Garden Channel

One of my favorite places to paddle a canoe is in the garden channel, a wetlands area between mainland and an island near our family cottage in Canada. I actually just love to float in the canoe looking around at the beautiful scenery and everything else that the wetlands has to offer. I have never seen such large tadpoles or the mixture of colorful dragonflies in any other place. A variety of wildflowers, water lilies, frogs, fish, birds, beavers, muskrats, turtles, cattails and many other cool things can been seen if you go slowly though this natural wonderland. I have had been blessed to go to this special place for almost 35 years and I am still fascinated by what I see.

For many years the water level has been low and we have not been able to get through the narrow opening that goes all the way through the channel and around the island. However, this year the water level was a little bit higher and my husband and I were determined to get through. We barely made it and had to push the canoe through thick reeds and about 8 inches of muddy water for about 50 feet, but we made it! Ahhh...I can't wait until next summer to hopefully do this again!

I made my "Garden Channel" basket while at the cottage this summer. I used natural brown and dyed green Longleaf pine needles, sweetgrass, brown artificial sinew, green aventurine rondelle beads and a green and brown duck and cattail pottery base.

Enjoy!

Note: The beautiful basket base that I used in this basket was made by Pamela Zimmerman. Click here to go to her Etsy Shop.