Tag Archives: Summer

nature, Photography

Week of Flowers – Day 6

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Cathy at Words and Herbs is encouraging people to post flower photos for a week to help chase away the winter doldrums.

My contribution today is lavender and lilies; the photos were taken in July in the garden of the Naramata Inn, a heritage hotel that has retained its charm (and fabulous restaurant). I can still smell the scent of both in the hot summer weather.

Do you see the bees?
A beautiful (and busy) lavender bee. I find the sound of them almost soporific.
The scent from this stargazer lily was heady.

And for good measure, nearby …

… there was a lovely snowball hydrangea.

If you would like to contribute your own flower photos, please do!

Happy flower week.

nature, Photography

Week of Flowers – Day 5

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Cathy at Words and Herbs is encouraging people to post flower pictures as a way of escaping, even only for a few moments, the winter doldrums.

Today’s contribution comes from last August when I found these cornflowers growing in one of the city’s flower beds.

I love this shade of blue – so pretty.

Happy flower week. 🌸

nature, Photography

A Week of Flowers – Day Three

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This post is inspired by Cathy at Words and Herbs to help chase away the winter blahs.

I love hydrangeas, including the panicle hydrangeas that bloom toward the end of summer.

Hydrangea colours are always interesting, but over the life of the blooms this variegated variety will eventually become more uniform.

I like how each frond is made up of tiny blooms.

Summer will return, but in the meantime we have great pictures!

Thanks for the terrific idea, Cathy.

nature, Photography

A Week of Flowers

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Heyjude at Cornwall in Colours posted about the “week of flowers” idea from Cathy at Words and Herbs to help keep the winter blahs at bay.

Here are some of summer’s finest from Penticton’s rose garden.

October 1
October 15
October 20

If you would like to join, just link to Words and Herbs with your garden photo. Cheers.

nature, Photography

About Roses

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What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.

~ Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

[We have] our memories so that we might have roses in December.

~ J.M. Barrie

Of all the flowers, methinks a rose is best.

~ Fletcher and Shakespeare, Two Noble Kinsmen

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.

~ Alphonse Karr, Lettres Écrites De Mon Jardin

Happy Monday.

Commentary, nature, Photography

Castor Bean Plants

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Castor beans are not something anyone should eat as they contain ricin which is highly poisonous.

Castor oil also comes from this plant and can be used medicinally as long as it is not ingested in large quantities.

Although the castor bean plant has to be treated with care, its soft, spiny pods (it’s perfectly safe to handle them) are a beautiful red once they ripen and the leaves also have a lovely shape and an interesting purplish colour. This plant also grows to about 2 metres (approx. 7 feet) so it would make a good privacy hedge.

Although it’s quite beautiful, I wouldn’t want to clean up after it once the pods start falling. It’s a prolific plant and there might be a lot of them!

Happy Tuesday.