Sunday, November 12, 2006

Poem

On the cusp of sorrow the pink
chrysanthemums fade to sour milk.
A struggling tree's sodden and
mildewing bark peels away.
There is no sanctuary. Weeds
threaten the labryinth.

The loss of you
is like falling in burdock.
A thousand sharp prickles
that won't release from my coat.
I'll wear it through to Spring, still
picking at the barbs.

Come next Fall, I'll retrieve
the coat from its Summer place
and there you'll be still valiantly
clinging to collar or cuff.

I'll pull you out. Secure you
in my pocket. Feel
your sting when I reach
for a tissue to wipe my tears.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Stupid Birds

Oh no. The mourning doves are back and building another nest. Three or four times this summer they've built a nest in either of the thirty foot blue spruce trees across from my window.

Each time, they build, they lay eggs, they sit. And then the crows come. Or sometimes the blue jays. Anyway, a flock of birds with much squawking and flapping descends. They shatter the nest, they shatter the eggs. The doves sit helplessly on the hydro wire and watch.

And then, like today, they rebuild.

I don't know if can watch this unfold again.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

All The Roadrunning

For a guitar aficionado such as me, last night's Mark Knopfler and EmmyLou Harris concert was a treat. Knopfler led a five guitarist band through two hours of his signature rock roots sound.

EmmyLou has become the vocal heart of roots Americana. She and Knopfler are touring their new colaboration. The songs are soulful and complicated.

As well, each performer had dips into their own well of songs.

I adored Knopfler's playing style, especially when he brought out that steel guitar.

But the highlight for me was EmmyLou's 30 year old Boulder to Birmingham. At the first chords, the grey haired woman in front of me pulled off her glasses and put her hand over her eyes. I tried not to watch her shoulders heave. By the time EmmyLou got to the line "the canyon was on fire", I too was lost.

Thirty years were gone. I was sitting on a lumpy green corduroy couch, in a familiar old wood paneled livingroom washed by the memory of young love that burned too hot and was gone too soon. The pain lingering and the determination of - what - recapturing or rebuilding. I didn't know then.

All I know now is that life is a bedrock built of experience and time is an ever moving river and, for me, music is the hook that draws me down to touch memory.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Blue Jay Way

Directly out my window are two 40 year old blue spruce trees. The city carefully maintains them. This year they are brimming with pinecones, both brown and green.

There's a pair of mourning doves nesting in them. They tried low on one tree and had their effort torn down by some squirrels. Now they are rebuilding higher on the second tree. They are stupid birds, but I wish them luck.

With the ripening of the pinecones, have come the Blue Jays. For a week, every day at lunch, I saw one working his way through the branches.

I'm not usually thinking about the trees at other times of day, but one evening I was telling hubby about the jay. At the moment when we were both looking at the spruces, trying to imagine the bird, along flew first one, then two and finally five Blue Jays, squawking louder than sea gulls.

A hopeful sight in the downtown heart of this city.

Do You Know Where Your Asters Are?

With two weeks left until the garden show preview, this was a week of heavy weeding.
Everything unnameable has been yanked.

Hidden among the spirea and in certain corners of the garden I found those long weedy stems and narrow pointed leaves. My neighbour has a large clump bordering the sidewalk. I walk by and want to remove those reedy semi-leafless stalks.

They are not phlox. I have been stumped before and so pulled them. Then when Fall comes I'm wondering where all those outstanding shimmery purple blossoms have gone. An aster is wildflower, they can't be killed.

But, oh yes, they can be mistakenly pulled. But not this year.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

White in the Garden

Deutzia Columbine
Doublefile Viburnum

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Spotted Wake Robins

Mertensia

New Bed


Here are the before and after pics of the new bed dug on the north side of the house.

Parkas and Capris

What a cold Victoria Day weekend!
Dining out on Sunday night, every woman who entered the restaurant was wearing Capris and a parka. It was darn cold!

Beloved Hubby dug out another patch of grass this weekend and behold - a new flower bed was created. It's on the north side of the house, so gets diffuse sun. I've filled it with Solomon's Seal, Columbines and Meadow Rue. I also moved a small shrub, Laceleaf Viburum. It gives that side of the house a complete look.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Gains and Losses

Jack-in-the-pulpits in profusion! Tiny specimens sprout within the shadow of established plants. Epimedium galore! A miniature maidenhair fern is setting out a substantial miniature crown. Columbines are rampant. I must remove half of them - after they bloom.

The tiny Japanese poppy has flowered. Some other as yet nameless surprises are poking up.

The Diablo Ninebark is a glorious dark fountain in the garden's centre.

I have to decide whether to get rid of the strawberries or let them take over everywhere.

Now the bad news - my wisteria is dead. ::sob:: Three years of lovely growth over my pergola. Hardy hanging blooms right from year one. I watch. I wait. I scratch bits of bark and note the green underneath. But nothing grows. Hubby expresses concern. We follow the trunk down to its roots and see that there it is split right up the middle. Can it be wrapped? I don't know. But I'm pricing new ones.

Locust in Bloom

Let me just draw your attention to the late-budding locust trees. Upon dark wood, mustard yellow foliage pushes out, looking, from the ground, like small downy feathers; in eye-catching harmony with all the surrounding Spring green.

