Coming Into a Gentler Season

Scenic Views around the Muskoka Wharf in Gravenhust, Ontario.   Summer of 2012. (photos by Fred Schulz)

MORE SNOW ON THE WAY? OH DEAR!  PATIENCE IS DIVINE!

THE LILACS IN BUD, BUT MAY BE FROSTED OVER!

     THERE IS STILL A LOT OF OLD SNOW SCULPTED OVER BIRCH HOLLOW. I CHECKED THE LILACS THIS MORNING, AND THEY'VE ALREADY GOT SUBSTANTIAL BUDS……WAITING FOR THOSE WARM APRIL SHOWERS, THAT NOW MAY BECOME SNOW FLURRIES BY MID WEEK. NATURE IS FICKLE.

     AFTER LAST YEAR'S RECORD BREAKING DROUGHT, I WAS ESPECIALLY WORRIED ABOUT THE LILACS, THAT HAVE ALREADY SUFFERED SOME LEAF BLIGHT, THAT CURLED AND BROWNED THE LEAVES FOR THE PAST TWO SUMMERS. THEY ARE HARDY PLANTS BUT THE FACT WE HAVE SANDY SOIL HERE, AND THE WATER DRAINS AWAY QUICKLY, EVEN WHEN IT DOES RAIN, NECESSITATES A CONSTANT WATERING PROTOCOL, FOR ALL OUR PLANTS AND SHRUBS. THEY'RE ALL KIND OF SPECIAL TO US, AS MANY OF THEM HAVE HAD STORIED LIVES BEFORE ARRIVING HERE IN THE BIRCH HOLLOW FERN GARDEN.

      THE LARGE CLUMPS OF LILACS WERE TRANSPLANTED HERE, IN 1989, THE YEAR WE MOVED FROM A LENGTHY STAY AT THE FAMILY COTTAGE, ON LAKE ROSSEAU. THE PROPERTY OF BIRCH HOLLOW WAS QUITE UNREMARKABLE, EXCEPT FOR THE ADJACENT WOODLAND, BUT WE PURCHASED THE HOUSE BECAUSE IT WAS EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED AS A FAMILY HOME; WITH A NICE VIEW OF OPEN SPACES……SPECIFICALLY THE HOLLOW WE CALL THE BOG. THERE WERE VERY FEW GARDEN ATTRIBUTES TO SPEAK OF, AND OUTSIDE OF SOME BOULDERS PLACED AROUND AREAS THAT HAD A FEW TULIPS AND DAFFODILS, THERE WASN'T A DIME SPENT ON ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS, PLANTS, GROUND COVER, OR EVEN GRASS. THEY HAD SPENT CONSIDERABLE MONEY BUILDING THE HOUSE, AND ABOUT NINETY BUCKS ON LANDSCAPING. SO TO MEET OUR INTERESTS, THERE WAS A LOT OF WORK TO DO. SO WHEN WE ARRIVED HERE, WE BROUGHT SOME PLANTS WITH US FROM WINDERMERE.

     THE TREES OF THE LILAC GARDEN THAT WERE TRANSPLANTED HERE, WERE DUG-UP FROM SUZANNE'S FAMILY HOMESTEAD, IN THE VILLAGE OF WINDERMERE, A BLOCK FROM WINDERMERE HOUSE; AND ALSO FROM THE COTTAGE TWO KILOMETERS AWAY, ON THE CHANNEL BETWEEN WELLSLEY AND FLORENCE ISLANDS, OF LAKE ROSSEAU. WE ALSO BROUGHT ALONG HUNDREDS OF RASPBERRY CANES, FROM A PATCH THAT HAD BEEN PLANTED BY HER GRANDMOTHER, ON THE STRIPP SIDE. MOSTLY WE BROUGHT TULIPS AND DAFFODILS FROM WINDERMERE, AND SUZANNE'S OTHER FAMILY HOMESTEAD, IN THE VILLAGE OF UFFORD, ONCE OWNED BY JOHN SHEA, A FORMER TOWNSHIP CLERK IN MUSKOKA LAKES. WE DIDN'T STOP THERE EITHER. WE ALSO HAD CULTIVATED PLANTS THAT WE HAD FORMERLY DUG-UP FROM THE YARD OF OUR FIRST HOUSE, AS A MARRIED COUPLE, ON BRACEBRIDGE'S ONTARIO STREET, THAT WE ALSO NURTURED AND EXPANDED, DURING A FOUR YEAR RESIDENCY AT A COTTAGE ON GOLDEN BEACH ROAD, OPPOSITE LAKE MUSKOKA. EACH TIME WE MOVED, WE BROUGHT PLANTS WITH US, RE-PLANTED THEM, AND WHEN MOVING ONCE MORE, DUG THEM UP (ONLY IN PART) TO GRACE OUR NEW HOMESTEAD PROPERTY; THIS TIME IN GRAVENHURST. WE SIMPLY CAN'T MOVE AGAIN, BECAUSE WE COULDN'T TRANSPORT ALL THE PLANTS AND SHRUBS NOW SPRAWLING OVER JUST ABOUT EVERY OTHER INCH OF BIRCH HOLLOW. WE LIKE OUR PLANTS, ESPECIALLY THE ONES THAT HOLD A SPECIAL STORY FROM OUR FAMILY HOMES OF ONCE.

