A noun. A verb. A blog.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you… snowdrops! Finally. In sooth, they made their appearance in my garden on Sunday, but I was too imprisoned by a school project to do anything about it. But even March 7th is two weeks later than last year, despite the city’s lack of snow. Welcome snowdrops. […]
We take our garden “blooms” where we can in winter. No, I’m not talking flowers. Pollinators, please stay tucked in your nests, we’re not ready for you yet. I was captivated by these ice covered branches on a recent walk in Ashbridges Bay Park. This is a different sort of blooming, the cold, hard, […]
You might need BBC blood in your veins to remember the childen’s show Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men (and I don’t mean the more slick, recent reprise). Bill and Ben were identical flowerpot people, not too unlike the fellow in our picture today, and every episode would end with the question: Was it Bill […]
This time last year, it was raining. There was snow on the ground… you remember what snow is, don’t you? Not just that baby powdering we got yesterday that almost melted by today. In December 2009 and January 2010, Toronto had roughly one-quarter of our usual snowfall. It looks like February is following the same […]
I’m lucky to live so close to Ashbridges Bay Park on Lake Ontario. I can get there in a matter of minutes, and sister Helen and I have spent hours walking here, peering at trees & shrubs, trying to identify what’s growing, and gathering round rocks from the beach. The park has a mix […]
Everyone in the north gets pretty bedraggled by the end of January. We’ve already coped with 2 months of winter proper, and only have February and March to look forward to, months often filled with snow storms, slush and bitter cold. Even though this January in Toronto was ridiculously warm, with rain some days, and […]
The days are lengthening. Round about this time, our dad would say, “Now we’ve broken winter’s back.” Experience tells me it hasn’t happened quite yet, despite this January thaw, but we are headed in that direction. In fact, winter hasn’t yet made a creditable appearance, up here in Toronto. So to find some of Winter’s […]
My rosemary is leggy. And this is the reason why. Something furry has usurped my only rosemary spot, a small south-facing window in the cool front hall. That magic combo of light and coolth is what rosemary needs to get through a Canadian winter. Poor Rosemary and her pal Sage are reaching out desperately for […]
Never mind square-foot gardening. I need help with square-foot gardening books. In this age of online info, I try to be restrained about buying only what I’ll refer to again and again. But my bulging blookshelf shows I’m not restrained enough. There might be people with more; my guess is they have more space. Trouble […]
An insight can sneak in quietly. Such happened to me during a lull in this off-kilter holiday. With Daughter #1 visiting from university. Shopping. Cooking. Wrapping. Eating. Entertaining; being entertained. Eating more. Learning Twitter. Dealing with (“stepping around”) the attendant mess. My insight arrived during a marathon viewing of So You Think You Can Dance? […]
There are trees in this picture. They are my excuse for writing off topic about the animated Christmas* windows on Queen Street between Bay and Yonge. You’ll notice I didn’t write: at The Bay on Queen Street. That’s because, to me, these will always be the Christmas windows at Simpsons. For those playing along in […]
We’re vain enough to want to play, and flattered that Helen Yoest of Gardening With Confidence tagged us for the Honest Scrap Award, in company with six very wonderful blogs. However, we won’t ask anyone to play along… unless you feel an urge coming on. If that doesn’t seem fair to you, somehow not quite […]