the Flower Count in Victoria

the crocuses are looking very good in the front garden strip along the street.  This is the area I call my crocus field.  These photos are from merely a week ago.  Since then there has been many more added to the crocus field.  It was glorious today when the sun was shining.  As soon as the sun is gone they all close up.  More photos soon, before they disappear.  I have an outside boarder of grape hyacinths that I planted last Fall.  They are up but not blooming yet.  The crocuses are multiplying throughout the front garden area in front of the cedar hedge.  The dark purple ones are along the top of the front garden, by the grass path.  I fed them bone meal last Fall and the flowers are spectacular, this year.

This is a photo of the cyclamen on the back garden by the old garage.  The flowers and leaves just glow in the Spring light.  These leaves are popping up all over the garden.  I will watch them to see if they are cyclamen.  I wonder if ants carry the seeds around.  This plant is a bulb, so I do not know how it might otherwise spread to different areas, except by insect transport.  I sure hope all the leaves I see growing produce equally lovely bunches of cyclamen as this original one.

the camillia trees are in flower.  This is a shot of the one by the back stairs up to the deck.    All of the above photos are from a week ago.  In just one short week, there are many more blooms out.  I did not count them for our Victoria Flower Count, that is happening over this past week end.  It has been a very warm winter.  I am sure we will have record breaking counts of blooms. 

On Saturday I was to the Orchid show and sale.   I have brought home 5 new little treasures, and lightened my bank account by $85.   I will have to wait a few years for most of them to bloom, too.  I got a couple of little cattalayas, another lady slipper,   I shall need to list them in my garden journal... or at least in the plant lists.  I do not seem to have time to start and keep up a garden journal... unless I change a few of my priorities of the use of my time.   

Today, I was out for a few minutes looking at the garden.  I think the bulbs are going to be fantastic this year.  Many of them are up and in buds so it won't be long until the Daffodils and early tulips are in bloom.  Some of the hellebores are blooming, the winter jasmine, and a few primulas are open. 

Inside, I repotted the orange trees.on the 22nd of Feb... almost 2 weeks ago.  I am watching them closely, to see if they survive.  They get misted heavily in the morning.   I have 4 big pots and  3 small ones.  One of the small ones contains a double tree... which should be a good candidate for producing fruit.   I should get it into a larger pot.  In the light garden the 2 ladyslippers... Andean Fire and the yellow Concolor  are in bloom, as well as a couple of the phalenopsis, and the African violets.  I have an air plant that will be blooming... a rarity.  I will need to repot the orchids soon. 

We are making good progress on the renovation of the suite.  Pictures later, perhaps.  The place smells so much better with the old stinking carpet gone and the walls with fresh paint.  Finished my income tax return, too.  So, I feel like the pressing matters have been  lightened to ease  my too busy schedule.  I should like to get some stuff done on my old web page, too. 

Late spring

This is a photo of my crocuses that I took a few weeks ago, and converted from RAW.  I think this RAW idea really does have more data available.  I have my heavier lens on my dslr and so only use it for actual photography, rather than my snapshots to record garden, travel, etc. 

The crocuses are finished and the daffodils are out in full force.  There is arabis, anemones, hellebores, camillias, and a few others in bloom, now.  My neighbor, Mrs. P.  was complaining to me about the camillia flowers falling on her sidewalk and she has to clean them up every day.  At least that is what I think she was saying.  She is hard to understand.  I think she wants me to cut back my screening cedars that are between our decks.  They make 'junk' in her eaves troughs, it seems and blow against her house in the wind.  She also wants me to cut a limb off my English Oak tree, as the clothes from her clothes line seem to blow out against the tree.  All this from a woman with not one tree in her yard.  Its rather sad.  I wish she would take a drive through Broadmead and see how the rich people keep their trees.    I will need to prune back storm damage on the large cedar hedge on the other side of the house and reduce a tall straggly yew to a manageable size, at the back.  Of course the hedges will need trimming all over the garden.  It has been raining lately, so I have not been out yet.  Pat did some pruning on the fruit trees a few days ago.  The yellow plum is in bloom.  All of this is about 2 - 3 weeks late this year.

Gardening in February on the Left Coast

 

  

  

The Spring Bulbs are looking very good.  It is so early.  The snowdrops, crocus, daffodils, hellebores, and camillias are all out in my garden.  Around town there are rhodos and azalias out too.  The flower count is going to be amazing this year.    

I managed to get the firethorn debris chopped up and put into the green bin.  The guys will be around tomorrow to do the pick up and leave the bag of compost.  The firethorn is taken down to about 10 feet with some large cut stems showing.  Hopefully, this will all fill in with new growth in a few years.  I hope I can keep it trimmed to size.  I can just reach the top with my long handled pruners now.   The holly tree is growing up in the same area to screen the view from the neighbors front window.  

