Snapshots of a garden holiday in London...and about.

Pete and Heather - happy to be at Kew Gardens

Here's to traveling with green intent - Vacation 2012:  And why not head out to London to take in not one, not two but oh-so-many lovely gardens and the 99th Chelsea Flower Show - pshaw!

England is bursting with green pursuits - every where you look.  First up, find an apartment - or flat - that has a garden and pond of its own so that you can enjoy a feeling of community every day.  That's what we did in Fulham - close to the tube, shops, restaurants and the adventure of exploration!

Plan to plan and plan to walk, walk, walk then tube, then bus then train!  I felt like just by being in this emerald isle, I'd absorb all the history and garden abilities of those who left their mark before.  Well, why go on vacation if not to dream?

Beauties welcoming us to their place at Kew!

And where better to start than Kew Gardens - in May when swans are preening against the lawn, their goslings close behind.  When art is placed just so in the landscape - to intrigue and inflame the imagination. Just being in the Victorian structures - walking in jungle and desert environments, how sublime.  

 Then stop in at royal houses - plan for time though as one or two hours will just not do it.  Hampton Court Palace takes you back in time - I swear I could hear voices echoing from times gone by as we walked the kitchen garden and admired the grand Rhododendrums. A quick reflection here:  my Helsinki Rhodos in the Lanark Valley, Ontario, struggle to gain a foothold and grow a few inches.  Hampton blooms festooned the walkway and bent under their own floral plumage.  And it was easy to claim a place in a photo when all was so beautiful - how could you not feel magic yourself for a while?

Anticipate the unexpected discovery.  Case in point:  an intrepid friend and I headed out deliberately on the train to visit Sissinghurst - former home to Vita Sackville-West doyenne of the white garden, etc.  The excitement was high but our research was oh-so-faulty.  Upon arriving at the station we were welcomed by the taxi driver but told that Sissinghurst was closed that day.  Ummmm.  But, he suggested we go to Great Dixter.  Oh my.  A day of magic and immersion into the former home and garden of  Christopher Lloyd.  Our attention was pulled by the agricultural landscape and the sheer beauty of the small and large elements of this place.  Couldn't put my finger on how the magic worked, but it did. Go.

 And then - by mid-week, in the incredible heat of the May London day (+30) we went to the grand dame show of them all, the Chelsea Flower Show.  So much to tantalize, so many blooms, such exactitude in planning and design.  And of course, lining up for a Pimm's cup to take the edge of the day.  Over 50,000 that afternoon dreamed a green dream, walked the displays and planned for how their own piece of the planet could dare such beauty.  Perfect.   Travel!

 

Winter wonder of it all

So now we wait for winter to wend its way through months of dark and icy temperatures - and yet there is beauty. I am impatient for warming days and have learned to not look up in the morning when I move towards the car and the commute and the paychecks. But oh, the view in the wintering months can take the breath away.

Doesn't it fascinate to see a familiar landscape in drapery of white and ice? It's as if we enter a new world with a map that is foreign and yet familiar - it is ours but not. And of course it can change with the whim of a pressure system.

And always the green lurks beneath and breaths slowly under white waiting for the turn of the season.

Enjoy the day.

The show season

Not only do the plants in the yard start declaring themselves at this time of year but so do the myriad number of enticing garden shows! It is soooo tempting to try a new direction, landscape in a new way but at best, how wonderful to here others who toil in soil! Last month there was Canada Blooms in Toronto - sadly I missed it - yesterday a group of volunteers, yours truly included, here in Almonte ran the second garden show for a local church - much fun. I walked away with a lovely recycled concrete bird bath which this morning was plunked directly in the middle of our herb garden - a lovely view from the pergola that Pete made. Soon the Kanata Show will come 'round with plants, landscapes, tools and dreams - think I'll volunteer and get to know more folk. Hmmm, Chelsea in May? This can become addictive!

Happy Easter!

The warm daze continues. We breath in the smell of soil and buds, the cats stretch and roll on the patio stones - ahhhh early Spring!

