My son named it the ‘mosquito trap’ and he wasn’t wrong. The small pool of water in a depression in one of the large boulders on the lake side of York House was a perfect place for mosquitoes to breed. But the watery space was also an opportunity. The question, though, was how…
My garden is one of the true pleasures of my life. When I moved into my new house about a year and a half ago, the garden’s potential excited me, but I knew that I needed time to assess how to develop it to its best advantage. Enormous glacial boulders surround the house, protecting it…
One of the great advantages of visiting gardens is collecting ideas for your own. Recently I was in Japan, and while there, I visited several magnificent gardens. I drank in their quiet beauty. I revelled in the shape and placement of rocks. I marvelled at the cloud pruning that revealed the…
With warmer weather finally arriving, Jacques, Ken and I have been working on the new garden at York House, just outside North Hatley, Quebec. We extended the border that backed onto the woods, widening it and backing it with a low stone wall. Here is the view before we began work. Here is…
Because of technical problems with the distribution of my blog, I am reposting this one, written in early November, 2023. I’ haven’t made any changes, so “last week” was actually many weeks ago. This is the last blog I will be re-posting. While I won’t commit to weekly blog posts going forward, I am aiming…
I’ve been living at York House for almost three weeks now, and I’m loving it. Almost every day I’ve spent time looking out the windows and walking around the house, trying to understand what the land has to offer. The most prominent feature is the view of Lake Massawippi. But competing for star…