Wordless Wednesday - Flowers Keep Blooming Despite What Life Throws at You!

Road Trip!

The Second Annual Road Trip happened this week.  Destination: Charlottesville, Virginia.  Four of us who have been teachers together at Fulton Elementary School instituted this tradition with a trip to Winterthur and Longwood Gardens last year.  This year we headed south and it was a celebration of sorts since two of the group are new retirees as of the end of the school year on June 8th.  That leaves one still teaching.

Our first stop in town was the Downtown Mall and lunch al fresco.  We then wandered the shops and made a few purchases before heading to the hotel and a relaxing time at the pool.

Dinner was in Crozet, Va, a small town west of Charlottesville and home to my sister, Suzie and her husband, Jerry and also their bead shop, Blue Ridge Beads & Glass.  We had booked a bead class there for 7 pm and with Suzie's patient instructions we all were rewarded with necklaces that we had made ourselves.

Janice, Fran, Marcy and me.

Thursday morning found us at Monticello in plenty of time for our 10:30 tour of the house so we wandered the vegetable gardens
and walked to the grave site before lining up for our tour inside.

It was a gorgeous day.  We learned so much about Jefferson.  But 2 o'clock came too soon so we retraced our route north hoping to miss rush hour around Northern Virginia (we didn't).  We've made plans for next year's road trip to Williamsburg and Jamestown and vowed we would have to extend the length to fit more in.

A fun time was had by all.

World Bird Wednesday - Photos from BC

I am not a regular poster for World Bird Wednesday hosted by Pine River Review but I knew I had to do it when I came home with these photos from our trip to British Columbia in May.  We saw so much wildlife, but the bald eagle takes the cake for posing at dinner time no less on top of the building across from the restaurant where we were enjoying our meal in Prince Rupert, BC.

 

We were told of a place where you can see lots of bald eagles by the waitress after the male above flew away.  So we drove to the spot and spied this one sitting on the flag pole where he belongs.   I guess its really a light pole.

 

This heron was watching him too.

 

The loons below were caught on camera a Lake Beauvert in Jasper National Park.

 Okay so the rest of these aren't birds but they were fun to photograph.

Seal in the harbor at Prince Rupert, BC.

Moose on the roadside in BC.

Elk shedding in Jasper National Park.  It was calving season.

Big horn sheep in Jasper.

Elk in Jasper.

Black bear on the road from Maligne Lake in Jasper.

Grizzly on the roadside in BC.

Big horn sheep on the road from Miette Hotsprings, Jasper.

Harvest Monday and What's Blooming!

Check out other harvests at Daphne's Dandelions.

This week we continued to enjoy the snow peas.  I picked the remaining ones and cut down the plants so that the tomato plants also planted in that bed would have more room and more light.  Of course I forgot to take a photo but we have enjoyed these snow peas immensely this year.  Last night they went into a vegetable sautee with some carrots, celery, onion, garlic scape, and savory leaves.  It was delectable.  The night before I served them steamed.

The one photo I do have is of lettuce which I'm still managing to get though most has bolted and been composted.  I do have one head of bok choy out there I will have to use tonight or it will end up being composted.

In the rest of the garden its flowers which are coming into their own.  Here are a few of the new bloomers or soon to be blooming and some which are just known for their lovely leaf color.

 Newest hosta - a miniature one has set its blossoms. (Can you see the spotting of liquid fence on the leaves?  Only way I can grow hostas.)

 First bloom of black eyed susan. It's usually much later in blooming.  Don't know where this blossom came from so early.

 Delicate blooms of this astillbe are just opening.

 Creeping thyme in the perennial garden pathways is blooming.

 Here's a late bloomer.  My other lupine has long since bloomed.  This one is just now doing so for the very first time.  It was grown from seed given to me by Wilderness.

 Another astillbe.

 Bee balm a favorite of hummingbirds though I think the ones in my yard are addicted to the feeder.  I haven't seen them visiting the bee balm yet.

 More creeping thyme with a bee.

 Easter lily getting ready to open.  It will scent the whole garden when it does.

 Yarrow with white astillbe behind it.

 This will be a lovely red daylily very soon.

 Another hosta blooming.  Why do I feel these are so early this year?

 I have lots of these blooming.  Below they are so very tall.

 And here's the lovely foliage of this fern (above) and the carmel heuchera (coral bells) below.

 Another heuchera.