A Magical Summer
Personal Photos: We always knew it would be A Magical Summer since the moment our granddaughter Audrey first planted those Scarlet Runners early this spring. It became real one morning when I captured this photo of a fairy standing in the corner of the garden beside an old wicker chair.
Link to Photos for this Post
Part 2: Link to Crackling Fire on Cold Winters Day
Part 3: The Magical Gardens of Adam Szczawinski
Fences and Gardens, Family and Friends
So much was happening this spring and summer it was hard to keep up, but suffice it to say there was a lot of magic. Woven between various trips to destinations inside and outside Canada, as well as visits by family and friends, there was a determination to redo the garden and fences as they were in tough shape after several years of neglect.
Last year Lynn and I worked at cleaning up the decks and redoing the garden furniture, but that only made the crumbling fences and 
overgrown gardens look even more sad and forlorn. Growing up in a family where my mother had the greenest thumb I know, we could no longer avoid thinking how she would feel if she happened by and saw all those steely, prickly weeds making such fun of the few domestic plants that survived the long summers of neglect.
Back in the late 1990’s mom and I had spent two magical summers planting everything we could get our hands on and it was now time to renew the gardening vows that were etched in my genes. In our family one daughter, Kari, and one son, Sean, have been gifted with that particular gene, so the linage will not be lost any time soon. The jobs, however, were not a one week fix.
Photo (Personal Files, c1990s). When mom was here for those two long visits, we spent day son end planting everything we could get our hands on. As neither of us had ever made moss hanging baskets we must have put together fifteen of various shapes and sizes. Many of the McNeill Life Stories, 1941-1965, a historical stories on the blog, came out of our daily conversations.
As one gets older it seems a white picket fence with arched gateways surrounded by gardens filled with flowers and vegetables is the order of the day, but such ideals come true after a lot of elbow grease is applied. Even separating and ripping out about 200 feet of old fence overgrown with tangled vines and prickly blackberry, seemed to take forever, but thanks to Jay Bird, the task was 
accomplished. Then cutting, rounding, sanding and painting well over 300 pickets, replacing posts and building four new gates took its toll during the long hot summer. Interspersed with this was the building raised bed frames for an early spring greenhouse style garden in which old soil had to be broken and new soil wheeled in. Thanks to all the little gnomes who were hanging around, most items were planted by the end of May and the final sections of the fence in place and painted by the end of July.
Photo Right (Family Files): Dad, Mom and a family friend tower above me as I puff away on my pipe (really mom?). Mom and Dad were married the year before and are standing in front of the first home dad built at Birch Lake in 1940. The couple also had a big garden at that first home. (Link to Story)
In addition to the few photos in this post, a short video is attached that shows the progress over the spring and summer and how the garden, even in the face of having some poor soil and a constant need of more water in the extremely dry conditions, did pretty well. Next year, all things being equal it will be amazing and if I have my wish comes true, Alysha and Lucas may complete a 12 x 12 foot Get Fresh mural to cover the back of the shed that faces our property.
Up Next
The next post will track our steps as we fall, cut, split and pile about three cords of wood for our new fire insert (post will be up in a few days). It involves a lot of excitement as big trees come down, there is a police raid and along with another neighbour, we managed to rescue dozens of plants from being buried in a construction zone.
Harold, Lynn and Family
Below is a sample of the nearly completed Magical Summer Project.
Link to Crackling Fire on Cold Winters Day
(230)
Tags: Audrey LeClair, Birch Lake Saskatchewan, Christine LeClair, Dave McNeill, Harold McNeill, Laura McNeill, Kari McNeill Walker, Lexi McNeill, Log Homes
Trackback from your site.