View allAll Photos Tagged its_dramatic
RCW 75 is a bright emission nebula located in the southern constellation of Centaurus. It is a region of active star formation, where young, massive stars ionize surrounding hydrogen gas, causing it to glow with a distinct reddish hue. Also known as Gum 48a, RCW 75 lies thousands of light-years from Earth and is part of a larger complex of interstellar gas and dust. Its dramatic appearance in infrared and optical wavelengths reveals pillars, arcs, and cavities shaped by stellar winds and radiation.
This stunning Clematis lives up to its dramatic name of the president and will make its presence known in any garden space. A deciduous climbing plant it produces single flowers that can reach up to a whopping twenty centimetres in size they have a beautiful violet blue colour which are silvery underneath and are topped off with pinkish to red stamens
1724
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
Coucher de soleil, Sainte-Flavie.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS.(Sainte-Flavie)
Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.
Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!
''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)
" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)
''One thing I can do that no one else can is to pass the love that I feel for this place and this woman'' Alexander Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
Water cascades down a rocky mountain stream near Rauma, Møre og Romsdal, Norway. The stream is surrounded by steep, rugged rocks with patches of moss and grass clinging to the surface. The rapid flow of water contrasts with the dark, textured stones, creating a dynamic natural scene. The area is characterized by its dramatic landscapes, typical of Norway's mountainous regions.
Dolmen de Mas Bou-Serenys
Cristina d'Aro, Girona, Espagne
A naturally dolmenic area - proto dolmens and monolithic protrusions punctuate the hillsides that sit behind the coastline. A charming, large dolmen with a housing estate built up to one of its dramatic range of outreaching corridors. The cap stone is held high by menhir-esque orthostates, one of which certainly seems to have the signs of having been used as a polissoir or grindstone. A geofact? A grindstone lifted up from the ground and employed as part of a megalith? The only other possibility seems ridiculous but should at least be presented :
The repeated back and forth polishing gesture may have been accelerated by adding weight to the tool that is undergoing polishing. The added weight and force comes by attaching the tool to the end of a heavy log; suspending the log on ropes that have been tightened to a frame that is wedged into the unusually large dolmen interior. The end of the log would have to be a 'cup' that contained moist clay to attach the tool by suction coupled with a strap covering the end of the tool that is waiting to take its turn. I shall try and set up an example and will post only if the tool holds in place and polish angles seem to be valid.
AJ 23.09.17
The White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) is a narrow-gauge railway that travels between Skagway, Alaska, and Carcross, Yukon Territory. The route, originally built for the Klondike Gold Rush, is a scenic excursion line known for its dramatic mountain views, historic sites, and engineering feats.
Vintage passenger coaches as you retrace the original route to the White Pass Summit, passing Bridal Veil Falls, Inspiration Point and Dead Horse Gulch. Enjoy a breathtaking panorama of mountains, glaciers, gorges, waterfalls, tunnels, trestles and historic sites. See the original Klondike Trail of ‘98 worn into the rocks, a permanent tribute to the thousands of souls who passed this way in search of fortune.
#AbFav_PHOTOSTORY
#AbFav_WATER_💦
or GOLDEN HANDSHAKE? LOL
An Autumn Sunday in North-Wales.
Little winding roads amongst the golden larches, up towards Mount Snowdon, this river surprised me with its golden and indigo colours, the limpid water ice cold and wild.
Wales, with its dramatic scenery, is steeped in mystery and romance.
Its majestic heather-clad hills cut by cascading waterfalls, and mountain streams rushing through gladed valleys are both the places of legends and of history running back into the mists of time.
Yet, beneath the quartzite surface of this jewelled landscape, there is another treasure, as valuable as it is beautiful – Welsh gold.
Today, Welsh gold is scarcer than it has ever been. When mining took place at the Clogau St. David’s Gold Mine in the late 1990s it used to cost over £1000 an ounce to extract.
Look at that golden hand, maybe a giant fell?
Isn't imagination a wonderful gift?
I wish you all a golden day and thank you for visiting, Magda (*_*)
For more: www.indigo2photography.com
Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
river, hand, leaves, Snowdonia, rapids, water, rocks, Wales, colour, horizontal, "Nikon F4", "magda indigo"
Slowenien - Strunjan
Strunjan Nature Park is a protected gem of Slovenia's coastline, celebrated for its dramatic flysch cliffs, traditional salt pans, diverse wildlife, and lush landscapes shaped by both nature and human hands over centuries. It is a haven for nature enthusiasts and those seeking to explore the harmony between cultural heritage and natural beauty.
What makes Strunjan Nature Park special
Spectacular cliffs and coastal views: The park’s northern boundary features an 80-meter-high flysch cliff, offering breathtaking views over the Gulf of Trieste and the shimmering Adriatic Sea.
Traditional salt pans and lagoon: Strunjan’s still-operating salt pans and coastal lagoon are a living testament to traditional salt-making practices and provide habitats for many bird species.
