Some Things I am OBSESSED with these days and Canada Day (and Gigi's Birthday!)

Happy Canada Day!

147 years ago the True North Strong and Free came into being, and, if I do say so myself, it has been a pretty good run so far!

I am lucky to live in a (generally) peaceful country whose citizens, according to the latest poll, value our universal health care system and Charter of Rights and Freedoms over all else.  Yes, we are polite, but we are a good time at a party and we are kind.  We are not in your face, but we can go the distance.

It is hot here again today so we will likely swim and then head downtown this afternoon, where there is music and food a-plenty.

Happy Canada to my fellow Canadians!

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I am currently obsessed with some things that I feel the need to share!

The documentary Tim's Vermeer.

We stumbled upon this on apple TV on the weekend and were gobsmacked, it was so good!

The synopsis from the official website:

Synopsis

A Penn & Teller Film

Produced by Penn Jillette, 2013

Tim Jenison, a Texas based inventor, attempts to solve one of the greatest mysteries in all art: How did 17th century Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer ("Girl with a Pearl Earring") manage to paint so photo-realistically -- 150 years before the invention of photography? The epic research project Jenison embarks on to test his theory is as extraordinary as what he discovers.

Spanning eight years, Jenison's adventure takes him to Delft, Holland, where Vermeer painted his masterpieces, on a pilgrimage to the North coast of Yorkshire to meet artist David Hockney, and even to Buckingham Palace to see a Vermeer masterpiece in the collection of the Queen.

This is part adventure/part mystery/part magnificent obsession/part genius in the best way possible and it made me so grateful that a) there are people like Tim in the world and b) Penn and Teller thought to make a documentary about it (and good documentarians they are, actually!).

I can't recommend this enough!

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I finally got around to reading The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert this past week.

Well, I read it over 2 days actually, because I was so caught up in the world that she has created out of one woman's seemingly small, and at times tragic, life.

We fall in love with Alma Whittaker from the get-go.  The book is sweeping, brilliant, and timeless in its storytelling.

This was sort of on my radar last year, but got lost in the accolades for The Luminaries, The Goldfinch and The Interestings.  This book belongs in that company, I am happy to say, and now that it is out in paperback, I highly recommend picking it up.  I cried my way through the last 15 pages, though I am a softy....

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FIFA World Cup

Until 2 weeks ago, I had never really watched soccer (or as the vast majority of the world knows it as, football, which makes a lot more sense to me and I nominate that american football be renamed carryball forthwith! No hate letters from American and Canadian football fans please!) except for the Canadian women at the last olympics.

To be fair, until this world cup, I had been too busy to be follow much in the way of sports, but I am obsessed, obsessed I tell you!  I love watching the play, love the fitness of the players, the almost operatic acting as they fall to the pitch.  It is my kind of game!

And I have a crush.  An unlikely bloke perhaps, but I loves him nonetheless:

Arjen Robben of Team Netherlands:

He is mesmerizing on the field, a looping Mercury on the pitch, weaving this way and that among dumbfounded opponents.  And while others tire as the match proceeds, he seems to dig deeper and deeper, finding unimaginable sources of energy to keep going.

It was always going to be Netherlands for me, and here's why:

In 2008, our family visited the Netherlands for the first time.  It was a pilgrimage of sorts; Barry's great-uncle had been killed in Germany, near the border with Arnhem, and was buried in the small village of Holten in the Netherlands (which is absolutely lovely by the way and worth a visit).  One evening we left our B&B on the outskirts of Arnhem and went to dinner in a lovely local bistro.  It was a gorgeous night and we were the only ones there.  We left the restaurant and wandered around the neighbourhood.  Not a person in sight.

For persons like ourselves, ever vigilant for zombie epidemics, it was eerie..

However, when we returned to the B&B, our host Jurgen explained that there was a euro match on and everyone was home watching.  Everyone.  I asked who the Dutch were playing.  "Oh we're not playing," he explained patiently.  "Germany is playing.  We all stay home to root against Germany."

