Saturday equates with leisure and leisure for us also includes tending to little household and garden tasks when there's too much to do on other days to accommodate those issues as well. So Irving set about tying back some of the climbing rose stalks situated at the bottom of the rock garden to permit ingress without physical contortions into the narrow space of the rock garden marching down the side of the house so he could have comfortable access to the very old upright juniper we had planted many years ago when we were organizing the rock garden and the juniper was labelled as a 'miniature' type. 

 

It has since, understandably, attained girth if not height, meaning squeezing sideways to get past it up the rock garden. His intention was to trim the tree and conifers are difficult to trim beyond the cosmetic depth, so when he was finished it looked pretty devastated. He's no horticulturalist or arborist; it's practicality that guides him and resigns me to whatever results from his 'taking care of it'. 

 

While he was busy with that and Jackie and Jillie nosed their way around the backyard with us, I did the kind of trimming that is more my speed. Regretfully, I yanked out the cosmos that I had planted from seed in the spring. They've grown to robust size but not a flowerbud is to be seen among them all, busy crowding out other plants and too busy to flower. Spent lily stems, along with those of hostas, beesbalm and mountain bluet were also cut back, the weeping mulberry trimmed along with rose shrubs so between us we amassed two full bags of garden compost.

 

Although it was a cool 24C with a lovely breeze and sunny the backyard feels like a  hotbox; heat is trapped in it and it was a relief finally to haul ourselves up to the deck and dangle our legs in leisure comfort from the garden swing and just chat while our two little dogs received the rub-downs they consider their just due at any down-times.

 

And then it was time to do a turn in the ravine. The difference in temperature once we plunged from street level into the ravine was remarkable; dry and cool and breezy. Few signs of the torrential rain that came down yesterday afternoon and evening in voluminous heavy sheets causing pools of water to form on the front walkways that took quite a while to finally drain. 

 

We can't get close to the clumps of vegetation growing below the bank of the creek at the first bridge we cross to satisfy our curiosity about just what it was that was growing so tall. Until it all began blooming last week and we could see it was a stand of wild coreopsis, growing where none had ever grown before; one more of nature's little mysteries; how seed transfers from one site to another; gardens to wild areas and vice-versa.

 

Irving picked a few wild apples as we sauntered through the trails. One of those he plucked was already in business, populated by no fewer than three wasps, so he left them to it and we made do with two other apples that hadn't yet been claimed. Down at the meadow where we eventually ended up there were wasps, bees and cabbage butterflies busy on the wildflowers as we meandered through the area. We never tire of seeing them, sights of nature's complex food chain.