Animals, wild and otherwise...

I came upon Hannah sleeping in the bird sanctuary the other day and as I snapped a picture, she got up for this halloween stretch. The top of the ladder has always been her afternoon napping spot. In fact, that is why the ladder is still in the garden. It was right in this spot when we moved in and she used it every day so we have never moved it. Hannah can always be found napping in the garden. I had a more unusual occurance the other night when Gordon and I went into the city mid-evening. The road was full of frogs! It was awful. Impossible to miss them and they were even jumping up and making "thud" sounds as they hit the car when we went by. They were all over the valley bottom on the roads. The grids and the highway. They were gone by the time we came back from the city and I hope it doesn't happen again. It was no fun at all. On a better note, the 'Alexander McKenzie' rose I transplanted last week is doing great and the colour looks awesome with the speedwell purple that it is planted next to. Now I am just waiting to find out what colour the liatris planted with them is. Any day now it should open.

Embracing Change

Heliopsis 'Loraine Sunshine', monkshood and Linda's red daylily are just a few of the new plants in my garden this season. I also reduced the size of the sun gardens by more than half and surprisingly, I am really enjoying that because it has meant that it is almost always completely weed free! Taking the rock edge away where that garden meets the lawn has also made it easier to keep a clean edge. Overall, I am happy with all of the changes in the garden this year and am planning even more. Today I have been clearing out at the front of the house for my new rose garden. The excitement of the day, despite the blooming flowers, was the little female finch I had to save from Penny and Hannah on the front deck. She hit the window and by the time I got there, Penny had her in her mouth with just a wing sticking out and a high pitched tweet coming from inside. Fortunately, Penny dropped her as soon as I told her to but by then, Hannah was running towards us. It was a bit of a panic but I managed to get the bird into a tree and after awhile, she flew off. We spent the afternoon cutting up the latest tree brought down by the prairie winds. That makes 3 this year. Another change I made today was the blog background. I did that in honour of the awesome skies we have been enjoying here. We are in the land of the living sky here but the last few days it has been more incredible than usual. A very pure, bright, clear blue that I have been unable to capture in photograph and do it any justice at all. We see a lot of sky here. It goes out for miles and miles. So it takes something special to get me snapping the camera upward. The colour has been so crystal clear, I find it impossible to even describe.