Getting dirty

When I returned home on Monday from my daughter's I was anxious to start planting my annuals. I probably ought not to have, as the weather cooled on Wednesday and Thursday but the hankering to get my hands in the dirt was too strong. I had left the bedding plants, including my starts, outside overnight Saturday and Sunday; thus I figured they were sufficiently hardened off. 

This will be a bit of a boring post, as I'm documenting the containers and their contents, for my own reference next year. Feel free to skip to the end, if you so choose. 

I first sat down at the patio table, and made decisions as to where everything I'd purchased would be planted. I quickly realized I'd purchased one too many of the osteospermum for the front containers. I was thinking five, when in fact, there were only four needed. I do have five containers in the front yard, three in front of the evergreen and two on the patio. But the round planter out front is always filled with wave petunias. (Apparently, I'm a creature of habit). Oh well, it meant I'd need to find a pot to add the other osteospermum, along with any other extras I found.

The tall containers in back, have the aforementioned osteospermum, an ivy, a calibrachoa (million bells), and finally a dusty miller. Normally I would purchase a basket and split it between the two containers. But wow, are baskets ever expensive this year. I did split a container of the caibrachoa between the four containers. It was a smaller basket, a 10", but I couldn't find the four inch pots when I originally shopped.

Off the patio are two more large containers, containing Osteospermum, creeping jenny, calabrocha and dusty miller. The creeping jenny is a perennial, however I've never managed to overwinter it successfully. 

Besides the five containers I've mentioned, I also planted two hanging baskets, and another container that sits on the front step. The latter is filled with impatiens as it is always in the shade.  

This hanging basket has a couple of marigolds that I started, and a bronze coleous. Normally I tend to plant coleus where it gets less sun, but this particular plant tag said it like full sun. I'll give it a go and see how it does.

I don't think I've told you the story of the cat hanger. One morning, shortly after I'd spent some time with my friend C, I happened to look out the front window and noticed this ornament hanging from the shepherd hook. At the time, there was no hanging plant. I quickly sent a message to C, because I thought perhaps she'd dropped it by without letting me know. Her license plate reads something along the lines of CtCrzy - she collects all of sort cat items, and has two cats of her own. She said she hadn't done it but it was cute - I agreed and it's still a mystery, now with a basket containing couple of marigolds and a dusty miller.

I took a break for lunch and headed back out to play some more. The vegetables were planted first along with marigolds, and then I turned my attention again to the annuals. The three large containers on the deck were planted with a persimmon supertunia. Unlike waves these will stay more compact, and are supposed to require less dead heading (removal of spent flowers). In the same container are bacopa and sweet potato vine, both of which will eventually spill over the edge of the containers. 

I had a few marigolds remaining, a single wave petunia, and that lone osteospermum. The wave petunia was added to a hanging basket, along with the sole ivy I was able to overwinter. To be honest, it isn't looking particularly healthy now that it has been outdoors so it may eventually be overtaken by the petunia. The osteospermum and marigolds found their way into three additional containers, along with one of my seedlings that was marked marigold but looks to me, a lot like a tomato. I guess I'll find out some day.

Tuesday was another outdoor day as I pulled out the old pavers that were left behind by the previous owner. I know, I know, I've been here almost 13 years... I moved them out to the driveway and posted a photo on the Free Regina FB group, as first come, first serve. When I checked later in the evening they were gone. 

The following day we woke to heavy smoke in the air from the forest fires in Northern Saskatchewan and Alberta. I took this photo about 8 a.m. It was almost eerie out there, and smelled as though we were downwind of a campfire. The winds did pick up and blow most of it away by afternoon, when I went to Stitch and chat. 

Then it got downright chilly. The temperature dropped to 5C (41F) on Wednesday night, and Thursday was worse at -1C (30F). I did not cover my containers the first night as we had cloud cover, but I made certain I got out and covered the tender annuals the following evening because the forecast was for clear skies overnight. Everything came through just fine, and it warmed up nicely throughout the day. The forecast is looking good, with no chance of frost. Now it is grow time!

