Loss of Limb

On Monday, Toronto was hit with heavy rains and serious flooding.  I live half an hour from Toronto and we got only a bit of rain.  But on Tuesday morning I awoke to find my lovely pine tree had suddenly dropped a huge limb!

There were no high winds, and this limb was growing right at the bottom of the tree, so winds wouldn't have caught it anyway.  You can see how long it is, and it crashed into my lilac bush.  I think it may be diseased, and I worry that other limbs may come away now.  The worst part is that it tore a huge hole deep into the middle of the tree when the limb did a bit of a twist when it fell.

Just look at that huge gaping hole!  We're going to have to get the professionals in to have a look at it.  I'm afraid of what they will tell us.  This tree provides the only shade and a huge piece of privacy in my backyard, and even right into my house!  I would hate to see it come down :(

 

We lost another mature tree in our backyard about 7 years ago.  A lovely locust that was ill from the day we moved here, but we let it be until some larger limbs were dying, and since it was quite close to our house, we were forced to have it chopped right down.  We felt so exposed when we lost that tree ... so I can't imagine how awful it will be to lose this one too.

I took a wander around the yard yesterday and snapped a few photos of the flowers now blooming.

The red and white lilies (above) are new this year ... "Strawberries & Cream".

The clematis growing along the shed is doing great this year!  If you can believe it, there are even more blooms on it today, and you can barely see any green leaves.

Up close the "Jack Miner" clematis.

The morning glory vines are twining up the chicken wire.  I tied some string onto the fence posts yesterday, and the vines have latched onto them and grown again overnight!

 

Shasta Daisies are blooming en masse.

 

 

My tiny lavender plants have doubled in size, which doesn't look so impressive, but I love these little guys and the fact that they have some blooms too :)

 

 

Miniature rose almost there!  Tonight I noticed bits of yellow finally peeking through the buds.

 

 

This tiny airy blue flower is Scotch Harebell.  I was surprised to see this pretty little flower blooming at Charleston Lake last week, clinging quite happily to cliff edges right near the water.  I guess it's a lot tougher than it looks.  This flower was looking rather messy throughout the garden last year (or maybe it was two years ago), and I ripped it all out.  Or so I thought!  Now that it's back again, I've decided to leave it and it can grow where it wants ... and it will remind me of my camping trip!

 

 

My butterfly bush yesterday was just about fully in bloom ...

 

Today it has burst out all over and looks and smells wonderful.

Another lily I picked up last summer on a whim.

I like the peachy colour beside the purple hostas flowers.

With our very wet summer so far, the plants haven't needed watering ... not once!!   and I'm surprised at the number of blooms emerging after two straight days of bright sunshine.  All the flowers shown here were taken yesterday, but today there are so many more bursting out ... it's really incredible.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

 

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