Me On A Monday - July 16th

Good Morning - I hope & trust everyone had a good weekend.  In this part of the world the heat & humidity shook hands again & gave us a summer weekend.  It's not good for the gardens or the crops, so please Mother Nature some rain, soon, for several hours, please & thank you.

On Sunday Mr Man & I went out on a mission to find some items for the SPSH.  When the list for SPSH 2018 was set, I had decided that I wanted to capture the finds of things not found in my garden - I wanted to get off the patio.    

Returning from the dentist last Wednesday, I had seen one idea for re-purposed. So we decided to take the afternoon to capture that particular item & to visit the university grounds in search of some more items.   The University of Guelph has its roots as a agricultural college with a world renowned vet college but now can boast several other major programs taking in the humanities, the sciences & technology;  There has been some recent grant money for grounds improvement throughout the university. University buildings are intermingled within the city of Guelph.

I saw this magnificent tree & thought it looked like the weirwood tree from Game of Thrones, although it's not white like the weirwood tree ... or the party tree from The Lord Of The Rings.

We wandered about the conservatory gardens.  These are gardens that over the last 10 years  have been designed, built & improved upon to show off the renovation of the university's original glass conservatory.  For us, this was the first time the building has not been locked so we were finally able to wander inside. It's small & doesn't take more that a few minutes to walk around but it did take us over 30 minutes because we stopped at each planting & made lots of oh & ah sounds.  I did find several items to tick off my list at the gardens & at the art centre also within the campus grounds.   
The conservatory gardens are divided into 4 sections;  each section is planted with one of the four seasons;  spring, summer, autumn & winter.  Each show cases plants, trees, shrubs that have their moment of glory in one particular season.  There are also gardens bordering all of the parking lots & the central university bus depot.

 The pond's water was rather cloudy but we did spot several large carp (goldfish).  There were lots of baskets with dirt in the bottom of the pond so maybe the intention is eventually to plant water lilies.

 Inside the conservatory

From the front of the conservatory, the walk that leads to the four gardens.  The large urn has dedication/donation plaques. 

Outside the gardens were full but looking a little thirsty.  The lawn was bristley & brown.

Red Explorer Roses bordering the walk to the bus shelters

Blue Russian Sage

Some of the newer glass university buildings

A dying pine in the winter garden - an invader beetle killing Ontario pines

An entire grove of Rhododendrons in the spring garden

Summer roses - most are Explorer Roses - developed specifically for the Canadian climate

"Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts."  Max Griswold

Take Three Thursday - Nature's Wonderment

In an effort to notice more of the ordinary in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.   The idea is to take 1 - 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.    What have you noticed this week?  
 
See what others have noticed:  
Maggie at Farmer's Wife Day by Day
Karen at Random Reflections  
Eileen at  A Bracelet of Days
Melissa at Daily Life - Bits & Pieces


Wandering in my garden I noticed three odd things within the beauty of my garden;

1) there was a perfectly round hole in one of the lily's petals - it did not look like an insect chew hole.  Was this formed in the early stages of the bud development?  

2) this leaf was threaded with a spider's web so that it attached at the top & at the bottom but nothing in between.  It allowed the leaf to dance in the wind.  Was this the spider's way of entertaining himself?

3) Mr Man is holding a maple key that has sprouted & grown leaves, but no roots, it was not in any dirt but caught in the cement easement line of the patio.  How determined is that plant?

"To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles."  Mary Davis

I couldn't agree more Mary Davis.
 

Me On A Monday - July 9th

Good Morning from the patio.

Lovely weekend with lots of time enjoying the sights & sounds from the patio.  It was neither too hot nor too windy, just perfect for sitting & enjoying the new water feature which  gives some pleasant background water sounds.

We have a cord from the umbrella to the patio frame to keep it steady in some of the breezes that want to rock the umbrella from it's stand & to give a visual notice with a garden theme, I peg pretty gardening gloves on the rope.

 My once circle patio in the lower garden was an enjoyable place to sit but of late I have been using it as my flower pot nursery & it's the bird's bathing area.  I have 2 of my 3 tomato plants there along with two pots of sweet peas.  I never have any luck with planting the sweet peas in the garden - fingers crossed I get a sweet smelling crop of sweet peas.  There is also two mixed floral pots.

We heard & saw the horse show held at the farm behind us.  They host a show the 2nd Sunday of May, June, July & August.  The morning is for English style riding & the afternoon for Western style riding.  The winter wheat in the field between us is ripening quickly.

We are very disappointed that those really nice patio lanterns had to go back.  In spite of being advertised as outdoor lights, they were not weather proof & the glass bulb filled with water & shorted out the electronics.  So we are on the search for some replacements.  The store we purchased at were very nice about returning & refunding.

