My Photo Journal: Early Fall in My Garden (2025)

Is not this a true autumn day?
Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise.
The birds are consulting about their migrations,
the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay,
and begin to strew the ground,
that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air,
while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit.
Delicious autumn!
My very soul is wedded to it,
and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
― George Eliot

With the onset of cooler weather, garden tasks turn to include the splitting and transplanting of perennials. Here, I've managed to divide several large clumps of Echinacea ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ (see my picture above). ‘Cheyenne Spirit’ was introduced by Kieft-Pro Seeds in 2012. It is a well-branched, sturdy coneflower that won the 2013 AAS (All-America Selections®) award and Europe's FleuroSelect Gold Medal award for garden performance. It flowers the first year in a wide range of bloom colors, including purple, pink, red, orange, yellow, cream or white ray flowers with a brown cone. It grows 2 to 2.5 feet tall and 1 to 2 feet wide [Source: Missouri Botanical Garden]. I do have many other varieties of coneflowers in my garden including ‘Magnus,’‘Fragrant Angel,’‘Ruby Giant,’‘White Swan’ and ‘Green Twister.’ Next year, I intend to add ‘Primadonna Deep Rose’ and ‘Starlight.’

In the process of planting and generally cleaning up my garden beds, lo and behold, I was stunned and thrilled to find a solitary lily still blooming late into the year (see photo below)! This is by far the latest I have seen any of my lilies bloom. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce ‘Miss Feya’. Lilium Miss Feya has large rosy red flowers with a white edge and a speckling of black dots. The flowers are fragrant and measure 3-6“ on stems that stand 6 to 8 feet tall. After it is established it will produce multiple stems with a mass of blooms in late July and early August. Miss Feya is an Orienpet hybrid, a cross between an Oriental lily and a Trumpet lily which combines the tall, strong stems of the Trumpets with the fragrance and shape of the Oriental lilies. These hybrids have an increased ability to withstand late spring frosts as well as hot summer days [Source: Chicago Botanical Garden]. Since this is a 1st-year plant for me (I planted 3 bulbs earlier this spring, and this was the only bulb that flowered), the stem is still very short, and produced only this single flower. I will wait eagerly to see what happens with this particular variety next year.

Have you made any joyful or unexpected discoveries in your early autumn garden? Feel free to drop a comment below if you would like to share. Meanwhile, I hope you are experiencing thus:

I was drinking in the surroundings:
air so crisp you could snap it with your fingers
and greens in every lush shade imaginable
offset by autumnal flashes of red and yellow.
― Wendy Delsol

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Vintage Art Appreciation: Garden in the Wachau by Hugo Charlemont

As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness -- just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

She was like the sun,
She knew her place in the world
- She would shine again regardless
of all the storms and changeable weather
She wouldn't adjust her purpose
for things that pass.
― Nikki Rowe

Artwork is titled “Garden in the Wachau” by Hugo Charlemont (1850–1939). Originally found on Wikimedia. Digitally enhanced version of the painting as a 9” x 12” @ 300 ppi JPEG here.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Free Vintage Nature Illustration: Hummingbird Parents with Eggs at their Nest 1

I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was. Likewise, I never imagined that home might be something I would miss.
― Ransom Riggs

The desire to go home that is a desire to be whole, to know where you are, to be the point of intersection of all the lines drawn through all the stars, to be the constellation-maker and the center of the world, that center called love. To awaken from sleep, to rest from awakening, to tame the animal, to let the soul go wild, to shelter in darkness and blaze with light, to cease to speak and be perfectly understood.
― Rebecca Solnit

I also believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their swirling waters, and sometimes that means you'll never know what they endured, and you may treat them unkindly, in a way you otherwise wouldn't.
― Mitch Albom

19th century illustration of both male and female hummingbirds perched around their nest in the branches of a flowering vine. There is a clutch of eggs resting in the depths of the nest, waiting to be hatched. 8” x 11” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative works. Not for resale “as-is.” Credit to FieldandGarden.com appreciated but not required.

My Photo Journal: Fleur de Villes Exhibit (2025) at the Royal Botanical Gardens Canada: Downton Abbey Theme

There are random moments - tossing a salad, coming up the driveway to the house,
ironing the seams flat on a quilt square, standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the delphiniums,
hearing a burst of laughter from one of my children's rooms - when I feel a wavelike rush of joy.
This is my true religion: arbitrary moments of of nearly painful happiness for a life I feel privileged to lead.
― Elizabeth Berg, The Art of Mending
How truly privileged I feel! To be able to witness the incredible beauty and creativity on display during the 2025 Fleur de Villes exhibit at the Royal Botanical Gardens last weekend brought a truly humbling sense of awe and gratitude. The Downton Abbey-themed celebration showcased the artistic talents of Southern Ontario floral designers who did not disappoint with their thoughtful and painstakingly crafted creations. I cannot imagine how many hours of effort must have gone into putting this show together but the results are spectacular!

Whether you love flowers or gardens or you simply want to spend an interlude daydreaming of a bygone era, and you happen to be in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), I strongly urge you to drop by and explore this floral extravanganza. The exhibit runs until September 21, 2025. Below are a few photos I took of the marvellous displays but there is so much more to see and experience in person.

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