Mosaic Monday

Hello Everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. It was rainy and overcast for most of my weekend. Saturday was spent making Strawberry Jam, 160 jars in total. The groom, my son, and his bride are giving a jar of jam to each guest as their thank you gift.

It took 44 quarts of strawberries, 

56 pounds of sugar and 22 boxes of pectin 

 to make the 160 jars.

And 12 hours.

Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary

at Little Red House.

Thanks for stopping in and

have a great week!

First Day of Summer

Today is the first full day of summer

and we have thunderstorm warnings.

Not what the weather people predicted.

Which was a hot dry summer.

Time will tell how accurate they are.

One of my favourite things about summer is the beautiful flowers.

These pictures were homework from Lesson 2 of my 

Capturing the Beauty of Flowers photography class.

"When you take a flower in your hand

and really look at it,

it's your world for the moment.

I want to give that world to someone else."

`George O'Keeffe`

Yahoo!! Summer has arrived.

Mosaic Monday - What You See

` The question is not what you look at but what you see. `

Henry David Thoreau

I am joining Mary the host of Little Red House

for Mosaic Monday.

Stop by to view the beautiful mosaics.

Take care and thanks for the visit!

What is New in the Garden!

I have spent many sunrises and sunsets in the garden taking photos for

my on-line photography class, 

Capturing the Beauty of Flowers by The Perfect Picture School of Photography. 

Here a selection of what was blooming in the garden this week.

I do not know the latin name of this plant, the common name is called Elephant Ears.

 The leaves are very large, grey in colour, fuzzy and have tall stalks of white flowers.

The John Cabot Explorer rose is just coming into flower.

 It has been a battle this year with the caterpillars eating all the leaves and flower buds.

This is the green leaf Tradescantia, I also have the yellow or golden leaf

Tradescantia, but it is not flowering yet.

The Golden Leaf Mock Orange is just starting to bloom.

There is a wonderful scent from the flowers and the bumblebees

are very busy working within the flowers.

This peachy apricot coloured Poppy was a volunteer.

Is was just starting to open when I took its' picture, the petals are still krinkly.

This Gaillardia was glowing in the setting sun.

This is a new peony I planted last fall. 

'Krinkled White' has a very pale pink flower with yellow centres.

I hope you enjoyed visiting and wondering through the garden.

Have a wonderful weekend and

I hope you get into the garden for some dirty knees!

Mosaic Monday - White Poppy

There are only 6 1/2 weeks until my son's wedding, yikes!

and my thoughts are filled with wedding plans.

This white poppy is blooming in the front garden and

is called 'Royal Wedding'.

Its' colours of black, white and pink are the same colours of the wedding. 

I am joining Mary at Little Red House, for Mosaic Monday.

Take care and have a wonderful week!

Friday's Flowers - Iris in the Garden

The Iris are still blooming in the garden.

So easy to grow on my sandy soil.

A beautiful Iris sibirica (Seberian Iris)

My favourite Yellow Iris, given to me from a fellow Master Gardener.

 It can be a fussy bloomer, some years it has lovely full blooms and the next no blooms at all.

 But it is well worth the wait.

A very pale pink iris has been flowering for over a week. 

The weather has turn frigid, again, so I am hopeful they will continue to bloom

for the rest of the week.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and

thank you for stopping in for a visit.

Take care!

Mosaic Monday

I have a very hard time designing floral arrangements,

 but could you imagine doing one only 3 inches tall.

These miniature arrangements 

  were done for a competition at the 

Ontario Horticultural Association's Annual General Meeting.

I am joining our host Mary at Little Red House,

for Mosaic Monday.

Thank you for dropping in and

have a wonderful week!!

Casualty of the Wind

It has been a weird spring here; rain, more rain and more rain along with very cool temperatures. Mix a couple of days of very hot weather and the garden does not know who is supposed to be flowering and who is not. I still have very early creeping Phlox flowering and now the peonies and roses are budding.

The last couple of days have been very hot and humid, but yesterday it was so windy all my tall bearded iris fell over. I have been cutting them and bring them into the house.

This a bud of a bronze iris I purchased from a plant sale. It was only call bronze iris.

So I do not know its' name.

It has ruffled edges,

orange beards,

speckled fells,

and seems to glow from the inside out.

They are sitting in a tall vase on the kitchen counter, their perfume is beautiful.

Thank you for stopping in and visiting today.