japanese dogwood attracts

Our japanese dogwood is attracting lots of comments and attention this year.

I know that I already posted a photo but HAD to repost, just because it is SO beautiful this year.

We are on a busy corner and it is HILARIOUS to see the near collisions as people slow down to look, while the drivers behind , intent on beating the traffic lights, often do not SEE that the traffic pattern has slowed…

(no I am not as mean spirited as to wish accidents upon people, even just rear enders, but it IS comic!)

Others pull into our driveway and either come and knock on the front door or else try (sometimes vainly) to get H’s notice as he marches back and forth, cutting the lawn.

People walking past will often traipse across the lawn for a better look (THIS behaviour will immediately get you into H’s bad books; to WALK on his well groomed lawn is truly a sacriledge…even we , unless weeding or cutting it do not walk upon it..)

But it is all understandable.. it is so lovely, we wish it would bloom all year!

PS it is a Satomi

“Satomi’ reaches 12 to 15 feet tall over about 6 to 8 years, thriving in light, open shade. It blooms in early summer on striking horizontally-held branches. The flowers are followed by bright red fruit, which in turn is eclipsed by the magnificent sunset colors of the autumn foliage. Even in winter, when the tree is leafless, the bare branches form an impressive silhouette. For all-season beauty, you simply cannot top ‘Satomi’.”

Japanese “Satomi” dogwood

new photos from our garden

This is our wonderful pink dogwood; this year is  particularly spectacular…just look at all the flowers! The type is, “Satomi”, for those interested.

These roses smell as good as they look. We bought them specifically for the scent and the fact that they flourish in our west coast weathere(damp, chilly)The fact that they are beautiful is ALSO a major draw..lol.

This is our peony bush of which I have blogged before.See the TWO kinds of blooms???  It USED to ALL be the bigger type; a double bloom of a peachy/apricot shade. But over the few years that we have had it, most of the blooms have “reverted” to the single sized bloom of a light pink. Still pretty!

Actually the George Burns roses are on the left; a lovely yellowy/red white striped variety. They supposedly smell like CIGARS(hence the name..lol) but we think they smell fresh and are so pretty that it wouldn’t matter!

Lovely coloured and cheery petunias…the weather is just not warm enough to get them flourishing yet..

Cannot WAIT for things to grow…lol

May Saturday morning

We woke early this morning(every day it is earlier as the light comes in from the hall with the uncovered windows on the stairway)

LOVELY to wake to sunshine!

I had to go to get some orthotics cast (at 8 am) so after a quick coffee off I went.

I had wondered why I was having back troubles in spite of all my walking, swimming, exercise and stretching.

It turned out that I needed new orthotics;  my old ones were so old that they were doing nothing for me anymore.

So it will be nice to feel well supported again.

I came back to find H already out gardening; trimming and pruning hedges, tidying the beds from the earlier blooming flowers now and finishing installing dripping tubes which will make our lives easier this summer.

We then planted our bedding plants(just a few red and white varigated petunias, and some Martha Washingtons for the pots on the front steps.

Martha Washingtons are very fragile as we have found to our dismay(and NOT cheap either) so this year we only put them in these protected pots, so even if it gets cooler they will still be ok.

Lovely evening

We had a great time  with our family BBQ.

Everyone arrived ON TIME(a FIRST!) and were happy to discover our table placed in the shady part of the deck (as it was  blistering hot day) complete with gorgeous roses(these are called, Sheila’s Perfume and are SO fragrant) from the garden .

It looked very Swedish(or an Ikea advertisement!) as we had a brightly striped table cloth and the rose vase was a bright cobalt blue. Exactly like this…

For dinner we had H’s delectable chicken(marinated over night in a secret sauce) with sweet potato fries(everyone loved these) and a big salad comprised of lettuce from the garden, tomatoes, red onion, and mushrooms. Yum!

The evening was windless, the air sweet and the company full of stories and laughter.

Love summer!

having spectacular weather

Gorgeously hot here today and has been for the past few days.

They are even talking about the danger of forest fires (unusually early to worry about that) which is one of the things that go hand in hand with good weather.

Another is water restrictions but we reconciled ourselves years ago to be very conservative with water usage. H even lets the lawn go dormant(brown) in the summer rather than keeping it green. (It never required much maintenance OR water as it is such good quality grass seed)

H was a landscaper remember, and has all the secrets necessary to make the neighbours jealous.

As we live in a very travelled area, whatever we do is food for comment.People seem to think that we exist for their entertainment (in some respects)

So if we water(even if it is on our alloted day of the week) passing drivers are SURE to check on their calenders against our house number to make sure that we are not being naughty. (Sounds insane but that is human nature, it seems)

Personally I wouldn’t bother (unless the water was flooding the road and being dramatically wasted) checking or reporting.

It takes all kinds…