Midsummer Garden

This garden is at its peak in mid to late June, when this picture was taken. The Shasta daisies are in full bloom and the purple iris bloomed for the first time this year. At this point I started to realize just how crowded the garden is. The raspberries are taking over the right side so that nothing else has a chance to grow there. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to plant vegetables here!

Spring garden

Sorry, I got a bit behind with garden updates. I have been busy with my vegetables at the community garden. This is how the corner garden looked in late May or early June when the first few plants were starting to poke above ground. Promising, but still a little sparse.

Epinette

One of my favourite spots. Just a few steps from a gravel parking lot to the rolling prairie. Step carefully or you'll get cactus thorns between your toes! Past the cactus patch and the rolling hills begin. You can bike across the prairie, or hike it if you don't mind climbing up just to climb down again. It's a beautiful walk but the sun can be merciless.

Beautiful blooms today - purple prairie clover, pink onion, wild bergamot, goldenrod, sage, and others that I can't remember the names of. The first time I came here, years ago, there was forest here. Since the fire the blue Grama grass has taken over along with all these wild flowers. Charcoal and decaying wood feed the soil for new trees to grow. A few remain to lead the succession.

This spot feels sacred, and it's not just because of the sundance site nearby. Here you can feel the slow insistent cycle of life.

Roadside Lady's Slippers

I spotted these Showy Lady's Slippers in a ditch along the TransCanada Highway. It was a steamy hot day and they were at their peak. They just caught my eye as we were driving past.
I suppose I really ought to be watching the road. Still, it pays to have a roving eye!

Flowers under the deck

The space under the deck was looking too bare and muddy since we took away the old deck. We decided on a hosta bed around the bottom of the tree and a bark path making a curve around it. We filled in the spaces between the young hostas with impatiens in all sorts of bright colours. I'll add a picture soon of how they look now that the flowers have filled in and the bark has been added.

The Climbing Elm

This tree and I were friends for years. I discovered shortly after we moved into the house nearby that this is a stellar climbing tree. It is an Elm tree, the last one in the neighbourhood to survive free of Dutch Elm Disease. It has clearly always been in good health, as its growth is regular and freely branching. The trunk forks every three feet or so, providing crook after crook to plant a foot in. If you manage to plan it right you can just climb up as if it were a rather odd-shaped ladder.

As a kid I used to climb up about 15 or 20 feet, then perch on a branch to survey the neighbourhood. In those days the neighbourhood mostly consisted of bush. There were a few houses, 2 or 3 that I could see from the tree, and lots of trees in all directions. My perch in the elm gave me a good view of woodpeckers, robins, warblers, nuthatches, chickadees, kinglets, and geese in the spring and the fall. A totally different perspective on the busy community of life around me. There wasn't usually much noise of people in the neighbourhood in those days, but the birds and the squirrels kept up a steady racket.

The neighbourhood is a little close in to the city, and over the years it gradually filled in. Most of the large lots have been subdivided and more houses built. Most of them have kept the large trees around the lot, but it's not the same uninterrupted forest of scrub oak that it used to be. This picture was taken on my last climb up the climbing elm. My parents had sold the house and were about to move out. I took one last climb to thank the tree for all the summer afternoons I spent held securely in its strong branches.

I think the elm is still there. I wonder if anyone else has discovered what a good climbing tree it is?

Snow Geese in Spring

Six strings of silver and black
Ripple against the blue sky,
Bright feathers glinting in the noon sun,
Calling “Stay together, safer together,”
Hurrying homewards, steadily north and west
To the past and the future.