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Alison Innes

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At A Snail’s Pace

Spring Wildlife

InnesAlison on Instagram

Osage orange, aka monkey balls 😂 Its Latin name is magnificent: Maclura pomifera. One of its common names, Osage orange, was given to it by white colonizers after the Osage people, a Native American tribe from the Ohio valley, who valued its durable wood for bows. It’s an interesting tree, used by settlers as a hedgerow due to its thorny branches (although its inedible fruit poses a choking hazard to livestock.) The species has separate male and female trees, and can be propagated by cuttings or seed. It’s native to the southern US and is now naturalized across the US and Ontario. There’s a line of them at Brock near the garden and you can find their fruits on the ground at this time of year. 🍂 I popped up to the garden for some quick fall maintenance this morning. I don’t do much tidying, as I like to keep my garden wildlife friendly. Hollow stems provide winter homes for insects and catch blowing leaves; leaf litter protects the soil and feeds it as the underground livestock munch it down. I am quite pleased with my garden soil—lots of organic mulch (straw, leaves, comfrey) and compost keep the critters happy and well fed. The few worms I saw today were understandably sluggish, and I was sure to tuck the cocoon safely under the mulch again when I finished planting the garlic. I don’t know how it will do—I’ve planted it much later than usual and half the cloves I used were either leftovers from last year that were beginning to sprout or some tiny ones from this year. I planted some big, fat, fresh, cloves to be safe, too. Gardening is an experiment, so we’ll see what happens in the spring! 🍂 The garden is all tucked in for winter with a thick layer of wind-blown leaves from surrounding oaks, maples—and osaga orange trees. —— Source: http://old.post-gazette.com/magazine/20000902monkeyballs6.asp Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclura_pomifera —— #brocku #brockuniversity #brockucommunitygarden #brockusustainability #osageorange #hedgeapple #monkeyballs #wintergarden #maclurapomiferum #flowerreport

#poppy #remembrance day #wewillrememberthem #lestweforget

Forgot to get a photo of this finished before I sent it off to a new home! I switched it up to an impasto style. I’ve donated it for Brock’s United Way fundraising. Some smart person will win it at Friday’s trivia night! (I just hope they like it.) —— #brocku #unitedway #brockunitedway #oilpainting #niagaraartist #canadianartist

Finished my calavera. This one will be a gift; next year I might do one to keep. —— #calavera #diadelosmuertos #sugarskull #acrylicpainting #acrylic #dayofthedeadart #dayofthedead

hibou

hibou

InnesAlison on Flickr

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