Back to Normal

While I was tending to my computer woes and my show preparations, life went on around me.  I am reacquainting myself with my garden, watering badly neglected pots and admiring the recent changes.  I am spending a little more time with my family. (Oh I'm sorry, did I forget to feed you for the past week?  Oops. Fortunately, they are pretty self sufficient.)  I am resuming my long walks with Meeko who has been misbehaving I think because of my distracted state.  And later today, once my show debris which I've managed to scatter over several floors is cleared, I will go upstairs and paint again.  Last night the new hard drive was installed in my computer and most of the files have been saved.  I have a little reconstitution work to do--reinstalling software programs and drivers and re-establishing our home network--but we are lucky in so many ways.

My garden was full of lovely surprises.  The spanish flag vine is in bloom.  This is a true gift of my garden.  I planted it several years ago and it reseeds itself each year. By the time the plant gets to the point of flowering, it is very late in the growing season, so I am never sure if I will be lucky enough to see its gorgeous fiery blooms. Even without the flowers, it is a pretty plant.  The leaves are a lovely shape and I adore the swirly, spiral tendrils.  I have a thing for curlicues.

Spanish flag or firecracker vine (ipomoea lobata)

Elsewhere, the garden is a mix of summer and autumn.  The leaves have changed colour and even fallen in places.  Some of the annuals are showing the effects of a few frost-filled nights.  But there is still much colour and vibrancy to be enjoyed in the weeks ahead. 

A busy ladybug; leaves of Palibin lilac bush; and polyantha rose 'The Fairy'

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The Boîte de Noël arts and crafts show takes place this weekend in Dorval, Quebec beginning tonight and running until Sunday afternoon.  They have a Facebook page so you can see some of the artists' work as well as get details on the location and times.  Click here.

A Morning Walk Around My Garden

This morning was cold but beautiful. Six degrees Celsius (just under 43 Fahrenheit) at 7:00 a.m.  Brrrrrr. The chill was a reminder to cherish these last weeks of the growing season. Here are a few photos from this morning's walk around my garden.

The scene above is one of my favourite parts of my garden at the moment.  It reminds me of 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue'.  I planted some of the annuals this summer (the blue salvia, petunias and alyssum).  Others have grown back from seed deposited last year (the snapdragons, the coral salvia and the big vine in the background--spanish flag).  The lovely, lonely sunflower to the right was a gift from a bird.

Salvia is without a doubt one of my favourite annuals. It is both elegant and hardy. It will still look beautiful right until the end of October in my Zone 5 garden. Coral salvia (salvia coccinea 'coral nymph') is particularly stunning. I occasionally find the coral plants in garden centres here in the spring or you can order the seed online. This particular plant popped up from seed deposited in the flowerbed last year. Lucky me. I find white salvia (salvia farinacea) to be very useful in the garden. I often use it in my front yard flowerbeds as it combines beautifully with any colour. Another beautiful benefit of salvia is that hummingbirds love it.

And the final image I leave you from my walk around the garden this morning is this sweet little viola. It is so rare to find blue tones in flowers. This beauty is what I would call periwinkle or lavender-blue which happens to be my favourite colour.

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Just a brief postscript. As I've been writing my post this morning, the radio has been reminding me that this is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. My husband was scheduled to fly to New York for a business meeting on the 12th (in the financial district but not the towers), so missed being there by a day. We were lucky. I remember how very important my garden was to me in those unsettled days after that terrible event. A garden can be a source of solace, restoration and hope on the darkest days. I planted more spring bulbs that fall than I had in a very long time. Those bulbs provided work for my hands and hope for my heart. My thoughts go out to all touched by that horrendous event ten years ago today.

"The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world."

Vita Sackville-West