Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Buddha

In the morning of 25 September 2015, six of us were lucky enough to explore a tiny part of the land belonging to Frances and David Dover. For two of us (myself and our leader), this was our second visit - for the rest, it was a first time there. I will copy and paste the description I posted on Flickr from our first visit to the Dover's acreage, on 7 August 2015: "Yesterday, 7 August 2015, four of us were extremely fortunate to have the chance to visit the home and highly varied topographic 62-acre property belonging to Frances and David Dover. We felt honoured and privileged to meet and spend time with Frances and David, and also their daughter Carolyn and her husband Clair. A delightful family who welcomed us so warmly into their home and land. This acreage of grassland, forest, rolling hills - and special gardens - is not far from Millarville, SW of Calgary. In fact, it's in an area that I often drive through when I only have time for, or only feel like doing, a short drive. Amazing what little gems exist out there. This is not just a beautiful property, but is very special for various reasons. For one thing, read any history of Alberta and you will find the Dover family, including David's mother, Mary Dover. Second, among the trees and open "lawns", there are Peony flower beds, containing 100-150 heritage Peonies, each one different, that have now multiplied to more than 300 plants. Unfortunately, they bloomed a couple of weeks early this year, and all the flowers had gone to seed. Another open area had a different kind of ground cover - Thyme, which smelled wonderful. If I remember correctly, this was the open space where the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra performed on one occasion! There are two large ponds on the property and another smaller area of water that they hope to turn into a Japanese Garden. It was while walking around the latter that a large brown 'shape' could be seen through the dense trees - a handsome Moose buck. I will look properly at the four or so photos I just managed to get and will slip one of them into my photostream sometime soon, just for the record, definitely not for the photo quality : ) This was also where a Great Horned Owl was seen flying through the trees by some of us (not me, ha!). There are grassy paths winding through the acreage, up and down hill, that take David seven hours to mow. They are not pristine, velvety paths, but instead, they seem to take nothing away from the wildness of the whole area. One of the animals that have passed through is the Cougar. In fact, several years ago, I saw a video taken on a nearby (or adjacent?) property, where a 'kill' and night-time camera had been set up and a total of six different Cougar individuals were seen! Even the Dover's home is unique and beautiful. It is completely built of concrete - floors, walls, ceilings, roof, deck, and so on. A Hummingbird feeder and regular bird feeders, set up on the patio, attract a variety of birds. We sat on the patio after our walk to eat our packed lunches - and to enjoy a delicious Orange Pound Cake that Frances had made for us, along with refreshing Iced Tea - thank you so much for this, Frances! Yesterday, while I was waiting for one of three tiny Calliope Hummingbirds to come back, I was lucky enough to see a little Mountain Chickadee, along with many Pine Siskins. We could also hear a Red-tailed Hawk in the area. There is just so much I could write about this visit and family. Instead, or for now, I will add several links to more information on the Internet. This was a memorable day for us. Thank you so much, Frances and David, Carolyn and Clair, for being so kind and welcoming us into your home and gardens. books.google.ca/books?id=Tr36Tq_gadcC&pg=PA290&lp... www.westernwheel.com/article/20110727/WHE06/307279983/-1/... David's mother, Mary Dover (her father was A. E. Cross), was "a dynamic and distinguished Calgarian, particularly known for her work with the military during World War II." As well as being an army officer, and an alderman, she was also a preservationist. See the following link. www.albertachampions.org/champions-mary_dover.htm#.VcY1KP... ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesMainResults.aspx?XC=/searc... glencoe.org/documents/10184/637479/The-History-of-Elbow-P... page 44-45 ." After our visit to the Dover's on 25 September 2015, I decided to drive eastwards along a road that I'd never driven before, until I reached the main road going south. From there, it was a fairly short drive to the Saskatoon Farm. As usual, I wandered round the grounds with my camera and then, when I was ready to leave, I ordered a pizza to take home with me. The inside of the gift shop has recently been renovated and they now have a pizza oven and area.

"In 1989, the book "In A Canadian Garden" was written by Nicole Eaton and Hilary Weston. They chose to include Mary Dover's (David Dover's mother's) garden. They wrote: "This garden deserves particular mention here because, to more traditional gardeners, it may not seem at first glance to be a garden at all. Mary cherishes the wilderness of the landscape in which she lives, and she has chosen to "edit" it rather than tame it. With the exception of one extravagant planting of peonies, she has added only small traces of herself - a fruit tree here, a clump of flowers there - to the land. Among other plants, she brought in "a triple line of 100 peonies." These heritage peonies have happily seeded over the past decades and now number nearly 300 plants. They thrive on the land in the Canadian Foothills and produce offspring each Spring as the snow melts and the ground thaws. There is a growing interest in the Dover Gardens in Millarville, Alberta and Mary's son (David) and his wife (Frances) are working to maintain that wildness "edited" not tamed. At a time when development attempts to move into the "emerald valley", Dover Gardens is being seen increasingly as an oasis, providing tranquility to the land and for its visitors. Today, the 300 plants range from single blooms, like Scarlet O'Hara, to the semi-doubles, such as Buckeye Belle, to the double blooms in soft pink, including Pink Chiffon, to the Japanese orchid pink petals, with narrow shredded darker pink petals of the peony identified as Do Tell. This year, several of the majestic deep red single blooms in plants grew taller than the pink varieties, with the stems stretching out and upward." From a reprint from the Canadian Peony Society • November 2014: Peonies Bring Majesty to the Canadian Foothills, by Frances Jackson Dover. This photo shows one of the Peony flower beds, with a stone statue of Buddha that travelled here from the Far East. Unfortunately, they bloomed a couple of weeks early this year, and all the flowers had gone to seed by the time of our visit on 7 August 2015. For more information about the wonderful day we spent with Frances and David Dover (his mother was Mary Dover), their daughter Carolyn and her husband Clair, check the Hummingbird photo I posted today, at the following link. flic.kr/p/xbAikB