A noun. A verb. A blog.
[Update: Thrilled to announce that this post won Gold for Best Digital Writing at the 2018 GWA Media Awards from the Association for Garden Communicators. It was an unexpected honour, especially since the competition was very worthy.] I’d wanted to tell you a cool thing about ants and aphids. These are Norway maple aphids (Periphyllus lyropictus), one of 4,000+ aphid species. (Who […]
Doug Tallamy knows the importance of small things, like caterpillars. Doug’s a writer, entomologist, and is an expert on biodiversity and wildlife. His talk at the Toronto Botanical Garden was entertaining and informative. It was also heartbreaking. Nature lovers (like me) love feeding the birds. I buy those big bags of birdseed. It’s fine to […]
Like the Little Black Dress, you can dress this up or down – a simple design to emulate Always, I’m grateful to neighbours for giving me ideas to steal copy emulate. That metal tube with its holes looks tip-of-the-tongue familiar – but I have no idea what it is. If you do, please tell us. […]
Adorable multicoloured green roof seen at Joy Creek Nursery near Portland Winter 2015 is for the birds – and so are these nifty birdhouses. That’s just about all I have to say on this record-setting-cold-streak, Almost-Wordless Wednesday. Except: Enjoy! Give your fine feathered friends the licence to move in. This great recycle even looks like […]
Native echinacea (Purple coneflower) and monarda (Bee Balm) attract all sorts of butterflies and other pollinators. This is one native plants for Ontario database I don’t want to forget, so I’m posting it here. Evergreen Canada is such a marvellous nature and environmental organization, and we are lucky that we have a headquarters here in Toronto, […]
Helen Chicken says: Pssst! Wanna support a movie (and a movement)? If you wanted to keep chickens in the city of Toronto, you’d be walking on eggshells (can’t help myself, sorry). It’s illegal. Jan Keck is trying to change that – by making us laugh. The documentary film maker and his Red Gecko Productions hopes […]
A pre-dawn hummer goes for the nectar at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Long, thoughtful posts, full of depth and perspective, aren’t always possible at the best of times. They’re even harder when you’re trying to post every day for thirty days as a sort of shadow NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month – a poor […]
I’d never thought much about house sparrows, except to notice that they’re among the most-frequent visitors to my bird feeder (whenever Sarah fills it for me). Then, a few days ago, my neighbour M called me over to show me his homemade sparrow deterrent, based on the Magic Halo. He’d made the halo frame from […]
A concrete bunny watching over this poor downy woodpecker. This Saturday morning, as I was peacefully reading in bed, my cat’s head popped through the cat flap. I realized with a sick thud that she had something in her mouth. Something big and animal sized. I let out a “Noooooo” and went chasing after her […]
Me: Oh, it’s you again. Squirrel: Oh, hey, hi! If it isn’t Lady Bountiful! Thanks for putting out this amaaazing spread! I LOVE what you’re doing here! (Nom nom nom-like scarfing noises) Me: Yeah. Really, um, about that. The spread. I actually….hmm, how do I put this….the spread, It’s really meant for…you know…the birds. Like […]
I made a trip out to a great resource for bird feeding in Toronto yesterday, a store in north Toronto called Birdwatch. It was freeeeezing cold, minus 20 windchill outside, but inside the shop was full of harbingers of spring: wildly creative bird houses galore, and a beautiful metal birdbath created by metal artist Dog […]
Just discovered Project Chirp! when I went to the Civic Garden Centre the other day. The Garden Centre store was closed, alas – I had been hoping for some inspiring garden browsing on a cold January day – but the library was open, as well as the brochure stand, which was full of info. I […]