Cream Dahlia

Updated July 24th

Snoozin'

Early Morning Visitor

Another Hazy Day

It continues to be hot and hazy in our area (it is 32 degrees as I write this at 6:00pm).  The smell of smoke greets us every time we leave the house.  R. brought it to my attention this morning that everything is covered with a fine film of ash from the wildfires.  I went outside again for a closer look.  Sure enough, there is a thin layer of extremely fine dust and grey speckles on everything.  The speckles show up a bit on these marigolds (click picture to enlarge).

The pea pods are starting to fill out.  We are going to have a lot of peas!

Pink Bumblebee tomatoes

Looking forward to these cream-coloured dahlias opening. 

Two of the large spruce trees at the end of our driveway (growing on our neighbour's side) are heavy with cones.

Borage and the Cover Girl

It is another hot, sunny day.  At 2:00pm it is 33 degrees, "feels like" 35.  Thank goodness it's a dry heat.  The heat here bothers me less than it seems to bother the locals.  Forest fires are blazing outside the town of Tumbler Ridge (about 100km from Dawson Creek) so the air is very hazy.  

This morning, I discovered 7 zucchini flowers, finally a mix of male and female blooms.  We might get a zucchini, yet!

I spotted our neighbour's cat relaxing by the peas when I first went out this morning.  She has the longest fur I have ever seen, and when we "met" her last summer, it was meticulously groomed and soft.  For that reason, we called her L'Oreal - her locks rippled in the breeze as she trotted down the driveway.  Since last summer, her owners had a baby and suffice to say, L'Oreal no longer has flowing, shiny fur.  She is a mass of knots and needs her bum washed.  Yet another pet put on the back burner once baby comes along. Don't get me started...

The borage is getting larger every day.

I think it's going to produce flowers soon!

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, marigolds, and parsley at the side of the house.  The black bag is full of leaf mulch, the garbage cans are full of water.

Corn, with a bush bean growing in the front.

The first eggplant bloom appeared this morning.  This is a Vittoria eggplant - a short season hybrid, so not surprising it was the first to produce a flower.  My fingers are crossed that the other varieties aren't far behind.

Golden beets.  They look so neat when washed and sliced.  Unfortunately, they grow much more slowly than the red varieties.

Today is our nephew Alex's 16th birthday, so we drove to Joe's place (R's brother), about 10 minutes out of town, to visit.  Canola is grown everywhere in this region, and you pass field after field of yellow as you drive along the highway and back roads. We stopped at one spot so I could take some pictures.

Our niece, Izzy (3) next to some flowers I love.  Peonies, I think.

She suggested that these would be the best ones for a close-up.

Joe has a big plot with potatoes, pole beans, lettuce, and squash, as well as a smaller area with radishes and snow peas.  He also has a keyhole-style rock garden next to the house.  Izzy agreed to pose while giving me a quick (and likely tedious, for her) tour of her Dad's gardens.  "This is a plant.  This is a rock. This is a pink flower.  I don't know what that one is.  This is another plant. Can we go colour now,  Auntie Dawn?"

Royal Burgundy Bean Blooms

Vivid fuchsia and white flowers - pretty!

Broccoli heads starting to form

R. added another layer to the potato frame

...and more soil...

"Move along...nothing to see here..."

Shasta daisies

Veggie Blossoms

Some pictures from July 6th.


The first zucchini flower.  :)

R. built a frame for the banana potatoes at the back of the house.  For seed potatoes that looked like spongy death when we planted them, they sure are doing well!

The first of the bean blossoms, this one on a Black Coco bean plant.

Moskvich tomato

The currant bush going wild.  It's going to need a deep pruning next Spring.