Sunday Stroll

Hello dear friends we have had a very busy weekend so sadly no time to work in the gardens.  We have another wet week with another 35 mm of rain on Wednesday.  Many parts of the province have experienced record rainfalls.  The consistency of the soil is just perfect for weeding so if I can learn to tolerate the blackflies that are out in droves at the moment I will try to spend a bit of time gardening during the evenings.

I love this mix of tulips from Veseys called "Wine Lovers".   Those that know me will understand the significance of the name!

More tulips from the same collection.  I planted them last fall in the Hercules garden.  The apple tree in this garden has almost finished blooming and the petals have left a beautiful carpet of white.

We have many varieties of apple trees on the farm and while some have already finished blooming others are just coming into their full glory.  Colours range from pure white to pink with many shades in between.

I love allium!

We have some lilacs in the hedgerows.

I believe this to be some form of wild choke cherry.  Did you notice the snail?

More lilacs with a divine fragrance.

Another apple tree.

A pair of ducks at Lake Ophelia.

Part of our old stone house.

This is a perennial bachelors button (Centaurea Montana) which has brilliant electric blue flowers but is rather weedy and a rampant self sower.

I hope you enjoyed our little bit of exercise.  Wishing everyone a lovely week.

Wild Weather at the Farm

Hello dear friends, it has been the strangest week for weather!  We had a couple of days of hot humid weather with temperatures of 30 degrees followed by a big drop in temperatures with high winds and heavy rain.  

It is still early in the season but the trees are all starting to leaf out.  The many apple trees in our areas had a brief glorious display of blossoms but most of the petals have been blown off by high winds.  Lake Belwood is just visible in the distance.

After hot humid weather on Tuesday and Wednesday we had strong winds on Thursday.  By the afternoon clouds started to build and we had a brief period of heavy rain showers.  We didnt notice until the following day that the winds blew the roof off of one of our bird houses!  It is lying on the grass by our little blue spruce tree.

Heavy rain is blurring the view of Bailey's Garden.

We sat on our front veranda watching the rain come down.  In about 10 minutes time we received 8 mm of rain.

And then as suddenly as it started it was over.  I have never photographed a rainbow before!  We were not able to locate the pot of gold which is unfortunate because if we did we would retire and spend every day at the farm!

Now this is annoying.  Two of our lambs are just small enough to fit through the fences and spend part of the day grazing the lawn in the grove.  It didnt take long for them to discover the tulips and once discovered they wasted no time in munching on them.  

Our sheep have been enjoying the pastures across the road this week.  Sheep love dandelions so as they return home they often make a quick detour to nibble on some.  I think that this lamb was vocally denying any involvement in the Tulip Caper.

A view towards one of the gardens from the veranda.  Most of the tulips are past their prime now.

The koi pond is still a work in progress.  Although this week's rainfall was brief the heavy rains from over a week ago caused the pond to overflow.

I hope you enjoyed this quick update!  Thank you for visiting.

Mid May at the Farm

Hello dear friends, this time of year is particularly busy at the farm. The trees are starting to leaf out, the grass is lush and green and we have birds everywhere.  The gardens change daily at the farm and I have a few quick photos to share.

Just over a week ago many parts of Ontario and Quebec received significant rainfall with many areas suffering from severe flooding.  Although it became quite soggy at the farm and we had some ponding we didnt have the water damage many other areas experienced.  Now a week later the garden soil has just the right of moisture to make weeding easy!

A week ago the crab apple trees were just starting to bud and now they have burst open with glorious blossoms.

I simply cannot seem to master the art of taking photos of the koi.  The koi pond and its' surrounding stone wall is quite a project.  This week some of the deck and step details are coming together so in a couple of weeks I hope to have some pictures of the finished pond.

A lovely spot for tea.

Pretty pretty Holly.

A view over Willoughby gate towards the forests in the distance.

Well that was a very quick peak at some of the views at the farm.  Thank you for visiting and enjoy your weekend!