The pond seems to have a slow leak.  I have the water fall turned off, and am letting the water drain from this slow leak, until it stops.  I will then know at what level the hole occurs.   Once the water level stops dropping, I will top it up again slightly, pour a cup of milk on the surface... around the edges but not right at the edge.  The leakage should draw the milk out and I should be able to see where the hole might be.   If I can find the tiny hole, I can patch it.  If I cannot find it, I will drop another liner inside the existing one and redo the edges while I am at it.    Maybe I could get a plastic waterfall tub at the same time and get my waterfall looking better.  I would be able to add the mossy rocks I have now, as well as any sedums and grasses.   All of this to do after our trip. ... maybe.  If I do not get to it this year, I will just keep topping up the pond every few days.    The fish were on the surface today.  A couple of them are growing bigger and I know there are numerous babies in the pond that are still black.

I was dreading pruning back the firethorn and it was not all that bad of a chore.  So, the pond, will be much the same.  Easy enough, once I get at it.  Last year I managed to get quite a bit done, after having let things get a bit wild.  

The woodland is full of  bluebells.  They look nice but they just take over everything.  Very invasive.  I might have to use chemical control on them soon.

The garden in February

 

The crocuses of all kinds are putting on a show in the garden now.  We have had a few warm, sunny days.

 

Harry Lauder's Walking Stick  showing its catkins.  Its a lovely little tree at this time of the year.  Its curly branches can be seen holding the long catkins of gold.

closer view of the catkins on the Filbert - Corylus avellana 'contorta'

 

I took quite a few photos of the paths for future reference.  I am also considering making an album on my old web page under gardening.. a page for each year, once I get the monthly albums finished..  This is the finished rock path that goes through the inner garden at the front of the house.

 

This is the view of the woodland path (old mossy sidewalk) that goes from the side of the garage or from the grassy area under the apple tree; into the woodland and around the  garage on the bark chip trail.

Along the right side of this photo you see the leaves of the firethorn.  This bush has become large and unshapely.  This afternoon, I spent a couple of hours trimming it down to manageable height and width.  I have taken it down with a bow saw and a long handled pruner.  I have most of the branches cut up and put into the compost bin.  I just ran out of energy before I finished the job.  

I went out to feed the fish.  I throw fish food into the pond from the deck.  While doing this after lunch today, I noticed a few dandilions in the  pond area.  So, I went down to dig them out.  I also topped up the pond and cleaned up some of the leaves and debris off the little dry stream.  The moss garden along the dry stream is looking really quite nice, especially under the deck.

After I finished cleaning in the pond area, I decided to get on with the clean up of the firethorn... out there in my sandals, no goggles, no gloves.  I managed to get most of the job done with only a few thorn pricks in my fingers and some sore muscles.   All this took me about 3 hours.  It was about 13 degrees and a fine sunny day.

Early Spring flowers

 

The rabbits were gone the day after I had been shooting them!  :-)  I had to say it!   This is a zoomed shot of one of the bunnies sitting under the cedar tree.

One of the yellow croci with the background burned a bit.

close up of the red hellebore.  The flowers seldom show their tops but are always bowed down.

The white hellebore, close up.  The white ones show up far better than the red ones.

Today is a grey day..  I have not been walking or gardening for a couple of days. 

We were out to lunch at the Sour Pickle Cafe.  Cute little place with daily homemade soup.  Was delicious.  So now we have another place on our list of good lunch spots.

Megashot.net the new site is looking terrific.  Our photos really look good there.

Early Spring in the garden

This little crocus is open in the front garden and the Winter Jasmine is in bloom in the woodland garden at the back.  This is a very early Spring.  I should get out and prune the roses and clematis. 

I have finally noticed the new editor on my blog and decided to try it.  It has many new features.  I can drag these photos around to where ever I want them in the post.  I can change html and it will only effect the current post.  This is fun for a "blogging features" junkie. I can easily change fonts and font colors  and size.    I think I will stick to 'normal".   It seems to take a bit longer to upload, but that is not a big deal considering the options available.
Yesterday I made a big dinner for Lloyd, Pat and I .  It went pretty well.  We finished just in time for them to get down town for their Whiskey Tasting.  

I am reading Googled - the story of Google.  Wonderful story.  Go google!  I use a lot of their "products" and find them very user friendly.    I am sure they will find a way for us to blast the freeloaders off of our comments.  The moderation is working for me.  I am not sure if there is a little message on the comment page to tell people that this comment will be moderated and allowed or rejected by the owner of the blog.  There probably is and I just never see it cause its my blog, of course. 

More of the March 7th snow

More photos from our momentary snow on the 7th of March.

The ladybug opens up and there is a tiny space inside. I have a collection of little boxes. Some as keepsakes from places we have travelled. The collection is going to be in my 'pass through' new cabinet and will be visible from the living room and from my room. The ladybug box was in a giftshop in the Tillicum Mall. I could not resist it. It is my favourite box at the moment.

In looking at the site meter of my blog this morning, I found that My Garden is an author on this new website: metrocascade. Since they seem to be using my posts under Gardening, I guess I should be entering some Gardening information!! So, I signed on to their site. I don't know if I should attempt to post to their page, or if I should just keep adding any information to my blog.

