Friday, December 30, 2022

Yoganusasanam 2022


Marlene and teachers from Yoga Centre Toronto used to make frequent pilgrimages to the Iyengar Institute in Pune to study with BKS, Gita or Preshant, and come back inspired by the teachings and "full of India," as Andy Orr liked to say. We all looked forward to their return to infuse our practices with revitalized insight.

This year RIMYI streamed Yoganusasanam 2022, making the teachings more accessible to those of us practising at home. Another example of how Covid and technology combined to create/accelerate opportunity. 

The in-person event took place over 6 days, with 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. Abhijahta Iyengar led the session. My teacher Niron was among the international students in the crowded hall. 

I got to avoid the flight and rickshaw strike! Participating remotely from home wassn't the same experience - especially as I worked through the 30 hours of online sessions over 2 weeks, versus 6 days. Even so, I find myself cycling through the familiar emotions I would experience during the thirty day sadhanas here in Toronto... Eagerness! Resistance! Resentment! Determination! Openness! Curiousity! Insight! 

Verse 1 of the Patanjali yoga sutra is 'Atha Yoganusasanam' or 'now begins the study of yoga.'


Day 1 - practice to refresh after long journeys
Day 2 - arms and legs as organs of action in standing poses and pranayama
Day 3 - twists (make space in trunk!) 
Day 4 - backbends (keep tailbone in)
Day 5 - pranayama before asana inversions and twists
Day 6 - pranayama before an integrated practice 

Balance and equanimity.... Courage and caution must go together. Do not overdo, do not underdo.

Aging is a fact of life, but don't use it as an excuse. Keep practising. Although you might not physically 'do' as well as in your youth, maintain the sense of direction in the asana. (i.e. if abdomen does not touch the thighs in uttanasana physically, keep that intention in the movement).

Props can be used to make a pose more attainable, or more challenging, or be used to sensitize (is my back straight? buttocks in?)


Yoga is 90% emotion. Feel the effect on the body. The aura and expanse of the energy. 

The imprint of one pose in the next pose (i.e. moving from sirsana to ustrasana to dondasana). The horizontal block placed at the buttocks imprinted the feeling of buttocks going into the body that was echoed in headstand.



Don't forget revolved versions of poses! Not just triangle, but also janu sirsana, sirsana, ardha chandrasa.


Preshant taught a couple sessions emphasizing how breath, body and mind are intertwined. A 'simple' pose provides tremendous opportunity to explore breath and mind. Placing blankets under buttocks, then lumbar, then chest producing different effects. The subtleties and differences in thinking about 'taking' a breath or 'receiving' a breath. Perspective of doing/being done, object/subject.

For depression and anxiety, pranayama in supported asana can be helpful. Support the head to quieten the brain. Remove discomfort. The subconscious mind will come to the surface rather than retreat into dullness.


There may be initial resistance to daily practice, but commit to 15-20 minutes. Usually after 4 or 5 asana resistance is gone. Practice! Practice! Practice!

Pranayama can precede asana for practitioners. Pranayama before asana on Days 5 and 6 for 45-60 minutes, with a 10-15 minute pause before asana. In my morning practice, do I want to incorporate a few longer sessions into the week, or 5-10 minutes at the start each morning?

Mahamudra - don't be overly aggressive in the posture, if bent leg is popping up sit on a height. Keep the back concave; relax the throat and diaphram. Exhale and press down on thigh; inhale, sides of the trunk lift up and elongate; then tilt head down to bandha (but don't round back!); inhale; pause and engage abdominals to press back into to spine; exhale; release bandhas and breathe normally for a few cycles. Repeat.


"After pranayama, the breath wants to stay with you a little longer. I hope you are able to taste that." (Abhi)


For me, this is the magic of shapeshifting.

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Wang Dang Doodle!

The Wang Dang Doodle was cancelled the last two years due to Covid.

This year, oh what fun! Held on Toronto Island at the Algonquin Clubhouse, several uke clubs come together to carol and celebrate the season. 

The ride over on the ferry is extremely cold but the winter island and city views are spectacular.




 

Out and About


I Love Toronto! 

Such a vibrant city for theatre, live music, author talks. This November/December I seem to be greedy. Well, maybe just hungry after the long lapse of Covid isolation. It's good to be out and about, and most of these events have been almost full capacity, which is much needed for the concert halls and theatres.

I'm still wearing a mask to these events, probably about 1/3 of the audience are joining me.  

