June in the Garden

The clematis are coming into bloom.  The above is the one that climbs up to the deck and surrounds the deck water tub.  The wisteria has been relegated to climbing up the Douglas fir tree.  It makes this evergreen bloom beautifully. 

Ok Ken!  Your advice for the penguin to upload to megashot is right ON.  This is the one.  Thanks..  actually I may just upload three of them.   What the heck... I have lots of storage room, there and our photos display very well, too.  :-)

Today was another perfect day.  Since I had to go to the lab for some tests, I decided to spend the morning at our Royal Oak mall.  Its a very charming mall, with an eclectic collection of shops and medical professional offices, pharmacy, grocery store, used book store, a good collection of restaurants and many other things.  There are no high end clothes or shoe shops, which is just fine with me.   Lunch was a bowl of won ton soup.. yumm. 

The Canucks have won the 2nd game of the Stanley cup playoffs.  This game went into over time, again... but only for 11 seconds and our team scored.  B.C. is going wild over our hockey team.  The police are already training their riot squads for the day we win.  I really hope there is no over exuberant celebrating this time.  Now, I believe they go to Boston for the next game in the series. 

A nest full of sparrows has hatched.  This evening they were dust bathing in my front garden flower bed.  So I went out and dusted them off with the garden hose.  I did a bit of watering as well.  Those little birds were complaining bitterly over this ill treatment they received.  Saturday and Wednesday are my days to water flowers, shrubs, vegetables, with a sprinkler  from 4:00 to 10:00 in the am and from 7:00 to 10:00 pm.    Otherwise I can water by hand any time, as long as my hose has a shut off trigger.  At the moment, I don't think I need the sprinkler, although we did not get any of that much promised rain.  I have not been out weeding for a few days... maybe tomorrow.

Endangered Species - Galapagos Penguins

Photos from our trip to Ecuador and Peru last year.  We have a new community on Megashot.nethttp://www.megashot.net for endangered species.  I cannot decide which one of these I wanted to upload to Megashot, so thought I would have a look at them on my blog.  It was a difficult shooting position: in a rocking boat that was lined with other tourists on both sides.  The sun was bright at mid day.
Yesterday in the Times Colonist there was this article with regard to B.C.'s laws about endangered species: Quote...
Languishing species report earns tongue lashing from NDP

Robert Shaw
Times Colonist
June 2, 2011

The B.C. government is keeping secret the recommendations of its task force on protecting species at risk, says NDP environment critic Rob Fleming.
The task force, made up of scientists, academics and environmental groups, was struck last year to look at whether changes to legislation are needed to protect endangered animals and ecosystems in B.C. The creation of the group was promised by government in its 2009 throne speech.
The task force submitted its report to Environment Minister Terry Lake in January, but government has never disclosed the recommendations and would not release the report publicly Wednesday.
"I don't know what their recommendations were, nobody does," said Fleming.  "It's been sitting collecting dust for six months."
Lake was not available for comment Wednesday. "Government is now examining the report in detail and giving it the frulsome review that it deserves," he said during his ministry's budget debate earlier this month.  "I can say at this point that it will be considered fully by government."  Lake said he hopes to release information from the task force3 "in the relatively near future," but offered Fleming no timeline for such a move.
"There was no explanation for the delay that was satisfactory, and no explanation for the amount of secrecy that has shrouded this report," said Fleming.
Fleming introduced his own endangered species private member's bill Wednesday, saying New Democrats want to act on the issue while B.C. Liberals continue to do nothing.  It is the second time he has introduced a bill on the topic, but his initiatives have never been supported by government.  His latest bill is almost assured to fail because the B.C. legislature adjourns Thursday for its summer break.
Fleming's bill aims to identify and list endangered species and protect their habits to ensure their survival.
Environmental groups the Sierra Club of B.C., the Wilderness Committee Eco-justice, Conservation Northwest, and the David Suzuki FRoundation expressed support for the NDP bill Wednesday, saying B.C. has 1,900 plants and animals declining or at risk of disappearing.
B.C. and Alberta are the only provinces without standalone species at risk laws, said Fleming. ... Unquote.
and then I found the B.C. website about our endangered species.  Its a good site, very up to date and comprehensive.  I don't believe I have photos of any of our own endangered species.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/atrisk

we have been promised rain for the last 2 days.  Its was cloudy and warm, beautiful the last few days, but no rain.  I have the lawn mowed and edging done.  ... easy, as I don't have much grass.  The garden is looking really pretty good.  The moss garden needs some attention.  The woodland is full of plants.  I need to weed some of the more rambuncious ones out to give the others a chance.  My potted plants are doing well.  

The eagles

The tall bearded iris at the edge of the vegetable garden are doing very well this year.

Lately, I have been waking up at about 5:00 am and cannot get back to sleep.  So, I sit at my front window and watch the animals and birds.  There is a bit of traffic, and a very few walking people.  The drama of this morning was the eagles and crows dispute.  We have a nesting pair of eagles in our neighbourhood.  Last year I watched them flight training 3 of their baby eagles.  This morning one of the eagles came swooping in ever lower circles towards the tall trees across the street and along the power line area.  I have never seen the eagle hunting that low or close before.  On its swoop towards the trees, it was immediately mobbed by about 6 - 8 crows.  The eagle then flew away back up over the roof of my house.  The other eagle then arrived and took up a perch on the top of the power line tower.  It was attacked by a couple more crows as it sat there.  I wonder, if maybe the eagles nest has been raided by the crows.  I don't usually see both of the eagles away from the nest at the same time, at this time of the year.   I don't know where the nest is, but I think it is somewhere in the Panama Flats park. 
After all this excitement, I got out my new Rebel camera and played a bit trying to get good shots of the Limoges box with the 50mm lens.  I did get a couple of eagle pictures in RAW but have not uploaded them to my computer yet. 
It was a beautiful day today.  After lunch I went out to the garden and got the new plants I had purchased at Brentwood Bay nursery transplanted.  I now have 4 gentians in the front inner garden area.  I added a thrift, a pink geranium and a Johnson's blue geranium, and a blue daisy like one to the rectangle closest to our driveway.  This little area is seen from the street and our driveway.  It is nicely cleaned up now.  The bamboo is running into the bed and I have to clip it back every year.  I weeded some of the area by the smoke bush, and moved the ratty looking hebe from there to the strip in front by the purple plum tree.  I have this little area cleaned up, also.  The rectangle area behind it on this side is rather wilder looking, but has some nice plants in it.  The peonies are not doing well on this side, but the other side the peonies have lots of buds.  I have the butterfly bush in a pot.  When I get the woodland cleaned up, I will be able to just cut this pot off the bush and plant it.  The plastic is not very thick.  I added the butternut squash and 2 tomatoes to the vegetable garden and the marigolds along the edge of the veggie garden.  I see last year's potatoes that did not do well are showing little leaves.  I planted the 2 new primulas near the little spruce tree just behind the snapdragons I have along there this year.  The soil was very soggy in this new bed  from the winter rains.  The soil needs more improvement.  I have only 1 1/2 bags of compost left now, as well as the good woodsy stuff I have in 16 or so bags, that I took from under the st. john's worte, when I cleaned it up.  With a bit more weeding and grass edging the front should be in pretty good shape and it will be time to give the woodland some serious attention.  Its so much easier to have the big green bin for clippings, and the cordless mower and hedge trimmer.