I haven’t had a chance to get all my garden oraments out yet, but some of the new ones are out among the plants.
I got some large bricks from Home Depot and set my solar fairies up on them.
I put two at each entrance of Edible Alley. And the fifth one.
Is tucked over by Willow Grove. I just love these ladies. They come on at about dusk…
And they stay lit up for the majority of the night.
The giant ants I got at Lens are hanging out on top of the squash ladder.
I don’t know if it’s going to be their permanent place… I come out frequently and they are on the ground. The birds think that ladder is theirs.
And last… Dad came by when I was on vacation so we could go to my shooting range. And he bought me a present!
A windmill for my garden!!! He bought one for his a couple years ago, and I’ve always loved it. The store he got it at got them in stock again, so he picked one up for me.
It’s just over four feet tall and it’s so cute! I put it on the corner of Edible Alley. There’s a Physostegia planted underneath it, and it should grow up nicely around the legs!
And last, I got a little something for the catio…
Dave and I came across this cute wash-stand fountain on our travels a few weeks ago.
And naturally the cats were very intrigued…. but none so much as Lemmy!
I still have to get my mushrooms and other decor out… maybe next weekend!
Now is the time in the garden when things really start to happen. It seems like every day I come out, there’s something new.
June is the month for roses and Chrysler Imperial has taken the honour of being the first to bloom. This surprises me for two reasons… of all the roses, this one gets the least amount of light. By about 2 pm, it’s in the shade of the house. The others are all in full sun pretty much all day.
The second reason is that it’s been hit by Sawfly larvae pretty hard – you can see some of the foliage is pretty damaged, as are some of the blooms. I’m really struggling with it and may have to admit defeat and get some pesticide.
The other roses (Chicago Peace, Good as Gold, New Dawn, Quicksilver, Eden and Caroline de Monaco) are all budding up and we should have a good show soon.
I did lose two roses over winter – Queen Elizabeth and Double Delight. They weren’t great specimens when I bought them, so I wasn’t terribly surprise they didn’t make it through.
The delphinium are starting to show off. I have this pretty mauvey pink, and dark purple. And I have a third not quite blooming, which if I’m remembering correctly is blue… but I might not be, so we have to wait and see.
The foxglove ate just blooming up a storm. There’s something just so magical about those flower spires! So pretty!
And it turns out I have three shades of spiderwort, not two, like I thought! That was a nice surprise!
These are some Sweet William I started from see last year. They didn’t bloom then (they are biennial), but they are making up for it this year. If they look somewhat familiar, they are in the same family as my Dianthans, but instead of flowing a single flower on dozens of stems, they have multiple flowers on each stem. They have other magical properties too.
All those different flowers are on ONE plant! How wild is that??!?!?
A new bloom this year is Geum. I planted it last year, but it took until this year to bloom. I have two plants, and unfortunately, they are both the same colour (Geums come in a whole range). I’d love to get some different colours next year.
This pink show stopper is Alpine Aster. The smaller one is in the catio, and I planted it late last year. The bigger one is in the driveway garden, and it’s a great contrast to the yellow of the sedums and creeping Jenny. It only blooms for a couple of weeks but it’s lovely while it does. It also comes in white, so I have to try to get some of that for my collection!
The last iris to bloom is my Shakers Prayer Siberian iris. I brought it from the townhouse and it’s really multiplied here. I might break it up when it’s done blooming.
I also bought a collection of bare root Siberian iris, though I don’t expect to see much from them until next year. They aren’t even sprouting yet – probably thanks to that darn heat wave at the end of May.
The Sage is starting to bloom. I love sage because it takes the heat so well, flowers all year long, and the bees love it. These two have also both reseeded so I got free extra plants for other spots in the garden!
And to wrap it up… a handful of others… Native Bellflower, Dragons’ blood Sedum, and Pink Pincushion.
And the lilies have buds, and so do the daisies… there’s so much more to come!
Relic would like to remind you, that though the other three cats are spotlight stealers, drama queens and just general attention hogs… he’s still here.
