May in the garden

The star magnolia and the other one are in full bloom.  The area of the woodland beside the garage is at its best right now.  The path needs to be weeded.  But this area of the woodland is looking pretty good.  There is the bleeding heart, the cyclamen, honesty that self seeds every year in purple and white, the perennial forget me not which has terrific foliage, and the anemorella, which is covered with delicate blue blossoms.
Yesterday I spent about 4 hours out in the garden.  I moved the grass.  I did a bit of weeding in the moss garden, but it will need more attention.  A lot of the pea gravel seems to have disappeared from the dry stream, but not under the deck.  Very strange.  It will get refurbished when I get to this area to clean it up.  I did a bit of rearranging of the stones of the waterfall.  This waterfall is becoming more mossy.  The big work of the day was to mow down the edges of the st. john's wort along the strip between Shaunna's place and ours.  Then I swept up all the debris.  I have a heaping load of dirt and leaf mold that I am saving by the old compost bin, to be put on the woodland when I am finished cleaning it up.  This effort has given Shaunna and I more space on our driveways.  I have yet to cut back the Virginia Creeper and more of the St. John's wort.  It will all be mowed quite low and I am sure it will look very good this summer, after its pruning.  I finished digging out weeds along this strip and took a wheel barrow load of them to the green bin.  I need a sunny day so I can paint the wild morning glory .. a very rampant invasive weed .. with roundup.  This is an ongoing battle, as the people on the other side of this strip have never controlled the plants on their side. Shaunna and Gerald are going to be doing some work on their back yard.  I hope it included a retaining wall where their fence is falling over.  I assured her I would be quite happy to pay my half of the costs when they decided what they were going to do.  All of this vigorous sweeping seems to have given me a very sore wrist.  I put cold packs on it for a while after I got into the house.  It is still sore today, so I have taken the day off.
The world wide weather seems to be one crisis after another.  Japan had a huge earthquake awhile ago, that took out one of its nuclear power plants.  I believe they have it under control now, but am afraid to look.  There has been horrible flooding in Australia, and now some on the Canadian prairies.   Violet windstorms in Southeastern US, and terrible snow storms in eastern Canada.  I shall have to re-read that book called Climate Wars, again.  Its all pretty scary, when you consider the power of these earth movements.  We have been most fortunate where we live... just a late Spring.
Our Federal election is over and we have a Conservative majority in the house, with Stephen Harper as Prime Minister.  The first Green party member of parliament was  in the Saltspring riding.  Elizabeth May has made history!  A week late for May Day, but there she is!  More good news for us, is that our Vancouver Canucks are doing very well in the playoffs for the Stanly Cup.  There has been some very exciting games that go into overtime... good hockey!!
The Prince of Wales is wed.  It seems to be a very big thing.  People in Victoria went to the Empress for a 2:00 am breakfast to celebrate the once in a life time occasion.  More in the news... Osama bin Laden was killed by the US Seals when they raided a compound in the mountains of Pakistan.  From a book I read about the origins of these terrorist groups... this mountainous area has long been a stronghold for them.  Some of these groups have their roots in the time of the British control over India.  Sometimes it seems we reap what we sow.
On a happier note, my blog is again registering high eighties hits, and climbing. 

Magnolia

My magnolia is in bloom. The crazy thing is rather mixed up with this weather we have had, or maybe its reacting to Pat's innovative pruning .. cutting off its large branch that was sticking out over the drive-way. Trouble is the new blooming branch is growing out over the driveway. Hmmmm I wonder if the tree needs pruning? The new healthy growth looks so much better than the old.

I should get my roses pruned too. Its not the time for them to be pruned either. They are kinda close to the house, anyway. So if they die its not a big deal. I should replace the Peace rose and maybe move the Iceberg farther away from the door. Perhaps this winter, in their dormant season. Sometime after Christmas and before March 1.

On Flickr, Cyrus' MIMS group has an assignment for shooting back lighting of flowers. I was trying to get it with this magnolia bloom, but my best back lit shot is too blown out at the top. I shall have to redo it, or do a set up using a flash light for the extra light from the front. Hmmmmm. Now if only the sun would come out again.

We are having cooler, cloudy weather with only spits of rain today. We did get a nice shower a couple of days ago, though. My lawn is still brown. I had to fill the deck tub and the front garden tubs to top them up.