Aiko in the Forest

Tonight I was much too tired to work, so I found myself downloading more accessories for Aiko. It has been a long time since I played with DAZStudio. Made sense at the time, except now I'm tired and my eyes hurt, too. ;-)

Okay, here goes, Aiko as a fairy in her new "Tink" dress, with a texture applied (which happened to fit okay, even though designed for an entirely different outfit), and her new wreath headband, courtesy of faerie-dreams.com (click the image for a larger view):

What do you think? Was it worth staying up until midnight, or should I have caught an early night while I had the chance?

Garden Glimpses : Mid June 2008

June is a wonderful time of year, since the many blossoms are a-buzz with many fuzzy bumblebees. They are busy on the chives:

...and the Physocarpus opulifolius "diablo" (Diablo ninebark):

...and the Spanish lavender (Lavendula stoechas):

...and the Geraniums (this first one is "Victor Reiter"):


...and the raspberries:

The butterflies are now flitting about the garden also, like this cabbage butterfly, enjoying the osteospermum flowers:

Everywhere, there is the hope for summer fruit, such as these strawberries:

...apples (on the espalier tree):

...and pears (Bartlett pears, in this case):

The campanula glomerata is in full bloom, and looking beautiful this year (even if the long stems have flopped over again - each year I tell myself I need to do something to support them, maybe next year I will finally take action):

(As always, click any photo for a slightly larger view.)

More Glimpses of Osoyoos, BC

The low rainfall levels in Osoyoos qualify it as the only "desert" area in Canada. But to its demise, the soil & weather conditions also make it a great place for vineyards and fruit orchards. So there is little of the true "desert" left, around the fringes of the town. It was such a neat experience, coming from the wet and lush Vancouver area, to visit such an arid place, and and for me to see the unique plants growing there.

I didn't catch a name for this little grass, but isn't it gorgeous?

This is a sort of desert phlox, being only a few inches high, very tiny in comparison to any phlox I am familiar with:

This tiny but cheery thread-leaved daisy (Erigeron filifolius) seemed to be everywhere in the desert areas:

This Brittle Prickly-Pear Cactus (Optunia fragilis) was almost hidden in the desert grasses, but once we spotted it, we could also see it almost everywhere. A few of them were blooming, and many others bearing plump pinkish buds:


This wild rose didn't seem unique to the desert, but was beautiful also:

Finally, the classic "desert" scene (and note the clumps of Brittle Prickly-Pear Cactus):

Glimpses of Osoyoos and Manning Park, BC

We pulled the kids from school 1.5 days, and escaped to Osoyoos BC this weekend. We have talked about camping again, but this weekend we stayed in style at the Walnut Beach Resort. Check out the view from our balcony:


The clouds rolled in and out, but for the most part there was blue sky to be spotted (unlike Vancouver, where I understand it rained most of the weekend). Anyhow, we toured both desert centres in Osoyoos, and I took LOTS of photos there (click any photo for a slightly larger image)...

I love thistles, and they must taste sweet, too, if these bugs are any indication:


I was really hoping to spot a rattlesnake somewhere during the trip, but was still very happy to see this western yellow-bellied racer [thanks to Jake for correcting me], which raced through the sagebrush and grasses beside us, crossed the path, and seemed to stop for a moment to look at us before speeding on:

While we're on the topic of wildlife, what trip through Manning Park is complete without a spotting of a black bear? This little guy was on the side of the road leading to the Lightning Lakes:

And of course, the Columbian ground squirrels (Spermophilus columbianus, but commonly known as "gophers") around Lightning Lakes are so charming, it was worth a number of photos:


It might be hard to see, but this little guy is chewing on a blade of grass:

I'm too tired tonight, but I'll try to post a few more photos this week, of the many beautiful flowers found in the desert areas.

Bunch of Baby Bison in Beautiful BC

On the weekend we went to visit the bison in Agassiz (yes, there are bison in BC!), since we heard they had a baby bison. But when we arrived, we realized that there were a number of babies. As we climbed the hill to see them, the mothers quickly moved into a huddle, with the babies between them, except for one little guy who didn't seem concerned:

Fairly soon, they realized we were armed only with a camera, and went about their business with only a few stares at us (which makes for better photos, anyhow). We were able to count 6 calves among the 7 females, with the last female visibly pregnant also. One male. Here are 3 of the moms with calves:

Here are a couple more pics (click any photo for a larger image):

Fairy Garden

I guess it was last year that a offered my daughter her own "fairy garden", but then other than her adding a small stump there and the occasional sticks and such, the plants were not particularly unique to a fairy garden. Just more of my usual, such as crocosmia and Japanese anemone. So I finally decided something had to be done, especially since I have had this fairy house on the counter for too long. So today I started clearing out the crocosmia and such:

Hmmm, I think that hosta has to go also...

