At the moment, my beloved ratstripper (Paxistima canbyi) is the only real green showing in my back gardens. I adore this evergreen groundcover since it can withstand most anything, including my big brown dog. Every year it faithfully appears, requires little maintenance and increases steadily year upon year. I went on a quest this morning…

I have spent these past days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day listening to my favourite Irish fiddle tunes. One of my favourite CDs is Her infinite variety: Celtic women in Music & Song (Green Linnet Records)When I started on the violin a few years’ ago, these were the tunes that I dreamed of playing.…

So a few days ago, I was certain that spring had arrived and that we had seen the last of the snow. A tad optimistic, I’d say! Last evening, a blizzard passed through and left about 10 cm. of snow. It must have been my friend Kerry who brought it with her from Calgary! When…

With promising signs of spring in the air, my yearning to be at work in the garden grows apace. Since the paths in the back garden are filled with water (during the day) and ice (at night), I am contenting myself with reading about gardens and enjoying the photographs my friend Nina is sending me…

I wonder if Lytton, my big, brown dog, could ever be happier than he was today. It was a glorious spring day – the first time in months that I was outside in a turtleneck and jeans and felt too warm! Around lunchtime, Lytton donned his clean red and pink bandanna and off we set…

This evening my son and I went on our first spring adventure by car, stopping at KFC to pick up supper and then heading straight south from Regina. The last time we travelled along this route, we stopped often to take pictures. It was harvest time and the fields looked like burnished gold that went…

There’s something about getting lost in a book while sipping on a café in a bookstore that does the heart good. Today I sat reading The Red Queen, by Margaret Drabble, and suddenly my way forward became painfully clear. I knew in that moment that it was time to take back my power and so…

Late last summer, I liberated four rickety wooden chairs from the trash bin in our back alley. Today, I put them down in the basement where I can begin working on their transformation. I will give you regular updates about my progress. Each of the chairs is in need of minor repair, wood filling, sanding…

My big brown dog, Lytton, seems to have an affinity for the living room curtains, which consist of multi-coloured pieces of organdy sewn together into long, narrow panels. Last week, I arrived home to find Lytton wearing a curtain panel. If only the camera had been close at hand to catch his expression. It was…

It’s hard to believe that my favourite flowers, Dianthus superbus (aka Pinks) belong to the same family of flowers as the pink carnations that I’ve had on my dining room table for almost a month. Sometimes I have to touch them just to make sure they are real! Why is it that we are intent…