Sweet Peas and Dill

 

I was puttering away in my flowers when I happened to see that one of my perennial Sweet Peas is a light pink. I think I previously mentioned that I used to have a white one but after that one failed to stick around I had just dark pink. Now I have a light pink and I've marked the plant and will keep the seeds in the hope that they will give me more of the same, I hope you can tell on the picture that some are lighter than others. 

 In response to a question from an anonymous follower I'll explain how I freeze my dill. It's so easy. You wash the dill and cut it into whatever length you want your little 'bundles' to be. you can tie the bunches...that's what I do. About including the stems....that's up to you. I kept some but mostly I kept the lovely "heads" and ferny leaves.   I will use them when I make pickled beans later in a month or so.  If I want just a few Tbsp of fine dill for a recipe I can just use a scissors and cut off part of a frozen bunch.  I hope this explanation helps. I freeze my Summer Savory in the same way. 
This is what the internet has to say on that subject:

Freezing dill is an easy kitchen activity: First, wash the dill in cold water and shake or pat dry. Then lay the sprigs out on a cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer to flash freeze them. When the dill sprigs are all frozen, transfer them to a freezer bag and return it to the freezer.

Connie wondered what the pink/red flowers behind the lavender were. They are roses. Two little bushes that didn't thrive in the back garden were moved to the front, set together in one hole, and went on to do so well!!  There's so much about gardening that is frustrating but also so much that's  rewarding.
Thank you for all the lovely comments on my lavender. Our sandy soil provides the drainage that lavender needs which is the reason it grows well around here.

In spite of the heat I am baking bread and buns today. I better go check if the breadmaker has finished mixing up the dough for me.

Thanks for visiting,  GM

Dill and Lavender

 More sunshine today and I'm loving it. We got the two Clematises ( that I bought marked down at
Walmart)  into the ground and supports put in right away. One of them is very near my volunteer dill so I cut more and got that into the freezer

 

My lavender is blooming ❤❤❤

That's about all that's happening around here.  Thanks for coming by, GM

Deer

 Perfectly lovely temperature for our Sunday morning walk around Fish Trap Creek. We were thrilled to spot the doe and her fawn again, this time we also saw a buck. They were on an island and quite a distance away. I don't have the kind of camera that could have zoomed in on them or my pictures would be clearer. In the first picture the doe and her fawn;  in the second one the buck is hiding in the bushes. He seemed reluctant to come out into the open.

 On the way home we stopped and bought some cherries. 

The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the porch.  Now we move into the last week of June. Where does the time go?

Thanks for coming by,   GM

New Plants and Teddy Bears

 After a few days of cool showery weather we're back to sunny and warm.  Yesterday I thought I'd bake a cake while the kitchen was still relatively cool. It was just a lemon cake from a mix but served with strawberries and Cool Whip it was lovely.  Oh yes, we went berry picking yesterday. Unfortunately we didn't realize that the season was almost over. We were able to pick a small (ice cream size) pail  of not very big berries. Nevertheless they were tastier than the ones we had from the grocery store earlier this month.

We also went to Walmart to see if they had marked down their plants and they had. I chose 2 more Clematises, a Hosta I didn't have, and a Daylily also a new one to me.  Isn't she a beauty? Her name is Frans Hals. I had to put her into a pot because I'm out of ground space.  The Hosta will also go into a pot but I have ground space for the Clematises.

When it got uncomfortably warm (hot) out I came in and "played" with my Teddy Bears. They  and their dishes etc. need dusting from time to time and that's what I did.  The tiny cookies are actually "Danishes"...treats for Bunnies.

 

 Thanks for visiting,   GM

Summer Solstice

 

Apparently Summer begins here at 7:57 A.M. tomorrow ( Wednesday) morning. I'm not at all sure how those who know these things can be so precise. We will have 16 hours and 16 minutes of daylight.  After this week we move toward Autumn. 

We walked in the rain this morning and the forecast isn't great for tomorrow but as of Thursday we'll beheading into sunshine. That should ripen the strawberries

I wonder if these geese had something happen to their first batch of goslings because it's unusual to see  a family with such little ones at this time.

These two had just one gosling obviously older than the little yellow ones.

My perennial Sweet Peas (Lathyrus latifolius)  are blooming.  I used to have a white one but now all I have are these pink ones. They come back every year and ask for nothing much in the way of care. Unfortunately they have no scent.

