" DOES DOG URINE REALLY KILL TREES "

DOES DOG URINE REALLY KILL TREES

We love dogs, cats and trees.

We originally had a Chicago Hackberry Tree in our front yard when we moved to Equinelle, unfortunately the tree was compromised.

Repeated hits of dog urine peeled the bark off the tree and caused an open wound susceptible to disease. Then, a windstorm hit last year and the tree snapped in half. It was too weak and diseased to fight the wind and died.

A new tree recently was planted in place of the Chicago Hackberry, a Burrr Oak, but the problem remains. Dogs are already favouriting the tree. It will not be long before even the oak, known to live up to 150-250 years, can survive the burns caused by dog urine.

I would love this little tree to grow to old age. One way I can help it grow is to make dog owners aware of the potential harm of dog urine to trees.

Please, pet owners out there, take care when walking your pet.

Below is an excerpt from : MERRILL DOG PARK





"It’s easy to think, “a little pee from my dog can’t do harm to a huge tree.” Next time you go for a walk with your dog think about it. Your dog “marks” the tree, then another dog walks by smells your dog’s scent and hits it again, a few minutes later and another dog walks by, hits it again. This goes on multiple times a day 365 days a year. Some trees are hit more than others and the cycle begins. One dog’s scent ends up on a tree and other dogs just keep marking it, over and over until the tree is compromised."

Written by Christine MacLean



If interested in the article here is the link.



https://merrilldogpark.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/click-here-to-learn-more-about-why-dog-pee-is-harsh-on-trees.pdf

April Snow

April Snow

April Snow  6 x 6 Acrylic Anna 2024

April snow turned spring into a wintry scene.
Winter - just catching up with some lost time.

🎵 A BEAUTIFUL MUSICAL COVER OF YANNI  BY WHITE KNIGHT INSTRUMENTAL 

Vintage Wood

“If you have never had a garden you cannot understand, and if you have had a garden you will know that it would take a whole book to describe all that came to pass there.” 
We saw a deer yesterday; I think she brought us good luck
Poor thing couldn't find a way out of the maze. I sure hope she found a way to her home.

I miss the trees, the birds, and the wildlife. 

WIP 20 X 14 OVAL

“Perhaps it is the key to the garden!” 

― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Return To Happiness

Return To Happiness

 The scent of the lily was sweet, the old ghost's favorite spring flower. Small pure, white bells sprung up in May, and each spring, he anxiously awaited their arrival. There was a special place he had found. A country road passed by the back lot of a house, in the ditch across from the yard, and a patch of lilies grew amongst poison ivy. He had dug some up for his yard and planted two stone pots with moss in one spring, and he always picked large bouquets filling the house with their beautiful heavy scent. The beauty of the afterlife, flowers were always in season, and this Christmas couldn't be without fresh lilies. A long time ago, he had read a book titled "The Meaning of Flowers" and found the lily of the valley's meaning quite beautiful - Return to Happiness. 

"Believe nothing you hear and half of what you see." 

As I mentioned before, these paintings are almost complete. If I feel something I've missed in the process, I will return to it and add in hopefully, removing nothing else from the illustration. Editing not only the writing but the illustrations as well. Some may never make it into the book.

 A mother/daughter Ghostly Adventure, writing together for the first time about their favorite subject, the supernatural. 

♥️ Annabelle & M ♥️

The Road So Far iWIP

The Road So Far ... WIP oil painting ... still some details to add.

Remember I did say it takes me forever to do a painting but In the end I have to be happy with it. 

This painting has been a long time coming. My aunt who lives in Little Rock loves wolves and asked me to paint her one like 2 years ago ; the wolf happens to be her spirit animal. Anyway, I finally tackled the project. Never painted a wolf but so far I like him. I didn’t like the witch in the cloak so I removed it and gave her a dress. Still need to work on her hands ( a first again for painting hands) and shade her dress , face and shading the baby wolf and papa wolf. Hope you like the painting so far, Pat. Oh, and yes , Supernatural has inspired me in many ways as well as my daughter’s stories she is writing for Supernatural Fan Fiction. So proud of her. My writer in residence🎃♥️@BATANDMAGGIE

Watching the last season with my daughter and husband. Amazing show🧡🎃🧡🎃

DORMIR SOUS UN CYPRES

"Dormir sous un cyprès, or “to sleep under a cypress” means to be dead."

I left it for dead.

When I was inspired to paint The Quiet Garden, it was after I had come upon a beautiful garden behind The Saint John the Baptist Anglican Church in Richmond, Ontario, next to the church graveyard. But, I failed in capturing the serene landscape of The Quiet Garden and tossed the painting into the woodpile.

Sometimes, what I have in mind does not always turn out the way I conceive it in my mind. Now, I have arrived where the road leads to though not so sure how to go on. I will need to give it some thought before I make my next brush stroke.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,


And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


~Robert Frost

Sunday Morning Moon Through the Trees~ Melon ~Like! 🌚

Over the top of the mountains the moon

Rose unexpectedly In the sky, it drifted, A bird, a fairy! Blown out, round and sweet Melon~ Like! ~ Patrizia Gattaceca

The Mossycup Oak Candlestick

I adore trees and one of my very favorites is The Mossycup Oak.

When I found this little tree candlestick at my local thrift store , it immediately reminded me of the Mossycup Oak Tree. Come Fall,  I always collect it's beautiful large acorns, whimsically fringed at the edges of the cup which make lovely fairy hats. One thing I wish I had done when we first bought our house was plant some Oak trees but at the time I thought it took forever for them to grow, I was wrong. 

The Mossycup Oaks grow very fast!