My Kitchen Window

I thought I would show you what I see when I look out my kitchen window, which is over the sink. The three little vases on the right hold two varities of Helleborus! The little white pot in the centre holds a small orchid, which my DD left with me when she moved to Germany. The little bottle on the left holds two cutting from a grape ivy - I cut it back as it was getting a bit straggly and I will root these up to add to the pot! The tiny little mouse I got last year when I went to Amos Pewter's in Mahone Bay, NS. I often put him on a cheese tray for fun! The little pewter birdfeeder hanging on the inside of the window and the dove also came from Amos Pewter's. When you look outside to the right, that is my greenhouse/shed. On the left is the greenhouse and it needs a good old tidy, as it is getting time to start a few seeds and I have an old laundry tub with running cold water. I love my greenhouse and will spend many a happy hour in there soon. On the right of the building is a shed, where we store our summer furniture, extra pots for gardening and tools. The garden is a bit sleepy in the photo, but daily I can see a difference, as the plants start to grow again with the longer ours of daylight (not caused by the change to DST!!) and also the warmth of the sun! There, this is what I look out at many times a day! I tried clicking on the photo and I did get a larger image!!





I took a cooking course this week on Moroccan Cooking, and this mushroom soup is not from the course, but I had lots of mushrooms and I had cut a recipe out of the newspaper, so today seemed like the perfect day to try it. I will blend this all with my immersion blender, add some yogurt and lemon juice and make an Irish Soda Bread to round out a nice light Sunday dinner. Last evening I tried several of the Moroccan recipes from the course, and they were really tasty!




I took a few more pictures of the helleborus and wanted to show them up close. The two burgundy plants on the outside of the group come up this beautiful colour and then slowly turn to green. This helleborus, which I do not know the name of, is not as easy to get seedlings from, but I do have one in another area of the garden that seeded itself and then I moved it. This helleborus will probably never produce enough seedlings for me to give them away. However the other Helleborus - Helleborus Orientalis or Lenten Rose is prolific at giving me seedlings and I have given them away to other gardening friends and also moved them to other spots in the garden. Do you get the feeling that I love Helleborus - you are right. The real close up is of the centre of the Lenten Rose and I love the stripes and blotches. It will get a deep rose as it ages and then will develop large seed pods. I let them be until fall and this is a plant that never really needs dividing. I would say it is a real easy plant to work with in any garden.




I have been corresponding with Cornflower and I had mentioned that I love Helleborus, as she seems to, and also that I would try to cut them and bring them inside to enjoy and they would droop. Cornflower/Karen wrote that she had heard that if you cut them, put them in tepid water (and I submerged them) for 6 to 8 hours that they would not droop! Now, I know they appear to be drooping, but they are not - that is the one unfortunate property of my Helleborus - they hide their faces. This one of the things I love about blogging - so much help and so kindly given!

Here is a photo of a gardener's faith. These are sweet pea seeds and I will take them out later today and plant them. My garden always has sweet peas and I pick bunches almost daily while they are blooming. There is really nothing that can compare to the fragrance of sweet peas! I will also share a photo of some beautiful orange tulips that are gracing our dining table!