Into the Rose Garden

It's that time of year again. The Rose Garden is in full bloom. Just have a look at some of these beauties.

There was no pruning done this year before the rose bushes started to get going. So the bushes were allowed to grow at their whim and put out a wonderful display. Although this created a mess of branches and runners going every-which-way, it made the garden more natural and honestly, just a lovely riot of untamed colour. 

The bushes will be cut back once they have finished their initial blooming, which will most likely cause them to put forth another growth spurt and more blooms later in the summer. Which is not a bad thing. 
 

First up is our Peace Rose. It's a gorgeous salmon or peach colour that becomes more yellow in the center as it opens up. 

This one starts out dark and then fades to a more delicate pink as it fully opens. It has the most wonderful scent as well.

This is one of the yearly favourites, called "Rio Samba". It has been in the garden for a number of years and each year it puts forth a beautiful display. It doesn't have much of a scent, but it makes up for it in striking patterns and strong stems. And large thorns.

Here is the same "Rio Samba" once it has fully opened. 

This beautifully full rose is a David Austin variety. David Austin roses are known for their fullness, or "double rose" as they often have twice the petal count as other rose types. 

Another David Austin rose; this time in peach (and it the rain). 

This pink stipes-and-speckles rose has the sweetest, almost innocent scent. It has been in the garden for as long as I can remember (which is a fairly long time). We have dubbed it the Candy Cane rose because of it's stripes. It blooms twice; once in late May and then again towards the end of August. It has clusters of flowers that don't last as long as the other roses in the garden, but it makes up for in the number of blooms it puts forth. It's probably one of my favourites in the garden. 

This dark rose is a new addition to the Rose Garden this year. I took Dad to the garden center to pick out a Father's Day gift. He saw this and immediately put it in our shopping cart. It's called "Purple Tiger". It took to it's new home just fine and put out a beautiful display of blooms despite being replanted in mid-June.

This is just a small sample of the roses in bloom this year in the Rose Garden. The weather has been so warm the past week that most of time I am just focusing on staying cool and keeping hydrated. Hope you enjoyed this short trip into the Rose Garden.

A Year of Pretty - October 05, 2014

Fall Roses - the last burst of energy put forth by the garden before gearing down for the cold winter months.

Each year, there are usually a hand full of roses that open up in late September or early October; a result of the crisp sunny days in Vancouver in mid September. Each year, without fail....it is the same thing: first week of September is rain, second and third week is nice, last week of September and into October is cloudy with showers.

So that two week period mid September the garden gives one last hurrah!

It seems the same is true here in Italy. The rose bushes around the villa Cascina Barac where I am staying are still in bloom. And while they are not many, they give hint to what is most likely a glorious display during the summer. The patio is surrounded by the bushes, so I can imagine what it must be like dining al frecso by candle light on a warm summer's night in the middle of a vineyard and the perfume of roses.

Fall roses are like a little memory of the warm days gone too soon and a promise of new blooms next year.

A Year of Pretty - February 02, 2014

In keeping with the theme of yesterday's post on the purple gemstone of February, Today's Pretty Post is of this collection of purple-hue lilac photographs by Georgianna Lane. (okay, there are a couple white ones in the group, but the overall palette is purple).

The Seattle-based professional photographer makes several trips a year to romantic destinations such as Paris, Venice, England and Chile. In 2014, she has three planned trips to Paris alone. Oh, to be able to travel and take pictures of gardens and their surrounds. I know it's work and we only see the best of the best results, but it does sound idyllic.

The talented artist has been featured in National Geographic Traveller, Romantic Homes, the New Yorker, Britian magazine, Gardens Illustrated, Papyrus Recycled, American Greetings, Nikon Owner, Artful Blogging, Somerset Life and many other magazines, books, greeting cards, calendars and blogs (such as this one!)

Not able to make it to Paris any time soon? You can bring a little piece of Georgianna's Paris to your home through one of her two Etsy shops: Paris Plus (which focuses on photographs from, you guessed it; Paris) and Geogianna Lane, which offers garden and nature photographs.

It won't be long before the lilac trees in my parent's garden are in full bloom. They have several trees; five in total I think. One has both lavender and white blooms off the same tree, another both light and dark purple. They are so nice to cut and put in the bathroom in an ironstone pitcher or even a painted mason jar. The blossoms only last a short while, but the scent is so beautiful. Fortunately, there are photographs such as this one here to enjoy. Especially in the the first days of February when spring is still a little ways away.

