one of the things I enjoy after a snowfall is seeing the tracks that the bunnies, squirrels and birds make…
it is fairly obvious that one or more bunnies are living under the deck… they climb a snowbank and then head underneath… there is lots of space under there…
the squirrels have been running around on the deck… likely the red ones are chasing the other squirrels and birds away from their stash…
soon the bunnies will be able to eat directly from the front feeders because the snow is getting so high, lol…
it is wonderful to have such a great view of nature just by looking out the windows…
this year my Christmas project was Post-It notes made with one of my photos on them…
took a while to decide on just the correct picture… in the end I chose a picture of a poppy that I took in the garden this summer… my Ottawa kids did some work removing the background for me…
always happy when I am able to use one of my photographs for a project…
I also produced cards with four different winter pictures to go with them…
working with my art always fills me with happiness…
last night a friend called and suggested I check out the moon…
it was a sliver in the sky with a very bright Venus above it…
I dug out the tripod, which was deep in a closet, and headed to the front step… even though it was cold, I took a few minutes and got some good photos…
what a special place… it is already stunning and I can’t imagine how great it will be as everything grows into the space…
I was so happy to see that a portion of the allée is still there… for years I would walk around it to get my steps in and I thought it had been removed… the trees are just beautiful…
after we crossed it, we moved into the various gardens… they were all distinctly different…
the Indigenous People’s Garden is an enclosed circle of amazing artwork depicting spring to winter, with a fire pit in the centre and seating for numbers of people… I could envision sitting in this quiet space and meditating…
the Kitchen Garden was filled with fruit trees and the most amazing sunflower plants, as well as herbs, flowers and vegetables…
again, nice benches with morning glories growing behind them for sitting…
the Performance Garden is set up as an amphitheatre and reminded me of wonderful times when we camped and attended numerous events at such locations…
part of the Sensory Garden were these great steps up and down some hills… great fun, although going up was better than coming down, lol…
enjoyed all of the critters in the Gardens… I think the butterflies were my favourite…
it was windy and all the grasses were rippling… lovely…
although there are a few ways to enter the gardens, I was very enamoured with this one…
the Water section had the coolest spheres…
all in all, a great place for a contemplative walk or a walking tour with a friend…
we jumped in the boat and went to a few different fishing spots… no luck at the first one but we did much better at the second…
saw turtles and cormorants… the cormorants got a bit tired of us following them along the canal, but I got some great photos…
I also caught two fish and brought another one up to the side of the boat where it decided to jump off, lol… and the rule is, if you don’t get it into the boat it doesn’t count…
one of the Jack’s I caught was around 30 inches (second biggest of the day) and put up a fight before getting into the net… the other was smaller, but really any fish is great;-)…
good thing I have all these excellent fishers around me to provide backup and helpful instructions…
herbiggirlpants 