Hard to believe (or even to remember) that only a week ago I was writing about how very cold it was, after the blazing heat of the last few days. Nice to have something different to comment on, although the heat isn't an unmixed blessing. Seems we in the western Canadian prairies are having the driest spring in the 113 years that such records have been kept. When I think of the two droughts (each several years in duration) I have lived through over the course of the past few decades, this isn't a good thing. I guess the cold was keeping me from noticing the lack of precipitation. Drought is undesirable in general, and even more so in an area where farming and the agrarian way of life is still very much present. Doesn't do much for hay supply or prices for us horse-owners, either. Now that yard and garden activity is not only an option but almost a necessity, we have been initiating projects left, right and center. First I decided that the alpine bed in the front yard was too big and the plants too small for it to look right, so I pulled out a ground cover area that I didn't care for and moved all the alpines there. Then I bought and planted a number of medium sized bushes, deciduous and evergreen, and planted them where the alpines had been. Other than the mountain of mulch that I have yet to order then distribute about the front yard, that's it for the front.
In the back, I've been dividing and de-mulching the iris beds as they have been sadly neglected. We took a trip to Solar Gardens a week ago and that made Jim decide that the entire iris bed needed to go so we could have a rock and succulent area in that spot. Then I thought that the irises would look good by the fish pond (site of the unfortunate dog and fish incident of a few weeks ago) so we have had to extend that area, remove existing edging, buy and install new and different (and, I hope, superior, or why did we bother?) edging, and generally prep for moving the irises. Plus we had earlier in the season pulled out the "upper" fish pond which always leaked, and now Jim fancies digging the pond liner into the ground for marsh plants. Sounds to me like a good way to breed mosquitoes, but I guess we'll give it a try.
In the meantime, while I was at the Waterfront art show/sale on Saturday, my son-in-law Bill called by with "the goat" which is apparently the name of the turf lifting machine from the rental store. Bill attacked the far eastern strip of lawn so it can be removed to make room for the trees and bushes I want to establish there for birds and small wildlife. Of course that was the only half-decent remnant of lawn on the whole property and I'm removing it, but I had the bright idea of using the turf strips to fill in the troughs and dead spots (which comprise about half the remaining "lawn" area in the back yard) so I spent much of the morning working at that. I think I even moved a few weeds and some dog poop along with the turf to its new location--just so it will know it's still in the same yard!!
Not sure about the origins of the rose in the first shot. I think it must be an indoor mini that I bought at the grocery store. The main thing there was I was trying out the new Nikon D40 that Jim got with airmile points. It's actually a really nice little camera and I'm thinking of taking it over as a back-up to my big Nikon. I need to read the manual(if we can find it) to figure out some basic stuff (like focussing) but once I understand how it works it will be a nice addition to my photo-taking arsenal. I hate switching lenses so with the little Nikon I will have a short lens camera available without having to take the zoom off the D200. Works for me!
You wouldn't know this was my blog without at least one horse shot, so shot two is the token one for today. This is Kitten (Akeeta), a lovely Warmblood mare, a product of the Ebon Stables Warmblood breeding program.
Shot three shows the vanishing lawn from the back yard. It was already quite hot by ten this morning when I took this shot, and Mickey decided that the cool earth was a better bet than the grass for his morning rest in the shade.
Shot four shows a planting I did today, of two interesting succulents purchased on the recent visit to Solar Gardens. The plants on the left are Lithops or "living rocks", not to be confused with the non-living rocks I also put in there. The other plant that looks kind of alien is really interesting. Common name is "baby toes" and official name is "Fenestraria rhopalophylla". I bought them because I liked the visuals, but then read what it said on the information label and was really impressed. "Each leaf has a translucent window at the tip where sunlight is filtered to enable photosynthesis". Those little eyeball-looking things at the top of each tentacle are windows!
Shot five shows the net covering for the umbrella/outdoor table that I purchased (the net, that is, not the table) on the weekend and installed today. It has a zippered opening for ingress and egress, and the hem you can see at the bottom is actually a rubber bladder that you can fill with water to hold it down. Not filled in this shot, but since a storm seemed imminent this afternoon (it didn't materialize) I did fill it with water in case of high winds. I took great pleasure in having my lunch in there today and watching the flies and mosquitoes on the outside, being frustrated in their attempts to get at my lunch and at me. Mostly I look forward to not having to worry about wasps when they come along, as many a nice outdoor meal has ended with us all running shrieking from the table ahead of marauding wasps after our food.
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