Enchanting Essex

Tag: photography

  • The Panicled Diner

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    Panicled Asters are an herbaceous, perennial, native wildflower here in Ontario. They produce small, white, Daisy-like flowers in the autumn and provide important late-season nectar for local pollinators. Yesterday, during a very short visit to our pollinator garden, I counted six species enjoying the feast: The Panicled Diner The diner is open, the sign is…

  • The Faerie Ballet Troupe

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    When I was a tad I was faerie-mad! I “saw” them everywhere. Everything in the garden, the field and the woods was a faerie house. When the breeze made the leaves flutter, it was faerie wings. Faerie-mad! Much to Mum and Dad’s chagrin, Nana not only humoured me, but encouraged my already wild imagination where…

  • The Great Hellebore Heist

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    Hellebores are an evergreen perennial in the Buttercup family. Ours was a housewarming present in Cobourg from my friend, Ruth. “Sweetpea” has a great many of these beauties in her garden, and I’d always admired them. One afternoon, Cam and I were sitting on our deck when one of the wild bunnies went scampering past…

  • The Meadow’s Paper Lanterns

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    Bladder Campion is an herbaceous, non-native, perennial of the Pink (Carnation) family. When dried, its globes make a beautiful addition to dried flower arrangements. Fun Fact: One of its fanciful names is “Maiden’s Tears”. It is a very old, European folkloric name, inspired by the way the delicate, inflated, pinkish pods look like teardrops hanging…

  • Lens-Artist Challenge #414 – Harmony:  “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day”

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    Leya wrote: “For this challenge, this week, I want to give us more freedom by using a wider explanation of the concept: Harmony is the combination of separate but related parts in a way that uses their similarities to bring unity to a painting, drawing, or other art object.” Like, perhaps, an orchestra? From harmony,…

  • The Little Boop-and-Bounce Blossoms

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    Due, apparently, to our soil, Essex County is p’raps the only area in Ontario where Oxeyes refuse to grow. For a Daisy girl like me, that’s a tragedy, but what does grow remarkably well — in gardens and wilded on the roadsides — is Feverfew. Not a Daisy, but maybe, in the circumstances, the next…

  • The Courtyard Surprise

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    Whilst we’ve got absolute masses of Peck’s Skippers here in south-western Ontario, The Silver-spotted is much harder to find and, to our surprise, we had one sunning herself atop our courtyard wall for most of the afternoon. Made my day! The Courtyard Surprise Perched high upon the courtyard stone,A rare and painted gem has flown.With…

  • Autumn-kissed Splendor

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    This week here in Essex County, our ditches and roadsides are positively teeming with Jerusalem Artichoke blossoms — a golden resplendence to be sure! Autumn-kissed Splendour The roadsides of Essex are wearing their crown,A bright splash of gold just outside of the town.The Jerusalem Artichoke stands tall and proud,A cheerful, wild burst for the autumntide…

  • The Fairest Weed

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    Locally known as Blueweed, Viper’s Bugloss is an herbaceous, non-native, monocarpic* biennial in the Borage (Aster) family. Viper’s Bugloss is also known as Blueweed and Thistle Blueweed. Fun Fact: The ancients believed (falsely) that Bugloss was a hiding place for snakes. As a result, in mythology the plant is said to be possessed of serpent-like…

  • The Traveling Weigela

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    A Weigela with a very special story: We had a spectacularly beautiful Weigela tree. In three of our gardens! It began life as an Oldfashioned Weigela shrub but my friend Theresa’s dad grafted it onto a sapling and created a Standard Weigela for me. We had it in the gardens of three homes – first…

  • The Flower Hour #48: STUViewing In Essex County

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    STUViewing In Essex County The woods awake in April showers,To host a quirky hour of flowers.First Springbeauty wakes up bright,To carpet forest floors in white.Then nodding Trillium takes the cue,With triple petals, clean and true. But look! A strange, inverted sight:An “Upsidasy”—blooming, right?She grew askew, head to the dirt,A cheeky, woodland floral flirt!Thank goodness Valerian…

  • Lanterns of Shade

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    Tuberous begonias are what is known as tender perennials, meaning that they can survive for many years, just not in our freezing winter temperatures. Rather than overwintering them indoors, many Canadian gardeners (me!) consider them to be annuals, and every spring when the garden centres reopen, treat ourselves to new ones. These beauties are a…

  • Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge: Mother and Daughter

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    This is a a Peace Rose blossom and yes, I know it looks oddly “peachy” in colour for a Peace. My dad had an amazing rose garden at the wee house on Joy Drive — 300+ bushes and 150+ species. The Peace, however was Dad’s favourite, so I’ve planted one in every garden since, for…

  • The Sapphire Tangled Ribbon

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    Bird Vetch is an herbaceous, non-native, now invasive, perennial of the Pea family. Its purple flowers have a “wing” on each side, hence its common name. Ontario farmers would combine Bird Vetch seed with hay seed, to produce a higher-protein, richer fodder for their cows, ergo its fanciful name, Cow Vetch. Hummingbirds, butterflies and bees…

  • Cheeky Usurper

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    A rogue and uninvited guest makes for the perfect poetic muse. Motherwort is an herbaceous, non-native, invasive (and very pretty) perennial plant in the mint family. Also, colloquially, known as Lion’s Tail. Originally from Central Asia and southeastern Europe, it was brought to North America by Herbalists and Naturopaths because of its supposed efficacy in…

  • Lens-Artists Challenge #413: Favourite Footbridges

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    Ontario’s landscape has an abundance of rivers, creeks and streams, meaning that bridges are a major feature of our beautiful province’s viatecture. The curves, angles, sculptural and functional aspects of bridges appeal to the very young, the very old and everyone in between. Bridge design and construction is only possible because of the imaginations of…

  • Ground-Level Geometry

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    Here in southwestern Ontario, the normal blooming time for Sweet Woodruff is from May to June. The late September frost is no longer miles away, but here it is, a small four-pointed star holding onto the hem of the season. She absolutely is a little warrior! September is a massive stretch past her usual June…

  • Summer’s Ruffled Gowns

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    The Peonies most of us enjoy in our gardens came to North America from China, making them non-native, herbaceous, perennials. They’re one of the showiest flowers in most gardens and, ‘though the individual blooms have a relatively short lifespan, the overall display on a single mature plant often lasts a full month. Two Fun Facts:…

  • Graceful Line

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    Goosenecks are an herbaceous, hardy, non-native perennial of the Primrose family. In the Victorian language of flowers, Goosenecks symbolise peace and tranquility. We were gifted a pot of these beauties for our new garden when we moved into our home on Frei Street. It wasn’t long ’til they filled the entire flowerbed along one side…

  • Ode to a Mosquito

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    We had an interesting but unpleasant experience today. It was mid-afternoon, we were sitting outside enjoying the forest behind us, it was not damp, neither was it sunset time, yet we were suddenly bombarded by Asian Tiger Mosquitoes. And they were biting. Ode to a Mosquito A striped little monster from Hell,Decided that mid-day went…

  • The Flower Hour #47: The Sunflowers

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    Fun Fact: Vincent van Gogh is probably most well-known for his paintings of sunflowers. Indeed, they were a “lure” of sorts, for his good friend Paul Gauguin. When Van Gogh rented his famous “Yellow House” in Arles, France, in 1888, he desperately wanted to create a communal artist colony. To that end, he invited the…

  • Vetchling’s Variation

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    There’s no happier surprise than to walk out to our garden in springtime and see a clump of Vetchlings in full, glorious bloom. Spring Vetchling is an herbaceous perennial in the legume (pea) family. It is native to European and Siberian woodlands. A couple of fun facts: This beauty is a self-feeding phenom! Its roots…

  • Great Garden Showdown

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    Great Garden Showdown Rozanne is a sprawler, a lazy-day queen,The longest-lived bloomer you ever have seen!She lounges in borders, her purple eyes bright,And hogs all the sunlight from morning till night. But Rock Cranesbill scoffs from her cracks in the stone,And rules her dry kingdom completely alone!With leaves smelling sweet and magenta so loud,She doesn’t…

  • Pecking Order

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    Pecking Order [Or the beach drama of the Killdeer, the Seagull, and the Turkey Vulture.] I witnessed a power struggle between a Turkey Vulture, a Seagull, and a Killdeer—three very differently sized species—all vying for some meat off a dead fish that had washed ashore. This took place on the wee beach at the Port…

  • Starlight in the Shifting Shade

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    The wild or Woodland Forget-me-not is an herbaceous, non-native perennial of the Borage family. An element of Henry VIII’s official emblem, this miniature beauty was brought to North America by European (primarily British) pioneers. We’ve now lived here four full years and this week, for the first time, I caught sight of some flashes of…