BugZoo part 2....

Well pictures anyways... thought i'd like to post them, just because...







note the centipede on his head.. ewww

grandbaby finally held one of the stickbugs :D

am making some Turkish Flatbread, Fladenbrot, it sounds great, hopefully it turns out!

had to run into town today.. masses of people and cars... i think i'm a perma country gal, even tho we're now on fairly busy road, i still have space around me... life is good!!

Sunday afternoon was sooooooo FUN!!!!

we went for a journey, 1 daughter, 1 granddaughter and me... went to Victoria B.C. (not too far from us) and went to the Victoria Bug Zoo.... wooohooo bugs galore... BIG bugs galore!! there were a lot of mantis, stick bugs, centipedes, millipedes, tarantulas, ants.. if your on the island and in Victoria and have children (well even if you don't ) its great fun.. make sure that u go around with a guide because it's well worth it! they had several guides at one time, so if you could switch if you liked...

here's a short video.. sorry about the quality, but i wanted to show it because 'they' make a tea from the Malaysian Jungle Nymph Walking Stick poop... mmm yummy ;)after our host told us about the insect, then he put it on the ground and she proceeded to dig a hole to lay and egg....

laying an egg

mmm cockroaches

bush crickets... and yes they were very LARGE

just hanging around

will post more pics tomorrow... i'd go back there any day... we stayed for over 2 hrs., watching and listening to our hosts...

A quiet Sunday?

a very heavy OLD plane just flew over and rattled my windows... sometimes wonder HOW such things do fly... like Bumble Bees that technically aren't supposed to fly!! Tell that to the masses that have been pollinating my garden. i love to watch them buzzing around heavily laden with yellow pollen.. and very grateful that we are blessed with them... a neighbour has a few hives and this year we've been blessed with honey bees, the past few years they've been far and few between.. being on an island we have strict regulations about transporting bees... but unfortunately some people chose to ignore the regulations and brought some from the mainland.. disaster, same as on the mainland, dying off in hordes.. i can only hope that the bees have transfered the virus or mites or whatever it is that is the problem, to the local populations.. here we have several different species of wild bees.. all wonderful to see hovering over my comfry or climbing into a foxglove flower...

MMMM breakfast ... grandbaby made her own version of 'granola' rice crispies with things she picked, cherries, blackberries, saskatoons and huckleberries.. yumm!! Thank you to all the bees and wasps, hummingbirds and any other creature that helped to pollinate all the berries and cherries!!!

sleepy Sunday mornings are always good for a doggie rest... note the ear holder (my slipper) :D

It was a more quiet afternoon, but hot, muggy and generally icky in my house... so off we (me and doggies) went, searching for the perfect photo... well we didn't find it.. but i did get some nice pics of some of the places we went to...i'm having troubles uploading them.. so you'll just have to wait!! Yay I finally got them uploaded... I went to Cowichan Bay which is on the Southern part of Vancouver Island, a beautiful area.. beach, river, fields and mountains in the background... doesn't get any better!!











Red Osier Dogwood

Red Elderberry

Red Elderberries



the corn is tall this year because of the amount of sun and heat we've had... should be a good crop (weather permitting)!!!

Technoratic....

told me to make a post with this ( nf69vbetw3 ) in it, so it can find this blog... whatever i say!!!

Yay it's Friday!!

a rather very lovely Rose, not sure which one tho.. am just lucky to have any grow it seems.... daughter who lives across the field grows gorgeous ones!!


Sweet William

Sweet Peas

Bee Balm

another day, another sunny day!! can't complain i guess.. we had several days of rain which has made my garden very happy.. i have noted some odd things in the garden.. one of them being the peas have produced like crazy but on very short vines... its not the type of peas either, same kind i've always had... so not sure if it's because they didn't need to grow because of the unusual amount of sunshine we've had this year or something i'm not giving them in the way of nutrients...my Scarlet Runner Beans are doing the same thing... only 1 bean has decided to be a bean and grow tall, winding it's way up my deer fence post, the others look rather pathetic but they are starting to form little flowers.. my sweet peas have done the same thing... producing like mad but just short vines...

i have my granddaughter with me still.. just visiting :D and yesterday my two girls and grandbaby all went Thrift Store shopping... hit a couple of them and the dreaded Costco for a certain book... a very cool pop up book of the human anatomy...
anyways the thrift shopping was good, i got a couple of shirts, some crafty items and the girls both got some clothing as well.... one thing i've noticed is the increasing volume of shoppers at the thrift stores.. a vast majority of seniors... our shrinking dollar is causing havoc, especially amongst those of us with limited incomes, but maybe it's a good thing, we'll be recycling big ticket items, clothing etc., all good things, keeping it out of the landfill and extending it's lifetime of use...

The day after...

my birthday and i'm sitting here wondering where i'm going to put my new soil that was my birthday present... i'm tickled pink that my kids thought of the greatest gift for a gardener :D was pretty fun to see the backhoe coming down the road, with 2 hanging baskets and a big red bow on top of the bucket of soil!!

after the soil was deposited my wonderful son-in-law went and attacked the blackberries that were overgrown down by my winter pond... ahhh all gone now... at least for this year.. am going to go to the feedstore later today and pick up some sort of seed to toss all over the bare ground... not sure what i can plant but thought maybe winter rye would be a good cover, or even clover..

had a sleep over with grandbaby last night... we both had a bath in Thyme epsom salts, then big oversized T-shirts a bowl of popcorn and Cats And Dogs movie.... was great fun!!

today we're going to go and pick berries.. the small creeping blackberries, saskatoon berries, raspberries, huckleberries and even a few left over strawberries.... this year seems to be a bumper year for the berries... "Lots of Berries, lots of Fish" was a common saying many years ago... now i'm afraid the lots of fish isn't :(

anyways.... i'm thinking that a berry cobbler sounds pretty darn good!!

A rainy day....

the last Iris in my water barrel

this also was in the water barrel, not sure what it was, will have to go have a visit in pond nursery :D ahhh what an excuse ;)

the endive from last year is blooming and i'm going to let it go to seed... and yes it is a member of the chicory family

Dyers Chamomile, which is used for dying fabrics and wools... i had other varieties of chamomile but this one is the most hardy and i can find it almost anywhere in my garden, the others didn't make it through last years harsh winter...

as much as i hate it.. i'm glad it's still raining.. 2 days of it.. our poor momma earth was thirsty! it's been a very dry spring and early summer... i made the decision to water my garden even tho it's costing me a pretty penny, but on the up side, i think that i'm still going to come out on the 'profit' side... the cost of water and seeds/plants is still going to be less than if i bought the veggies and fruits and i know that not a lick of chemicals has been absorbed by my plants... eating a 'real' veggie is worth it all :D...

it's my birthday today.. 59 yrs and 7 months i've been on this earth... all i can say is that i hope i've done it okay and not destroyed too many things in my path...we humans are a destructive bunch in general... anyways.. nothing planned for today.. i think only the immediate family know it's my birthday and we're going to go see Harry Potter next week instead of doing something today... my childhood love of the big screen will be satisfied for a while :D

my neighbours are on my extremely bad list today... daughter told me that their dogs (which they let loose) killed our fawn that we had in the lower field... i can't blame the dogs, i blame the owners who are irresponsible and don't give a damn that they've caused the deaths of several animals... my kids and i have always loved to see the animals in the fields and made this a safe haven.... well just to be called nutty... i just looked out the window and lo and behold are 2 deer... may they live in peace :D

woohoo... the little buck came back and i got this picture... don't know where the doe went but i'm sure not far behind.... what a nice b'day present :D