Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » Merlins Hollow https://livinginaurora.ca Living In Aurora Ontario Canada Mon, 13 Jan 2020 19:51:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 Merlin’s Hollow, My First May Visit, Art of Decay https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-my-first-may-visit-art-of-decay/ https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-my-first-may-visit-art-of-decay/#comments Sun, 26 May 2013 05:07:28 +0000 http://livinginaurora.ca/?p=10575 starting my visits in June.

You can definitely find more flowers later in the summer, but late spring always has many beautiful surprises thus it was my attempt not to miss this year’s May visit.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


And I am glad that I didn’t miss the May visit as I was able to add more flowers to my Merlin’s Hollow flower collection. Despite the cold temperatures and rain, I was able to find new plant species never mind in three life stages – closed bulbs ready for blooming, full blooming flowers and decaying flowers.

As always I tend to photograph the perfect flowers; however, this time I found art in the decay – an abstract art.

Tulip, Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


Over the years when photographing flowers I choose to look at the beautiful blooming flowers, but I will not do that anymore, I am going to enjoy all stages of life of the plant species. They all deserve attention.

Yes, I find abstract in the decaying flowers. The perfect patterned architecture of the flowers does not exist anymore. As the decay progresses the inner beauty of the flower is revealed, the seeds form and the beauty is passed on. Okay, not always from seeds.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


So I am bragging about decaying flowers and almost none are here. However, I did post more Merlin’s Hollow photos on Facebook and you can find decaying one there hiding between other photos. I did expend my horizons and I have been more active on the social media.

I do showcase more photography of Aurora and beyond on Facebook, so you are more than welcome to be my friend, see badge on the sidebar.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


The visits to the Merlin’s Hollow aren’t just about the flowers. I always look forward to meet Dierdre. She is a story teller and I enjoy every chance I get to talk to her. As well I get little hints there and there from David what to look for.

David Tomlinson, Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


Visitors, Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


I came later in the afternoon and I was amazed how much I was able find to photograph even thought I have been in this garden many times. No moment or time or plant species are the same. I nearly spent there two hours and probably would more, but then family obligations – my gang was waiting for me at home.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora

]]> https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-my-first-may-visit-art-of-decay/feed/ 1 Fall Flowers at Merlin’s Hollow, Unavoidable Brown-Eyed Susans https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/fall-flowers-at-merlins-hollow-unavoidable-brown-eyed-susans/ https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/fall-flowers-at-merlins-hollow-unavoidable-brown-eyed-susans/#comments Tue, 02 Oct 2012 03:05:14 +0000 http://livinginaurora.ca/?p=8690 changing color in the leaves and then there are flowers like Brown-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba).

Brown Eye Susan, Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


The Brown-Eyed Susans are now found everywhere including Merlin’s Hollow. I had my last visit to the Merlin’s Hollow couple of weeks ago. Flowers were still blooming. Bees, wasps, flies were all at work, flying from flower to flower and doing their job.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


Some buds were not opened yet.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


This post is more for you to enjoy the lasts of the summer. I photographed this set when it was still summer and it was very warm that day. The fall is here now believe or not. The nights are much cooler. Days are cool as well, but you can still enjoy gentle heat from the sun. Reds, yellows and some green are now accenting Town of Aurora.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


Perfect white. How often can you find a flower pure white and undamaged? It could go either way, but this one was prefect.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


Every spring, early flowering crocus is almost in all gardens, but every fall, the Colchicum, or fall crocus, comes out from nowhere when the garden is in decline. The fall crocus certainly is delicate, slender, beautiful flower, and somehow taller and was unavoidable.

Well Tom Yates was unavoidable as well that day. I left Merlin’s Hollow that day feeling that something will be up anytime soon, and yes Tom got in touch with me to present my blog to the Aurora Seniors. Nothing is set in stone, but I will be on the road with my blog again sometimes in November.

Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora


Definitely interesting visit – unavoidable Brown-Eyed Susans, unavoidable fall crocus, unavoidable Tom Yates and this unavoidable beautiful garden bright blue bench.

Tom Yates and his wife are professional photographers and you can view their beautiful work on their website Portcullis.

Blue Bench, Merlin’s Hollow, Aurora

]]> https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/fall-flowers-at-merlins-hollow-unavoidable-brown-eyed-susans/feed/ 0 Merlin’s Hollow, Busy Bee World Under The Microscope https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-busy-bee-world-under-the-microscope/ https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-busy-bee-world-under-the-microscope/#comments Sun, 24 Jun 2012 20:23:38 +0000 http://livinginaurora.ca/?p=7640 before but Merlin’s Hollow garden is always full of surprises and this year I entered another dimension – the macro world.

