It's mid January. I'm in Toronto. There is no snow on the ground. It is FOURTEEN DEGREES CELCIUS!
When I first arrived in Toronto, almost 18 years ago, we had snow on the ground from late Nov/early December, until March. January temperatures were frequently in the range of -10 to -20, even worse with wind chill. Snowstorms would be so bad, the mayor would call in the army for help. Well, actually, scratch that last comment, because the one time that happened, it was very dubious as to whether military intervention was truly warranted.
The weather this weekend is warm enough for Mimico residents to go out on Lake Ontario in kayaks.....typically at this time of year, the shoreline is thick with ice, and marinas are frozen over.
These guys were getting in a spot of fishing....and not even ice fishing! This was happening just off the Mimico shoreline
In any case, I don't normally expect to see unfrozen, bare earth in my garden at this time of year, and I certainly shouldn't be flinging open the windows of the house to let in a balmy breeze. However, that is what I did yesterday. I was shocked to see crocuses already poking through the ground, and it looks as though the hellebore I planted last year is very close to blooming. I know we are about to see temperatures plunge towards freezing again this coming week, but hopefully these wild swings in temperature will not have overly damaging effects on my plants, who should be in deep slumber right now!
These ornamental cabbages have that sort of "bloom" of fresh growth, and were bejewelled with rain drops. Very pretty.
Crocuses have broken through the soil surface....about 2 months earlier than they should.
Plenty of flower buds are visible on this hellebore.
On another note, if you ever have the opportunity to hear violinist Augustin Hadelich in recital......you must jump at the chance. I heard him playing Mozart with the Toronto Symphony last night, and it was a truly breathtaking performance. Attached is a very interesting short biography on this highly gifted performer.
I know this has nothing to do with my garden, or my Mimico Maison, but after writing about the Copeland clarinet concerto yesterday, I couldn't leave "Quiet City" out of the picture. I don't think there is anything very useful I can say about this composition for orchestra, with trumpet and cor anglais soloists, other than to note that it truly is one of my absolute favourite compositions of all time. (although I could tell you that the first time I heard it, I was driving, and was so mesmerized, and profoundly moved, I had to pull over to finish listening to it, for fear of distracted driving).
There is an interesting bit of background to be had on Wikipedia about the origins of the piece. Otherwise, I simply invite you to listen and reflect.
Whilst driving to Paris yesterday, we listened to CBC radio two in the car. As part of their Remembrance Day programming, they played a work that I haven't heard in probably a decade, but one which I absolutely adore - the Copeland clarinet concerto. It was one of those things I had on a CD at one point, and which I became completely obsessed with....listening to it over and over again, several times a day for a couple of weeks, almost to the exclusion of any other piece (this is an old habit of mine with music I like). Then, eventually and predictably, I hit the tipping point, where my obsessive interest turned against me, and I could not bear to hear it even a single time more. Thankfully, the intervening decade appears to have reset the balance, and on hearing it yesterday, I was reminded of why it had triggered that mesmerizing, compulsive intensity of feeling in me. And today, I was absolutely delighted to find a two-part YouTube video, of a performance conducted by Aaron Copeland himself, with Benny Goodman, for whom the piece was orginally intended, as the soloist. I still can't quite get over how Copeland takes us from languid, pastoral tranquility, beautifully rendered, into a madness of jazz-age inspired, rhythmically propulsive driving energy....but he does, and very successfully. If you can, make time to listen to both parts of the video, and hear that contrast for yourself. If you haven't come across this piece, do let me know what your thoughts and reactions are to it.
Autumn arrived all at once here, this weekend. Suddenly, there was a definite chill in the air, and the trees have started to show a little colour in the Don Valley. This morning it was only 4 degrees outside when I got up - definitely needed my cozy goose down duvet this morning! On my routine Thursday with the boys at the end of last week, we even lit the first log fire of the season, as we settled down to watch Downton Abbey and tucked into apple crisp. I think this is only a blip - rest of the week looks more seasonal. Things are progressing with the house.....today some new laths were added to the sections of stucco which needed full replacement, and the metal mesh has been replaced. Expect to see the new fresh stucco up there shortly.
What am I listening to this evening? Something I haven't heard for years, but which I discovered towards the end of high school, and one of those things I listened to absolutely obsessively....I completely adore the last two minutes or so on this Youtube video!
