The Sweet In Betwwen

After a July of storms and heat waves, this first evening of the August long weekend has come in soft with an apricot sky. We've been sitting outside for hours, appreciating our long days of northern light.

Of course I had to get up take pictures...to deadhead...to clip...to tie up...to rotate pots.... But finally, glass of wine in hand, I have settled to pretend this is going to last forever. 

Happy, sweet, blissful summer to you all. 

Can the band stay late tonight...?

I am feeling the bittersweet ache of late summer when cool evenings begin to brush alongside warm days. Too soon, my heart calls out, I need more time in the garden. Time to sit, to soak, to pretend it will always be like this.

A star of my late summer garden is the hosta, 'Royal Standard'. I have a pair of them framing a collection of white astilbe and goatsbeard, fronted with some rose daphne. I love their gleaming, corrugated, almost lime, foliage. However, unusual for a hosta, the real draw, for me, is the white, scented flowers.

The flowers are just coming into their own right now and hold sway with their fresh evening perfume

The funnel shaped flowers look like the skirts of long, white, hem-stitched cotton dresses

Elegant, demure, and just a little flirty, they lead the evening waltzes at the beachside dance halls in the old summer villages.

I'm not ready to hear the last song yet, so keep dancing girls, keep dancing.

The Richness of the Season

Just a quiet photo to capture that perfect zenith of the garden before it turns to gold. I do love the richness of August - back lane raspberries, dragonflies humming, the first blush on the apple trees that hang over the fences.

A fresh flush of flowers on my Morden Snow Beauty. Only this time it is not alone. Behind it is a Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' and the Spirea japonica 'Shirobana', a lovely spirea whose flowers start off dark pink and fade through varying shades of pink and white. These shrubs are part of a larger bed with repeated plantings of these and other shrubs as well as a few trees.

This is where we start to feel like it has been like this forever - only screen doors between us and the universe. Skirts and shorts, flowered blouses, sandals by the back door, hair swept up in a ponytail, and, in my case, a few new freckles across the nose. :)

I'll be mostly offline for the next little bit, so hoping you are enjoying the richness of the season.

I Dreamt of my Garden

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." - Lewis Grizzard

We are back from holidays and - surprise! - my Tumbler tomato put out a few ripened beauties. They had no chance before because my toddler could not wait for them to turn red. I don't blame him. He did stare patiently at them and they, in return, did nothing. So he had to pick them green as they called to him with their shiny, round faces. To make up for their green cuteness, while we were gone the plant snuck a few red ones onto the vine.

Worth being away for.

Or, as my little son sighed before he bit into one, "Ohhh, beautiful red tomato."



Texture in photo compliments of the very talented Shadowhouse Creations.

Evening Cloak

You know, I start to crave the robust colours of fall this time of year. I'm not normally a bright colours person, in my personal style (except perhaps red), home decor or plantings. However, September finds me staring and smiling at bright yellows and brilliant reds and purples.

Maybe because I know this time of blazing colour is so fleeting or because there is just such a flamboyant farewell to it. Mother Nature leaves the summer party by throwing on her red and gold embroidered cloak and tossing her hair over her shoulders. I would love to leave a party with that much panache.

The Final Flush

I bought this Thérèse Bugnet rose on Father's Day when I was supposed to be shopping for a rose for my Dad. It had finished blooming then and apparently bloomed a bit while I was on holiday but I hadn't seen much activity from it.

I think it must have wanted to reassure me as it sent up a few blooms last week to let me know what next summer might look like.

Okay, you have my attention, Thérèse. You are rather sweet (and love winter, I hear)

This hybrid rugosa rose was bred right here in Alberta just north of Edmonton in the town of Legal in 1950 (after 25 yrs of breeding) by Georges Bugnet.

It is hardy to zone 2A (Canada) and is supposed to have great fall foliage colour. It grows to a height of five feet and has a spread of four feet.

He named it for his daughter. Isn't that lovely?

Carpet & Stairs

Some of you have been out in your gardens and elsewhere capturing the changes Mother Nature is bringing as we approach the turn of the season.

So I thought I would share with you some of the changes I have observed in my much loved ravine. I go for walks there just about every weekend morning and often bring my camera or binoculars (or both!).

You saw the woodpeckers I observed in the back lane as I headed out last weekend. (I have to go out the back because I must go through my garden first - you understand!) Well, once I leave the back lane it is only a few minutes until I am down into the ravine. This area of the wooded ravine is a natural preserve here in Edmonton. That means there is interpretive signage, occasionally university students doing research (with areas marked with signs on trees and fenced off with temporary fencing), no bicycles and lovely, well-kept trails. I can't help but be happy when I go on this walk. I will often find myself humming or singing a little bit. (No, I don't wear an iPod as I don't want to miss any of the sounds of nature around me.) It's a great way to start my day.

Here are some images of the floor of the ravine at this time of year. In some areas the forest floor just glows in the morning light with a lacy green dappled light. I wish I could capture the beautiful light in there in the mornings, but maybe you will get a sense of it.

(click to enlarge)

Mother Nature has a rather good sense of colour and form, don't you think?

