End of August

I have been rather negligent with my blog postings the last few weeks and now suddenly, it's the end of summer. So here are a few of the highlights from the month of August.

Daylily 'Christmas Day'

Daylily 'Catherine Woodbury'

'Stargazer' lilies

Saskatoons from Gord's acreage

Saskatoons for breakfast!

The spider webs seem to be everywhere at this time of year

My friend, Adele, works at the Legislature and, now and then, throughout the summer we'll meet on the Legislature grounds at lunchtime to soak up the sun and watch the kids playing in the fountains.  A few days ago she introduced me to one of her favourite, more secluded spots away from the crowds where I was thrilled to discover a flower bed filled with gorgeous shades of pink and purple foxglove.

What a gorgeous riot of colour for the end of summer!

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The mid-summer garden

Well, here we are at the beginning of August and the garden continues to put out an ever-changing array of flowers and foliage. I've been riding my bike through the neighbourhood and am seeing gorgeous clumps of lilies blooming in gardens everywhere. It makes me want to buy more of my own. I just can't seem to get enough of them. Which is one reason I've got so many pictures of them here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Country Dancer rose, new this summer

 

 

 

Morden Belle rose

 

The hostas are blooming too, including this giant Sum and Substance. I don't actually grow hostas for the flowers; the foliage is stunning enough without blooms.

 

The Juliet cherries are ripe!

 

A pot of petunias, Calibrachoa (million bells) and Angelina sedum, but the petunias are so vigorous they're basically all you can see

 

My shade pots on the deck with coleus, Calibrachoa, begonias and sweet potato vine

 

 

Louis surveys the deck from his perch on the fence

 

A cheery bouquet of sunflowers from my friend Margaret! Another yellow flower I might need to add to my garden!

 

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Summertime

This past week has been a hot one, and I have moved down to the basement for sleeping. Even though it's cooler down there, I still feel kinda groggy in this heat. I was chatting with the gal at the coffee shop near my office and she said everyone she had talked to that morning was saying the same thing.

I was reading a book while riding the LRT into work one morning and was so engrossed in what I was reading that I missed my stop! I heard the announcement "Churchill Station" and then the next thing I knew they were calling out "Grandin Station, Government Centre". Somehow I missed the three stops in between, including my stop, Corona. Luckily it was only a few blocks for me to walk back from Grandin Station to my office building.

It's quite possible that it was the fact I was reading Road Ends by Mary Lawson that caused me to miss my stop. If there's ever been a story that captured my imagination, this is certainly it. I read Lawson's first book, Crow Lake, several years ago and loved it. So when I saw she had a new one out, I jumped at the chance to read it. In fact, Road Ends is actually her third book. I had missed her second one,The Other Side of the Bridge, and it's now the next book on my reading list. I highly recommend any one of them and if you're anything like me, you'll become so engrossed in the chatacters' lives, you'll be sorry when the story ends.

In the garden, the hostas are thriving and the lilies and daylilies have started blooming. The nice thing about both lilies and daylilies is that different varieties bloom at different times, so when one finishes blooming, there's soon another one to take it's place.

 

The strawberries have been soaking up the heat and have been absolutely abundant. I picked some spinach and made spinach and strawberry salad the other day and have also been eating strawberries with angel food cake and ice cream almost every day this week. Angel food cake freezes really well, so I baked one a while back and put it in the freezer, and I just cut a piece as I need it.

 

On one particularly hot day I had waffles for supper with vanilla sauce from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook website, strawberry rhubarb sauce that I had made last year and put in the freezer, and topped with fresh strawberries. Dee-licious!

 

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The garden in June/early July

Anemones, one of the earliest spring perennials

Forget-me-not, another early bloomer

Allium amongst the cherry tree leaves

Perennial geranium

The bees love them. Slurp, slurp slurp!

Louis prefers to drink from the watering can

Then he curls up under the deck for a nap

Haskup (honeyberries)

The Haskup berry harvest

Pale pink dianthus

Darker pink dianthus

Peach-coloured irises along with clustered bellflower and purple petunias

Mesclun lettuce mix, ready for harvest

The first ripe strawberry of the season, with a bunch more getting ready to ripen. 

My favourite berries --yum!

My very vigorous rhubarb plant

Morden Centennial roses interspersed with perennial geraniums

My shade bed with (top to bottom) ferns, hosta and ladies mantle

The giant Sum and Substance hosta. Love it!

Mountain bluet, a.k.a. mountain cornflower 

(or Centaurea montana if you want to get really fancy!)

Stay tuned for the next instalment as the blooms in the garden evolve.

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