Before the Rains Came

The holiday weekend enabled me to get the gardens in before the rains came. This bed, one of five in the back yard, was made more colourful by adding the mum Marie bought me when I separated last fall, a new rose bush (Grenada), and some yellow and cream marigolds. The bush in the centre was thought to be a standard lilac, but turns out it is a standard hydrangea (no wonder it isn't blooming yet)! The chrysanthemum will bloom about the same colour as the ground phlox in the background.

The front gardens were planted on Monday. This one is the west curb bed, with the entryway bed showing in the background. Already blessed with sedum, echinacea, coral bells and this very cool tree 'sculpture', I added a buttercream daisy, a red geranium (behind tree part), some orange asiatic lilies and some gold day lilies, and a pretty gold mum (on the right.) The shade on this garden is courtesy the flowering crab apple tree that belongs to the city.

Speaking of the flowering crab, a few of its branches can be seen at the top of the photo below.

This is the east curb bed which came equipped with a Lady's Mantle, Liatrus, rambling rose (all on right), some echinacea, ground phlox, a toad house, and sedum. Last weekend's additions are the hosta at the front left, flanked by two harvest moon echinaceas, a gold day lily, and a red geranium (fleck of red in top corner).

I'm learning that at this age, four hours of gardening requires a nap of some sort afterwards. That really cuts into the knitting time!

Speaking of knitting, I now have a shrug and a ruffled scarf off the needles. The former needs blocking yet, and the latter just needs two ends woven in. This week I'll be working on knitting samples for the upcoming article in the Fall 2011 issue of A Needle Pulling Thread.

And, speaking of A Needle Pulling Thread, the summer issue went to the printer's last week, and will be in the mail by the middle of June -- hopefully by then we'll be having sunnier days and be able to enjoy reading it on the back deck in a chaise longue with a cool drink on the side!

Happy Knitting

May 7 was a special day here at Canadian Guild of Knitters. It was the birthday of the lady who taught me to knit (my paternal grandmother), and, since it fell on a Saturday this year, I decided to celebrate!

I invited a few knitters I know in my home town and brought in a yummy banana cake with cream cheese icing. We sat, and chatted, and knitted, and ate cake, of course.

Sunday, the 8th was Mother's Day, which I spent at my brother's farm with our mom, dad and sister, and his wife's family. Zoey got two walks in the country that day! Happy girl!

After a weekend of socializing, I got cracking here in the office again this past weekend. Saturday was a paperwork day -- filing, processing membership renewals and generally reducing the size of the paper stacks. Sunday was KAP day: I got nearly two of the three packages that have arrived in the past month marked. All three will be done and back on their way home after the long weekend.

Of course, some time will be devoted to the gardens as well. Hopefully the rain will stop long enough to get the lawn mowed!