This is what’s happening in my neck of the woods: making maple syrup. Part of the Sugar Bush at Glen Villa We tapped trees in late February and have only now stopped boiling the sap into syrup. Steam rises as the sap boils down into syrup. It takes 40 litres of sap to make 1 litre…
Several weeks ago I started a three-part series about an art installation at Glen Villa called In Transit / en Route. I posted the first two parts and intended to post the third in week three. But California and all I saw there captured my attention and my blogging time. So the third part of In…
It seems perverse to write about the sound of summer when winter winds still howl and more snow is forecast. But how better to keep warm than to anticipate? And to remember. For years my husband and I spent our summer vacation with our children at a cottage next door to Glen Villa. My brother-in-law…
The In Transit / En Route trail starts at the edge of a field. with a sign that asks a rather odd question. Where are you? Où êtes-vous? As I wrote in my previous post (In Transit / En Route: the beginning), the words aren’t easy to read. The letters are small and the words run together with…
In my post last week I mentioned In Transit / En Route and showed a photo of a clearing in the woods. Here’s the photo again. In Transit/En Route: the sundial clearing in the woods Do you see the red sign in the clearing? It is part of In Transit, or En Route in French, an installation…
People respond differently to the woods that are a big part of the landscape at Glen Villa It’s hard to miss the difference. Some hike through the forest intent on getting someplace, noticing very little. Others spy things I’ve never seen. The art installations I’m creating throughout the property generate widely different reactions. For some people,…
Glen Villa is about the land and the people who have lived on it, me and my family and the generations that preceded us. It’s about the emotions that plants and objects arranged artfully can evoke in those who take the time to really look at what is around them. It’s about the land beyond…
“Landscape is history made visible,” said J.B. Jackson, the American cultural geographer. I subscribe wholeheartedly to this idea. Every piece of land has a history. Glen Villa has lots – in fact, you almost trip over it here. The waterfall, for instance, started life over a century ago,…
People say that a first blog post should start with a statement of principle, something that lets people know what the blog will be about. I’m not sure how this blog will evolve. I know I want to write about my garden, Glen Villa, and about how it got to be what it is. I…