Rich biodiversity: The park is home to a wide variety of plants and animals, making it an excellent spot for bird-watching and nature exploration.
(portoroz.si)
Der Landschaftspark Strunjan ist ein geschütztes Juwel der slowenischen Küste, bekannt für seine beeindruckenden Flyschklippen, traditionellen Salinen, vielfältige Tierwelt und üppige Landschaften, die im Laufe der Jahrhunderte von der Natur und vom Menschen geprägt wurden. Er ist ein Paradies für Naturliebhaber und all jene, die die Harmonie zwischen kulturellem Erbe und natürlicher Schönheit entdecken möchten.
Was macht den Landschaftspark Strunjan besonders?
Spektakuläre Klippen und Küstenausblicke: Die nördliche Grenze des Parks wird von einer 80 Meter hohen Flyschklippe geprägt, die atemberaubende Ausblicke auf den Golf von Triest und das schimmernde Adriatische Meer bietet.
Traditionelle Salinen und Lagune: Die noch immer aktiven Salinen und die Küstenlagune von Strunjan sind ein lebendiges Zeugnis traditioneller Salzgewinnungsmethoden und bieten Lebensräume für zahlreiche Vogelarten.
Reiche Biodiversität: Der Park beherbergt eine große Vielfalt an Pflanzen und Tieren, was ihn zu einem ausgezeichneten Ort für Vogelbeobachtungen und die Erkundung der Natur macht.
(portoroz.si)
The Lankester Bulding with its dramatic red roof was built in 1902.
Next door is the 1929 Lord Nelson Inn - although there has been a hostelry on the site currently occupied by the Lord Nelson Inn since around 1800. According to the Simon's Town Historical Society, "The present hotel is named after Lord Nelson and legend has it that he came ashore in Simon's Town as a sick young midshipman to recuperate from 21 May to 21 June 1776 but there is no evidence that he actually came ashore. It is reputed that George Bernard Shaw had lunch here while on a visit to Simon's Town."
Now officially part of the City of Cape Town, Simon's Town (Afrikaans: Simonstad), is located 40 km/25 miles from the city centre, on the shores of Simon's Bay in False Bay, on the eastern side of the Cape Peninsula. It is home the South African Navy's largest base. It has a population of just under 7,000 and is known for its historic architecture. It also has a substantial civil port.
This description incorporates text from the English Wikipedia.
Happy Mother's Day! A beautiful pink rose for mother's day! Prize winning rose Brilliant Pink Iceberg grown by June Hament for the 2005 West Jersey Rose Show. If this beauty looks familiar, you may recognize it by its dramatic shadings and excellent form that helped give my mod "Born of the Rose" its special look. Click here to view. www.flickr.com/photos/monshari/1179326307/
1572-2
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS. (Sainte-Flavie)
Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.
Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!
''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)
" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)
''One thing I can do that no one else can is to pass the love that I feel for this place and this woman'' Alexander Reford
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
8130-2-CX | MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA
Himalayan flower imported by Elsie Reford in the early 1930s that has since become the floral emblem of the Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia: Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
Smailholm Tower is a peel tower at Smailholm, around five miles west of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. Its dramatic situation, atop a crag of Lady Hill, commands wide views over the surrounding countryside.
1350
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
Azalées.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia) 1245
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
12550
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
Excerpt from www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=1320:
DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE
In the château style, Château Frontenac is an imposing hotel with five brick and stone wings and a central tower erected in seven stages between 1892 and 1993. It is prominently located on a cliff overlooking the St. Lawrence River, within the Québec historic district. The designation refers to the building on its footprint in 1981 (the date of designation).
HERITAGE VALUE
The Château Frontenac was designated a national historic site because it is an excellent example of a Chateau-style hotel.
The Château Frontenac was the first of a series of Chateau-style hotels built by Canadian railway companies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to encourage tourists to travel on their railways. Popular with the travelling public for their elaborate décor and comfortable elegance, these hotels quickly became national symbols of quality accommodation.
The Château Frontenac was the prototype for the Chateau-style railway hotels that followed, and remained the purest expression of the Chateau style among the group. Its fortress-like design, derived from the medieval chateaux of France's Loire Valley and enhanced by its dramatic cliff-top location, expressed the prevailing romantic view of Quebec as a French medieval city. The hotel's picturesque eclecticism and rich polychromatic surfaces reflected popular taste in Victorian architecture. Construction began in 1892-93 for the Canadian Pacific Railway to designs by architect Bruce Price. The hotel was enlarged in 1908-09 to designs by W.S. Painter, in 1920-24 to designs by Edward and W.S. Maxwell, and in the 1990s by the Arcop Group.