Thanks for coming by....and thank you for your  comments.   GM

Father's Day

 

 

 Monday morning and I'm doing laundry. We had a lovely weekend with Father's Day celebrated at the same time as our first look at Eldest Son's new house.  It's so big and so new with many lovely features. 

I, of course, loved the walk-in pantry...

Our DIL had prepared a number of delicious foods for us and we certainly did justice to everything.
She even made sure DH had a special cupcake.

It's a cool day with possibility of showers. A good day to tend to housework so that any days of sunshine later in the week can be spent outside.
What does your day hold?

GRANNY M

Cottontails and Flowers

 

 We had a blustery day today. Youngest son came to help and we put in a few pavers to make a bit of a path through the front flowers.  Now that the earth is dug up I will plant Thyme between the pavers and hopefully it will spread.

On our walk we stopped to look at this young bunny. Another person also stopped to watch it and told us that our rabbits are actually called Cottontails which was news to me. I thought Cottontail was just a cute name for them. I looked it up and found out some interesting facts.

 

Nuttall’s cottontail are the smallest rabbit-eared animals in the province. Their coats are grayish brown above, and white below. They have black-tipped ears.

Range & Habitat

They are found from British Columbia to southern California, and east through Saskatchewan, Montana, and New Mexico. Cottontails live in rocky wooded or brushy areas.

Cottontails eat mostly grass and other green plants. They are nocturnal—most active at dawn and dusk. When they are threatened they thump their hind feet on the ground as an alarm signal.

Breeding occurs throughout the summer months. Females build elaborate nests of leaves and twigs and then line them with their own fur. Cottontails can have up to nine offspring and they are independent from the mother after only one month. 

 

I'll end my post with pictures of some of the recently opened flowers in the front garden.

Astilbes

 

Daylilies (I think these are Stella d'Oro) and  Yellow Loosestrife  (which used to be variegated but has reverted. Yes, I know it's invasive but I keep an eye on it).

Campanula

Not sure about this one

That's it. Thanks for coming by and staying till the end. I love to know who came by so please leave a comment even a very short one will do.   Granny M
 

Scenes from our Morning Walk and Info on Savory

Another beautiful morning. This little duck family was well camouflaged.

 We walk right under this huge old Catalpa tree which is blooming at this time of the year and has a wonderful scent. 

 Regarding Winter Savory and what I use it for....I have always grown Summer Savory which has self-seeded until this year when none seemed to come up at least not where I expected it to grow. Then when the Winter Savory showed up I cut and froze some and will see if it is as useful a herb as the Summer S.  Our absolute favourite soup is Green Bean and a vital ingredient in it is the Savory.  When I freeze the cut up beans I include the little bouquet of Savory right in the bag.  I'll include some info from the internet that you can skip if it doesn't interest you.

Summer savory is among the best known of the savory genus. It is an annual, but otherwise is similar in use and flavor to the perennial winter savory. It is used more often than winter savory, which has a slightly more bitter flavor.

 

Satureja montana, is a perennial, semi-evergreen herb in the family Lamiaceae, native to warm temperate regions of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa. It has dark green leaves and summer flowers ranging from pale lavender, or pink to white. The closely related summer savory is an annual plant. Wikipedia

Thanks for visiting,  GM

 

 

My Messy Herb Bed and More

When I come out the back door I have many of my plants in pots right there.  Several pots have mint, the concrete urn has thyme, other pots just have succulents. The old lawn swing still waits for someone to sit for a while.

 This area is a jumble of Foxglove, Hollyhocks, Feverfew, Chives, Parsley, and other plants that I no longer remember their names.  There are 2 Clematis growing under the small window.

This is the same area last week,  before I cut the Chives down. Oh yes, there are tomatoes in there as well. 

On the other side of the path things aren't any  less of a jumble. Hidden in all the greenery is where my girls discovered the Winter Savory which I put in 2 years ago and thought it had died. There's more Thyme on this side and Rosemary.

Winter Savory ready to tie in little bunches and freeze.

As you can see I am unable to keep my herb/flowerbeds in any kind of order. For a person who can't abide mess inside I manage to live quite comfortably with it outside.

