Not even July and they’re blooming.
Going to be another scorcher again except today we get bonus blazing sunshine. In backyard news, while the poor flowers struggle to gain a decent foothold the hostas are gigantic – who knew that potting them for the duration of construction would be so beneficial.
Name that cloud.
Reminds me of N.C. Wyeth.
📷 no edits /no filters
Feeling a bit prehistoric this morning.
Nothing a bout of busy can’t cure.
📍 Royal BC Museum, Victoria
Happy hydrangea.
I was gifted a glorious, very large bright blue hydrangea that I anticipated putting in the backyard but that’s not going to happen now for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here. I tried putting it on the third floor balcony but it wasn’t very happy with both the stiff breeze and the stifling heat and humidity of recent days – it wilted and drooped pathetically in the space of a few hours. I brought it inside, put it in the bathtub under the skylight and gave it a cold shower and soaking – along with some climate-controlled temps courtesy of the AC and it was back to its perky self by the next day. It seems supremely happy there.
Now what do I do? 😆
No edits/no filters because they are already perfect
Absolutely huge pot of bright blue hydrangeas living in my dining room because the backyard is still under construction. Does anyone know what to feed them to retain the colour?
Playing with other blooms.
Not a whole lot coming up in the backyard but the hostas transplanted to big pots last year – that’s ok, they’re green and happy and right now that’s all that counts.
My hero.
Got to love black birds. Put some treats out for your feathered friends on National Bird Day! Have a look at the link for more animal hijinx.
Walking a lovely tree-lined avenue can be a dangerous proposition these days. The squirrels have no appetite for these thorny projectiles and perch high in the branches laughing while pedestrians jump at narrow misses. The ravens, however, are thrilled and gather to pick through the debris for choice bits: those they cannot crack in their bills are dropped from a height to shatter against the sidewalks. I suspect they choose their moments.
The last of the hydrangeas.
The trees here have finally decided to give up their summer brights for a more suitable autumn wardrobe. Even Nature likes a make-over once in a while…
My inner werewolfette was left baying at the moon, pawing at the earth for the cosmic, the glorious, the fiery orange of those harvest orbs buried deep in memory. It was not to be – city haunts were found wanting: I should have headed for higher ground where the hunting was better…
So thrilled the hibiscus planted 2 years ago has finally decided to bloom. Not so thrilled these little visitors have decided to take a break from their condo building on the side of the house to have lunch here. No way I’m getting up a ladder with an eviction notice…
There was a time when certain foods had their own undeniable flavour and were only eaten during season. Wild local strawberries at dusk bring back filtered memories of childhood, cicada song among the sweetgrass and that sleepy satisfaction at the end of a day that the world couldn’t get much better.
I would put forward that small unexpected pleasures, like the taste of a perfectly ripe summer berry bursting in your mouth, are the ones that make it all worthwhile. They are awesome because they are more than just the thing itself: they call out to the past, inform the present and remind us how things should be – one perfect moment at a time…
It’s a good year for phlox
Hollyhocks abound, reaching for the sky, where once there were none.
nice to see things are flourishing without my intervention
It has been an awfully long haul for New Horizons but it has paid off big-time in some of the most detailed and awe-inspiring pictures of that hotly-debated member of our solar system, Pluto. Get the details on the success of this mission in the latest wrap-up of news here.
but a pale reminder of a colourful past⇣
Go all natural with the entries in Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Bark or Leaves
Unwrap the entries of the Weekly Photo Challenge: Containers.
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Grow accustomed to the entries in
Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Blossom.
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Find a furry or feathered friend in the entries of
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Nature Animals.
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Take a cruise on the entries in Where’s my backpack?’s Travel Theme: Rivers.
It is a bit like watching a pot of water to see when it will boil: waiting for spring to grace us with her presence, we mean. Looking out the window every morning with the hopes that there will be a sudden burst of warm sunlight doesn’t seem to help and if the calendar didn’t say (almost) May one might assume that we were poised on the back end of summer expecting a first snow any day soon. Even though the grass on our front lawn is slowly turning green out of desperation for better days, temperatures refuse to be coaxed into decent double digits and the flower beds are still unremarkable.
We can’t remember what we planted last year but that doesn’t really matter for even if we did, it’s not guaranteed to come up this year anyways. The joke is on us for some of the blooms we thought would brighten things up have turned out to be biennial rather than perennial. Apparently this is a detail the garden centres think would be better to leave off the care label half-covered by a large orange price sticker. We do recall the kind of blossoms the larger plants will produce but most of those will likely appear when we’ve given up and gone on vacation.
The neighbours tell us it looks lovely in July, perhaps we will take our sabbatical a month earlier this year and return just as everything pops out in its wondrous glory all at the same time. The Big 5 Challenge will decide then which exotic cluster wins best of show…
“What is your favourite flower?” – Irises exotic, roses by the score, daffodils, sweet tendrils, petunias by the door, sweet peas, lilies or birds of paradise, grand or wild, fragrant or mild, a pot of something nice …
We would love to know what flora strikes your fancy.
For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, some great entries and the guidelines for this challenge can be found here: Need more info, want to browse past themes or get the badge for your blog? See HOW DOES THIS WORK.
ACROSS THE BORED 