Today is the Summer Solstice in our hemisphere and the sun actually came out to play.
In celebration, I thought I'd take the opportunity to wander about the yard this evening and take a few pictures of some of the items in bloom. All pictures were taken with my little Canon Elph 300HS.
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| (Portuguese Laurel) |
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(Looking up through Sambucus Black Lace blossoms)
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| (Peony bloom - notice the ant silhouette on the top right area of the bloom) |
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(Geranium showing some color)
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(Tree Peony bloom)
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(Spirea 'Magic Carpet')
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| (Lonicera, aka Honeysuckle) |
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| (Generic rose - here when we moved in) |
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(Sunshine through a Cotinus Coggygria, aka Smoke Tree)
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| (Wisteria blooming over the back pergola & swing) |
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I then took a few pictures of some garden art that Troubadour refinished for me last week. They were looking a little sad and faded so he brought out several cans of spray paint and went to work.
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| (A snail - of course - I love snail art) |
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| (A dragonfly - he gets new paint every year) |
And Basil was lazing around on the back porch steps so I couldn't resist taking his picture.
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| (Basil chillin' out) |
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| (So cute, but watch out for the fangs) |
- Au Revoir
"Flowers whisper "Beauty!" to the world, even as they fade, wilt, and fall." - Dr. SunWolf
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These pictures are beautiful! Is Sir Basil a vampire cat? Holy fangs batman! I don't think I want o tick him off.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dar. And Basil has teeth and knows how to use them especially if you pet his white belly when he is belly up. He usually isn't too serious with them though.
DeleteBrandy,
ReplyDeleteYour garden is literally breathtaking - you have such a fantastic range of plants. Also love your garden art, their colour schemes are just great. I have to take issue with your description of Basil though. I'm sure that instead of the "lazing" description, he'd prefer to describe it as lulling iterlopers into a false sense of security.
Last but not least, kudos to the photo-taker; beautifully composed shots!
Thank you Geoff. And I do think you are correct with Basil, lulling the interlopers into a false sense of security is right.
DeleteYour elderberry is gorgeous. How big is it? Peonies are always a dream, so pretty and that fragrance! And roses and wisteria! What a garden! And not one thing chewed up by bugs. Beautiful photos, too.
ReplyDeleteNice spray paint job, too, by the way. Thanks for the tour. I always enjoy seeing the plantings of others!
Basil is such a handsome cat.
Thanks Martha. The Elderberry is at least 12 feet tall. Or at least I think it is done growing to that height. Was a super fast grower and got bigger than we thought it would. It's smell permeates the whole yard when in bloom though. It smells like a spicy licorice. We have discovered that if you prune some branches/limbs in the spring just after it starts to leaf out (ripe cuttings) and stick them in the ground somewhere in the yard they will go dormant that year but come back the next and you have a new shrub. The prunings we did that to year before last is now 5 ft tall.
DeleteA few years ago I did a post just on the sambucus and put pictures of the whole shrub in it. Here is a link. http://trobairitztablet.blogspot.com/2009/06/sambucus-black-lace.html It has grown a lot since this post and so have the maples on each side of it.
Basil says thank you.
Oh, wow. Where do I start? The pics are excellent. And I just love your wide variety of plants. I want to come and poke around your yard, too! Basil is so handsome. And a man with an artsy streak? I'm jealous. My Hubby would have declared the stuff junk and transported it to the dump. I love the tri-color effect.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kathy.
DeleteI am lucky that Brad is artsy. I would have painted them one solid color and thought it was great. I am happy with the way they turned out. I didn't do very well in art class back in school. Not creative enough. I need paint by numbers or a pattern, lol.
Hey you! Those are great photos! Makes me get all excited about our yard - hope it has plants that look half as good as yours!
ReplyDeleteThanks Meg. Your yard is going to look awesome when you get it done.
DeleteWe've been working on ours for 6 years and still have a ways to go.
Happy Solstice. I enjoyed the photos. I love flowers, but I adore cats.
ReplyDelete~Keith
Happy solstice to you too. Kitties are so photogenic aren't they?
DeleteBasil is so stinkin' cute I just can't resist.
Wonderful pictures! I don't really like cats, but I must say I think I love Basil! So cute! Happy Summer!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jess. We didn't know we were cat people until we had an inbred/purebred slightly aggressive, not willing to learn dog. Now we know we are cat people, although I think a Corgi one day when we are retired and at home would be cool. Nice medium sized dog.
DeleteFantastic photo's. I really enjoyed looking at them all.
ReplyDeleteThanks Wooley
DeleteNice photos! I love the revitalized yard art, too! Basil is my kind of cat.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteWould your kind of cat be lazy and perpetually hungry? Cuz if so, then yes he is your kind of cat.
The white Peony bloom is gorgeous!! Troubadour did a great job with the yard art. Hope you get some time and weather to enjoy the backyard.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lori. He did do a great job didn't he?
DeleteThe weather finally got better today. We made it to 80˚F, hooray.