by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Sep 7, 2023 | Project
The Round Water These stories are not mine to tell, They belong to old men. Men who were once strong, and handsome And who kept their cigarette packs rolled up in their T-shirt sleeves. Men who water-skied, And drank whiskey, And knew how to dance, Slow. They spent...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Aug 30, 2023 | Project
As most kids do, I looked forward to the summer months of my childhood. The days of freedom, that grew into seasons spent in tobacco, bean or cucumber fields, still hold special memories for me. Some of the best were centred around my cousins who along with their...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Aug 30, 2023 | Project
It’s that time for Monarch Butterflies and milkweed. This week, and I’m sure I’m not alone, I was struck by the coolness of the early mornings and one afternoon, the sky looked like a November storm. Of course, this happens every summer but yet we...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Aug 7, 2023 | Project
Manfred and I like to sit on our back porch. Morning, noon and night if we can. We are fortunate that a few metres from the porch, our backyard descends into a large gully. The creek, at the bottom has cut a wide wedge over the centuries as water has wound its way...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Nov 23, 2022 | Project
“What are those designs on barns?” That’s how the conversation usually starts when tourists travel through our rural area and notice the “Barn Quilts”. And it is a talk we love to have. We have been involved in the Barn Quilt movement...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Apr 14, 2022 | Project
Scottish Heather Calluna vulgaris is one of those carefree plants that creates early Spring and Fall beauty. You can imagine the growing conditions this lovely little plant likes by it original home territory – The Scottish Moors. In our area of southwestern...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Apr 8, 2022 | Blog, Local Things to Do
I had visited the gravesite of Orford Township’s original white settlers only once and that was many years ago. Manfred had never been to the site even though he has lived only a few miles down the highway for all of his past 62 years. On an early April afternoon, we...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Oct 26, 2021 | Blog, Garden
The new growth of daffodils peaking out of the soil and the fledgling flowers of the Helleborus unfurling towards the sky are such clichés that I bear much pain to write about them. But while they are overused seasonal metaphors there can be no denying that their...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Oct 10, 2021 | Blog, Garden
The Bittersweet Season of Autumn Is there a more perfect plant than the American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) to symbolize autumn? This native North American vine spends the growing season twining its way through branches of trees and shrubs and along fences until...
by Susanne Spence Wilkins | Oct 6, 2021 | Blog, Project
The Goddess of the Corn This year, I created a Corn Queen in the warm days of early September at our business, Crazy 8 Barn & Garden. I had been mulling this project in my mind for a while. Each year as fall would approach I would search out the...
