Wormwood about to be released

Another book in one of my favourite series is about to be released. I'm looking forward to sitting in my favourite garden chair in the lovely spring weather and reading this book.

Wormwood is the title of the seventeenth book in the series which features China Bayles and it will be released in April 2009. Stop by for a sneak peek of the first chapter by clicking on the link. I know as soon as I read the first chapter I'll want to read the rest of it.

Susan Wittig Albert was my guest blogger last year. Why don't you read more about her books here.

You can enter for a chance to win your own copy.

Why don't you follow along on the latest blog tour as Susan revisits some of her favourite guest posts on her blog, Lifescapes. You'll find more links there to enter for other chances to win your own copy of this book.

Update April 2/09: Congratulations, Lynne Pennoyer. You are the winner of the free advance reading copy of Wormwood, the seventeenth mystery in the China Bayles series.

Here are books that I have read.

The Rains Came

The day started out dull, misty, and damp and it soon turned to a full fledged rainy day. There was even a brief thunder storm in the morning.

This is the kind of rain we need at this time of the year. It clears all the dust and grime from the roads after all the salting and gritting that went on all winter. It is also the rain that starts the grass to turn green, and helps those spring bulbs to poke higher and higher through the ground.

But just after 7 pm the sun started to break through the rain clouds and there was a wonderful sunset about 7:30 pm. So I rushed outside and captured the sky through my lens.

Looking to the west the sky was a glorious red colour.

But looking to the east was the best view of all as there was a wonderful rainbow.

I just love how the tree stands out in front of the rainbow.

I never would of expected such a colourful end to the day.

Labels: sky, through my lens

Keep on crowing!

The crows have been hanging around the garden all winter. Their loud squawking announces their arrival. They will come into the flat feeder by the kitchen window but are always very quick to leave when they see the slightest movement. I watched for several days and finally set up the camera and left it there. I stood to the side so they couldn't see me and I was finally able to capture some photos of them at the feeder through my lens.

Wow, just look at the size of that beak.

Crows are the largest members of the order Passeriformes. There are three species of crows native to Canada and it is the common crow that lives in my area.

Check out other bloggers that carry cameras all the time and snap photos of Camera Critters.

Cloudy with a chance of ....

.... snow? rain? nothing at all? meatballs!!!

The sky looked a bit ominous this morning. No moon peeking through at all, so I guess it won't be around for another month or so when the next full moon makes it appearance.

Don't you just love all the various widgets that bloggers are finding?
My weather widget on the right of my blog tells me the temperatures are on the plus side of zero Celsius and there could be isolated flurries. How dare it say that when the calendar tells me it is spring! But we all know that true, lovely, warm spring weather isn't here yet. So anything could fall from the sky at any moment. Let's hope the isolated part means it's over you and not over me!

But spring is happening.
The red wing black birds have returned in large flocks. They scour the ground and eat up all the seed that has fallen over the winter.
The goldfinches haven't quite got their lovely yellow colouring yet but they are slowing getting brighter.

More buds are still appearing on the trees and bushes.
And these tulips and daffodils weren't visible last week.

Here's another widget I'm really enjoying. It's 'The Link Within', which I discovered a few weeks ago on a regular blog I visit. Now I notice it on more and more blogs.

It is such a neat way to have a look at related posts or posts from the past. I'm not really sure how many folks ever look back at previous posts on a blog. I have a feeling they are only interested in the most recent post. But this neat little widget lets you click on three related posts and get a 'blast from the past'. Give it a try!

One of the downsides of widgets is that they can sometimes slow the loading of your blog. But it is usually worth the wait.

If you are looking for a fun book to read with your children, why not try "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett. It is set in the town of Chewandswallow where the weather brings the most unusual things. The weather happens three times a day and everyone ate from the sky.
Are you intrigued? Why not look for the book and read it with your kids or grandkids.

I'm not affiliated with any of the widgets or the book mentioned in this post. I just enjoy them and wanted to share them with you.
Edit about 11:43 to show a new photo of the sky. The clouds have moved out, the sun is shining and there are some lovely white fluffy clouds in the blue sky.

Down by the bay ...

... where the ducks swim merrily all day.

During the lovely weather this past week I took a few walks down by the bay. I was looking for wildlife to capture on my camera.

Out from shore there was still ice and the gulls were walking around, or perhaps sliding around.

There were lots of mallard ducks closer to shore where there is open water. Mallard ducks are commonly known as greenheads (though at times in different light their heads look blue). Notice how colourful the drake is compared to the hen.