December
  • Red Velvet, Crows Nest Theatre / December 10
  • Kronos Quartet, Koerner Hall / December 8
  • Wintersong, Laila Biali & Jane Bunnett & Emilie-Claire Barlow, Koerner Hall / Dec 3
  • Mushrooming, TBG Author Talk / Dec 1
November
  • Soweto Gospel Choir, Koerner Hall / Nov 26
  • Little Dickens, Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes /Nov 24
  • Toronto Symphony Orchestra ("Pathetique" - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; visiting conductor Dalia Stasevska) / Nov 23
  • Heliconian Author Talk: Fayne/Anne Marie MacDonald /Nov 22
  • Second City Comedy Improv, Danforth Hall / Nov 17
  • Choir Boy, Bluma Apel Theatre /Nov 10
  • Ravine Recreate, TBG /Nov 9
  • Meow Meow, Koerner Hall /Nov 4



Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Cold Moon: December 2022

Well, I have vines clinging to the brick walls of my little house that's perched on a ravine; and my garden is dormant to overwinter. I'm already nostalgic for those warm summer nights. Now it is a cold plunge to open my front door and look up at the Cold moon in the night sky. 


 

A Nameless Woman

by No Cj'onmyhong

I wish to be a nameless woman
way out on a small hillside.
With gourd-vines on the roof of my cottage,
pumpkins and cucumbers in a hemp-garden,
the moon invited into my yard
over a fence made of roses,
and my arms full of stars;
the owl-hooting dark will not make me lonely.

In a village where the train never stops,
eating millet-cake soaked in a rass basin,
talking with a close friend until late at night
about the secrets of the fox-haunted mountains,
while a shaggy dog barks at the moon,
I shall be happier than a queen.


Translated by Ko Won.
This poem is presumed to be in public domain.


No Ch'onmyhong (1912 - 1957), also known as Noh Cheonmyeong, was a South Korean poet, journalist, and lecturer who published several collections of poems. During the Korean War, No was convicted of being involved in anti-government activities and was sentenced to twenty years in jail, but served only six months.

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Hurray


The last month was a crunch. I haven't felt retired as I've juggled BPYC Board responsibilities and volunteering with Toronto Master Gardeners + managing these big deliverables. 

  • Town Hall information session on the BPYC ONCA By-law (Nov 30)
  • Master Gardener: completed coursework and handed in the Final Case study for my University of Guelph Integrated Pest Management course (Dec 3)

    This last week was a culmination of a lot of hard work. They're delivered!!

    Both of these pushed me out of my comfort zone. I can't say they were 'fun' or 'relaxing' activities, but I learned a lot along the way.


    Both went better than expected. More people showed up at the Town Hall than we thought would turn up for a fairly dry subject, and while some pointed questions were asked it wasn't overly confrontational. The IPM Final Case Study seemed daunting at first but nicely came together, section by section.

    So HURRAY for taking on new challenges and broadening my horizons along the way. 


    Cue James Brown:  I FEEL GOOD



    Sunday, November 20, 2022

    Costa Rica! Itinerary

    20 days of adventure on the winter horizon.


    Plane tickets booked!
    Accommodations booked - check!
    Car rental booked - check!
    House sitters arranged - check!


    San Jose - 1 night

    La Fortuna -  3 nights
    Arunel and Northern Lowlands

    Samara - 4 nights
    Peninsula de Nicoya

    Monteverde - 3 nights
    Northwestern Costa Rica

    Manuel Antonio - 3 nights
    Central Pacific Coast

    Drake Bay - 4 nights
    Osa Penninsula - Zona Sur

    San Jose - 1 night





    Tuesday, November 15, 2022

    Snow Day!

     Winter snowflakes came, to the shock of late flowers, absorbing the cold.

    post script: 
    The snow didn't melt for a few days, but by the next week the ground was that familiar browny green and the air stayed cool and fresh.

    Friday, November 11, 2022

    The colour red

    One of the most colourful falls on record. Warm temperatures and a lack of wind has left the leaves on the trees for extended display. Instead of brittle, brown falling leaves we are enjoying resplendent colour.

    The colour red. Red red leaves on the Japanese maple and red dahlia's hanging on well into November. Red fired leaves on green grass. Red chair in a golden corner.

    Great walks in the ravine and also lovely garden views.






     

    Tuesday, November 8, 2022

    Woman in the Moon



    Woman in the Moon
    Darlings, I write to you from the moon
    where I hide behind famous light.
    How could you think it was ever a man up here?
    A cow jumped over. The dish ran away with the spoon.

