ABC Wednesday

The letter is L

Whereas last week it was necessary to scratch for flowers that

began with K,

 

L has been lavish with its supply of lovely flowers -

somehow it's just that kind

of a letter.

 

Lupins,  Lunaria, Lilacs, Lobelia, Larkspur, Love in the Mist

 

It is early in the morning, towards the end of May.  I am up with the sun and before I breakfast I go into the garden where himself, the sun, is making long shadows along the pathway.

 

The bright blue above is kissing the Linum awake, and as the petals open they reflect the colour of the sky, tossing and turning in the morning breeze.

They are morning flowers - by noon they will have closed up shop and be napping.
 

Within a few weeks the lavender will add its delicate
 perfume as I brush past it and stoop to pick a sprig.

and the lamb's ears will start to poke their little mauve flowers along their stems
just under their ears

 

 

and then it will  be time for the gorgeous,elegant lilies!

 

 

That come in many beautiful colours

 

 

and practically send one swooning with their heady fragrance

 

 

Oh,what is life without a garden!!!!

 

For more interesting Ls click here to reach ABC Wednesday

with many thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and to Roger

and all who help with this great meme.

 

 

 

 

Easter, 2013

 

 

 

 

Blessings of Easter to all

and a little Easter music from long long ago......

 

 

 

 

Here and There and Creme Brulee

Yesterday was a lovely day, - in every way!

David came mid morning to ferry me to Penticton, and on the way to pick up our dear friend, Jill, - a friend by way of being one of Charles' school mates, the widowed wife of a cherished minister at St. John's, (also a school mate) and oh, just a kindred spirit for a thousand reasons....

We were going out to lunch, and to catch up on the times between now and when we last had this kind of an opportunity to talk.

We went to the Vanilla Pod, - one of the many new wineries that have taken over the orchard land on the benches between Penticton and Naramata, along Okanagan Lake.  A restaurant attached, as many of them have...  A marvelous view.  Spacious.  Windows all around.

We had a minimal lunch, - a fabulous soup, a glass of white wine and Creme Brulee the likes of which I hadn't had since we were last in England.

I mention the Creme Brulee because it has inspired me to go and buy some small ramekins and treat anyone who comes to dinner to this elegantly simple dessert;  stashing any that are left over in the freezer along with the French Onion soup so I can have a more sophisticated dinner than scrambled eggs on toast.

After lunch David very kindly drove us to the Skaha Bluffs, where Jill's grandson was scheduled to make a drop from a big yellow airforce plane on to a small meadow below the parking lot high on the bluffs.  Her daughter (the mother of the dropee) arrived with an array of old white sheets to mark the drop spot in the meadow and the plane circled overhead. 

We left Jill with her family, but before I go on with the story, Jill's grandson, (the dropee), has just been presented with a medal for Courage by the Governor General of Canada, honouring him for his part in the rescue of a young native from where he was stranded on an ice floe in the Arctic.  This involved a drop from a heliocopter, carrying medical supplies, and then jumping from floe to floe until they reached the young man in such dire trouble and were able to attend to his needs and attach him to the rope from the copter and hence to safety.  Courageous indeed! 

It was getting late, and David had to take me home to Keremeos and then back to Penticton for a dinner date, so we drove along the east side of Skaha Lake, stopping at Tickleberries for an ice-cream cone to finish off the day in style.  I had a modest Senior's cone, but David went all out for a three tiered affair with different kinds of ice cream on each layer.  Magnificent!!!

 

 

I spent a lovely contemplative evening recalling our conversation and the pleasure of being with an old and very dear friend with whom we shared so many parties and picnics and quiet times and Christmas Eve glasses of wine after midnight services, and weddings and funerals.  It is that wonderful sense of comfort that pervades you when you are with familiar dear ones.........

And we had such a great chauffeur!

ABC Wednesday
March 27th, 2013

The letter is K

Not the easiest letter when you are looking for something botanical that begins with K

Here is Kalkwitzia Amabilis

 

most commonly known as a Beauty Bush

 

Amabilis means 'lovely' and it is a most apt descriptive name

 

A Chinese shrub of the Honeysuckle family

the bush was twice discovered in Central China, - once by the Jesuit

Missionary Giuseppe Giraldi in Shensi, and then in western

Hubei province by E.H. 'Chinese' Wilson, who was collecting for Veitch Nurseries.

 

It was named for Richard Kolkwitz, a professor of botany in Berlin.

 

The shrub was first grown in the Veitch Nurseries in 1901

and became very popular in the U.S. following World War 1,

almost a defining shrub in American gardens between the World Wars.

 

The flowers are pinkish, with yellow throats and very fragrant.

It is attractive to bees, butterflies and birds.

The fruit is bristly, which proves, I guess, that you can't have everything!

 

In full sun the shrub will grow 8-10 feet tall,  requiring a fair amount of space

as the branches are very arching.

It is propogated by soft wood cuttings, and I would love to find one of these

lovely shrubs and try a soft wood cutting!  I would put it in the corner of the back garden

and it could have all the space it wanted.........

