Snow & Roses

When the clouds lifted today this is what greeted us. By tomorrow it is supposed to warm up and of course the snow is vanishing off the mountains even as I type.
This has been a particularly good year for roses. My huge pink rose is a mystery. I bought it in a box but it is not the rose pictured on the box - not even remotely. We have decided it may be some sort of climber. I so love it!
The past 3 years, including this, I have been having a series of hand surgeries so have not been in great gardening form. This rose will not be lost in the tall grass.
The Mock Orange is still blooming and the wild Ocean Spray is about to burst forth. Mock Orange is also a native plant.
Yesterday we drove the 50 miles up Kootenay Lake to Crawford Bay for the ArtWalk opening we sponser there. (Friday had been Creston's opening and Saturday a friend was doing a concert so we had quite the busy weekend.) It was a lovely drive with all the bushes in bloom on the hillsides. The Scotch Broom is also blooming and whereas it makes some people happy it is actually a scourge escaping up the hillsides and choking out native species. It also makes me sneeze!
Coming home in the dusk and dark there were numbers of deer to watch for but we managed not to squish any "Bambies" and James only had to brake hard once.
This is the first day of James' week long class at the college. He is teaching a class on experimental approaches to acrylic painting.

Gray Catbird

I held a catbird in my hand today.
It was soft and gray, still warm,
But the heart no longer beat.
The gray cat brought it to me.
A gift.
He meant no harm,
And now it no longer dances in the bushes and flips its tail.
It no longer calls out in its mimic cat voice.
It is still, and gray, and warm, but cooling.
It is smaller than it seemed in life
And with the softest rust coloured patch beneath its tail.
I laid it in the tall grass away from the cats.
The ants and the beetles will have it.
It will go back to the dust.
We all go back to the dust.

Nora McDowell June 16, 2007

Summer's nearly here, but spring's been iffy

It's a l-o-n-g time since I've been on here!

We've had a long cold spring, then blistering heat, now back to cool, windy, splatters of rain and dashes of sunshine. James has planted most of the garden - that which won't interest the deer too intensely. He's planning to plant squash and beans inside a chicken pen we aren't using this year.

We have planted broad beans out along the pea fence as we've been told the deer don't like them. We will see.

May 26th we had our annual spring "Paint-Out" when we invite our friends to come out and paint on our hill. It was a gorgeous day and "a good time was had by all." The Oriental poppies and irises were in full bloom and it was just lovely. The next day it absolutely poured rain!

This year there are a young doe and buck hanging around. I think the little doe thought she would like to taste my pansies this evening but Bandy, the cat, was on the deck and the little doe did not like him. She kept stamping her feet. Bandy just ignored her until she finally gave up and moved away. The other day the little buck was checking out my irises. Deer don't like irises but this little fellow didn't know that yet. He tasted one petal, kind of made a distasteful face, went to sniff another iris and decided if that was all I had to offer he'd just wander off down the drainfield.

The information for this years ArtWalk brochure is at the printers and we are waiting for a copy to proof. The Creston, BC Opening will be Annette's Bistro and Coffee Bar on June 22 and the Crawford Bay, BC Opening will be the evening of June 24 at Newkeys Place.

I am trying to get planters planted and birdhouses built between now and June 29 when I will have yet another hand surgery.