PEI's Flower

The pink lady's slipper is the official flower of PEI.  It's also in our flower beds in the backyard.  Yesterday, while photographing flowers around the home, I noted that the flowers in my two clumps of pink lady's slippers seemed to be at their prime.  So, I took a few shots, one of which is shown below:

This lady's slipper is just one of three species in the back yard beds.  It blooms just as the yellow lady's slipper is starting to lose its lustre.  They are a spectacular end to the seasonal succession of wild orchids in our garden.

Flower Power

An hour out in the front flower beds this afternoon, with my macro lens on my camera and my camera on a tripod, yielded several nice images (and a few mosquito bites).  After some tweaking tonight and tomorrow, I'll post some selected flower images up on my Flickr page.  Here's a sample, a close-up of a pink peony:

Saturday Night Special

A visit from my daughter and her family in the late afternoon, followed by a friend coming for dinner later on, made last night special.  Of course, the fine meal prepared by Margaret was also pretty special.  Dessert (which we don't have very often) consisted of warm saskatoon pie from Crampton's Market, heavily covered with Breyer's vanilla ice cream.  Yes, all very special!

Six Months to Go

Yes, Christmas will be here soon.  And, no, I'm not ready.  However, I have some ideas for gifts for members of my close family.  If you're one of those people, you're probably wondering what your gift might be.  If you're one of them who doesn't read my blog, I will note that and act accordingly.

What did I do today, six months before Christmas?  I mowed the lawn.  We're supposed to be thankful for small mercies.  Fortunately, my lawn is relatively small and I'm really thankful for that on this hot and humid summer day.  I'm also thankful that mosquitoes are most active in the evenings on days like this.  Although one or two buzzed me, none took blood.  They might know my blood count is still a little low and they're looking for an easier meal.

What else?  Not much.  I'm starting supper now: caprese salad, mixed rice, and roasted chicken thighs with my special coating,  Sound good?  We'll see.

Sunshiny Day

Johnny Nash (born August 19, 1940) is an American pop singer-songwriter, best known for his 1972 hit, "I Can See Clearly Now" ('I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. Look all around there's nothing but blue skies. It's gonna be a bright sunshiny day').  Those words certainly sum up today's weather in Winnipeg.  Today's warm, sunny weather is a treat after yesterday's rain.

It was a great day to go visit my friend, Vlad.  Because he can't get out with his camera much these days, I took along some cut flowers from my garden that he can use in his tabletop photography.  As usual, we solved (or, at least, discussed) many of the world's problems.  We shook our heads in agreement with each other over some of the crazy things we see on the TV news these days.  Picture two old men sitting around, drinking coffee, and reminiscing over the 'good old days'.  It was a fine way to spend an afternoon.  Vlad is one of the few people I know who can actually carry on an intelligent conversation about the important world issues we face.

New Flower Shots on Flickr

Finally, I got out and resumed taking photos of some of my perennials.  I've posted several shots on my Flickr page, in the set called 'odds and ends 2011'.  My thanks to Barbara and Margaret for pushing me, figuratively, out the door with my camera gear.  To get to the Flickr page, simply click on the link to the right of this post.

Blue and Yellow

Two of my favorite colours, combined in one of my favorite annual flowers, the pansy.  These tough little flowers can easily stand the stuttering start to summer, here on the prairies.  They seem to thrive in the big containers that we've set up in the yard.

They certainly are cheerful little plants.  The varieties we have, with their pronounced 'faces', are in the joker series.

Irresistible

I've not taken many photos lately.  I've not been motivated to so for a few months, despite the fact that I've seen many things I thought were worth photographing.  Well, today, a clump of lady slippers in the backyard prove irresistible.  I had to photograph them because they looked so gorgeous and I wanted to share them.  So, here's one of my shots below.

And, yes, once I started taking pictures of these perennials, I kept on shooting.  I may include other images in later blog posts.

And so ...

... another week begins.  My sympathies to those trudging off to work this morning.  As a retiree, Mondays are just other days of the week to me.  They do, however, signal the end of the weekend and all the fun that happened.  Saturday, after a cleaning frenzy, we enjoyed the company of some of Marg's friends for supper.  And, on Sunday morning, I finally took Marg out for dim sum at Kum Koon Garden where she discovered, amongst other tasty morsels, coconut buns.  Afterwards, we went to Indigo Books where I bought a couple of novels to read on our Alaskan cruise later this summer.  I finally used a gift card to make my purchases that Josi gave me for Christmas.  Later, I discovered that Josi and her kids were at the same store an hour or so after we were there.  At home, we had some quality deck time before the winds picked up as a new weather front moved in (it was raining when we got up this morning!).  So, although Mondays don't mean much to this retiree, I certainly enjoy the weekend activities.