CHARACTER-DEFINING ELEMENTS
The key elements that relate to the heritage value of the Château Frontenac include: - its prominent location and imposing presence on a cliff, overlooking the St. Lawrence River; - its massive scale and fortress-like appearance; - its plan around an inner court; - its assymetrical profile and irregular massing; - its Chateau style, evident in: its steeply pitched roofs; massive circular and polygonal towers and turrets; ornate gables and dormers; tall chimneys; the row of machicolations above the fourth-storey windows; its high-quality materials; and its dramatic setting; - its fortress-like solidity, expressed in: its broad, flat wall surfaces; and heavy tower forms; - its strong horizontal emphasis, expressed in: its ashlar base; and string coursing - its steel frame construction; - its grey, ashlar stone base and string courses; and the orange, Glenboig brick wall cladding; - volumes of original interior public spaces; - the fine original finishes of the main public spaces, including mahogany panelling, marble staircases, carved stone and wrought-iron decorative elements, glass roundels with historical subjects by Edward Maxwell, coffered ceilings.
A 5-hour trail, 11 km trail.
On a clear day like this, the view from the top of Pua Katiki is amazing.
To the northwest I saw the north coast and in the southwest I observed the Ahu Tongariki, the Rano Raraku volcano (160 meters / 524 feet high) and in the distance the Rano Kau that is a 324 m (1,063 ft) tall Dormant volcano.
***
The triangular-shaped Easter Island, renowned for its dramatic megalithic statues of hand-carved basalt, sits atop the Sala y Gomez submarine ridge, which trends eastward from the East Pacific Rise. Also known as Isla de Pascua or Rapa Nui, the island forms the westernmost territory of Chile. It is composed of three principal volcanoes and more than 70 subsidiary vents. Rano Kau, containing a flat-bottomed and 1-km-wide crater, and Poike volcano form the SW and E tips of the island, respectively, and are of Pleistocene age. The youngest and largest, Terevaka, is a broad shield volcano of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age at the northern leg of the triangular island, which is capped by many pyroclastic cones. The last stage of activity consisted of eruptions from multiple rift zones extending along the axes of the island and radially from them. The latest lava flows, at Hiva-Hiva near the W-central coast, are thought to be less than 2000 years old.
This volcano is located within the Rapa Nui National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage property.
Statue of Collie and MacKenzie (one sitting in front of the other) facing some peaks of the Black Cuillin mountain range, Isle of Skye, Highland council area, Scotland
Some background information:
John Norman Collie and John Morton MacKenzie were two British mountaineers, who were active at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. MacKenzie was born in 1856, while Collie was born in 1859. They met each other in 1886 and thereafter regularly climbed as a climbing team. MacKenzie was a local crofter from the Isle of Skye and later Britain’s first professional mountain guide, while Collie was a chemist from a little town in Cheshire near Manchester. A strong bond of friendship developed between them. They shared an urge to climb and explore and, as they grew older, their mutual love of fishing became increasingly important. Collie seems to have been the partner who could envisage the climbing line, while MacKenzie was normally the lead climber.
Friendships across class boundaries were relatively uncommon at this time and it may have helped that both men were possessed of a deep sense of humanity. The list of their achievements together is impressive. They accomplished a lot of pioneering climbs and made many first ascents on the Cuillin mountain range. MacKenzie was deeply ingrained in his home area and stayed there for his whole life. However, Collie also climbed in the Alps, the Caucasus, the Canadian Rockies and the Himalaya range. Together with Albert Mummery and Geoffrey Hastings, he made the world's first attempt at a Himalayan 8,000-metre peak, Nanga Parbat. It was a disastrous expedition, as Mummery and two Gurkhas were killed by an avalanche and never seen again.
Both mountaineers were never married. John MacKenzie died in 1933 at the age of 76. He was buried in the graveyard of Bracadale Free Church on the west side of the island. Collie died in 1942 and, in keeping with his wishes, was buried beside his great friend. A project to raise £ 320,000 of funding to erect a bronze statue and memorial to John MacKenzie and Norman Collie on Skye was finally realised in 2020. It was designed by the sculptor Stephen Tinney and positioned on a rocky knoll opposite the Sligachan Hotel, overlooking the Cuillin mountains.
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the the Black Cuillin and Red Cuillin mountain ranges, which provide some of the most dramatic mountain sceneries in the country. At 1,656 square kilometres (639 square miles), Skye is the second-largest island in Scotland after Lewis and Harris.
The most powerful clans on Skye in the post–Norse period were Clan MacLeod, originally based in Trotternish, and Clan Macdonald of Sleat. Following the disintegration of the Lordship of the Isles in the late 15th century, Clan Mackinnon also emerged as an independent clan, whose substantial landholdings in Skye were centred on Strathaird.
Skye is linked to the mainland by the Skye Bridge, which opened in 1995, while ferries sail from Armadale on the island to Mallaig, and from Kylerhea to Glenelg. The island is 40 kilometres wide at its thickest point and 80 kilometres long. But many inlets reach inland, resulting in a coastline of over 500 kilometres. This includes some sandy beaches, but particularly several enchanting bays such as Talisker Bay, and steep cliffs such as Waterstein Head at Neist Point or Kilt Rock at the island’s northeastern coast. By the way, the inlets also divide Skye into its various peninsulas, of which Minginish, Duirnish, Waternish, Trotternish and Sleat are the largest.