On an unrelated note, Relic now has a new, extended name. No longer just Relic… he’s got a fancy show name like the other cats. He’s now Relic von Hindenpurr…
It’s been a few weeks since I got the veg beds planted up with seeds. The last week of May was unseasonably hot (think 30 Celsius/86 Fahrenheit) and dry. The temps have dropped down to something more seasonable, but we still haven’t had any rain. In fact, it’s been about three weeks since we’ve had a drop. I’ve tried to keep the beds watered, but life has gotten in the way a few days.
I think the heat and the water have definitely played a factor in the results so far. The carrots have not germinated at all. Same with the squash. And the one small squash seedling I did have, withered and died in the heat wave.
Neither the chives or the catnip in the pots are showing signs of life. And the strawberries are struggling. None of the new (bare root) plants I put in are growing yet. And the older plants are on the thin side.
But, there are a few berries on them, so that’s something.
The cherry tomatoes, which are the only pre-grown veg I bought, are doing really well.
My wee asparagus sprouts have turn into asparagus ferns. And I think they are just the prettiest things. I’ve learned that you leave these ferns until they die off in the fall, so they will be a nice decorative touch in the garden all summer
There are quite a few cucumber sprouts and they are just starting to get their true leaves. When I was a kid, we grew pickling cukes, as Mom made lots of pickles. I don’t make pickles, so these are an eating cuke. It will be fun seeing how well I do with them.
The snap peas are also doing really well. I have to get some strings up for them to climb soon.
The beans are also doing well. I have two types – Tender bean and Long bean. Dave likes to eat beans raw right off the plant, so hopefully these do really well and he gets lots of snacking opportunies.
Last is the garlic. I’ve tried growing garlic before, with not-so-stellar results. I’m hoping this has a better turn-out because I absolutely love cooking with fresh garlic!
So to sum up – despite our hot, dry conditions, at least half of the beds are doing well. And I haven’t given up on the things that haven’t made an appearance yet. They may show up yet!
While it was yet another busy weekend, I’m happy to say I finished up the last thistle head on my cross stitch.
It took a lot of different colours to make those three small thistles. I didn’t use the colours the pattern called for – just pulled what I had from my stash and hoped for the best. I think it worked out pretty good. And it’s going to look even better once I get all the back-stitching done on it.
But first I have to pick out eleventy-billion more colours and stitch that butterfly!
On the weekend, we had a special house guest! Mom came by on Saturday and we headed to Sarnia for a quilt show.
It’s been several years since we’ve gone to one (the last one was just after she’d bought the long arm). This one was held in a hockey arena, and was a nice size. And we had an extra tag-along…
He wasn’t in the mood to hang around the house by himself, so he joined us as we walked through the arena. I don’t know if he got as much inspiration as we did, but he really seemed to like this ship quilt.
There was lots to get mom and I excited though. (Mom won a door prize too, which was a nice bonus!)
I was especially interested in the at quilts.
I would love the learn how to do this one day.
The show had a small marketplace with a handful of vendors. Neither Mom or I found anything that tickled our fancy. Well I did… but I wasn’t about to pay $76 for one layer cake. I do kick myself for not taking down the name of it though, because now I can’t find it!
After the show, we all went out to lunch then headed down to Lens in Chatham. There we both found things to buy! (At much better prices). Mom got some background fabrics for a quilt she’s working on, and I raided the pre-cut bin.
I also got a yard of this fabulous fabric!
I wish I liked to sew clothes more, because I would love to have a dress in this!
And I found a wee dragon stuff to top off my purchase!
Thank you for all your kind words about Burton. I’m happy to say he seems to be back to 100%, so that’s a big sigh of relief!
June is here and with it, all the beautiful early summer flowers.
My clematis are doing amazing. They started out one at a time, and then all of a sudden, just exploded!
This makes me so happy as I was never able to grow them at the townhouse.
You all know how much I love my Lupin. I have two colours – a nice mid-range purple, and a gorgeous dark blurple.
They’ve just done amazing this year. I’ve got some Lupin seeds planted in containers, and I’m hoping I can get some other colours (the seeds were a mix including pink, yellow, white and purple).
The poppies are just popping all over the place.
The dianthans are just getting started. They will bloom on an off all season long.
These little pretties are new for me… sort of. Both were planted last year, but didn’t bloom until this year. They are Widows Tears or Spiderwort. They have a foliage similar to daylilies, but have these small little clusters of flowers. And the buds are tear-shaped.