Today many declare "we are Easter people" and hold fast to a vision of rebirth and renewal - celebrate. Here at home, with windows wide open and a comfortable breeze moving in to gently nudge out winter woes, we look forward to a quiet day of sharing time with mum and friends and the joy in knowing each other.

Spring magic. We can see it here everyday as nature plays out on the land around us and we get to exclaim over the miracles of green shoots, worms working in the leaves and the rise of the great birds, the Canadian Geese, who wheel and honk overhead while the gentler cheep-cheeps thread through the trees. We feel a surge of change inside ourselves and hope it holds for more than a day or week. I hope that for you too - enjoy your moments.

Sanctuary in a garden

I've always liked the word "Sanctuary". It calms as it trips off the tongue. It sounds the way a hug should feel between friends.

Here in Almonte, we are experiencing odd weather. Case in point: two years ago at this time, Pete and I sat in Adirondack chairs on the deck both snug in winter jackets, snow piled two-three feet high around the deck and cats nestling on laps for warmth. We were looking forward to an Egyptian adventure visiting friends and wandering through civilizations - upon our return, the snows had melted, the daffodils were mature and the cats were into major spring gallop. Today the sun warmed the exposed earth, mosquitos buzzed around (!) and my Pete enjoyed a day on the deck thinking of sun screen. This sanctuary is sound but the climate may not be.

This sanctuary embraces Pete as he recuperates from a hospital stay - he will be fine and we know the garden will aid in this journey. A dear friend is making major life changes and marching boldly on - this garden will hold her stories too.

I wish you all well in finding an embrace of green.

Early Spring clean-up

The winds of God are out today
Exultant through the world they play.
They sweep the heavens, chase the clouds,
Blow clean and pure through dusty crowds.
They toss the gaunt arms of the trees,
The withered leaf before them flees.
The grasses from their sallies run,
Caught by the arrows of the sun.
Upward they bear me on their wings,
With joy my spirit soars and sings
Above the waves of pain and strife
That beat upon the shores of life....

Extract: The Winds of God, Secret Snow by Ethel McKenzie, 1932

For me, community finds odd little connections in a life. We moved here to Almonte, Ontario and found the heritage of the Lanark Valley amazing and unexpected. A case in point is the Mill of Kintail - one-time summer home of R. Tait McKenzie (Canadian Renaissance man born in 1867 - physician, professor and sculptor) and his wife, Ethel. It was the addendum that intrigued me - wife. So I began to sleuth and found a lovely poetry book on-line by Ethel called Secret Snow. (Intrigued? Not to worry, discoveries about Ethel and indeed, the Lanark Valley, will thread throughout this blog as we move forward in time.)

I pulled this text as today, with the early Spring Saturday enticing us outside, I celebrated the results of wind - "exultant through the world they play" indeed. What it meant was debris from silver maples, conifers and oh my, the weeping willow was strewn (love that word) over the property. This little foray into nature is an annual event - more joy than trial - and leads to hours spent under the warming sky with nothing but the snipping sounds of cutters, the grunts of two labourers of the earth and the wonderful trumpeting of the Canada Geese high above - the great birds come home to play. One cat, orange with a matching nose, delicately licks a paw while keeping one eye on our adventures, the other happy in dreamland inside both oblivious to the rather large groundhog that ambles at the back of the property or the chickadees that flirt with the breeze in the Forsythia bush. Early Spring - gotta love it.

So? Why garden?

So why garden and what does that mean anyway? For this gal from the wee town of Almonte, garden means to cultivate and as such, extends way beyond fingers rutting around in the earth - delightful as that is. It means extending oneself out into a larger reality, a community of choice. To garden then is a means to meet-and-greet, to find a network of friends, like-minded individuals and those who will challenge, to find a place of peace and regeneration. Ok, it also means rutting around in the earth, celebrating weeds (ummm) and watching as the results of joyous efforts shape and reshape the context of home.

I find my home here in this garden - this place, this community. It nurtures me when the dross of the day overwhelms, as it must sometimes. It inspires me when I'm looking for a new direction - or maybe just a need to re-frame a current one.

So. With that in mind, I extend into this garden of Blogs. Wonder where it will take me?