1 - Biggest garden thrill this year: I planted two lilac bushes several years ago, and this year one of them bloomed. When I first saw the buds early in the spring, it was like spotting-my-teenage-heartthrob time.
(That would be Les McKeown, from the Bay City Rollers, in case you didn't already know that.) 
2 - The next big thing for us was the emergence of our daffodils. I'd planted these a few autumns ago, but they'd never turned up the following spring. Mom and I chalked it up to raiding squirrels and left it at that.
Suddenly, this spring - voila. Daffodil.
3 - Forsythia and tulips in the front rock garden.
4 - Kolkwitzia, a flowering shrub we planted in the backyard beside the deck
5 - Pink clematis in the backyard, a gift from my sister, and dark blue clematis in the front yard, which came with the house
6 - Lady's mantle, which just appeared all on its own
7 - Angelica, which I planted outside the backdoor 
8 - The Monster Rose Bush, otherwise known as an American Pillar rambler rose along the side of the house (which I grew from cuttings,) a delicate Rugosa rose which my sister and got from the side of the road by Grand Pré in the Annapolis Valley (in the front rock garden,) and the Aunt Sheila Rose, also known as a Subzero Brownell rose.
9 - My mom's container gardens, featuring some gorgeous purple lobelia and her favorite, pansies
10 - Orange lilies, originally from my husband's great-grandmother's Ontario garden, daylilies in the front garden and heritage lilies at the backdoor which I got at a farm museum plant sale. 
11 - Hostas in the back woodland garden
12 - Wild asters near the rugosa rose bush
13 - Balsam near the back door, at the edge of the woodland garden
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Thursday Thirteen - 223 - 13 Views of the Garden 2011
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Summer Stock Sunday - 4
For Summer Stock Sunday, I've got my lovely peonies which I transported from their original home in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia when we moved to Cole Harbour eight years ago. 
This is the greatest amount of blooms we've had so far. There are five in total. The parent plant, which had been planted by my grandfather at my grandparents' home in Yarmouth over 40 years ago, had quite a few blooms when my husband and I lived there from 1999 to 2001.
This is their house on Nova Scotia's southwest tip. My husband and I moved in with my grandmother to help look after her. My grandfather had passed away eight years before we arrived. He was a lifelong gardener, and when I moved in I felt the lure of his garden beckoning to me. I'd never gardened before arriving in Yarmouth, and a grand love affair started that summer of 1999 that continues today. 
As you walked around the side of the house, there was a sheltered side garden away from the constant wind from the ocean, which you can see in the distance. 
My grandpa installed the weather-beaten white fence above the stone wall in order to give that wind protection. Tucked behind the orange lilies were the peonies.
As we packed up the house to move to Cole Harbour, I dug up the new forsythia bush, the American pillar rose bush I'd started from cuttings, and made sure to take cuttings from Gram's heritage quince bush on the opposite side of the house.
As we made one final walk-around to make sure we had everything, I looked at the garden to make my goodbye - and realized I hadn't dug up the peony plant.
I grabbed a broken, jagged broom handle from the trash and started digging madly for the peony bulbs. I plunged my hands into the earth and felt around until I could grasp the tubers. I yanked as hard as I could until a few broke free and came to the surface. I threw them in a box with some dirt and we slipped them onto the back of the truck.
We moved in October, so once we had unloaded the truck here in Cole Harbour, one of the first things I did was find a spot for the peonies, dig a hole and put them back in the ground before the winter came. 
Their new home is in front of the stone wall my mom and I installed from all the rocks our neighbors dug up next door, when they put in a new deck two years ago. We had to snake it in and around the plants we already had growing in the front.
The yellow forsythia is the same tiny plant I'd bought at the Yarmouth Garden Society plant sale, dug up and transported here. And the peonies are hard to see, but they're to the left of the forsythia, and to the left of the rose bush. The peonies are also to the right of the tulips, in front of the stone wall.
For more Summer Stock Sunday, visit Robin at Around the Island.
Kaye says Your peonies are lovely and I have always wanted to visit Novia Scotia.
Robin says I can't grow plastic flowers without killing them.