...to make room for the fairy house. And then I have started planting miniature plants, such as the tiny hosta in the bottom left corner, and sedums and sempervivums, and a small violet, and whatever else I will find around the garden which will fit the scale of the fairy garden:

I will leave the lilies (they look like huge trees behind the house), and the Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon) behind, but will eventually clear out more, so that all the "gardens" surrounding the house will be more to scale. If I didn't know better, I would even leave the horsetail which pokes up in spots, to form tiny trees. But the horsetail is much too successful already to give it such encouragement.

Fairy Discovery

Last weekend while we were walking Lighthouse Park (one of my favourite parks), my daughter discovered a fairy (click for a larger image):

Friendship Tulips

I almost forgot to post a photo of my friendship tulips... Last fall, I found a fairly large bag of what looked like very pretty bi-colour tulips. So I decided to surprise my neighbour Helen, who has a wonderful little garden next to her driveway, which is quite underutilized (ever since she got tired of and removed the beautiful daffodils from there, and gave them to me). So I snuck over there, and planted up the tulips and also grape hyacinths in between (click the photo for a larger view). This Spring, we were all pleased with the result (photo from 2 weeks ago):

My own were not as noticeable, tucked in between plants in my fairly crowded front garden:

Then when I visited my friend Lily 2 weeks ago, I noticed the same tulips in her front yard. I had forgotten that I had shared some with her also. So I guess they have truly become "friendship tulips".

More Garden Glimpses : Late May 2008

One of the many rewards of gardening is the continual surprises. Such as this daylily, which came along with a small masterwort plant (gift from the garden of a friend of my mother-in-law), and which bloomed for the first time this year. I'm glad I resisted the urge to pull it out last year, when it showed up as a few blades of what looked almost like grass.

Then there is this gorgeous tri-colour honeysuckle, which is full of blooms this year. I received it as a tiny shoot in a plant trade about 2 years ago, and had no idea what colour to expect. What a lovely surprise to see this wonderful mix of pink, white and yellow!

Of course, not all surprises are welcome ones. I try not to even think about the Carex pendula which has seeded itself all over my entire upper garden and down the hillside. It is coming up by the thousands, and if I don't find them in the first year, they get pretty hard to pull the second year, and pretty hopeless for me after that. I received a tiny shoot in a plant trade one year, gave it what turned out to be an ideal spot in the moist side of my garden, and it grew to a monster with a base maybe 4' wide within 2 or 3 years. At that point, it had flowered, but seemed to only have a few offspring. However, I began to fear the size and growth of this thing, and being not very impressed by its looks, I asked a neighbour help me remove it last year (over-filling a wheelbarrow to haul it away to add beside his pond). It seems that right after that, the ground exploded with seedlings, and I've been pulling and shovelling ever since, with no sign yet of any hope of completely removing it from my garden. I'm afraid to ask him yet if he's noticed any seedlings. I can only hope it is not so successful in his garden!

Speaking of unpleasant surprises, I opened the barbeque last week, to get it ready for the BBQ season, and found this weird ball of garden clippings inside:

My first thought was that someone had played a joke on us, cramming that in there. But when my husband went to clean it out, and found the BBQ full of droppings, we realized that a mouse had made a nest there during the winter. Good thing I didn't open it until Spring! What a creepy thought, those little guys scampering up & down the barbeque without our noticing.

Anyhow, back to some more pleasant images. I can never seem to get enough of this Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry). I hope it will survive and thrive in my garden:

I can't help adding another photo of my white tree peony:

I also can't get enough of this Campanula glomerata, so here goes with another photo:

I don't know the name of this orange flower, but the yellow version of it grows wild in the neighbourhood ditches and lakeside parks (and along my East fence, near the ravine).

My son painted this birdhouse last year (the rainbow colours was his idea), when he was 6 years old. We finally set it up outside. I was ecstatic to find a chickadee checking it out within a couple of days (probably looking to find out if it was a feeder).

The espalier apple tree is bearing small fruits now, so I thinned out each clump, from the 3 or 4 fruits...

...down to 1 fruit each (in some cases, I've left 2, to see which one will be stronger).

This lupine is a cheery pink colour. I have a few of them in the garden, but wish I had a few more. I should plant some of the seeds I gathered in previous years:

3D Creature Battle

It feels much too late to be working on a 3D image, but I'm trying to stay awake until my husband makes it home (he phoned at 9pm that he was finally giving up on getting home for dinner, and now at 11:30pm he's still not home)... sigh! Anyhow, I created a DAZ 3D image of the "Millenium Dragon" fighting with "Xerr". Could be better, but not bad for being much too tired tonight (click the image for a larger view):