Berry Picking With a New Camera

My new camera and I went picking lingonberries (dry ground cranberries) this afternoon. The berry picking was occasionally interrupted by attempts to capture the beauty of nature with the camera I had been wanting since last spring. Dear resident-lawnmower-man picked up my new Canon G9 on sale in Saskatoon last week. However, he forgot to buy a memory card, so I can only take six pictures at a time. Tragedy!

Gentiana septemfida, looking beautiful for my new camera:

I noticed that the wild blueberries seem finished for the season, unless some pickers just cleaned out the patch I looked at. Most plants have only a few shrivelling berries clinging to their stems. I am quite fortunate in that several edible wild berries can be found within 100 feet of our property, as there is undeveloped boreal forest right behind our house.

I picked 3 cups of lingonberries in 45 minutes. Assuming that wild berries are fabulous for your health, the berry cheesecake I made tonight should be nearly medicinal.

I found yet another berry behind our property this afternoon. It is known as a highbush cranberry (Viburnum trilobum), though is technically not related to cranberries in any way. You can distinguish the foliage from the three points on the leaves, just as the botanical name indicates. The shrubs I found were about three feet tall. The berries are very juicy and flavourful, though they have a central seed that you'd likely spit out. I can imagine that these would make a nice jelly.

Highbush cranberry:


Some perennials in bloom right now:


The raised beds -- a beautiful project to replace the lawn and keep me busy. I made my bulb orders this past week and I look forward to planting them as soon as they arrive.
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Nearly Fall Already? I've Still Got Flowers

After a few posts of non-garden diversions, I thought I'd post some pictures of the flowers in my yard. Some say that an over-abundance of yellow is common in late summer flowers, yet my garden only has the yellow Gaillardia "Yellow Queen" in that color right now. Even my sunflowers are not yellow!

This is sunflower "Sunwalker", which is well-appreciated by bees and butterflies:

Echinacea "Ruby Star" is the shorter, deeper pink flower in the foreground. Behind those are the wild-type pale pink Echinacea and a white variety.

The Echinacea amidst the perennial raised bed.

Liatris spicata looks amazing at this time of year. A few seedling plants are growing near this one and I have been potting them up and giving them away.

Liatris spicata has such an interesting shape and texture and the foliage is inobtrusive in early summer.

Bad Weather and Toilet Troubles

We saw this overturned outhouse near Northside, a small community north of Prince Albert (200+ km south of here). It was moved into this position by some severe weather this past week, which included a tornado. There were also some grain bins tossed around yards, large trees snapped in half, old barns blown down, and signs wrapped around poles. We don't have much for severe weather compared to those in hurricane or tornado territory in the United States, so this is a bit unusual.