     THE RASPBERRY CANES AND THE STANDS OF PIONEER LILACS, ARE JUST AS WE FOUND THEM GROWING, AT OUR COTTAGE, AND AT THE BACK OF THE FAMILY HOME IN THE VILLAGE. WE ARE DELIGHTED THAT THEY HAVE SURVIVED AND MULTIPLIED EVER SINCE. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I'VE REALLY BEEN WORRIED ABOUT THEIR HEALTH, SO IT WAS NICE TO SEE THEM BUDDING THIS MORNING. THERE'S A LOT OF HISTORY WITH THESE ASSORTED MUSKOKA PLANTS, GATHERED TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD GRACES AND VISUAL COMFORTS OF BIRCH HOLLOW.

     The near-century family cottage, was actually built by Suzanne's grandfather, Sam Stripp, of Windermere, as a family home early in the 1900's. When Suzanne's father sold the cottage in the late 1990's, on short notice, we had only a few weeks to clean it and the boathouse, before the buildings were to be torn-down. This was heart-breaking as I'm sure you can imagine. The last detail, over that final week, was to harvest as much of the ground cover and perennials as possible, including the raspberry canes and lilacs, as we understood the entire property was going to be re-landscape; (bulldozed) according to what fashionably suited the huge new cottage planned for the site. This is exactly what had happened, and it's a family situation that still draws tears when discussed. At the very least, we have a yard full of Lake Rosseau and Windermere horticultural heritage, of which we are enormously proud…….and tend to their needs like museum curators.

     We don't take boat cruises by the property any more…..or even take a canoe paddle in vicinity, because of that hasty retreat, which hurt all family members equally. We know that acres of ground cover and wildflowers were sacrificed to keep up with the extravagant lakeside times. It was such a beautiful property, with the wonderful embrace of a typical Muskoka evergreen forest.

     It does give my dear wife a sense of family heritage, when at this time of the year, she readies for her much enjoyed work in the garden. As her mother used to occupy herself in Windermere, and her grandmother Shea, and Aunt Ada in Ufford, on the 1860's homestead, acquired in the days of the Free Land Grants in the district. As well as the plants and shrubs, we are also custodians of these grounds, as habitat for hundreds of wee beasties, from chipmunks, grey and black squirrels, a couple of weasels in the underbrush, many species of birds, and oh so many creepy-crawlies that are also welcome in our small woodland adjacent to the house. We have cats but they are kept indoors for their well being, and the safety of our outdoor inhabitants.

     From window-side, the garden and lawn are still mostly snow-covered except for a few open patches of grass, where the sun has penetrated the tree cover, for several hours each day…….weather permitting of course. It's surprising, that from this stage, to complete open ground, will happen so quickly with the warm, wet days in the coming week…….except for the potential of snow later on. Suzanne reminds me that this late season snow will help rot the existing mantle…..which I don't understand, but lore is lore. Right now, it is raining hard here, and thank goodness it's not snow for this evening. I hope the precipitation this year will spread out through the year, avoiding the catastrophe of last summer, when we lost hundreds of plants, and some of undetermined fate for this spring.

     We have a little bit of north, south, east and west, growing here, from the corners of this beautiful district. But it is our home ground now. Gravenhurst in South Muskoka. The natural symphony that erupts here, in life sounds, and actions of regeneration, the rain and wind, sun and heat, all part of the legacy and biography of the historians who live and work here……and guard it all like a museum diorama.  As for writing from this portal, it would be rare indeed, if at any hour of the day, or night, in any season of the rolling year, that I should find myself without inspiration, lounging here overlooking the gardens at Birch Hollow. I am comfortably home in the modest history of this place……of which I'm but one entry in its chronology of admirers…..and those yet to come.

     You'll need an umbrella and a sou'wester, if you head out in this prevailing weather event. Thanks for visiting today. I hope the view from your place of residence gives you similar pleasure.