    What reached me here were your prayers, griefs,
    here's the craic, losses and longings, your lives
    so brief, mine long, long, a talented loneliness.
    I must have a thousand names for the earth, my blue vocation.

    Round I go, the moon a diet of light, sliver of pear,
    wedge of lemon, slice of melon, half an orange, onion;
    your human music falling like petals through space,
    the childbirth song, the lover’s song, the song of death.

    Devoted as words to things, I stare and stare;
    deserts where forests were, vanishing seas. When your night comes,
    I see you staring back as though you can hear my Darlings,
    what have you done, what you have done to the earth?

    illustration by Ponder Goembel

    moon is full November 8, 2022

    by Carol Ann Duffy (1955 - 

    Sunday, November 6, 2022

    Always Home


    I've been reading a lot of memoir, and this is one of my favourites from the year. An 2022 Book Babes' alternate choice, it's written by Fanny Singer, daughter of Alice Waters. More of a sensory journey, with fragments of reminiscence from a privileged childhood spent in the South of France and Berkeley California. Much adored by the adults of her life, Fanny had her school lunches packed by her mom, the gifted restaraunteur and chef Alice Waters. This memoir shares recipes as well as memories. 

    Here are some for my recipe file:

    Salad dressing

    Start by placing a clove of garlic and a 1/2 tsp sea salt in a Japanese mortar and grind to translucent paste. Cover the garlic with 1 Tbs of red wine vinegar and 1.5 Tbs of Banuls* vinegar and let sit for ten minutes so that the acid has time to mellow the heat of the allium. Whisk in scant 1/2 tsp of Dijon mustard and then 6 Tbsp of virgin olive oil, beating vigorously to emulsify. Add a grind of black pepper at the end and taste, adjusting for acid balance and salt. (enough to dress a salad for six)

    *Banyuls vinegar or combo of sheery vinegar/apple cider/lemon juice

    Anchovy vinaigrette

    Pound a large clove of garlic and a big pinch of sea salt in mortar. Rinse and debone an anchovy and add single fillet to the pestle. Grind to a paste with garlic and add a teaspoon of lemon juice and a teaspoon of champagne vinegar. Let macerate for several minutes. Use a fork to whisk in a few glugs of olive oil (about 2:1 acid) and a generous showering of freshly ground pepper. For a more Caesar inflected sauce, add a Tbsp of finely grated parmesan. (as long as the word anchovy doesn't come up, most children will happily eat it).

    Citron presse

    Make a lemon infused simple syrup by putting a cup of sugar and the peel of one lemon in a saucepan with a cup of water. Bring to a boil and allow to roll for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely. Can store in refrigerator for up to a month.

    To serve, put 1 Tbsp lemon syrup in a glass with a few ice cubes. Squeeze in the juice of one lemon and stir in sparkling water/water to taste. Sweeten with more syrup if desired.

    Garlicky noodle soup

    Combine a cup or two of cooked noodles, a minced head of garlic, and a chopped bunch of parsley in a pot of simmering chicken stock, removing a minute or two when the garlic is just blanched and the flavours have a moment to marry.

    Optional: add poached chicken; add mirepoix (cook first in pan with diced carrot, celery, onion, parsnip until fragrant and semi translucent); fresh dill

    Coming Home Pasta

    Recipe demo

    Pat's Pancakes



    Thursday, October 27, 2022

    Make this at Home

    When I go out for a 'fancy' meal I'll order something I wouldn't make for myself at home, but I will take bits of inspiration back to my home kitchen. A plating technique, an ingredient, or an idea. 

    That was the theme of a recent get-together I hosted at my place with Laura and Kaarina, in honour of the recent 2022 Toronto Michelin guide. We made reservations at Grey Gardens – a Bib Gourmand restaurant, looking for some inspiration for a meal we would prepare together at my house the next afternoon.

    But cocktails first! Bar Chef was booked for a private event, so we ended up at Misty Restaurant and Bar. I ordered a Smoked Old Fashioned, a delicious concoction that came to the table covered by a wooden disc that when lifted, freed the smoke to billow from the glass. Cool effect, but it also left great aromas to nose. So great I ordered another and went to watch how it was made. A smoker was placed over the cocktail glass and wood chips went into it to be set on fire vertically with a torch; then after 5-10 seconds the fire gets covered up with the disc to capture the smoke in the glass. Drama! Using brown sugar to make the simple syrup deepened the flavours. Lesson learned: order a cocktail smoker kit to indulge myself at home.

