Bunny Tales

As a nice diversion from my morning here are some pictures from my garden over the last couple of days.

As you can see he's pretty comfortable in our backyard.  In fact, he and his siblings have become playmates for our dog!  It's become a pretty leisurely chase around the garden now.

We're getting so close I'm sure before I know it he'll be expecting a proper dinner invitation.

I'm pretty sure I know who is eating our tulip leaves.

Happy Spring!

I'm not sure what happened to March but it sure has come and gone quickly.  While I'm still trying to grapple with the idea of spring the Easter weekend is already before us.  The snow has melted in the front yard and glimpses of spring are starting to be seen as the first bulbs push themselves through the soil.  In the backyard there is still mounds of snow mixed with inches of wet, sloppy grass by the midday sun.  

Our backyard is visited daily by two or three local rabbits and our dog is most interested to greet them and as often as possible.  This makes for lots of paw wiping when she gets back in the house and that is a sure sign of spring.  I've noticed the birds singing.  I don't know if they have always been there and their voices muffled by the snow or they have just returned from a southern winter but it sure sounds nice. The garden is wet and brown but there is hope out and there and a sense of excitement as to the possibilities.  Spring is a very welcome sight to me.

Happy Easter!  

May you enjoy your weekend with some rest, sunshine and friends and family.

In the Garden this Morning.

Our little robin family has been a bit obsessed with our serviceberry tree this week.   In fact right now they are having a little squabble about it underneath the tree.   It was only after my sister had posted this beautiful photo of her homegrown salad that I remembered you could eat these little berries.  In the past we had tried them but they were very bitter.  I guess our little tree has matured enough now to produce this sweet, blueberry like treat.

Photo by Kathleen Maunder.

We don't have as many on our tree as Kathy has in this bowl but I think I may know why.

I really couldn't believe he let me get this close.  He gripped the berry in his hands until the very last moment. While amazed and snapping photos I did have visions of him  leaping from the branch into my hair.  The memories of a recent dream of flying squirrels is still rather vivid in my mind. :)

The coveted prize.

Yesterday, while weeding in our back garden for the first time this season. (I know some of you are shaking your head in disbelief and disgust!!)  I found this lone, slight stem.  I was pretty sure it was a poppy that had seeded from our neighbour's garden.  Although it had landed in a bit of a strange spot I weeded around it.

Today this beautiful poppy is starting to open up.  I must try to plant these again.  I just love poppies.

To Do and I Do.

Rainy days and Fridays never get me down.  Despite the monumental rain coming down today I had a great day!  I was able to complete this gorgeous wedding order of my vintage glass jewels.  The rich amethyst colour is so beautiful.  Somehow in all the doom and gloom the skies became just bright enough for me to take these pictures.

oh! so lovely.

If you ask me if I do custom work I would say 'I do'. I especially love to work on wedding orders.  I can work with you to create the perfect design for your wedding party that really reflects your style.  You can even send me a swatch of your dresses and I can help you colour match.

So for my other to do list - the garden did not get crossed off today (and it might not even on the weekend).  Our forecast is for rain, rain and more main.  This weather combined with our weekend activities which includes Erica's birthday, cupcakes, attending the school play, dance rehearsals, lacrosse equipment to purchase, etc. doesn't leave much time for gardening.  Anyways, garden work can wait and there's always next week.  This rain was really well needed so I'm sure the grass and garden are happy to soak it all up. 

Have a great weekend friends!

Bees, Blooms and Boos

Today was a day to be thankful for air conditioning. It's sweltering today.  Heat and humidity just doesn't agree with me.  I turn all red, I'm quick to get a headache and most importantly it plays havoc with my hair.  I had a lot of indoor work today and I didn't mind at all. In the afternoon though I decided to take a boo outside.  This expression was not something I had grown up with in fact it leads me to a funny little story.

Years ago when selling our first house we had a British family come through for a tour.  At the time of selling our girls were just babies (2 and nearly newborn).  Usually we would leave and take the girls for a walk when we had appointments but this one was in the evening and the girls were gearing down for the night.  I just tried to stay out of the way in our basement tv room.  As they were walking up the basement stairs I thought I heard the husband say "I'd just like to take a poo out in the backyard".  I know my eyes were as wide as they could be when I heard this and I really wasn't sure what to think next.  As you can imagine, I was quite relieved to find out he only intended to look around!

