Day trippers in Bruce

It's a sunny, muggy day at the farmette. We are once again under a heat warning. Half the country is under a fire ban because of the many wildfires that are threatening communities. Yikes!

In our corner, while it's hot, dry and the air is sometimes smoky, we haven't (yet) had to contend with actual fires.

Yesterday, sister Sandy and I did a bit of a road trip/garden tour. We started at Folmer Garden Centre and Botanical Gardens. It's only a half-hour away from the farmette on Highway 9 near Walkerton, and I'd never been there before. Gorgeous landscaping on acres of land, plus you can buy plants, furniture, garden art, pots and all sorts of other things for your beds.

Here's one of their more formal arrangements in a formal garden.

There were all kinds of varieties of plants. Some familiar and some not so much. Here's a gorgeous verbena in a deep red colour I hadn't seen before.

Here's a wee grass that starts out green at the bottom, but turns a lovely lavender colour towards the top.

Besides the massive variety of plants, the acreage is home to thousands of bees, butterflies and moths and I even spied a cottontail bunny.

While the owners are trying to keep up with watering and saving as many plants as they can, it's been very, very dry all over this area, and we could tell, especially in the vegetable patch and a few of the really exposed beds.

We also went to the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in Ripley. There, they've planted tonnes of veggies and other edibles while upcycling castoff items. Like the gates to the gardens which are old mattress springs. They also use these castoffs around the property for fencing.

Sandy and I indulged in a free sample of a Sea Buckthorn and Apple drink that also had soda water. I'd never tried Sea Buckthorn, but it was remarkably refreshing.

The selfie above was taken at George's On Harbour restaurant in Kincardine, where we made a lunch stop between visits. Highly recommend, not only for the food (my quiche was exquisite and Sandy said the chicken was sublime), but also the view off the back balcony of Lake Huron.

We unfortunately didn't make it to all four sites. It was REALLY HOT. But we had a lot of fun, anyway, with a bit of shopping for fresh meat and produce on the way back to the farmette.

So, another good day in the countryside is in the books. So grateful to be able to tootle around the vicinity in my sister's company (and in her car, thanks Sandy).

Until next week. Gratuitous cat photo courtesy of Fred, who stopped in to say hi while I was writing this post.