Road Work and the Garden

With August almost over -shocking! September never really feels like summer- I've rallied a few pictures gathered, over the last week, of the garden that console me as the noise of roadwork takes its toll.

Piles of curbs and sidewalks- one of many aftermaths- as the road crew work in stages

Our own salvage from a house in Lunenburg that was digging up their 50 yr. old concrete tiles-

a kind freebie from the owner

I look back from the road toward our lush greenery

The "prehistoric" plant on the left draws me in

I've shown this plant in past years, amazed by how the flower buds emerge from a pod

 growing in clusters,

blossoming in succession

with multiple pistils and stamen

the underside of its leaf so beautifully articulated with the rim edged in red scalloped points

the base of the same plant

and here a cleaver plant embroiders itself in a gentle spiral around it

the tiny clingy burrs of a cleaver that I really ought to pull

but like this aphid infested weed right beside it, I forget-

fascinated, instead by the marvels of life

So glorious weeds abound in our garden

as I confuse what's supposed to matter with what is inherently beautiful.

Looking back from whence I came, our Japanese Maple doing so well,

our hanging basket of petunias still on the ground to get the rain from the night before

I wander to the back of the garage to frame a shot of our little Harelson apple tree

and then pan over to Wally's little garden. I've cleaned the waste water from the bird bath

with a myriad of mosquito larvae squiggling in it since with a good scrubbing with vinegar.

On the morning we left for Lunenburg I came out for some herbs for our picnic lentil salad, and found the peach tree literally bent in half under the weight of its load. How it didn't snap I don't know. Wally added 2 more bracing lines to help it stand. We've since picked about half its fruit- about 4 lbs. and happily (we'd forgotten) they are cling free, meaning the fruit comes away from the pit.

at my feet, some pretty pink mallow bloom

I remember these flowers from when I first found them blooming on my first property in Port Carling in Muskoka, and have had a love of them ever since, so much so that I mow around them as they spring up all over the lawn.

Under the cherry tree a new tree is taking hold and I recognize it immediately as an elm

by the notch at its the leaf's base.

Elms are a sentimental favourite leftover from childhood, especially meaningful having survived the blight of Dutch Elm disease. Ironically they are quite common here in the Dutch farmland of the Annapolis Valley and represent a promise kept that this area would remind me of the rolling farmland of the southern Ontario of my childhood.

Pretty notched petals of the same kind of wee that had the aphids on it

a visit to our grapes

that were decimated

by the blue jays. Wally and I got to taste a few and they were surprisingly sweet.

More beautiful neglect. a fungus growing out of one of our punky deck boards

Meanwhile, as I said earlier, the work moves in stages

and here the sidewalks and curbs are being removed to a dump truck

I filmed it. Thankfully the dust generally blows away from our house and gardens.

You can upgrade the quality to HD

by clicking on the gear box in the bottom right corner of this video

It was a hot and even noisier week to come, leaving me a little unhinged from all the noise, as the asphalt of our street was pulverized by a crushing machine that continued for 3 consecutive days consuming our Saturday, I believe because this project is running behind schedule- there was an unforeseen need for retaining walls where the roadwork first started. The results are brilliant, a wonderful upgrade and worth the trouble judging by the care with which this job of loading the sidewalks and curbs was done.  I expect, however, we'll see an upgrade in our taxes as well.

There have been moments of utter peace

when no one can get through and the workers have gone home.

I see pedestrians walking up the middle of our lumpy road like the aftermath of some horrible event, totally out of context, neighbours I've never seen before having to abandon their cars at the perimeter of the work area. I'll probably have to do the same this evening as we need to fetch some kitty litter when Wally gets home from work.

A tiger lily with its leopard spots by the front entrance with a bite taken out of it as I leave the commotion for some respite inside.

And here, while I waited for my video to upload to YouTube, is Muji resting beside me

and Babu in the vestibule enjoying the peaceful afternoon.

I hope you, too, can find some time to enjoy some repose in your life,

a precious necessity.