If you're still here....thanks for visiting.   GM

Quiet Sunday and an Invasive Honeysuckle

 

 

Sunday evenings have a different kind of feeling, don't you think?  After a quiet day one looks at the week ahead and what it will bring. We have doctor appointments on Wednesday. For some reason our doctor insists on seeing us every 6 months or so ( maybe just to make sure we're still around?)  Once we get that done we might as well keep going and go browse at the thrift store that's further away and we don't go to very often.  There may be treasures to be found. You never know.

This past week we had some visitors in our back yard. One evening at dusk I saw something moving across the grass, noticed the white stripe down its back and in a moment I realized it was a skunk and where was Miss Kitty? I was so scared she'd go investigate this new arrival. I knocked on the window, the skunk ran off and Kitty hadn't even moved off her favourite chair. Another evening we had 2 raccoons come right up to the house, probably to check if there was any cat food left in Kitty's dish. Again, a loud knock on the window sent them packing. 

We had a bit of rain on Friday; not enough to make a difference but enough to weigh down the shrubs. The Deutzia was leaning down and we noticed that a Honeysuckle has invaded the middle of the shrub. Once both have finished blooming we'll have to pull the honeysuckle out and cut it back. Maybe move it somewhere where it can wander freely.

I hope you have a lovely week. Thank you for coming by,   GM

Waterlilies, Books, and Petunias

 Our weather continues to be hot and dry.  It's such a pleasure to walk in the cool of early morning. I can't see myself being outside in the afternoons.  There were lots of squirrels and bunnies in the park and when we walked over the boardwalk a cheeky raccoon peered up at us from the murky water. I wonder what it found to eat down there.

Gretchen Joanna asked what will happen to the waterlilies in summer.  They stay green and cover so much of the lake. Where the strange machine has access it pulls them out but it can't get to the areas between the shore and boardwalk. This picture from last year shows the machine ( I have no idea what it is called) dumping its load onto the shore.  Apparently waterlilies make excellent compost.

I dropped off some boxes at the thrift store yesterday and found some reading material for those afternoons on the porch.

 Diane in northern wis....Yes, I have seen those dark purple  speckled Petunias. Isn't Night Sky just the perfect name for them? This picture is off the internet.

Thank you for visiting and leaving lovely comments!!

My Day

 The lake is getting clogged with waterlilies especially on this side by the bridge.

 Farther along, near the dock, many geese hang out. They sure can make a poopy mess.

 

I spotted this little fellow seemingly unafraid of me until I got a bit too close then he hopped into the blackberry bushes.

There's not as much variety by the lake as the walk around Fishtrap Creek where, on Sunday, we saw a deer on the small island in the middle of the creek. Apparently there was also a fawn but it was too hidden for us to see it. Others told us they had seen it running and jumping around.

After some lovely cool days of temperatures in the 20's C  today it is 31*. That will mean some watering this evening. Hydrangeas and Astilbes dry out quickly in our sandy soil.

Knowing it would get hot by noon I did some baking first thing after getting back from our walk. I baked an Angel Food cake and some chocolate cupcakes ( both from mixes). On the way home from Gleaners yesterday DH stopped to pick some strawberries. Strawberries call for cake, don't you agree? We were disappointed in the berries which are not at all sweet. Next time he stops to pick it will be at a different farm. Hopefully those berries will be tastier.

I've rambled on long enough.  Thanks for visiting,  GM

Aprons

Do you wear an apron when you're working in the kitchen?  I do because I'm a messy cook. I  seem to get flour on myself and sugar on the floor. An apron doesn't keep sugar off the floor but it helps keep me tidy. I think the main problem is that I'm constantly wiping my hands.  If you follow Henny Penny's blog you know about the pretty aprons she makes. I can't sew but.....

 

 ...my sister does and she recently sent me this cute apron that is almost too pretty to wear. I just love the fabric!!

What's happening in your kitchen these days?  With DH and Youngest Son gone for a week I had a wonderful break from all cooking ❤❤❤   Now things are back to normal again.  I think tonight's supper will be a Savoury Impossible Pie. One of those Bisquick ones that always turn out. My kind of recipe. Easy and Tasty.

Thanks for coming by,   GM

If you have time to spare please visit Mary's blog ( Visits with Mary) and read what she has posted today. We need reminding over and over of what's important, don't we!!