Nature – Slow Lane Musings

A taste of coastal Norway

Sometimes we are attracted to a place because of the people we meet who come from there. Many years ago, we met a lovely couple from Norway, a country we knew little about. Over time, the stories they told us created images in our minds and our curiosity grew.

What is it like to live in the Arctic Circle? What scenery do they see on their way to work? What do their grocery stores look like? Do they get to watch the Northern Lights dancing in the sky before going to bed? Simple things of everyday life that add texture to our connection to people we like. This November, we seized an opportunity to visit.

Norway is a narrow and elongated country, stretching between 58 and 71 degrees north, or approximately 1,750 kilometres. This is about the same distance as between New York City and Miami, Florida. Our friends currently live in Tromsø, the largest Norwegian city north of the Arctic Circle. The further north we went along the coast, the sparser was the vegetation but the tranquil scenery and the fading blue afternoon light were enchanting.

O’Keeffe and Moore

There is currently a wonderful touring exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The show is called Georgia O’Keeffe and Henry Moore: Giants of Modern Art. This meticulously curated exhibition is a creation of the San Diego Museum of Art and will not be shown in any other Canadian city.

Far from being a simple parallel display of two well-known artists, the exhibition brings the visitor on a journey, highlighting how, despite having lived on different continents and having worked (mainly) with different media, the artists evolved in similar ways, approached nature with awe and reverence and took their inspiration from it. O’Keeffe (1887-1986) and Moore (1898-1986) both lived in a big city before relocating to a rural setting where they could more easily connect with the natural world.

We came out of the exhibition both enriched and invigorated.

Awesome Central Park

Even if you have never visited Central Park in New York City, you may be able to see it in your mind’s eye. Its extensive lawns, winding paths, rustic bridges, rock outcrops, ponds and lakes, all surrounded by towering skyscrapers, have featured in hundreds of popular films. Central Park not the largest park in NYC, however, it is iconic: an impressive public green space covering 843 acres right in the middle of Manhattan.

The park’s visionary architects, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, succeeded in creating a public expanse where people can roam and mingle while marveling at the beauty of the natural world. When it opened in 1858, it was the first public landscaped park in the U.S. Today, it gets more than forty million visitors every year, many of whom live or work locally.

We have visited Central Park several times over the years. Following our last visit, in November, we were curious to find out more about the history of the park. As it turns out, the very creation of Central Park and the fact that it has retained, to this day, most of the features of the architects’ original proposal, are nothing short of astonishing.

Gardening for wildlife

On our summer strolls around the neighbourhood, we see many beautifully manicured front yard gardens. Some even look as if they come straight out of a magazine.

At times, we come across other gardens that are not so picture-perfect. We have come to appreciate that they are like that on purpose and are the work of mindful gardeners. Incorporating native flowers, shrubs and trees, those gardens are friendly to pollinators and provide food and shelter for wildlife.

In the past, we had paid little attention to this type of gardening, however, we now have the time and interest to learn more. Ottawa is home to the remarkable Fletcher Wildlife Garden (FWG). This public treasure is open year-round and free of charge. We love to visit it and immerse ourselves in the beauty and the fundamentals of ecological gardening

A jewel in Maine

A short but persuasive article in the Washington Post caught our attention recently. It was titled “Add some beauty to your summer travel with a trip to a garden.” In the article, the author shared her memories of being transported by the beauty and peacefulness of gardens she had visited. Although we personally tend to gravitate toward wild natural sites, we too enjoy a stroll through a lovely garden. This post is about one of them.

All gardeners can testify that every ornamental garden, big or small, has a story, and that story is a blend of love, patience, and steadfast labour. This is certainly the case for the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (Gardens). The Gardens opened in 2007, after 16 years of dedicated effort by a small group of visionary community builders who not only conceived every aspect of the project but also made, we were told, a significant personal financial commitment to fund it.

Their foresight and patience were rewarded since the Gardens have become one of Maine’s major attractions, despite being situated a little bit off the beaten track, in the small town of Boothbay. The saying “if you build it, they will come,” associated with the movie Field of Dreams, surely applies to those beautiful gardens.

Great Sand Dunes

The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado showcases a very impressive and unique landscape. These remarkable dunes lay at the base of the 13,000-foot snow-capped peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. While they are not the largest dunes in existence, they are the tallest in North America and they stretch over thirty square miles.

There is something that made this park feel different from any other U.S. National Park we have visited. Was it because of the silence or the vast open expanse? Or was it because of the dynamic nature of the dune-forming system? In this park, the human footprint is minimal; it’s all about the power of nature at work. We were awestruck in front of this exceptional natural spectacle.