Garden Shots

We watched a couple of Aussie DVD movies recently - Little Fish with Cate Blanchett and Irresistable with Susan Sarandon. Both movies had Sam Neill in them, and both had that independent feel about them. Little Fish showed us a little of redneck life in Australia. Irresistible had a couple of twists and turns in it. I would like to eventually visit Australia on both coasts. It would be nice to take 2 months and do the South Pacific at the same time.
After work I mowed the grass and took a few pictures. My favorite oriental lily "Le Reve" is blooming now along with the dark purple Liatris (blazing star) and light purple Agastache. The lily blooms are very fragrant and I have to stop and smell them each time I pass by. The purple coneflowers are starting to bloom beside the Varigated Grass (I can't recall the cultivar). In the overview shot below you can see the dying crab apple tree directly above the deck stairs which I will be removing and replacing with a Japanese maple. I think the crab apple has some type of fire blight. It happens every year but this year is the worst and it looks like too many branches have been lost. It never bloomed very well anyways. Perhaps it needed more sun and has been suffering all these years. You can also see that the lawn is starting to develop brown patch again. It does this every June. By September the lawn will look terrible, but then I overseed and by October it is a velvet carpet.
I assembled the remaining bookshelves and arranged the sewing/knitting supplies on them. I bought the cheap little sewing machine so I could work on covers for the sailboat. It has come in very handy and is holding up well despite smoking a little while I was sewing up the mainsail earlier in the spring. If you look closely you can see some slippers that I still must send back to Canada. It seems I can knit them but I am having trouble actually mailing them.
As a treat this evening, I cut myself some hydrangeas for the house. I love their blue color. This summer I think I will cut more flowers and bring them inside. The plants are all getting big enough now that there should be blooms for the outside and the inside. I might even cut some of those Le Reve lilies for my office next week.