The underclothes first

Not exactly the kind of photos my mother would want me to post on the internet, but hardly racy enough to fret over. Cotton twill for the corset with a nice stripe visible in the weave. Wow, does that fabric ever press nicely. The corset trim is a pre packaged binding tape with lace. I bought it for a bedskirt years ago. But no one will notice it’s missing from the side of the bed that is up against the...

Night and Day

The only surviving tea rose here at the Compound. The buds are so beautifully dark before they open. Quite set back by the June cold snap, I think we’ll only get these two blooms.

Clustered Bellflower

Campanula glomerata. Planted on a slope that the dog decided to use as his path to the lower backyard, yet they keep coming back. Very best cut flower, lasts for a full week or longer in a vase.

Pearly Everlasting

Anaphalis margaritacea. Fairly hardy, a bit weedy, but doesn’t mind the clayey soil at the end of the flower bed. Great cut flower. and blooms for 3 to 4 weeks

Therese Bugnet

A hardy rugosa. This is her first year to bloom but is supposed to be quite shrubby eventually. Planted up on the knob, that just the kind of rose we’re looking for.

Survival of the Sickest

Subtitled: “A Medical Maverick discovers why we need disease” Interesting (why do we have diabetes? To keep us alive during an ice age) until it reached the mitochondria and jumping dna code and my brain went “huh?” Semi aquatic ancestors made our nostrils face down…. did you know that?

Lucy Maud Montgomery – The gift of wings

Biography that ‘looks far beyond her own published journals’. There was a lot of stress in this woman’s life – loopy husband, crooked publisher, lazy sons. It’s amazing she was able to write what she did.

Choosing Fabrics

Below are some possibles I found at Fabricland. Practically the entire store is 50%, and many are even more. With the theme “Riverboat Gambling” I don’t want to be a saloon girl (haven’t quite the figure, or age). George’s costume is that of the sophisticated gambler, so I thought I might be the sophisticated, but somewhat garish girlfriend. A former saloon girl, perhaps? ...

David Thompson

Hardy rugosa. Moved to the ‘knob’ last spring, this is David’s comeback year. Well shrubbed out, but few buds. Maybe next year.

Alexander MacKenzie

One of the explorer roses. Not quite magenta. Tiny blooms, much like the Morden Centennial with a central bloom first, and the surrounding buds later