Sunday 26 June 2011

What's in bloom? June 26, 2011

We've had quite a few overcast days this week, and the weekend only cleared up late on Sunday afternoon.  Not to worry, since there wasn't a lot of time for gardening anyway.  Yesterday I took the GO-Train downtown to meet Davey for some shopping, and had a spree at Brookes Brothers under the influence of Nadia, a highly chic French woman, of a certain age, et beaucoup de je ne sais quoi.  Davey fell under her spell a few weeks ago and got his outfit for the Winnipeg wedding at the last minute.  Yesterday, I left with 4 shirts, a delicious navy, ultra classic blazer, two pairs of dress pants and a couple of lovely ties.  Despite the chaos of an end of season sale, Nadia was calm efficiency itself, and looked unphased in her black and white toile de jouy skirt, beautifully tailored black t-shirt, and oh-so-casual little scarf tied with such a jaunty knot.  After two hours of personal shopping with Nadia I was spent (physically and financially!), and barely had the energy to make it through the liqour store for cocktail fixings and a quick stop off at St. Lawrence market for dinner things, so that by the time Davey drove us back to my place, I was quite ready to put my feet up.  Unfortunately, this meant that I totally forgot that in my hurry to get to the train station earlier in the day, I had ditched my plans to walk to the station and drove there instead.  You can imagine my shock this morning when I went out to the garage to discover the car wasn't where I expected it to be!  I'm please to report the car was safe and sound at the GO station, without so much as a parking ticket or wheel clamp thank goodness!

After all that, here's this week's visual diary of what's in bloom in Mimico on June 26, and a in case you'd like something to listen to in the meantime, why not a bit of Brahms?  Sonata for clarinet and piano - lovely, I hope you'll agree (and listen out for my favourite bit at 6 minutes 11 seconds on the video):

Malvas and salvias predominate at the moment, but lavenders are in bud, and delphiniums are in bloom further back.



The lavender hedge I planted last year is in bud now, and still needs to fill out a bit, but at least the plants made it through the winter.

This budding lavender is now about 6 years old and seems hardy and tough, given our  very cold, wet winters.
Early evening sunshine casts a pleasant glow.


This Graham Thomas rose is my favourite amongst those I planted in the spring.
Astilbes flourish in a shader corner of the garden.
My "Special Occasion" clematis has just opened for the first time.

New Dawn roses are covering my garage...the first buds are just opening and it should be quite a show for next weekend and the Canada Day holiday.

These roses were moved from Davey's mother's garden last summer, and survived despite the shock of a midsummer move.  They look like candy floss, shattered candy canes or raspberries and cream, depending on who you talk to, and they smell utterly divine!

The gardenias are just start to bloom.  Again, a marvelous fragrance on a warm, balmy evening.

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