Early Spring Growth

Nature, she's with us always
acknowledging our existence
even when we disregard her world
holding a love only a mother can
for her stumbling offspring

Spring is stirring in the garden and winter's sleep is coming to an end. The birds have been singing wildly all around the neighborhood. Yesterday they added a jazzy melody to the background sounds of rain and thunder we enjoyed. Lightning adds nitrogen to the garden and is a welcome spring tonic to get things started. The snows are nearly gone and the earth is throwing off the deep frost, the garden will be workable soon and some very early greens and cool hardy vegetable seeds, bulbs and tubers can be planted in the garden in the next 2 or 3 weeks! Surprising things happen quite fast when spring arrives!

Tiny spring plants are emerging and promising blooms and fragrances yet to come. Early Spring can be an encouraging time of year!Yesterday temperatures soared well into double digits. Today it's predicted to be just slightly cooler. It's currently -2 C (about 30 F) and might reach 7 C later, it's expected to stay warm over the next 7 days, even above freezing in the overnight hours except for Sunday (-1 C predicted). Winds are out of the West at 4 km/hr humidity is 100% but it's not raining, pressure is at 102.17 kPa. It'll stay mainly sunny until this evening then light showers will roll into the area overnight.

Will have to fill the bird feeders again this weekend - the birds are feeding heavily and there are more of them around it seems! If their music is any indication - there are many in the area!

Click; Our Enchanted Garden to visit our Web-zine site! It's growing regularly!

(posted using a link from my free Google Picasa2 album...)

Thanks To Blogger For The Heads Up!

A BIG Thanks to Blogger and their Blog - for the heads up about Picasa Web Albums! It's relatively easy to use and once I figure out how to make use of their linking tools I'm certain it will be a useful feature for this photo blog. As a Flickr user I was fairly happy with most of their features but the photos often didn't fit here properly and now that I've reduced the size of my Flickr account I don't have as easy a time using images from there unless they are very current. Something I'm not thrilled with but will have to cope with for at least another month until I can get things set back to a less restricted account. With Picasa2 and their "Web Albums" things are much easier to access and organize! It's already been helpful for finding a photo of me with my camera, plus a shot of an early spring sunrise to add to the sidebar in celebration of the equinox for fellow Bloggers! I'll keep experimenting with it. I hope to get some interesting Spring photographs today to add to the collection!

Backyard fun; January in Ontario! Wow!

Backyard fun; January in Ontario! Wow!, originally uploaded by Our Enchanted GardenA good swing and a fun game of toss on a January afternoon - what a pleasant surprise! Maybe I'll have to cut the lawn again before the snow finally flies!
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A good swing and a fun game of toss with our dog Keisha on a January afternoon - what a pleasant surprise! If this keeps up I may find myself mowing the lawn, when I would normaly be shoveling snow out of the driveway!
The garden hasn't shown it's having any trouble with this odd weather yet and I have to keep a close eye on things to ensure our more tender perennials are well mulched and not pushing their roots up out of the ground.
Fingers crossed that my grapes and strawberries, raspberries and the apple tree aren't confused and start budding when they should be dormant and waiting for the warmth of March and April to begin their growth cycle anew.

A Happy New Year Message

Here's a little slide show I put together with a couple of my photographs I added some text and effects to help celebrate the season! Wishing all the very best in this brand new year! In 2007 may you and your loved ones have the blessings of peace, happiness, health and abundance!
| Bless Us, Every One!

Posting Problems after making a change!

Darn! Looks like I may have messed up this blog by playing around with the publishing settings and I can't seem to get it back in order.... Darn! Hope I don't have to start from scratch 'cause that could be very frustrating and may just see me using a different blog altogether! I've got one at Yahoo 360 too that I don't use much - maybe it'll be best to go there as this blogspot site isn't as nice as I'd like it anyway! (MindSay is still my Blog home of choice!) Wish me luck getting this fixed or farewell!

A Beautiful Rose Bud

Beautiful Bud, originally uploaded by Our Enchanted Garden.

Now there's no doubt that summer is just around the corner - that's when my wild rose, a shrub known by the botanical name "Rosa Rugosa", begins to bloom.

This is a hardy plant found growing along old gravel roads and river beds. The plant's seeds are produced in a pod at the base of each flower. The pods are called "Rose Hips" and are popular in herbal teas. They also provide important nutrition for birds in winter and are a source of Vitamin C. The small, sharp thorns on this variety are also helpful for wildlife living underneath and using the shrub as protection from predators - as in a briar patch, it is very effective protection in most cases!

A Great Grandmother's Garden!

A Great Grandmother's Garden Horizontal, originally uploaded by Our Enchanted Garden.

On the day I was heading to my daughter's house to go babysit my granddaughter for a day, I mentioned to my partner John that the garden in the front of our house looks like a grandmother's garden. I thought that was pretty cool, because I love being a grandmother!
And then I thought, well wait a minute, seeing that my mom lives here too and she loves the garden, that's makes it a great grandmother's garden and that is very cool!
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

Another corner of the garden for you here:


More to follow soon!

My new May Calendar

My new May Calendar, originally uploaded by Our Enchanted Garden.

Playing with some interesting tools available to Flickr users - this calendar feature is fun but I'd like to be able to enter in holidays, moon phases and personal info... Interesting just the same!
And the lambs - I got a bunch of photographs of a flock of sheep just outside of Rockwood Ontario, they were shy so I had to move very slowly and had to stay inside or right near the car... When I finally approached the fence they moved to the back of the pasture fairly quickly!

Join us for a walk... in the garden

Join us for a walk..., originally uploaded by Our Enchanted Garden.

In Our Enchanted Garden!

Spring in the garden is progressing nicely and touches of colour are beginning to show. Soon this view will be full as the plants grow in and perform their flowering magic. The colours will change every few weeks as a new variety comes on and an earlier one finishes.

It's a dance, a living tapestry, a collection of life, a symphony of creation at it's best!

Nature is the boss in this patch of garden. Other than the tidying up that I do as flower varieties continually come and go over the spring and summer weeks there's not much else required from us. It's a nice spot to enjoy the sunrises and the sunsets on our street, have a coffee or chat with the neighbours and passers by!

This is Our Enchanted Garden - the meadow we built and dedicated to nature as an experiment of humans and the natural world living co-creatively!

Hope you enjoyed the little stroll, do come back - the garden changes every few days and there's always something happening!