Since I was kept indoors two days, I did some regular housework (washing floors, vacuuming, laundry, etc.) and got back to working on my flower blanket. It isn't going together as easily as I had hoped. I'm rethinking my strategy, and hopefully it will be finished in the next couple of weeks. I'm also at the point of sewing the toddler sweater together, as the knitting is complete. Once these two projects are complete, it will be time to pull more yarn. I've no idea what I'll make next but I do want to use up more of my stash.

Despite the very cool start to the day, Friday turned into a lovely weather day. I puttered around the house in the morning, and headed outdoors in the afternoon. Other than placing some garden ornaments and the solar lights, I spent my time relaxing and reading in the sun. I finished Greg Iles "Bloody Memory" - I've read several of his novels and like the others, this was a thriller to the end. I'd returned the book club novel earlier this week as I'd finished it when I was at D's on the weekend.

The forecast for today is a high of 27C (80F), but for the moment we're looking at a thunderstorm with rain. I've had to turn on the lights as it's getting very dark outside. I had hoped to spend the morning, cleaning and tidying the shed, but with the impending rain, I've decided to stay indoors and catch up on a bit of PVR'ed televison and the everlasting flower afghan. The outdoor tasks will have to wait until later in the day, and tomorrow.

Have a great week ahead everyone!

Panama Canal - Part 1

This will be a photo heavy post, with explanations as I add the photos...so a long post. It was a long day -  I was awake at 6:10 a.m. and after a quick breakfast, I was outside on Deck 16 not long after.

Our transit was through the old locks which are smaller than the new locks that were opened in 2016.  Princess has only two ships that can transit the old locks, the Island and the Coral.

I didn't make it in time for the sunrise - this would have to do. We were waiting out in the Atlantic Ocean with a large number of other vessels. The transit normally takes from 8-10 hours, our transit took longer due to weather conditions later in the day.

 

The companies that own the vessels pay for the privilege of transiting the Panama Canal. The lecturer  mentioned that our ship, the Island Princess, would have paid a toll of over $360,000 USD for the trip. 

The pilot boat arrived carrying the pilot who would navigate the canal. The ship's captain has to relinquish control of his ship.

This boat brought the men who would be throwing and connecting the lines for the mules that assist with the movement of the ship.

But before we reached the first set of locks, the Gatun locks, we sailed under the Atlantic Bridge. Construction on the bridge was started in 2013, it was finished and open to traffic in 2019. A four lane highway connecting North and South America, it is 2820 meters (abt 1.75 miles) long, with a span of 530 meters (1738 ft), and a height of 212 meters (695 ft.). The Island Princess is 63 meters in height (204 ft.) We had lots of room to spare.

The pillars are massive - I liked the curvature.

For the first series of locks, I started out on Deck 7. I was leaning out over the railing for this photo.  The men in the safety gear were from the second boat. Their job was the throw/pull the lines to secure the cruise ship to the mules. The line-up of vehicles on the track are the mules.

This was taken while we were travelling through the locks, so I'm slightly out of order. You can see the lines that are attached to the ship. On the top of the mule are a series of lights, like traffic lights, that provide needed information to the pilot on the ship. There are also bells that chime quite frequently. There are two mules, one on either side of the ship running on what appears to be a rail system.

Here we were waiting our turn to enter the Gatun locks (after the mules were in place). The ship in the locks ahead of us is the Amadea, a German ship that has a passenger capacity of 904. In contrast the Island Princess holds 2200, though we had about 1700 passengers on board for this trip. I had moved from Deck 7 to the forward public balcony on Deck 11. While it was out in the sun, so quite hot, it truly was one of the best places to view the locks.

The water level had increased in the first lock (don't ask me how it happens) and the gate was opening to allow us to enter.

