Snowy Speculations

-
Image
If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
Post a Comment

Primavera

-

 Primavera



It feels like the world has been breathing a sigh of relief these last few weeks. Granted, we all held our breaths earlier in the week when, like the unwelcome gift of underwear and socks on Christmas morning, some cold, white stuff fell from the sky. But I won't use that S-word as it is forbidden this time of year but will allow a hearty welcome to the other S-word: Spring!

A quick google search of "Primavera" shows us that it literally means "first spring" - a fitting title for this beautiful week!  There's been a frenzy of bird song and flight for weeks now from the crack of dawn to dusk and any plant that is able to pop out of the ground, has been pushing to the surface with all of its might. The splashes of yellow from plump daffodils and vibrant forsythia are a stunning contrast to the lush green grass wherever the eye can see.

Every fall, we dump the soil from pots and urns that have finished blooming and have dried up into the compost pile by the forest's edge behind us. Over the years, a plethora of bulbs have made it through the harsh winter and offer up spring flowers in abundance behind dead tree stumps and clumps of dried foliage. This year I decided to let the flowers bloom where they were instead of picking them for arrangements, giving us respite from the barren thicket still asleep in a blanket of brown and grey. Patches of low growing, ground-covering Marsh Marigolds have taken over the forest's edge and the daffodils have loved the rich damp earth and bloomed to their fullest. That is to say, they bloomed until one of our daughters decided to pick every single daffodil growing there and fill a giant vase with this vast array of yellow and white beauty. What can you do? So instead of looking out of the living room windows to view these blossoms, they adorned our dining room table for over a week and were enjoyed at every meal!

This week I was pleased to discover a solitary bright red tulip that had survived from an old bulb that had somehow landed in the compost pile. Amid a sea of stark winter aftermath, it shone like a beacon of light. Such a simple thing that brought us such joy! And what a lesson from nature this tulip provided us with. From out of the depths of refuse and decay, this plant fought its way to the surface to bloom with all of its might!

We too, in the aftermath of winter, can fight back and grow and blossom, despite any circumstances that come our way. In a crowd of barren winter branches and crumpled, lifeless leaves, we can rise above and stretch out to embrace the sun and the beauty of spring all around us! What a great way to welcome spring in rural Niagara-on-the-Lake!

Lolita Schimann Hale

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Snowy Speculations

-
Image
If I could paint, I would have tried to replicate the landscape very early this morning. Illuminated by the faintest hints of light and hours before sunrise, the cold, stark landscape lay completely still in its snowy blanket. Naked trees stood proudly and quietly against this backdrop, this palate of pure white an unforgiving place for any creature, big or small, to attempt to cross without drawing attention to its existence at this time. Even our ancient tire swing looked sleepy and droopy, suspended precariously close to the ground, as if the effort of hanging from a tree limb was too much for it. To the east, the only rays of light visible were the ones coming from the across the river, and even those seem hushed and muffled, like a child tired and murmuring not to wake them up just yet.  The young families down the road have gone all out with Christmas lights this year. Bright colours adorn the night skies and my neighbours even have a Christmas Cat and a Christmas Dinosaur that i
Read more

The Sleeping Giant

-
Image
 Well, our Septic Sagas have finally come to an end. Our 75-year-old septic system finally gave up the ghost and we now have a giant burial ground to commemorate its existence. For those of you familiar with the Sleeping Giant in Thunder Bay, we now have the Sleeping Giant of Niagara-on-the-Lake! Our once flat property now has the privilege of having a septic mound that is our daily view right out of our dining room window - lucky us!  The kid in me can't resist walking around our new Hale Hill. Every time I stand on top of the mound, I feel like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic yelling out, "I'm the king of the world!" But I haven't been able to trek up Mount Rushmore this week as my husband spent several hundred dollars at Minor Brothers on grass seed and is tenderly watering the baby seedlings, now just a mere green shadow on the brown dirt, with the hopes that the Hale Hill will soon be covered in a blanket of greenery and blend into the existing landscape. That
Read more

A scene from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?

-
Image
 I was working in my home office at the front of the house early yesterday morning. The dogs had been taken out and fed and I was being quite productive already. All of a sudden I heard a little noise and assumed that the cat had come upstairs. Then Gus, our Pom-with-an-attitude, started growling. None of these occurrences were in any way different from any other day. Then the growling started again followed by his incessant, high-pitched barking and Sadie, our old lab who never does anything but eat and sleep, started growling and barking as well. I ran out to shush them both as the kids were still sleeping and heard another bit of scurrying in the living room. It had to be the cat, of course. I closed the pocket door between the kitchen and hallway and started heading back to my office to continue working when a small movement caught my eye. I turned around quickly to see a tan-coloured squirrel scurrying across the hardwood floors, past the grand piano in the living room (I would ha
Read more