    One of the inspirations from Grey Gardens turned out to be a wonderful drink called Bitter. The next day Kaarina brought some sherry and cava so we could experiment with the cinar in my cupboard, and our re-creation came close. 1/2 oz. each of Amontillado sherry + cinar, with 2 oz. of cava, garnished with a slice of cucumber. This makes for a very refreshing, effervescent drink with the perfume of cucumber. Lesson learned: How to pronounce cinar - I'd been saying 'ch' and it should be more like 's.' 

    At Grey Gardens, cooked chanterelles topped pork with green beans and green peppercorn. There was also venison carpaccio topped with raw portobello. So our second inspiration was the ingredient - mushrooms - which, truthfully, we had already selected to feature on our lunch menu the next day. 


    *FoodWise Prix Fixe Menu
    Aperitif: Bitter Cocktail
    Crepe Vonnassienne and scallop with saffron foam paired with Chardonnay 
    Salad: Frisse with cooked and raw mushroom, garnished with Bleu d'Élizabeth
    Dessert: Vanilla Pot de Creme
    Modernist cocktail with lemon foam to finish


    In fact Kaarina had already suggested the menu for our lunch: Crepe Vonnassienne. Georges Blanc, the French chef and restaurateur with three Michelin stars to his name, serves them as a stand-alone starter with caviar and also as a side with Poularde de Bresse. 

    In advance of the day, I'd purchased a whipping siphon, anticipating some culinary foam might be in my future. I went down quite a rabbit hole on You Tube, watching different videos and learning the siphon could also be used to pickle, infuse, and even make mashed potatoes. For our lunch I decided on some saffron foam.

    As there would be egg yolks left over from the crepe, and there was a vanilla bean in my cupboard, Pot de creme featured on the dessert menu.

    We shopped for the ingredients the next morning at McEwan's. Even at this luxury grocery, the cost was a fraction of the previous evening's festivities. Of course, we would not be waited on hand and foot and we would be the cooks in the kitchen.

    Well, I didn't win any Michelin stars but I did learn a few things:

    Like jazz or comedy improv, even when you improvise it's good to start with some kind of framework. The George Blanc recipe for Crepe Vonnassienne was a nice blank canvas to riff. Kaarina shared the recipe and it turns out, Lesson learned: Instagram has #MichelinGuideathome and offers homemade recipes from favourite chefs.

    I have been preoccupied lately with reducing food waste. Making the best use of the ingredients at hand seems like a no-brainer. The Pot de Creme was a delicious way to end the meal and an efficient way to use up those leftover raw egg yolks. The vanilla bean had been in my pantry for quite awhile, I wasn't quite sure how to make the best use of it. After the beans were scraped out, Laura suggested we put the pod in a jar with some sugar to create a vanilla scented treat.  Lesson learned: Make use of your leftovers and what's in the pantry.

    With the whipping siphon, the saffron foam was a huge challenge to get looking decent. It was spraying everywhere! Thank goodness I was among friends. I ended up wanting to discharge the siphon of the saffron foam to try lemon foam, so emptied the contents into a mason jar... this turned out to be the perfect vehicle to spoon the foam from (discovered AFTER this photo was taken). With the lemon foam, I was using gelatine and went beyond the hour recommended in the recipe - so it ended up being solid instead of liquid, and to make a long story short, this didn't turn out as envisioned either. Timing is important. My whipping siphon adventures will continue, though, and I'm going to try a few more recipes and techniques. Lesson learned: experiment and have fun!

    Lots of fun, and as always, lessons learned. 

    *FoodWise is the working title of our new culinary trio.

    George Blanc recipe for Crepe Vonnassienne

    Verified

    #MICHELINGUIDEATHOME presents homemade recipes, straight from your favorite chefs to your kitchen.

    The venerable Chef @georges_blanc_officiel, of Restaurant Georges Blanc— three stars in the MICHELIN Guide France 2020 — shares his recipe for Vonnassiennes crepes: French specialty potato crepes.








    Sunday, October 9, 2022

    Hunter's Moon

    Luna: The Goddess Diana as the Full Moon

    This month is the Hunters Moon. It always makes me think of Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon and hunt. Here she is depicted by sculptor Henry Weekes as the embodiment. 

