Summer Catch up

Hello dear friends, I cannot believe it has been almost one year since I have updated my blog.  So let me do a quick review...I have been retired for almost 23 months and I had a list of things I was going to do in retirement:

walk every day

read books

keep my house clean

stay on top of my gardens

upload photos to my blog every week

Oh dear.  It would seem that my list was a little ambitious!  All is well at Carogil Farm but I confess that I cannot believe how "busy" I seem to be every day!

Our fur children are well.  Lucy sadly passed away earlier this year.  Abby is getting older and suffers from hip dysplasia.  She is becoming a very big Momma's girl and is quite attached to me.

Vera is just Vera.  She has settled in very well and is her Daddy's girl.  At 85 pounds she is a very large lap dog.

Lake Ophelia has been a large, multi part project for us.  During covid we had the pond completely rehabilitated and then started building the ramp and platform last year. Last year the water levels in the pond dropped significantly but this year we have had so much rain that the water levels have stayed relatively high which ironically is hampering the next part of our building project.

Last year we bought a little bunkie kit from a local company.  We ordered it in the fall and it was delivered promptly.  We call it our lake house and began working on it right away.   Then we both got covid!  Perhaps surprisingly it is the first time for both of us and it took several months to recover our energy.  We did manage to finish building the lake house before winter and this year we are working on finishing touches for the inside.  Staining the inside and outside has been a challenge as our weather has been wet and humid so not conducive to painting.

A view from Lake Ophelia towards the back of our house.

 

The gardens have been a struggle for me this year.  After a non existent winter and early spring (sun burn in March?!) we have had a lot of wet weather with unbearable numbers of mosquitoes.  So although I had an early start to the gardens the weeds have gained the upper hand.  Many of our perennials are in desperate need of thinning including this monarda.  We will be moving large clumps to new beds around Lake Ophelia to create a bird/butterfly/bee paradise.

This yellow achillea has outgrown its' location in another garden and will also be relocated to Lake Ophelia's pollinator garden.

I have been learning a lot about invasive plants over the last year.  I had received this campanula from a friend about 15 or more years ago.  Many gardeners are struggling with creeping bellflower and some people seem to think that this is one of them.  Although I am not sure (it hasnt spread or self seeded everywhere here) I dont want to take a chance and will start removing it.

We are raising turkeys again this year.  We do love turkey and in the fall will be sharing some with friends.

Lots of happy frogs in our koi pond.

While visiting the Butterfly Conservatory earlier this year I learned about feeding stations for butterflies.  I have been using a thrifted glass plate with over ripe fruit to feed butterflies and am excited to see different varieties visit.  It didnt take long for our resident chipmunks to discover it and start stealing the fruit!

We have water lilies in both Lake Ophelia as well as our koi pond.

An early morning visit from a heron.

Wishing everyone a great week!