My mother’s garden

Wordless Wednesday pictures from an August 2012 post. . .

Northern Virginia, August 2011.

Click on any thumbnail below and enjoy.

Spruce Grove, Alberta

Alan or Robert (Jr.) Brebner on the homestead, Spruce Grove, Alberta, ca. 1905, via Provincial Archives of Alberta (both photos).

Robert McKay Brebner, a farmer and amateur photographer, immigrated from Scotland to Alberta in 1882 and secured a homestead in Spruce Grove. About 1894, he married Emily Wrench, and after the birth of their first child, Alan, in 1896, they built a two-story house. Robert died suddenly in 1909, and Emily ran the farm with hired help until Alan could take it over at the age of 17.

A closer view of the house.

In a vase on Monday: tulips


This morning, I have arranged purple and red tulips in assorted small glass vases along the radiator cover in the dining room.

I found the large shells in the woods behind the house soon after we moved in. I guess a former resident had tossed them out there.


To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

Three boys


“Three boys in western costumes holding flowers,” ca. 1915, an autochrome, place and photographer unknown, via George Eastman Museum Commons on flickr.

I think these are twins and their younger brother (on the left). What do you think the flowers are? Could the yellow-orange ones be California poppies?

In a vase on Monday: warm weekend

Little flowers picked from our yard (except for the tulip) in the kitchen window. . .

We had a relatively warm sunny weekend, and now the primroses are starting to bloom, and the woods behind the house are full of wood anemones.


In the city, all the platz were full of people soaking up the sun. Most were still dressed in black winter coats, so it looked like flocks of large crows had settled down on the grass and concrete. The lines for ice cream were very long — Stuttgarters seem to want cones the minute the temperature rises above 55°F (12°C).


We’ve seen three large hares in the neighborhood in as many days (this is their peak mating season), after not seeing any for months. They are hard to miss, being the size of small dogs — largish small dogs. Occasionally when we come upon one, it stands its ground and we always move along first.


To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.