Garden Tour

I don't know if I told you this already but I planted mainly pink flowers this year in my gardens. Lots of different kinds of roses. Pinks, stock, geraniums, impatiens, nicotiana. All lovely shades of pink. I meant to take pictures of them yesterday. They looked so beautiful yesterday. Maybe it was the morning dew or maybe the way the light was filtering through the trees. I don't know what it was but I should have taken the pictures yesterday.

Oh well, I took them this morning. Allow me to show you around my garden.

These are my impatiens. This is the first year I grew double impatiens. They look like little tiny roses.

This is my favorite rose bush. Its blooms are prolific. It is called Morden Blush.

Another first for me, Ivy Geraniums. Reminiscent of Italian balconies.

Ferns in a shady spot given to me by my daughter Jill. They were growing profusely in her back yard.

My front annual flower bed. Last year in Victoria we saw a bed entirely planted with stock. The smell is so lovely and it looked so nice I wanted to plant one myself.

Tumbler tomatoes, specifically grown to be planted in pots. We have had a few already. Beautiful lush basil to the right. I was going to harvest it yesterday but decided to wait for today.

Peppers. I have grown chilis and jalapenos but never sweet peppers.

 You'll notice that I have all of my houseplants out under the canopy. They like a little fresh air and sunshine so I bring them out each summer for a month or two. Really helps them grow.
And on the canopy there, those are leaves from my birch. You could find them on the birch tree normally but today they were all over the side of my house and stuck to the windows too. Go figure.

So, how do you like my beautiful pink garden? Not so nice you say?

Well, that is what we woke up to this morning. Minor by comparison to those who lost trees and had flooding. There was a huge storm with unofficial report of a tornado last night in Delisle. I have never seen anything like it. To make matters worse, our roofers finally showed up yesterday, completed on section of roof but decided it was not necessary to put the cap on the shingles. Needless to say we had water dripping out of the attic into the hallway upstairs. The garage also flooded due to the 5 inches of rain that fell in 15 minutes and the water came into our third level. We spent about 5 minutes in the stairwell just in case. And then... Paul got the roofers air nailer(electric), went onto the roof (yes in a thunderstorm. Do not try this at home.) and tried to nail up some shingles so the roof would stop leaking. It worked and he is still alive. Then his pager started to go off for multiple fires and downed power lines.

But we are all fine and the damage was minimal. I have been cleaning up outside almost all day already. And as I said this morning to a friend, I have learned to take these things lightly, shrug my shoulders and move on. I attribute that, in part, to my yoga practice.

And now, Athena is at her summer playground program, Paul is in the city giving some training to a group of Hutterites and I don't know whether to practice yoga or plop myself down on the deck and have a cold beer. I should enjoy this lull while I can because I just noticed at the bottom of my computer screen that we have been issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for this afternoon. Let the fun begin!