Anybody for a little Abraham Darby or Mellow Yellow today?

Abraham Darby

The Flare of Summer's skirt

The full flare of Summer’s skirt is festooned with the embroidery of Bugloss, Water Lillies, Brown Eyed Susans, and  Pink Clover to mention a scant few. 

Her sirens lured us to  ponds’ and meadows' edge this morning, completely altering the course of our day: up county road thirty six, north of Westport. I am not sure if we will ever escape this land, for I have not tied myself to a mast, nor have I filled Alanagh and Molly’s ears with wax. How could I possibly do that, and miss the morning pregnant with bird song, day- life opening, and warming in the broadening light? How could I ever want to escape the captivity of bluebirds?

Female Mallard

Chalk Fronted Corporal Dragon Flies

Four Spotted Skimmer Dragonfly

Chicory

Brown Eyed Susans

Bugloss, Blue Weed/ Vipers Bugloss

Pink Clover

Water Lilies

Strength

June 25th 2014 Graduation

Simply itching to get out and photograph bluebirds,  drive slowly the Parish Road to check the meadows and brook. It is raining again today and so roses in the rain pinch hit again.

25^th of June Graduation 2014: Front of the Class

You know the ones I mean…

The smart kids at the front of the class.

High marks -

Teachers praise-

Envy of the “wanna be’s”.

The ones we never forget.

You do know the ones I mean...

Golden Sceptre and Abraham Darby

With whom we could never compete.

Golden Sceptre

Abraham Darby

Golden Sceptre and Abraham Darby

Parade of Roses (Again)

This morning I planned to stalk Bluebirds thinking the rain was to come tomorrow. It came today though, and standing on my veranda I could smell the  essence of roses carried in rain.  Between showers I went  to them, to see more closely and smell more deeply. 

I am always somewhat saddened when their flowers are spent, but I know in the black, cold, of this coming winter, I will be looking at them over and over again, in the softness of their morning, and in the light of their dawn. Stainless Steel has an early hip, as has Diamond Jubilee. I think the flowers of Queen Elizabeth, Honey Dijon, and Double Delight may last only today. The floriferous  John Davis, Cinco de Mayo, John Cabot, will continue all summer. Golden Sceptre is offering up its gold this morning and Abraham Darby  has come forward again.

I have a couple of good books on the go, so will  leave you now to curl up in my big chair and turn a few pages.

Double Delight

Honey Dijon

Queen Elizabeth

John Davis

Cinco de Mayo

Abraham Darby

Golden Sceptre

Ospreys, Loons and Blueflag Iris

The Osprey’s one to four pinkish to cinnamon eggs, wreathed, and spotted reddish brown, will incubate in thirty-six to forty-two days. Their parents will attend to the nest for fifty to fifty-five days. The nest into which the 5.5 to 6.8 cm long eggs were laid was built of sticks and lined with bark, sod, grasses, vines, and algae. Generations will use the nest adding to it  year after year, and it may reach three metres deep  to four metres wide.  The eggs will not hatch at once. The first chick emerges up to five days before the last one. The older hatchling will dominate its siblings, and if food is scarce, the younger ones may starve to death.

Feeding almost exclusively on fish, the parent Osprey’s have a reversible outer toe that allows them to hold their prey between their two front and back toes. The barbed pads on their feet help them to hold the slippery fish that they will carry to their young, head first. The fish carried this way aids in the aerodynamics of  flight.

During the Osprey's fifteen to twenty year life they may fly over 257 kilometres.

Common Loons too, are fish eaters. A monogamous couple, their relationship typically lasts five years. When one doesn’t return to the North, they mate with another. Two loon chicks will eat about half a ton of fish over fifteen weeks. The chicks hatched from their brown, darkly spotted 5.5 cm eggs, in a nest on the edge of the shore. The  55 cm mound  into which they appeared was constructed of dead plant materials such as sedges and marsh grasses. Well hidden, it looked merely like a clump of dead grasses.

The chicks will be on their own in twelve weeks and they will fly to coastal waters and live there for two years. In the third year they will return North, but may not breed until they are six years old. Loons can live to be over twenty years old.

The Male’s upright body and rapidly flapping wings claims the territory of the loon family. 

Turtles on shoals, and  Native Blueflag Iris on shorelines flourish on this  22 of June 2014.

Itoh Peony 'Bartzella'

Opening today:

Itoh Peonies are   hybrids between Garden Peonies and Tree Peonies. There are several varieties,  easy to grow, and they are very hardy. Bartzella forms a tall, upright bush of lush green leaves that stand up well into the autumn. Its flowers have  a lemony fragrance. If you have the nerve to cut the flower, put it in a rose bowl.

Roses

Double Delight opened today as did Honey Dijon. Stainless Steel is maturing to that wonderful shade of “steel”, and Cinqo de Mayo is having quite the celebration. Queen Elizabeth is fully open now and offering up her second bud. I smiled to myself and thought,”Queen Elizabeth I and II shall your reign  be long in this garden.

A man walking to the lake today stopped as I was taking these pictures. He asked, “How do you pick a favourite?” then he continued, "I guess one can’t.” 

Garlic, mingled with the roses, keeps the aphids off. This is the second year I have planted my herb garden at the edge of the rose garden.  Next year I may intermingle the herbs with the roses as I have the garlic. There is something about herbs that is repellant to most insect pests. Bees however, love rosemary, thyme, and mint. In the past,  beekeepers would rub a handful of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) inside the hive after hiving a new swarm, in order to help the swarm settle and to encourage them not to leave the hive. Rubbing hands with the leaves is also claimed to help prevent bee stings.

Passersby stop to admire the roses, and  many are effusive in their appreciation. With that  sharing of my roses by the roadside, my delight in my beauties is most certainly is doubled.

Double Delight

Honey Dijon

Stainless Steel

Cinco de Mayo

Scentsational

Queen Elizabeth

The Garden by the side of the road