Longest day sunset, buns and roses ;)

The boys were up for Father's Day and dropped in here for brunch ~ one of them brought me the fridge magnet that starts this post ~ it didn't take long for them to wolf down the cinnamon buns!

Lovely cloud formations lately ~ and the longest day provided a great opportunity for a walk to the beach and some sunset photos.

Do you see the hedgehog clouds?

A few roses, and honeysuckle. The dark red one is Hot Cocoa, the small pink ones are from the Fairy Rose, and the white ones are Iceberg which continues to have lots of blooms.

I am very busy this week as it's the last week of school for the students ~ not only that but I'm in the middle of going to 6 parties ~ some retirement, 3 different staff parties ~ my old school, my new school, and one where a friend is retiring. By Saturday I'll be partied out. My holidays don't start for a week or two because I have to make sure everything is completed for this year and ready for September.

BTW the cherry tree has been extremely popular this year ~ but today the ravens came! These guys were HUGE, and scared the living daylights out of me with their racket. I shooed them off! Chickadees and robins are OK, but crows and ravens can hang out somewhere else!! Usually the first cherry picking starts July 1 so I hope there are one or two left for us humans!

I've been baking as well, for the students at school who help me in the office, and for each of the parties. Tonight I made a carrot cake with cream cheese icing for tomorrow's do. Thursday it will be a chicken dish, and maybe a trifle for Friday's party.

I have been reading blogs, but haven't had time to respond as yet. Soon, though!

It's summer!!!!!!!!

Life is a bird full of cherries!

What a perfect day for gardening ... but how can anyone garden with so many distractions? The weather remains 'tropical', and the cherries, although not yet ripe, must have tasted quite succulent to the robins in particular. There was much carrying-on in the tree ~ but hold on to your gardener's hat, ~ first, a few photos of white flowering plants for Flighty, with a little bit of pink ~

Over the back fence, a mock orange tree...

Over the side fence, neighbour's white hydrangea

On my deck, hanging basket ~

and my Iceberg rose



Now, back to the robins ~ caught in a quiet moment ~







But look what else was going on!! I was so excited to finally capture this on video and still photo ~







Meanwhile, in the Grapricot tree (The grape vine intermingled with the apricot tree brances)...there were the cutest little fledging chickadees.








Here's one snuggled in a perfect cradle ~



Every so often, I'd get back to gardening and when I looked up ~



and over in the conifers ~



I spotted a hummingbird at a red rose, and then at the honeysuckle ~ of course it moved so fast, that by the time I was ready with the camera, it had buzzed off! I did manage to get some strange shots of one, though ~

Sitting on a branch in the Grapricot tree (about a third of the size of the chickadee)



Through a space between the fence ~



and checking out some geranium petals on a tree ~ (how did they get there?)



As the day wore on, and I was having a break on the deck, I noticed that some birds were fluffed out at the bottom of the garden ~ the hottest driest spot ~ robins and a young flicker I think ~








It was a glorious day and I felt so grateful that I was able to share and enjoy the back garden with these lovely birds ~ and, of course, I did stop to smell the roses! My new header is 'Folklore' and the fragrance is divine!

Meet Mr. Flicker

Read more about Northern Flickers.

I've moved to the Tropics...

at least that's what I thought when I saw this:



My neighour has planted a tropical tree in his garden ~ and by doing so, the weather has acted accordingly and we seem to have moved to the tropics with an accompanying heat wave! Hottest its been at this time in 20 years!

Some rhodos in my garden enjoying the blue ~









The peony buds have blossomed:


This is as far as I got with my post ~ and now I'm taking up again...


I think to fill in these last weeks, I will endeavour to inform you of the highs and lows in the tropics (where I now live)~

Discomforts of the tropics:

The Twanging Back syndrome ~ this occurs when one crawls around on the deck trying to get under the lounge chair to tighten a loose arm (the lounge chair arm, not mine), using a large screwdriver and a pair of pliers resulting in a contorted knot-like position which twangs the back (mine, not the lounge chair) and makes it nigh impossible to get up.

The Loss of Voice syndrome ~ this occurs when one picks up a germ from work, which, when coupled with the hot dry air of the tropics, makes it nigh impossible to talk, other than in some squawking gibberish that makes people's eyebrows raise, as their mouths pucker in an attempt to control laughter.

Coupled together these afflictions are referred to as the "No Walkie-Talkie Syndrome".

However, not being one to complain, I have weathered the heat, not missed a day of work, have read many of the blog entries, but haven't been responding or posting.

Living in the tropics speeds up production...everything flowers at once. They bud, they pop, they drop! Hence no more peony flowers ~ but the roses have started to bloom ~

Without further ado ~ here's some photos of my life during the past few weeks... first some tropical sunsets ~




Tropical cats seem to be affected by the full moon:


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Photobucket has just gone into maintenance, so I can't upload any more tropical photos at this point. Suffice it to say, that I'll reopen this tropical topic as soon as I can!