“No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!
Thomas Hood
Late October found me making my way through planting the fall bulbs I ordered as soon as the catalogue came in the spring. Apparently many bulbs were sold out so I wasn’t overreacting to order so early. And I think it would be prudent to not wait until January to order from the spring catalogue as I usually do.
I planted lots of daffodils, a few species tulips and some species crocuses. Lots of my naturalised crocuses have been excavated by the chipmunks in recent years so of course I had to plant more. Nothing like a good war with Nature. Yes I know who usually wins those. The new bulbs might get excavated too but I try to be optimistic that some might survive to bloom in the spring. I planted some of them randomly in the lawn and others at the edge of existing beds. I put slabs over the ones in the beds and will take them off once the ground starts to freeze. Will this work? I have no idea but I guess I will find out. I knew those slabs would come in handy for something. Good thing I didn’t declutter the woodshed.
The porch plants that live outside all summer and fall have finally been brought in. As if to defy the darkness of November, the trailing rosemary has decided to bloom again on the kitchen table. It bloomed enthusiastically in the spring and I appreciate that it has put on a show of little purple flowers twice in one year.
There are still some colourful annuals flowering going into bleak November. Both calendula and California poppy will take several frosts before they give up. I especially appreciate the colour of these in an otherwise dull landscape.
The winter woodpile is in good shape now. A friend stopped by recently while I was piling dry wood in the shed. He was trying to be smart when he remarked that I couldn’t OHIO that pointing to the wood. OHIO? Only handle it once. No I definitely could never OHIO the wood and that doesn’t bother me a bit.
Some of this winter’s wood is from a very large old tree on Anne Street. Thanks Geoff and Sally for all that nice maple. Christmas came early this year.
The pandemic is still with us going into winter. I wonder if those who took up gardening for the first time will stick with it. And I wonder if those people who bought the apocalyptic 50 lb bags of flour will keep on baking this winter. Strange times indeed.
Finally, I will mention one of my favourite canoe trip memories of this past fall. My companion and I went to Algonquin to briefly escape the craziness of the world. We were walking along the shore of Canoe Lake and not lost exactly but we definitely weren’t finding the historic cemetery we were looking for. We ended up in the front yard of a cottage. The owner of the cottage, a very friendly woman, walked towards us and her first words were “have you had breakfast?” She didn’t say get off my lawn you silly tourists which was very good of her. We had a conversation about local history and she walked part way with us to point us in the right direction. How Canadian is that? I will think of that encounter and smile all winter.
Common Ground by Jill Williams