The largest employer on the island is the public sector, which accounts for about a third of the total workforce and the second-largest employer is the tourism industry, but there is also a number of small firms like the Talisker Distillery. However, commercial fishing remains important too, including fish farming of salmon and crustaceans such as scampi.
Due to its dramatic land- and seascape, Skye has been used as a location for several feature films, such as "Flash Gordon“, "Stardust" starring Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer, or Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" from 2012. And the Justin Kurzel adaption of Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender was also filmed on the Isle of Skye.
There is a fabulous mountain range in Baja-California, Mexico, on the Sea of Cortez. It rises abruptly directly from sea level and presents a spectacular sight from the shore like a gigantic wall, filled with pillars, towers, and deep narrow canyons. When you live on one of those beaches below this range, it’s impossible not to be spellbound by the Sierra de la Giganta’s magnificence. It glows in the morning and looms in the afternoon; vultures soar in the air all the time and play in the thermals. You can climb into some of its dramatic canyons, but you never get very far.
One never really knows where dreams come from. Maybe birds sowed the seed of inspiration some lifetime ago to fly up there in the blue haze and see, really see what it’s like. One day I strap into my new “Powered Paraglider” and do it.
My takeoff is pretty exciting. There is not much room on the beach, and the wind is too strong for a well-controlled inflation; so I take off like a rocket without even completing one step. But, as always, once I’m in the air the world seems to stay behind. I slip into my little seat, do a downwind turn, and fly away. I turn directly toward the mountains, this dark blue gigantic wall looming in front of me. It is late in the afternoon and I’m flying due west, almost directly into the sun. The mountain range is in deep shadow and all I can see is a massive, unfathomable, featureless wall of intangible dimension and distance. I have to trust my experience to understand that it will actually take a while before I’m really close, and by then I’ll hopefully have gained enough altitude. Looking down, I see my forward motion, but ahead I’m blinded by the sun. I’m flying over the immense shadow the mountain range casts over the desert. My body and my wing are bathed in glaring light and everything ahead and below is in blue, dark shadow. I know it’s still a long way up to the summit, but somehow it feels as if I would crash any moment into this mysterious, featureless wall getting bigger and darker all the time.
When I’m past the first lower peaks at the foot of the range, I begin to see the structure below: furrowed, gnawed rock, vertical towers, bottomless canyons, all in warm pastel colors. Occasionally one of those pillars peeks out of the shadow-zone like a monstrous finger emerging from the dark. There is a mini-plateau, just catching the very last light, a small round area on top of a tower, maybe 30 feet across, totally flat, one cactus on it and two bushes, vertical cliff all around – an island in the sky. I glide by 100 feet away, the wall threatening above.
Suddenly the air gets wild, turbulence boiling up from the shadow below, and I’m busy all over controlling and keeping my attitude and course. I see gigantic canyons below, and the gusts come funneling along them, throwing me around. I would feel better if I could see more. The blue wall looms, threatening, so close now that it’s really hard not to pull away. A cool eerie radiation comes from the darkness, a mysterious presence.
Sometimes I feel violent updrafts. When the wing catches more lift on one side than the other my whole harness distorts, my body bends. I feel the air with my whole body. Then again I’m terribly convinced that I’m falling with increasing speed into the dark abyss underneath. I keep my eyes on the rim above to gauge my climbing progress. It’s scary at times, but then I really feel the air, I fly with it, it’s wonderful. I’m a leaf blown up by a gust, played by the wind.
I must still be climbing, even though it’s hard to believe. It gets so wild that I finally ease away and go more parallel to the range for a while. I see less rugged terrain under me and the air gets a bit calmer. What I thought to be the summit ridge turns out to be just a huge flake, leaning away from the real ridge, still about 500 feet higher. I fly between it and the final crest, the air is clean now, the tension ceases, I’m there. A few more minutes and the horizon in the west becomes visible; I’m over it.
I fly circle after circle. There is the other coast, the Pacific Ocean, the surf glistening in the distance, some 50 miles away. And the ridge is not a ridge but a large plateau, a mesa, several hundred feet across. (Wouldn’t that be something to land up there one day?) I finally throttle back and glide over the crest. Mountains everywhere, like sand dunes, golden in the sun, shadows carving into the valleys. The sea looks like velvet.
,
In this series States Coast to Coast. This Fine Art is #39 in the series of a Scenic area from each state. The state today is #39 on the list and is Wyoming.
Grand Teton National Park
Jackson, WY
Grand Teton National Park, located in northwest Wyoming, is a stunning landscape of jagged, snow-capped peaks, alpine lakes, and the vast valley of Jackson Hole. The park is known for its dramatic scenery, diverse wildlife, and extensive outdoor recreation opportunities, and it is directly connected to Yellowstone National Park via the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.
