Spring Plant Quiz

Although I can't do much active gardening anymore, I still enjoy watching the garden come to life in the spring and grow all summer long.  I've learned a lot the past few years from Mrs. F.G., who is the horticulturalist!  But there are still green leaves emerging in our garden just now that I'm not sure of.  How about you?  Here's a plant quiz to challenge you.

1.  These are Peony shoots emerging, pretty easy to recognize.  I don't expect you to guess which variety of Peony they are.  See if you can guess the following ten plants.

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Tomorrow I will post the answers, at least as far as Mrs. F.G. and I label them.

Coming Home Again

I enjoyed lunch with a few pf my Bruce Trail buddies where our conversation turned to a new project for the trail.  We're going to propose a lookout and try to come up with a design that will be accessible for wheelchairs.  At the end of that stimulating discussion I turned around and headed home.  So here are a few of the sights I recorded for posterity on the trip home..

Right down at the foot of Parker Street, in front of a house that looks out over the bay, was this nice patch of Scilla.

I finally had the opportunity to get a close-up photograph of these pretty little flowers.

A block later I passed this dense planting of Daffodils out in full bloom.

Unfortunately just around the corner was this badly mutilated enormous White Ash.  Can't believe someone would do this!

Then it was around the back of the long term care home, and down the wiggly sidewalk.

Every time I go past the sign for the home I'm reminded that this is a peopleCare facility.  My mother was in the peopleCare home in Tavistock for the last three years of her life, and I always had the impression that it was a very well run facility.

Several of the ground floor windows have bird feeders outside.  This one was a birdhouse-shape, plastered with seeds.

After that it was back up the Collingwood Street hill.  At the top, 3 blocks from home, I passed this glorious large Magnolia.  Not in bloom yet, but I know what's coming!  You can tell the buds are swollen by the appearance.  I'll keep you posted on this one!

First Ride Downtown

 For the first time this year I drove myself downtown for lunch, and home again after.  It's beautiful weather and the new chair behaved very well.  It was 100% charged when I started and the same when I got home!  Here are a few of the things I saw.

It started with the enormous White Ash stump around the corner,  I was passing by when they were finishing up the cut last fall.  I'm wondering if they're just going to leave the stump.

Then it was down the Collingwood Street hill.  That hill does feel a little steep as you go over the top!

And of course I went via the windy sidewalk behind the Long term Care Home.

I had never noticed this tree particularly, but it's a beautiful silhouette.

I got down near the shore and discovered the playground in the little park had been rebuilt.  I figure I'm far enough away that you can't recognize the people.

And then I remembered, around the corner they were starting to rebuild the splash pad.

There was a plumbing truck across the street and they were laying out the underground part of the pipes and pressure switches.  Be fun to see when it's finished.

Four Million Views!

was startled to see that I have passed four million views in 15 years, 4,022,408 to be specific!  So thank you for all the unwavering support.  Writing this blog and reading yours provides my main mental activity every day, so it means a great deal to me.

More Things to See

 The temperature has risen and I can be out every day now; here are some more things I noticed riding our own street.  Thankfully all the rain we had washed off the streets really well, so I'm not bringing any dust into the house!

At the east end of our little dead end street is a small valley bringing a little stream down from the south.  Here it emerges from a big culvert under a driveway, and at some point a narrow bridge was built to cross it.

On the other side of the road it's a more open valley where it drains down through the golf course to eventually join other streams and flow down to the bay.

Right beside it stand out mailboxes and a 'little library' a resident of the street made and installed.  I've borrow books several times.

Across the street as we move on is that line of tall Norway Spruce.  You can recognize them by their cones, about an inch thick and six inches long.  Our native White Spruce has much smaller cones.

One house has a group of Daffodils at the front corner.

And another house has a larger group of Daffodils in front of a large boulder.

I usually get delivered down to the library after physio, but yesterday I rode home by myself rather than scheduling a ride.  I can't resist adding this photo of a lawn decorated with a large patch of scilla.

