Gardens – Page 5 – Cynthia Reyes

A Good Home, Canadian Gardens, Canadian life, Flowers, Friendship, Garden Humour, Gardens, Spring Bulbs, Spring garden

Skulduggery

March 22, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

Every spring for years now, my dear friend Les and I have fiercely competed in The Bloomin’ Bulbs competition.

We two are the only participants.

Whoever has the first blooming spring bulbs is the winner.

But in the weeks ahead, we’ll both be on high alert, because we’ve proven ourselves …uhm… untrustworthy.

One year I brought a blow-dryer outside, trying to warm up the air around my not-quite-blooming daffodils.

And as for Les …. well….

Please follow the trail from here:

From: Cynthia Reyes
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2014 4:58 PM
To: ‘Leslie Lawrence’
Subject: I have SEVERAL crocuses bloomin’!

I have SEVERAL crocuses bloomin’ now!

Two yesterday, several today.

And I just remembered: it’s the Bloomin’ Bulbs competition, so Hellebores don’t count, Les!

Have you any real bulbs yet??

From: Leslie
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 9:05 AM
To: Cynthia Reyes
Subject: Re: I have SEVERAL crocuses bloomin’ now!

Well, you are probably well ahead.

It’s hard to be in competition with the Reyes Estate.

A Few Things have poked their heads up vigorously through the leaf mulch.

However, we don’t have much of a display.

Lawrence el Veraz

On Apr 14, 2014, at 9:19 AM, Cynthia Reyes wrote:

Les – that is beautiful!

I have no daffodils blooming.

When I read your email, I braced myself for another fake photo – but this is great!

It looks like you won the contest this year, because those daffodils have been up for a while – right?

Darn, drats and heck! I hate losing. But if I had to lose to someone….. I’m glad it’s you!

From: Leslie
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 9:46 AM
To: Cynthia Reyes
Subject: Re: I have SEVERAL crocuses bloomin’ now!

Hi Cynthia,

Well, I’m glad you liked the photo.

As for fake photos, though we have this keen competition, I assure you I would never spend a lot of time scheming to send you a photograph taken last spring in order to accomplish the nearly impossible task of fooling you one last time.

Not me.

Lawrence el Veraz.

On Apr 14, 2014, at 9:50 AM, Cynthia Reyes wrote:

Oh my God!

You did it again, didn’t you?

I don’t know why I get hoodwinked every time.

And this time – completely.

Duz a leppard change his spots?

Duz a photo-faker change his ways?

Obviously not.

Ay, caramba!

All this to say: keep your friends close, but keep your gardener-friends even closer!

Dedicated to my dear friend Lawrence el Veraz.

A Good Home, Flowers, Gardening, Life in canada, Poem, Poetry, Seasons Change, Winter's End

A Winter’s Tail

March 13, 2015March 24, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

The birds are back with songs of Spring

Their tunes incite imagining

That Winter’s end will soon arrive

And living things shall haste to thrive

Via vitalxrecognition.wordpress.com/ — Image Thanks to: vitalxrecognition.wordpress.com/

A Winter’s Tail, how bittersweet!

Today it’s sun, tomorrow sleet

And wind to stop us in our tracks

And cold to freeze Spring-hungry backs

One day we feel a wave of hope

Warmed by our thoughts that we can cope

And then come gales of Winter still

And blizzards coat the windowsill

Ho, Winter! Do your level best

Your time is near to take a rest

For Lady Spring prepares to rule

She’ll thaw your ice and warm your cool

She’ll rout you, kick your icy tail

She’ll make you wish you’d stopped at hail

Who’s mighty now, oh Freezer Guy

Who rules the roost? Oh my, oh my!

Spring wakes the earth; the gardens flower

She turns grass green and makes you cower

She strips away your winter clothes

And sprinkles sunshine up your nose

She brings new life to garden trail

She gives new strength to plants so frail

To stand up ‘gainst your mighty storm

And so defy your freezing form

Ho! Winter’s Tail, I kid you not

Pick up your snow and off you trot

Break down your ice and melt away

See you around, when skies are grey

See you next time, oh Frigid One

But not too soon, for Spring’s begun

And three great seasons I shall see

Before you’re back to torment me.

Thanks to Hamlin Grange for all original photos.

Dedicated to my friends Lisa E. and Marion W: Spring is near.

A Good Home, Cold weather dreams of gardening, Dreaming of spring and summer, Red bee balm flowers

Flowers for Dale

February 19, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

For my friend Dale, some red flowers to melt the ice this winter:

These flowers are to remind you that spring follows winter and summer follows spring, and you’ll be able to stroll in the garden and smell the flowers.

I hope.

Dale – like many other Canadians this February – is bravely but unhappily bearing up under the brutal cold and snow.

“Yup…. snowed under.

Frozen as the brass balls on the proverbial monkey — effing February.

I did take time from shoveling, freezing and ranting to note that you didn’t make it here this month. Not surprised. There’s a reason bears hibernate.

It all makes me want to eat donuts and I don’t even like donuts! ”

Cheer up, Dale!

These red Bee Balm are meant to be a balm for your winter-weary spirit.

But I think Dale may have already lost her sense of humour over this winter weather:

“Today the sun is shining but ‘extreme cold warning’….

I wish those people on the radio would piss off…. we know it’s cold… enuf already.

Remind me: why did you leave Jamaica??”

Dale, thanks for making me smile. I hope these flowers do the same for you. Deo Volente, better days are ahead!

Dedicated to Dale and everyone who is trying to get through this cold weather.

A Good Home, Gardening, Soil

It’s All In The Soil

January 21, 2015January 23, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

Mr. Smith lived in an old house on a double lot on a side street in Toronto.

I remember the first time I glimpsed his garden. It was a Saturday afternoon in mid-summer and I was driving past his home. I did a double-take, hit the brakes, reversed, stopped the car and got out so I could see more.

A tall, angular, white-haired man was dead-heading some roses. He wore spectacles, was neatly dressed in white shirt and dress trousers as if he was heading for some important meeting. He didn’t look like any gardener I’d ever seen.

Even so, I knew immediately that this was his garden and he was the gardener. I could see it in the way he bent to study his flowers and the soil around them, like an artist studies his unfinished painting on canvas.

I walked up to him and bravely said hello.

He looked up at me, gave a shy little half-laugh. “Hello.”

Something about that half-laugh endeared him to me, along with his grandfatherly age and look.

His flowers were everywhere. Running their riotous ways around the house and into the distance of his back garden, becoming more muted in the soft shade of trees, then re-emerging in all their glory in the brilliant sunlit spaces.

Big, fat dahlias, snapdragons and roses jostled for space with a multitude of other brilliantly-coloured flowers.

The garden was heaven on earth.

One afternoon Mr. Smith invited me into his kitchen for a cold drink. We sat at the small kitchen table and I told him how nicely the garden was doing and he claimed that it was a mess and needed more tending.

“I’d give a lot to have a garden half as beautiful and lush and healthy as this one,” I said. “It would take me forever, though. How on earth do you get it to look like this?” I peered through the back window and gestured to the garden.

He laughed that humble laugh again, and even seemed to blush.

“It’s all in the soil. Everything starts with good soil.”

This excerpt from my upcoming book “Beloved Gardens” is offered in support for Save The Soils. Thanks to Lori and Robbie, two great bloggers, for the prompt.

PHOTOS BY HAMLIN GRANGE, WHO ALSO MAKES GREAT COMPOST!