We've had a beautiful Labour Day weekend, with amazing blue skies, lots of sunshine and heat - little sign yet that summer is preparing to depart, but the progress in the garden indicates that we are rapidly progressing through the season.
I've been delighted with my fig this year. I bought it as a tiny twig in the wet summer of 2009, as a reminder of a beautiful vacation in Provence in May of that year. Last year was it's first year to produce any fruit, and of those, only a single fruit made it to the end of the season, and to perfect ripeness. It was an absolute revelation, still warm from the sun, and oozing honey-like juice as it was cut open. This year, the number of fruits has been multiplied to a dozen, but the pattern is the same. Tiny figlets formed around mid-June, swelled very slightly, and then just sat there without much change until the last days of August, when they suddenly started to swell like balloons, and ripened in a couple of days. You can tell by the frequency of my "fig posts", that I will never get over the excitement of growing figs. Having been brought up at the same latitude as Hudson's Bay, they seem like a miracle as far as I'm concerned!
Tiny figlets, formed in June.
These suddenly started to swell up on the weekend, and should be ripe by mid-week.
I'm also pleased with the Wim's Red hydrangeas I planted earlier in the summer, to replace the unkempt and unpleasing cotoneaster by my front steps. Even though they are only just getting established, they have produced a number of flowers, and these have undergone the transformation from frothy, creamy white, to deepest rosy-pink. They may yet descend into deeper mahogany...only time will tell. I must given them some winter mulch to make sure they make it safely through their first winter.
Here are some photos of what else is going on in the garden....and a few notes to myself on jobs to be done!
I bought some lavender "Grosso" to fill in a couple of spots in my lavender hedge, but didn't get a chance to create proper planting spots in the garden. In order to keep them healthy, I quickly potted them up in a terracotta pot, and I may well stick with this.
Towards the top right hand corner of this photo, you can see one of my year 2 rosemary bushes - I'm very proud of it! Less proud of the clay pot in the front of the photo - which had a couple of nerine bulbs planted in it. They produced some lovely leaves, but recently died back without blooming. Not sure if they were just settling in, and will bloom next year.
Huge swathes of pink Japanese anemones are filling the front yard right now.....
......as well as some more demure and less invasive white ones, which are quite lovely.
I was surprised to suddenly see this cardinal flower blooming in the jungle of my front yard....then I remembered it was one of the plants Greg brought from his grandmother's garden for me last summer.
You know fall is approaching when the asters are starting to bloom. I do love them.
Pink carpet roses gathering the last few rays of the day.
Here is a job to tackle before winter. In the spring, I thought I had thinned out these black-eyed Susans, but they are back with a vengeance. I need to reduce them by at least half and make room for some more interesting companions!
Have always had issues keeping my window boxes moist enough, but last weekend, I got some new, much larger ones on mega-sale at Plantworld. The increased volume of soil should help! I planted them with some more seasonal specimens.
This urn is completely thriving, despite little attention for most of the summer.
A few of the purple kale plants I sowed in the spring have escaped the slugs and snails, and are a good size now. I made my first dish of them this weekend, mixed with some beet greens, swiss chard, tomatoes and onions. Delicious! And the plants are decidedly statuesque now.
Anemone invasion!
Arabian Night dahlias.....the photo doesn't quite represent their most striking feature. They are almost black, and very beautiful.
I'm finishing the weekend with some achingly beautiful Brahms.
Went to the TSO last night for a concert of Verdi and Tchaikovsky, for a sold out performance featuring superstar soprano, Sondra Radvanovsky.
Ms. Radvanovsky looked stunning in a dramatic yet classic black floor length, full sleeved gown with a swoopingly low neck line. Her intensely emotional performance of arias from I Vespri Siciliani and especially Eugene Onegin set the audience on fire, so that by the time we returned from intermission, the anticipation for the dramatic twists and turns of the sixth symphony, Pathetique of Tchaikovsky had us at boiling point! I have to say it was the kind of performance that had you on the edge of your seat in anticipation, and when the final notes died away at the end of the work, the conductor held a perfectly still, engaged posture for what seemed like half a minute, building the audience into an absolute fever pitch of emotion before rapturous applause exploded throughout Roy Thompson Hall. Definitely a performance to remember! Here's a taster of what you missed:
Spring always make me think of yellow, because when I was growing up in Scotland it seemed like almost all of the spring flowers in my parents garden were yellow - aconites, crocuses, primroses and daffodils. While I wait for some of my own yellow flowers to erupt (not long now given the record breaking temperatures in Ontario), here are some yellow-themed shots from my photo album for inspiration.....along with some yellow inspired music in the form of Vivaldi's flute concerto with the nickname "the goldfinch".
