Made in the Shade

This is my kind of garden:

Photos courtesy of Remodelista

This Toronto garden encompasses a water feature aka a person-made stream! I cannot tell you how much I love it. This is back yard perfection, IMO.

Wherein I Discuss the Merits of Wealth (With Pretty Photos)

For those of you who've been reading this blog for years (yes, it has been that long), you may recall posts of the Parkdale-Toronto Horticultural Society walking tours I've attended on a few occasions. This unbelievable voyeur-fest, status-anxiety provoking charming annual event is a fantastic opportunity to observe rich people in their natural habitats well-loved gardens in some delightful Toronto west-end neighbourhoods. In truth, most owners are not available during the tour, which is staffed by hort society volunteers. Most owners are off at their zillion dollar waterfront cottages on Lake Rosseau. Cuz that's how wealthy Torontonians roll.

In truth, I've never understood how people can invest so much time and money on urban (albeit bordering on suburban) gardening only to ditch it all on the couple of days of the week (over the couple of months of the year) they can actually enjoy it with martinis. Mind you, undoubtedly most of these gardeners benefit from the assistance of professionals. Both here and up north.

As we wandered (skip down if this chatter bores you, there are some good photos ahead), Nicole and I discussed the utter embarrassment of luxury amidst which we walked. In our downtown 'hoods, any one of the insanely beautiful birches grafted with cherry or unusual willows (which generally only grow in zone 7) would have caused stop-in-your-tracks transfixion. In Baby Point (peeps, it's pronounced Bobby Point), we were practically dismissive by the end of it.

I don't know what my point is. Is it fortunate to live amongst ugly urban grit because one's tiny garden will then function that much more relevantly as a fantastic oasis? Have my brain cells been realigned by the drugginess of the old-boy, high-WASP experience?

You be the judge:

Yes, that is bamboo...

This willow almost died last year due to hot, dry summer. Massive pruning and this year's deluge of rain brought it back.

I know, this garden is just ridiculous. I counted and you could seat 30 people without even making a dent on the space. Oh, and it's on a ravine.

Scott loathes that visor I'm wearing. He says I remind him of a retiree. Might I remind you I'm on a horticultural tour on my 41st birthday?? Besides, I feel I look "tennis".

The Italianate aspects of this place were a bit mind-blowing.

Nicole looking all cute and summery... Thanks for spending such a great day with me N!

Spirea-ling Out Of Control

Here's my spirea:


To be honest, this plant - aka wild thing that grows so fast and voluminously you can barely see the front of the house for 3 weeks in May and then it's all big bushy green boring that needs semi-constant tending thereafter - isn't really my thing.

I intend to re-landscape the front yard next summer. (It was supposed to happen this summer and then that went sideways for a sort of, but not seriously, interesting reason I'll bore you with at another time.) I'm hopeful that my landscaper will be able to find this baby a new (large) home.

November Blues

Right about now, I could really handle a lounge by this pool. My friends in SoCal - you are lucky indeed.

Photo courtesy of Studio G

Long Weekend BBQ

Y'all may know that I spent most of the Toronto long weekend in my house. Without abatement. At first, I was too tired to go out. Then I had "cooking obligations" aka I was compelled to make 2 tarts, some dinners and a batch of caramel candies. Fortunately, the weather was awesome so we were able to have a delightful dinner party in the garden - finalement. In August!

Here are a few photos of the table:



Um, notice a little something called SUN??!!

Seriously, my gratitude for beautiful weather could not be more sincere.

Midsummer Garden

It's been a while since I posted photos of my garden. The weather's been so awful, I'm just not inspired. But after today's torrential downpour, Scott went out and took these gorgeous shots:






The guy's got talent, yes?

Other People's Gardens

You know my friend Hilary? Well, here are some photos of her beautiful, east end, urban garden taken at her adorable son's 5th birthday party a few weeks ago...

All the trim is Douglas fir

Hil's husband, David, designed the canvas structure that shades the garden

H is the 5 year old, C is his cutie-pie sister who's 3...

Recognize those chairs / table? Apparently it's a perennial IKEA fave.

The horizontal fence - a relatively expensive but optimally elegant solution - is made of spruce stained to look like Douglas fir. Smart, huh? Still really $$$ though.

Contingency Plans

AKA isn't it great that I have a nice dining room.

Because Scottie's birthday was the most horrendously wet, miserable, cold late June day in memory. And we've had some doozies the last couple of years.

The downpour abated briefly, at about 6 pm, when (according to every freaking forecast in the land) good weather was supposed to appear. Clinging to the vain hope, I set the table with my new "china" and Scott hung the lanterns with hooks and chain like beautiful chandeliers. Look, I knew it was a long shot. And yet I was beyond pissed when it started pissing with rain again 40 minutes later and I had to reset everything in the house.

That lasted till well after midnight, though I did force everyone to go outside for drinks at about 11 - in the mist - under the guise of fully experiencing the party theme "dining in Algonquin Park". What? The candles weren't snuffed by the damp though everybody's ass got kind of soggy.

Here are a couple of photos of the outdoor tableau:

I promise, we have had some nice natural light back there. Maybe someday I'll capture that on camera...

