sympatico and blue spruce: goodbye and good riddance

Technical problems continue to such a ridiculous degree that even my cool headed tech guy Brian lost it yesterday with the confusing, contradictory stuff coming from Sympatico. And things still don’t work properly. So next Wed, October 17, I switch to Rogers for everything.? It can’t be worse, please please tell me it can’t get worse.

There’ll be a new contact address down there at the bottom if you want to get in touch with me.? I guess I’ll have to get in touch with everyone I’ve ever met.? Quel drag.

But though all was not murk and mire this week, garden etiquette reared it’s ugly head.? I think of myself as always being kindly about other people’s gardens.? I would never criticize outright, perhaps make a kindly suggestion such as “Get rid of that entire border and this place will be amazing”? Nothing devastating.? But the other day I learned a new lesson in plant analysis.

We were on our way to a small dinner party at Anna and Julian’s place.? As we walked up the toward the steps I said to my adorable one:? “That is the worst blue spruce I’ve ever seen.”? It’s a battered creature that had been leaned upon by another tree (now gone), and looks just a little bit like a TV version of a reaper but more scraggly.

Blue spruce happens to be an anathema of mine because it’s one of those trees Toronto’s burgers plunked in front of their houses 60 odd years ago without thinking how big they’d get, what they’d scoop in soil nutrients and how little light they let through. Blue spruces make me wonder why people get sentimental about plants.? Why it’s so hard for us to cut down inappropriate plants including trees. Put them out of their misery I say.

Well, Anna answers the door with “And it might be the worst tree in all of the world for that matter.”?? Ooops you can hear street comments through the? front door. I will now feel guilty about this gaffe for about the next twenty years. Anna is Anna Porter who has written an amazing book which she is out flogging right now.? She loves her sad old tree. It’s none of my business.

I have taken an oath never to speak a critical word about anyone’s trees, unless I’m hired to do it. Mum’s the word from now on.? So if I’m coming to your garden on one of my speaking trips in the next year, I have one thing to say about it: It’s absolutely terrific.