Girfriends' Retreat in BC

I’m having breakfast at a high table overlooking the lake and straight ahead of me I see the birdfeeders and currently there is a tiny blue headed bird that I will look up in Marie’s fancy talking book on birds. I think it is a mountain chickadee. It’s very pretty. Last night we could hear the wild beating of hummingbird wings as they dipped into the feeder. They are so tiny it is just incredible to watch them. I’ve landed in a little piece of heaven where everything is lush and green and the birds are singing to beat the band.

Marie has made her deck so warm and welcoming but she had us keeling over with laughter when she told the story of visiting her neighbour and coming home thinking “I have deck envy”. Only Marie could say something like that and get away with it. But she was right on it and my eyes fall on lovely potted plants with adorable hummingbird solar lights. Charming little accents on the tables, like a seabell in white or a potted gerber daisy in soft pink are restful to the eye.

As always I am the first one up, out the door for my agonizing walk up and down hills at 6 a.m. turning around because I’m exhausted but I will fob the gal pals off with the excuse “it was starting to spit”. LOL I declare that the hills in B.C. are steeper than anywhere else because I did not have THAT much wine last night to incapacitate myself to the extent of getting winded on a mere driveway. I’ll have to post a picture of the mere. (Remember the story where the grandpa says “You didn’t get beat by a mere girl?” And the kid says “Girls aren’t so mere anymore” or words to that effect . . .) Seriously Marie has one killer of a driveway, going up and down that a couple of times would equal a one hour walk, I’m pretty sure!

Walking along and admiring all the lovely gardens I have to say that I have tulip envy. I kept wondering “how do they get them to grow so tall?” Mine are tiny little pygmies and frequently fail to bloom. I am doing something wrong but I don’t know what. I’ll have to ask Gill she’s our horticultural expert in the group. Whenever I come out here I muse for a while on the possibility of having a second home here but it would be for the gardening and then what would I do with the house all winter? No, I must persevere with the challenges of Southern Alberta gardening and accept that lushness is never going to be one of the features of my garden. But I did get an inspiration to seed violas in my east pathway, it will look charming and simple as well as blending in with the purple irises.

I can hardly wait to get into my own garden but in the meantime I am enjoying the companionship of some wonderful girlfriends, even if they are sleepyheads!