Late June Stroll

Hello everyone, as I have been quite busy of late I havent had the time to share photos.  Yesterday evening we went for a quick little stroll and I have a few shots to share with you.

We have a bit of a lull in colour in the garden at the moment.  Some of the irises are in bloom as is this Japanese Lilac.  

Horatio the cat is our resident clown.

  A view of a sheep pasture across the road in the early evening light.

A view of our old stone house from the road.  The fence provides us with privacy but also keeps our dogs on the property.  We have planted some young sugar maples along the road in between the large mature ones.

One of our many lambs. 

These apple trees seeded themselves and have been growing very nicely.  We have many varieties of apple trees which are visited by the many deer in our area.

Some of our sheep off in the distance.  Our fields are surrounded by a mixture of trees including apple and pear.  The sheep love to eat windfall fruit and in the fall are very excited about being moved to any pasture with apple trees.

 Earlier this spring we were concerned that we might experience a very dry year.  In fact we have had a great deal of rain and while the hay has been ready to cut the fields have been too wet to allow access.  This field was cut yesterday and the tractor became stuck in the mud a couple of times.  We have a small window of time in which to cut and bale hay and need 3 days of good weather in order to cut, rake and bale.  The forecast for the weekend is calling for rain again so we hopefully will be able to bale this field before the hay gets wet and spoils.

We were surprised to find a snake in our chicken run.  I imagine the chickens were rather surprised too!   As chickens are also carnivores I suppose the snake felt rather uncomfortable!  We didnt stay around to learn the outcome.  

Charlotte is another one of our cats.  She, along with her sister Chantal, were found in a cat carrier on the side of the highway by Cats Anonymous.  When we wanted to adopt another cat for our home we visited Cats Anonymous and after viewing all of the different cats decided that we wanted to adopt these two old girls.

Next week we will be taking several days to do some work around the farm.  If the weather cooperates I will have more photos to share!

~thank you for visiting~

More rain....

Hello everyone, I am afraid that with our wet weather I have not been able to get into the gardens in the last week.  In the past 10 days we have had 135 mm of rain with another 5-10 mm forecast for today.  Everything including the weeds are now growing at an incredible pace!  

Here is a view of the side of our old stone house.  This veranda was part of the new construction we started last year.  As we love to spend time outdoors having several covered seating areas was on the top of our wish list.

This is part of our old grove with our ancient apple trees.  I hope to be able to paint my little garden shed this summer...if the weather cooperates!

This is a bit of a mystery.  I wonder what at my hostas?

A beautiful white peony.  If only they lasted longer!  Between the wind and the rain all of the peony blossoms have taken a beating.  I dont know the name of the variety but is is very fragrant.

This peony is almost a neon pink the colour is so vibrant!

I love how water collects in the leaves of the alchemilla, the droplets are like little diamonds.

 Very misty looking towards the road.

A sweet little rose planted at the top of the stone stairway leading to the driveway.  I love yellow roses even though the tag says that it is supposed to be pink!  One of the many  mysteries gardeners deal with.

~Thank you for visiting!~

Rain

Hello Everyone!  After a lovely Saturday and windy Sunday it has started to rain.  As of this morning we had 30 mm of rain in the rain gauge we have attached to the fence.  As of this evening we have had another 16 mm.

I love taking pictures in the early morning.  Everything looks very lush and green.  This shot is taken from our front veranda which was rebuilt last year.  Our contractor added an aluminum ceiling and replaced the floor boards, railing and spindles.

This is a view of the hay field in front of our home with part of our forest at the edge of the field.  The forest is mostly conifers and was part of a reforestation project some 50 years ago.

More rain and a beautiful peony that is a vibrant pink.  The variety has very open flowers unlike so many that have very ruffled flowers.  We have long since lost the plant tag so I dont know what it is called.

 This is a narrow area between the deck off of our kitchen and the wooden fence at the driveway.  We have not finished grading this area so the rain is running in torrents down the path.

Everything looks very lush.  Behind the cedar tree is an elm tree.  We lost our elms about 20 years ago to disease but this particular elm seeded itself in the shrub border.  We wonder if the new generation of elms trees will be more disease resistant.

This part of our fence has been in place for a number of years and helps to keep our many dogs safe on our property.  The clematis has been growing nicely along a trellis and the peony is full of buds.  This part of our garden is going through a significant renovation this summer and will eventually hold our waterfall garden.

It looks like a jungle!

A view towards Willowby Gate with the hills in the distance.  I love the misty look.

A view towards our old bank barn.  The rain has come down so heavily it is ponding on the ground.

~Thank you for visiting~

Shades of Green

Hello Everyone, we have had 2 days of good rain which we very much needed!  Our gardens are becoming very dry and our pastures needed the rain badly.

 Our daffodils and tulip have all finished, between the heat and strong winds the petals have blown off.  Our Japanese Lilac is getting ready to bloom.

 The young maple by our garden privy has fresh green leaves.

 The peonies are in full bud and look so fresh with the rain drops on their leaves.

First it was unseasonably hot and now unseasonably cold.

 A view from the balcony looking towards the southwest.  Everything is in full leaf!

A couple of weeks ago this crab apple was covered in white blossoms. Now it too is all green.

We have many varieties of hostas.  Sadly though it seems that several perennials and shrubs did not survive our winter...possibly because we had so little snow to protect them from the cold.  Some of the wiegela bushes have barely survived and it looks like the Black Lace Shrub has finally decided to die gracefully.  A number of the evergreens have winter kill as well.  Gardeners are always optimists though so this is an opportunity to rethink the garden and make new plans.

Thank you for visiting!