Happy Birthday Queen Vic!

It's always been slightly puzzling to me that Canadians, at least those of my generation, started each school day by singing the National Anthem....and not just "Oh Canada".  Whilst the benevolent face of Good Queen Betty smiled enigmatically down upon them, their sweet treble voices would request that "God Save the Queen".  The Queen features on the Canadian coinage, and today, in honour of Queen Victoria, we have a day off work to celebrate her birthday.  Actually, the birthday is tomorrow, May 24th, but I'm sure we'd all rather have a long weekend than a random Tuesday.  I do wonder why Canadians continue to celebrate her birthday to this day, something the Brits no longer do.

Often this Victoria Day long weekend is on the cool side.  The proverbial 40 days and 40 nights of rain we've been having were interrupted over the last 3 days, and we've had some nice sunshine and warmer temperatures.  Unfortunately, my outdoor efforts have been thwarted by intermittent downpours today.  None the less, I've managed to get a few jobs taken care of in the garden this weekend.

Order of Work - May 22-23

• planted window boxes.  This year I went cheap and cheerful, with pink geraniums and rosy coloured begonias.
• trimmed and did a little shaping of the boxwoods in the front yard.  There was quite a bit of winter damage, which I've trimmed off, and hopefully they'll recover nicely.
• staked peonies with left over dogwood branches from my outdoor Christmas decorating.
• cleared out some of the invasive Virginia creeper that always sneaks in from next door and makes a bee line for the 50 foot high fir tree, covering and choking the whole thing in what seems like a matter of days.
• cut the thatch off the clematis montana that smothers the trellis on my deck each year.  It's a lovely deep, velvety purple and blooms all the way through from July to October.
• very relieved to see that bougainvilla is finally sprouting out in leaf all over.  If the showers hold off, I might get it planted up in a container for the deck.

Hope my homemade, woven peony stakes are strong enough to do the job.

Forget-me-nots give a real cottage garden feel.

These pink tulips have been going strong for 6 years now and have formed big clumps.

The rain stopped me from hanging up the window boxes after planting them.

This is the 1st year for these bulbs.  Not sure if I like the tall orange tulips.

More 1st year tulips - I really like these short, bright yellow ones. Very cheery!