Summertime Picture Post

So, where has the Witch been for the last month? Well, I’ve been a bit of a beach bum. Yes, you read that right. I purchased a new bathing suit, a bikini no less, and we have been going to the shore every chance we get. Even I, who is deathly afraid of the water (there are CRABS in the water, you know!) have been in for a swim. We have just been in the water, on the beach and under our umbrella while the winds were blowing so hard I literally had to hold on to keep it from blowing away! But it has all been fun and I’m loving it, when we get any sunshine that is. I even had a wardrobe malfunction with the new suit (Hubby was surprised) but sorry there are no details I’m going to share.

Here's me trying to keep my beach umbrella from blowing away again.

Look at my brave Hubby, out there wading amongst the CRABS!

So now you know why the Witch has been derelict in her blog posting. I decided the summer is too short to waste inside on the computer so it’s off to the beach we go. Well, okay, we have also been busy with the gardens, and of course the MOTHER!*//%** gazebo. What’s that Hubby? It’s almost finished? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… what’s that?.. oh… you were serious… sorry!

Anyway, for now, I’m going to leave you with a collection of pictures which I hope you all enjoy. They are just a random collection from the past month or so.

Also, we are trying out a few changes to the design of the Witch’s Island so please be patient as we gear up some new stuff. Let us know how you like them.

Enjoy your day everyone, I’m heading to the beach again and I’m going to try to keep my swim suit on this time!

These shorebirds were having a field day running back and forth. I don’t know if they were feeding or just playing!

Some black headed gulls on the beach at low tide.

I found this message painted onto a rock while I was hunting for driftwood. They were obviously talented people but who goes to the beach with their paintbox?

The sky has been looking ominous for most of the summer. This particular system was very intense but not the worst we have had this year.

The vegetable garden was doing pretty good back in mid July.

By early August it was doing even better. The carrots, the beets and beans have been on our dinner menu almost every day for the past week.

My gazebo has finally got some stairs so now I don’t need to crawl in. Here are the stairs just minutes after Hubby finished building them (Please don’t tell him that I let it slip that it took him over SIX hours to make them!).

Here are the stairs again the next morning after being treated with the water sealer. We used Thompson’s brand and it did a great job on the cedar.

The final bit of construction prior to adding the siding was the window casing and now that is all done, too.

Okay, Hubby. You did great getting all that finished. Go and get that beer… Hubby? Hubby? All right, now where did he get to?

The flower gardens are doing pretty good, too. The lilies have all come out in bloom at the same time and they are just a riot of colours.

Here’s a close-up of one of the pink ones. They are huge, about 6 inches across and they smell wonderful, too.

The grapes are doing great this year. It’s going to be our best harvest ever as long as we get to them before the birds do.

The farmers have planted a lot of canola this year and when it blooms it turns this intense colour of yellow. So beautiful!

That’s me standing out on the back deck admiring all our hard work.

As another summer storm builds in the evening sky I will say see you later.

One last picture of me staring down the world’s ugliest Llama. That is all.

Update On The Royal Couple

The Tree Swallows have arrived back home here on the Witch’s Island. I love these birds because of their grace and beauty and because of their swift flying style. It doesn’t hurt that they love to eat flying insects, and lots of them! With all the damned black flies and mosquitoes around here they’ll never go hungry. Go you swallows, go!

The chosen palace this year is apparently the White House.

Every year Wills and Kate (Why did I call them that, you say? Well, Just because I can. It’s good to be me.) spend their first few days deciding which of the two available palaces they will spend the summer in. Usually they choose the Duracell house in the back yard but this year, for the first time, they have chosen the White House on the telephone pole in the front yard. I have no idea what would make them choose that one but maybe they just wanted a change or maybe it’s a little more upscale for the royals. Either way I have a great view of both birdhouses so I can watch the progress as they set up house among our scarlet runners and hanging flags.

Wills guarding his family home.

Whichever house they’re in the Grackles still try to steal their nesting material. The Swallows have to stay on constant guard to protect their babies. Lousy, lazy Grackles! Go collect your own nesting stuff! It’s fun to watch the much smaller swallows chase off the bigger birds.

The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have also returned. Almost as soon as I set out the feeder on the kitchen window the hummers start showing up and then the “Wars” start. One bird will decide that he (or she!) will be in control of the feeder and will spend way more time chasing off the others than actually drinking. It’s funny to watch the little buggars buzzing back and forth all day. We did manage to snap a couple of shots of one female who managed to get a drink or two before Mr. Bully Boy spotted her.

Really, Mrs. Hummer. You should stop posing and get a drink while you can.

The vegetable garden is starting to take shape out in the backyard. The cucumbers that I started on April 22 (way too early again this year, when will I ever learn?) had gotten way too big and needed to be transplanted outside but the weather has been just terrible. Some days were as hot as 22C and then there would be frost the next morning. During May we had rain for 27 straight days. Yup, that’s right, cold and depressing. I hope this doesn’t indicate that our summer is heading in that direction.

I moved the starter plants out to the potting shed a couple of weeks ago to start hardening them off.