First ride of the Season

In my life there are only two seasons, winter and summer.  And on Friday I got out for my first ride of the summer season.  As you can see by the pictures below, it was a beautiful day.  I might divide summer into spring, summer and fall, but I hope the whole package lasts as long as possible before I have to hibernate again!  

I just rode up and down our own street, down into the cul-de-sac and back to the other end at the stop sign, four times altogether.

In the cul-de-sac there's a big Silver Maple that I always stop and say hello to.

At this time of year its buds are swelling fast, giving the branches a stubbled look.  Soon those will be leaves.

Beyond the cul-de-sac is an open lawn.  There was a flurry of concern 2 or 3 years ago about development going in here.  It's on a street of single family homes, but of course they proposed cramming about six townhouses in here.  I don't know what the final decision was.

I turned around and headed back.  Passing our own home I checked out the trees in our fencerow.  It's a big change since they cut down the huge White Ash; we're left with just maples.

This end of the street is dominated by a row of big Norway Spruce which throw a large patch of shade across the street.  On the left we have our mailboxes and a tiny library.

After that I turned around and did the entire ride three more times.  Good practice with my new wheelchair, which goes a trifle faster, up to 10 km/hr.  All in all a ride of about 24 short blocks.

I thought I should practice the gears and speeds on my new wheelchair, since I discovered that you  can't read the control panel in bright sunlight.  I was downtown recently, delivered to the library and I had to cross the traffic light to go to the bank.  The chair was moving so slowly I tried to change gears as i crossed at the light, and turned the machine off by mistake while I was still in the middle of the road!  It was embarrassing and perhaps a little unsafe!

This chair has indoor and outdoor gears, with five speeds in each gear.  I need to learn those so that I can switch in my sleep without actually looking at the control panel!  Hence the practice before I ride all the way downtown by myself, which I will do on Thursday.

Spring Moves Ahead!

We're watching a very early progression of spring flowers coming into bloom.  Being largely stuck inside I get great pleasure in watching these small but significant changes that mark the coming of spring.  Mind you, I got out for my first ride on Friday, even if it was just up and down our own street.

The Daffodil was first, just a single bloom of many, but they started today.

The blooms on one of the newer Hellebores are flourishing, under the watchful eye of our snowstick.

Our original Hellebore has quite different blooms, with deep purple shading.

The wrinkly green leaves of the Primrose are brightening up in patches in front of my eyes.  They'll be in flower shortly.

And this is an unusual one, a single stalk of the Broad-leaved Grape Hyacinth.

Out front the Hyacinth are not yet in bloom, but they're showing lots of colour and will flower shrtly.

And off by a corner of the front porch the single tiny Iris has expanded into a cluster of four or five flowers.

This year Mrs. F.G. tried forcing a few twigs of Forsythia and they look beautiful, adding a flash of yellow to the house.

A Few Birds

 I was sitting at the window the other day and was pleased to see a flutter of wings outside.  We don't see many birds here, so even a few common ones are a thrill for me.  I've been bird-watching all my life!

The first three photos are common Chickadees, the birds we see most often here.  You can easily recognize their black and white pattern, but I can identify them by their behaviour now.  They fly in a short bouncing flight, and at the feeder they pick up a single seed and carry it away.  They pin it to a branch with a claw and hammer it with their beak to open it, then it's back to the feeder for another.

The American Robin doesn't need much introduction.  One of our earliest spring migrants, it feeds mostly on worms.

The Red-breasted Nuthatch is easy to identify by its acutely striped head, and by its upside-down behaviour.  As you can see there was definitely a pair visiting the feeder.

And finally we had a Dark-eyed Junco hopping around on the deck.  Juncos are ground-feeders, so they have pretty typical behaviour too.  In any case I was pleased to see the birds, but not happy with the photos.  I'm using my iphone for these, and I just don't feel they are very sharp or clear.