Prompt: Create a digital fine art ultra-realistic of Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Wyoming. The wide-angle panoramic horizontal composition showcases the majestic snow-capped Teton mountain range reflected with crystal clear precision in the still waters of a lake. The reflection should mirror every detail of the rugged peaks and scattered patches of snow.
In the mid-ground, include a lone person fly fishing, standing near the shoreline, their silhouette and fishing rod also reflected in the lake’s surface. The surrounding landscape features lush green trees, meadow grasses, and shrubs in the foreground, leading naturally toward the expansive water and the towering mountains beyond.
The sky should be a beautiful clear blue with scattered soft clouds, enhancing the sense of scale and atmosphere. Lighting should be bright and natural, capturing crisp details in both the landscape and reflections.
Style: Digital fine art, ultra-realistic, museum-quality
Mood: Serene, majestic, timeless natural beauty
Lighting: Clear daylight with natural highlights and shadows
Aspect Ratio: Wide-angle panoramic horizontal
Quality: Crystal-clear, no noise, no grain, highly detailed
This digital fine art was created using OpenAI Sora AI and Photoshop
Gazing upon the legendary Le Tombeau du Géant (The Giant's Tomb) near Bouillon, where the Semois River executes one of the most stunning meanders in the Belgian Ardennes. This highly photographed site, classified as Exceptional Walloon Heritage, earns its dramatic name from a local legend: a colossal Treviran warrior supposedly chose to leap to his death rather than face Roman captivity after Caesar's victory, and was subsequently buried on this forested hill encircled by the river. It's an unforgettable blend of wild nature and ancient folklore
Shrikes like to perch prominently on the tops of bushes, fence posts and telephone wires, where they have a good view of potential prey. Items caught are then taken to a larder where they are impaled on a thorn or wedged in a fork. Its dramatic decline to virtual extinction as a UK breeding species make this a Red List bird.
I had the most wonderful day watching this beauty. Only the second time I have ever seen one.
For licensing of my images see: Getty images or Alamy the links are below.
www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/2/image?artist=sandra%20stan...
www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?pseudoid=%7b68A67A...
Kirkjufell, or 'Church Mountain', is a distinctly shaped peak found on the north shore of Iceland’s Snæfellsnes Peninsula, only a short distance away from the town of Grundarfjörður. It is often called ‘the most photographed mountain in Iceland’, due to its dramatic formation and perfect coastal location. Peaking at 463 metres, 1519 feet, Kirkjufell is an impressive landmark. Throughout the centuries, Kirkjufell’s striking slopes have acted as a visual landmark for seafarers and travellers. Within walking distance from Kirkjufell is the serene and perfectly located waterfall Kirkjufellsfoss, or 'Church Mountain Falls', an excellent subject for photographers who can easily frame the mountain in the background. Despite its relatively diminutive height, Kirkjufellsfoss’ three-steps, gentle flow, and dramatic differences between seasons make it as impressive as some of Iceland’s larger waterfalls.
Imperial War Museum North, Salford
Designed by architect Daniel Libeskind and opened in 2002, Imperial War Museum North was conceived as a building formed from the fragments of a shattered globe, symbolising a world broken by conflict. Its dramatic geometry of intersecting shards creates one of the most distinctive pieces of contemporary architecture in the UK, standing prominently on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal at Salford Quays. The museum's fractured forms and metallic skin embody themes of disruption, resilience and remembrance, reflecting the stories housed within its galleries.
This image reinterprets the museum through a highly stylised monochrome treatment derived from a daytime, three-image panoramic photograph. By dramatically darkening the sky and surrounding environment while selectively illuminating the building's faceted surfaces, the composition emphasises the museum's angular architecture and sculptural presence. The resulting image transforms the familiar daytime scene into something cinematic and almost otherworldly, allowing the fractured geometry of Libeskind's design to emerge from the darkness with a sense of monumentality and quiet drama.
Ajuy Bay is a rugged and scenic coastal area on the west coast of Fuerteventura, known for its dramatic black sand beach and towering cliffs. The bay has historically served as a natural harbor, once used by sailors and traders, and later associated with pirate activity. Today, it offers stunning ocean views, with strong waves and currents that shape its wild and unspoiled landscape.
Looking north along the rugged Big Sur coastline, the iconic Bixby Creek Bridge spans its dramatic canyon, framed by turquoise waters and steep cliffs.
Mesa Arch is a pothole arch at Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah. The park is known for its dramatic desert landscape of canyons, mesas, and buttes carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries. Print Size 13x19 inches.
A breathtaking moment captured as lightning strikes over the tranquil waters of the Mary River floodplain. The Top End showcases its dramatic side, reminding us of nature's incredible forces.
A view of Shafer Canyon from the Island in the Sky plateau at Canyonlands National Park. Shafer Canyon is part of the the desert canyons backcountry. Canyonlands in southeastern Utah is known for its dramatic desert landscape of canyons, mesas, and buttes carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries. Print Size 13x19 inches.
The Great Wall Museum, Jiayuguan, China.
