Eileen Kwan Handmade Story

Testing one possible E word.

To get my digits limber for a winter season of making embroidery, I usually start with stitching in cursive script before tackling more challenging landscapes.

And if there ever was a sure-fire way to cement a friendship, it is a shared meal; good eats, great times.

My community garden plot is nestled in the west end of Toronto. This is a space I use to test ornamental plant hardiness. Gardens surrounding my small plot boast a mind-bending assortment of food: cucumbers, corn, herbs, garlic and of course, tomatoes. The size of the garden-plots vary, but in general, they are roughly the same size as a single parking spot. Needless to say, the landscape in the neighbourhood has changed dramatically, c’est la vie. 

In the background, the iconic CN Tower dominates the Toronto skyline. In the foreground, the monarch butterfly quietly goes about its business.

She saw yew and gasped out loud*.

Yew are really not much of a showstopper. Yew go unnoticed and fade into the backdrop. Yew are a dark green shrub and work in silence. Yew make the bones of the exterior space. Yew are the foundation, a foil to contain the seasonal sparklers. Your low-key profile and upright stature elevates the garden space. I used yew. Yew made an ugly chain-link fence disappear behind a wall of soft green needles.

*Wink to DS in Toronto on August 5, 2017

The datura when in bloom, is remarkable as a trumpet flower and it possesses an incredible night fragrance. The seeds have been used for shamanistic rituals from ancient times to today as a path to enlightenment. But be forewarned, it does indeed offer hallucinogenic effects as well as dark visions, disorientation, amnesia, blurred vision, dry mouth, and incontinence. Not so very sexy.

Another pastoral scene from Heart Lake Road that compelled me to slow down and make a record of the distinctive silhouette of a silo off in the distance, a farm and a vintage barbed wire fence sequestering wild grasses.

Country roads with a BIG SKY and BIG SWATHS of GREEN. Just what this city girl needs. Look closely and the horizon reveals that “new development” is just around the bend.

Love the high intensity colour from the spikey blue prickly globes on a penthouse roof garden that welcomes all the birds and the bees.

New plants are constantly being added to The Garden Laboratory and it is a real challenge to remember all the names in plain English or in Latin. So, I started to stitch the newbies’ names onto swaths of linen that live in my kitchen as tea towels. This is a sample from 2014-best memory aid ever.

Now where did I leave those keys?

The rain makes the garden sing. Everything is glistening. A sumptuous shady location comes alive with lime green, mid-green, copper-orange, glossy and wet, ribbed green and ivory margins.