June2013 016For the rehabbed backyard, I bought two types of pots – plastic-composites and ceramics. The image on the left are the two glazed ceramics, both have ever-green shrubs in them. The thing sticking out of the ginger jar is a copper dragonfly on a long, thick wire.

The third item is a hollow, blue, ceramic sphere that I bought in Oakville, in 2001 after the funeral. I bought it in memory of Jo’ who had died the previous Saturday and was buried Tuesday, July 3. It’s my monument, my grave-marker for my baby sister.

The new side-yard looks nothing like the old. The flower-bed is gone and in its place is a new wooden fence, a new brick platform in front of the back-door and eventually new cement down the alley. The new plastic-composites replace the flower-bed. (I’ve decided to plant the replacement snowdrops in among the blueberry. They are the only things I miss from the old flower-bed.) The new is very formal, very linear and very minimal. Characteristics that I highly value. And except for the lost snowdrops, a welcome change.