It is a showcase of 50-year archeological and anthropological research and findings on the 3000 years old Great Wall that stretches out 10,000 li (or 5,000 kilometers) and its dramatic historical status and relevance.
The multi modality exhibition, including charts, modes, illustrations, texts and diagrams, provides abundant and valuable data and information for researchers and investigators; at the same time it offers an interesting, integrated and knowledgeable tour for visitors to learn and appreciate the greatness, significance and the historical value of the Great Wall.
Askja is a caldera in the central Highlands of Iceland, just north of Vatnajökull glacier. It is best known for its dramatic eruptions, as well as the training grounds for Apollo astronauts because of its otherworldly, lunar landscapes.
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
ON EXPLORE.
MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA
Himalayan flower imported by Elsie Reford in the early 1930s that has since become the floral emblem of the Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
White Sands National Monument is in the northern Chihuahuan Desert in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It's known for its dramatic landscape of rare white gypsum sand dunes. Sunsets are spectacular to view against the backdrop of the dunes.
Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah is known for its dramatic desert landscape carved by the Colorado River. Island in the Sky is a huge, flat-topped mesa with panoramic overlooks. Other notable areas include the towering rock pinnacles known as the Needles, the remote canyons of the Maze and the Native American rock paintings in Horseshoe Canyon. Whitewater rapids flow through Cataract Canyon. ( Source Wikepedia)
6513
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA
Himalayan flower imported by Elsie Reford in the early 1930s that has since become the floral emblem of the Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
Waimea Canyon, often called the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific," is located on the western side of Kauai. The canyon is known for its dramatic red, brown, and green cliffs, lush valleys, and breathtaking panoramic views. The vibrant colors and textures of the canyon are a result of centuries of erosion and volcanic activity. I captured this shot from one of the many viewpoints along the road that traverses the canyon.
5210,3
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
Coucher de soleil, Sainte-Flavie.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS. (Sainte-Flavie)
Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.
Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!
''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)
" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)
''One thing I can do that no one else can is to pass the love that I feel for this place and this woman''. -Alexander Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
The Lofoten islands lie off Norway's mainland above the Arctic Circle. This world famous archipelago is known for its dramatic scenery - mountains, fiords and quaint fishing villages. lovely beaches, the white tailed sea eagles and its stunning evening performances of the aurora borealis.
Kirkjufell, or 'Church Mountain', is a distinctly shaped peak found on the north shore of Iceland’s Snæfellsnes Peninsula, only a short distance away from the town of Grundarfjörður. It is often called ‘the most photographed mountain in Iceland’, due to its dramatic formation and perfect coastal location.
The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico (the other being the Rio Grande). The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora. Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U.S. National Parks, the Colorado River and its tributaries are a vital source of water for 40 million people. The river and its tributaries are controlled by an extensive system of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts, which in most years divert its entire flow for agricultural irrigation and domestic water supply. Its large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Intensive water consumption has dried up the lower 100 miles (160 km) of the river, which has rarely reached the sea since the 1960s. Beginning with small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers, Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Between 2,000 and 1,000 years ago, the watershed was home to large agricultural civilizations – considered some of the most sophisticated indigenous North American cultures – which eventually declined due to a combination of severe drought and poor land use practices. Most native peoples that inhabit the region today are descended from other groups that settled there beginning about 1,000 years ago. Europeans first entered the Colorado Basin in the 16th century, when explorers from Spain began mapping and claiming the area, which became part of Mexico upon its independence in 1821. Early contact between Europeans and Native Americans was generally limited to the fur trade in the headwaters and sporadic trade interactions along the lower river. After most of the Colorado River basin became part of the U.S. in 1846, much of the river's course was still the subject of myths and speculation. Several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century – one of which, led by John Wesley Powell, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that was later used to develop the river for navigation and water supply. Large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid- to late-19th century, with steamboats providing transportation from the Gulf of California to landings along the river that linked to wagon roads to the interior. Starting in the 1860s, gold and silver strikes drew prospectors to parts of the upper Colorado River basin. Large engineering works began around the start of the 20th century, with major guidelines established in a series of international and U.S. interstate treaties known as the "Law of the River". The U.S. federal government was the main driving force behind the construction of dams and aqueducts, although many state and local water agencies were also involved. Most of the major dams were built between 1910 and 1970; the system keystone, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, with every drop of its water fully allocated. The environmental movement in the American Southwest has opposed the damming and diversion of the Colorado River system because of detrimental effects on the ecology and natural beauty of the river and its tributaries. During the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, environmental organizations vowed to block any further development of the river, and a number of later dam and aqueduct proposals were defeated by citizen opposition. As demands for Colorado River water continue to rise, the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy.
Cape Cornwall is a headland located on the southwest tip of England, in West Cornwall, near the town of St Just. It's a popular spot for its dramatic coastal scenery and views of the Atlantic Ocean. The National Trust owns most of the headland, and it's part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site.
