11 December 2006 by pat.

OK, so I planted a couple of dozen Estella Rijnveld tulips in my front garden today. I had to chip at the first 2″ of soil to get down below the frost.

It’s raining out right now, and we’re supposed to get more rain over the next few days, so I hope this gives them a chance to establish.I noticed that some of my daffodils have sprouted already: most are still below soil level (I inadvertently dug a few up) but some of them have tiny nubs of green breaking the surface of the soil. Good thing they’re frost-hardy.

Posted in Home gardens, Gardening | 1 Comment »

10 December 2006 by pat.

I chose a yet-different image (I had moved the chequerboard mask) and masked out the background on this to darken it slightly and to bring out the green values in it.You can compare it to the image that’s below it to see the editorial changes.

Posted in Photography - Art, Photography | No Comments »

4 December 2006 by pat.

Time to admit it: summer and fall are over. We’ve had some light frosts (my Persian Shield plants are crispy dead). My roses are still blooming (see if I can grab a shot tomorrow) but we’re supposed to have temperatures in the negative zone for the next five days.

So today was “do things before they freeze” day.Emptied the pond, brought in the pump, emptied the hose and brought it in, turned the water off from inside the house and drained the pipe, and raked some more leaves (of course, there are many more I could rake).Also harvested some sage from two different sage plants I have. Brought some leaves indoors, washed, and put them on paper towel to dry off.Cut up a couple of leaves and made some sage butter to go with my egg noodles under my left-over stroganoff for dinner.Started wondering why sage also means wisdom and calm judgement… I’ll have to go to the reference library and look it up in the good old Oxford, I think.Anyways, here’s a picture of some sage: two varieties.

Posted in Home gardens, Gardening, Food, grown, Food | No Comments »