Saturday, June 13, 2009

Lupine garden

Every year we make a special point of visiting the wild lupine garden down on the lakefront in early June. It's a magical place. It's hard to get to, even though it's on the lakefront. It's flanked by walls of nasty prickly wild rose bushes. When the lupines are in bloom, the water is so high that access along the lakeshore is cut off by high water. Few people find it accidentally.

Last year I wrote:

"I forget how we found it the first year, but we've gone back every year since. For a few years the full flush of the lupine garden coincided with our end-of-year Suzuki recital, and I will forever associate the smell of armloads of lupines in giant vases with my kids' violin performances -- especially "Humoresque" which was performed by my three older children at three of those lupine-infused recitals."

It'll be four for four. Next weekend Fiona will be performing "Humoresque" accompanied, no doubt, by the scent of lupines.

9 comments:

  1. OMG! How beautiful! what a treasure, and that it hold wonderfull memories.

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  2. Oh goodness! that is so beautiful - I wish we could visit it....

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  3. Stunning! The lupines grow wild here and they were always a favorite of my mother's. In fact, as a child we used to collect them, make bouquets and go door to door selling them LOL

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  4. we adore lupines, we planted some seeds in our front yard and nothing but the year after we had lupines and now they return each year. Ours on the dark purple ones. we were inspired by the lupine lady book:) thanks for sharing the lupine garden.

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  5. Anonymous1:31 pm

    Lovely. It makes me think of the wonderful picture book "Miss Rumphius."

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  6. How lovely. They're one of my summer childhood memories - that evocative spicy scent. Do you pronounce them differently in Canada since you spell 'lupin' with an 'e'? We say 'loo-pin'.

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  7. We pronounce them loo-pin too. I vary the spelling and I'm not sure why I used an E this year. I think with-an-E might be the American spelling (horrors!) as its the one used in the Barbara Cooney book "Miss Rumphius," a wonderful family favourite here. (Note the 'u' in 'favourite'.)

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  8. Oh, they are beautiful! How wonderful to be able to visit your own 'secret garden'!

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