A Fly, Merlin's Hollow English Garden


I remember those days when all the birds I saw around me always look the same, but not until I got birding book, camera and photo lens. Now I can say the same about the insects. At some point they all used to look the same especially bees and flies. Well it isn’t the case anymore and I shall put that blame on my macro lens.

So here I am standing and bending and taking photos but I couldn’t help to listen to the conversation, okay I was kind of eavesdropping, but I was there and wasn’t hiding – may be it does not count. The conversation was between a visiting lady and David Tomlinson.

A Snail, Merlin's Hollow English Garden


I am not sure who it was, may be she was talking about her son. She was little disappointed that, let say it was her son she was talking about, after graduating from university wants to be a farmer. Okay at that point I did not have any particular subject to photograph in front of me so I turned around and said: ‘Trust me after graduating from university we all want to be farmers‘.

‘Why, did you go to university?‘ – she asked. ‘Yes, many years ago and why – because it is very stressful, and it does not get any better because some of the jobs become very demanding‘. And then Mr. Tomlinson added ‘or go to university to get a job to support your farm‘. ‘Exactly‘ – I nodded.

A Bee, Merlin's Hollow English Garden


Speaking of farming let me bring to your attention my latest finding about this open source ecology project. You can watch the video here and find out more about the open source ecology project started by Marchin Jakubowski. However, this is the closest example of putting your degree into a good use – farming.

A Lady Bug? Merlin's Hollow English Garden


About 10,000 bird species – not sure if there is that one person in the world who was able to see them all. The last bird book I read the author had record of over 3,000 bird species. Now imagine insects, there are millions and millions of them and I am sure millions of them not identified yet.

Red Ant, Merlin's Hollow English Garden


So when I was shooting bug photo Mr. Tomlinson asked me what I was pointing at. So I showed him and he said he would love to identify all the insects in his garden. ‘But there are so many of them, just searching for name can be a full time job‘. Okay I should have known better. He pointed out that ‘if you are looking at the fly you would go to the fly section and so you are looking at the smaller population of insects‘.

Yes he is right, starting with the sub-categories will get you to ID the insect faster, but I will hold off on the identification idea of the bugs for now – just too many, too many to handle for now.

Another Fly, Merlin's Hollow English Garden


It was time to go. On my way out I was still taking last photos and at the same time I yelled to my husband – ‘this should be bug garden as well, there are so many of them here‘. A lady on the other side of the flower bed got excited and called back at me – ‘this is called a bug garden?‘. ‘No no this is English garden‘ – I replied. ‘Oh okay‘ – she replied bowing her head and I smiled back.

May be next time I will keep quite otherwise I will start a rumor that never existed.]]> https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-busy-bee-world-under-the-microscope/feed/ 4 Merlin’s Hollow Always Beautiful Garden With Gardens, June Flower Bloom https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-always-beautiful-garden-with-gardens-june-flower-bloom/ https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-always-beautiful-garden-with-gardens-june-flower-bloom/#comments Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:48:41 +0000 http://livinginaurora.ca/?p=7522 was ever beautiful, not that it wasn’t last time, but I am appreciating more and more every and each visit. I think my eyes are now trained to see more.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


I must say that the garden is becoming photographers gathering place.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


A year passed, and about a year ago I met here at the Merlin’s Hollow grounds another photographer from Aurora. I knew James from before by visiting his flickr james lj’s photostream. His photography includes photographs of nature and wildlife here in Aurora – absolutely must see his surreal photo gallery.

I know, I know – the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence. But I cannot help whenever I look at James’ photos. I am always impressed with his photos no matter how hard I try to tap myself on my shoulder. They are always so crisp, artistic and in action.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


Let me tell you more what happened next.

Dierdre Tomlinson recognized me. Soon as I arrived and was taking photos she came up to us and told me – ‘I was just looking at your photos yesterday‘. Oh that was so nice of her. The power of thought worked too, since I showed up the next day. I think I will do the same and I will give her 2012 garden photos.

It was so nice of her to remember us. Dierdre seems as a lady who would remember all her visitors or at least to whom she talked to. Oh and if I will continue to get that kind of welcomes – I am never going to leave Aurora.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


This garden has over one thousand or more species. This is probably one of the reasons why we photographers love it because we can photograph and photograph and never leave the garden. It also helps to have flowers in small clusters because when photographing it is much easier to isolate single flower from the rest.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


As I mentioned before, the Merlin’s Hollow garden is definitely photographers gathering place. It is now very common to see people equipped with high end DSLRs, zoom lenses and carrying tripods. I don’t carry a tripod, but one lady did. I was just glad that there was no wind that day. However, it rained the night before and I was pleased.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


‘This is my favorite flower‘ – Matthew said for the flower below and I think I know why. The contrast of the yellow and purple does creates stunning effect. When I processed the photo I was able to see the purple beaded hair dancing around the filaments. Isn’t nature amazing to add such a beautiful decor to this flower?