 

Here is a close-up of the beautiful bell shaped flowers,

which grow in pairs.

 

 

For more K's go here, to ABC Wednesday

and thank you to all who work with this wonderful meme.

If I had my druthers.....

If I had my druthers the room at the end of the hallway would still be Charles' dressing-room-cum-small-workshop, but alas, that is not to be.....

And so today two of the sons and a son-in-law wriggled the loom out of the travel trailer where Charles and I had deposited it some years ago, put it in the back of Frank's pick-up and while I was at the church doing Bulletins for tomorrow's Palm Sunday service, they marched it up the back stairs and had it all assembled, even with the warp still on it and in good order when I got home.

Thank you so much, fellows....

 

I have a studio again!!!

 

The last entry in my weaving journal, written on July 1st, 2008. reads;

 

"Have given up Glimakra - it is at Sharons - not yet put together.  Still have the Le Clerc - it is in storage in the Quonset hut, but there is a spot for it in the trailer where most weaving equipment resides.

 

I am once again encouraged to weave by my inner self - the energy quotient is considerably less, but there are things I want to do while I still can.  Starting with the table loom (not the Dorothy) and all the silk blouses I have been saving.

 

Look up recipe for rag bags - (Ruth Blau's honeycomb) and start making silken strips''

 

I did do that, - the Le Clerc did make the trip from the Quonset Hut to the Trailer, 

and I did start to make small silk mats, but then we moved, and Charles' mobility reached the stage where he couldn't just slide into a pair of trousers and throw on a shirt and jacket, - it was instead a painful operation for him to dress, to put on socks and shoes, and he needed a place to call his own -

a cave where he could fiddle and sort and read and think

and one does what one must.

 

I know he would be pleased to see the Le Clerc in operation again.  He was such a part of the weaving operation, making sectional warp beams for both the Glimakra and the Le Clerc

and so many other creative additions to the looms and the weaving equipment. 

 

His dream was to make an automatic fly shuttle for the countermarche, but time flew by instead

and  the years weren't long enough to realize all the dreams.

 

I see him smiling at my pleasure today.

 

 

 

 

How lucky I was to be married sixty-seven years to such a lovely man!!

My dear DIL, Nicola, came yesterday and did magical things with my computer, so that now I am Wireless (is that the same as being Clueless?) and I am able to use Charles' laptop here at the kitchen table, while my toast toasts and my egg boils merrily in its little flowered china jar.which I resurrected when I changed my breakfast menu.

I even cut my toast into soldiers, and dip them, something my darling husband was not familiar with, not having had an English mother.  I am afraid, he didn't entirely approve of the practice!!!!!!

March is doing its 'Lion' act today, - very damp, chilly and windy.  I will confine my gardening to writing in my journal and  replanting the lily bulbs I rescued from the garden on the hill to bloom  in tandem with the blaze rose that grows against the garden shed.

                                           

I'm off to discover what precious rich earth lies in wait for me at the bottom of the compost bin to make the lily bulbs feel at home in this sparse soil here in town.  And to see what progress the daffodils are making........

If the weather improves tomorrow will see another couple of hours in battle with the cutch grass and the Chinese Railroad Line that have made themselves at home - even throwing great parties at times, I suspect, - up there in the old garden.   It does, however, just seem to ignore this neglect and is springing up with great energy and promise, glorious in this wild March weather.

I am reminded of D..H. Lawrence and The Enkindled Spring.

 

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,

Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,

Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between

Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze.

And I, what fountain of fire am I among
This leaping combustion of spring?  My spirit is tossed
About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
Of flames, a shadow that's gone astray, and is lost.

 

 

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is J

 

 

The lovely, romantic Jasmine seems a perfect choice for J.

 

 

A cherished Valentine present in 2012

 

Jasmine - its name derived from the Persian 'Yasameen', meaning Gift of God.

 

It has the most compelling and enticing fragrance

 

The National Flower of Hawaii, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Phillippines

 

Jasmine has great cultural importance in the East

 

being used in marriage rituals, festivals, religious ceremonies

 

and in the home

 

Used often as a hair ornament, - tucked behind the ear or in a braid

 

its lovely fragrance is pleasant to both the wearer

 

and the passer-by

 

 

 

 

for more takes on the letter J visit here, at ABC Wednesday.

 

A Sunday Drive

Scooped up by David and Nicola we took the old familiar path towards the Lower Similkameen, around by Ginty's pond, through the meadows and the orchards, where the sap is beginning to rise, the grass grows greener every day, the willows glow in the sunlight, the little black angus calves frolic close by, and down by the pond the shrubs don the soft, subtle shades of spring.

Over the bank, perched on a railing, we spied a large bird, - a golden eagle, said David, and certainly it bore all the signs of that magnificent bird, and this is not called Eagle Valley for nothing. We watched as it sat silently, quietly.