Jessica the Rock Chick says Last year I planted a whole bunch of different plants without realizing how large they would become in future years. It appears I have grown a small jungle near my front porch!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Poetry Train Monday - 105 - Found Our Way Back
For today's Poetry Train offering, I created a found poem from interview quotes given by Pittsburg Penguins captain Sidney Crosby on winning his first Stanley Cup last Friday at age 21.
He is two years younger than Wayne Gretzky was when he first hoisted the Cup.
Sidney hails from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia - and that's where I'm sitting right now as I type this. We're pretty excited about Sidney's dream come true around here.
Ride the Poetry Train!
Photo by Rebecca Cook
Found Our Way Back
Hard - watch clock tick down
Lot heavier than I thought
Guys stepping up. Team.
- Sidney Crosby
Photo by Shaun Best
Susan Helene Gottfried says I BET you Cole Harbour people are proud. Thanks for sharing him.
Ellievellie says The Penguins beat our own Carolina Hurricanes in the Conference final. It was a sad day when the dream was over.
Travis says Isn't it great when the home town boy does good?
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Thursday Thirteen - 77 - 13 Reasons Why Fall is My Favorite Season
1 - Yes, the glorious color of Fall makes my heart sing inside like a symphony. Here's a Thomma Lyn style photo essay of my walk home from the bus, so I can take you through my woods to see the wonder of it all. 
2 - Once I get off work, I walk along the Halifax waterfront and get the ferry over to the Dartmouth side. The bus that rolls up in just a few minutes is a different one than I take on my way into work. In the morning I get the bus that goes right past my place, but after work I end up in the subdivision behind my own.
This is the cut-through that takes me from the street into the path system that winds all through the neighborhoods here. It's like having a narrow park stretched for miles and miles, tucked between the backyards of two streets. In fact, if you think of the letter H, and imagine each column of the H as two streets, there is woodland in between the two columns, with the crossbar acting as entryways into the woods. The people here make full use of this path system. There are always dog-walkers, joggers, bike riders, walkers and kids playing. And after work, people strolling home with briefcases. 
3 - Once I get onto the path I hang a left and head this way. Out of range of this photo on either side, peoples' backyards are visible through the trees, but there's still a sense of cocooning into the woods as I walk along.
This section is a good example of the recovery the forest is making from Hurricane Juan, which tore up these woods five years ago. This area was once towering fir trees, which all became a tangle of trunks, roots and evergreen boughs. These days the forest has become a young hardwood area. This happened completely naturally, which has been a source of wonder to me as I realize it's not every day a person gets to watch a forest rebuild itself. 
4 - When I get to the tree on the right side, behind the spray of red leaves, I usually turn right and make my way through a charming path that leads to the backyard of my neighbors, Heather and Bernie. They invite everyone to cut through their yard, as their house is at the curve of our street and halfway between access points onto the path. They have a beautiful garden with a little pond, grapevines, ornamental poppies and colorful bursts of perennials. 
5 - But we'll keep going along the path. In only a few steps we get to this open area that took a lot of the remains of the downed trees. City crews fed the twisted wood (that couldn't be carried off by the locals as firewood - the locals who carved up the trees with their own chainsaws so people could get back onto the paths) - the rest went into huge woodchippers and got spread all over this section. It's a bit boggy naturally, so it was a helpful addition to the woods. 
6 - This part of the path isn't paved and is bordered by grasses and purple asters.
7 - Here's a swath of asters along with rosy raspberry bushes fronting a stand of young maples and beech trees. They've grown above my head in only a few short years.
8 - Heading into the woods along the path.
9 - Gorgeous bronze-colored ferns.
10 - These are the stately firs that survived the hurricane intact. In the foreground is the ballfield to which the path leads. It's part of an elementary school playground. Our house is beside the ballfield. 
11 - Just past the ballfield and an excellent playground is my bus stop where I catch my ride into work. Or rather, I stumble aboard and promptly go back to sleep until I reach downtown Halifax.
12 - We're coming full circle. I took the picture from the sidewalk next to our yard. The pine in the foreground and the line of maples within the black fence is part of our woodland garden. In the distance you can see my bus stop.
13 - Back home - that's my side woodland garden to the right, and our white house is visible through the trees.
Hope you enjoyed our trek through the woods. And I hope you're able to get out and enjoy the Fall colors in your area.
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