Spring Rain

Off our second floor bedroom is a deck. Really it's the flat roof of the garage, but with a nice wooden floor, we think of it as a deck, though it's proved to windy to enjoy for long.

But rain is another matter.

There is an aluminum roof over the deck - brown and white - an untarnished awning. When it rains, I enjoy nothing more than to sit on my bed in the half-light and listen to the rain pound the awning. Even a gentle fall produces a steady resonant drumming.

There is a clothesline out there. When we first moved in, I was inclined to remove it, but at the first rain, I saw that birds, mostly white-throated sparrows sought its refuge.

And there they were today. Thunder, lightning, a driving duo of rain and hail, and four anxious sparrows staying dry.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Merlin's Hollow

Merlin's Hollow is a 25 year old English cottage garden in the town of Aurora. The owner, David Tomlinson, gives gardening courses and this year I am attending. There are 15 of us in the session, I've waited a few years for my turn.

His gardening philosophy is simple - laying two inches of leaves on your beds, in the Fall, will provide all the nutrients your soil and plants need. By July the worms will have pulled them into the soil and they will be gone.

Merlin's Hollow is divided into garden rooms and within each room are varied beds. David says "Think about the plants you want and plan for their different growing conditions."

Where he wanted a bog, he dug out the soil, lined the area with pond liner and filled in with peat and sand. He has treated every area this way and so grows many unique plants by providing them with their needed growing conditions.

Another useful point is that the area closest to your house is warmer than the rest of the garden. Rather than fill up this good area with foundation shrubs, he encourages more diverse plantings.

One final point - he divides his plants in Spring and this year with its warm days and cool moist nights is a good explanation of why.

More next month.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Trees in Bloom

Hasn't this been the best year for Magnolia trees? Warm days and cool nights, following that hot week in April when the buds popped. Practically every time I turn a corner, I'm stopped by one of these old beauties in extravagent bloom.

And their tiny echo, the double Flowering Almond bushes, are just about to open.
When else do we get to enjoy so much pink?

Both my fruit trees are also in furious bloom. One, I don't remember ever flowering before. Can't wait to find out whether its a plum or peach tree.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Get Growing

My green thumb friend (GT) says that it's time to plant your Nasturtium and other large annual seeds.

Let's start planting!

Garden To Do List

Compost, Mulch, Lay Hoses. Everywhere.

I think I can clean out the grass and plant something under the diningroom window without too much trouble. But what? Something big like ligularia or smaller like Solomon's Seal? Maybe a nice bed of Monkshood. The dogs walk through that area all the time. I'm tempted to move one of the double file viburnums there.

Then I have to edge the bed that runs around the front corner of the house. and decide what I want to plant on the side of that bed facing the house. I've been pondering that one for five years.

Then there's those sale rhodos in the brick bed. Are they alive? Do I cut them right down?
Also, the little rhodo I planted in the backyard last year, has no buds. Do I move it?

And what to do with ll the snowberry bushes everywhere?

Remove the grass from under the prune plum and replace the two clematis that didn't make it.

I'm still fixated on a small water feature for the patio bed in the back.

Monday, April 24, 2006

First Mission Accomplished

As you will see if you scroll down, I spent yesterday learning how to size and post pictures on my blog.
Next task, wraparaound text!
Meanwhile, I hope you'll enjoy the first pictures of my puppies, as well as a peek at Spring in the garden.

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Sophie @ 11 Months

Spring in the Garden

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Samson @ 16 Months

Hepatica - Pink and White

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My Home and Garden Part 1

Here's a bit of our garden's - home's - history.

When we bought this house five years ago, we discovered that we were - amazingly - only the third owners. The first family was a doctor and his wife and son. I would love to have a picture of this beautiful house, which was built in 1926, with its original windows.

After almost 40 years of ownership, they sold the house in 1965 to an Italian family. I am most grateful that this family left almost all the original oak trim, wainscotting and floors intact. However, they replaced the windows with horrible cheap ones that I know we will never be able to afford to replace.

Now to the garden - This house is a corner lot, practically a double lot as well. When we bought it there were about a dozen fruit trees on the property. The backyard had a large, raised bed vegetable garden.

Now, we love trees. In fact, we hoped to recreate a bit of the Bruce Trail right here in downtown T.O.

But we don't love - or know how to tend to - fruit trees.

So, we cut them down. All but two - one I'd already planted a flourishing Clematis beside and the other tree bears purple plums, which are a thing of beauty. Let me say, in our defense, that these fruit trees were all relatively young - the surviving prune plum is definitely the oldest.

So, no great loss and a fresh palet to draw upon.

I Watch Too Much TV

Maxim of the day:
Tell the truth and keep your sense of humour.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Welcome!

Spring in early April, after the Winter that never was. Already the Witch Hazel's shredded pompon blooms have come and gone.

There's a small section of garden where I have Native Ontario Woodland plants. Liverwort (Hepatica Nobilis) is in bloom - both white and pink. The Spotted Trilliums (Trillium Cuneatum) are pushing up. Likewise, Lungwort. Fingers are crossed for the return of Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Last summer, the puppies ate through them like they were Snausages.

Hubby has now fenced in the entire upper garden and I can see the brave return of the Tree Peony that was eaten down to the ground.