merry solstice & thank you for getting me to here.

Christmas Fern Polystichum acrostichoides

You know how some years you seem to only be seeing what you've already seen and using the same skills you already knew the year before, but, then, other years your awareness grows like, well, a seed bed of bergamot and tall-yellow-composites?

Well, I've just had a TYC kind of year. Only because I met of a lot of good native plant folks who taught, inspired and encouraged me... or, at the very least, gave me their patience while they answered my questions. :)

Thank you to Evergreen Brick Works’ Native Plant Nursery and stewardship folks Claire Ellenwood, Annabel Por, Emma Rooney, Tristan Iafolla, Samantha Kinoshameg (I wouldn't have created this blog if I hadn't met the 5 of you), Caitlin Langlois and Stewart Chisholm; instructor / eco-restorationist / author Donna Havinga and "coffee shop" plant geeks Anne Bosart & Jagna Zaborska; Theresa MacKenzie and Ralph Toninger at the TRCA; City of Toronto’s Janette Harvey, Cheryl Post, Patricia Landry and Joanna Keddy. Thank you also to Todd Irvine at LEAF for the workshop; invasive plant pro's Steve Smith and Randy Westbrooks; Don Watcher John Routh (the benchmark for all Toronto bloggers) and Paul O’Hara for sending me / my blog encouragement. Also my thanks and admiration to Walsingham / Norfolk County folks Mary Gartshore, Peter Carson, Wendy Cridland, Paul Morris and Matthew Brock: your extensive suites of field naturalist, nursery and restoration skills are blow-my-mind-apart impressive and fascinating, and put to such inspiring and important use, yet some how you still find the time to offer your advice and observations so generously... I can't imagine better stewards or more beautiful lands in their trust.

And also, this seems like a good place to give my overdue thanks to Carolyn Scotchmer, Charles Kinsley, and also to Lorraine Johnson, whom I’ve only read, but if this site had a patron saint it would be her.

I would be one unrealized native-plant-girl adrift without each of you.

So thank you, warm wishes and all best in field season 2008.