Another error of common naming A common tree/shrub in North America is the Sumac, around here mostly the Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina), athough there are several other species in the genus. A good row of them grow along the boundary of the Garden at Fritz where I volunteer every summer and shelter [...]
We seem to have slipped into the habit of writing a round-up of recent activities in the garden around the middle of each month. This one is being composed as we swelter under a “heat dome” sent to us from south of the border - far too hot to do anything physical at [...]
Lawn Care - The "LoMow" Way, a taster. Regular followers of this journal will have heard earlier this year that we have pretty well let our lawn loose to do whatever it wants to do this summer - just a couple of mown paths through it so that we can reach the corners [...]
Eastern Chipmunk - Tamias striatus Although every other creature in Quebec other than Coyotes has visited our garden in the 21 years we have been here we have never seen a Chipmunk before, so we were really happy to see this young fellow scurry across the deck after a major wind and rain [...]
Text here Evening Peonies I happened upon these flowers as I was wandering the garden looking at early roses - attended by vampire mosquitoes. The light was gorgeous.
A better sort of lawn A corner of the garden, with cherry and Amelanchier blossom, in the warm evening light. You will observe that the "lawn" is not a striped green sward cut to within an inch its life but has been left to do what it wants to do. It is [...]
November 1 - what's still in flower? Long ago (long, long ago) we used to walk around our various gardens back in England making a note of the flowers in bloom on Christmas Day. Not a lot of point in doing that in Montreal but we did go for 1st November walk today and [...]
Mr Toad There are nine species of frogs in Quebec and just one toad, but it's the toads that we see most frequently. Very handsome little chaps. EXIF data Copyright © All images are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada (CC BY-NC-ND [...]
Anemone canadensis From a small garden group of this delightful native flowering plant Copyright © All images are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 CA) License … which really just means that you are very welcome to share and [...]
The Rose-breasted Grosbeak first seen the week before stuck around for several days, coming several times to the feeders and to take a bath in the pond. Mammals were active with a baby rabbit appearing (nibble those dandelions young rabbit, earn your keep) and a skunk wombled through one evening, moving just fast enough [...]