A Lovely End to May…

On Tuesday May 31st I headed out early driving north to Canada to meet up with four of the Mennonite Girls and one of our favorite bloggers from Ontario, Canada.

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We met at a beautiful park and Kathy put together a lovely spread for us to enjoy.

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Scones, fresh fruit, jams and clotted cream plus cookies.

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Rosella from Rhubarb and Roses blog has been faithful with comments on the MGCC blog and our personal blogs, too.

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How apropos to meet at a park with beautiful roses in bloom at Gwynne Vaughan Park in Chilliwack, B.C.

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I came home with some yummy gifts from Rosella and another gift from Anneliese’s daughter who is home on furlough from mission in Indonesia. The trivet from Indonesia is perfect on my current tablecloth. Soon we’ll enjoy the Ontario pure maple syrup from Rosella on Dear’s Swedish pancakes. Thank you Rosella! Thank you Julene! Thank you Kathy for organizing this lovely visit. Thank you Lovella for driving from your place to the park.

My 2 hour drive north and 2 hour drive south was uneventful and easy because of free flow of traffic and great weather. The border crossings were quick with no waits at all. I even made it home in time for Dear and my regular Tequila Tuesday at our local Mexican Restaurant.

Cheers From England ~ #4

On this Monday after our second English Breakfast that we made for ourselves at the cottage we would venture out to two gardens right next to each other. Before I move on to the gardens here’s a collage of our breakfast time with some visitors that came to our door begging when they caught wind of the sausages cooking.

2014-07-07 VisitorsWe were warned by the owners of the property that their dogs would try to get us to feed them and they told us not to give in. The dogs  looked so hopeful.

The first garden to visited was Hidcote Garden. It is a National Trust Property. We aren’t here in prime garden time having missed the roses being in their glory but we still enjoyed a lot of color at the gardens.

Day 4 Gardens 012I will need to devote a few posts in the future to these lovely gardens we visited but for now I’ll only leave you with a couple snapshots.

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The second Garden we visited was the Kiftsgate Court and Garden which was across the way from Hidcote.

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Day 4 Gardens 112We got a fair amount of walking and climbing up and down trails today.

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This evening we have dinner reservations at the Ebrington Arms and while we have been relaxing in the cottage this afternoon a thunderstorm has passed over us with quite a downpour. We are hoping it moves on because we do not relish the idea of driving country lanes in a downpour!

 

Saturday Fun…

Nothing deep to share just these beautiful roses we picked up at Trader Joe’s yesterday for $4.99. Why walk away without buying them? And…

…have you ever seen a Brussels sprouts Stalk? It was $2.99 at Trader Joe’s. I just had to buy it. Of course Dear and I enjoy Brussels sprouts more than most people do. It’s another one of those tastes I’ve acquired in my adult years. So I think these are on the menu for today along with some Lamb Shanks and mashed potatoes.

June Blooms…

It’s time for Outdoor Wednesday with Susan at The Southern Daydreamer. I’ve been enjoying my June blooms in the yard.

 

The lavender is blooming which makes weeding in the beds an olfactory delight!

 

Lovely splashes of crimson are welcome in the planter. This rose is so prolific and I cut it back aggressively wondering if it will bloom again…and it does.

 

Last but not least my new addition this year a Sarah Bernhardt Peony which has stolen my heart. I will be planting more Peonies next year!

What’s blooming in your yard? We are so happy here in Western Washington to be enjoying some nice sunny days. We still have promises of more rain coming but we’ll enjoy the sun while it lingers and entertains us!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Outdoor Wednesday ~ My Yard June 30th

For the next several weeks I’m in the state of Washington so my Outdoor Wednesday Posts will be from the Western Washington area.

Susan at A Southern DayDreamer is our kind hostess for this weekly event. Click over to her blog to see Outdoor Posts from around the world.

 

I took a walk around the yard today to see what might be blooming. My hydrangeas are just getting some color.

 

I was happy to see my Lavender survived the dry weather the Seattle area has been experiencing seeing how my tenants (two of my adult children) don’t consider watering part of their routine upkeep of the house.

 

The wild rose bush is flourishing and we have a very few pears growing on the Pear tree and a good amount of blueberries plumping up.

I’m still getting my bearings here in the Northwest. I’m not up to my usual bloggy speed. We are replacing my old double oven this week and I’m scrambling to get things in order for our July 4th Barbecue. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods and if you are in the United States enjoy the 4th!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Today’s Flowers #16

 

For more Flowers from around the world visit the Today’s Flower Blog hosted by Santilli and Denise B.C.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!