Fall in the Raised Bed Gardens

Welcome!

We have a little raised bed garden on the side of the cottage. It is a bit of a learning curve for us but we are having a lot of fun with it. The climate at the cottage tends to be quite variable and we are not always there to water it or protect it from chipmunks and possibly beavers.

One bed is mainly herbs and we also tried for garlic but that just didn't work out. We have been using the herbs a bit but, more often than not, I forget that that is a cooking option out here! The herbs actually do pretty spectacularly. We put them pretty close together and the Parsley and Cilantro kind of crowded the other herbs but they still did fine.

I tried adding some lettuce seeds, purchased at Dollarama, to the spot where the garlic didn't grow.  I keep reading about how you can have two crops a year of  spring types of plants so I thought I would experiment.  They have popped up and look cute but really, it could freeze any night now.

This is our poor little squash which is still making efforts even though it is too late for this year. 

 Not even one flower was sucessful this year!

Here we have the beginnings of a delicious pasta sauce at the Lake Cottage!

July Flowers

Flowers for the beginning of July

'Tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes!
~William Wordsworth, "Lines Written in Early Spring," Lyrical Ballads, 1798

The Beauty of the Rock

We have a large rock outcropping at the front of the island. It is part of the dock and where we stand to swim sometimes. It is really a defining part of being at the cottage. When we see it  from the water we know our cottage is located there and we can stand on it to see out into the rest of  the lake. The moss, lichen and other plants add texture and life to this space and they help to shape the erosion of the land.


The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. ~Tennessee Williams

Spring Flower

The first wild-flower of the year is like land after sea. 

                                              ~Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Yellow flowers by the water's edge. I love the tiny details. I was particularly interested in the flowers with white details on the petals.

Reflections

The water plants grow under the water in the cooler days of early summer and then as summer months pass by, they send out tall stocks with a few flowers.

The reflections of the leaves in the still water are beautiful.

Little Yellow Wildflowers

I was going to figure out what the real name of these flowers is before writing this post but it is summer and I have iced tea.  There is a breeze and there are paperback novels to read.

 It is enough that the fields and edge of the woodlands have 1000s of such lovely yellow jewels,

no matter what they are called.

 

 

This summer my pictures are all being taken with my phone's camera. The quality of image is poorer but my phone is always handy in my pocket and I can upload the pictures so easily!

Window Flowers

 Flowers whisper "Beauty!" to the world, even as they fade, wilt, fall.

~Dr. SunWolf,

 

These flowers were gathered by my daughter almost 3 weeks ago and have been

 sitting in the kitchen window all this time. So pretty.

July Flowers on the Island

 

The plants of summer are blooming...

 I just took a few quick  and somewhat fuzzy pictures with my phone so I could share the beauty. All of these lovelies are within a few meters of my cottage door.

 

 

 

Saskatoon Berries were everywhere this year.

Lovely lavender colored Harebells Campanula rotundifolia

Raspberries were lovely and full.

Clover

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.
   ~Emily Dickinson, 

The Beauty of a Thistle

 

 

What is a weed?  A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.  

~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fortune of the Republic, 1878

Planting Joy

Planting Joy on the front porch

I have been to several sessions by a fun Life Coach named Deb Dunn at a local fitness center. I got a lot out of her sessions and had fun at the same time.

Deb had a great idea ..

By focusing on the people, places and activities that bring you joy, you will create a lighter and more joyful attitude, family, community and life!

She provided this cute flower and you are supposed to take pictures of it bringing joy.

Our cottage is somewhere that I feel relaxed and creative and happy and plain old joyful so that had to be the first place I took it for a picture!

Alicia got in on the "Joy" too.

Please visit Deb's website to learn more. Get it Dunn

Guess What This Is?

I was impressed with this find at the cottage.

Can you identify what you see in the pictures?

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It is a whole miniature little world in a tub!

We use this container of sand each fall when we celebrate a couple of birthdays and the long weekend with a little fireworks show. We just left the tub outside, behind our porch, last year after our celebrations. I didn't give it another thought until this summer.
When I looked in the tub this year I was amazed at the beauty of this tiny world.
We thought the pencil would help give you an idea of the true scale of my lilliputian moss world.

Spring Flora

"A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect." ~Terri Guillemets










Photographed May 2010 on the island. Copyright Bob Cooper