Garden angel

[vaneramos]

As Dorothy says in The Wizard of Oz, "The next time I go looking for my heart's desire, I won't look any further than my own backyard; if it's not there, then I never really lost it to begin with." There are many satisfactions for the traveling naturalist, but Barry Lopez has written that the deepest understanding comes from staying in one place, getting to know it in every kind of light, weather and season. Perhaps this also relates to the genius loci, the spirit that indwells a particular garden or rural space.

This morning as I stepped out for my walk, the little front door garden captured and drew me in. I spent the next 20 minutes in rapt attention to flowers and insects, and never stepped beyond the stream of traffic, highway 7, which separates my house from the Eramosa River. It's nice to think that I've awakened a besieged, encrypted spirit, and that it in turn has begun weaving enchantments that will draw me deeper into the web of life.

I'm entranced by the minute scarlet pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis. It appeared when I gardened this same space years ago. It had gone into hiding through the hard years since, but now offers itself again, trailing from beneath the alyssum. It's one of the few weeds (and warm-coloured flowers) I allow to grow here, so in fact it isn't a weed anymore. Tiny, tenacious and colourful, it exemplifies qualities of the cultivated plants I chose. Perhaps it is my garden angel.

This fly seems fascinated with the furry leaves of Thymus pseudolanuginosis (woolly thyme), another plant I adore.

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Wow. At that magnification, the woolly thyme leaves look like cactus; I did a bit of a double-take when I read the text (why I didn't do a double-take at the idea of cactus in an outdoor garden in Ontario is another question).

I too love woolly thyme (and thymes in general); we have a rock that we've named "Thyme Rock" because we've surrounded it with multiple varieties of thyme. When the first woolly thyme we had there died (I think the birch root that invaded the area sucked away all its nutrients), we had a series of successors (elsewhere around the rock) that never made it through two seaons; I think we finally have a keeper.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, we have an indigenous cactus here in Southern Ontario! The prickly pear likes warm sandy soil near the north shore of Lake Erie. It can sometimes be found in garden centres around here, and might even survive in this particular garden, given the light soil and constant sun. But I feel more affinity for the soft textures of thymes and so on.

[missprune.livejournal.com]

Scarlet pimpernel was one of the things that made me dream of doing the sort of up-close, revealing photography that you are achieving. Its combination of colors is so beautiful, and I am sure many people never really see it because it is so small.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That's amazing, really, that you were captivated by the same humble plant. The colour is remarkable. I remember the first time I noticed and identified the plant, and realized it was the emblem behind the famous novel--such a tiny, lovely thing!