Skywatch and Thanksgiving

  • Post published:11/28/2008
  • Post comments:6 Comments

Yesterday we went to middle daughter's house for the family feast. Lots of family was there and nine year old Amanda took charge of the camera and she kept clicking away all day. The day is well documented: the basketball games on the driveway, dodgeball (?) on the lawn, chatting on the deck, cooking in the kitchen, eating in the dining room, football on the living room TV and Bibi, the French bulldog everywhere.The day was mild which…

Gardener’s Latin

  • Post published:11/24/2008
  • Post comments:4 Comments

A gardening friend once told me that what he loved about gardening (besides playing in the dirt) was that it led you down the roads of history and literature and science. Gardening can lead you anywhere.One place it can lead is to a modest study of Latin. I was proud that I got through high school without studying Latin, but becoming a gardener made me mourn that lost opportunity. I have been making up for it ever since.Recently…

A Final Harvest

  • Post published:11/23/2008
  • Post comments:0 Comments

The sun was shining when I went out to the garden, but temperatures were in the teens. It was past time to pick the last Brussels sprouts. I like to serve these, freshly picked, at Thanksgiving, but this year we will have them tonight, and give thanks for as long a season as we have had.

All Praise the Potato

  • Post published:11/21/2008
  • Post comments:2 Comments

As we prepare for our Thanksgiving feats I cannot imagine one table that will include potatoes. In my family we always have mashed potatoes and candied sweet potatoes.We don’t often think about the value of the potato; it is so basic to our diet. Many think of meat and potatoes as the beginning of any menu, but it was not always so.The potato originated in Peru 4,000 or 7,000 or possibly even 14,000 years ago. The Spanish conquistadors…

Bloom Day November 2008

  • Post published:11/15/2008
  • Post comments:6 Comments

Do buds count? My abutilon, parlor maple is hardly ever without a coral flower or two, but not today.And the Thanksgiving cactus knows it isn't quite Thanksgiving.The cyclamen is doing its best. One bloom for bloom day.

Now I’m Ready for Snow!

  • Post published:11/09/2008
  • Post comments:4 Comments

We did have a snowfall that covered the ground already this fall, but this is a March 9 photo of our road this spring. It is the merest reminder of snowfalls that we had in the past. I told one of those stories to my friends at Garden Rant last week and won a Troy Built Snowblower!My story is of an April (yes, April) blizzard in 1982 (and I think I have the year right). It was the…

Fallscaping: Extending Your Garden Season into Autumn

  • Post published:11/05/2008
  • Post comments:2 Comments

A few golden trees at the edge of the field are tossing in the rainy wind today, but in general, most of the autumn color is gone from my garden. I was happy that the asters and dahlias stayed in bloom for so long. I’m happy with the rich red of my sourwood, of the sweetspire, the burgundy cotinus and the now-bare blueberries. It struck me that I have a pretty good fall garden.However, upon spending a few…

Muse Day November

  • Post published:11/01/2008
  • Post comments:8 Comments

Spring and FallBy Gerard Manley Hopkinsto a young childMargaret are you grievingOver Goldengrove unleaving?Leaves, like the things of man, youWith your fresh thoughts care for,Ah! As the heart grows olderIt will come to such sights colderBy and by, nor spare a sighThough worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie:And yet you will weep and know why.Now mo matter, child, the name:Sorrow’s springs are the same.Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressedWhat heart heard of, ghost guessed:It is the blight man…