Facts about Expedition Everest:
Expedition EVEREST Disney officially Opened April 7, 2006
This attraction is 200 feet high making it the highest "mountain" in Florida
FASTPASS available (and highly recommended)
44" Height Restriction
Overview: Walt Disney World guests will discover for themselves the fearsome legend of the Yeti when experiencing Expedition EVEREST. This high-speed train adventure combines coaster-like thrills with the excitement of a close encounter with the Abominable Snowman.
The Expedition EVEREST adventure begins when guests board an old mountain railway destined for Mount Everest. As the train heads for the snowy mountain peak, it passes through bamboo forests, waterfalls and fields of glaciers.
The excitement begins when it's discovered that the train tracks end in a twisted wreck of metal. From here, the train careens backwards and forwards through darkness, frigid canyons and treacherous caverns. A face to face encounter with the legendary Yeti (guardian of the Himalayas) brings this tumultuous train ride to its dramatic conclusion.
Animal Kingdom in Orlando Florida 3-20-09
9508-2
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS. (Sainte-Flavie)
Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.
Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!
''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)
" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)
''One thing I can do that no one else can is to pass the love that I feel for this place and this woman'' Alexander Reford
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
8072
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
6621
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA
Himalayan flower imported by Elsie Reford in the early 1930s that has since become the floral emblem of the Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
And a Himmy of course..
Taken on Dec 2nd out in the Peak District..
"The huge 'Leaning Block' at Higger Tor, Peak District ...
The Leaning Block is a famous, distinctive rock formation at Higgar Tor in the Peak District, UK, known for its dramatic overhang providing shelter and popular with climbers for classic routes like "The File," offering challenging ascents and stunning views over the Hope Valley."
7925-223 | SUNSET
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
Photo taken close to REFORD GARDENS. (Sainte-Flavie)
Mrs Elsie Reford loved those beautiful sunsets.
Reference: Elsie's Paradise, The Reford Gardens, Alexander Reford, 2004, ISBN 2-7619-1921-1, That book is a must for Reford Gardens lovers!
''I shall always, all my life, want to come back to those sunsets.'' Elsie Reford, July 20, 1913. (page 25)
" It is just after 8 o'clock and I am sitting in front of my big window with the gorgeous panorama of a glorious afterglow from a perfect sunset. There is every hue of blue on the water of 'the Blue Lagoon' while Pointe-aux-Cenelles is bathed in pink and crimson and the dark hills of the north shore seem no further than two or three miles distant. I don't think in the whole world at this moment there could be anything more beautiful." Elsie Reford, June 2, 1931. (page 81)
''One thing I can do that no one else can is to pass the love that I feel for this place and this woman'' Alexander Reford
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
7466
REFORD GARDENS | LES JARDINS DE METIS
MECONOPSIS BETONICIFOLIA
Himalayan flower imported by Elsie Reford in the early 1930s that has since become the floral emblem of the Gardens.
Visit : www.refordgardens.com/
From Wikipedia:
Elsie Stephen Meighen - born January 22, 1872, Perth, Ontario - and Robert Wilson Reford - born in 1867, Montreal - got married on June 12, 1894.
Elsie Reford was a pioneer of Canadian horticulture, creating one of the largest private gardens in Canada on her estate, Estevan Lodge in eastern Québec. Located in Grand-Métis on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, her gardens have been open to the public since 1962 and operate under the name Les Jardins de Métis and Reford Gardens.
Born January 22, 1872 at Perth, Ontario, Elsie Reford was the eldest of three children born to Robert Meighen and Elsie Stephen. Coming from modest backgrounds themselves, Elsie’s parents ensured that their children received a good education. After being educated in Montreal, she was sent to finishing school in Dresden and Paris, returning to Montreal fluent in both German and French, and ready to take her place in society.
She married Robert Wilson Reford on June 12, 1894. She gave birth to two sons, Bruce in 1895 and Eric in 1900. Robert and Elsie Reford were, by many accounts, an ideal couple. In 1902, they built a house on Drummond Street in Montreal. They both loved the outdoors and they spend several weeks a year in a log cabin they built at Lac Caribou, south of Rimouski. In the autumn they hunted for caribou, deer, and ducks. They returned in winter to ski and snowshoe. Elsie Reford also liked to ride. She had learned as a girl and spent many hours riding on the slopes of Mount Royal. And of course, there was salmon-fishing – a sport at which she excelled.
In her day, she was known for her civic, social, and political activism. She was engaged in philanthropic activities, particularly for the Montreal Maternity Hospital and she was also the moving force behind the creation of the Women’s Canadian Club of Montreal, the first women club in Canada. She believed it important that the women become involved in debates over the great issues of the day, « something beyond the local gossip of the hour ». Her acquaintance with Lord Grey, the Governor-General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, led to her involvement in organizing, in 1908, Québec City’s tercentennial celebrations. The event was one of many to which she devoted herself in building bridges with French-Canadian community.
During the First World War, she joined her two sons in England and did volunteer work at the War Office, translating documents from German into English. After the war, she was active in the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Montreal Council of Social Agencies, and the National Association of Conservative Women.
