Rock walk

On Oct. 2th the Vancouver Island Rock and Alpine Gardening Society Victoria Natural History Society had a Geology field trip.  The announcement:  "From Metchosin to Swartz Bay, see the evidence of the movement of continents and ice sheets with Atholl Sutherland-Brown, retired Chief Geologist of B.C.
Meet at 9:30 a.m. at Helmcken Park and Ride to carpool. Bring a lunch and drinks
and dress for the weather. Length of outing about five-six hours. No pets."
The weather was cloudy and coolish.  It was a very vigorous walk for me.  Atholl Sutherland-Brown, I understand, is 82 years young.  He tripped across all the rock surfaces with no trouble at all.  At each stop, he described the geology of the area, without referring to notes or maps.  We had notes and maps to follow along with what he said at each of our stops.  I am afraid I missed most of it, as I had to take photos, of course, as well as not being as agile as most of the people.  Here is the first paragraph:  "The geology of the area is complex because three completely different terranes have been thrust together by plate tectonic subduction with the younger ones forced underneath the older."  And it got more complicated, to me, as we went along.  It was very interesting.  I did not take notes.  There was a book mentioned, but I not longer remember the name or author. 
On the third photo I discovered how to take .jpeg photos into the RAW converter of photoshop.  If you are on windows, go into Bridge, right click the photo you want to use, and go to Open in Camera RAW. 
I spent this morning making chicken stock and chicken soup.  Most of the early afternoon I tried to set up a Drop Box account, for on line storage.  I did not get it set up properly, but don't care.  The first 2 GB are free storage.  The next step up for storage space costs $20.00 per month.  It would not take long for me to fill up 2 GB of space, with photos.  I have had near crashes on my hard drive, but have had back up.  ... and now have lots of space and it is all backed up.  I cannot see where I would need the drop box.  Flash drives would work fine for storage, should I ever get antsy about losing my back up drive or the main drive.
In the last week we have had some fine gardening weather.  Although, we had a light frost 2 nights ago.  I have finished cleaning up the woodland, the Japanese area, and under the deck.  The dry shade under the deck needs to be watered more often to extend the moss garden.  While cleaning up the Japanese area I see that the moss garden is coming along quite nicely.  The ferns can get out of hand, though.  I like to leave the Welsh poppies grow.  They are lovely and seem to do ok in the shade.  So, next year, I shall work on extending the moss garden further under the deck, I hope.  I have several different kinds of moss growing.  pictures perhaps in a week or two.
The wasps are no longer alive in there nest under the deck.  The hornets nest has started to deteriorate and they are not on the outside patching it up, so I guess the frost was the end of them. 

Garden Rocks, Art, Circles

This is the thyme circle trimmed back to its 7 foot diameter within the encircling rocks. It is in full bloom, without weeds. The newspapers under this planting has worked as a good weed barrier for about 11 years! Perhaps, this year I should clip the thyme, although it seems to do well enough without a shearing. Across the thyme you see the yellow oregano and the little bush beside it is a spirea in pink bloom. The spirea has leaves to match the colors of the oregano. I must prune it back after bloom, this year. The black bamboo is next to the spirea on one side and the hedge along the other side. Along the bottom of the photo you see the low daisies in the sundial circle and the red sedum that is to fill its space next to the sundial circle.

The little sun dial circle with the low growing daisies in bloom, and the rhodendron like plant that is slowly forming around the sundial. I have planted a couple of new little low growing plants in this circle to try to fill in. One is a 'heron's bill' that looks like a tiny geranium. I also have a white/green leaved low growing alpine from last year's planting. This little area is very difficult, except for the two established plants. More water is probably the key to getting better results. You can see where this little circle borders the thyme circle on one side with the irises onthe other side, and campanulas along by the hedge. The little pink hebe sits by its rock. This little plant is my favourite this year, as it has responded so very well to the care it got last year. The red along the other side of this little circle is a sedum with a reddish hew. It grows next to the silver sedum and is the same plant, just a different variety. They are going to look super together when they fill in their alloted spaces.
The view over the inner garden to the bench at the bottom of the thyme circle. I have cleaned up this inner garden this year and shall try to keep it more formal. I was letting the alliums and columbines go quite wild in this spot. It looks so much better with the messy hebe taken out, too. At the back you can see a well behaved hebe.. Carl Treshcer, maybe? Closer shot of it soon. The tricyrtis (?) are a bit messy. They like a bit of shade and might be moved some day. They are not a great plant, but they are 'different'. You can see the dark smoke bush with the silver sedum under part of it. I am encouraging the sedum to spread into the area where I took out the hebe. I have just added some pussy toes to this area. I don't know if they will grow or not as I ripped them out of the cleaning up I was doing under the front plum tree. They are low growing with silver leaves and pink bloosums.
This rock has special meaning for me. When we visited Bryan in Yellowknife, he gave me this rock that he had been keeping in his garage. It has weathered quite a bit over the last 12 or so years. I wish I had known that you could paint rocks with something that keeps them from weathering. Perhaps I could have this one cleaned and then protect it. At the moment it sits at the feet of the cement David in its bed of pea gravel and other bigger round rocks collected from beaches.
These are the rocks that were hiding under the yellow oregano at the edge of the time circle. They have not weathered too badly and retain their rich colors. I have moved them to the inner garden where I removed a messy hebe. The silver sedum should expand to the edge of these rocks, and be the under planting of the smoke bush with its dark wine red leaves. Next to the rocks you see the armeria (thrift) forming its round mound. This particular plant is quite old. I am encouraging it to regrow the center portion. These thrifts are good plants in my garden. Very easy care once established. Also next to these rocks you see the newly moved lavendar which will expand in time, to displace the rocks, yet again.
This is the small sundial that sits in the sunniest part of the front garden. It has dolphins on it. I have it set to the shadow falling over 12 noon around June 21st.
The west coast planter is situated across this little stone path from the water tub. This area is looking really good since I renovated the rock paths. I have some of my most choice little rock plants growing here. They are growing in clay and gravel, there is a canopy of leaves over them in the summer and they thrive. Everything that a rock/alpine plant should not like, at all! You can see the Gertrude Jekyll rose under the same canopy of leaves from the liquid amber tree. I let the leaves fall here and just clean them off the tops of the plants. So, I seem to be building up a good leaf mulch barrier to weeds and providing the plants with nutrients; as well as minimizing my leaf raking chores. Is that green gardening!?
The mermaid is now sitting on an upturned black plant pot and gazing into the half barrel tub. The tub is the home of Elvis the fish and a white water iris.
This is the view from the driveway across my front garden. You can see the neighbors car in their driveway. I have some small cedars to screen their driveway. They are on the corner of the street and the view goes right across the street. It is far too open to the traffic.
I wish these bronze herons were just a bit bigger, but they do match the color of the stone they seem to be examining. They sit in front of the tub garden and are surrounded by a little campanula, an iberis and the white perennial snapdragon. I must feature this little plan sometime. It has silver blue fuzzy leaves and white snapdragon flowers over a long bloom period. An excellent low growing plant that has suffered many moves with some horrible soil.