While the gates are opening wide, you can see the next set of gates ahead, and the hill that the mules would climb as we made our way into the next lock. The water would slowly rise in our lock to bring us up to the level you can see in the photo with the Amadea. I'm not an engineer, nor have any such aptitude so I'll just call it magic. I know it has to do with gravity and water flow and that's about it.

While we were in one of the locks, I went down to Deck 7 again, to get a photo of the wall. There wasn't more than three feet between the ship and the walls on either side. Obviously the connections to the mules are very important.

In this photo I'm on the port side of Deck 14. You can see the lock that allows ships to travel in the opposite direction to the left. We did indeed meet more than one ship as we transited this set of locks. 

I went to the aft of the ship, to capture this photo of the car carrier (the grey ship on the right) as it sailed towards the Atlantic Bridge. As you can see there is another vessel waiting to the enter the locks behind us as well.

We reached Gatun lake about 10:15 in the morning. I don't recall when we first entered the locks, but I know it was early than we had expected, probably around 8:30. In that time, we travelled just 1.2 miles.

At this point we were anchored for some time in the lake, so I took a break from the sun, and grabbed some water, and went back to my stateroom to relax for about an hour. I was able to watch our progress via the Bridge cam on the television.

We were travelling through the Culebra Cut. This is an artificial valley, created to cut through the Continental Divide in Panama. The valley links Gatun Lake (Atlantic), to the Gulf of Panama (Pacific).

I didn't take a lot of photos in the cut, but there were a number of these directional beacons that assist in the navigation of the canal. It operates 24/7 and while the locks have lighting the cut does not.

There was some evidence of soil erosion throughout the cut, and in some placed terraces had been built. I presume those were meant to keep the soil in place.

This is Titan, otherwise known as Herman the German, a 350 tonne floating crane. Built by the Nazis in 1941, it and three others were seized at the end of WWII. It is still in use, by the Panama Canal company for heavy lifts in the locks. I shudder to think what would require its use.

At the end of the cut, we found the Centennial Bridge. The bridge was opened in 2004, as the first bridge (we're not there yet) wasn't sufficient for the level of vehicular traffic. The clearance is 80 m (262 ft.) so not as much head room for the Island Princess.

By this time, it was nearly 1:30 p.m. and the tummy was rumbling. I headed up to the buffet for lunch and kept an eye out the window as we headed towards the second locks, Pedro Miquel.

And it is at this point, I'm going to end this post as it getting very long - Part 2 tomorrow.

Mystery solved

This isn't mine, but a photo from the internet.  The plant is a white (or sometimes called snowy) Jacob's ladder.  I had posted it on Facebook and two of my gardening friends identified it. 

Jacob's ladder (Polemonium) was given its common name because the arrangement of its leaves is somewhat ladder-like. However, it's Jacob's ladders' flowers that are the real attraction. Polemonium caeruleum and its cultivars send up clusters of flowers atop long stems in late spring to early summer. The bright blue varieties are among the most popular, blooming in clear tones of blue and bluish-purple, offset by yellow centers.

Jacob's ladder is a hardy perennial plant. It is upright and clump-forming, but it will spread by seed. Most Jacob's ladder plants have bell-shaped flowers in shades of purple and lavender, but there are also white, pink, and yellow varieties available. The compound leaves are composed of rows of narrow, pinnate leaflets. The branches grow from a basal rosette and arch and sway as they grow tall.

I read further that the plant is native to Eastern North American and hardy to Zone 3.  It also prefers a shady area, so it will do well in my flower bed.  It's height ranges from 24-36 inches and I think it's reached the minimum height already.  I went out and took a photo of the flowers this morning.

Aren't they pretty?  They make me smile. 

Have a great day everyone!

What can it be?

Just a really quick question to see if someone knows the answer....

What is this tall plant with white flowers?  I'm certain it is a perennial (and not a weed) that I planted last year.  Normally I'd write it down in my garden journal but for some reason, I didn't think to do so.

It has a really unique leaf structure, almost fern-like, and the flowers are sort of bell shaped.  I've googled and look at images of unknown numbers of plants and have yet to find it.  Anyone know?