In 1925 at the age of 53 years, Elsie Reford was operated for appendicitis and during her convalescence, her doctor counselled against fishing, fearing that she did not have the strength to return to the river.”Why not take up gardening?” he said, thinking this a more suitable pastime for a convalescent woman of a certain age. That is why she began laying out the gardens and supervising their construction. The gardens would take ten years to build, and would extend over more than twenty acres.
Elsie Reford had to overcome many difficulties in bringing her garden to life. First among them were the allergies that sometimes left her bedridden for days on end. The second obstacle was the property itself. Estevan was first and foremost a fishing lodge. The site was chosen because of its proximity to a salmon river and its dramatic views – not for the quality of the soil.
To counter-act nature’s deficiencies, she created soil for each of the plants she had selected, bringing peat and sand from nearby farms. This exchange was fortuitous to the local farmers, suffering through the Great Depression. Then, as now, the gardens provided much-needed work to an area with high unemployment. Elsie Reford’s genius as a gardener was born of the knowledge she developed of the needs of plants. Over the course of her long life, she became an expert plantsman. By the end of her life, Elsie Reford was able to counsel other gardeners, writing in the journals of the Royal Horticultural Society and the North American Lily Society. Elsie Reford was not a landscape architect and had no training of any kind as a garden designer. While she collected and appreciated art, she claimed no talents as an artist.
Elsie Stephen Reford died at her Drummond Street home on November 8, 1967 in her ninety-sixth year.
In 1995, the Reford Gardens ("Jardins de Métis") in Grand-Métis were designated a National Historic Site of Canada, as being an excellent Canadian example of the English-inspired garden.(Wikipedia)
Visit : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Reford
Visit : www.refordgardens.com
LES JARDINS DE MÉTIS
Créés par Elsie Reford de 1926 à 1958, ces jardins témoignent de façon remarquable de l’art paysager à l’anglaise. Disposés dans un cadre naturel, un ensemble de jardins exhibent fleurs vivaces, arbres et arbustes. Le jardin des pommetiers, les rocailles et l’Allée royale évoquent l’œuvre de cette dame passionnée d’horticulture. Agrémenté d’un ruisseau et de sentiers sinueux, ce site jouit d’un microclimat favorable à la croissance d’espèces uniques au Canada. Les pavots bleus et les lis, privilégiés par Mme Reford, y fleurissent toujours et contribuent , avec d’autres plantes exotiques et indigènes, à l’harmonie de ces lieux.
Created by Elsie Reford between 1926 and 1958, these gardens are an inspired example of the English art of the garden. Woven into a natural setting, a series of gardens display perennials, trees and shrubs. A crab-apple orchard, a rock garden, and the Long Walk are also the legacy of this dedicated horticulturist. A microclimate favours the growth of species found nowhere else in Canada, while the stream and winding paths add to the charm. Elsie Reford’s beloved blue poppies and lilies still bloom and contribute, with other exotic and indigenous plants, to the harmony of the site.
Commission des lieux et monuments historiques du Canada
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
Gouvernement du Canada – Government of Canada
© Copyright
This photo and all those in my Photostream are protected by copyright. No one may reproduce, copy, transmit or manipulate them without my written permission.
Taken on the balcony of Havila Hotel, Geiranger.
Geiranger is a village in western Norway, at the head of Geirangerfjord, famous for its dramatic, UNESCO-listed fjord.
♥ Thank you very much for your visits, faves, and kind comments ♥
Irlanda, County Cork, Mizen Head, Primavera 2023
Mizen Head si trova all'estremità di una penisola nel West Cork, in Irlanda ed è una grande attrazione turistica, soprattutto per le sue drammatiche scogliere. Una delle principali vie marittime transatlantiche passa a sud, e Mizen Head era, per molti viaggiatori assieme con il vicino Faro di Fastnet Rock, l'ultima vista sulla madre patria (lacrima d'Irlanda). La punta della penisola è quasi un'isola, separata da un abisso profondo, ora attraversato da un ponte che dà l'accesso ad una vecchia stazione di segnalazione, una stazione meteorologica, e un faro. La stazione di segnalazione, una volta costantemente presidiata, è oggi un museo che mostra gli sforzi pionieristici di Guglielmo Marconi nel campo delle comunicazioni radio transoceaniche.
Mizen Head is located at the extremity of a peninsula in West Cork, Ireland and is a major tourist attraction, noted for its dramatic cliff scenery. One of the main transatlantic shipping routes passes close by to the south, and Mizen Head was, for many seafarers together with the near Fastenet Rock Lighthouse, the last sight of homeland (Ireland's teardrop). The tip of the peninsula is almost an island, cut off by a deep chasm, now spanned by a bridge; this gives access to an old signalling station, a weather station, and a lighthouse. The signalling station, once permanently manned, is now a museum housing displays relating to the pioneering efforts of Guglielmo Marconi in the field of the transatlantic radio transmissions.