The bees are loving our lilacs right now.

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We have several types of lilacs.  Our tree this year is particularly spectacular.  I will miss the smell of lilacs when the blooms are done.

So delicate and pretty are the blooms.

I had such good luck with Callbrachoa  last year that I bought them again.  Here they are in Mango.

Off to dance drop offs and the grocery store.
Have a great evening friends!

The Call of the Wild...

This morning after two different trips to the school I sat at my kitchen table enjoying my 1st cup of coffee.  I make a pot of coffee everyday the same way but some days it tastes so much better than other days.  Today was one of the those better days.  It's slightly dark and overcast outside as it is still drizzling with remnants from an overnight storm.  I watched this visitor for a while happily munching on our dandelions.

 I realized it was so noisy outside and this time it wasn't the sounds of renovations or pool pumps on overdrive as neighbours open their pools for the season. No it was noisy with birds.  They seemed to be happily singing at the top of the their lungs.  There was one lone voice though that could be heard above all others.  Distinctive but for my untrained bird call ears I have no way of knowing what type of bird it was.  It really reminded me of my childhood though. Instead of commercials for pop and fast food (well, of course we had those as well) but in addition to those we had these commercials from the National Film Board of Canada. One minute informational vignetttes on our wildlife.  There was a distinctive opening which the bird call reminded me of.

I'm not sure exactly sure what programs I would have been watching to see these - Mr. Dress Up and the Friendly Giant would have been commercial free.  I doubt very much it was being picked up by the american affiliates while I was watching episode after epidsode of The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch (those were good years!).  I definitely saw them all though...the beaver, the chipmunk....over and over.

Some pretty anemones in the garden.  One of my favourite flowers.

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I'm quite pleased with the new template in terms of picture size.  My old template was quite narrow but I am now able to increase the size of my pictures.  Which I love!

Also, thanks so much for the comments on my new banner.  I think I'll keep it for a while.

Oh my bleeding heart.

One of my favourite spring flowers.  It makes a rainy day look beautiful. This one greets us as we walk up to the front door.

Can it really be May tomorrow?

Flutter by my garden.

Last week I noticed a few butterflies in our garden.  They were brown and orange and they were pretty to look at.  Soon I realized that there were many - I could probably count at least 20 - although it was hard to get an accurate count as they flit and fly around.

On Wednesday, I read in the paper that eastern Canada is in the midst of what's believed to be the biggest springtime butterfly migration in history.  Apparently 90% of them are Red Admirals - which is definitely what I was seeing although I didn't know it at the time.

As you can imagine it's difficult to actually get a picture of one of these lovelies.  Just when you get close enough your dog runs up and scares them away or even just a slight breeze will do it.  I finally captured these photos on Friday.

Perfect symmetry.

Speechless.

The Dog Days of Spring??!!

You've probably been wondering where I've been the last week or so. The truth is we didn't make a cake last week so I didn't have anything to post!! I'm sure we can rectify that situation fairly quickly!

Yesterday was a strange day for weather.  By mid morning it was almost 20°C and a few hours later it was 24°C with a humidex close to 30°C.  Wow! (Today at the same time it is only 10°C) Big fluctuations in temperatures lately. Definitely keeping us on our toes for choosing clothes in the morning.

 I didn't realize how warm it was until I noticed my shag area rug rolling around on the grass...oh wait, that's Mabel.  She loves lying out in the hot 'summer' sun.

...I can assure our groomer that a phonecall in the near future is necessary!

I was inspired by my niece Chloé and her recent garden pictures and I took a few myself.

I have a lovely rogue patch of purple pansies growing in my grass this year.  Such a pretty sight.

I'll have to get some tips from Chloé when I see her next.  Although I use my camera everyday for product shots I still haven't had much time to play with it for other things.  Learning everytime I use it which is half the fun!

Forget Spring it was Summer in the Air this week.

Wow! What a week.  We've been saying for a while now what happened to winter?  Well now it's what happened to spring?  With temperatures soaring to 26°C and sunshine galore you felt you were hopelessly behind in the gardening department only to be reassured it was only March.  The trees are budding, the birds are out and there is green, lots of green in the garden.  Sandals, pedicured toes and tank tops are the style du jour.
Some spring summer inspired designs!

Have a great weekend friends!