Doug Smith
Gardening in many families is a multi-generational story book and our garden is no different. Recently we added a page to our garden story that came to us by way of my sister Kathy’s garden. William Hunter was a master carpenter. During WWII he served in the Canadian Armed Forces in England where he was an aircraft mechanic and occasionally spent a little time in lock up when he decided he didn’t want to follow orders. In the 1990’s he presented his sister Joyce and her husband Joe..or Mum and Dad as I called them..with a bespoke bird house he’d built for their garden. It remained in their garden until 2015 when dad passed. Eventually it made its way to my sister’s garden and when she decided to downsize recently it made its way here. It now stands in the heart of our garden and I can’t look at it without some memory popping to mind.
Uncle Bill was a giant in my life, literally. At 6’4” he towered over all of us and his booming laugh, which was easy to draw out,would shake the house. So it’s fitting that his bird house towers over me in the garden. I do feel a little sad that it’s here because that means its maker and original owners no longer are but it keeps them close to me.
Gardens tell stories and hold memories better than any photo album. Happy or sad, recent and distant but always fond. Also there’s strawberries.
The Garden Club’s April speaker is Norm Wagenaar from Naturescape West Coast Gardens. He’ll be discussing ecological approaches to gardening using native plants and looking after your pollinators. The next meeting is April 3 at 6:30 at the Rollo Centre.
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