A new year...but no new resolutions!

Welcome to 2016! I realize it's over a week old already but life is busy for all of us and this is the first chance I had to collect up some thoughts and prepare to wake up the blog again. Life has changed and gotten even more busy in the past 18 months or so, and something had to give; so my free time shifted from writing posts about gardening to studying the art of photography a little more intensely. 

You will see some of the results of my explorations with photography in coming posts, and hopefully those posts will please you. They won't all be about gardening, although that will continue to be a vital part of this blog. One of the things I discovered last year was that learning to use my camera better meant learning to see differently; not just when studying plants, but when looking at the world around me--be it an old barn, a piece of rusting machinery, a waterfall, a beloved landmark. But there will still be plenty of plant photos, and plant talk. As time permits, of course.

Although I don't make resolutions, last year I decided that one of the ways I would help myself and others get through the winter--which as many of you know was the worst winter in much of Atlantic Canada, especially here in NS, in many, many years--was to post a daily meme of my own on my personal Facebook page, and (when I remembered) on my open Page as well. I call it my Fleur Photo du Jour, and of course it entails posting photos of various plants, especially flowering ones, every day through the winter and spring. I don't think I missed very many days, and some days I did multiples so it evened out. 

What was delightful was the number of messages and notes and comments I received from others, telling me how much those photos brightened their days. Which was, of course, the reason for posting them. It inspired some folks to try new or new-to-them plants in their gardens or in their homes, as we often had conversations about growing the particular plant. And others often shared their stories about a particular plant. Which is part of the bliss of gardening--sharing stories as much as we share plants and seeds. 

One thing I do plan to do more often this year is post reviews of books here on the blog. There are still a plethora of very fine gardening books coming out on a regular basis, and I've seen some of the new releases scheduled for this year and am excited about them--including at least one about pollinators. Regular readers know I was going on about pollinators long before it became trendy. And will continue to go on about them, too. 

While I'm not much of a traveller outside my own province, I did get out and about several times last summer--once to my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and once to Prince Edward Island and the Iles de la Madeleine, Quebec. While those weren't for gardening activities, they were both for Saltscapes-related projects, as so much of what I do is for Saltscapes, but there were glimpses of gardening in the trips, so they'll likely pop up here now and again. I visited some great gardens IN Nova Scotia last year, including the wonderful Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens (right when the rose garden was at its peak), and took part in the Rare and Unusual Plant Sale, too. 

I wish you all the very happiest of New Years, and here's to lots of great gardening adventures this year. I'll let e.e. cummings wrap this up for me with one of my favourite lines from his work:

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)