 

I caught it with the camera as it flew low across the meadow. a great large shadowy span, pale against the stubbly earth and the patches of burnt grass that had reached on to the grass from the burning of the bullrushes that clog the creek running alongside the road.  Can you see it, centre left? Perhaps if you were to enlarge the picture....

The upper pond was clear and reflective - a few ducks swam between the branches mirrored on the water. 

 

 

 

 

The lower pond, which held no water in the fall when Charles and I visited. was beginning to fill again. No turtles, no raccoons, but away at the end a pair of nesting ducks, and another couple swimming their way into the remnants of the rushes.

 

 

The remains of last year's corn crop lie waiting to be folded into the ground to feed next year's cobs, or to br taken away for composting

David captured a picture of K Mountain, not as silent as it looks as spring break-up tumbles rocks down the talus slides that give the mountain its name.

We finished the lovely afternoon with an early dinner at the Thai Restaurant in town, and I felt refreshed and somehow comforted by memories of the times before that we have lingered here and there along the so familiar route, the so familiar scenes.

As I write dark clouds gather over the valley, touched in the west by the sun dodging between them on its way along the rim of the hills.  The catkins on the hazel nut tree outside my window stretch out long and golden and my heart feels a little lighter, even though the forecast for tomorrow is for stormy weather and wild March winds in the afternoon.

In the morning I have plans to go once again to the garden on the hill, as I did this morning.  Under the fall debris those amazing scarlet buds poke through the rich black earth, and the daffodils have pushed aside fall's sodden leaves, grown tall and straight and true and any minute now will burst into glorious bloom.

I snipped at the forsythia and brought home enough to brighten up the Church this coming Palm Sunday before the darker days of Holy Week. - there should be daffodils galore for Easter.

ABC Wednesday
March 13th, 2013

The letter this week is I

And after I have thought about the lovely Iris, about which /who I have written before, my mind is immediately  full of the sweet, delicate

 

 Icelandic poppy

 

They grow prolifically wherever I scatter wildflower seeds. and come back to bring colour and pleasure to the garden each year. 

 

What could be more graceful than a bed of fragile poppies blowing in a warm summer breeze!!!!!

They have a lovely innocence about them, and together with blue batchelor buttons and little white popcorn flowers they make a perfect picture.

 

 

For more Is visit here, at ABC Wednesday, with thanks to all who are involved with this fascinating meme and to Mrs. Nesbitt who first created it.

ABC Wednesday
March 6th, 2013

The letter this week is H, and continuing on the flower theme I considered Heliotrope, Hydrangea, Hibisucus, Hyacinth and Honeysuckle, - all lovely, and some a bit exotic.

But then I thought of the Hollyhock, memories of which stretch back to my very early childhood when they lined the walk along the side of the small bungalow we lived in when I was still very young.

They served as 'ball gowns' for a clover head when Anne and I dressed our bevy of belles for an imaginary fairy ball in the greenery at the bottom of the garden and somehow managed to inveigle their way into my heart  - I have a great fondness for The Hollyhock, which has never really been allowed to blossom.

Somehow my love of Hollyhocks was not part of the gene pool and never got passed on to other members of the family who all concentrated on its invasive aspects and its inclination to develop rusty leaves around the hemline.

When we first moved to the farm I envisaged a mass of stately hollyhocks lining the long driveway to the house we had built at the foot of the mountain, but somehow the practicalities of raising a family and coping with all the (pleasureable) demands of a farm didn't leave me with enough enthusiasm for my dream to innoculate the children or  'himself '.

But we have always had a few hollyhocks in the garden, humble as they are in everybody else's opinion, and I am thinking how wonderful they would be along the fenceline in the back garden to provide privacy, and how their beautiful colours and lofty spires would blend in with the sunflowers which are also de rigueur. 

What do you think?

 

For more interesting Hs visit here at ABC Wednesday, and be entertained and educated.

White Rabbits

Did I remember to say White Rabbits this morning, – well of course I did, even before I opened my eyes…..we need all the good luck we can get ! 





The snow from the roof next door to my bedroom window gradually disappears, revealing tons of walnuts that got caught in the first blizzard, before they could fall in between our houses, eager to spend the winter in the garage, ripening and drying.  Now they are fair game for the Clark’s Nutcracker and the Flickers, and an occasional Jay, – a wonderful spring treat after a winter of pine cones….

March is meek and mild this morning, if a trifle misty and overcast, but I see a few rays of sunshine in the East, and perhaps the weatherman was right in saying the Similkameen would be sunny all day. 

I will snatch a couple of hours in the back garden, attending to some of the tidying that got neglected last fall, and just luxuriating in being outside where the air is fresh and all around me are signs of new growth, – promises of tender green leaves, spring flowers, and roses calling urgently to be pruned.

I’m off to be mesmerized by burgeoning buds and the enthusiasm of new bulb shoots, – 2 inches tall, then 3 inches tall and now, suddenly six inches of yellow-green rockets on their way to heavenly days…..

All pictures this morning from Google - no time to search the archives - only have a couple of hours outside before I go to represent a woman of France in a lemon yellow scarf at the World Day of Prayer this afternoon.