Category Archives: Gardens

Guarding Gardens

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Francois Lachance

John Edgar Wideman. Hiding Place. Late now for putting seeds in the ground. There was a time they turned the ground from the back porch all the way to the trees at the edge of the hill. Long straight furrows … Continue reading →

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Flower Sacrifice

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Francois Lachance

My favourite passage in The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo is an anecdote about the appreciation of flowers. Flower stories are endless. We shall recount but one more. In the sixteenth-century the morning-glory was as yet a rare plant … Continue reading →

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First Garden

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Francois Lachance

Found a picture from the early 1980s of myself in my “first” garden. Not the first garden I have ever visited or weeded. But “my” first. I was living at 199 King Street in Kingston, Ontario, and under the shade … Continue reading →

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Beneath Context

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Francois Lachance

I really want to shorten and heighten the breadth to which this insight reaches: Spring doesn’t begin on the surface; it comes from below. But that would slight its place, its rootedness to a specific time. In the documentary Rivers … Continue reading →

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A Constellation of Lilacs

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Francois Lachance

A single line by Ferenc Juhász from “Crown of hatred and love” in The Boy changed into a Stag: Selected Poems 1949-2967. The lilacs are creatures guided by other stars. And a few sprigs from James Schuyler “Hymn to Life” … Continue reading →

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Leaf Lost

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Francois Lachance

Joanne Page “Gravity” in the sequence Codex in Flight in Persuasion for a Mathematician Today the subway stalled between Davisville and St. Clair, affording a clear view of the cemetery. My grade five teacher used to take us to the … Continue reading →

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Basics

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Francois Lachance

She extols the basics under the rubric “Earthlings”. Basics are what gardening is all about, though there has been a dangerous tendency over the last couple of years for basics to be delicately, superciliously stifled by aesthetics. First you need … Continue reading →

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High Praise for Tulips

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Francois Lachance

Anna Pavord. The Curious Gardener: A Year in the Garden. As far as I am concerned, these are the best, indeed the only flowers to send or receive on Valentine’s Day. Wild, irrepressible, wayward, unpredictable, strange, subtle, generous, elegant, tulips … Continue reading →

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Raster Nostalgia

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Francois Lachance

When I came across the following description, I was reminded of the days when raster images took a while to appear on screen — line by line. I recall the afternoon in the archive when I first unfolded one of … Continue reading →

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Play in Diverse Environments

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Francois Lachance

The copy writer captures the spirit of indignation while weaving in a quotation from Susan G. Solomon on the American playground: [T]oday’s playgrounds, “defined by a sizable, colorful piece of commercial equipment that links steps, deck, and slides,” discourages creativity. … Continue reading →

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