The garden moves on to its pink phase

The peonies have arrived!

 

Also, roses. Wild roses, but whether they are prairie roses or not will take more study.

And finally, I haven't asked yet, but I'm pretty sure this is going to be watermelons in a while.

That counts as pink, right?

When you live on a 100-year-old farm

You get a 100-year-old garden!

We have white and purple lilacs, on bushes large enough that the prunings provide fodder for the turning lathe:

Lily of the valley:

Peonies (not quite out yet):

Whatever this is:

A closer look reveals two shrubs growing together, Bridal Wreath Spirea:

 

And Grey Dogwood (entirely unlike our southern dogwood, but pretty in its own right):

Dame's Rocket, a noxious weed if it has escaped from an ornamental garden, so we'll keep an eye on it. I think it's quite pretty.

It looks to me as if Mary was cultivating a white and purple garden. I know there are purple iris. I can't wait to see what color the peonies are.

Garage progress

We have framed in the walls at the back of the garage: foyer to main dome entry, powder room, stairs to upper room. No stairs yet, because no upper room yet, because no second floor yet. But things are coming along.

Sir Berry

I want to thank you so much for putting this strawberry out in the yard. I see it has a little spot on it, but I don't mind a bit.

 

Wait. It was for me, wasn't it?

 

I mean, you put it right out here where I'm foraging. Look at my classy etiquette, eating with my little finger extended. I wasn't raised in a  barn.

 

Is there a problem? 

 

Mine now. It's delicious. Thanks again.

 

Cupola walls

Some last shots of the cupola for now. These shots, looking up from below, show the construction of the cupola's bottom walls. Nice as it is to look all the way to the top of the dome from the living room, it feels safer to know nothing can drop on you from that height. In the last photo, note the rectangular cut-out in the cupola floor where the ship's ladder will enter.

And this shot is not of the cupola at all! These are the interior walls at the back of the garage, where there will be a staircase to the second floor, a powder room, and the entrance to the connector.

The view from the cupola

The cupola windows have screens. This is the view east, over our bedroom. I love the way the setting sun is throwing shadows of the evergreens to the west of the house, showing that they are even taller than the dome. Our land extends into those trees in the distance.

This is the view to the northeast. Hard to see the fine stand of tamaracks (larches) that lie just behind those trees. The field in view beyond is also ours.

 

The view west - this is my favorite shot, the dome looking down on its little sibling, the garage. The roof of the connector looks a bit like a (very short) toboggan run.

 

A floor for the cupola

If you have ever worked on new construction inside a house, you probably know that from day to day not much seems to change. Well, now I have something to show: the third floor; the floor to the cupola! At this point I was in the process of hanging the joists:

 

Nothing too exciting there, joists look the same no matter which floor one is working on. However, here you can see one of the five windows in the cupola through the joists:

And from this vantage point, the very center of the roof comes into view:

This is looking down through the last bit of floor to complete. You can see the upstairs hallway and below that, the living room.

 

Next up, the view from the cupola windows, now that we can stand on a floor and look out!