Anyway, Hubby has gotten the ground ready, adding some manure and rotilling again. He set the obelisks out for the cumbers and planted the first four with 3 plants each. Of course, the next day there was high wind which twisted off about half of my babies. We lost a couple more to transplant shock. Hopefully there are still enough left in the potting shed to refill the empty spaces. We’re going to need all the cucumbers we can get for pickling this fall.

The onions were already out of the ground in a few days.

Half of the vegetable garden has been planted out.

We have also gotten six rows of seeds planted. There are three double rows of onions, both yellow and red, a row with three varieties of beans, green, yellow and purple, a double row of carrots with radish markers and a double row of beets in three varieties. The onions have shot up and in less than a week they are already about three inches high. The beans have also started to break out of the ground. It might be a good growing year. If you want to know which varieties we are planting you can find out here.

The wild apple trees are out in full blossom.

The apple blossom is actually a very pretty little flower.

The rest of the yard is starting to look lush again. The wild apple trees and the pin cherries are all out in full blossom and look great. I spent hours last weekend working on the front gardens while Hubby was mowing the lawn. I got out all the weeds and added a layer of dark topsoil in around the purple phlox(?) and the daylilies. Hubby cleaned up the front garden and put up our birdbath for the first time since we moved here. Now it has a place of honor. I just have to clean it up and fill it with fresh water and watch the birds enjoy it.

We think that this purple mound is phlox, but whatever it is, it’s beautiful.

The front walkway garden has been all spruced up.

After 5 years of lying in the side line the bird bath has been finally put back up.

Yesterday was again cold and rainy (sigh) so we took a break and went for a tour around some of our favourite public gardens and nurseries for some inspiration. I am always surprised by the new varieties of flowers and plants you can come across in these places. These were a few of the prettiest ones I saw.

I think that these are parrot tulips but whatever they are, I wish they were mine.

I love the frilly edges on these tulips.

More beautiful tulips all set to open.

My Mother sent me a Gnome house as a Christmas gift last year and this spring we put it in place on an outside tree near the end of the driveway. I love it and it makes me smile everyday as I back out or come home from a hard day at work. I just look over and smile, very therapeutic.

Enjoy the pictures and have a great day.

The Gnome House and its Guard Rabbit.

Here’s the Gnome doing a little maintenance on his front walkway.

Valentine Wishes

This is just a short little post to wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day. Look what I baked Hubby. It’s his favorite treat, a double layer white cake with a rich butter cream icing. The saying goes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach but, for my man, I have to get past his sweet tooth before I can get anywhere else.

I spent a couple of hours getting this ready on Sunday afternoon. Hubby was upstairs and he figured I was making cupcakes but I fooled him. He was pretty pleased to get the cake instead.

Hubby’s Valentine cake, the lucky fella!

I got a lovely red mini rose bush and a really sweet card. These plants are great, I’ve had them before. Later this spring I’ll be able to plant it outside where it may last a few years.

My mini rose bush.

That’s all for now I guess. We had had another storm to day and more is expected overnight. Blah… How long until spring?

This little bobble-head frog just wants to wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Moonflower, I Think I Love You!!!

I’ve finally done it all on the Witch’s Island, at least out in the flower garden. I have been trying for over 20 years to grow this flower, hoping and wishing for it to produce and that wish has finally come true!


The Moonflower or "Ipomoea alba” has proven to be a tough plant to grow here. The Flower Expert website describes the plant like this:

Moonflower is a beautiful twining vine which grows fast in really hot weather. It is a tender tropical perennial but it is now growing popularity as an annual vine even in colder areas. Planted near a deck or porch, the heavenly fragrance of moon flower permeates the air in the whole garden. Hence, Moonflower a great choice for anyone who loves evening gardening.

I have planted the seeds year after year and sometimes they didn’t even germinate. But I stuck with it and tried again. When I did get the plants started I would baby them as best as I could only to have the plant produce nothing or just wither and die. There was a lot of dying going on with these Moonflowers .

This year all the stars seemed to be in line because not only did I get one vine to take off in a planter on the back deck but I also got a second one to grow in with my Scarlet Runners. Both have now produced their first flowers and there are a ton more coming along.




I was so excited a couple of days ago when I went out to check the one on the back deck just before going to bed and found this bright white flower staring back at me! I went screaming back into the house to get the camera and I got some really nice pictures. I’m really happy to share these with everyone so you can all marvel at just how beautiful this flower truly is.

The flower starts off as a surprisingly small bud on an offshoot from the vine. After a few days the flower starts to emerge from the centre of the bud almost like the second set of jaws on the “Alien”. Sort of like this picture:




The extending spear has a tightly bound spiral at the tip that contains the actual blossom. It takes a couple of days to fully extend and then it burst open in the late evenings or just when the moon is out hence the name Moonflower.





You can see it happen in the following YouTube video:





As the The Flower Expert described it has a wonderful smell which will attract moth’s to pollinate it at night. I haven’t noticed the smell through the whole garden yet but maybe their garden is smaller than ours. The blooms don’t last very long unfortunately. The first one I saw was dead the next morning but the second one lasted slightly longer. Just the opposite of its relative the Morning Glory.



I have also just added some more beautiful flower pictures from our gardens for everyone to enjoy.

Go and grab a coffee, relax and smell the flowers..