Garden Discoveries and a Gnome Beach House

I'm always surprised by the first roses and the first sweet peas, lovely of course, but also it's frightening that the year has come so far; how has half of it rushed past me? -- from Home is my Garden, by Dorothy Hammond Innes

We may as well start with the least exciting bit of today's post, as I have not been knitting all that often this week. Each time I go to pick up this peace, I find myself dozing off on the couch or distracted by other thoughts that pull me away from my seat to either research ideas or rush outside. I suppose it's not a bad thing to feel inspired to action, but it sure isn't good for finishing a knitting project. I fear this could be a bit of a boring project for y'all... sorry 'bout that:

I've been distracted the most by my garden, which is currently bursting into bloom. I was surprised to find this foxglove blooming away one day. It started out as a random plant we didn't recognize growing all on its own. We dithered about whether or not it was a weed, but I am really glad we didn't yank it out. Also: I don't understand why it's called a foxglove. I have never seen gloves like this on a fox, nor on any other creature, for that matter:

I have a row of rosebushes which have been delighting me all week. The wee white ones in the front were another surprise to me. I thought I only had two bushes growing out there, so I was amazed when I glanced over one day to see the tiny white ones blooming away:

The rhododendrons are in full swing out there:

This leggy one is growing right outside the window where our dining table sits. It needs a good prune, but man it sure is putting on a show at the moment:

I've been trying to keep up with some regular maintenance pruning out there. After clearing away a bit of ivy, I found this tiny beach house sitting on the stump. I guess the gnomes are away right now:

I also decided to tackle a holly bush which was slowly taking over part of the yard, and when I did, I was surprised to find these little fuzzy irises. I've never seen irises like these before, with fuzzy purple centres:

I also discovered this impressive little ornament under the holly. It stands about a foot tall, but it is an imposing little figure out there:

I do have one debacle to report: I was saddened to find that one of my zucchini plants petered out and died. I'm always a little worried about having only one zucchini plant, so I immediately went out searching for another plant to plop back into the pot. It's sort of late in the season to buy vegetable plants around here, so I kept finding ones that looked a little sad and dried up, but then I spied this plant which is now planted in the front pot. I got it home, went out to plop it into the soil, and only then realized that it's a cucumber plant. Doh. Oh well. At least I like cucumbers:

So not much yarn stuff this week, but plenty of garden adventures. I'm ready to have a rest and watch a movie on the couch this evening... and by "watch" I mean "listen while I knit." I know at least one guy who's ready for a break from running around the garden:

Have a great week!