Sunday, October 10, 2010


We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday. Our oldest daughter Ale drove from Lillooet so all the girls were present for dinner. Rosemary decided to cook two chickens (Fred and Sally) with roasted potatoes, onions, carrots and her trademark stuffing which we all love. She also made her Pavlova which was served with California strawberries and whipped cream. Hilary and I both eschewed the strawberries and indulged in Argentine dulce de leche. To drink we had my last batch of iced tea for the season. The Russian Caravan tea that I used for this concoction is now officially retired until next year.




The garden is a fall garden and with the sun out the Cercis Canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ is glorious in its fall colour. Rosemary’s aconitum is in full bloom with its deep blue (and extremely poisonous) flowers. The Japanese anemones are in bloom all around and my roses are in a wane. But I was able to find enough roses to cut to decorate our Thanksgiving dinner table.

It might be easy to discount the generous contribution (understated, perhaps?) of all our hydrangeas. We must have at least 30 different ones and at least 6 specific species. They bloom faithfully in the middle and late summer and just about now the spent blooms again give us a show. Here you see Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake’ (commonly called the Oak Leaf Hydrangea) and the one with deep pink overtones is Hydrangea paniculata ‘Unique’. For me our garden hydrangeas define our fall garden.