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


I am not posting all the photos here. I captured some nice photos of insects and snails which I will showcase next. There are probably the same number of different insects species as flowers in the Merlin’s Hollow.

They are small and can be as small as every period on this page. Many are hiding somewhere, but lot of them were enjoying the beautiful colors and of course the sweet sweet nectar.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


Just before leaving James briefly introduced me to Peter, another great photographer who has aurora_photog flickr blog. I must admit that Peter’s everyday photo publishing sometimes gives away clues and next day I am trailing the same path.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


Merlin's Hollow, Aurora


And here is something to look forward – the next bloom in July.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora

]]> https://livinginaurora.ca/aurora/merlins-hollow-always-beautiful-garden-with-gardens-june-flower-bloom/feed/ 2 Merlin’s Hollow, Best Of The Last Visit https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-the-best-of-last-visit/ https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-the-best-of-last-visit/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:50:19 +0000 http://livinginaurora.ca/?p=2421

Merlin's Hollow, July 10th, 2011


No worries, there is always next year. More flowers to capture and more stories to hear. Along with everything else being great, this visit brought another new line of blooming flowers. The garden has over 1500 plant species, and I only captured about 50 of them during July 10, 2011 visit.

Merlin's Hollow, July 10th, 2011


How many flowers in your garden? Have you ever counted them? You will be surprise how fast they add up. I thought for a second about my flowers. Oh no, I have none. Yes I do, and since they are perennials I don’t have to think about them. I have 6 flower species spread all over my property. I don’t really have defined garden, but where ever there is piece of land to experiment with seeds – I will dive for it. The biggest coverage I have right now are lilies of the valley and forget-me-nots.

Merlin's Hollow, July 10th, 2011


Since my child is very adventures and likes to pick and lick, I had to remove some of the plants. Clematis flower apparently is poisonous, so for time being the vine had to go. I don’t remember the name, but I used to have this beautiful plant with white cone shaped large flower. Well the seeds were hallucinatory, so eventually it had to go.

Merlin's Hollow, July 10th, 2011


This plant also reminded me an incident I always laugh at. One time a lady from our sub-division was trying to steal some seeds, but because the stem was very fibrous, she had a hard time to break it off. She was really fighting the plant, I guess she was determined to get it.

I wanted badly to come out with the scissors and snap some for her, but at the same time I did not want to embarrassed her. Well she managed to get some and managed to destroy half of my plant. Oh well.

Injured Beetle, Merlin's Hollow, July 10th, 2011


‘Mommy look, look‘ – Matthew called me and kept pointing. I came and I saw this big black beetle trying to climb the flower stem. Its been a long time since I saw one that big. He was having difficulty climbing. Kept sliding off. I took few snapshots, and he flew away. Only when I reviewed the photos later, I found out that he was injured. He had one arm missing.

Merlin's Hollow, July 10th, 2011


During second last visit to the garden, Mrs. Tomlinson looked on one of the photographs I gave her and smiled. ‘I just love the architecture, isn’t that amazing‘, she commented. She is right. Each flower has its own design and architecture. Patterns are unique to each flower cone.

Flowers look beautiful at very stage, even when they do not bloom. Especially when you look at these.

Want to work on your imagination? Dose it looks like someone want to eat the flower on the two photos here, above and below?

Merlin's Hollow, July 10th, 2011


How about the colors? I don’t know how much I can say about colors, but I can definitely say that I have seen every color of the spectrum. It is amazing just by looking at the purple or yellow colored flowers, but if you look closer, there are many tings or shades of purple or yellow within.

Merlin's Hollow, July 10th, 2011


I hope that you enjoyed this years photo gallery of some of the flowers from the Merlin’s Hollow garden, and if you did not visited yet, I encourage you to do so next year. Pictures are nice, but the real thing is much better.

‘Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden.‘ – a quote by Robert Brault.]]> https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-the-best-of-last-visit/feed/ 0 Merlin’s Hollow, Red Poppy A Flower Of Comfort https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-red-poppy-the-flower-of-comfort/ https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-red-poppy-the-flower-of-comfort/#comments Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:32:10 +0000 http://livinginaurora.ca/?p=2088

They are such a beautiful and delicate flowers, and if you are from Europe you will know a lot about them. Some flowers have meaning behind them, and the red poppy means consolation, in other words relief and comfort.

