A noun. A verb. A blog.
Did you know? Canada is home to one of North America’s most spectacular private gardens. We’ve written twice about Les Quatre Vents, near La Malbaie, Quebec (here and here) and at last I have an excuse to write about it again. Because it, and its creator Francis Cabot, is now the subject of a feature documentary, The Gardener, playing May 18 […]
White cedars (Thuja occidentalis) and yews (Taxus) get precision haircuts It takes you by surprise. As you walk up the gentle rise through a very pleasant, but somewhat conventional shade garden in front and stand beside the hundred-year-old cedar-shingled home in St-Romuald, Quebec you see this. It’s a wow reveal; so beautiful, and so unexpected. […]
White and weathered, the Cabots’ home is centuries younger than New France, yet seems to pre-date it Whether you enjoy 28 acres, as the Cabot family has at Les Quatre Vents, or 0.06 acres, as I do, it’s good to consider how your garden works with your architecture – and how your architecture works with […]
Le Pigeonnier and its garden is one of 24 garden spaces at Les Quatre Vents If you love gardens and live in Canada, be proud that one of North America’s finest gardens is right here. Well, right here and a little over to our right – near La Malbaie, Québec. It’s Les Quatre Vents. Few […]
“Timelines, Strata and Ephemera” – See further info on this installation below. Québec City was born in 1608, and in 2008 it had a big party to mark its 400th. The Ephemeral Gardens were among the events and happenings that unfolded all through the year-long celebration – and which included a free concert by Céline […]
Or, rather, Au revoir. Ile d’Orléans, the island in the St. Lawrence River just a few kilometres east of Québec City, has been our family’s second home since 1987. This weekend, we drove the 800+ kilometres there (and back again) to pack, disperse and transport the accumulation of more than two decades. This, and the […]