garden

my favourite things of the week

For September 18 to 24, 2023

*This week, I was lucky enough to do my absolutely favourite thing: spend time by the shore

*When I could tear myself away from the beach, I was admiring the hardy plant life

*Back at home, the mums are blooming like crazy, the only sunflower to get knocked down by Hurricane Lee won’t give up, and I continue to thrum and admire the clouds

*Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

This was perfect vacation reading. One of the many passages that made me LOL:

“It’s the men who make the mistake. They see she’s got the looks and think she can’t have the grey matter as well, and they try to take her for a ride. Their mistake, of course.”

“They deserve all they get,” said Miss Pettigrew belligerently, but without the faintest idea of what they were talking about.

my favourite things of the week

For September 11 to 17, 2023

Some weeks it’s more challenging to find things to appreciate and this was one of them. I spent a lot of the week with terrible shoulder pain after an overenthusiastic morning of wrangling bins and boxes in the basement and the pain started to subside just in time for the arrival of Hurricane/Post-tropical storm Lee. Luckily for us, the track of the storm pushed further west than anticipated and we had wind, rain, flattened sunflowers and a five-hour power outage, but it was fine. We’ve had way, way worse.

*Before the storm, there was a beauty of a sunset

*Green peppers from the garden

I’d have left a few of them to grow a bit more, but was worried the storm would pound them into relish.

*This chirpy red tractor, outstanding in its field

*Corn, corn everywhere

I don’t know if there really are more fields of corn around here this year or if I’ve just noticed it more, but whatever. We’ve eaten A LOT of corn.

*Old books

I borrowed Cluny Brown (1944) by Margery Sharp and the original library card was still in the pocket at the back. Swoon. Almost exactly 78 years ago, Marguerite and Margaret were also reading Cluny Brown and I wonder if they liked it as much as I did.

*’Under the Greenwood Tree’ (1909) by George Henry

I know this is endlessly reproduced, but I still love it. The dappling of that light through the trees – wow.

my favourite things of the week

For September 4 to 10, 2023

*My nervous passenger

*Bursting apple orchards

*Zucchini season

After forgetting to pick for a few days, the zucchini are a bit on the massive side, granted, but I still love them. I never understand the jokes about dumping excess zucchini on your neighbour’s porch and running away because there is no such thing as excess zucchini. If you think you have excess zucchini, feel free to put them on my porch. No need to run away afterward.

*Big, cloudy skies

*’On a Pot Bank’ (1907) by Sylvia Pankhurst

my favourite things of the week

For August 21 to August 27, 2023

*A visit from Miss Evie, who always has a lot to say

*Lilies by the Little Free Library

*The field across the road from the Little Free Library

*Liatris at the park

*‘Two Seamstresses at Work’ (1902) by Emile Georges Weiss

my favourite things of the week

From August 14 – August 20, 2023

*My mother’s echinacea

It’s funny how I can be so drawn to colours in flowers that I wouldn’t dream of wearing or decorating with.

*Hanging out in the shade, looking across the dykes toward the Minas Basin

I could have stayed there enjoying the breeze and lack of mosquitoes all day, but haven’t yet figured out how to make lunch cook itself.

*This poor, tattered monarch

The Butterflies of Nova Scotia site says that, after a flurry of spring egg-laying, monarchs are uncommon during the summer. This pale, raggedy thing is definitely a holdout.

*A red admiral butterfly

Unlike the restless monarch, this red admiral was practically begging to have its picture taken. It landed right in front of me and delivered a variety of photogenic poses. A natural model.

*Cat-sitting Madeleine, The Plant Vandal

Maddy’s favourite things are yelling complaints in the night, running away when you try to be nice to her, and breaking off pieces of jade plant.

‘Fowey Harbour, Cornwall’ by Frank Brangwyn (1887)

I adore this painting. Everything about it.

*I also adore this guy

Another natural model.

*As many green beans as we can eat

My peas were kind of a washout this year, but the beans have taken up the slack, for sure.

*Looking back at Willowbank Farm from the shady cemetery

my favourite things of the week

From July 31 – August 6, 2023

*A small, but healthy garlic harvest

(In front of a mint plant the size of a minivan.)

It’s been a banner year for raspberries, too, but I keep forgetting to snap a picture before we eat them.

*This sassy cardinal

*This old newspaper’s tip for summer

Why didn’t I think of this?

*Communing with cows on Church St

*These words of wisdom

“We can just let people be who they are and we can believe that the freer each person is, the better we all are.”

Glennon Doyle

*The view from TapRoot Farms after picking up our CSA boxes

*Haying time on Wellington Dyke

sunflower season

Sunflowers aren’t my favourite, but we’re having a bumper crop this year and the bees like them, so that’s good enough for me.

July and August are so outrageously hot and humid most of the time that I spend very little time in the garden. I nip out for fifteen minutes here and there to pick flowers and veg and then run back to the comfort of the A/C. My great-grandmothers would be ashamed of me. Or maybe just jealous.

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