I can't help but take a deep breath every time I walk by these two plants, so I dried them together in my dehydrator... we'll see what kind of tea they make together. The smell is heavenly. My house was so happy while they were drying in here!!
Friday, June 30, 2006
drying rose and jasmine
I can't help but take a deep breath every time I walk by these two plants, so I dried them together in my dehydrator... we'll see what kind of tea they make together. The smell is heavenly. My house was so happy while they were drying in here!!
???
I always thought this was phlox, but I looked it up in my P&M book, and it's not there... don't know. It's lovely and grows all over under the shrubs.
Friday, June 23, 2006
spider
If I knew what this was, I would type it... some sort of jumping spider (it ran and jumped backwards about 25cm to get away from my camera!). It's not listed in my insect/spider ID book.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
recently...
It's been cloudy and sunny with the odd rainshower. You see some fruits are setting, still; some are just beginning to flower. This feels like a nice easy spring, meandering into summer. Wonderful.
wineberry blossom
Definitely click this one to enlarge it. Wineberries are amazing for many reasons, but their sticky hairy buds and bizarre blossoms are at the top of those reasons!
cutleaf evergreen blackberry
Thank you Vati! My wonderful father in law came to the rescue when my trusty plant-ID book didn't list this plant. Rubus Laciniatus, he says: fruit slightly inferior to himalayan blackberries. :--)
Saturday, June 17, 2006
creeping violets?
I don't know; they're everywhere along the edge of the lawn, here. Long, trailing, and bitter-smelling.
arbutus
The king he had a daughter fair; Arbutus was her name....
Cast off, cast of your very brown gown, and stand upon the stone, for if you be a maid or none, the truth it must be known.
...
And she's cast off her very brown gown, and let the gown fall free, but before the hem did touch the ground, she's turned into a tree.
Her lover became the gentle breeze; through her branches he does play, and she sheds off her soft brown bark, until this very day.
(Paddy Graber)
chamomile leaves
This little patch of hardy roman chamomile provides me with a big jar stuffed with blossoms every year - enough for my whole family of chamomile-drinkers, and some to share. I pick them as they blossom and dry them on a little stretched cloth in the house, every few days putting the dried blossoms in the jar. But not yet... still waiting for the first blossom.
strawberries
We ate these for dessert last night - our midsummer treat: fresh warm strawberries with whipping cream. Mmmmmmm.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
wild columbine
When we were little, my brother and I "had" an area of the public forest we called our "garden". Actually we usually fought over whose garden exactly, it was, based on who had discovered it first, and who could prove it, or whether that mattered, since we never staked our claim... But anyway, that is beside the point. In June of every year, this beautiful garden sprouted these wild columbine, like little gifts from the sunshine. We used to stop there and sit down sometimes to fight over who owned them. :--)Today I discovered this one by the creek, here. I'll show it to Adrian tomorrow.
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