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Alfresco Entertaining in my small Garden

by Tricia

We’re at the height of summer and I find that almost every day we’re having a meal in the garden on the patio. It’s lovely to sit outdoors enjoying the beauty of the garden and when we’re lucky it’s bounty as well.

As I mentioned in my last post, our tomatoes are just beginning to ripen and very soon we’ll have cucumbers and beans. We’ve already been enjoying strawberries and raspberries from the garden and I expect that we’ll continue to enjoy them for another month or so.

It’s at this time of year when I most enjoy entertaining. I love inviting a few friends or some family members over for an informal visit. We’ll get together and have a barbecue or just a snack and a few drinks. Just a chance to get together – but of course it’s always in the garden surrounded by my lovely flowers and all the lovely scents they produce.

One quick and simple treat that I whip up when guests come over is cheese and crackers. I almost always have both cheddar cheese and a soft cheese on hand like Boursin Cheese and of course a variety of tasty crackers is always handy.

Do you do a lot of entertaining in the summertime? Do you keep supplies on hand for “drop in” guests? Supplies such as tasty spreadable cheeses like the Boursin cheeses discussed above or other quick foods?






Filed Under: Home and Lifestyle, Recreation, Summer in the Garden Tagged With: barbecue, boursin, cheese, dining, drinks, drop in, easy, eat out, eating, entertaining, Family, flavor, flowers, food, friends, guests, height of summer, meal, outdoors, patio, quick, scent, Simple, snacks, soft cheese, spreadable, summer, taste, tasty, visit

Wild flowers by a shallow creek

by Tricia

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Chris and I took our puppy over to SunnyBrook Park yesterday so that she could see the horses they keep there.

While we were in the huge park we took a walk along a nice stream and Midnight, her water loving self, had to jump in the water!

I stayed on the bank and wandered around taking pictures of both Chris and the dog in the shallow water. I was also doing my best to fight off a hoard of mosquitoes! I wasn’t happy about that!

While I was taking pictures I noticed a few clumps of flowers. I’m not sure what they are, but they’re lovely:

IMG_4827

The plants grow to 2.5 to 3 feet tall and grow in clumps. They look like this:

IMG_4832

The area they were growing in was kind of shady at 5 in the afternoon. I have no idea if it gets bright light in the morning but I suspect there’s more light earlier in the day than when we were there.

Anyone have any idea what kind of flower this is? (Reminder I’m in Toronto – USDA zone 5b, just in case you need some climate info to help me figure this out.)

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Filed Under: Blooming today, Green Thumb Sunday, Photography, Recreation Tagged With: afternoon, area, bank, Chris, climate, clumps, creek, dog, flower, garden, greenthumbsunday, GTS, midnight, park, puppy, purple, question, stream, Sunday, SunnyBrookPark, Toronto, unknown, USDA, visit, walk, water, Wild, wildflower

This is the Life!

by Tricia

Ah …. I’m sitting here in my backyard at the patio table enjoying this beautiful day while surrounded by the beauty and lovely scent of my garden.

I couldn’t ask for anything better!

My husband is here beside me reading a magazine while we both keep an eye on our almost year old Labrador retriever.

Midnight, our Lab, has spent some time in the garden with us, but barely ever off leash. This is in part because our fences aren’t all that high, and well … she still likes to explore all of the garden beds. This time however, we’ve let her off leash and brought out a few of her toy bones to chew on. She’s being good and seems to be enjoying the time outside as much as we are.

My only worry is that she might try to bite a bumble bee and then get stung! You see she’s fascinated by bugs, and like most dogs tries to snap at them and eat them when she sees one! I don’t want her stung, nor do I want to find out if she’s allergic to bee stings (like me!). Plus, the bee population has taken a hard hit this year so there’s no point in letting our dog needlessly kill a useful insect.

We were expecting an overnight guest this weekend but he had to cancel at the last minute. To prepare for his visit we tidied up the garden, watered it and finally got around to putting our Tiki torches in the garden last night. The torches give the garden a “Survivor” kind of feel, and they also help keep the mosquitoes away since we use Citronella oil in them.

Do you spend time just enjoying your garden and or using it to entertain guests?

Do you ever bring your laptop outside to your garden so you can blog or read your email?

Filed Under: Home and Lifestyle, In The Garden, Pets and Wildlife, Recreation, Summer in the Garden Tagged With: backyard, beauty, bee, blog, citronella, dog, email, entertain, garden, husband, insect, Lab, Labrador, laptop, leash, life, magazine, midnight, oil, outside, patio, retriever, scent, Survivor, Tiki, visit, weekend

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