Spring, spring, spring ahead

I few more crocus photos from last Friday. Some macros for the Flower Petal Art group on Flickr.
We had snow yesterday evening! Even though the temperature was 4 above. I was watching this out my patio window/door. The light was surreal. I don't think I could have conveyed this with a photo. It was rather like the light when you are under a rainbow.
On Friday, Pat and I picked up a deli sandwich and cookie and he took me out to the Victoria Grid to shoot, in the camper van. I am sure lunch was the big item for him. He waited patiently in "the reading room" while I became engrossed in the Jewish Cemetery and walked a bit more. The grid is in Fernwood this month. Interesting area... older area of town with a mix of housing. In fact I loved the big old 3 story houses, all kept up nicely, individually painted with cute gardens and gates. A few years ago, I had a rental property that was just outside this grid. Sold it. We did not go look at it, this day. I wish I had got over to George Jay School to shoot some, but the month is not over yet.
Tomorrow, the painters come at 9:00 to repair and paint the walls and ceilings in the kitchen, my room, and the main bath. We have a bright and cheerful light yellow in mind. My techie will be here to take my computer to the shop for maintenance at the same time. So, when John Gray and his son are finished painting, we only have the carpet in my room, David to finish the kick plates, and other cabinetry stuff, hang the pictures and ENJOY! Yeay!
We managed to get in on the new little tax credit for stimulating the economy. Lucky us! not a bit perk, but all helps. Good thing its getting finished.... old car stuff is right around the corner... there will be no time to think about travelling just now... not for me anyway. We talk about it, but this wait will just make the next trip so much better. Old car events and GARDENING! as soon as it quits snowing, anyway.
Pat has most of his cabinets up in the garage. One more to go. I can't believe we got that last one up and screwed to the wall! Was quite a feat! This thing is well over my head in height. Pat had us prop the edge of it up, once we had it hoisted onto its 2 x 4 ledge, prop it up with another 2 x 4 board while he put in the screws to hold it! Oh man! I was having fits, imagining it pushing him off his ladder while it fell off its prop. whew! it up and ready to be loaded with all those garage goodies. PS: there were NOT that many garage words applied while getting this cabinet in place!! Just a lot of silent anxiety.. on my part anyway.
Have spent a bit of time text talking about the new site. Cyrus and his builders are advancing at a goodly rate. The stuff I have seen -- which is all he has designed and most coded so far -- is spectacular!! The guy is working 24/7 to get this going! I have no doubt that all his dreams for the site will come true. The features of the site are marvelous and state of the art. Go CY go!!

Spring is late this year

These are few of the flowers blooming in my garden. The photos are not great. The hellebores, winter jasmine, a few arabis and some white crocus are also blooming. I have not been out in the garden in the last while as it has been a bit coolish. Pat did some clean up of the fallen branches and started some pruning on the plum tree. It could stand quite a lot more pruning.

Pat got another one of the shelf units up in the garage, with a bit of help from me. We hoisted it up with a pulley, that he used to use to put the hardtop on his BMW. I don't think the next unit will work on the pulley, though. He might have to think of another ingenious way to hoist it up.. or get some of his big friends to help. Today we moved the desk, fridge and stove. We could not get the dishwasher out. It is jammed in its hole with a broken leg, I think. Wally will be here tomorrow to put in the lino. I hope he has some suggestions about the dishwasher. Like, why can't we just leave it in there? If ever it needs to come out... there will just be another one go into the hole and cover up the old lino that will be left there.

We were out to Brannigan's for dinner.. just ok, not great.

I am waiting for my book Arminius to be delivered... probably mid March. It is about Rome.. from Cesaer to Charlemange. I read some of it on line and really was getting into it. I need a good book about Alexander the Great, too. At the moment I am re-reading the Assayrian about ancient Persia and surrounding area.. Tigres and Euphrates rivers. There are no maps, so I should be looking this up with Google. The era is of when Sennacherib was king... not sure where he was king but Nineveh as their city, and Babylon belonged to the neighboring people. So, I should like to get a book, perhaps on their great King Cyrus the great. Must research it some more. I don't have a good historical book about Marco Polo, either, although he was considerably later. And then there is all the Chinese dynasties... I could stand to know a bit more about them.

crocuses and stuff

The front strip of grass along the street in my garden is covered in crocuses. They look wonderful. They are multiplying like crazy, too. All the crocuses in my garden this year seem to be huge. I did not feed them, though.

I have managed to get the dead tree out of the bed by the chimney and mostly chopped up. It's roots had rotted and it just pulled right out of the ground. I started to clip the boxwood hedge by that end but ran out of time. Today I got the cottenaster topiary clipped into its form. Things are looking quite good. There is not much to do once I have the trees chopped up.

I searched Google again for how much space I might have on my Blogger and found the Picasa photo albums containing my photos. It seems I have two albums with a total of 294 MB. This site said I have one Gigabyte of space. This one and this one I deleted about 10 photos yesterday from the Victoria Grid in October. So.. guess I have room for these, if the limit is still 300 mb.

I have to get in contact with Trevor with regard to my back up stuff. It is totally weird. It says it cannot write to the back up folder cause there is no more room on the drive. He wasn't on line today. I did a backup with Acronis and it said the same stuff, but it is backed up, it seems, to a different drive. This stuff makes me crazy. Probably him too, as he has set up many of these back up systems with no problems.