Mysteries (and weeds and lily beetles) abound in the garden

Well.. after months of anticipation I find myself mysteriously unengaged in my garden. I guess with a thesis to finish, I know that if I let go and invest some time in the garden...well I could easily spend all my time there. Its kind of weedy and it needs the beds edged, topped up and mulched. I need to fight some of my too sucessful plants. Arggh... Thesis.

I finally caught up with two old friends. One, I hope to see for coffee or maybe a bit of a Bruce Trail hike and the other has me booked to go paddling with her and her 2 sons and aside from dying to go anywhere there is a forest - I haven't managed to go hiking yet. Actually, I've spent a lot of time in this room. Maybe I should pack up a stack of thesis reading and take it to mount Nemo... it might just work.

I owe at least 2 more friends calls in the immediate future... make that 3... I really want to make it up to Ottawa to visit the good people there and I think I promised several folk in Guelph I'd visit and I'd love to make it to Thunder Bay, but I know that is wishful thinking. Why do I have so many friends. I guess I can't complain. I just don't know how to balance all this writing, all the day to day thinks I need/want to do with making up for years of putting off visiting.

Sigh.. somehow...

In the meantime, I did dash out to at least check on the garden and to kill as many lily beetles as I could. They are just breaking my heart. My asian lillies have been devestated. If anyone knows a good cure for lily beetles.. please share. There are some weird slugs on them too. On the up side, the powdery mildew isn't so bad, although that may be because a lot of my columbine didn't make it this year. The earwigs haven't been as much as problem this year. But I think I'll head up to the liquor store and get some cheap canned beer and see if I can't cut the slug population in an attempt to salvage the lillies. Meanwhile, my daylilies are set to start flowering. As for the flower in the picture.. I have no idea what it is... I'm guessing either some kind of campanula or hollyhock... I might have put some seeds down last year and I'm totally missing the nasturium.... I'll have to set some up for planting next spring.

Anywho.. back to work.. I'm still alive. I'm finding I'm missing Baker. It was nice when everything was in walking distance..