A Year of Pretty - January 28, 2014

I can't believe how fast the first month of the year has gone by. A couple more days and January 2014 will be over and done.

Today's Pretty Post is this simple wreath design found on Pinterest. by clicking on the included link, the result was just another window with the image, so I'm sorry to say I'm at a dead end as to the original source.

The wreath includes snowdrops and Symphoricarpos, also known as "white berry" or "snow berry".

I remember bushes of these berries used to grow begin our grade school. I can clearly remember being about six or seven years old with David Dodd and Scott Smith (the two cutest boys in my class by far) and crushing the berries under our shoes because they made a neat popping sound. I also punched David in the kidney that day (didn't know that's where kidneys were at the time) because he called me a Frizzy Head. It was a great first date.

This would be a nice image to print onto gift tags for a house warming, or if you happen to know someone named January (hey, it happens . . think of January Jones aka Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class . . . and yes, I am a geek for knowing that and yes, I see the irony of Ms January playing a role with the last name Frost).

Anyhow, enjoy the image. February will be here soon enough.

Little Bit of Lovely - version 2.2

look what's blooming in the garden!

I hadn't been out to for a walk-around for a couple days. But this morning a leisurely Sunday saunter with a cup of tea seemed like a nice idea. what a nice surprise to see a favourite rose bush putting on a beautiful display.

This rose bush produces tight, buds that open fully. The flowers usually last quite awhile but the petals fade from the true pink to the soft blush shown in the picture. I like them when they are fully open, and I'll pick three or four to arrange in a shallow bowl for the table on the veranda, maybe with a little ivy or some variegated hosta leaves for greenery.

When the rose is completely open, it has a delicate fragrance. In the evenings, framed by a few low candles or tea lights.....just lovely.

Unfortunately, after several moves around the garden, the identification tag has gone missing. So I can't tell you the name of the rose bush. It may be a peace rose of some sort, but I can't be 100% certain. However, not knowing the name doesn't make it any less lovely. "What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Ah yes Juliet, you were onto something there.

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday as well.

In the Garden . . . . and off to Victoria, BC

I have a new camera lens...so I thought I'd share a couple quick shots with you before I head out this weekend. Note the sprinkler was on overnight...hence the water droplets.

I'm taking my parents to Victoria, BC for a couple days. We'll meet up with my brother and his girlfriend for some family time. You see, my brother has been in the HMS Algonquin for the past three months, and he has a few days shore leave.

I'm taking my camera with me (but of course!). Victoria has a fair number of gardens, as well as heritage homes. We are staying at a B&B in an old mansion, so there will be lots of shots of the house and the grounds as well.

I'm really looking forward to this quick getaway. It's been some time since I've had a chance to travel. Okay, okay . . .so Victoria isn't really a big trip for me. It's a 90 minute car ferry across the water. But still, sometimes it's good to just get out of town.

And it will be the first time my mom has been away since we went to Seattle in Feb 2011. Dad doesn't travel much; I'm surprised Mom got him to agree to go. He's happiest in the yard with his garden and flowers. And looking at these beauties here, who would blame him?

There are only a couple weeks left before I head back to school and a full schedule again. Three classes this term: Collection Illustration, Couture and Draping. Pretty excited, since couture sewing and fabric draping are two areas I will need to focus on for my collection. It's all starting to come together . . .

Anyhow, enjoy the photos. Happy Weekend !

Design Inspiration - part 3

 . . . . a good book, a cool drink . ..what a fantastic way to spend the afternoon under these trees.

Can't find who took the photo originally, so I can't give credit where it's due. I know, not very nice of me. If you know, please leave a note so that I can edit the post with the credit.

Under a Canopy of Cherry Blossoms

This past week has been 'moving week' for my partner. His new place in Cambie Village is on a street lined with large trees, which we both love. The photo shown left is of the tree right outside his house.

 

It is the beginning of April, and as many of you have witnessed, Vancouver has been experiencing some rather warm weather. One of the markers that spring is well under way is the blooming of the cherry trees. Many of the streets in Vancouver are lined with these beautiful and majestic Prunus Cerasus speciosas covered in pale pink puff balls.

There are an estimated 36,000 flowering cherry trees in Vancouver. Each year the city holds a Cherry Blossom Festival with several events such as a Haiku contest, a Bikes & Blossoms Tour, and a photo contest taking place around Vancouver. Other cities with large cherry blossom festivals include San Francisco CA, Macon GA, Washington DC, and Honolulu, HI. The largest and most festive celebrations take place throughout Japan.

