Shadow Shot Sunday #1

Hey, here is an interesting idea that I found from the Crafty Gardener.  And she has linked back to Hey Harriet.  It's about taking a cool shadow picture.  It hasn't been very sunny here lately, but we were lucky enough to get a few hours this afternoon.  I liked this picture because of the shadows within the leaves.  It is a lupin bud, grown from my husband's grandmother's seeds.

A Father's Day Adventure at Big Hill Springs

Happy Father's Day everyone, especially my own Dad and my DH.  Hope everyone is having a great day.  For our bit of family fun we decided to go on a short hike up to Big Hill Springs Provincial Park.  It is quite close to Calgary and the hike only took about an hour, which is about as long as my four-year-old can handle.  It is a great hike with lots of cool rocks  and water to play in.  We also saw lots of wildflowers.  I thought it would be fun to share and see how many of Alberta's wildflowers I know and maybe get some help with the ones I can't identify.

A cool picture of the Tufa - carbonate deposited by the calcium-rich spring water

 the spring water

 Star-flowered Soloman's Seal:

 Cow parsnip (wild rhubarb)?

 Western Canada Violet

 chickweed?

 lovely little ferns growing in the moss

 Canada Anemone?

 yarrow?

 

Western Shooting Star

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

My first ever!  I have always wanted to have time/remember/have blooms for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and this time I do!  I'm very excited!  This is what I have in my garden now.  My favorite are the irises.  I eagerly anticipate them every year, despite their short blooming period (or maybe because of it).  I don't know the varieties of either since both of them were donations - one from a friend and one from my grandmother's garden.  The purple and white one is from my grandmother...it is just about to burst open!

And of course in Calgary we are still into our spring blooms.  I love my tulips this year!  I have always dreamed of having a garden bursting with tulips and this year I finally feel like I've achieved it!  So happy! 

 More favorite spring blooms...

Also I have my new snowdrop anemones flowering.  I just got these last year after wandering around my neighbourhood and seeing them in other gardens.  I love them!  So glad to have my own.

And of course my bleeding hearts are just now flowering and my alliums look about ready to burst!

Well, I had fun!  Hope you enjoy the blooms!

It's Spring!

And in Calgary that means a rainy June and cool nights.  But I am very proud that I got all of my seeding done before the rains set in.  We usually have a few nice days at the end of May and I took advantage of them this year and got most of my annuals potted and most of the seeding done.  This year I planted carrots, beans, celery, peas, corn, beets and pumpkin in the backyard vegetable beds and cucumber, squash and dill at the community garden.  This is the first year that I've tried cucumber.  I sprouted the seeds in a moist paper towel inside a ziploc bag and then planted them.  We'll see if it gets warm enough this summer.  This is also the first year that I've tried direct planting the corn, pumpkin and squash.  Usually I start the seeds inside to get a head start, but due to a lack of space (due to the kitchen renovation) I decided to give the direct seeding a shot.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Spring is definitely my favorite season and I love all spring flowering plants - maybe because our winters are so long - it is so nice to see some colour!  So here is what blooming in my garden...

the crabapples are blooming - this isn't my tree..too bad!

violas transplanted into a pot (they are everywhere!) with some lettuce

 tulips (Calgary?) with lamium and iris foliage

 bergenia - started these from seed last year!

 so many tulips!  I can't remember the types and my scrap of paper with all the names seems to have been "filed" incorrectly - I'll keep trying to find it

 tulips - Cosmopolitan?

 muscari

 more violas - self-seeded in the garden

 strawberry flowers

 lamium with goatsbeard

 Nanking cherry bushes - yummy cherries

 bleedign hearts about to bloom

 alliums about to bloom

The kids are home from school, so that's it for now!