    Moon Hymn

    I will give you one glimpse
    a glimpse of the moon's grievance
    whose appearance is all pocks and points
    that look like frost-glints

    I will wave my hand to her
    in her first quarter
    when the whole world is against her
    shadowy exposure of her centre

    o the moon loves to wander
    I will go clockwise and stare
    when she is huge when she is half elsewhere
    half naked, in struggle with the air

    and growing rounder and rounder
    a pert peering creature
    I love her sidling and awkward
    when she's not quite circular

    o criminal and ingrown
    skinned animal o moon
    carrying inside yourself your own
    death's head, your dark one

    why do you chop yourself away
    piece by piece, to that final trace
    of an outline of ice
    on a cupful of space?

    · by Alice Oswald
    From Woods Etc. published by Faber, and included in The Forward book of poetry 2006 published by Forward

    The moon is full October 9
    4:55 pm. 

    Saturday, October 1, 2022

    Fall planting notes

    Native Plants in Claremont was having a sale, it was a beautiful fall day and perfect for a drive. They had prickly pear! 

    I came home with a flat full of treasures.

    Two prickly pear, one cardinal flower, one thimbleweed and one bergamot for the front pollinator garden.

    I've wanted a prickly pear for quite awhile. A neighbour has one down the street and I noticed it on my walks throughout the different seasons. Getting the two of them in the ground, they were indeed a prickly pair, as little thorns poked their way through my heavy cotton gloves.

    In the back: wood poppy beside the juniper; evening primrose beside the pond; yarrow by the feeder; marginal wood fern in the ravine; broad-leafed sedge at the edge of the backyard; and another jack in the pulpit.

    wood poppy
    evening primrose


    Other changes

    I gifted the OSO Italian Ice rose to Alex and Penny. It's a great specimen, such easy care and beautiful colour, but I didn't notice any pollinators buzzing.

    Ripped out all the lily of the valley. The pulmonaria (lungwort) will take its place. I had controlled the plant in a dense thicket, but it was still placed dangerously close to the ravine. A group of volunteers formed the Toronto Nature Stewards (TNS) to help implement the Ravine Strategy and this is one of the plants they target to remove. I haven't seen the plant creeping into my own ravine yet, but why take the chance?

    Transplanted an evergreen from the back to the hole left behind from a boxwood that was removed due to rust.

    Alex transplanted the hellebore just a foot into where the evergreen had been, making some space between the notes.

    I moved the Xenox sedum from its spot under the Japanese maple and placed the Jack-in the pulpit there... hoping to create a colony come spring.

    Several plants from my spring planting didn't make it. The Japanese anemone in the front garden that I planted this year and the Canadian anemone from '21 were casualties. So was the northern bush honeysuckle, sadly. 

    Sunday, September 25, 2022

    September blooms

    Plants are still budding! Love the colour orange in hibiscus, nasturtium, and roses. Couldn't resist the mums that were calling autumn flames. The purple astors are growing strong and the salvia is still attracting bees. Bluejays are flocking around the feeder and nuthatches are on the return.



    Temperatures are dropping fast in the evenings. I'd better get to my plant 'to do's'. I'd like to try to overwinter the white mandevilla, the vine is one of the more pricy ones in garden centres. I'll give it a try:

    If you’re short on bright light or space, you can bring the mandevilla indoors and store it in a dormant state. Put the plant in the sink and drench the soil thoroughly to wash out pests that may be lurking in the potting mix, then cut it back to about 10 inches (25 cm.). If you don’t want to trim it back, you may notice yellowing with subsequent leaf drop– this is normal. Place the plant in a sunny room where temperatures are between 55 and 60 degrees F. (12-15 C.). Water sparingly throughout the winter, providing only enough moisture to keep the potting mix from becoming bone dry. When you see early spring growth indicating the plant is breaking dormancy, move the mandevilla to a warm, sunny room and resume normal watering and fertilization.

    Read more at Gardening Know How: Winterizing Mandevillas: Tips For Overwintering A Mandevilla Vine https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/vines/mandevilla/winterizing-mandevillas.htm

    Must remember to collect the nasturtium and zinnia seeds.


    Saturday, September 10, 2022

    Full Harvest Moon September 2022



    Moon - Lover



    My favourite section of this poem by Robert Service is part  III, that opens with the stanza:

    To know the Moon as few men may,

    One must be just a little fey;

    And for our friendship's sake I'm glad

    That I am just a trifle mad.



