The Secret Garden

I fall asleep quickly when travelling, whether by bus, airplane, as a car passenger, and unfortunately I fight drowsiness as a driver too. I download audiobooks for long trips and find they keep my mind engaged and alert. We really enjoyed audiobook versions of 101 Dalmations and Peter Pan on recent road trips to Ottawa. Mom used to read us a chapter or two from her old books after lunch and I remember our elementary school teachers reading to us at the end of the day. Listening to stories still gives me pleasure. Movie versions of classic books pale in comparison to written literature in my opinion. 

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is one of my favourite books from childhood. I identify with the sullen and displaced Mary and love how she comes alive as she pokes around in the earth and watches things grow. She bullies and encourages Colin back to health and the two odd children start to engage with others in a normal way. Today I found a delightful secret garden as I spent another afternoon looking for spring.

I walked along the river which is running fast and high. Much of the trail was flooded and there were few birds in the strong, bitter wind. I heard a Northern Flicker and followed the sound up a hill by an old church. Next door to the church is the old home of the Canadian artist, Homer Watson, which is now a (reportedly haunted) art gallery. Apparently his sister didn’t leave the house after she died.

The large property has a few tiny cabins where aspiring artists came to stay and study between 1948-1966 at the Doon School of Fine Arts. The yard is sheltered from the wind and green things were growing. A Robin dug several grubs out of the soil and a pair of Northern Flickers and Red-bellied Woodpeckers were on the trees. Another lady was walking by with a camera looking, as she said, for something with life. She hadn’t noticed the flowers yet. Barely visible in a bed of dead leaves were hundred of crocus flowers. Behind a shed were masses of snowdrops and a bee collected pollen from open scilia flowers on the sunny lawn.

Snow drops are my favourite spring flower because they often appear first and when the ground is still snow covered. From now on flowers will open in rapid succession…hyacinth, forsythia, daffodils, pulmonaria along with a host of spring ephemerals, all before the leaves open on the trees. Today I saw the spring flower show start in the secret garden. 

Now that you have read my little story, you can look at the pictures.