Fall Back …
The clacks went back this weekend ... darker afternoons for all.
The All Hallows Flower Count
The All Hallows Flower Count A quarter century ago when we still lived in England we used to record how many plants were still in flower at Christmas. In Quebec that’s always going to be zero but in recent years J has taken to making an annual list of the flowers still [...]
The Best Gardening Story (today)
By chance I happened across this short tale of failed gophercide. Enjoy, there is much truth in this little tale (Facebook does have its uses - sometimes)
There are still flowers in the garden
It is quite normal here at this time of the year for pictures to be exclusively focussed on the glorious fall colours of gold and brown and red but a gentle stroll in the garden this morning before coffee reminded me that provided the gardener does not indulge in the practice of [...]
September Morning and Evening
It's been a busy week, but now it's a quiet Friday with just the bird feeders to replenish here in the garden. Here we see how the time of day changes the things we can see. There is always something to enjoy in a garden. [...]
Traffic Jam
There are two groups of plants that are always spoken of as "THE" obligatory species to grow in a wildlife garden - Asters and Golden Rod. Very hot and sunny this afternoon in the garden and ten minutes baking in front of a single Golden Rod produced these eight species. There were more [...]
Lascivious Fluttering
J, my irreplaceable and invaluable spotter of good things, directed me to these two Clouded Sulphur butterflies in the garden who were making merry, or even hay while the sun shines, on the New England Asters. Clearly they were intent on trying to make more butterflies. The rear butterfly is the male and [...]
Great Black Digger Wasp – Huge!
Great Black Digger Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus) J drew this to my attention. Normally I would pass this insect by, having tipped a hat to it as one does, as being just another mud-wasp which we often see beside the garden pond. But ... it was enormous, longer than my standard top-joint-of-the-thumb definition of [...]
Japanese Anemone with Bee
Although they are not native plants we have a well behaved group of Japanese Anemones in the garden that I always look forward to flowering. One of the native bumble bees was assiduously working the flowers and had pollen sacks full to bursting.
Mine is the Morning
There is something about the garden's very early morning light at this time of year, as summer starts to fade and autumn waves enticingly from the wings, that really starts a day off well. All the more so with a mug of tea. It doesn't get much better than this. Verse [...]