Berwick House

Yesterday we took the old car over to Berwick House where a few of us were invited to show our cars.  I wandered around the gardens taking photos.  They have some wonderful water features... very little lawn, its mostly ground covers.  Berwick House is a retirement complex... very high end.  Some of us went on a tour of the complex and viewed a one bedroom with den unit, and a two bedroom two bath unit, as well as the dining room, spa, library, theatre, and all the other places in the complex. 

Their irises are in bloom.  Since I am, at the moment, on an iris kick, I have quite a lot of pictures of the irises from the garden there.  This one with variegated leaves is rather eye catching.  More irises later, perhaps.

Our car on display. Too bad about the busy background. We were at Beckwith house from 2 to 4.  After that we went to the first Saturday night of the gathering of the cars at Francelli's cafe in the Royal Oak mall.  There was a live band, hamburgers, hot dogs and lots of old cars.  Most of the cars were 50's and hot rods.  Some nice stuff!

I managed to pick up another book by Bernard Cornwell  and had to stay up until 3:30  reading last nite; despite being tired  from too much sun and exercise.  Was a good day, though.

Today I spent the afternoon weeding and pruning in the Japanese/ water / moss garden.  Then watering a bit at the back.  I found that Shauna had left a block of cement under the cedar hedge on her side.  It is exactly what I needed to put under my Japanese lantern to raise it up a bit. This block even has 4 little feet which now sit in the pea gravel of my dry stream.   This block looks exactly like it was made for this application.  Thank you Shauna.  I don't think she will miss it.    It is all looking good.   Except the vegetable garden.  Too many tree roots and not enough sun. 

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. 

Wildflowers

Yesterday, after lunch, we went out to West Coast Tires to get our new tires for the Dodge Lodge.  It was going to take 45 minutes to have the tires put on the van, so I brought along my camera, of course.  The time seemed to fly by and the tires were on the van in no time, it seemed.  The above photo is the ferns and yellow, dandilion like flowers, nature's arrangement.

I don't know what this one is but it looks like a miniature foxglove.

A pretty, delicate little flower.  This one would be welcome in my garden anytime.

Miner's lettuce.  Something I thought grew best in shade, but it was on the mountain side and exposed to full sunshine.

Saxifragia and rock moss.  The saxifragia grows in my front garden and looks great under the dark foliage of the smoke bush.

More Saxifragia, ferns, moss, a big leaf maple, a slender elegant evergreen, grasses, and a part of the road.

I was trying to get a shot of the western bleeding heart that was in bloom, but tiny.  The wind was blowing, so the plants are out of focus.  But look to the top right.  OMG is that a snake?  I asked Pat, if he thought it was a snake or an old bungy cord.  He said it is definitely a snake.  While shooting, I never noticed the snake.  But there it is!
West Coast Tires is in a little cleared area, just off Sooke Road.  They were flooded out  and have since rebuilt their shop.  The area I was shooting in was newly exposed rocks from the excavations.  It is rich in all kinds of local plants.  There were wild strawberries, the western bleeding heart, the miner's lettuce and so many interesting things, once I took the time to look at it. 
We now have our new tires, newly done brakes, thanks to Ray, and we should be ready for our next road trip in the Dodge Lodge, towing the new old Model T, to Pincher Creek, Alta,