Happy Easter!

Spring has sprung and here are a few of the flowers that have been blooming in my yard. The first Camellia blooms were tinged with brown from the cool temperatures and rain but I was happy to see the later blooms lived up to their name, Pink Perfection.  I just love the anemone blandas and take way too many photos of them every year. We are planning on fixing our ugly, broken retaining wall that runs beside a part of our driveway, and I can hardly wait to see the end result. There will be a lot of digging, and a lot of mess, so I'm a wee bit concerned for my poor plants. My beloved hydrangea, young hibiscus and heathers are in that bed. Happy Easter!

Camelia

Anemone Blanda

Primrose

Crocus

Tulip Tarda

It's Not Spring Yet

Just when you think spring is on it's way....

Pink Dawn last Week

Pink Dawn on the weekend

Pansies

Fairy Garden

British Columbia Wild Flowers

      It won't be long until the crocus are blooming, and many things are showing signs of life here in the Pacific Northwest, but until then I thought I would share some photos of BC wildflowers taken over the years. Feel free to share the names of any of these, or to correct me if I've labelled them wrong. I am far from being a wildflower expert. Most of these photos were taken in the Fraser Valley, and a few of them are from Manning Park. I'm linking up with Glenda from Tootsie time this week for Fertilizer Friday. Now I must get back to planning my 2014 Garden!

The dreaded Bindweed

Beach Pea?

Dove's Foot Geranium

False Lily of the Valley

Wild Rose

Silverweed

Fireweed

Wild Lupine

Palmate Coltsfoot

Salal

Spiraea Douglassii

Merry Christmas!

      I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season in spite of the busyness and potential stress. I finally finished my Christmas shopping today! It seems like the people in my life get more difficult to shop for as the years go by. Then there are those family members who say they don't want anything at all. I wonder, does every family have one of those? There isn't much happening outdoors flower-wise, but I do have one flower photo to share that I took in November.  We didn't torture our cat with Christmas photos this year (yet) so I'm sharing an old one. Merry Christmas!

Choisya 

Tiger

August Blooms and a Wedding to Plan!

     Here are some flowers that are blooming in my early August garden. First off is my newest shrub, Hibiscus Blue Satin. I bought it so that I would have something blooming in my front yard in September. It started to bloom at the end of summer, even though it is quite small. I hope it will still be blooming in September.
      Next are a couple of photos of Cosmos, one of my daughter's favorites. I am hoping these will still be blooming in early October, for her wedding. Yup, my oldest child met an amazing man and is getting married and leaving the nest! What a change that will be. Then I will be the lone female in this household. Scary, ha ha.
      I'm growing a dahlia called Crazy Love this year. It was supposed to have more pink on it, according to the package photo.  Happy Gardening!

Hibiscus Blue Satin

Cosmos

Cosmos

Dahlia Crazy Love

Gladiola

Unknown flower

Echinacea Bright Star, having it's best season ever. I know, still not much, ha ha

Lavatera Novella Rose, a nice short variety

Daisy

Hydrangea bloom

Campbell Valley Regional Park

Campbell Valley Regional park is located in Langley, BC and one of my favourite parks. I was happy to be able to visit it on a sunny summer evening recently. I took along some seeds to feed the hand-tamed chickadees, but they all seemed to be rather busy, so I took a bunch of photos instead. I'm including a photo from a couple of years ago, just so you can see the chickadee eating out of my hand.

Wildlife Garden

Pond

Little River Loop Trail

Large Native Ferns

Mmm, someone left some seeds here

Wildflower Meadow

Annand Rowlatt Farmstead and someone still lives here

Annand Rowlatt Farmstead

There's a trail for horses

Where the chickadees hang out

Photo from 2011

This Song Sparrow found some seeds too

Little River Loop Trail 

The Nature house that I have yet to find open but maybe one day...