In Canada
Herewith some snaps of plant-life in our garden – enjoying the early summer weather. From what I hear Europe (and the UK) is currently burning up in an unexpected heatwave. Our sympathies. We do feel even more blessed than usual at simply enjoying normal May/June style weather.
I do hope that everyone is doing alright…
“In our frenzied attempts to catch up with life, we run right past it. Once we have run past it, what we are in reality attempting to catch is ourselves.”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
Looking back through the archives for this almanac I note that I have gotten into the habit of posting – during the late spring/early summer of each year – a succinct gallery of photographs taken in our garden here at the southern end of Vancouver Island.
As one might imagine, these analogous offerings look remarkably similar year on years. Given that much of the garden is furnished with mature shrubs, perennials and ancient (relatively speaking!) trees, this should come as no surprise. The true beauty of the garden in spring-time is that it is at once the same as it ever was – whilst also being ever new.
And how cool is that?!
The title of this post, however, is “Playing catch-up” – so there is clearly something going on here other than the mere uploading of a fresh instalment of an old favourite.
As indeed there is…
Those who follow these things closely might notice (should they care to put any effort into the thing) that we are almost at the start of June and – as yet – no garden images have appeared for this year.
Some reasons for this tardiness have been hinted at in earlier posts, but these reflect only a small part of the whole story. Whereas Mother Nature has been powering ahead with her usual vim and vigour, our attempts at getting the grounds of our abode into shape have been running well behind. These factors have been in play:
As you can see – the start of the year has gone considerably less smoothly than we would have hoped and we may be excused if some normally essential tasks have had to be delayed.
I will see what (if any) images I might have to hand from the world outside our windows…
Herewith a follow-up to my last post… on the subject of the recent tree-work that we had carried out ‘chez nous’.
There follows a brief hiatus to allow for the cracking of any lumberjack jokes – as in:
“Paddy and Mick are walking along a logging road in British Columbia…” – and so forth!
All done? Thank you. Onward!…
The photos that I posted last time out should give an idea of just how much extra light we get at the front of the house as a result of the removal of the self-willed spruce. The images also suggest, however, that planting something more to scale is definitely in order to define more appropriately the interface between house and garden at that point. The search for the right arboreal embellishment may well take some time.
These photos show how the raised bed that had accommodated the spruce was left after the felling of the tree.
The photos also give an idea of just how much stump remains in the ground when a tree is removed. In other instances we have left the the protruding stumps as a feature (almost). In this case, because we want to plant another tree in the bed, we were obliged to hire the service of our arborist’s stump grinder, who – in command of his impressive array of machinery – made short work of the remains of the spruce.
This thing is definitely a bit of a beast!
One sizeable hole – tree-planting for the use of…!
“Choose a place where you won’t do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine”.
E.M.Foster – ‘A Room with a View’
The Girl and I are fortunate enough to live in a home that is a fair bit more spacious than is strictly necessary for us. Now, it may well prove in the long run that we are no longer able to manage the ‘estate’ and down-sizing will become the order of the age, but in the meantime we are enjoying having the room to pursue our various interests without having to make too many compromises.
Before coming to Canada The Girl and I lived for a decade and a half in average sized apartments (average for the UK, of course) and are thus much relieved at not having to suffer the same constraints now. We have both worked from home a fair bit (particularly during the pandemic) and are most grateful for having the wherewithal so to do.
The Girl has an office at the front of the house which is of a decent size and is reasonably quiet. It faces south west, however, towards Mount Newton, so it doesn’t get the best of the day. The situation was made worse by the presence without of an unfortunately placed pine tree, the which had grown out of proportion whilst resisting all attempts to reign in its over-enthusiasm.
A conversation with our neighbours – who were looking to get some tree work done themselves – planted the idea in our heads that the best thing to do might just be to dispense with this tree entirely. This is not a thing that we do lightly – always endeavouring to honour living things – but in this case it was not possible to preserve this tree in a reasonable form. We will plant some more compact replacement when the works are finished.
Meanwhile – take a look at these ‘before and after’ images…
OK – so today’s post-topping quote might appear at first glance to be apropos of nothing at all, but a moment or two’s reflection would surely reveal that it is, after all, entirely apposite.
I was – as usual – hunting online for a suitable aphorism with which to head this post when I came across this little gem. It made me chuckle, which is – at the end of the day – the most important thing, so in it goes!
Now – what is the post actually about?
Regular consumers of the Immigrant’s scribblings will not have failed to notice that the past few months’ worth of postings have been focused pretty much entirely on photographs of our splendid trip to and through the glorious Rocky Mountains. Given that The Girl and I have been back in Victoria since the end of June there must – clearly – have been a fair bit else about which I could – and probably should – have written.
Time to catch up. There is a fair bit to tell.
Over the summer and into the autumn we have organised for ourselves a smorgasbord of cultural experiences. Future posts will touch upon a number of theatrical events at which we have been present. The musical scene must also to be considered and reported upon. More on both of these subjects in future posts.
We are fortunate in that we have been able to spend more time in our garden than has been feasible in some recent years. Good friends have obliged us by accepting our invitations to join us in enjoying the facilities. This is, after all, the reason for us having them.
