A Walk in the Forest

Yesterday was stunning. Today is predicted to reach thirty degrees!

I spent yesterday walking Sheba and improving the aesthetics of the entrance to my backyard. I’d covered a little strip of land between my driveway and deck with sand when I moved in, and it became a weed factory. So, I first removed the sand.

My plan was to dump the sand onto the sandlot where my incinerator is, but when I got there, the lot was covered with forest fall, so I had to clean that up before I could add more sand. Sigh. But now the lot has three more wheelbarrows full of sand. Then I added soil to the bed and then shade-tolerant Heather. Now my entrance looks much, much nicer.

Before.

After.

Not shown is a nice new terracotta pot. It was at the nursery and it was badly cracked, so I asked if I could have it at a discount. But Clarence gave it to me for free!

I came home, repaired it, and put a nice pink Hydrangea in it. I have three now. And I put it in the entrance area opposite the new garden of Heather that I did in the morning. 

I also tried on another new job: Upholstery cleaner. I have a sofa that I love. I searched high and low for weeks (thirteen years ago) to find it. It cost as much as a condo, but it has a high back and few sofas today are made with high backs.

Sheba loves it too. After my bed, it’s her favourite piece of furniture. And so, out of respect for the nasal sensibilities of my guests and my fear of being nose blind, I decided to give the cushions and the back of my sofa a good washing. It was so hot yesterday I knew everything would dry quickly. It’s something I’ll do every summer.

I loved playing Croquet and my incredibly fabulous dinner at Eoin and François’ place, but I am very happy being alone here at home with the pets and tinkering in the gardens—or making new ones as I did yesterday. Summer makes me manic about outdoor life.

I worked hard all day—burning calories, you know—and then took Sheba for a lovely meander through the forest on one of our favourite walks. It’s high Summer now, all brown and dry. A week ago, everything was lush and green. Below, are my photos of our walk.

In the evening, I watched Piano to Zanskar, a pay-per-view offering of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival on Vimeo. Lingshed is a mountain village in the Indian Himalayas province of Zanskar. At 14,000 feet above sea level, it is one of the most isolated settlements in the world.

And that’s where eccentric British piano tuner, Desmond O’Keeffe (age 65), decides to deliver a piano so that the village school can better teach music. You should see what they go through to deliver the piano to a very grateful population. The piano, of course, was disassembled and reassembled once they arrived at their destination.

It was amazing, it was heart wrenching and it was absolutely beautiful and very emotional. 

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Today’s plan, after the big community dog walk, is to tackle the land at the extreme east end of my property. It’s a field of weeds. I’m going to till it to kil all the weeds and continue to ponder what to do with land I’m not keen to seed. It’s dark in this area and the soil is acidic, so I may propagate a bunch of Ivy and try to get Ivy to cover it. I’ll also till around the Apple trees to kill all the weeds there.

The grass is half a meter high.

The Ferns are two meters high.

Daisies are everywhere.

Sometimes, the Ferns shine in the forest.

Tiny purple stars are everywhere, like the Daisies.

These spectacular Grass seeds will turn black!

Ideal, beautiful symmetry.

The Thistles smell absolutely divine. They grow
in large groves as you can see below.

These wildflowers are a stunningly bright yellow.