Cherry blossoms figure prominently in Japanese culture. The cherry blossom is seen as a symbol of represents the transience of life; it is a very delicate flower that blooms for a very short time and so reflects the teachings of Buddhism that state all life is short and transitory. A falling cherry blossom represents the beauty of snow or a life taken too soon by battle.

In Japan, the flowers are dried and used to make tea. The leaves (sakura leaf or cherry leaf) are used in cooking and medicine to make 'cherry tree rice cake'.
  
If you are not able to visit the festival, there is another way to bring the cherry blossoms to you. Have a look at these gorgeous painted wooden bangles by amy987.

Each bangle is hand painted and unique, and is painted both inside and out. What a great way to keep the cherry blossoms with you all year round.

 

Come Sit for a Bit . . .

mmmm, to curl up with a good book (or even a wonderful cookbook with all sorts of inspiring ideas), a cup of tea and some soft music . . . . inviting, yes? Maybe some nice raspberry jam tarts or one or two lucious lemon bars to nibble on. A plump content cat lazing nearbye would not be unwelcome.

I could spend the better part of a Sunday morning in a setting like this. Actually, it doesn't even have to be a Sunday . . .or a morning. I think 3:45pm on a cloudy Tuesday afternoon sounds just about the perfect time for a cup of tea and a little snooze . . .?

Ah, it's nice to dream . ..

Summer Sizzle

Nothing says summer’s here quite like the first barbeque of the season. Don’t get me wrong, we are lucky enough to grill pretty much year round, despite the wet weather and sometimes snow. Our grill has also served us well in times of power outage. Having a side burner to boil water for tea certainly comes in handy when the power goes out.

Our family cooks all kinds of stuff on the grill. Some of the family favourites include asparagus, bell peppers, potatoes, whole salmon, pineapple, bananas, peaches . . . you name it, we grill it!

One of the easiest (and fastest) things I like to grill are pesto prawn skewers. Each year, my mom and I make our own pesto using basil grown in the garden. We freeze it in ice cube trays to make ideal portion sizes. Defrost the frozen cubes in the sun, add a bit of olive oil to make it more spreadable, add in the peeled prawns and toss to coat and all the hard work is done.  Set the bowl in the refrigerator to let the prawns marinated and absorb all that basil goodness.

Successful skewers begin with soaking the wooden skewers in water for about an hour. This keeps them moist and prevents them from burning when on the grill (yeh, I know . . . there are metal skewers out there especially designed for grilling…one day I’ll pick some up). Then I thread the marinated prawns onto the skewers, usually six per skewer. In a package of 31 – 40 count prawns, I end up with six skewers. I line them up when I put them on; tail ends all facing the same direction. Then it’s onto the grill they go, at a 90 degree angle from the grill slats so that they don’t fall in as sacrifice to the Grill God (that’s what asparagus is for).

Prawns cook quite quickly on the grill, depending on your temperature. Essentially, the prawns need to turn from translucent to white and firm with pink veining. This usually takes about two or three minutes; flip the skewers, baste with pesto marinade, and two or three minutes more.

You can serve the prawns as they are on the skewers, and use a fork to pull them off. Often I’ll put these out as an appetizer while preparing the main meal. Or, I’ll take them off the skewers and add them to the top of a salad with other grilled seafood such as scallops, salmon and a white fish like halibut or cod.

They also work well on a bed of pasta (remember that side burner I mentioned? Perfect for boiling pasta) with the grilled bell peppers and asparagus.

Grilled prawns lend themselves well to a variety of dishes and are a great way to start your summer grilling season . . . (or throughout the year)

Apartment Green Space

One of the drawbacks to living in an apartment is a reduced amount of garden space. Enter GreenWallNL and these unique and interesting living wall sculptures.

Based on the larger Vertical Garden designs by Patrick Blanc that are appearing around the world, the Netherlands based designer built her own small scale version in her living room and began experimenting with different plant types, water levels and required lighting. After much positive feedback from friends and family as well as being featured on HGTV, she decided to create DIY kits for people to build their own at home.

The wooden black frame comes ready to be planted. Instructions are included with the kit. Choose you own plants from your local garden store (suggested plants include ferns, ivy, and asparagus . . . but it's up to you - as long as the roots don't grow too deep). The frame is easy to water from the backside; just remove the frame from the wall and add a tiny bit of water when needed. The bottom of the frame is made watertight, but to be safe keep the frame down from the wall for half an hour to ensure no water spills.

These would look great hung in a series of three or four, staggered and in various sizes. Or, switch them around from time to time to keep it interesting. Sort of an interactive living art work sculpture.