I think it would probably be a good idea for me to glance back through my calendar to check that I am not missing any other important topics. I can think of at least one matter upon which I should report – and which has been overshadowed by my all-consuming focus on waxing lyrical about The Canadian and the Rocky Mountains.
More to come soon!
“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress”
Viggo Mortensen
In my last post – a somewhat impressionistic piece entitled “Hard and Fast” – I attempted to put into words the unforseen and unlooked for feeling that – though we really are both now retired (at present, anyway) – the pace, complexity and severity of current events across the globe has inhibited us from experiencing that state as the anticipated relaxing pay-off for a demanding life of work.
As one might expect this sensation is by no means the result purely of external forces and influences. The Girl and I are in the habit of synchronising our calendars monthly, in the vain hope of not getting caught out by some event that one or other of us should have known about but had forgotten. We are somewhat perplexed by the discovery that the quantity of such events has is increased rather than diminished since we came ‘to rest’.
In my ‘start of the year’ post – back in January I wrote this with regard to our plans for the year:
These things, however, we are anticipating:
The splendid week in Mexico has already been well and truly reported upon in my February posts.
We have been busily engaged in carrying out the second element of the schedule. The new water tank has been installed (providing us with copious quantities of gloriously hot water on demand. The roof has been cleared of moss (well overdue – but better late than never) and we have made a powerful start on simplifying our lives by stripping away many of the unneeded accoutrements that have found their way into our home whilst we were looking the other way.
Last year at around this time I was obliged to replace the device (called a ‘backflow preventer’) which stops water from our irrigation system from backing up into the public water main. This year I found that the ancient semi-manual controller for the system had finally given up the ghost and I had little choice but to purchase and install a swanky new digital device. As is usual at this time of year the garden requires a serious sprint on my part to try to catch up with all of the uncontrolled growth that has taken place whilst yet we sheltered from the late winter storms raging outside our windows.
Music making continues and, as predicted, I am serving a turn on the executive of our local community theatre.
So – busy, busy, busy! For further news on these and the other items on our list – watch this space.
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”
Audrey Hepburn
Well – we didn’t plant this one, though we have been responsible for nurturing it for nearly a decade now.
As to the now…this does feel like an important moment to be believing in tomorrow – no matter how tough it may be so to be doing, given the shape of the world right now.
The Girl and I have been suffering brutal colds this two weeks passed. We have, however, been afflicted by very few such since moving to Canada so we can’t really complain – even though these particular ones have been vicious. We are – it seems – finally on the mend now though…
…just in time to vote carefully in the Canadian Federal election on Monday. We are, surely, all to be held responsible for keeping the bad guys out of office in this good country; this being a vital bulwark against other nations where the same has, sadly, not been the case.
The garden – meanwhile – continues to flourish ‘irregardless’!
“I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for joy”
C. S. Lewis
This post should have featured wild animals in their natural habitats in the Botswana bush – though perhaps not quite: “Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plains”… as John Cleese would have it.
Instead, here are some photos of the flora in our garden:
Time for some photos of plants growing in our garden. I know that I do this every year, but the garden is not the same from one year to the next so I don’t suppose that the images are either. Anyway – the nature of this journal is that there will always be something else along in a moment and there are no penalties for skipping ahead (I wanted there to be but couldn’t figure out how to do it!)…
The reason for my somewhat incredulous byline is that – no matter how much a part of it we all are – nature is still pretty much a riddle to me (wrapped inside a mystery etc, etc)… Take this Camellia for example. Some seasons back (maybe four or five) I pruned it back a little in the early spring. It was probably not the best time of year for such a treatment, but I was not too severe on the shrub; merely trying to persuade it not to stomp all over the ‘lesser’ plants around it.
The Camellia clearly took umbrage and refused to flower at all in any of the succeeding years – with the exception of the odd desultory bloom once in a while. This year – well, take a look for yourself:
Maybe I will post an update when all those buds burst into bloom.
Not so many posts ago I was grumbling about the weather here in BC and mourning the loss of a number of shrubs and other erstwhile growing things in our garden. I have a feeling – in fact – that I visited the theme in more than one post, the which only goes to show just how poorly the climate has treated us thus far this year (now that I put it like that, of course, there is a rapid light-bulb moment as the realisation strikes that this maltreatment is undoubtedly mutual and indeed causal. What goes around etc, etc…).
Anyway, the weather has perked up just a tad (with the exception of today – bah!) and I have spent considerable amounts of time (and not a little cash on new rhododendrons, hydrangeas, viburnums and a plethora of hostas) trying to cajole what was left of the garden into some sort of shape; to make it look at least a little bit cared for. As it turns out I can still only make a plea for a small percentage of the credit for the turnaround that has occurred – nature herself seeming to rebound from the hard winter with considerable vigour regardless of my efforts.
Either way, I thought you might like to see some pictures of the improvements.
Many thanks are due to two good souls who have contributed in no small degree to this renaissance. A long-time and most dear friend furnished us with three gorgeous stone Bhuddas, the which needed a good home as a result of an impending move:
…and our good Glaswegian (but also long-time Canadian) horticulturalist friend not only provided much good advice but also graciously allowed us to make use of his wholesale discount at Island View Nursery.
Our most grateful thanks to both…