    I

    The Moon is like a ping-pong ball;
    I lean against the orchard wall,
    And see it soar into the void,
    A silky sphere of celluloid.

    Then fairy fire enkindles it,
    Like gossamer by taper lit,
    Until it glows above the trees
    As mellow as a Cheddar cheese.

    And up and up I watch it press
    Into appalling loneliness;
    Like realms of ice without a stain,
    A corpse Moon come to life again.

    Ruthless it drowns a sturdy star
    That seeks its regal way to bar;
    Seeming with conscious power to grow,
    And sweeter, purer, gladder glow.

    Dreaming serenely up the sky
    Until exultantly on high,
    It shimmers with superb delight,
    The silver navel of the night.

    II

    I have a compact to commune
    A monthly midnight with the Moon;
    Into its face I stare and stare,
    And find sweet understanding there.

    As quiet as a toad I sit
    And tell my tale of days to it;
    The tessellated yarn I've spun
    In thirty spells of star and sun.

    And the Moon listens pensively,
    As placid as a lamb to me;
    Until I think there's just us two
    In silver world of mist and dew.

    In all of spangled space, but I
    To stare moon-struck into the sky;
    Of billion beings I alone
    To praise the Moon as still as stone.

    And seal a bond between us two,
    Closer than mortal ever knew;
    For as mute masses I intone
    The Moon is mine and mine alone.

    III

    To know the Moon as few men may,
    One must be just a little fey;
    And for our friendship's sake I'm glad
    That I am just a trifle mad.

    And one with all the wild, wise things,
    The furtive folk of fur and wings,
    That hold the Moon within their eyes,
    And make it nightly sacrifice.

    O I will watch the maiden Moon
    Dance on the sea with silver shoon;
    But with the Queen Moon I will keep
    My tryst when all the world's asleep.

    As I have kept by land and sea
    That tryst for half a century;
    Entranced in sibylline suspense
    Beyond a world of common-sense.

    Until one night the Moon alone
    Will look upon a graven stone. . . .
    I wonder will it miss me then,
    Its lover more than other men?

    Or will my wistful ghost be there,
    Down ages dim to stare and stare,
    On silver nights without a stir--
    The Moon's Eternal Worshipper?

     Monday, January 13, 2003

    Wednesday, September 7, 2022

    Happy (Champagne) Birthday!!


    This year I turned 61. Sixty one??? Born in 1961, this makes it my champagne birthday. 

    My champagne year!! I'll take my cue from Veuve Clicquot, the champagne brand that is celebrating their 250th birthday all year. I'm still a teenager by that calendar.

    My 61st year was a great one! Retired!!! Travelled to Greece. Became a Master Gardener in training. Kept up my yoga practice, book clubs, gardening, sailing.  Thinking about the next five years, I want more of the same!




    For my birthday this year, Rob gifted me with a gorgeous backgammon board. We've been playing together for 45+ years now. Rob swears I have some kind of control over the dice and that I win 90% of the time - both of which are untrue! This board has a counter so we can keep a running track. It's a tactile pleasure to play - the stones glide across the walnut, the board is inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Great craftsmanship.

    We spent the afternoon at Ripley's Aquarium admiring the view, and then came home to celebrate with Alex & Penny; Dave and Therese; Amita and Twincy at our place with Chinese takeout and birthday cake. Fun!

    Wednesday, August 31, 2022

    Summer inspiration

    Lots of photos in this post, so a bit of a preamble while they all load.

    Whenever I visit gardens I spot something I'd like to try in my own backyard. Not everything is practical - like the pitcher plants and ladies slippers on the Bruce Peninsula alvar, some species just won't thrive. 

    My garden is small, with limited real estate for planting. Although not as shady in years past, most places are 'part sun.'  I still want a prickly pear!!

    Choices must be made, so although I might not be able to execute on a grand scale, I could bring in small elements. 


    Sources of garden inspiration on my summer travels:

    Toronto Island, for the kales and lettuce planted at the Toronto Island cafe and the Willow Square mosaic. 


    Music Garden in Toronto, for the flow of the garden and choice of plants attracting pollinators.



    Stratford Theatre, for the stories behind the plants and a willow trellis.
    Mugwort's protection from evil spirits...

    Killarney Lodge - mass plantings of astilbe, bergamot and ladies mantle / ox eye daisy and potentilla combo.




    Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton for cardinal flower and blue indigo. 
    I have some blue indigo seeds I want to try to germinate in the spring.