Today marks six months of daily walks and keeping a photo journal. I can hardly believe I didn't miss a single day in 183. What an adventure it has been!

I picked this as a daily "ecstatic task" close to the root of my creative drive. It drew me closer to nature, and indulged my fascination with colour, texture and light.

I reached my six-month ( Read more... )

Midday today found me by chance at Allan Gardens in Toronto, with a chrysanthemum exhibition underway.

Mums remind me of Mom. I loved her garden, but wrinkled my nose at two of her favourite flowers, mums and petunias. They smelt acrid and featured garish colours that didn't appeal to me. I've grown to appreciate yellow and orange in contrast with ( Read more... )

This morning I drove Sylvie to Pickering, an eastward suburb of Toronto, whence she has begun a 10-day bicycle trip to Ottawa. Bon voyage, mon amie! Now I must prepare for my own departure tomorrow morning to work eight or nine days on David and Jane's cottage in Point Clark, near Kincardine.

Funny how Sylvie and I started a garden together ( Read more... )

As Dorothy says in The Wizard of Oz, "The next time I go looking for my heart's desire, I won't look any further than my own backyard; if it's not there, then I never really lost it to begin with." There are many satisfactions for the traveling naturalist, but Barry Lopez has written that the deepest understanding comes from staying in one place, ( Read more... )

It's funny how a planting a vegetable garden changes one's attitude about the weather. Lately I've been whining about the lack of rain.

Today the skies opened up. I haven't seen hail in years, but just now we're in the midst of the second hailstorm of this afternoon. The view from my front door:


( Read more... )

Before throwing away the tags, I'm recording the perennials planted in the front garden: Antennaria dioica 'Red Wonder' (pussy-toes), Campanula persicifolia (peachleaf bellflower), Campanula poscharskyana 'Blue Waterfall' (Serbian bellflower), Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer), Delphinium grandiflorum 'Blue Elf', Dianthus 'Royal Midget' ( ( Read more... )

Last week Brenda and Judy asked if Les isn't using me, could they? They do light contract work and have "enough work to keep us busy until Christmas," a lot of it for other members of the Rainbow Chorus. Considering my recent panic over the slow-down in organ work, this came as a tremendous relief. Then I realized I would be earning an additional ( Read more... )

Danny asked me to post one of the tree photos from our walk last weekend. He might have meant the tree chewed by beaver. More likely, the black willow standing way out in the river, completely surrounded by floodwater, but I haven't got around to uploading that one. Anyway, here is the beaver work, and a reflection of Old Man Willow, because ( Read more... )

I drove to spend the afternoon with marian_w and Brenna. Along most of the highway from Toronto, Lake Ontario lies visible to the south. I was surprised to see the water open. First thing in Port Hope, we drove down to the lake and hiked for a few minutes along the top of the bluff there. It's similar to the height of the one back home, but today the ( Read more... )

Just now through Amazon I ordered slightly used copies of what I consider the three most valuable books destroyed by last week's deluge.

Nature's Healing Arts: From Folk Medicine to Modern Drugs, by Lonnelle Aikman. This 1977 National Geographic book was one in a series Dad's parents gave me for Christmas over the years. I've blogged about this ( Read more... )