Autumn has officially arrived and to mark the occasion I thought it would be fun to reminisce a little. Here are a few of my favourite moments, relating to some of the blog posts I published this summer, that just go to prove that life certainly is like a box of chocolates… starting with the pumpkin-sized fungus.

A puffball for the ages

Just days after I published a post about all the various fungi that I’d discovered on our woodland property (Creepy But Still A Fungi), the above humungous puffball landed on our doorstep. Let me explain. Giant Puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) are common in Ontario (though, so far, not on our property) and they’re not only an edible mushroom, they’re actually prized by some adventuresome eaters, including my guy’s father. A very thoughtful neighbour of ours knew this and if he found one he’d bring it over and quietly leave it on our doorstep.

As puffballs go, however, this one was a doozy. I took the above snapshot with a wine bottle next to it for some sense of size. Picking it up was truly an odd experience. With a surface that feels very much like human skin and an uncanny weight, it was akin to cradling some alien life form, which, I suppose, is kind of what it is.

And, no, we didn’t eat it.

A new orchid! At least for me.

We’re very lucky to live on the Bruce Peninsula, a unique area in southwestern Ontario that boasts, among other things, a breathtaking assortment of wildflowers, including native orchids. One of my favourite places to hunt down new (at least to me) flowers is the Oliphant fen which I’ve mentioned many times in previous posts. I’ve found plenty of Grass Pinks (Calopogon tuberosus) (above, right) in my haunts but, in early July, I found a Rose Pogonia orchid (Pogonia ophioglossoides) (above, left). A native of a fair amount of eastern Canada, from Ontario to Newfoundland, this gorgeous little beauty is not as bright as Grass Pinks but still a rosy pink colour. It’s a stand out, not only for its delicate colouring but for the fact that it has a lovely fragrance–an unusual characteristic in the orchid world.

Bucket list adventures with bonuses

Maybe the feeling that the worst of the pandemic was behind us inspired me to stop talking about my gardens-to-visit bucket list and actually go see them. So I travelled to three of them which I enthusiastically posted about earlier this summer.

My guy and I ventured out to Vancouver Island to visit Butchart Gardens (above) in April. I was in awe with this place and gushed about it in a post ( Spring Astonishes In A 100+ Year Old Garden). But what I hadn’t shared with you was that during our stay at a lovely old mansion-house-turned-hotel in downtown Victoria, we had to deal with a pair of peeping toms.

Landing on the old school window air conditioner with a heart-stopping clatter, these two gulls proceeded to peer into our window for pretty much most of the time we were in our room. I’m guessing a previous guest had been feeding them and they just assumed we’d carry on the service. We didn’t mind, much. But it did get a little disconcerting when we were trying to have a nice, relaxing glass of wine before heading out to dinner and every move we made was tracked by two pairs of beady eyes.

Snooping in the kitchen of the rich and famous

My visit to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania (the garden fountains shown below) later in June thankfully didn’t involve unwanted attention. But I made some wonderful discoveries I wasn’t at all expecting.

For instance, my friend and I got to have a really good snoop through the home (now a museum) of Pierre Du Pont (yes, that Du Pont of the multinational chemical company DuPont).

There’s something very touching about a home, no matter how long it’s been preserved, still and silent, as a museum. Longwood Gardens was, first and foremost, a garden (albeit a huge one created with cartloads of cash) that a family once enjoyed as their own. Their home (above) revealed a lot about them, notably just how different their lives were from mine and most likely yours, too. For instance, the kitchen has a crazy amount of drawers and cup boards, presumably for storing massive amounts of cookware, dinnerware and linens for all those fancy dinner parties. I was particularly impressed by the safe, however (below, right). Doesn’t every one need a bank vault in the kitchen to store their silverware?

And discovering what I didn’t know I wanted

Chanticleer (shown below), also in Pennsylvania and also visited by me and my friend this past June, was a place that I will always look back on with very happy memories. I loved it so much I wrote two posts about it (The Pleasures of Chanticleer, Part 1 and Part 2) and, clearly, I still can’t stop raving about it.

When I wrote about She Sheds, later in August (She Sheds Sell So Much More), I didn’t go into what my own she shed might look like. Honestly, they seem to be more work than they’re worth. But if I had all the acreage and the resources and the money to just build one anyway–just because!–I’m pretty certain it would look a lot like one of the utterly charming pool pavilions (above) at Chanticleer.

So long, summer

Here’s to the end of an amazing summer. I hope your summer was filled with fun and moments of awesomeness, too. I’d love to hear about them! For anyone reading this post who lives in the Southern Hemisphere: Cheers to you. The season of growing boldly awaits!