Red Poppy


During my first visit I mentioned to Dierdre Tomlinson that I will post my photos from the garden on my blog. ‘I am 20th century woman, but I will see what I can do‘, she replied and slipped my card in the blouse. Well, she sees her garden every day, she does not need that trouble so I developed some photos from my last visit and give it to her on that day.

Yellow Wild Flower


I cannot emphasize how nice lady she is. She actually remembered us. She always has little interesting snippets of information or a story to tell. She was very thankful for the photos, and she told me a story about their mailbox which she noticed on one of the photographs she was looking at.

The mailbox was custom made, a gift for David. If I remember correctly, it was their 25th anniversary. She wanted a special design. She wanted a sculpture of a skunk sitting on this mailbox. In addition, with skunk’s tail up so it looked like he was ready to spray. I tell you that is one fun gift to get.

The challenge was that the artist had difficulty visualizing, so somehow he was able to get a roadkill skunk and use that as his model. The result – he made a really real looking skunk. ‘Did you know that we did not get any mail for one week in our mailbox, because mailman thought the skunk was real‘ – she said. And speaking of skunks, did you know that if you pick up a skunk by two hands up in the air he will not be able to spray. Skunks need ground support to charge up.

Red Poppy


We have lot of great photographers in Aurora, and one of them is James whose gallery I visit on a regular basis. He also been very helpful and provided me with useful photography tips. His nature photographs are surreal, and I encourage everyone to visit Jame’s Flickr gallery. Now, you may wonder why I pick on James today in my post. Well, I met James on Saturday. He approached me and introduced himself. We had a nice little chat.

I don’t know how he was able to recognize me from the small picture, but I think my long lens gave away. In addition, the nice thing about blogging locally is that you not only get to know people virtually, but you get to know them outside of blogging world.

Another Yellow Flower


The light wasn’t so perfect. When sun is at its highest point, the light is very bright and harsh, but I often work with exposures and look for a nice background to shoot against. New flowers were blooming and there were some still blooming which I remembered from our last visit. It was kind of rushed visit on our part, but I was able to get few nice flowers again. I also got nice photo of David Tomlinson sitting on the bench and reading book about birds. Aha, my favorite subject too.

David Tomlinson


I happened to notice that Tomlinson’s also grow tree seedlings for our local Aurora Arboretum.

Tree Seedlings Grown for Aurora Arboretum


]]> https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-red-poppy-the-flower-of-comfort/feed/ 2 Merlin’s Hollow, Art In The English Garden https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-art-in-the-english-garden/ https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-art-in-the-english-garden/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 04:59:09 +0000 http://livinginaurora.ca/?p=1804 Merlin’s Hollow, Beautiful Accents Of The Garden) I presented photo gallery of some of the flowers that are blooming now in June. I called them accents of the garden.

The Merlin’s Hollow has series of gardens within a garden separated by arches that invite you from one garden to another. Being overwhelmed with all the flowers and photos I wanted to take, I noticed that on the end. What a shame on my part. Yes I tend to do that a lot – but there was so much to see. However, beside the flowers and surrounded by all the greenery, I was astonished with the art presented within each garden category.

Snakes in the Winter Garden, Merlin's Hollow


When we arrived Dierdre explained little details about the snakes in the Winter Garden. I thought I should not reveal everything here and let you explore on your next visit, and if you have children with you let them talk about it.

The Shovel Flower in the Perennial Flower Garden, Merlin's Hollow


I looked at the design of the biggest flower in the Perennial Flower Garden, and believe or not, it looked so real that I noticed that it was made from shovels afterwards. The artist had a brilliant idea. Its amazing that we can make art from almost anything, especially metal art, and this is an excellent example. May be on my next visit I will ask more about it.

I am sure you will not want to rest at your arrival, but this delicate looking green bench under the tree is really inviting. An observation bench for the Perennial Garden that might as well be.

The Bench, Merlin's Hollow


The Gazebo in the Fragrant Garden, not much too it. No no, I am not telling you everything here again. Yes, there is a lot there, just go inside and check out for yourself. I think I spent there good five minutes there, and in addition I took more pictures to read at home. Notice the surrounding trees – surreal setting.

The Gazebo, Merlin's Hollow


And once you inside the Gazebo don’t be afraid these are not real frogs, but I am sure somewhere in the world this may be the true size. But that is not all, just look around you will notice more art in the Fragrant Garden.

