Meet Olivia

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“Meet Olivia”
Well, that’s what my wonderful and oh so generous friend, Hart, said when he brought me this lovely Clivia. Named Olivia, to help me remember what the name of the plant was, of course. But I do like the name, so from now on…..  she will be Olivia.

Hart had given me part of the mother plant, a gorgeous plant that had a permanent spot just inside his patio doors. She had grown too big and he’d promised me that one day, when he split it and repotted, I would get a bit. So a little while ago, I got my promised gift. I noticed right away that there were buds coming, which inspired me to start my little photo progression. Now it turns out, that poor Hart has given me the part of the plant with all the blooms! So Hart, just so you don’t miss out entirely, Olivia sends her love and her blooms to you. Thank you….I do love her.

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Letting the Garden Surprise Us

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Last year, at this time, we had the Accidental Poppy Garden in the front of the house. It had happened because Bill had gone out one day in the winter and sprinkled a mixture of poppy seeds all over the place. By June we had such a delightful mix of poppies that we were in awe.
This year we waited to see if the poppies would re-seed themselves as they’d done in the back garden for years. But instead we got a whole new surprise garden. This garden was not the result of planning or work, but more of a wait and see garden. In fact, other than a bit of weeding of the most obvious weeds, in other words one’s that we knew for sure were weeds, we did very little. We just went out and looked to see what would come up.

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For someone who is trying hard to learn not to be controlling, to have a much less judgmental attitude, to go with the flow, this garden has become one of my best lessons.

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This was the year for Foxgloves. They are biennial and bloom every second year. I’ve never planted them, they must be from the old garden, an inheritance from the last person who grew here before we moved in. Or maybe they are dormant in our compost heap and come up where ever we spread new compost.

We have snapdragons, and have been enjoying the Bumble bees who crawl right inside each blossom. And there is a new plant, a volunteer, we had to do a bit of research to find out what it was, since we’d never planted it ourselves. It’s called Purple Toadflax, and is considered a weed by most but we left it, since it was tall and worked well with the Foxgloves that had spread themselves everywhere. Also giving some colorful zing with their bright yellow-orange blooms were the California Poppies. Now we do have a packet of seeds but it’s never been opened. These girls are volunteers all over our garden and are Bill’s absolute favourite.

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On the way to one of the gates leading to the back garden we have the California Lilac in full bloom.  Oh we know it really needs a pruning and shaping, and maybe the Snow on the Mountain is getting away from us and a few things are coming up again unplanned, but you know it looks kind of exuberant and wild and quite over the top.  We kinda like it, even though you can barely get through to the gate.

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So far it’s been a rather nice succession of things coming up and going to seed. Right now the Fried Egg or Poached Egg as the British gardeners prefer to call them, are going to seed. We’ve never had so many! The next phase I think, will be the lavender now almost ready to bloom and there are signs that the Artemesia has gone rampant. Who knows what will surprise us next. But we’re enjoying it.

I suppose I was never cut out to be a tidy, planned gardener. After all, as artists, Bill and I both tend to go for the expressive and intuitive arts like abstraction and mosaics and collage. And anyway, maybe we’ve somehow discovered that low maintenance, no work garden that all the books keep promising. It may not be for everyone and I certainly don’t think it should be, but we’re enjoying this “Surprise Me” way of gardening and trying to learn from it.

 

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Garage Sale Travels

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Another Saturday morning of garage sailing has come and gone. We had a good morning, found a few things that will be useful for very little money. Things like a new wicker hamper for the bathroom, never used for $2. And some shelving perfect for drying and curing sculpture in the sculpture studio for just $4.  We love to find bargains but  we’re really out to enjoy ourselves too.  As we drive around looking for next sale, enjoying the sun, glimpsing lovely front gardens, we enjoy listening to whatever tape we’ve found at some garage sale.  Today we sang along with Cat Stevens and songs of the “Tea for the Tillerman”album.

Sometimes you come across things that are a bit different, not always necessarily useful and you get a bit of history to go with your purchases.

Like the post cards we bought from a fellow with a couple of tables set up on the street corner in James Bay. The seller, an older man, told us they had been his late sister’s cards, who had traveled a lot in her day and collected post cards of the places she’d been or just whatever caught her fancy.
The odd ones at the top of today’s post, were a happy find, which we may use in a collage or even send to a friend for fun.

Or like the post cards of these colorful sunsets from Firenze in Italy..
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Gazing over the seller’s shoulders we noticed this very bountiful community garden.

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But what really drew our attention was this little softly-rounded straw bale shed  topped with a roof garden sprouting grasses and succulents.  We wandered over  to admire it and the roses…
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Which brings me indirectly to my next photos. But first let me tell you about why I have been inspired to present the following photos as diptychs.

For the past many months, each week I have been waiting for the next installment of blog from Australia. Louise, a very talented photographer features another suburb in a colorful photo journal of the over 600 suburbs of Sydney. Her goal is to present 52 suburbs.  What makes her posts so special?  Why do so many followers check every week for her latest photo journals?   Well, I’d say it is her unique way of presenting photos in pairs, sometimes connected by color, sometimes by content or sometimes by similarities in curve or line. Go and see it, spend a little time, you don’t have to know Sydney to appreciate her amazing photos.  I’d hoped to introduce Louise’s blog by doing a little photo journal of my own neighbourhood.  But I found what Louise does much more difficult than it looks. So instead I’ve just taken a page from her diptychs and tried to emulate what she does.
So these next photos displays are my little tribute to Louise’s blog. My attempt at making those connections.
Like the Paint by Numbers of roses done by the next sellers Mom, now in her 80’s. And the roses in the community garden.
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Or the colors in a pair of flamingos in a porch window (ok they do look a bit amourous) and the colors of a box of fishing lures at another sale.
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Which brings me to my last little pairing of today’s bounty – an old kettle, soon to be a home for a trailing plant, some heirloom squash plants found at the Moss Street Market, the old muffin tin which I hope to make into planters for Hen and Chicks. But then I decided to clean up that old kettle, and somehow it’s just a bit too brilliant now. But I’ll leave it outside, and soon it’ll lose it’s shine and fit in nicely with the old grate in the herb garden.

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