Bon Chic Bongenre

Would you believe that these lovely plates, by Bongenre, are made of melamine??! Me neither. Which is why I snapped up 8 dinners and 8 sides stat. The company founder used to deal in antique porcelain so she knows from dinnerware and how it's supposed to look. Honestly, when my husband pointed them out to me at Ziggy's (that place I go that has precisely everything on the planet of all descriptions), initially I scoffed at him for picking out breakable china. This stuff is a thing of beauty.

Perhaps you know it's Scott's birthday today. We're having a little dinner party (outdoors, weather permitting) and I'm all ready for the BBQ! Well, I have the table organized. Don't worry, I'm going to photo shoot it up the yin yang.

Mood Lighting

When first we planned the pergola, the idea was to light it with sconces using, you know, electricity. But the more I've had time to think - and trust me, I've had time to think - the more I wonder if I don't want to get modern lighting the hell out of the picture. Which is why I'm deferring the electrical indefinitely.

Seriously, I'm deferring everything at this point. If only because I cannot bear to watch, wait and pay any longer. The only thing I'm not deferring is relaxing with friends and great food and good booze in copious quantities. And in setting a mood-filled atmosphere as the sun slips behind the houses and the summer night wafts in. (Note to Canadian readers: I realize this is largely a pipe dream given our weather over the last 3 years. Work with me. Let's will it to occur.)

So, back to lighting. I have some lovely candle holders for tea lights and tapers but I felt the need for lanterns. Lanterns just say "backyard party" to me (aka garden-having newbie), yes?

I looked around online and in shops. Of course, I could have bought some very passable and affordable ones at IKEA but that meant I would have had to get my ass there twice in one month. Eeek. Then it hit me: there's a Pottery Barn not 10 minutes from my office.

Disclaimer: I'm not a PB kind of gal. Till this week, I had never actually bought a single item there. Don't misunderstand, I have nothing against the place. Some of my most stylish friends keep the store on speed dial. Well, I do think it's insanely expensive for merch that's extremely available (and hence liable to be seen everywhere). And I do think it tends towards beige in a crazy way. But there's lots of well-appointed stuff. It's like the J Crew of home things. It does American contemporary with exceptional skill.

Anyway, enough of the design treatise. I found these lanterns and bought them (the chrome, not the red)...

I thought they were gracefully ironic - and well made. Not a crazy price, either. And when I showed them to Scott he spit with laughter and squawked: Arrrr matey, them's some fine lights for the prow.

Like they aren't totally germane and adorable or something.

The Grass is Greener

Perhaps you've heard of Kensington Market, a grimy Toronto institution rife with thrift stores, yummy empanadas and Roach-0-Rama (conservative TO's surprisingly liberal head shop-cum-toking venue) - amongst other things.

Below, please observe how this crunchy granola in extremis, vegan cafe sports an awning grow-op - of the legal variety!

Cool, huh?

PS 1.: Did I mention (at least 20 times) that it's my birthday today? This is the first day of the last year of my thirties. I say that calls for some good times...

PS 2: Between the hard drive debacle (which has become the hunt for a new computer that, alas, I'm coming to terms with), a little jaunt to Mtl. for a few days, and the need to recharge my batteries, I'm going to take about a week away from blogging. I just need a break and some time to sort out administrivia. No doubt, I'll be back before you miss me! :-) Kxo

Meet My (Insanely) Flowering Almond

Yes, it's still small, but it's mighty!

Chaz, my landscaper extraordinaire, has advised that this is a very unusual flowering almond - in that it's flowers are in puffy clusters, rather than evenly spread along each branch. Apparently, it's either a miraculous, one-off / this year only phenomenon I should take photos of (check), or I got a super special tree that will bloom like fireworks every spring!

Ed. Update: These photos were snapped at the beginning of May. Alas, the blooms are now finished for the season - but what a glorious treat!

New Update: My tree is fighting for its life because the blooms may have choked the leaves leading to a weakness that allowed a worm to get at it. We're working on resolving the problem. I am optimistic but give a good tree vibe if you've got a moment...

On A Clear Day...

You can see my honey locust coming to life!

Garden Fashion

Insanely, having spent half of Monday on the phone with IKEA reps, determining that if I waited one more moment there would be not a garden suite left to purchase, I Autoshared it over there stat after work.

Props to my friend Steen, who accompanied me on the spur of the moment (the last time I drove was a year ago and I have raging PMS) and who helped me immeasurably in choosing the pieces and then getting them into the car.

We managed to find, choose and pay for these in 15 minutes:

Bollo Folding Chair x 4

1 Applaro Table - seats 4 - 10 (and I intend to have you over!)

Applaro Body Contour Armchair x 2

I'm the first one to say that these IKEA site photos aren't really doing the trick. The pieces are, in reality, a) matching or eclectically unmatched and b) not so strangely sized in relation to one another. I'm dismayed that everything photoed by the IKEA peeps (and published on the website) seems to be a different shade - which is certainly not the case when you actually buy the items and put them side-by-side...

I also took a chance on the Soldig solar lights:

Here they are in someone's real garden...

Now seriously, all I need is for the hardscaper to get over to my place and lay the pavers so that my landscaper can finish her part and I can set these babies up to start enjoying!! My patience, regrettably, is on the wane.

Note to paver: Please finish this by my birthday...