Thursday, January 9, 2014

A Look at 2013 (1)

Having read in Christina's post about a free software to make collages, I decided I would try it with some pictures taken in the garden last year, as a kind of farewell to 2013. I thought I would spread them over two posts. Here is the first ones.

Hypericum calycinum, Agapanthus and Gentian


Three roses: John Davis on the left, New Dawn upper right and Ballerina at the bottom.


Roses John Davie, New Dawn and Balleriana
Roses

On the upper left is "Chadwick", a particularly nice variety of tomato I was growing for the first time last year. On the upper right is the cucumber "Lemon" - it looks weird, but it is very tasty and by far the most productive cucumber I have ever grown (see Lemon ). Lower left is a "Rouge vif d'Étampes" pumpkin, and lower right is "Red Sail" lettuce.

"Chadwick" Tomato, "Lemon" cucumber, "Red Sail" lettuce

I had to include a selection of dianthus, one of my favorites flowers. Upper left is Dianthus alpinus, upper right is Dianthus amurensis and at the bottom one of the numerous pinks that self-seed all over the garden.
Dianthus alpinus, Dianthus amurensis & unidentified dianthus
Various pinks


Some of the wild life we saw over the summer. Upper left is Ruthie, our local female black bear. She is right in the middle of the picture. I did not have a zoom and did not want to get any closer (see Ruthie). Upper right is a white tail deer, lower left the porcupine that woke us up several nights in a row chewing plywood (see porcupine). Finally, the garter snake that almost gave me a heart attack as he was hiding under my gloves in the garden shed (see Garter snake).

Bear, Deer, Porcupine and Garter Snake
Wild animals seen in the garden in 2013

Finally, various poppies: Flanders field poppies on the left, a double somniferum in upper right and Shirley poppies at the bottom.

Papaver rhoeas, papaver sumniferum and papaver rhoeas "Shirley"

10 comments:

  1. Very nice selection of photos. I am interested in your Dianthus, it seems to be a favorite of yours and I have never felt the desire to grow it for some reason. Makes me feel I must be missing something.

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  2. A lovely round-up of the year. Really like these collages. I saw those lemon cucumbers in a catalogue just yesterday and was wondering how successful they really are. Good to hear from someone firsr hand!

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  3. Did you use Picasa for the collages? I tried the link for th garter snake but got an error - just wondered whether it was poisonous?

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    1. The collage was made with something called Fotor. It is also a photo editor program (I like it better than the other I have tried). I am sorry the link did not work for the snake. It is under the label "wildlife", if you want to read it.

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  4. Garter snakes are harmless, Sue. Poor little guy in the photo probably had bad dreams that night from the sight of that giant hand removing his blankie. :-)

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  5. I love dip tic and it is free at the apple store!

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  6. You had a great idea sharing this software the results you post are charming. I tried and it is way easier than the one I usually use ! I'll present some collages later on.
    Brr I'm so afraid of snakes even if they're harmless... they scare me but not as much as mice... you should hear me shouting my dear gods !
    Bonne soirée

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  7. Good idea to put things in a collage. You have a beautiful garden.

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  8. What a fond farewell! Even the garter snake.
    The milk snake you identified in my yard bit my cat in the face. Perhaps I was fortunate he did not bite my granddaughter, who stepped over him several times. Perhaps the eye contact was the problem.

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  9. I don't think I'd want to get any closer to that bear, either! Garter snakes don't bother me. Love your flower collage. It's hard to resist a poppy. :o)

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