Every Child in the Woods..

A winter shifts into spring, I thought I'd blather on a bit about the outdoor kids' camp I've been playing with...Saplings Outdoor Program in West Van. I regularly blog on their website, but as we are dealing with the little folk, the blog is accessible to parents only, and the wonderful pictures as well. This is why, below, I have carefully incognito shots of the idyllically frollicing waifs. The second pic is actually of my friend Monica with her almost-year-old baby dabbling in Lynn Creek. (General theme of Babes in the Woods.) The really good shots are so cute that I'm afraid everyone would be exploited by the marketing directors of nature-themed townhouse developments or bottled water companies called Cherub Springs.

When I told people I was going to help with a morning outdoor preschool of mainly 3.5-4 yr olds this winter, someone told me to expect to be wiping noses, taking one after the other to the washroom, and trying to stop them from crying the entire time.

This does not happen.

No one, in two programs, has ever cried (7-10 kids each). No one comes sick (and they rarely miss a day) and these kids rarely, if ever, pee. They do not question the fact that their parents are leaving them in the woods, no matter the weather: snow, sleet, or monsoon rain. (Sometimes it's so gloomy the camera flash comes on at 10:30 a.m.) They arrive in full muddy-buddy suits and gumboots, backpacks with snacks and extra socks & mitts, and forge up the trail like a pack of tiny pioneers with a little red wagon. The wagon carries thermoses of hot tea and water, reuseable handwarmers, a bag full of mud-kitchen tools, a first-aid kit, a hand-wash station and a porta-potty for rare occasions.

We find a good place to pitch our tarp camp for the morning. Sometimes it's a huge rotted hollow stump with a tarp roof. Sometimes it's a macrame of knots holding the tarp between trees. Sometimes it's a shelter provided by Nature: an ivy-covered sideways-growing tree. 

We proceed to play games and tell stories and find so many interesting things that the morning is gone in a flash. Sometimes the kids bounce on a downed tree for half the time. Sometimes we crack ice in the creek with our boots. Sometimes we climb stumps. Sometimes we get cold because we're telling and acting out stories so long we have to jump up and play Frozen Tag. One time, we looked up after playing in one spot for half an hour and an OWL was sitting above us, the week after we told Beatrix Potter's story of Squirrel Nutkin and Mr. Brown (Owl). We even found an owl pellet full of mouse bones on the ground below. 

Outdoor preschool is clearly a good idea--and relatively easy to do on the North Shore, with so many wild greenbelts and parks. There's a well-established program in North Van as well, called Fresh Air Learning. I've always chosen to live here because of this as well--I'd rather have a wildish river valley close by than the admittedly awesome neighbourhoods across the inlet in Vancouver. That being said, I don't own here. Ha. hahahahah. etc. And part of having access to natural spaces and green spaces--for ourselves or children--is living close enough...or having enough foresight to keep them or incorporate them into our cities.

Lyndon Penner's Somewhat Premature but Enthusiastic Book Fan Club

Here's Lyndon, standing next to the Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light' in my garden--a plant he is poignantly envious of, since maiden grasses don't flourish in short-season gardens east of the Rockies.

I, along with an unknown number of Lyndon's garden/nature/wild kindred spirits west of the Rockies are eagerly awaiting the forthcoming publish-ment (I made up that word) of his BOOK in 2014 entitled something pious like The Short-Season Yard but promising to be oozing with his irreverent, way funny, at times scalding, borderline restricted--yet thoroughly educational--scribings on Horticultural Matters of Import.

I have to say I'm simply astonished at the dimensions of Lyndon's knowledge and enthusiasm for the Green World and secretly wish I had a 'Lyndon App' to fill in my gaps with fascinating facts.

Lyndon has been a New Friend highlight in this past year, as he gypsies his way to and fro, teaching horticultural courses from Alberta to Saskatchewan, leading nature interpretive walks in Waterton National Park, and roving to the West Coast when the rainforests call.

This is his first book contract and he wrote it so fast the publisher's head is spinning.

I'm starting the book fan club now.

The link to the Amazon order-your-book-here page: Short Season Yard

His Jadecypress blog link: One Voice Calling Out From the Garden

This Dec/Jan  :)

Liz & Len's non-profit Made-in-Nepal Jackets!!

Here's the link to friends Liz n' Len's website for their fundraising business. They met a family during a trek in Nepal in 2011 and have, with tremendous effort, organized the import of these super-colour-fragilistic jackets, which are selling like hotcakes here in North Vancouver. All the proceeds will fund the education of the two little kids in Nepal..

Check out their new website and line up for Christmas!      Jackets for Jasper

Last Days of Hammock Season...

The sun is setting on the Hammock-able days of 2013.

Napping was never as much fun, don't you agree, Pooey? Stop staring at me.













The Japanese maple has shaken off its facade of green and now matches Hammock's crimson stripes...
...bare feet have retreated into gray wool socks...
...the magnolia canopy is becoming a golden lacework rather than a dense green...
...Daylight Savings Time ends next week...

...So now's the time to gaze skyward/toe-ward in a sea of colour., cram your homies (or as many as will fit) into Hammock for a photoshoot.














My ca-tree-dral....

Outdoor Art, Printed on Aluminum Panels by Diana Zoe Coop

Diana is one of my clients. One of her other distinguishing features is that she creates these glorious works of art. If you can imagine, her garden has much the same colour palette--so close in fact, that you can hardly tell where the real plants end and the painted backdrops begin.

She has recently had a couple outdoor soirees to showcase the pieces that she has had printed on aluminum panels so that they can be installed on outdoor surfaces. This is an AMAZING idea for our dreary winters! Imagine having year-round colour when you look out your window in November...December...January...February...March...

I also love the idea of gardening around the painted panels...so the Real and Imagined blend together.

The backdrop for the show in these pictures is the spectacular private Japanese garden of Diana's friends, over on Richelieu Ave. in Vancouver. If you are rich, famous, or lucky (1 out of 3 ain't bad, like me) you too can visit this piece de resistance on the Vancouver garden scene. On this particular day, the rain rained non-stop, which did in fact serve to showcase the purpose of a permanant poly-pigmented panel in your panorama.

Ideally, one would install the panels on an upright surface, like a fence panel, the wall in an outdoor alcove, or any 'garden room.' Art pieces are essential for the contemporary modern style. Don't we all aspire?