Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » Peonies 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, 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