MOTHER'S MONTH

With the various promises made by politicians over the last few weeks, it occurs to us there is an obvious, uncontroversial opportunity to please a lot of people by extending Mother’s Day to the whole month of May.  

Who could argue with that? Given how the demographic of our readership skews, we know that this is maybe even an obvious point.

We are feeling particularly sentimental about Mother’s Day this year as Ben’s wife Sam brought their second child into the world on April 13^th, Anne Elizabeth Cullen. Anne entered the world exactly as we could hope: straight into her mother’s arms at 11:07 am and home to meet her big brother Peter by about 3:00 that afternoon. 

So, mothering is a great theme for the season, not just because Ben’s other kid Peter also has a birthday later this month. Mother Nature is indeed springing with life, from the heavy buds on the magnolia to the Canada Goose and her gosling holding up traffic as they cross the road, these are the sights of spring. 

Speaking of geese, there was a lot of interest from readers regarding Ben’s pond project in our February newsletter. Ben has some property in Flesherton just outside the Beaver Valley where, among other things, he is focused on creating a bit of a natural oasis.

So far. that means adding over 750 native trees to the existing thicket of sugar maples, cedars, and dogwoods. As we know, nothing attracts biodiversity like water, so Ben connected with the folks at Ducks Unlimited Canada to partner on a wetland design that would be suitable.

Ben learned plenty from walking the property with their staff conservationists who developed the design and explained that mother ducks are territorial and will only nest on a pond if they have it to themselves, which is why populations decline when we destroy habitat.

While ponds are complex ecosystems, it is also astonishingly simple: dig a hole, let it fill with water, and a mother duck will likely show up and do her thing. 

Excavators opened up the half acre pond to Ducks’ specifications back in August and so far the clay soil appears to be holding water and attracting a diversity of migratory birds.

For his part, Ben is establishing a naturalized border and ordered a 20 ft aerating windmill which arrived this week and will maintain circulation throughout the summer. The folks at Ducks Unlimited seem happy enough they have agreed to a second, 1.2 acre pond at another end of the property for 2024.

This experience of habitat building and pond development has been a learning experience and also confirmed a lot of what we think we know: sometimes we just have to make space and let mothers do the incredible things that they do.



Happy Mother’s Month. 

Mark and Ben Cullen

Merchants of beauty and beans.

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