Yellow formality at Pitmedden Gardens, Aberdeenshire
stately ligularia
Yellow and blue is definitely a winning combination
Bright, sulphur yellow achilleas go well with almost any other flowers
I want to try these spectacular centaurea macrocephala in my garden, but they look like they would need more room than I can spare!
Love this garden in shades of yellow, cream and chartreuse at Crathes Castle
Love the layering of yellow ligularia with hot coloured dahlias
The buttery yellow outlining the windows of this cottage were beautifully picked up by yellow climbing roses, at Culross
Need help from readers to identify this beauty - I think it may be a verbascum growing through some irises
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Yellow mulleins at Cruickshank Botanical Garden, Aberdeen
A perfect single bloom on a very spiny cactus at the Duthie Park
If the sunshine isn't enough to make you smile in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this beautiful bright yellow house should cheer you up!
A punch of yellow broom, in a Cote du Rhone vinyard
And a little Vivaldi to finish things off....courtesy of Emmanuel Pahud and the Australian Chamber Orchestra
It was very odd to be gardening today....whilst it is still winter! Well, maybe not so much gardening as clearing out the decay of last year, but none the less, in a normal winter I would still have been spending the afternoon by the fire, drinking hot tea and eating toasted crumpets. After a misty, murky start to the day, I spent almost all of it outside, clearing out, cleaning up, and generally starting to get things ready for the new season. Things are budding out all over, which I still can't quite wrap my head around - last year nothing moved in my garden until May. The clematis is shooting out, the roses are pruned and sprayed and the boxwoods are starting to show new buds. I was delighted to find that after years of bronze fennel envy (mine never made it through the winter and were always quite spindly), my experiment of mulching heavily with spent compost in the fall has taken them through what little winter we've had, and there are some very robust new shoots popping out. All of my red kale and tomato seeds have germinated, and I'm planning to start some chard and white cosmos tonight. We look set for a slight cooling trend towards next weekend, but then the long range forecast suggests it will go back to being well above normal, so I'm optimistic that we're out of the woods for this winter. Hurrah!
lovely red shoots are bursting on my tree peony, and the New Dawn roses were pruned, sprayed with dormant oil and sulphur and fed with vermicompost today.
tasty chive shoots - perfect in mashed potatoes!
I re-layed the brick patio a couple of years ago in a herringbone pattern. I gave it a good hard sweep today, and it looks better, but I need to weed thoroughly and add some more polymeric sand to keep it looking pristine.
Lots of brush to send to the curb! Luckily yard waste collection starts this week.
This clematis jackmanii is bursting out far earlier than normal. I gave all of the plants with a love of alkaline soil a handful of ashes from my wood burning fireplace today, including clematis, peonies and lavender.
On another note, my friend, The Diva is singing with the Saskatoon Symphony tonight, in the Brahms German requiem. Wish we could hear her somewhere a little closer to Toronto soon.....but in her honour, here is a clip of Elizabeth Schwartzkopf in a particularly beautiful section of the requiem, which I know the Diva will perform beautifully.
Got up early this morning and headed out to St. Lawrence Market to pick up the turkey and the last few bits and bobs for tomorrow. It's a beautiful crisp winter morning, but we won't be having a white Christmas this year in Toronto.
View of Toronto this morning from the Mimico shoreline
Sunrise over Lake Ontario, on Christmas Eve. A view like this is one of the reasons to live in Mimico.
Even before 8am, the crowds had descended on St. Lawrence Market
Cheese anyone?
This little piggy went to market......
Plaid is in vogue this year
Downtown scene
The rest of the day will be filled with making cranberry sauce, croustades, a fish pie for dinner tonight, walnut soup, bacon rolls, savoury palmiers, mulled cider, sage and onion stuffing, cutting up some Hasselback potatoes (yum yum!) and making a last minute Christmas pud and some brandy butter. Since Davey is allergic to grapes and wine, it will actually be calvados butter, but I'm sure the effect will be just the same.
I plan to listen to some very traditional Christmas music, and have the odd glass of sherry whilst all the chores get taken care of! Here is a vidoe of one of my absolute favourite pieces of Christmas music:
Hope you have a wonderful holiday, in whatever way you celebrate it. Peace & Joy!
