Blooming Season

I was on my way to the grocery store tonight and had to stop to snap this picture of the harbour in Oakville. When I looked over towards the lake I couldn't help but smile at the beauty. 

Was it only two weeks ago that we had a blast of flurries?  

We watched the cranes launch the boats over the past week and tonight a beautiful white sailboat skimmed across the lake water like it was a pane of glass.

My Granddaughter is happy to go to the garden center with me to pick out flowers......... and jump in the puddles. After all, isn't that what spring is all about.

It's turned warm enough to leave the pretty pink jacket on the hook and run around the park in short sleeves.

It's the start of a blooming good season.

You say goodbye, I say HELLO

It's time to say goodbye ............enough........ no more. 

 'Old man winter, it's time for you to retire'. 

We are moving out of the house of Old Man Winter.........

My Psychic friend tells me not to ask the universe 'what else can go wrong', or 'how much more winter {or whatever} can we possibly stand'. Apparently the universe answers by showing us that we can take more. Hmmm. 

By the volume of snow we have received this season, it hasn't been a favourable answer. 

So it's time to speak your mind and put your requests up on the table.

I think I'll join in the chorus of the chirpy little song that my Granddaughter sings;

'Mr. Sun, Mr. Sun, Mr. Golden Sun,

Please shine down on me.' 

Welcome Spring

come on in................ stay for awhile.

 

With spring on the horizon, what is the number one thing you are looking forward to doing?

 

Where does your garden grow

 

I went past a garden last week that I have seen hundreds of times. We used to live only a few blocks away from this beautiful spot. 

The garden is a part of St. Hilary's Anglican Church {Mississauga}. The corner of the the church property boasts a rambling garden that provides a welcome mat to the hundreds of people who pass by each day. 

When I was stopped in traffic last week and promised myself that I'd come back one afternoon to take some pictures of the garden. 

The garden is thriving in a very busy spot. The property and the lush English style garden is surrounded by roads..... on every side. A cloverleaf of one of the busiest main highways {the Queen Elizabeth Way or QEW as we refer to it} spills traffic into the area beside the church. 

It's not a pretty view looking back at the highway from the church, but the beauty of this well tended garden makes the vista around it a blur.

When I stopped by to take pictures of the garden I noticed just how busy the roads are around the area. 

The other interesting thing that I discovered is that many of the tree's and rose bushes in the garden at St. Hilary's are devoted to people who have passed.

The chain link fence that separates the roadway from the church property is lined with various roses. All of the rose bushes have pegs identifying the name of the rose and many include plaques with dedications. There are park benches with dedications, albeit that I wondered how anyone could sit quietly with the volume of noise from the highway and surrounding roads.

 

I came to realize that the members of St. Hilary's who lovingly tend the garden are oblivious to the sound around them. Serious gardeners know that once the soil touches your hands it is like hearing a symphony. 

And it is obvious that the flowers in this garden thrive on the volume of a full orchestra.

Oh Blah !

Although I am thankfully that this January the month is not 'white' {as in snow covered}, the greyness can leaving me feeling kind of blah. Maybe we have it all wrong, maybe we do need some of the white fluffy stuff so we can have a snow day. Then we could stay at home, make cookies, snuggle down and watch old movies for the day.

The craziness of the holidays are over, the decorations are stowed away for another year. And now we wait ......  for spring ........ for sunshine ........ for warm breezes. 

And it seems so far away. 

Oh Blah !

I have so many projects to do and talked myself into the idea that doing them in the winter makes much more sense. But the days are grey and lazy.

My to-do list is pretty simple ..... some small painting projects, installing a new daybed in the spare room for our granddaughter, organizing our photo's that need to be scanned. 

I have a new camera that Richard a'ka Santa bought me for Christmas. I can sit for days playing with it and trying out the features. But it feels as if all of the images might turn out grey right now. 

Comfort food like milk & cookies makes everything seem brighter.

Normally I'm a little peeved that the stores have barely taken the Christmas tree's down and they are promoting Valentine's Day. But this year it seems encouraging to see the progress of the season, and bright spring colours landing in the stores early. A smile did come to my face when I walked into a store and saw racks of colourful jeans. Whew, I had the sensibility to buy two pairs of bright jeans in the summer. No grey there.

To my blog friends in Australia I want to say - Bless you, and thank you for sharing the beautiful images of your spring/summer flowers. You brighten the days for those of us who are looking at dirt smudges on the windows and cloudy skies.

 

Here's to adding a big dash of colour to the day.

Cardinal Visit's

Cardinal's visit me every day

Ten years ago I started to plan my first garden; it was right after my Father passed away.  I remember sitting on the floor of my living room looking out at the window at the snow covering my back lawn. I kept thinking that if I couldn't manage to get away on vacation each year, then I should make the yard an oasis for myself.
I took a week's vacation in the spring and stayed home to construct the garden. At the time our patio was pave stones across the back of the house just as you stepped out the patio door. Not attractive. So the process began of lifting the patio stones and reusing them to create a new space began.  I had to dig the patio foundation and lay the gravel base with just a garden shovel. I ended up digging the garden beds out, adding peat/top soil and laying sod to the space around the patio. I had never done anything like this before and managed it with the help of internet instructions.
I repositioned the patio so that it would be in the middle with grass and flowers beds all around it. No matter where you sat on the patio you were surrounded by beautiful flowers.  

So the Cardinal, how does that play in to the garden story? Well, every day since my Father passed away I've seen a Cardinal. It might be the actual bird, maybe a drawing of the Cardinal on a delivery truck, or sign on a bakery window. My Father was fascinated by this majestic bird and I believe the Cardinal sightings are messages from him. Certainly I was inspired and encouraged by my Dad all my life, and now he continues to inspire me to garden and to be creative.
A Cardinal came to visit me when I sat in the middle of the yard after digging it all up and wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew. As soon as I saw the bird I knew that it would all come together and it did.
The garden was a place for me to grow just as much as the plantings. I had been on my own raising my children by myself for 11 years at that point. I had never gardened before and quickly learned just how rewarding it can be. I miss that pretty little garden that developed over the next seven years. But I've moved on and met the love my heart was always yearning for (more details later on gardens, houses, exploring and settling in with Richard).

Cardinal  visits and my Father's strength inspire me daily to try harder to go a little bit further and not give up on my dreams.