attracting birds, evergreens, garden visits, months 01-03: winter, months 04-06: spring, months 10-12: fall, urban deer

Early Camellia

01/14/2014 svseekins 7 Comments

Camellia is one of my favourite broadleaf evergreens. It blooms early, then works hard as background support the other 3 seasons. Several birds make themselves at home in the camellia in our courtyard – – AND the shrub is deer resistant! That’s my kind of plant. 🙂

camelia in december, at LD downtown — photo by SVSeekins

A few years ago, I spotted a hedge of camellia in downtown Victoria, beside London Drugs. They were almost finished blooming in mid-December! I have no idea how early they’d started… November? October??

Who’d have expected blooms in autumn?

Camellia japonica apple blossom, Joy Sander, Camellia sasanqua,, garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest — photo by SVSeekins

Not long after that, KC gifted me with a fall-blooming camellia. It starts blooming before Christmas and has even more flowers through January!

Yeah, Baby!

Once I knew it was possible to have blooms so early in the year, I kept an eye out for even more samples around town:

camellia, february, at the legislature, cu, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest

photo by SVSeekins

camellia, february, at the legislature, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest

photo by SVSeekins

It was delightful to find another variety of camellia starting to bloom in mid-February sunshine near the BC Legislature.

camellia, march, near the YM-YWCA, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest

photo by SVSeekins

Just a month later, in March, I notice these camellia blooming in a yard not far from the YM-YWCA downtown.

camellia, mid april, waterloo, garden Victoria BC Pacific Northwest

photo by SVSeekins

A block or so away from our place is a camellia that flowers through April.

camellia, courtyard, may ms garden Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, Pacific Northwest

photo by SVSeekins

Then there is the camellia in our courtyard typically begins blooming in April & is in full blossom in May.

Autumn… winter… spring…

Who knew there are so many cultivars with differing blooming schedules?

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© SVSeekins and Garden Variety Life, 2014

bulbs, garden visits, months 01-03: winter

Winter’s Joy – Snowdrops

12/31/2013 svseekins 1 Comment

snowdrops blooming 2013 12 27 — photo by SVSeekins

The solstice passed & each day is just a little brighter than the last. With optimism I step outside searching for signs of the new year…

JOY !! Snowdrops in bloom 🙂

If these little bulbs can thrive during the cold, cloudy winter, then so can we.

Happy New Year!

P.S. Ok, to be honest: these blooms are not from my yard. I searched & searched but found no signs of them yet. BUT – – Just 6 houses down the street, there they are! Talk about micro-climates. 🙂 All the more reason to go for a walk, eh?

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© SVSeekins and Garden Variety Life, 2013

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garden seasons, months 01-03: winter, projects

Baking Party Nerves

12/20/2013 svseekins 9 Comments

What’s more fun than going to the mall in December? Well, many, many things… FAR higher up on my list is a party.

It’s an opportunity to pull out some seasonal music…. go through the cupboards… and dress up in something special…

That’s when I like to head to the kitchen. The season is about getting together with family & friends. Playing together in the kitchen is no exception & one of my favorite kind of parties.

Christmas baking is mostly created for others as gifts. Gifts of time & effort…. gifts from the heart …. Guilt Free calories.

gathering ingredients — photo by SVSeekins

Every year it surprises me how much skill is required to make a truly good butter cookie or an extremely fine shortbread. I mean, recipes look like paint-by-number instructions. It SHOULD be so easy. Gather ingredients, combine – – ta da!

But sometimes greatness balances on humidity & barometric pressure. For real! My Dad told me this & I’m totally going with it.

Either way, every baker experiences failure.

How can he / she best deal with that disappointment?

Christmas Tins & sprinkles — photo by SVSeekins

Well, to use a culinary cliché: When faced with a lemon, make lemonade.

This year I made peanut brittle. Sort of. It looked perfect … but was cement in the Pyrex. Through extreme ingenuity I was able to rescue the pan, but not the candy.

It turns out we’d stumbled upon the procedure for creating an incredibly tasty batch of sprinkles for ice-cream. It was really good, but still wouldn’t cut it for gifting.

Danish Butter Cookies — photo by SVSeekins

So I moved on to cookies. Gosh, cookies are so PARTICULAR! Thirty seconds one way or another can make the difference between raw & burnt. Well not burnt – but BROWN..

I reckon that a gradient of brown cookies should go into every gift, proving that they were handmade. This sounds totally reasonable, so that’s what I do.

But there are still a few really brown cookies leftover that just won’t do… They’re tasty, just too dry…. So, now I’m thinking they could be crushed & replace graham wafer crumbs in another recipe… Do you think that would work?

AB wearing 'something special' — photo by SVSeekins

I also need an evolutionary plan for the fudge that didn’t harden even after I’d meticulously heated it up past the important soft-ball temperature. It turned out like really stretchy toffee…. Granted, toffee is a delicious treat. Perhaps I’ll wrap it in wax paper & rename it? Maybe not.. too sticky. Ideas?

It’s amazing how any challenge seems easier when taken on together. We keep each other on track, share skills, and offer support & laughter… And when it comes right down to it, we relax & spike the lemonade.