Sunday, July 29, 2012

Flowers, flowers and vegetables.

I love my gardens.  They are colourful, tasty and make me happy.  Despite the flooding, they are growing pretty well (at least when I remember to water them, or when Mark is home to water them).  

 Inside the greenhouse.  Lots of veggies growing.  There are peas and beans, tomatoes and peppers, cauliflower and broccoli, lettuce and basil.  Lots of yum!
 Our purple cauliflower.  Yes, that's right, purple.  No we didn't add food colouring, that's natural. And delicious.  Cauliflower is the perfect marine biologist vegetable because it looks like coral.  :)
 Our veggie plate at lunch time.  Ok,  so not everything is from our garden, but the cauliflower and cucumber are.  The broccoli came from the farmer's market.  (the mushrooms, pepper and carrots are from the grocery store, but they add to the colour of the plate).
Ok, also not from our garden, but I wanted to show the red.  The plums, apricots, and cherries are from the fruit truck - he comes to the market and is from the Okanagan.  The strawberries are also from the farmer's market and were grown just a few km from our house.









 Now on to flowers.   My hanging baskets.  I'm pretty proud of how they look.  They are growing well.
 The petunias are the best flowers for the sides.  The pansies are ok, but should be used in moderation.  And the colours are just fun.

They are growing, up, down and all around.












Each hanging basket is different.  But the hummingbird likes all of them.












 As well as hanging baskets, we have hanging bags on the fence posts.  They are growing great this year as well. 
The colours in these bags is great too.   One day I'd love to have every fence post hosting a bag, but that's a lot of rice.















 The long flower box is also doing well this year.  The flood helped keep these guys well watered over the past month. 
Again with colour, but I love the way these colours go together.  I remember planting the snapdragons and the marigolds, but where the little blue flowers came from is a mystery.










 My perennial garden is doing well also.  Which is great because it was underwater for a while.  The lillies are now starting to open.
















So many beautiful colours :) 



 And finally, the plants on the deck.  The gerbers have made a great comeback (they always have a hard time when we go away for Christmas.  We lost the orange one this year).  With another 5 heads coming up, we should have 8 flower on this plant in the next week or so.  Amazing.
  
This one is also making a great comeback after a hard Christmas season.
 Petunias are growing overtime.  We have a log full of petunias on either side of our steps.  (note that there is no water at the bottom of the stairs now....  it is muddy and goopy, but not under water).












And that concludes this week's garden tour.  Have a great day!










Thursday, July 26, 2012

a couple of relaxing evenings in paradise





Life is good.  The days are sunny.  Things are progressing. The evenings are beautiful. and I'm having fun. One evening I canoed into the sunset.  And another I relaxed by the fire. 








Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Having fun in the yard

It is summer and life is good.  The sun is shining, the plants are growing (well, ok, the ones that weren't drowned in the flood), and the birds are singing.  And we are just enjoying life in our little log cabin.

 The cats out canoeing in the driveway.

Cosmo trying to decide which way to steer the boat.

Cosmo wouldn't walk on the floor of the boat (there was a small puddle of water), he insisted on trying to walk along the gunnels.









Shelby up in the bow looking for an opportunity to jump out.

Mama duck is not impressed with all the comotion in the yard.











Mark taking the cats for a paddle around the driveway.


 "My paddles keen and bright,
flashing with silver,
Swift as a wild goose flight,
Dip dip and swing"









Time for a swim.  Great spot to contemplate the world.
 Life on the lake.













Yoga on Mark's head.












 1.... 2..... 3..... Jump!
 
 Pretty sweet life.  Can't complain.  (even if the sun is in our eyes)


And for dinner - Wild Sockeye salmon with a honey mustard glaze.   Super Yum!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Walking through Spirit Forest

While the boys were fishing in Terrace this weekend, I took a walk through the Spirit forest on Ferry Island. 




A spirit house.














Sit down and rest a while.











 Need somewhere to live?

 Someone really likes owls.