Fall is in the Air

This morning I definitely felt the air was crisper and decidedly cooler. Walking to my studio I could see that the color of the leaves on the trees has really started to change. My observations were solidified by a large noisy flock of Canadian geese flying overhead. Gone are the languid and lazy days of summer. Fall is finally here.

The official autumnal equinox took place this year at 12:55am this morning, and marked the beginning of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere (those lucky enough to be living in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate vernal equinox and are marking the beginning of Spring . . .oh, to be in New Zealand or Australia right now!)

Sadly, from now until the winter solstice on December 21, the days get will shorter. Luckily in Vancouver we still get a number of sunny clear days in September and into October. However, the temperatures will continue to get colder as we tilt further and further away from the sun.

The good news is that this will provide the best conditions for producing colorful fall foliage - clear days followed by cool nights. If there is too much rain, or early frosts and freezing temperatures, then the colors won't be as vibrant. But too little rain and the leaves fall from the trees before they've even had a chance to change color. Instead of yellows and reds, the leaves quickly turn brown and die.

When I was young(er) my brother and I used to love piling up the colored leaves in our yard and jumping into them.

Then we would have to rake them up, only to jump into them again. This continued until the time a little slug found its’ way from the underside of one of the leaves into my mouth. At six years old, this was traumatic and promptly ended my days of jumping into piles of leaves. But I still have to give a little smile each time I see a small child running through the leaves. And I will admit I still find delight when I shuffle my feet through the fallen dry leaves and listen as they crackle and swirl up underneath me.

Happy Autumnal Equinox !

. . .How Does Your Garden Grow?

Yesterday I spent the morning working on my planter boxes. They were looking a little bare; it seems my plants are not filling in the spaces as I hoped they would. So the quick fix? Buy more plants of course! I always buy perennials because I don't see the point of buying the same plant again year after year. Which is why I don't plant marigolds or petunias or geraniums (sorry Dad).

I was looking for some flowering plants that would spread out and provide good ground

Garden Tools Letter Press Notes by paperlovelypress coverage instead of growing upwards. I decided on some Blue Star Creeper and some Creeping Speedwell, both of which sound like they will fit the job. I also selected some blue and white Lithodora, pink Saxifraga, Dwarf Bellflower and Blue Eyed Grass. I bought two purple lavender plants, but I don't think they will flower until next year.

Most of these plants will have/should have blue or pale purple flowers so the color palette will be unified. I say 'should have' because the tulips I planted last fall that were supposed to be pink came up orange. Soil content? Mislabelling? not sure.

Today I was visiting one of my favourite websites Etsy.com and saw that the front page had a lovely collection of gardening themed items. I've included a few with links for you to enjoy as well.

Happy Gardening

Engraved Stone Garden Markers for Herbs by sjengraving

Puddin'

Vacation - Day One

How great does it feel to sleep in on a Monday when you know everyone else is hard at work (or perhaps just "at work")?

I spent the day with my Mom. Which is also a pretty great way to spend a Monday. We had tea and strawberry pineapple meringue cake (thanks Karla and Karla at Cin Cin) and sat on the back veranda and just hung out. Then when Mom had to go teach, I went and picked up some things for dinner.

Since we each had full schedules on Sunday, we celebrated Father's Day on Monday as well. I grilled a whole salmon with fresh herbs from the garden and sliced lemons and limes, along with roasted new potatoes and seasoned asparagus. For dessert I made one of Dad's favourites: a citrus cheesecake which I topped with macerated fresh pineapple and mango. Yummy indeed.

I also started a vegetable soup . . . onions, garlic, leeks, celery, carrots, asparagus deglazed with half a bottle of Champagne Rose that had gone flat . . . I've left it slowly simmering away quite contently and will probably puree it later or maybe just leave it as is . . .It's so great to not have to make any tough decisions while on vacation.

I took some pretty pictures of the garden, which has all kinds of things blooming and sprouting right now. To the left is a vibrant blue delphinium that I bought for the garden last year. Above are a couple of hot pink peonies from one of the three bushes planted a few years ago.

Dad has reunited with his green thumbs lately and decided to germinate some packages of seeds that he didn't know what they were. He now has 120 lettuce plants, so if anyone is in need of a salad in about four weeks, just let me know.

The downside? I didn't get any sewing done. On the bright side, I came home with containers of salmon, potatoes & asparagus, fresh tomatoes, and a dozen farm fresh eggs. . . enough leftovers to last me a couple days at least.