Today turned out an outdoor day. Which is to say, more outdoors than usual, to some degree. The weather made that an irresistible option. So did the fact that we had no other pressing options waiting on us. We had bought a few shrubs, mature and beautiful, from more echinacea plants to several varieties of hibiscus with the intention of planting them. Eventually, at any event, no big hurry.

I wanted first to prepare the garden to receive them, and the garden is pretty crowded, so room had to be made for them. Our old Annabelle hydrangeas that I've given neighbours roots of over the years, have a habit of spreading and encroaching on the areas allocated to other plants, and I had in mind to trim them back. I even dreamed about it, my mind working overtime on trying to figure out where they were to be placed, the result of a spur-of-the-moment extravagance.

No rain in the forecast for a change, a cool and heavily overcast day with the occasional sun breaking through, just perfect for working in the garden. So before we went out with Jackie and Jillie for our afternoon turn in the forest, I did some tidying up in the backyard. Starting with the hard-to-reach area behind the larger of our two garden sheds, where weeds love to lurk. Our old corkscrew hazel tree that had suffered so badly from an infestation of Japanese beetles feeding on it a few years back had taken to shooting out straight branches from the trunk. I've been cutting them back for years.

I trimmed the peonies, since they're long since bloomed and cutting them back now at summer's end gives me a leg-up on clearing away everything later on in preparation for winter's arrival. When I took a trip to the top of the rock garden at the side of the  house I wasn't the least bit surprised to see that the volunteer morning glories had formed a mat of vines and flowers on the upper portion. When we still had the wood fence I used to string them up. Now that we replaced the fence with a vinyl fence, the vines can no longer cling as they once did. It'll be interesting clearing away that mat in a month's time. 

It was perfect weather for moseying along in comfort once we got to the ravine later in the afternoon. All the late-blooming wildflowers seemed to be showing off today and they've got plenty to be conceited about. The orchids are gorgeous, every bit as beautiful as the cultivated exotic orchids grown for flower-lovers at garden centres. I found it an irresistible attraction to carefully negotiate my way over the rocks on the sloping banks of the creek to reach the area crowded with Himalayan orchids and jewelweed, the flowers sparkling with colour against the backdrop of the water rushing down the creek.

While Irving picked ripe berries for the puppies, I took my time poking about to get close-ups of the evening primrose, coreopsis and golden ragwort among the goldenrod and ragweed, the fleabane and purple loosestrife. As many beautiful flowers as we  treasure in our personal home gardens flush with flowering perennials and annuals, nature's wildflowers hold their own.

When we returned back home from our hike, the intention was to continue working in the garden, this time at the front. There was a little rose that I meant to transplant into the garden from its small pot in the hope that it would manage to survive winter. I had another pot of dianthus to be planted under one of our blue spruces, open to the sun. And there were the hydrangeas that I meant to thin out.

That's where brawn came into the picture, and when I had done as much as I was able to, Irving stepped in with a long-handled spade and a pitchfork, and he managed to unearth the deeply-entrenched roots that resisted my efforts. It took awhile, but those hydrangeas that had spread far from the original planting to crowd out hostas and roses, have now been relieved of their penchant to bully other garden denizens.

Jackie and Jillie were very patient, behaving themselves for the most part, hanging around with us. They were waiting for us to finish when we could all decamp to the house and they'd be served their afternoon vegetable salad. That time came when two bags of composted vegetation were full, and we felt enough had been accomplished for one day, with the intention of continuing the garden work perhaps tomorrow.