How Green Is My Valley

It is only now that I realize I have somehow managed to recapture some of the magic of my childhood when I see what spring has wrought from the natural world around me in this paradise that is the Annapolis Valley here in Nova Scotia.

The mist and rain this weekend brought up the emeralds, spring greens and chartreuse

 of a spring palette.

 

The cherry tree next door sent its blossom snowflakes sailing in today's wind.

 

These blossoms fascinate me for their indifferent beauty...

 

I enjoyed bringing up the polka dots of their many stamens by reducing the saturation of colour...

 

But Oh, the colour...and Oh the profusion, all from ONE tree!!

 

We waited long enough that the price has come down for fruit trees

and this weekend Wally picked up a Harelson apple tree, a Wisconsin variety

known for its hardiness and ability to keep its shape when baked in pies.

 

That means there'll be lots of baking around the corner as each little blossom has the potential to become an apple.

 

We've been blessed with a profusion of lilac bushes and hedges

A few white lilacs too, whose buds are about to pop

 

It's going to smell like heaven around here shortly...

And then there are the forget-me-nots, one of the sentimental selling points for this property that reminds me of my childhood in rural southern Ontario

 at my grandparents cottage on the Credit River.

 

We've finally determined that the Walnut trees that grow here are English Walnut which allow for all kinds of companion plants unlike the Black Walnut we thought we might have.

Wally has only just seen this huge rhubarb flower about to bloom and says it must go, but I do so want to see it bloom before he beheads it...





And finally the daffodils and tulips that are growing like crazy next door, a gardener after my own heart who loves a wild profusion of colour and mayhem.



 

How green is our valley

 

How grateful I am that we have chosen to make a life here

 amidst this spectacular land of forest and farms.

Spring is a time of rebirth, of growth, of upward thrust,

It is a time for Life.