I figured my bearded irises would be done by now, but there’s still a couple hanging on.
And my native iris has bloomed and is just amazing!
Including this beautiful new one that I planted last fall. It’s called Edith Wolford.
Each of these flowers only lasts a day, but there are lots that bloom in succession giving several days of beautiful flowers.
The Columbine are still blooming. My plants are all still pretty small, so the Columbine display should just get better and better each year. (I added several new bare roots one this year too, which probably won’t flower until next year).
I showed you the beautiful fuscia on the left, and mentioned that I’d bought two for the front porch. Well the second one (on the right) hadn’t flowered when I bought it. And I discovered a couple weeks later that they weren’t the same! I went back to the garden centre to see if I could get another pink/white one so I had a matching pair on the front porch (I’d move the purple one somewhere else), but sadly they were sold out. I keep checking every time I go by, but so far they haven’t come back in so the purple one will have to do for now.
I let Dave choose the hanging baskets for the back porch.
And he chose these two different petunias. Obviously, he’s really into contrast!
If you follow the Bearbottom facebook page, you know that there’s been a bit of drama here this week. It started Tuesday night just before dinner. I noticed Burton was not his usual happy self.
He didn’t want to eat (even his treats), he wasn’t purring and while still responsive and perky, you could just tell he was under the weather.
It’s happened before – and almost always he eventually hacks up a hairball and is fine shortly after. I figured he’d be back to normal by the morning.
But he wasn’t. Wednesday ticked away. He didn’t eat breakfast, he refused all treats. And very unlike him, he just wanted to lay outside in the catio in the heat (this last week has been crazy hot).
He tried to vomit several times, but nothing came out. I started to get worried about a stuck hairball or other obstruction, so I called the vet.
We got him in the next day and I explained everything to them. He had no fever. They took blood. They did Xrays. None of it showed any obstruction, or other reason he would stop eating. They gave him a medicine to settle his stomach, they gave him some subcutaneous fluids because he was dehydrated, and gave me an appetite stimulant to give him when we got home.
He did seem to improve a bit once he was home for a while, but he still wouldn’t eat.
Friday was pretty much more of the same. That is, until in a little bit of despair, I got his favourite brush and started brushing him. That really perked him up. He even started purring! I hadn’t heard him purr since Monday.
Hopeful, I grabbed the jar of treats I have in the bedroom (for getting good quilting pictures). As soon as I grabbed it, he ran right over. But he STILL wouldn’t eat them.
Knowing the weekend was coming, I called the vet again and explained he still wasn’t eating or drinking. The vet said the options were IV, or I could try to syringe feed him. I opted for syringe feedings, so I popped out to get some prescription food and syringes from their office.
When I got home, I gave Burton an ultimatum…. either he eats on his own, or I turn him into a kitty burrito and feed him like a baby. I put a dish of the new food down in front of him. He sniffed it, but still didn’t eat. Then I got an idea, I took a finger-full and rubbed it over his nose and mouth so he would half to lick it off.
And he did.
And then he started to eat the food! He only ate a few bites, but I was thrilled. I gave him a minute to see if he would eat more, but got nothing. So I picked up his brush again and gave him a few more strokes. Within a few minutes, he started eating again.
We repeated the sequence – Eat. Stop. Brush. Eat. Stop. Brush. And I managed to get him to eat about half a serving of the food. About an hour later, he ate a couple treats Dave gave him.
He’s going to get another dose of the appetite stimulant today, but I’m hoping we are on the far side of this little dramatic interlude!
Although in most of my pictures you see Lemmy hanging out with Burton, he’s just as tight with Rupert.
In fact, I think he might like Rupert just a little bit more than Burton. Because Rupert will play chase. Burton will play with Lemmy, but it’s always a wrestling match. Rupert loves to chase and be chased, and Lemmy thinks that just grand.
Lemmy is also now bigger than Rupert (but still smaller than Burton). Not that it gives Lemmy any sort of advantage… Rupert fights dirty.
But Lemmy seems to take it as all in good fun, and he’s happy to curl up with his friend after a wild run.
Wandering Cat Studio 