New camera

Santa came early this year, and brought me a new camera.  So I'm testing it out with shots of my two favorite boys.

Brother & Sister

Raymond and I went to Portland a couple of weeks ago for his grand niece's wedding.  It was at the Forestry center near the zoo and children's museum.

This is a shot of Ray and his older sister Beverly, who is the grandmother of the bride.  It had been several years since they had seen each other.

Hydrangeas

Wow - it's been over a month since I last posted any garden shots or thoughts.  I've been wanting to put these hydrangea shots up for a few weeks now, and it's perfect to do on a rainy Saturday morning.  YAA the rains are here!

I have eleven hydrangeas - I think.  Several of them have been near death, thanks to the deer pruning .

This first one is near the driveway, in between Sleepy and Grumpy ( the rhoddies. ).  

 It usually gets nibbled a bit by the deer, but this year I was religious about spraying it.














Here's its twin - no blooms.

An oak leaf that came back to life after being eaten down to the ground.  It's leaves are starting to change and deepen into a gorgeous red/orange.

In the west garden, there are 3 hydrangeas - 2 Nikko blues that are really pale blue, and one cream colored one.   I'm going to add some aluminum sulfate to the Nikko blues and see if I can't get a deeper blue next year.  With the acid soil, you would think they'd be a dark blue, but they're not.  

Sunday clean up

I haven't been out to work in the garden since I got back from vacation....and it shows.  The weeds are taking over.  Today was a gorgeous day, so I spent a few hours weeding and clearing out the lambs ear that had taken over.  That stuff is worse than dandelions!  It grows everywhere, and was really taking over the one side of the garden.  

Here's what the new plants look like - they were everywhere:

The flowers are actually very nice - I have white, pink and a fuschia.  But after they bloom, then the plant really starts looking old and brown, and they send their seeds out to create new volunteers.







Here's a shot of the flowers:

Here's the pile of what I pulled out. Raymond took 4 loads of the wheel barrow and dumped them down the hill.  

Here's what it looks like after I cleared them out:

Even found a black-eyed susan that had bloomed and was hidden underneath the lambs ears.  You can also see it peeking out in the picture above of the other flowers.  

Murrays back

Murray was busy last night - this is what greeted Max and I this morning.  I'll have Raymond get out his wheelbarrow and collect the dirt.  

No, I didn't find this in the garden.  Found it on Battle rock beach when Allison and I took Max for a beach walk while she was here.  I had never seen an octopus before on the beach.  

Shot of Allison and Max in one of the rock "doorways".  

Minnesota

I had a wonderful trip to Minnesota, and wanted to share some of the pictures so Mom could see them.  We'll start with the garden shots.

Here's a shot of the raspberry patch - or what's left of it.  I did pick the remaining berries and got about 1/3 cup.  Seems the birds - most likely the bluejays got there first.  There was also a tree that grew up in the middle of the patch.  I remember Dad standing out there in the mornings with the hose to water them.  No one has done that for a few years.

Dad had a rose bush that he was quite proud of.  It is next to the garage, and gets a full day of sun.  It was blooming when we were there.

The second summer that I stayed at the lake, I planted some day lillies....so that would have been about 8 years ago.  They're still blooming!  Here's what was left of them:

More shots of the lake and just relaxing

Daisy Bay - one of Moms and Dads favorite walleye fishing holes

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Too small for dinner

House still looks good - nice new deck

Looking north

gorgeous sunrise.  Perfect for a swim

They're RIPE!!!!

Just got back from a great 2 weeks in Minnesota.  Raymond was very strict about sticking to the watering schedule, so everything looks great!  I took these shots of the tomatoes and blueberries right before I ate all the ripe ones!  The tomatoes are really sweet, and the blueberries are delicious.  Can't believe that I got to them before the birds did.

Oregon coast bounty

Gerry recently posted pictures on his blog,  of his garden bounty in Utah.  So I thought I would post pictures of my garden bounty from the southern coast of Oregon. Big difference!    I was going to call this, Veggie bounty...but oops, I'm not growing any veggies.  Tomatoes and blueberries are it for this year.

I have 5 tomatoes plants and 3 of them have actual little green tomatoes on them.  All of the plants are yellow cherry tomatoes, which are like candy!

Lots of yellow flowers

                                      I think by October, I'll have ripe tomatoes!

I have 4 blueberry plants.  Here's a shot of the ONLY blue blueberry.  I ate it right after I took this shot.   That's it for the garden bounty!  Next year I will add lime to the soil in February and start getting serious about growing some veggies.

Happy Sunday Mom!

Here's some gorgeous Lily's for a beautiful lady!

Saturday afternoon

It's a gorgeous Saturday afternoon here in the garden, so I thought I'd snap some shots of what's going on.  I love this shot of Max on the deck.  He has found the only spot of shade on that side, right below the clematis that is threatening to overtake the deck!  I took this shot through the window just as he looked up to see what I was doing.

Here's a shot of the largest Hosta blooming - they're the two bell flowers in the middle of the plant.    They've never been this big before, and I think it's because of the rainy spring that we had.  

This is a shot of a butterfly bush.  And yes, they attract lots of butterflies and bees.  You can no longer buy them in Oregon, as they're classified as a noxious weed.  They do tend to take over, and you can see how unruly this one is.  I planted it along what I call "a natural border", so it has lots of room to do whatever it wants.  

Butterfly Bush along border

Here's a closeup of the blooms- they look like bottle brushes.  

Butterfly bush blooms

Meet Murray

Sandy suggested that I research what is digging up my yard....so I did.  It's an eastern mole, or common mole of North America.  They prefer loamy soils, and create molehills from their digging.   They eat earthworms, japanese beetles, and other insects.  And their digging aerates the soil, which is a good thing.  What a guy!  We named him.....Murray.

Roses are Red

Happy Sunday Mom!  Here's some roses for you.  

Snow in July

One of my favorite trees in the garden is the Japanese Snowbell.  It usually blooms early in June, but this year it didn't bloom until a few weeks ago.  The blooms are delicate little white bells that look like snow - hence the name.

Here's a few shots of the tree, and then the "snow" on the ground.

July "snow"

close up of the bells

Thursday morning

I had some free time this morning, so got out in the west garden and did some weeding.  The hostas were blooming and looked pretty with the morning sun on them.  These are called Christmas Trees - not sure why.

Raymond came out and scooped up all the dirt piles that our mole/vole dug for us last night.

The Great Yellow Hunter

Maxwells favorite pastime, besides sleeping, is chasing snakes in the garden.  His nose is down low sniffing for them, and his butt is up high.
Here he is sniffing in a hole that he dug.  I think he might have the scent of the mole/vole.  Maybe he'll get lucky and catch him!

After a day of hunting , he plops down in the shade for a much deserved rest.

"Glen"

A few weeks ago, Gerry asked me about the tree that Mom and I planted in memory of Dad.  Right after Mom and I got home from Minnesota, our neighbors, Donna & Norm, brought over a Liquid Amber, or Sweetgum tree for us to plant.  

The deer took a liking to it, so Norm made a wire fence to protect it.  He didn't want the deer to be nibbling on "Glen."

Glen is doing very well.  It turns a gorgeous red/purple in the fall and tends to keep its leaves longer than the maples.   The deer have stopped paying attention to it.....guess it's getting too tall for the little ones to munch on.

Can't get good help anymore!

I went out on Friday morning for a walk through the garden, and discovered that one of my "helpers", the vole/mole, had been hard at work during the night.  He decided to dig up the garden path!   I don't mind him digging up the grass, but stay out of my garden!