If today was a Quotation....

 ...It would go something like this.....

     

                                               

                                             

 ( Sssssssh. The Sweet Peas haven't decided on a quote yet..........................)

 

   And one of the best quotes to end the day with a game of tag.......

CORDELIA's GARDEN

 The poet Gladys Taber wrote: "June in New England ( well, she might as well have been talking about June here), is like a lover's dream made tangible. Colour and scent and sound; the hills indeed sing. Dawn comes so fresh and cool, and dusk flows like a still river into the deep sea of night."

                                

 Cordelia spent an entire afternoon soaking up that which is here. She spends quite a few afternoons here. Toddling around. It's peaceful.

 Sniffing at the compost seems to take up most of  her time.

 "There are the first roses too!" wrote Gladys Taber. Oh the first roses. And the lilacs. "A special delicacy, a purity. Their odour is even sweeter."

          
 "When I pick them, and pick them I must." Well, I tend to photograph them more. Then I rip apart some of the blooms for potpourri.

 And Cordelia keeps on sniffing. Sniffing. Sniffing the roses now that are starting to explode.

 Waiting on the steps. Waiting to greet. It's cooler here. In the shade.

               

 Watching the Campanula burst out of its pods.

       The Flutterbies   sniffing and tasting the verbeena.  Cordelia chases.
        
                      And in the greenhouse. More surprises.

  Sweet peas. Just starting . My favourite beyond all favourites. Yesterday I picked the first ones. Their scent heady. Dark. Sweet. Definitely the scent of summer. Cordelia likes to sniff these as well.

                

 And the Mountain rising vast and blue above it all.

 Cordelia takes a break in the cool of the porch. Sniffing at water bowls is an important task.

 "Noons are tranquil gold. " So writes Gladys Taber. So is the Rhodochiton. Getting thick and starting to droop. It will have all summer to droop.
                     
               Verbascum rises out of the soil. Starting to get tall. Above Cordelia. She is back by the compost, sitting on the toilet that I placed there. It is now covered with Lemon balm. She sits and sniffs at the lemon . At the compost.  Maybe it reminds her of "old deserted gardens".

 Van Gogh used to say "I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things." Well. It's good to love many things. Sniff. Sniff. Cordelia's got the right idea.
                      (white Campanula Takesana)
(Quotations from "June in New England" by Gladys Taber, author of Stillmeadow Books, and journalist for Ladies Home Journal 1948-1958)

Campanula and Cats

 At its prime. Campanula takesimana. Korean bellflower. Drooping in the heat of the day. Absolutely beautiful right now. Cordelia, from the hill watches over it from her favourite perch. The compost.

                                     

 The campanula is quite hardy, not frost tender, and blooms from June to July.  I tend to gather a few seeds in August. With hermaphodite flowers, it self pollinates, but bees, beetles and bugs toodle back and forth between flowerets.  Not a great cut flower, I've found. The bells tend to wilt quickly. It prefers to stay in the soil.

(Penguin having a water break)

 It prefers a woodland setting, with dappled light, or even no light. It's not fussy, and  tends to appear around the garden  without any attempt from the gardener. It can be aggressive. But that's the best part.

                               

Some people have actually used the leaves in salads or cooked them with the flowers. Not sure I would  try that. It is said that they can be slightly bitter.  Again. Don't try it. But an interesting thought. Have not found any recipes using the flowers or leaves...........

 (Flicker.....)
 Deer and Bunnies will not eat this variety of bellflower. Though, if hungry enough I suppose they would eat anything. 

(Smokey . Comes from his house three doors down, every morning, to soak up sun)

There are 500 species and sub species of bellflower, ranging from the Northern Hemisphere to Mediterranean regions.

                              

If it goes to seed, it will spread everywhere. But since I do not mind it spreading everywhere, I  encourage it. Cut it down when all the blooms have finished.Keeps it a little under control.

                   
 This particular colour is known as " Elizabeth"

 The cats aren't all that excited about the fact the Campanula is flowering  so well this year. Smokey's brother, Spencer is happy that I filled the water bowls on the porch.

                                    

And also worthy of note, the apples are  growing  and turning red. Lots of apples. Means lots of cider to make this year.

           Thought I would throw in this picture. No, it's not Spencer. It's another neighbouring cat. Lives on the other side behind us. He's about a year old. Soft and floppy. We decided to call him Cuddles. If it's not flowers, it's cats.

 (Spencer saying hello in the early morning.............he snorts when he purrs. )

                                        

And Smokey. Basking in the sun. Like the flowers, and the campanula.

                         
 In the 1920's this beautiful flowering plant was discovered on a Korean Island called Ulung-do , in the Sea of Japan. It grows pink and white and purple with streaks and spots  and dangles on straight stalks with leaves of shiny green. It is romantic. It is sublime. And makes a suitable kingdom for Cordelia to watch over.

ROSES

I only know the names of a couple of the roses. Most came with the  house,or started growing wild, for some reason. (Probably liked all the fertilizer pellets that are spread around). Some were gifts, and I lost the tags. Some just seem to grow themselves.........

                                     

This one is a climber. Climbs up the side of the house at the front. I cut it back a lot this year, so it only grows to the eaves. Instead of over the eaves onto the roof.

    
                 And then there's this dark red rose. The Black Bacarra. I actually bought this one a few years ago. Like dark velvet.

 Smells like chocolate. .......

 Roses seem to take a lot of work. But I don't do anything to them. I use Safer's Soap as an insecticide and the Safer's products seem to work well enough. The soap penetratesthe outer shell of bugs and  they disappear . 

Some roses I grow in huge pots, cause I've run out of ground.Sometimes I spray Bobexx on the roses. Deer LOVE roses, and the Bobexx stinks of mint and pepper and other assorted stuff organic stuff that they do NOT like.  NOthing like coming outside and finding all the roses snipped off their stalks.....

                                       

   

   Bobbexx works on all your flowers and plants.All natural repellent. Bunnies don't like Bobbexx either.  Keeps them all at bay.

                                     

"Did you hear about the rose that grew from concrete? It learned to walk without having feet..." ( fromTupak Shakur)

                           

"An idealist is one, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage,concludes that it makes a better soup" ( H.L. Mencken)

                                         

  Something else that seems to help roses  is spraying them with liquid fertilizer, greatly watered down of course.

 I don't do that anymore, because after a while you get the stuff on the walls of the house, and the deer start licking the siding.......

 Hence no need to power wash your siding anymore. Just get the deer to get fertilizer happy, and they may stay  from the roses.....