Yesterday, I transplanted the 6 little perennials, but did not do anything else. Today, I took the day off, except for watering the house plants. I spent a lot of time on the new site that is being built by a good internet friend. This site is going to be just super for photography information, networking, and all kinds of fun. The features seem almost endless. I can't wait until its on line.

Garden Nursery Visit - Brentwood Bay

Licens, mosses, grasses and red rock plants covering these rocks by the shore. I did not want to crawl around on the rocks as this appears to be a fairly fragile ecosytem, easily harmed by careless shoes or dogs.
Some of the picturesque driftwood and rocks with barnacles along the Songhees shoreline.
Another long shot of the painted dragon just a little bit along the walkway from Spinnakers Pub. I believe the little Harbour Ferry docks stops here. That arbutus tree is outstanding!
This is a telephoto view of West Bay Marina; taken from the walkway while shooting for the Victoria Grid Project.

Easter was a quiet day for us, with a duck for our Easter Sunday feast. It was a fine day.

Pat had a delivery of a door prize for the car club to make in the Brentwood Bay area. It was a lovely drive and we stopped at Brentwood Bay Nursery on our way home. This is my favourite nursery but I seldom get out here any more, as my garden is full. Also I get free delivery from Cannor with my membership (also 10% off all plants). Cannor is much closer also. But Brentwood Bay is a real treat to visit. They have many rare and specialty plants. I get alpine plants every year at the Club show and Sale, too, so have not had an urgent need to shop at Brentwood Bay. But, of course, I found a couple of little plants that I could not resist. A cyclamen coum (not really rare - but I could use one or two more of them) and a Daphne x rollsdorfi Wilhelm Schacht which had to come with me. The Daphne tag says: Dark green, thick foliage, dense growing evergreen shrub to 12". Very fragrant purple-pink flowers. A beautiful and choice selection. Zone 6. This time my Daphne is going in a pot, where I can take proper care of it and keep an eye on it. I must research its care, as I have managed to kill a few Daphnes already.
I found a good source of information on growing Daphnes. They need good drainage and yet do not let them dry out.

Just as I had found these two choice plants, the sleet and hail began bucketing down. It really got cold in a matter of minutes. The lady at the nursery was loading wagons with precious plants and getting them under cover in the green houses. This hail/sleet kept up until we were half way home and it turned to rain. We must have been a pocket of cold air. Freaky weather.

My big white phalenopsis is still in bloom. There are African violets in bloom also. Its all clean and looks good. I love my new room and the kitchen. Life is good! We are so very fortunate.

I read quite late last night, so am not very alive today. As well as reading 'Arminius" (which is pretty tough going at times) I am reading Lords of the Bow by Conn Iggulden. Its about Genghis Khan and the invasion of China. This history is not as old as I had thought it was. There is a date of 1211 AD on one of the chapters. It is a very good read. This author has done a Roman series of books as well as more of the Mongols.

I had some very exciting news from Cyrus about his new photo upload/sharing site. Two months, maybe!! I can hardly wait. All of the features and design look just terrific!

Wild flowers

Not a flower but a lichen. They are always nice to have in the rock garden, though.
I do not know what this one is, but I believe it is one of our own indigenous rock plants.
These are a familiar site all year. I would like to get some of them growing in the grass strip along the front of my garden, where the crocuses grow. These could be blooming while the crocus leaves ripen to feed the bulbs. I cannot mow this area until the crocuses go dormant. Perhaps a few violets might look nice in here also.

These are a few of the plants found on the rocks and grass along the seawalk through Songhees. I was shooting for the Victoria Grid Project - a Flickr group. It was a very bright and sunny day. Since I was along the waterfront, I used my ND grad. filter to cut down the glare. I love that filter. It does wonders in keeping my photos from just washing out in all the light.

Friday - I felt like I accomplished a few things this day. I made a rhubarb and strawberry pie. Last year's rhubarb that I had frozen, and frozen strawberries. The pie is delicious. Pat rescued it from being incinerated as I had my head buried in my tax forms. Well, that wretched task is finished also. I really wish these tax forms were not so very convoluted. They are getting worse every year, it seems. We now have forms to attach to schedules that attach to the the main form.