Archive: July 2005

I see it's been almost 3 weeks since I last posted something here. Thanks for the reminder, Phil. What have I been up to? Between work, enjoying my garden, and taking photos, I've been pretty busy.

Our annual summer fair, Klondike Days, is almost upon us, so we're getting all the computer systems ready for that.

A few weeks ago I took a few ladies to Parkland Perennials to check out the peonies. Very enjoyable.

Between the shootings, stabbings, stand-offs and cats, it seems like my neighbourhood is going to hell in a hand-basket. At least the girls nextdoor don't seem asw noisy this year. Perhaps they've given up pot.

My lilies are doing nice, and although I can see results of late frosts, it is not as bad as last year. Just some deformities. I have started taking photos in RAW format and underexposing them a bit. Then I use Nikon Capture Editor to make the photos look as realistic as possible. You'll see some of that in my Jasper photos once I have all of them up.

Last week Thursday there was a shooting-stabbing a few blocks west from my home, north of Abbottsfield Mall. Today there was a stand-off a couple of blocks north from me. Apparently there was a tip that one of the perps from last week was holed up there. About 2 hours later, 2 people had come out. Then the cops told us to back up, well out of range, and they went in with stun grenades or something. Now, 4 hours later they're still at it. Just saw a tactical units van go by with reinforcements.

At 10:30 last night I went to check again, and everyone was gone, everything was quiet as if nothing has ever happened.
They were looking for Damien Opio, murder suspect from last week's shooting-stabbing. As of today, he's still at large.

Well, Klondike Days 2005 kicked off yesterday with the president's reception. Some 2,000 people attended for a preview of the entertainment, feature show, and food and drink. Met up with a lot of old friends. A new 50c stamp was also unveiled, to commemorate Alberta's centennial celebration.
Today at noon the 10-day fair opened and it promises to be another 10 fun-filled, noisy days.

One of my "Yelloween" blooms did not open as expected. Yet, when I put it in a vase, it just lit up the house with a wonderful perfume. While chemo patients are overly sensitive to smells, I personally enjoy Yelloween's perfume.

Over the past two weeks we've had more than usual amounts of rain, with showers almost every night. As a result, slugs have multiplied like crazy and have attacked my lilies en masse. I now have beer traps and an ammonia spray bottle to wage war on the slimy beasts.
With the daily rains combined with fairly warm weather, most of my Asiatic lilies are about finished blooming. I am getting some polling from Saskatchewan, Denmark and Latvia, but I may have to freeze that for next years hybridizing program.
So far six seedlings from my 2003 hybridizing program (when I did not keep track of what I did) have bloomed, with another one on the way. I can recognize parent plants in some, but not all. It's a nice feeling to see a new lily on bloom for the very first time. My seedling page will have photos.
Last night we had a severe thunderstorm warning with golfball size hail, but that warning was lifted about 10pm. Right now, it's 28C, no wind, muggy, so I expect more nasty stuff today. Until then, I'm outside with the laptop, flicking the odd mosquito and wasp away.