A noun. A verb. A blog.
We are well into fall now and careening into winter, but I can’t let the season pass without noting some of fall’s favourite smells. No matter how long ago you were a student, a new school year always lends fall a special personality: an odd contrast of something starting up, while the growing season is screeching […]
Guess which witch caught my eye while walking? Are they witches’ caps or gnomes? Whatever they are, they called to me (and my ever-present camera) from the shrubbery as I power-walked through our neighbourhood at 7:30 this morning. Not till I started to move again did I realize which witch was witch-hazel… in this case, […]
Savoy cabbage is one of many cole crops that like a touch of frost. With a few exceptions (we still have some carrots to harvest), we wrapped up our community garden plot back in October. But, next year, I won’t be so hasty. The pictures here, snapped a day or so ago, are reminders that […]
I’m thankful there are still stars in the sky. You’re apt to forget about stars when you live immersed in the light pollution of a city. This Thanksgiving, Sarah’s family and mine celebrated together at her one-room schoolhouse in the country. Urban glare is starting to creep in at the corners of her sky, but […]
A big bag of fresh-picked apples is sitting on my kitchen counter. And I mean a BIG bag. If we had a bushel basket, it would be full to overflowing. What kind did you pick?, I asked my daughter. Oh, lots, she replied. Jonagold, Northern Spy, Empire, some other kinds. It’ll be a […]
This single, late tulip, “El Nino” positively glows in the sun. I probably need to be planting flower bulbs right now, but I’m not. The last few falls I haven’t planted any tulip bulbs, no crocuses, no nothing. I have my reasons (cough *excuses*), listed here: • My city garden is hard as heck to […]
A quick post to show off my fall urn, in a rather crummy photo, shot between raindrops, with frosted edges to disguise my neighbour’s recycling bin. I hope you’ll believe me: this looks better in real life. The inspiration to get cracking and fill the negative space left by the retreating annuals came from fellow […]
As someone who has grown bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorhizzum) for many years, I’ve long admired one of its daintier hybrid offspring. While similar in frilled leaf form, Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ makes tidier mats of foliage, and its flowers poke up their heads without the long, scrawny necks of my bigrooted friend. Then yesterday as […]
Walking around the neighbourhood on a grey November day, you can’t help but notice that the Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) is the only light on the street. Look at that! The rest of the trees are denuded, but this fellow is still glowing. Because I remember when neighbours had one planted in their front yard, […]
How quick come the reasons for approving what we like. – Jane Austen Today, I used my new purchase for the first time, and have to say the Flowtron Electric Leaf Eater pretty much (or pretty mulch) lived up to its billing: it shredded mountains of leaves, wet and dry, quickly and conveniently. The worst […]
Little did I think when I photographed this four-leafed clover six months ago that today I would be the proud owner of a leaf shredder. Lucky me! After pining over more expensive models, I stumbled across the Flowtron Leaf-Eater online at HomeDepot.ca. It was $199, plus tax. Shipping cost would be the make-or-break item. It […]
Rosa ‘New Dawn’ puts on its party dress for perhaps the last time this season. It’s mostly foliage now for this November Blooms Day 2009. Clockwise, from large photo: the tendrils of Sarah’s perennial sweet pea (Lathyrus latifolius), the sere leaves and drying flowers of ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’); Daphne ‘Carol Mackie’ with Japanese […]