The Three Amigos

I was very excited to spot these three woodpeckers in the lane just behind my house early morning last weekend as I headed out for a walk. I managed to get this not-so-great photo of them before they started going their separate ways. My book, Birds of Alberta, tells me they are Pileated Woodpeckers.

(click to enlarge)

The book says they have a "maniacal call". Geez, I thought that sound was the teenage boys across the lane.

Two Blue Sisters

“Blue colour is everlastingly appointed by the Deity to be a source of delight” ~ John Ruskin

The last of my neighbour's delphiniums in the back lane. They deserve their moment, don't you think?

The Prairie Oasis

To close out my little holiday, I wanted to show you the stop we made on the way home from our trip to Winnipeg.

It was in the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This city is really one of Canada’s hidden gems. Tucked down in prairie valley along the North Saskatchewan River, it is a verdant and luxuriously green oasis of tall trees, funky restaurants and lovely old buildings. I hadn’t been there since 1993 and this time it was even better.


We arrived late evening at the downtown Sheraton Cavalier after having slowed to a crawl on the highway as we drove through a prairie rainstorm, complete with great cracks of lightening.

Dirty, sticky and matted with muffin crumbs, we pried ourselves out of the babymobile. I mumbled to my husband that I couldn’t believe he chose such a nice hotel for such a short stay and that, really, we should have stayed at one of the motor inns out on the highway like the rest of the family travellers whose vehicles were packed with blankets, coolers and toys. As we rolled the luggage trolley into the lobby I continued to mutter something dark about looking like the Beverly Hillbillies (with no Ellie-May to be found!).

First, the sight of the king-sized bed and lovely, fluffy bedding soothed me. Then we had our showers and our little guy splish-splashed in the bath. And then we slept. During the night it rained a steady rain outside onto the elm trees and river.


The next morning the clouds broke a little and slants of morning sun sparkled intermittently everywhere. We had a fabulous breakfast in the hotel restaurant looking out over the river green. The excellent food restored my soul and the gracious service made me feel civilized again. Hubby was right. It was worth it.

He and our little guy soon made for the pool and waterpark in the hotel while I grabbed the camera and a takeout coffee from the lobby Starbucks and made my way down to the river. I needed to walk before getting back on the road.


The city has pots of flowers out everywhere. They even had a cute little van with flowers painted on it that the city workers drive around maintaining the pots.


The local businesses and churches joined in with the flowerpots.


The hotel next door to ours, the Delta Bessborough, was an old Canadian National Railway hotel that has been restored.


Now, I do have a soft spot for nice architectural details.


And artisanal touches.


While I only had about 90 minutes for my stroll, I was again struck by how this pretty and artsy city manages to continue to fly under the radar. Perhaps now that Saskatchewan’s economy is getting some attention, heads may turn in its direction.

I checked its tourism site and the tagline for the city is, “Saskatoon Shines!” However, I think it’s rather charming even on its moodier days.

So, if you are looking for a place to restore your spirit on a long journey across country, Saskatoon may be just the oasis you are seeking.

Don’t you love it when travelling and your expectations are exceeded?

Prairies through Glass

We are back from our holiday. We spent a crazy four days driving and three days visiting. The ratio is all wrong, I know. We had initially planned to fly, but because we had to bring some extra stuff we decided to do a road trip. A test run, if you will, for future vacations with the wee one to spots such as our very favourite hidey spot, the enchanting Waterton Lakes.


So we drove across the prairies from Edmonton to Winnipeg (approximately 840 miles or 1350 km each way). We took the “old way” there on the Yellowhead Hwy and I must say, there was very little traffic between Saskatoon and Yorkton. I realized that this must be one of the ‘black areas’ at night that we fly over. At ground level, however, it was verdant, rolling, lush and a summer paradise for ducks and other waterfowl.

The prairie provinces of Canada (Alberta, Saskatchewan & Manitoba) are vast. People cluster together in cities that shine at night like oases in the desert. The rest of the land is farmland with boreal forest and muskeg in the northerly areas and some desert to the south. For the most part the land undulates and tilts in wide curves where the rivers run through it.

On the way back we took the TransCanada Hwy, a divided highway that took us from Winnipeg to Regina and up to Saskatoon. The landscape was much drier than the old way to the north. We all learned the words to “I’ve been working on the railroad” as somehow it became my toddler’s favourite song.

I grew up hearing that the prairies were the world’s bread basket and that fields of wheat swayed under the sun. I think that might be changing. The dominant crop that I saw along the roadsides was Canola, used for making vegetable oil.

The other crop I saw, a new one to me, was Flax. I don’t think it was in full bloom yet as it appeared between the windbreaks as a moody flush of blue scattered on top of ever-dancing fields. I was mesmerized by it.

While we were away I did manage to squeeze in a little sightseeing, so next up I will share with you a few pictures of a very special garden I enjoyed one beautiful afternoon with one of my dearest friends from back in my university days.

In the meantime, I am very happy to be back to my own home and garden (even though the weeds settled in nicely while I was gone!)