A Walk

Come along on a walk with me in our garden this bright and sunny morning on the first day of December.

I took Sophie out for her apres-meal, constitutional walk in the garden. I am pretty sure she 'sucked me in' so she could go find her 'tuggie' toy which she left outside.

Off she went to find it! Since I had the camera with me I thought I would look for things of interest. The light was perfect in places, so I took full advantage of it.

This is the 'lathe' house I built years ago. It is disintegrating before our eyes but in the process it has this great patina and interplay with the light.

For about ten plus years it had this grapevine growing all over it producing a pile of grapes for the birds. You see, it grew up onto a very large Spruce tree and started to 'take IT over', so we had to cut down the vine (ouch, I know) in order to save the tree.

This is what's left of the trunk of the grapevine. Great textures here, eh?

Near this structure  is a small grove of evergreens, Spruces. I noticed the different depths of field and the sunlight mingled between the trees. It is difficult to always capture what one sees.

I find you have to focus on not what's just in front of you sometimes in order to get that 'shot'.

I love shadows! And noticed the Periwinkle ground-cover growing over a rock.

This plant can be very invasive and we have to keep our eye on it. Otherwise it would literally take over the whole garden in no time flat! But, it does have a beautiful purple blossom in early summer. So what CAN one do?

Been having a few problems with the Tibetan Prayer Flags. They keep falling to the ground. I suspect a squirrel is doing it because I caught it trying to stuff one of the flags into it's mouth on a number of occasions....probably for 'winter bedding'.

Again, this red flag looked great in contrast to the grayish tree trunk.

As I walked up into the front garden, the Rhododenrons looked bright and perky and were covered in next year's buds. 

Here's hoping we won't have a lot of freeze/thaw this winter. It can be devastating to plants around here. If the ground is frozen (which it should be all winter) and we have a thaw, the soil will heave up and could bring up the roots along with it. And when it freezes again......you get the picture. The plant can die and as well the buds can drop off.

This rosehip was all by itself on one of the Rugosas.

I think that rusty things in a garden add a lot as far as colour and interesting texture.

These are things we leave out all year and let them do their thing.

I noticed that this plaque on the shed was starting to form some rust in places. A few more years and it will be covered.

Sophie finally found her 'tuggie' and insisted that we play with it. She is pretty strong now and you really have to focus on what you are doing.....she loves to play rough! Don't know who taught her that!

Thought I would take advantage of the weather today as it's supposed to rain for the next few days.

I really don't think we'll have any snow this year. Yeah right!!!