I was lucky to attend a preview of The Singhampton Project—an intriguing food, art and garden extravaganza planned for August at Michael Stadtländer’s Eigensinn Farm outside of Toronto. (Eigensinn in German means ”single-mindedness” or ”obstinacy’) The farm is a completely surprising mix of the rustic, slightly odd, enchanting and practical. The rustic is a collection of seating and dining areas dotted throughout the property made entirely of reclaimed wood and pallets, the slightly odd is a massive barbeque sprouting antlers, and a grassy laneway festooned with long borders of countless wine bottles on either side. That’s a lot of wine. The enchanting is the mix of reclaimed pottery and rusted farm implements making up the sculptures, and outdoor cooking devices. The practical is the tossed oyster shells on the roof of the dubbed Oyster Temple of Love, fat tree trunk stools in a wooded glen, a completely functioning kitchen with a wood fire in the middle of a forest, and simple boards and shells as serving dishes.
Canada Blooms: Five Reasons to Go
March is a bridge between winter and spring: not quite time for gardening in earnest, but a window opening into the pleasures of the coming season. There’s no better place to open that window than at Canada Blooms, Canada’s Flower and Garden Show. Five reasons to catch it this year:
1. A new flexible time frame. The show has been extended to 10 days. That means you have two weekends to fit it into your schedule. Concurrent with Canada Blooms for the first time is the Home Show, at the same venue. One admission price gets you into both shows.
3 Proofs of Coming Spring
If you are feeling as February-bedraggled as I am, these spring indicators may perk you up a bit: they tell us it won’t be much longer before we re-enter the world of Sweater Weather. 14C anyone? Even that sounds like luxury!
1. We are MORE than half way through February. It’s given us the worst this year, wind-chills and deep freezes followed by thaws, creating a icy, rippled-snow moonscape for us to pick our way through. All in all, a precarious mess. (Consider investing in a pair of traction enhancers like YakTrax for safety if you do a lot of walking about.) A good part of the worst is behind us, never to be repeated this year. Unless March is just as bad. Forget I said that!