Read "Britt Marie Was Here"; been there, done that. 

I also have been reading, glancing & marking lots of scrap ideas from this magazine.

I hope everyone has a fabulous week.  I leave you with this quote; 
"I may not know the key to success but I do know the key to failure is trying to please everyone."

Five In Five On The 5th (Plus 1 Day)

Today I am joining in with Sandie's monthly meme of taking five photos in five minutes on the 5th of the month.  You can go here to link in & to see what others have shared.  Sandie at Itchifingers

This month the 5th fell on a Thursday & I needed to look after my own meme of Take Three Thursday, so today, one day later I am joining in with 5/5/5 + 1 day.

After 10 days of intense heat & humidity we had a break in the weather last night, a cold front moved through bringing much need & appreciated rain along with cooler dryer temperatures.  This morning I threw open wide all the windows of our 4 level home & I noticed I had at least five if not more wonderful views.  So snap away I did - Window Views is my Five In Five on The 5th theme. I'll start with the top level (bedrooms) & work my way to the basement.

From the top

From the living room

From the kitchen

From the office

From the basement

Take Three Thursday - Not As Pure As Snow

In an effort to notice more of the ordinary in my life, I have decided to share what I have noticed this week in Take Three Thursday.   The idea is to take 1 - 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment,  by points of view. There is no formal link in but please feel free to join in.    What have you noticed this week?  
 
See what others have noticed:  
Maggie at Farmer's Wife Day by Day
Karen at Random Reflections
Eileen at  A Bracelet of Days

This week it's some of the white flowers in my garden.  Often from a distance they look pure white but up close I  notice there are naturally occurring changes in the white - some might say flaws, but I just like to think variations of the white.

Rose

 

Peonies

I knew the bee was there, I just didn't think "he" would show up in my photo. 

Cleome

 

Me On A Monday - July 2nd

It's a holiday Monday for most of us in Canada.  We had some really nice plans for celebrating Canada Day yesterday but unfortunately Mr Man got heat stroke from too much outdoors on Saturday.  So celebrations were rather just me wearing red & white & coming up with easy to make Canadian foods ... not that there is really any specific for Canada unless you count Poutine & Nanaimo  Bars, neither of which I made.  At the end of church services we sang O'Canada although most had forgotten that the words were yet once again changed.  This time the change is from "all our sons command" to all of us our command ... I'll say no more.

My Angel Focus for July is Forgiveness.  Now this is a heavy weighted topic (for me).  I will need to re-read a book that would be one of the three most influential books I've ever read, "The Magic of Forgiveness" by Tian Dayton.  Spoiler alert; there is no magic to forgiveness, it's work!

My latest library read is called "White as Milk, Red As Blood, The Forgotten Fairy Tales of Franz Xaver von Schonwerth". It's a translation by Shelley Tanaka with a forward by Philip Pullan, who wrote His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass is part of this trilogy).

I came to White as Milk, Red As Blood when looking for a recent translation of The Grimms Brothers tales, (recommended over at Divers & Sundry) which my library did not have, but this one popped up as an alternative choice.  Definitely not for children.  

Fairy Tales have been buzzing on my radar since I read The Thirteenth Tale; the character Vita Winter says "Every happy ever after was tainted.  Fate, at first so amenable, so reasonable, so open to negotiation ends up by exacting a cruel revenge for happiness."  

It got me thinking about story telling,  folk lore & fairy tales - not the beloved Disney versions.  To me Vita's thoughts are on the lines of  "be careful of what you wish for, you just may get it" which was always said in that parental warning tone.

What's your favourite fairy tale?  Do you believe in happily ever after?  Do you think that fate exacts a price for happiness? 
Is there always a price to pay for dream fulfillment?  

July 1st - Canada Day

     

                                                                   
Some interesting trivia about Canada.

Canada is Iroquoian for Village - so I guess that makes us the Village People!

Canada's Population is 36.9 million - & it feels like most of them drive on the 401 Friday afternoons!

Canada's Capital is Ottawa (in Ontario)

Canada has 10 provinces & 3 territories; British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland; Yukon, North West Territories, Nunavut.
 
Official Motto: From Sea to Sea

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world's lakes combined & probably the largest mosquito population!

The Hawaiian Pizza was invented in Canada (by a Windsor Ontario pizza maker) & apparently it is the most popular pizza in Australia - I guess a fair exchange for shrimp on the barbie ...

Yonge Street (in Ontario) is the longest street in the world at 1,896 km

Canada & the US of A, share the longest international border of 8891 km  - & still no wall!

Canada is the second largest country in the world.  Russia is the largest.

Canada has the largest coastline in the world.

80% of the alcohol consumed by Canadians is beer! I think it goes well with that Hawaiian pizza!