Sometimes a parent never gets a break. Two juvenile American Goldfinch were looking confused sitting on the stem of sunflower wondering where seeds were. Still in the "learning to be a bird" stage of life they had yet to work out that they needed to be on the face of the flower. [...]
Sometimes, the colours of flowers, especially yellows and golds, really "pop" after sunset but before it is fully dark. There are creatures out there in the garden still quietly going about their business.
Snowberry Clearwing (Hummingbird) Moth Today is impossibly hot with blazing sun and a humidex of >40C ... on the other hand, these conditions brought this wonderful moth out to play amongst our phlox flowers. Hemaris diffinis The moth is not quite as large as a Hummingbird but easy to confuse at a [...]
I am not a person who appreciates, or usually understands, poetry beyond Ogden Nash and the Horatio on the Bridge sort of thing. But there are exceptions. Many friends and readers of this journal will have noted that I enjoy wildlifing on my "patch", which is to say I like to go [...]
This bird was easy to find - I was aware of some movement in a Viburnum bush in the garden and assumed it was a squirrel but then this lovely Warbling Vireo stuck its head out and actually stayed around long enough to get a few pictures. It was busily scouring the branches [...]
A garden for children of all ages. Since, some three or four years ago we decided to stop mowing our lawn but create a native flower “mead” in its place, we have been fascinated by how much more interesting our garden has become - and also by the fascination this style of [...]
We have a much loved etching by the English artist Graham Clarke hanging in our dining room ... admire it every day. This is another of his works that pretty well sums up life for us these days - apart from the thatched roof. No complaints.
An afternoon in July The experiment with "no-mow" gardening continues and now we are in the first half of July and three years along the road to creating a "mead" where once there were boring, monoculture grasses. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a small [...]
Today is the Fête nationale in Quebec, St-Jean Baptiste, and the sun is shining. Not many words to go with this, just a sunny corner of the garden to share with anyone who likes gardens. So much greenery here with fat flower buds starting to form ... it won't be long now until [...]
It's that time of the year again when the young birds leave the nest and the berries on the trees begin to ripen. This morning a recently fledged American Robin (note spotty breast) was flopping about in an Amelanchier canadensis tree in the garden and learning to take fruit without falling out [...]