Tidbits

Almost two months ago when our area endured relentless high winds for a day much damage followed...

Trees fell and the outcome was devastating. In one tree a nest of baby squirrels barely three weeks old, cold, eyes unopened and orphaned were discovered by my neighbour walking her dog. Knowing I had a soft spot for critters and having rescued several in the past she came to me and I set out to save them.

With feedings of puppy formula round the clock, they soon flourished.


Almost eight weeks later the two boys and one girl are now in the process of returning to Nature...


The peonies are at their peak in the garden right now. Sarah Barnhart's are my favourite. Their huge flowers and delicate scent fill my little cottage with unsurpassed beauty...
The aroma of yesterday's batch of rhubarb fig jam deliciously lingers in the kitchen...


I'd also like to send this special bouquet to June at 'Laughing With Angels' with the wish of a speedy recovery...

Have a wonderful weekend!

Illusions

Though most of my gardening is devoted to growing organic fruits, vegetables and herbs the small plots of soil set aside for flowers seems somehow a reflection of my favourite colours...


Early June finds a passion for pinks and mauves from the azalea to clematis.


Even the first bloom of the David Austen old rose hidden well beneath the foliage seeking shelter from the hot afternoon sun is the palest of pink...

A soft new Japanese Noro King yarn is on the needles too...


gentle earth tones with a touch of delicate pink, it is the beginnings of an early Autumn cowl for a friend's upcoming birthday...

Have a great week.

A Magical Place

When all is wrong in the world it is hard to imagine such, within the tranquility of the woods...


As you meander down the well-trodden paths venturing deeper into this magical place with the high pitched shrill of the meadowlark above it is easy to get lost in time and place...


Perhaps the forest fairies rest beneath a generous toadstool...


Or listening for the echoes of our ancestors seeking to find the huge oak burls that were once hand-carved into batter bowls...


Or a little pixie dancing amongst the decadent wildflowers...


Although Nature has her darker side with the beauty that lies before us all is quickly forgiven...

Recipes With Memories

There are ever present links to our past that follow us through the days of our lives...


As the rhubarb ripens and the tattered, spattered pages from my great-grandmother's recipes are readied, I find the recollections of her most vivid as I prepare to make her rhubarb marmalade.
Amidst the washing, the chopping and stirring, the aroma that fills the kitchen takes me back in time...




The violets are ready for harvest too. Each blossom picked, infused and yielding the most delicious shade of purple-pink jelly... connecting me to the women in my family, long passed but whose memories I share with their recipes.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Blossom Fever

Living in a vast fruit belt affords one the chance to prosper twice in a season...



Once from the beauty of the blooms that paint the orchards endless shades of pinks and whites and again later in the Summer when the luscious cherries and peaches droop from the branches...


I am not the only one smitten by all this blossoming, French, Austrian and Prussian china makers


once hand-painted their delicate porcelain wares in similar adoring motifs...


Alas Spring in all her glory...

The Perils of Nature

When the perils of Nature strike it is often the inconvenience and suffering to humans that is felt most...
But trees, forests and wildlife also succumb to her wrath.
This past Thursday the winds throughout the peninsula reached 95+ km . (75m.) per hour and continued for the entire day... when all was said and done a path of devastation was left in its wake.


The mighty maple that stood at the top of our country lane, where once I waited as a child for the school bus lay victim to the gusts.


I gathered nests from the ground strewn willy nilly across the lawns... each a sanctuary but now no longer able to hold the eggs that were soon to be laid.
We may have had no power for 4 days measured by the stillness in the household but perhaps it was an asset, creating one to indulge in hand sewing, knitting, campstove cooking and reflection...


Strangely enough though the devastation was predominate in areas, beauty still dotted the landscape...


holding the promise of flowers and fruits yet to come...

Lilliputian Lovelies

' Beauty can not be measured in size...
for it is simply a reflection of the loveliness within.'

SMM


I am always amazed how Nature has endowed such tiny little flowers with the visual impact of those 10 times their size and the enveloping heavenly fragrance worthy of great stature...


From these miniature daffodils to the violets and lily of the valley that will soon follow in my cottage garden I feel assured that finally Spring has arrived...




And for those of you that love the Lilly of the Valley and the colour pink I have discovered that the two are now available together. How yummy!

* Link for the pink Lilly of the Valley.