Envy is not an admirable trait but I have to confess that at this time of year, when gardeners even a short distance to the south of me are picking daffodils and beginning to smell the roses, I am envious. Here, in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, patches of snow are still much in evidence and where…
This winter feels interminable. Surely in earlier years daffodils have been blooming by now, snowdrops long gone. Well, no. It’s true that in some years snowdrops have appeared by this date. Crocus have bloomed. Pulmonaria have added their touch of colour. But it is also true that this April…
It’s grey and nasty today and all I can think about is spring. I know it will come but its arrival seems a long way away. So instead of moaning, I’m dreaming of snowdrops … and crocus … and buds beginning to bloom. I’m dreaming of stretching out on the…
Not much is blooming in my garden now. The snowdrops are almost gone, the grape hyacinths are just beginning to open and the pulmonaria by the front door are slowly showing their spots. There is a star in the garden, though, although that star isn’t a show-off. My bashful star is Cornus mas, a shrub…
Percy Bysshe Shelley knew a thing or two about spring. His Ode to the West Wind ends with a hopeful phrase: Be through my lips to unawakened Earth The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? At Glen Villa, the answer seems to be yes, it can be.…
Last week I was wondering what I would find when I returned to Glen Villa, my garden in rural Quebec. Would the snowdrops be gone, the crocus out in full force? Would I even find a daffodil or two? The quick answer is, no. Six weeks in warmer climes made me forget that this is only the…
After more than a month, I’m heading north in a few days, returning to my garden in Quebec. It’s been a strange winter… the winter that wasn’t, someone called it. So I don’t know what I’ll find in the garden when I finally arrive. I’ve heard that in the Eastern Townships, my part of Quebec,…
For the last few days I’ve been driving south, from Montreal to South Carolina. I was expecting the days to get warmer and they have, but not by much. Along the Skyline Drive in Virginia, snow was very evident, up close … … and in the distance. Seeing so much…
I woke this morning to a beautiful winter’s day. The sky was blue, the sun was glinting on the newly fallen snow. Gorgeous. A glorious winter day, on the third day of spring. Except that it is meant to be spring. The vernal equinox has come and gone. Officially we are now three days into…
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate; Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. — William Shakespeare Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 provided the title for…