The best spot in the garden

Yesterday, we enjoyed an afternoon of visiting with Jon and Michelle who had simply hopped in their car and driven to Nanaimo on a whim.  The day was glorious .. it reeked of summer vacation ... a gentle breeze that picked up a bit later on, hot sun and a hint of ocean.

While I was sitting there, my nose picked up a fragrance that I'd been waiting to smell for a couple of weeks. The Casablanca lily was in bloom, so I excused myself from my guests and stole a few minutes in the garden with my camera.  I love these lilies .. not for their color, but the smell ... not only can they fill your house with the smell of flowers in a cut bouquet, but an entire yard.  On a still day, you can smell them throughout a neighborhood.  Now that's a flower that gives and gives.

The tiger lily, on the on the other hand is a spectacular flower that cannot complete for smell, but for pure showiness, it can't be beat.  Actually, these are not tiger lilies, but a trumpet lily that reminded me so much of my beloved childhood flower that I couldn't resist the bulbs last year.

Tucked in behind the casablanca lily, they make a stunning display together and my favorite part of the garden.

Drama at Dawn

The picture above is a bit shaky, but you'll have to forgive me.  I don't see 3:00 am often at the start of my day.  And thank heaven.  I'll happily leave that part of the day to you morning types.

Still, you have to admit that skies like this might be reason enough to drag your arse out of bed on occasion.

Homage to Ian

One of my Calgary friends used to have an English Pub in his basement.  Probably still does.  I need to thank Ian for a couple of things .. well, probably more than a couple, but two that have to do with beer.

My experience with beer was teenage over-indulgence in prairie wheat lagers, over-indulgence in after-slowpitch 50¢ draft beer and much, much burping as a result.  Then I somewhat grew up and realized that by drinking wine I could still get a nice happy without all the gas.  So I gave up beer for  a few years.

Then Ian rocked my world with an introduction to ale.  Ian happily took me on an ale education from sources around the world .. particularly his beloved British Isles ... and gave me back a frosty mug of chilled brew to hoist to people's health.  As a matter of fact, I still keep a half dozen glass mugs in my freezer in the event that company drops by.  He also gleefully delighted in dragging all of us down to the Dog and Duck after a Friday night kungfu workout where the concoctions of Smithwick's and Strongbow ale became a favorite of mine.

He'd often host us at his house and in his basement fridge, there was usually a pony keg on tap.  We'd fill up the mugs and then set them down on one of the gazillion beer mats he had collected.  I'm pretty sure that beer mat collection took on a life of their own as friends and acquaintances made sure to stuff some in their pockets or purses to bring home to Ian.  I probably contributed to it in my own small way.

In doing some research for an Adobe Illustrator class, I fell in love with the artwork on some of the beer labels .. and then subsequently, the beer.   So here is my homage to Ian, his beers and his collection of beer mats.

Most of these are real, although a few of them are a tongue in cheek PhotoShop tribute to beer labels. You might be surprised to discover which ones are the fakes.

Rock Star!

Some days absolutely call for an entourage.  When you look this fabulous, its time to find a stylist, a personal assistant, a manicurist, pool boy, account, and manager.

I pulled this shot of Elsa out of one with her two cousins who were dressed similarly ... it's one of those pictures that all three will look back on later in life and say, "damn, we looked fine!"  And they'd be right.

Elsa nailed the accessories, from satin slippers, sunglasses, hat and cow.  A bit of eccentricity is expected in rock stars, after all.

Huli time!

Beach towels .. a necessary part of life near the ocean .. the more colorful, the better, in my opinion.

Bruce and his team spent the week practicing mistakes.  In the outrigger, it's easy to tip the boat over, which can happen for a variety of reasons ... large waves, paddler or steersing inattentiveness, boat imbalance, or horsing around.

New paddlers have to be indoctrinated to the huli procedures for safety reasons, so Bruce and his team took the occasion of beautiful weather to dunk themselves into the water and learn how to get back into the boat in a timely fashion.  The goal is to be quick about it and have the paddlers be calm and knowledgeable in their roles.  Each team member has a specific job to do that contributes to the speedy recovery.  A huli tends to happen more often in bad weather, so practicing often is necessary.

Yesterday, Bruce took out his regular team and practiced advanced recovery techniques learned from scouring hours of Hawaiin boating video and adapting it to his particular group.  Here, from Youtube is a short video so you see what he's been up to.  This is not his team, just a huli practice from the Oceanside Outrigger Canoe Club .. not sure where their home docks are.

If One is Good ...

... then eight ought to be orgasmic.  I love the way my husband's mind works.

Over the last couple of years, we've slowly been adding vines to garden trellises, mostly in hopes that they will give us blockage from our neighbor's rather untidy yard at the same time as restricting a few of the vagrant seeds and weeds that blow through the fence.  This summer we've had to add deer to that list since they've discovered that they can simply walk through the trellis.  I tell you, the raccoons out here have nothing on deer ingenuity.  As as result of a mid-afternoon visit this week, I'll be spending August and September working with Bruce on repainting trellises and putting up deer fencing which should serve to keep them out until the clematis can do the job by themselves.

To the left in that picture, you can see some new plants that will find their way into the lily garden alongside the beauties below.

Sadly, the gladiolas that were beginning to come into their own ... met an untimely end as a deer salad.