June in the garden

The pots on the deck are something new this year.  I was inspired to plant a butterfly and humming bird planter and the pots just seemed to keep growing from there.  I have 4 larger pots and 2 smaller ones of a matching set I had purchased some years ago.  I have 2 taller black pots and the cedar box.  There is a tomatoe and basil in one, the butterfly perennials and annuals in one, the tulips, comsos, delphinium in another, the hollyhock with a whitle perennial, scaboisia, one of the smaller ones holds a willow from the VIRAGS plant sale, a black pot with another willow, a black pot with a Japanese quince, and the cedar box with a few annuals.

Two of the rhodos by the deck that are looking good this year.

This is a close up of a drop on the water lily leaf in the deck water tub.. a closely cropped drop.

This snail lives under the deck.  I usually find them to be darker green and living on the moss garden.  There are not very many of them, so I don't mind seeing them in the shade garden.
Yesterday I watered and fed the house plants and deck plants.  I needed to change 2 of the grow tubes on the light garden.  My African violets are all in bloom, and there are now 2 moth orchids blooming.
We have had overcast but warm weather for the last couple of days.  I was hoping it would rain, but it looks like I will need to water.
I have managed to get a few critiques done on Megashot and have been slowly catching up on the meet and greet for new members.  We seem to have some very active newer members which is great to see.    Version 2 is in the works and promises to be faster, sleeker, and even better than the present one; which, in my opinion is very very good.  Its a huge portal with many features as well as photo upload and storage. 

My Walk - January 10, 2009

At the beginning of January there was flooding happening in some parts of town and more seriously, up island. I took my camera and went out to see how our river was doing. There was a sign across the path in the park saying it was closed due to flooding. By the time I was out for my walk the floods had receded. There was a bit of wash out on the path, but not bad. The river is just the usual full to its banks. Since then we have not had much rain. Our water reserve is at 80% they say, which is not great. We could be full and it would be better.

The colors were really quite bright, but I think I should set my camera's saturation off, if it is on. I like the colors though. I enhanced the water drop with the berries in photoshop. :)) I have a few more from this day's shoot that I like and want to upload to this blog, if not to Flickr. If I load to Flickr I feel obliged to return comments on my stuff. Lately, I just don't seem to have the time. I have been catching up on some moderating duties and my Whimsies group has gone wanting for comments the photos. I don't know why I feel I have to comment them all, but I like to.

I am really enjoying being back in my kitchen. Tonite I roasted a chicken, dressing, gravey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, and butternut squash. Was good. Neither one of us had room for any dessert. Since Pat cannot have salt, I made chicken/vegetable soup. I have 3 jars of it. I just have to add water, heat and serve. We have not looked for soups with less sodium and are doing ok so far with homemade soups. Its fun actually. My cream of asparagus turned out really good last week. I have some left over asparagus to make more. It just takes a bit of time. I have stuff mostly put away. I have to put my gardening books in the liberated shelves in the library. I moved my camera stuff out here into the cabinet next to the closet.

Brad was back last nite to finish installing my faux Tiffany light and to move the baseboard heater over a few feet. Now I will turn my desk to face the wall. Pat reminded me that the reason I had it facing the door was so that no one could look into our patio door and see the computer. hmmmmmmm... I don't think my old model computers are something that would be particularly high value on the black market. Tonite we settled our account with Brad, and it was approximately what Pat had expected. I was a bit surprised, but what do I know. The pot lights are a bit expensive. I didn't price them out, or I may not have gone for them, even though I really like them. They will be finished after the painter is done. It is suppose to be easier for him to paint around them as they are, and then the trim goes on after. They are white, and I want the ceiling to be the same gold as the walls.

Wally should be here to instal lino, at the beginning of March, and then we wait until the beginning of April for him to do the carpet.

It has been a beautiful day out... 10 degrees celcius and sun. I have light blue crocuses and the yellow crocuses, as well as 'lady killer' crocuses up. Snowdrops, cyclamen, a few anemones.. the bright blue ones, and a few arabis have decided to bloom. I should get out and clean up a bit. I was planning to move my good daffodil bunch out of the little rockery by the veggie garden. I think I will wait until they finish blooming and then move them. They really are lovely. I think I will add more compost over top of the Oriental poppies by the garage, remove the little rockery along there, as it looks rather lame. The plants can go in the new rock garden area or over by the veggie garden... which rockery is expanding into the veggie plot.

Spring seems to do this to me... plans plans and notiions.....

Bokeh

I spent a few minutes in the garden, yesterday, trying to get a good photo for the Bokeh Wednesday group on Flicker. I found drops of water sparkling like jewels on the plants with the rich colors of Autumn for a background. The largest drops are a very tight crop to try to get the drops larger.

We have still not heard from Home Depot about the carpet. I called Karas yesterday and she said she would try find out about it and call me back as soon as she knew anything, or have the knot heads in the carpet department call me. She alluded to the mythical Melinda, who we have never heard from on this carpet deal, and who is suppose to be in charge of the carpet department. Still nothing today. I can't imagine how much trouble our kitchen cabinets are going to be if they cannot manage to get a simple piece of carpet ordered in the correct size and installed in a timely manner. Would you say 2 1/2 months is a bit long to be waiting for a piece of carpet? This incident is surely going to be reported to the Better Business Bureau, after contacting Madson, the store manager. Home Depot is NOT a good place to try to get anything done in a timely manner; and you need to check the quality of every item as well. The supply of wood products in the store is a disgrace to a home renovations store. I could go on and on about them. I suppose it helps to blow off steam here, instead of at the employees.

Polka Dot Drops

I cropped this one quite close and pumped up the saturation. Playing with water drops on the little lady slipper

Water Drops

Trying to capture a macro of the water drops on the pouch of my paph. concolor orchid mentioned earlier. The closest one is a close crop of the drop. ISO 80 and set to super macro.