Mallards aren't diving ducks, but feed by sticking their heads into the water and feeding just below the surface. There are lots of weeds and rushes in this part of the bay which makes it a great place to hide their nest. I'll be going back frequently to see if I can capture the little duckings.

Thanks to those of you that commented on my new header photo. In one small inlet there were at least 10 ducks all floating around on the water, so I couldn't resist creating a header photo out of it.

Check out other bloggers that carry cameras all the time and snap photos of Camera Critters.

Labels: Through my Lens, Camera Critters, ducks

March gave us a break

March sure has given us a break as far as the weather goes this week. Each morning I check The Weather Network to see if a storm is coming, just like it usually does in March.

It is March Break at school so I get a glorious week off work. And on a lot of the days I've been able to either sit on the deck with a cup of tea and a book, or walk around the garden and groan to myself at all the work that needs to be done, or go out shopping and get some goodies for the garden.

So, I'm strolling through the dollar stores and spy these sun faces and just have to purchase one for the garden. I immediately think I'll blame Joy, who of course blamed her purchase on Cindee. But I really don't need to blame anyone as I did it all by myself.


The concept of Dollarama has changed as now some items cost more than a dollar. They range from $1.25 to $1.50 to $2.00. But even at $2 it was worth it to bring a little blogging sunshine into the day.

And naturally some seed packets just jumped into the basket all by themselves. Did I really need more seeds? Most definitely not, but who can resist when they are 3/$1

Then I visited our local garden center, Thrashers, (which, by the way, is open year round). At this time of the year they always have canna root, dahlias, lilies and more for sale. If you don't get these items now, they will have vanished once the actual gardening season is here. I've been adding to my canna collection for a few years now. And a walk through a garden center taking in the sights and smells is always invigorating to the gardener.


Today's purchase included a root called Ermine which is a lovely cream colour, one called Richard Wallace which is yellow, and one called City of Portland which is a pinky red colour.

This one, Cleopatra, caught my eye right away. The shades of yellow with red markings and perhaps red under leaf were just too tempting to pass up.

So now I need to find some large pots and some potting soil and get these canna roots planted. The head start inside will mean they will be ready to transplant outside at the end of May and I'll see the blooms a bit quicker in my garden.

Have a great first day of spring.

Trillium Coaster

The white trillium has been the provincial flower of Ontario since 1937.



The name 'trillium' comes from the Latin for 'three'. The plant has large, often white, three-petaled flowers above three broad bracts that look like leaves. They are members of the lily family.

A few years ago when I was active in Girl Guides I designed this pattern for a trillium to stitch into a coaster made with plastic canvas and yarn.

Cut a piece of 7 count plastic canvas 30 holes by 30 holes.
The pattern is on the image below, which you can download to your computer and print out.

Stitch the trillium in white with green leaves, add 3 yellow french knots in the center.
The background can be done in any colour that you choose.

For the backing add another piece of plastic canvas and stitch together. Felt can also be added for the back of the coaster.

The pattern could also be made up on 10 count canvas using floss.

I'm eagerly waiting for the trilliums to grow in my garden again this spring. I've had a red one that has bloomed well for two years so I'm hoping it has survived another winter.

Labels: plastic canvas, trillium

Glorious Sunset

Yesterday was a gorgeous day as far as the weather went, with temperatures reaching +11 Celsius. How lovely to wander around outside in a sweater instead of winter coats, hats and mitts.

The sunset was glorious last night so of course I couldn't resist snapping a few photos. I used my tripod and camera on the sunset setting with maximum zoom for these shots.


I obviously do much better with sunset photos than I do with moon shots.

The weather promises to be much the same today.

Labels: sky, weather

Monday Mystery bloom

My daughter had her birthday the day after mine and she received this lovely bouquet of flowers.

It had her favourite star gazer lilies in it but it also included this stem of berry like flowers. We will be waiting to see if they open.


So for my Monday Mystery, can you identify them for us?

Edit at 9 pm: A big thank you to Cathy for identifying Hypericum Classic Flair as our mystery berry in the birthday bouquet. If you do an image search on Google you will see it is indeed what those red berries are.

Labels: Monday Mystery

Strolling around looking for spring!

I've been out and about looking for spring.