Deadlines Motivate

There's nothing like having a deadline to get me working, doing things needing being done.  Today, we're having guests for supper so I spent some time pruning a couple of run-away shrubs (now, I can get to the compost bin without beating my way through a jungle of branches!).  I also pulled out about a hundred raspberry suckers from the vegetable garden.  I may actually be able to plant some vegetables there this year (something that, hopefully, can compete with those raspberry suckers!).  I also found a few minutes to pass the vacuum cleaner over the carpeting and change my bedding.  Marg has been busy, too: taking her mutt to the vet for a followup, doing the laundry, pulling some weeds, and getting things ready for supper.  We're definitely on a roll right now, whittling down our to-do list.  I wonder what will motivate me tomorrow to keep going?  Maybe, I should just consider Sunday a day of rest?

Odds and Sods

Wandering around the yard last night and this morning, I was struck by all the little things that could be done to make the yard more attractive.  Removing weeds, adding a few new plants here and there, splitting off some large clumps of flowers to give to the kids for their gardens, pruning the roses (now that I can see what's growing vigorously and what has died back, removing the odd shrub that was killed by the winter, putting the soaker hose on to dampen some dried flower beds, and so on.  It's good to know, too, that not every thing has to be done right away.  These are just small maintenance jobs that can be completed as time permits.

As some anonymous wag once said, gardening is a matter of your enthusiasm holding up until your back gets used to it ...

Back to the Future

Well, it's only been one week since my last post here.  My apologies to my blog followers.  Please don't give up checking for something new.  Sometimes, I just feel there's nothing new in my life worth writing about.  Other times, there's lots happening and I just don't get around to writing about it.  Sometimes, I'm just plain lazy and get carried away, playing games with Freecell or Mahjong (very addictive!).

So, since last Wednesday, I've mainly been active in the outdoors, tending to the lawn and flower beds.  Josi and Greg benefited from a second thing of my perennial flowers (always needing dividing as they creep closer to the lawn (and vice versa).

I've also attended the opening of the latest Celebrations Dinner Theatre show with Marg.  This one deals features the music of Buddyy Holly and his contemporaries.  And, I must say it's probably the best show I've ever attended there.  The three acts all seemed to whiz by, a sure sign that they were well done.  Buddy Holly died in a plane crash when I was 15 years old but his music certainly lives on.

And, I've also gotten a new passport.  I haven't had one in many years (about 10 years?!).  Now, thanks to Margaret's prodding and the magic of Visa, I can go anywhere I want to in the world.  The immediate plan is our Holland America cruise to Alaska this summer, something both of us are really looking forward to.  This will be my first cruise (Marg is a veteran, having done several cruises, albeit to warmer climates).

And, yes, I'm slowing getting back to walking the dogs in the early morning with Marg.  Sometimes, Marg goes alone with the dogs because I can't go with her for various reasons.  I certainly enjoy the walks when I can go on them.  Walking is funny in that the more you do, the more you want to do more.  We're looking forward to going out to Beaudry Provincial Park again in the evenings and on weekends.  Hopefully, the trails there will dry out enough soon so we can use them without resorting to wearing rubber boots.

A Respite from the Rain

Today, it's finally sunny again. Our sump pump in the basement has performed valiantly over the past few days. It always pumps because we have an underground stream running below the house. But, when it rains, that turns into a torrent and the sump pump drains the well every 5 minutes or so.

Ever hopeful, I plugged in the battery on the lawn mower earlier so that it can charge this morning and I can cut the grass later this afternoon (I lead a very exciting life). Before I head out to do yard work, I have to vacuum the carpeting. Holly was groomed yesterday so she's not dropping fistfuls of black hair throughout the house. It's time to suck up all that shed hair and make the house more presentable.

Yesterday, along with some rain, we were thrilled to have strong winds. We're talking up to 70 km/h winds. Needless to say, there aren't any blossoms left on the ornamental trees. The yard looks like we just had a giant wedding, with pink and white confetti everywhere!

Speaking of Holly, she looks great again with her summer coat. Smells better, too. I think she knew she'd get a bath at the groomers so she rolled around in some rabbit pellets the day before. That or a very dead rabbit. In any case, she smelled pretty bad. Now, she is nicely scented. Our other dog, Mollie is at the vet's today. Seems she had 60-70 bladder stones needing removal. She had become a bit of a bean bag. This visit was on the heels of Zoie's visit to get some growths removed from her hide. She's been wearing a head cone so the spots can heal. Margaret doesn't like me calling her cone head or scar face, for some reason.

Well, time to get back to work ...