Thursday, May 12, 2016

Humble Bungalow Home and Garden...

It has been a frenzy of activity here these past few days...as we have had a crew of painters here scraping and prepping the exterior of our Humble Bungalow in preparation for paint.
The cats have been running around to the windows and watching the men on their ladders...the noisy sanders have been loud and I was on deck to provide refreshments (cookies) as a self proclaimed Hostess I do have a reputation to live up to!


Oops someone left a cedar shingle on the patio!

Today all is quiet and I can hear myself think...the dish washer is going through its cycles but I can still hear the birdsong outside my window and it is music to my ears!


This pretty purple plant is in a neighbours garden and the bees just love it.
When I walked by I could hear the buzzing and watched as perhaps 50 bees gathered pollen.


Further down the block these beautiful artichokes are growing right beside the sidewalk.
I'm tempted to ask for a sample...


Artichokes have such interesting and intricate details.

Our Humble Bungalow Garden is a riot of colour and the roses are in full bloom.


Our roses are really putting on a spectacular show.
They love the warm weather and the sunshine.
This pink rose is the climber Madame Gregoire Staechelin.


Joesph's Coat of Many Colours


The blooms are bright orange when they first open and then they get tinges of yellow on the edges of the petals as they fully open up.


Iceberg is a reliable and hardy climbing rose which rewards us with many pure white flowers.


The cats do not usually nap in the same place but we caught them in the act and I had to take a picture because I think they looked quite cozy. They are sleeping on top of our vintage English Pram!


You still have a day to bid on the Hermes scarf and Pyrrha necklace if you are interested...
all the details are in the previous post.

Well that's about it for now...
I must get out for my walk as it is a beautiful sunny morning.

~ Be Well and Be Kind ~


24 comments:

Dianne said...

Your flowers and plants are such a welcome sight, especially today when we've had snow here in southern Alberta. Thank you for these wonderful images of beauty! Are you limited in your colour choices with your bungalow having a heritage designation? (and my apologies if I've missed this information earlier....)

thepoutingpensioner said...

Pretty amazing photos, Leslie, especially the one of the bee. Bees in my garden don't have such beautiful plants to work on though they do like my borage so I let that wild plant go a little crazy. Crazy is right at home in my garden, it's less than immaculate! Yours looks so neat, you must put in the hours out there. BTW, do you have borage in Canada?

Susan said...

What a lovely post--and, as usual, your photographs are beautiful. I love the flowers, the artichokes and your cats. Your blog is a haven.

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

Snow in May? Oh my goodness!
Heritage houses are required to use heritage colours but there are lots of combinations available...our bungalow was originally brown with a creamy white trim and the windows were a cream with a burnt sienna accent.
13 years ago we opted to change it to forest green for the body of the house with the same cream trim but the windows now have have a black accent. We are having the same paint scheme as we quite like it and it makes the flowers in the garden "pop!'

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

I use my IPhone for all the pictures on the blog and I am so impressed by the camera it has built into it!
I have a few hours of paid garden help every month just to help me keep on top of things...the weeds are persnickety and after the violet invasion last year I knew I could not stay on top of everything by myself considering my frozen shoulder which is thankfully on the mend...
Mr. HB is handy with the mower and he is great at pruning, building things and more recently is having a lot of fun growing veggies.
Yes we do have borage and I used to grow it just for the bees!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

Thank you Susan!
Don't those two cats look a bit guilty sleeping together on the pram?

Lorrie said...

The roses are so beautiful. And so early! It's amazing.

Barbara Lilian in France said...

I'm amazed at the show of roses you have already in such abundance. Mine are still struggling, I saw lots of buds two weeks ago, then we had a change in weather with some cold frosty nights and they're all black now. Great photos from your camera.

Marilyn said...

Your roses are amazing. Ours are not even budding properly yet. Your weather must be much kinder than ours, though we have had a few lovely days. Back to a very chilly North England breeze today sadly.

Jen Lawrence said...

Look at those roses! Stunning!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

They are way ahead of their usual blooming patterns and most of our roses are repeat bloomers so I am hoping that they will be able to sustain their habits and continue through August!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

Thank you Barbara!
They are having an amazing show of flowers this year...I think it is due to the warmth and sunshine...we have clay soil so that when we water it stays in the roots...and roses are thirsty plants. I use my Iphone to take all my pictures...my very old Canon is not as good as the one on my phone.
Hope you will get some warmer weather soon...the roses I saw last year in the south of France were spectacular!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

We are indeed enjoying a warmer than usual Spring and considering that we live a few blocks from the seafront and get those chilly ocean breezes I am surprised...but grateful!
Hope your weather warms up so your roses can get on with their job!

Bmore Bungalow said...

Your roses are magnificent!!!

KSL said...

Love the color combo of your home. My roses are on steroids as well.

La Vie Quotidienne said...

It is so exciting...a whole new paint job. I am sure it is going to look spectacular.

Pondside said...

We had a large fir removed this week and now have.....sunlight! I went right out and bought two roses - a Molyneux and Cecil de Brunner....more to come!

LPC said...

Your roses are just wonderful. Question - what do you do about the various black spot rust mildew stuff?

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

Steroids is a great word to describe the roses right now!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

It will freshen the look of this old house for sure...the sun fades the colours and over time the paint peels making the bungalow look rather shabby. We like to keep on top of things if we can...it has been 13 years since she was painted so it is way overdue!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

Now that sounds incredibly exciting!!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

Try to water in the morning so that the moisture does not stay on the leaves overnight as that encourages black spot...if you have any leaves with black spot cut them off and burn them do not let them stay on the plant or the soil. If you need to spray for rust and black spot or aphids use a non toxic product like Safers Soap...Funginex is also another product you might consider.
Roses enjoy a handful of epsom salts sprinkled at their feet once a month while they are blooming and I usually use a cultivator to mix them into the soil. Feed them well with compost or fertilizer....hope this answers your question.

Stephen Andrew said...

Just gorgeous! I so envy all your roses!

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

I hope you will not get tired of seeing them as they are really my favourite flowers and as long as they are blooming in the garden it is hard for me to resist capturing their beauty and sharing the images here on my blog!