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 [...]
Baltimore Oriole As most people know, to attract a Baltimore Oriole to your garden you are supposed to put out fresh fruit - a half orange being a classic meal for them or maybe some grapes. This immature male arrived and obviously had not yet reached that page in the How to [...]
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 [...]
Why taxonomy is fun and confusing ... on the naming of roses. For years we have grown a truly splendid red-leaved species rose that is hardy to zone 2 (that's really hardy). When we first knew it, it was named Rosa rubrifolia but in recent years it has been renamed Rosa glauca. [...]
At last - it can be shared (** Warning - what follows was only observed and recorded because it was possible to do so without the birds being aware that they were being watched. We are only sharing it now that the birds have fledged and departed and there is no risk to [...]
This is a reworking of a post of mine from a couple of years ago. You will see, when you reach the closing section, that it’s very much a plea for enthusing novices of all ages, though especially the younger age groups, in the importance and joys of wildlifing. In particular via the [...]
Showdown at the OK Bathhouse … Although many people equate birds with calm and peaceful lifestyles spent twittering about amongst the rose and blossoms, in reality birds are feisty creatures. None more so than Wrens who have serious dominance issues. This afternoon at the “bird magnet” pool atop our waterfall the male and [...]
We get a number of requests from interested gardeners wishing to see our developing "Lo-Mow" ex-lawn. Accordingly this year, as visiting and seeing in person is still not wise under present circumstances, we are creating a page on this website devoted to seasonal changes. In essence, every week or two we will add [...]