you know, I have a vast collection of day lilies

And this is just the start – there are many more to come!

I did battle with the Asian Lily Beetle this spring and prevailed and now my Asiatic and Oriental lilies are starting to put on a show.

And there’s many more to come with these too!

But that’s not all that hot and summery…

I’ve got two, big Red Hot Pokers standing proud in the front yard.

And of course, there’s still lots of beautiful roses blooming.

We also have False Sunflowers, Shasta Daisies, and Black-Eyed Susans.

And many coneflowers of course!

And how about Hollyhocks? I’ve got this beautiful inky purple one in the backyard.

Or what about this miniature Hollyhock? So sweet!

And there’s so much more to come. July is always a great month in the garden!

As you know, the main reason I built the catio was to keep the kitties safe from the dangers of the wide world. But another reason was to keep the wider world safe from the kitties (mainly the bunnies and the birds).

But that doesn’t help when the birds fly INTO the cage of doom!!! It’s not usually an issue. The birds perch on it all the time. But other than a pair of Juncos Burton got the first winter we were here, we haven’t really had an issue with birds actually landing on the ground inside. And I deadhead the coneflowers in there so the finches aren’t tempted by the seed heads. (Butterfly casualties are another issue, but there’s not much I can do about that).

But… on Sunday, apparently one sparrow didn’t get the message. The video has a happy ending if you’re worried about watching.

It’s a little hard to make out everything from the security camera angle, but I think you can follow the action.

It doesn’t look like Lemmy has mastered the kill strike yet. And the sparrow flew away pretty steadily, so I don’t think there were any injuries. Lemmy must have just pinned him.

He was rather perplexed when poor birdie flew away!