Garden Pilgrimage...Midwinter Bird Garden

Not many of us venture out on garden pilgrimages this time of year, nor do we visit our friends' gardens when the setting is one of snow-covered tables and chairs. Our garden visits are restricted to a view through a window, maybe behind the gossamer steam rising from a cup of hot cocoa.

But theTaylors' garden is an exception. A mid-winter visit here is a magical event. LeLane's garden, as photographed by her daughter Mona, is a bird lover's paradise.

Interspersed through the photo montage, LeLane's words paint their own picture of the family's home on Kentucky Lake, KY.

I doubt we'll make another garden pilgrimage until spring, but this garden makes for a beautiful winter's day visit.


It is a very nice resort. Probably the best on the lake. It is mostly new due to storms, tornado's and ice storms. The initial resort was here when my folks bought this lot and built a 4 room house in 1957. Our home is old, but has many extensions, as my dad build on 3 garages, and two porches. We turned one into a beautiful sitting room. It is my room, but you are welcome to visit. HA It was a porch where Mona and her grandad spent many hours with the breeze blowing just enjoying each other's company.

We have a boat dock and a pontoon that we tie to the dock every summer. The geese are beautiful and the yard is full of them. We have plum trees that bear much fruit around the 4th of July.

Mom planted cedars all along the fence to keep the neighbors from seeing. Those cedars are old, but still beautiful. Many bird feeders both winter and summer. Although they would eat us out of house and home, I don't always feed them all year. We have plenty of neighbors to help feed them in the summer.

If we step out our roadside door, we can see across Kentucky Lake. Our lake side is Buckhorn Bay. There is a boat ramp over there also. It is just one beautiful place. Next to us on the other side of the fence are cabins that they rent each summer and a big two story lodge.

Our house is old, but very comfortable. My folks loved it here. They retired and moved here in 1980. Dad passed away in 1991, and Mom stayed until she was really too old to live alone. We were both retired so we moved here with her in 2000.

At the time we moved here, we didn't know how much we would love the water, birds, and atmosphere. It is as close to heaven as you can get without being there.