A walk down by the bay a day or so ago shows it is still covered in ice.
But yesterday afternoon it was lovely and sunny and the temperatures climbed just a little bit above the 0 Celsius mark. Even Shadow came out to enjoy the sunshine and hunt for spring with me. Well, she was more interested in the little bugs that have started flying around.

Someone else was out looking for spring too. The resident chipmunk.
But I have a feeling he/she was hunting for food after a long winter of sleeping.
I'm off to check the gardens and see how they have progressed from last week.
On last week's stroll around the garden I only found one tulip bulb poking through the ground. But this week I found several and maybe a daffodil or two as well.

The Quiet Country House invites you to take a Sunday stroll around your garden too.
After pulling away some of last year's leaves I spied some green shoots of the daylily.

And just look at the fat buds on the lilac bush.

Last year for my birthday I got a glorious pot of hyacinths. After they finished blooming I decided to plant the bulbs in the garden. Well, just look what I discovered on my garden stroll ... the hyacinths are starting the grow. I sure hope they bloom again this year.

The squirrel was out looking as well and he discovered some dried bread from the flat feeder.

Back inside for Green Thumb Sunday and the Christmas Cactus is coming into full bloom once again. As the Garden Grows invites Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers to join in every Sunday.

I've also just realized it is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day too, why not stop over at May Dreams Gardens and join in. I'm so glad I actually have something to post about for Bloom Day.

What's in the bag?

For those of you that have cats, you know how curious they can be when something new arrives in their house. Here is our cat Shadow, investigating a gift bag. Her antics are perfect for Camera Critters for this week.

If you put your mouse over the images you can see what Shadow is thinking.

As you can see, once she discovered what was in the bag she really wasn't interested. But I certainly was. This was one of my birthday gifts from a lovely friend who knows I can't wait to get into my garden.

It is a bag of 10 Tricyrtis hirta or Japanese Toad Lily bulbs. These are fall flowering plants that grow to a height of about 50 cm. (20 inches). Now I'm more impatient than ever to get into the garden and plant them. I hope the actual blooms are like those depicted in the photo on the package. Has anyone grown these? Let me know what you think of them.

A special thank you to all my Blotanical friends that stopped by my plot to send me birthday wishes a few days ago.

Check out other bloggers that carry cameras all the time and snap photos of Camera Critters.

Labels: camera critters, lilies

Shooting for the moon

I've been trying to capture the full moon ... with not that much success.
These shots were taken just after 6 am this morning with my camera on the tripod.

I tried the evening setting and the sunset setting on the camera but really wasn't happy with either one. It must of been too dark as I couldn't capture any details on the moon.

Someone needs to share their tips of taking great moon photos with me. What setting should I be using to eliminate the glare around the moon?

This shot was taken about 7:30 am when it was a bit lighter. I was able to capture a bit more detail this time.

Previously I captured the moon during the morning hours and here with a much better photo. Maybe I should stick with daylight hours.

I've become quite the sky watcher. How about you?

A Sunday Stroll in early March

The weekend has been lovely with temperatures between +5 Celsius and +11 Celsius. We did get a fair bit of rain later Saturday afternoon which helped to get rid of a lot of the snow and ice. It sure was lovely just to put on a sweater and walk around the garden.

In the lower areas of the garden we now have big puddles. Even though the top of the ground is soft, it still has not defrosted a lot.

So as I took my Sunday stroll I had to gingerly step over or around the little streams that were all over the garden.
The Quiet Country House invites you to take a Sunday stroll around your garden too.


The run off ditch towards the back of the property was gurgling along with the water melting from the back fields.

Along the edge of the ditch I found a large patch of moss coming to life after being buried in lots of snow not too long ago.

By one of the gardens I found some green hollyhock leaves soaking up a bit of sunshine.

The wheelbarrow planter which was totally covered in snow a couple of weeks ago is now totally visible. Hm-m-m I wonder what annuals I will plant in there this year?

The birds were chirping away as loud as can be. I captured another photo of the robin in the back tree.

And the male cardinal was investigating the grass to see what he could find to munch on.

He is starting to change to a more brilliant red.

And low and behold in another garden I saw a lonely tulip bulb starting to poke through the ground. This gives me hope that I will have something to post for Green Thumb Sunday soon.

After moving a few dried leaves I also discovered one of the trailing sedums has some green shoots on it.

Spring really is coming. Even if there is a weather warning for our area tonight into tomorrow morning for snow, ice rain and ice pellets.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday.
Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Labels: Sunday Stroll Birds robins cardinals Green Thumb Sunday