YEAR OF THE TROLLIUS

Hello there!

Hope all is well in your neighbourhood. Ottawa’s spring has been slow to arrive, cold and very wet. Today is the third day IN A ROW without any rain (well, maybe a thunderstorm later today…) People have been grumbling, but one result in local gardens is a remarkable showing of Trollius. Known as globeflower, this perennial gem has been a resident in my back yard for at least a decade. It usually flowers, but not in the showstopping way it has this year: bright yellow lollipop blooms perch atop four-foot high stems, little beacons of colour beside the fading Alliums. Give it just the right conditions: new space in the garden where a tree used to overshadow it, lots of moisture, cool temps, and WOW.

Makes me think about how we all have our moments in life, when conditions are just right for us to shine. Do you know what these conditions are for you? Is this your season, your phase, your moment? What are the ingredients, the situations, the elements, that make things just right for you?

For me it’s important to be creating new things: garden designs, stories, articles, poems, photographs. This is what feeds me. Nature is a key ingredient, as those of you who follow this blog already know. So is history, particularly of the places that are meaningful to me: like Niagara Falls, where I was born and lived for the first 12 years of my life. On a recent weekend there, I was once again inspired by the mighty Niagara River (sorry, Ottawa and Rideau, you’re not quite at the same level of spectacular!)

I hope you can find or make for yourself the conditions that feed and inspire you! Meanwhile, here’s the latest poem with photo, called “If You Fall.”

Lee Ann