Velvet Petals

Breathtakingly beautiful roses with a Victorian sentiment, russet velvet with peach melba undersides, brought by D. for me. They are exquisite, their various shades blending like a fine tapestry.

Antiquing in Shakespeare

My latest vintage purchase... these shutters in an amazing shade of blue-green.

There is a hamlet just down the road from Stratford with the apt name of Shakespeare. In this quaint hamlet there is a small conglomeration of antique stores. And in a shop called Land & Ross Antiques, I found these wonderful shutters.

You can see a collection of these shutters leaning against the wall behind the white van in the middle photo. I came across them there but didn't buy any just then. That night, after seeing Twelfth Night at the Stratford Festival, I lay awake thinking about them and plotting what I might be able to do with them... for their lovely blue-greeness was calling to me.

By morning I knew that I wanted to bring a pair home with me and my dear patient husband agreed to return to take another look. And so we did. To top things off, I managed to get a wee deal. The sign said $45 each, those slightly damaged $15 each. I got the pair for $25.

I'll show you what I do with them in a future blog entry!

Hydrangea Blue

One of my favourite flowers is the hydrangea, especially those in shades of blue.

When I first planted my hydrangea shrub it was a lovely deep blue. Because of our soil, it gradually turned pink over a period of a couple of years.

I had read that soil needs to be acidic to produce blue blooms, so I buried an assortment of old iron nails that I had found washed up on a local riverbank, placing them all around the bush. Some say that this will not turn a pink hydrangea blue, others vouch for this method, claiming that the iron oxide from the rusty nails acidifies the soil. Would it work for me?

Much to my disappointment my hydrangea didn't produce a single bloom last year. But this year... there are blooms... and they have a decidedly blue cast to them!

Container Gardening in Stratford

Just so you don't think it's only Niagara-on-the-Lake that knows how to plant flower boxes. The town of Stratford is no slouch in the container gardening department either!

Flowers Galore

Down a road off the main street in Niagara-on-the-Lake is yet another gorgeous collection of flowers.

Flowers Extraordinaire!

Niagara-on-the-Lake always has magnificent flowers along their main street.

Happy Canada Day!

Canada Day!