The Frog, Merlin's Hollow


Aha and there was music. An older lady stood there and watched a man playing an instrument. Her body was moving to the rhythm to the music being played. She was very thankful when he ended. ‘What a nice instrument that is‘ – she said. ‘Yes, and you can easy carry in a small bag‘ – he replied. I just wished that I asked him what kind of instrument that was. Do you know?

A Performer, Merlin's Hollow


But that is not all. But that is not all. Surprisingly, I found the Merlin’s Hollow one two sided page guide a very simple yet artistic. I could not believe that the description and labeling was written by hand and the map was done by hand and to scale. What a nice handwriting that is too. Something that eventually will be rare. My husband thought that all that writing was typed. I let you look at it for yourself. Just pick one letter and compare to the same letter, and you will see.

Let me leave you with the photo of these beautiful and healthy blooming peonies. The nicest dark pink color of the peonies I ever seen.

Peonies, Merlin's Hollow

]]> https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-art-in-the-english-garden/feed/ 2 Merlin’s Hollow, Beautiful Accents Of The Garden https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-the-beautiful-accents-of-the-garden/ https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-the-beautiful-accents-of-the-garden/#comments Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:22:14 +0000 http://livinginaurora.ca/?p=1734

We briefly met Dierdre at the entrance and at the exit, and what a nice sweet lady with a good sense of humor she is. In addition to reading about them in the newspapers a lot, I also had an opportunity to attend David’s presentation back in 2004 here in Aurora Library organized by the University of Toronto (University Lecture Series). I checked my notes and looks like I never made notes on his presentation, but his presentation is the only one I can remember after that many years. May be nature interest was my thing always, I just did not know it then.

Wild Flowers


I have to say that when we arrived at the garden, ‘The Secret Garden’ a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett came to my mind. I read the book and I watched the movie when I was very young, and that day I finally got to live in it, only not so secret. Merlin’s Hollow is open to public on the scheduled dates throughout the summer featuring different aspects. We are very fortunate to have this opportunity here in Aurora.

A Purple Iris


I always like to bring my Matthew with us to such places. He enjoys flowers, where I enjoy watching him reaching out for them, and there was a lot of reaching out that day – but just reaching out. This time no dry flowers in his pockets and my pockets.

Peonies


Our visit this time was a short one as we had busy schedule that day. We were also caught by the rain, however, I was still able to snap photos of blooming flowers. I love rain and it does not bother me at all. My camera on the other hand does not. An umbrella was a great invention which I forgot to bring with me that day. Too little time, but I know that we will be back in July for summer flowering perennials, pond and water garden.

Surrounded


The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow. ~ Author Unknown
The Tomlinson’s Merlin’s Hollow is accented with many beautiful flowers, only few presented here. It was our first visit ever. The feature of this visit was the fragrant garden, thyme lawn, iris and peonies. I cannot stress enough how beautiful and healthy looking the iris and peonies were. The garden has also art component incorporated which I am going to share with you in the next post.

A Pink Daisy


Sometimes something beautiful is really hard to describe. Technology allows us to take photos and share them, however, if David and Dierdre did not share their garden with us, I probably would not have the opportunity to capture some of the beautiful flowers I am sharing with everyone here today.

Delicate


Don’t wear perfume in the garden – unless you want to be pollinated by bees. ~ Anne Raver
The Merlin’s Hollow is a prefect example where everything grows in unison, especially the Fragrant Garden providing a palette of scents. We all know that fragrant plant species attract all kinds of insects, bees and butterflies – and attracts us as well, but for different reasons of course. Sometimes, somethings cannot be photographed or recorded with the latest technology and that being the scent, but we are fortunate for memories.

Tiny Visitor


I named some of the flowers here. Peonies were always my favorite. I remember, many moons ago, in our old house back in Europe we had this one location for the peonies. Every year they bloomed and I enjoyed hanging around them, and sometimes counting small ants on the flower heads. They always gave out such a pleasant perfume-like scent.

My favorite wild flower, I don’t know its name, but it is the flower on the first photo above. This one may be different sub-species, because the one I always enjoyed in the fields has dark purple flower petals and is much smaller.

Looking


I cannot emphasize enough how beautiful garden Merlin’s Hollow is. Pictures are always nice, but to see, experience and to enjoy the scents by visiting is much more worthwhile.

I hope everyone enjoyed some of the beautiful accents of the Merlin’s Hollow garden and this time thank you all for reading my accented thoughts.]]> https://livinginaurora.ca/nature/merlins-hollow-the-beautiful-accents-of-the-garden/feed/ 6