Homes – Page 5 – Cynthia Reyes

A Good Home, Canadian Gardens, Couples, Family Moments, Ferns, Flowers, Gardening, Homes, Hostas, Jamaican Gardening in Canada, July Garden, Life in canada, Lifestyle, Outdoor Living, Shade Gardens, Summer Garden, Tropical Gardening in Canada, Tropical Plants

In the Garden with Gail and Sam

August 1, 2014August 1, 2014 Cynthia Reyes

Right away, you can tell that two avid gardeners live here.

These gloves don’t stay idle for long.

Gail and Sam have lived in their home in a city east of Toronto for 25 years.

Theirs is a mature, complex garden that is tended conscientiously every day. It has trees, vines, ponds, statuary, gazebos, and plants that grow in the ground and in a multitude of containers.

Of course, a gardener’s work is never done. If you’re a gardener, you’ll relate to this moment:

The camera comes out and Gail spies a weed — way, way at the back of the garden.

“Wait!” she says. “Let me remove that weed!” As she pulls one, she finds one more. And one more.

A Canadian who was born and raised in Jamaica, Gail has fond memories of the island.

This garden helps her to keep connected to it.

“We come out here and we’re in Jamaica!” says Gail.

The garden is also a tribute to her mother, who died several years ago.

Gail is a passionate gardener. Luckily, her husband Sam, of Italian-Canadian background, also loves gardening — and Jamaica.

To see them in the garden is to see a team that works well together.

He does the building and hardscaping (paths, gazebos, trellises, stone walls, ponds, decking, etc.) while she chooses and takes care of the plants.

To no-one’s surprise, there’s a banana tree, rescued when the friend who had it was having trouble caring for it.

It’s among umpteen tropical plants growing in containers spread throughout the garden.

Most of them would be quite at home in a Jamaican garden.

There’s even an old copper gallon-jug which was originally used to measure rum at the Appleton estate in Jamaica. It belonged to her father, and, thrilled with the historical significance of the jug, Gail was very pleased when her dad gave it to her for her garden in Canada.

Gail’s an active volunteer in Canada’s Jamaican-Canadian community. She was a member of the Toronto committee celebrating Jamaica’s 50th anniversary in 2012 with a variety of cultural events, including concerts, author readings, an art show and other activities. That project is over, but when Gail wants to feel a connection to Jamaica, all she has to do is to step into her garden.

Thanks, Gail and Sam, for allowing me to visit with you in your beautiful garden.

A Good Home, Flowering Vegetables, Flowers, Gardening, Homes, Vegetable Garden

You Can’t Eat Flowers

July 11, 2014July 11, 2014 Cynthia Reyes

This is the rallying cry of People Who Grow Vegetables.

People like My Better Half.

And his friend Vito, the neighbour who regularly turns up his nose at my flowers. Which is exactly why I had this picture taken of Vito among the flowers.

For spite.

But I digress.

Again.

Sorry ’bout that.

Truth is, you have to give thanks for People Who Grow Vegetables, because while I love flowers, I also love to eat fresh food. So lettuce be grateful. (Sorry — I couldn’t resist.)

Here then, is a pictorial salute to vegetable gardeners. It is made up of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beets, lettuce, asparagus and other good stuff from the earth.

The photos, as promised, are of My Better Half’s vegetable garden.

In this shot (below centre), asparagus spears have been left to grow into ferns. They’ll be thick and lush in weeks.

On the right are spinach and salad greens, including my favorite arugula. On the left: A raspberry bush, gifts from our friends Paddy and Jacqui. It’s loaded with berries right now.

But what’s that I see? Flowers.

Yes! Vegetables have flowers….. starting with zucchini…

Then cukes…

And squash….

Gee whiz – it’s a veritable flower garden! Even the eggplant is bloomin’!

Not sure about the eggplant, but I’m told that zucchini and other vegetable flowers are edible.

So who says you can’t eat flowers?

Photos by H. Grange

A Good Home, Faith, Family, Family Moments, Farm house, Flowering shrubs, Flowers, Gardening, Gardens, Gratitude, Home, Homes, Inspiration

Flowers, Memories, Diaries

July 9, 2014July 9, 2014 Cynthia Reyes

Memory is the diary we all carry about with us, wrote Oscar Wilde.

But for me, diary is memory. Years of memories.

Family, home, garden, daily life.

Diaries played a small role in my overall life, but became a huge part of my post-accident experience. With little sense of time, and often no memory of events just minutes after they happened, I started writing in my journal again.

Little things. Big things. Write it down quickly.

A doctor played a key role. She told me to record events as they happened, figuring I could share these entries with the medical professionals I visited. My memory and speech problems were so bad, she noted, that “No other specialist will take two hours to try to figure out what you are saying. Write.”

Of course, that’s not word-for-word. But I scribbled down her order.

I returned to keeping journals. Some of the entries were so painful, I vowed to never re-read them.

The best? Entries about time with family.

Next best: time in the garden.

I used to keep a journal to track my gardens’ progress. The major triumphs and minor tragedies, the plans carried out and those forgotten.

Now, no longer able to garden, I was reduced to observing. But observing led to writing and writing led to “remembering”.

The first spring bulbs to bloom.

The first night-bloomer of the season.

The first time the fern-leaf peonies – presents from friends Les and Sandra – bloomed.

The hollyhock that bloomed in two colours.

The mysterious flower that showed up one summer.

Red currants, seeds planted by birds or breeze.

When your brain doesn’t work efficiently, you misplace things. When you’re in too much pain to move, you can’t go looking for things somewhere else. So I learned to keep the garden journal on the verandah, and other journals in every room of the house.

An onlooker, seeing me writing on that lovely verandah, might have thought: “What a charmed life.”

But as my mother always said : “Never envy others. No-one knows what troubles they have.” I was – quite literally — writing to save my life.

Looking back, I’m astonished at some of the lovely things that happened. Things to be grateful for. People to be grateful to.

I’m shocked at the development of this garden, as captured in my journals.

Grateful to my husband, for building arbours, dividing plants, maintaining the garden — in addition to everything else that landed on his plate.

Some of what I read evokes real memories. They bring tears, laughter, delight, wonder.

Some of it is not at all familiar. It’s like reading about someone else’s life, but knowing it’s yours.

Interesting, that.

Photos by Hamlin Grange

A Good Home, Blue Clematis, Blue Flowers, Blue Garden, Blue Salvia, Flowers, Gardening, Gardens, Homes, July Garden, Summer Garden

I’ve Got The Blues

July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 Cynthia Reyes

If you’d asked me if I had many blue flowers in my summer garden, I would have said ‘no’. But turns out I would have been wrong. As borne out by this blue Clematis, above. The blue-lavender Clematis on the right, below. And the blue Salvia on the left. Morning Glories get in on the act, and this one is lovely. Blue Salvia will soon get crowded out by Margaritas… But right now it’s holding its own. Blue and yellow make a refreshing mix in the garden. And — honestly — this Clematis below is a blue-lavender. But compared to the sky, it’s positively pink.

Except for this other blue Clematis, which has somehow risen above the pink one and is holding court. While, just below them both, this flower – whose name I’ve never learned – blooms all summer. Do you know what it is? Almost a Forget-Me-Not, but I don’t know what it is or where it came from.