Greenland Inspiration (Come see Greenland's Indoor Winter Garden)

Last Saturday my friend Kim and I headed for a favourite destination to get some much needed rejuvenation.  The scent of the plants and soil invigorated me and the beauty to behold reaffirmed why Greenland is one of our all-time favourite greenhouse destinations.  Join me for a small tour that is sure to make your green thumb itch for spring.

Terrariums and dish gardens like the one above seem to be the new trend in gardening.  

Even *lifestyle stores are incorporating them into their merchandising.

As, the sweet orchid!  Someday I shall add this beauty to my home.  

I am told they are not nearly so difficult to grow as some would believe.

There is always a pond in Greenland's winter garden and this one is large with short waterfalls and a stream.  Colourful Koi glide through crystal clear water, pleasing visitors of all ages.

Don't you love the bright splash of colour offered by this collection of bromeliads?

This leaf inspired table and chair set caught my eye so I captured it from a few angles.

Missing our twisted Young's Weeping Birch from our old house.  This one was masterfully trained in a tight twist.

 The perennial geranium was actually a deeper purple than my camera could portray with 

the bright lighting.

The plant groupings are good examples for gardeners to mimic in their own gardens.  

It's helpful to see a more mature specimen in relation to others so one can design accordingly.

A dogwood in bloom, above and below.

Hostas are one of my favourite perennials.

The tender fiddleheads of a young fern gently uncurl above.

Rhododendrons will always have a spot in my heart and hopefully again in a future garden.

Another angle showing the gentle incline of the leaf table top.

There's nothing like tulips and irises to brighten a day!

Above and below, white calla lilies.  The double calla lily flower begged capture in the last photo here.

From here we went to Salisbury Greenhouse, also in Sherwood Park, just east of Edmonton.  

It's totally a different feel than Greenland but still very much worth the visit.

White

Gathering photos from the last three months or so, I made this mosaic for "white," a meme presented by Little Red House today.

Looking forward to seeing everyone's take on "white."  May the sunshine warm you wherever you are today.

Meet the new guy in town

Thursday evening was Valentines Day and hubby and I celebrated with an exchange of cards, a box of chocolates, Chinese food from Wok Box and a viewing of a fascinating segment of Nature of Things.  

There's a new hybrid in town.  Meet the Coywolf.

A cross between an Eastern Coyote and a wolf, the Coywolf is a new* species which seems right at home strolling the streets in our cities.  

Normally, wolves will kill coyotes but these coyotes are a larger species than their western counterparts and they are mating with wolves.  Actually, the coywolf isn't such a new hybrid as scientists believe they have been in existence for at least 100 years.  It's the last few years though that have brought them to our attention as they are making their way into our cities, bringing attention to their existence and heightening the curiosity of scientists.

cbc.ca - linked file image

They survive in the wild, mistaken for wolves due to their size but their heritage is now known.  They are a beautiful animal with a smaller head than that of the wolf but a larger body than a coyote and bushy tail like a wolf.  They are cunning and unafraid, eating rats (that could only be construed as a good thing, right), garbage and Canadian geese.  

Nature of Things' David Suzuki narrates the program, showing how young coywolf pups are tagged and monitored.    In the footage aired Thursday evening, a young coywolf was videoed standing on someone's doorstep! They pad along, down the streets, follow a jogger, stand outside a chainlink fence...watching.  Their very existence in the city, even New York as well as Eastern Canada, is rather unnerving and yet a bit of a miracle.  They are beautiful, yes.  But remember they are wild and unpredictable, and becoming more common as newspapers such as The Huffington Post, Halifax news.net, Cape Breton Post; to name a few, are reporting sightings.

Curious?  Here's a link to watch the video yourself:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/The+Nature+of+Things/ID/2335216723/.  It is fascinating.

What made me think to write about this this morning?  As I was looking out the windows, front and back, this morning, I saw many little paw prints.  They were likely rabbits (I haven't been outside to further investigate) but those paw prints reminded me of the program.  How coywolves are often unseen, just under the radar, leaving little/large paw prints behind.  Could they be in your neighbourhood?

Snowy morning

By Dawn's Early Light

We've been here at our new home since the first week of February and today was the first chance to see a sunrise out our bedroom window.  Since I am at work so early weekdays and last weekend was cloudy, I was sure to take advantage of this opportunity!

 Time was approximately 7:47am as the first photo was taken.

 We are so fortunate to have an open field directly across the street from us and the entire area is relatively newly developed, as evidenced by the equipment in the photo below.

This was definitely an asset when we viewed the house.  I stood at the bedroom window and called to my husband to come look.  It was evening, dark and calm.  As we looked out the window together, realizing we would see the sunrise through that very window every morning, we knew we wanted to live here.

Dawn

Good morning everyone!  How is this new year treating you?  To be honest, it has been rather stressful on my end.   We are moving again and until a couple days ago, we hadn't selected a new residence.  The details are not yet finalized so I won't divulge any thing more here but I feel the stress lifting and am so grateful for that.  

On a brighter note, this was my view first thing this morning!  Isn't it gorgeous!!!!

It was near -40 Celsius with the wind chill this morning!  Right now it's about -24 Celsius and I don't know what it is with the windchill factored in but it's not very windy so that's good!

It's a cooler week than last where we set records for north America of +8 Celsius.  It was warmer than Phoenix that day!  On the plus side, it will be cold for the Ice on Whyte Festival that begins the 25th of January.  Perhaps this year we will even explore the icy wonderland!

Have a terrific week everyone and keep the home fires burning!