That my friends, is dedication AND a grudge.

I could kind of relate to that..

And frankly, the Netherlands is the most lovely country I think I have been too, at least from a gardening perspective.  The Dutch are orderly and adore beauty and while I aspire to the former, I am completely besotted with the latter.

Now I need to find some orange before the quarter-finals....Hmm, wonder if any of our sports shops have a jersey...

Have a wonderful Canada Day and a special shout-out to Miss Gigi, who is celebrating a birthday today!

stay safe out there!  We stand on guard for thee!  xoxo wendy

The Peony

“The old cobbler had believed in something he called "the signature of all things"-namely, that God had hidden clues for humanity's betterment inside the design of every flower, leaf, fruit, and tree on earth. All the natural world was a divine code, Boehme claimed, containing proof of our Creator's love.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, The Signature of All Things

There is, at times, an advantage to being a few weeks behind everywhere else when it comes to gardening.  I can ooh and ahh over Rosemary's garden over at Share My Garden or Janet's at The Gardener's Cottage weeks, nay months, before my own blooms.

Even here in New Brunswick, I can see what's about to come into bloom in my own garden about two weeks sooner if I only go downtown.  So really, you get to enjoy the season that much longer.

In my little corner of the world, we are starting to slip into summer and what was a slow march to glory in the cooler June days has become a quick step, a dizzying paso doble, as one flower passes off the mantle of star to the other.

This week begins the week of the Peony.

The peony is almost everyone's favourite flower.

Unlike the rose, it is almost carefree (except for the two that need to be moved this summer as they will not bloom due to too much shade...), seems to get hardier and hardier and more prolific as the years pass and fills every vase to over-flowing...

I counted yesterday and I have 15 on my acreage, all in varying stages of coming into bloom.  I need more.  Can there ever be enough?

 The first to bloom is always my most dramatic beauty, the Queen, who is blessed with one of the few spots of full sun on our property:

What I love about peonies, besides the myriad of varietals available, is that every stage is equally lovely, from the tight balls of colour fairly straining to burst forth...

to the tentative unfurling...

to the show:

The peony is the showgirl of the garden, and she earns her keep.

While the Bachelor's Buttons are almost riotous in their display (look at me! look at me!), the peony just has to be.

And the peonies arrive in the nick of time, just after the snowball bushes are spent, evidence of their brief and glorious lives everywhere:

And while the bridal veil spirea have a very Anne of Green Gables sense about them...

and the Irises their stately disarray

There is only one plant in the garden right now that can compete with the peonies and that is BUTCH:

There is something so delightful about watching the garden unfold, week by week, day by day.  It is different every year and when you are sitting out in it, enjoying an ice tea and reading a good book, you are grateful for the hard work you've put into it.

Last night was hot and after watching a movie, we went out and sat in the gazebo, waiting for the fireflies to come out, which they did.  In the moonlight, my garden is a mysterious place, a place of secrets.  I cannot help but agree with the cobbler in the Elizabeth Gilbert quote above.  (BTW - I am reading and LOVING that book but more on that when I finish it!)

Summer is fleeting and we must enjoy it!

Some like a garden where the hand of art
Appears in every terrace, walk, and bed,
Where vases stand in even rows apart
And shrubs are taught symmetric shade to spread:
But little art I wish; enough for me
This garden where the flowers grow in sweet
simplicity.

Fair is each budding thing the garden shows,
From spring's frail crocus to the latest bloom
Of fading autumn. Every wind that blows
Across that glowing tract sips rare perfume
From all the tangled blossoms tossing there;
Soft winds, they fain would linger long, nor any
farther fare!

 ....

But sweeter far in this old garden close
To loiter 'mid the lovely, old-time flowers,
To breathe the scent of lavender and rose,
And with old poets pass the peaceful hours.
Old gardens and old poets, happy he
Whose quiet summer days are spent in such sweet
company!
-John Russell Hayes, The Old Fashioned Garden

 Have a lovely Sunday and: GO NETHERLANDS!!!!!!!