It’s not yet 9 am and the temperature is slowly climbing. It was 10 degrees when we got up, but now it is almost 15 degrees with still gusting winds. Still it is beautiful outside.
The sun is shining and I love admiring the beauty of the landscape. From inside. Close to the fire.
You don’t need to go outside to take this last chance to enter my drawing for Right Rose Right Place by Peter Schneider and 2 dozen CowPots for spring seed starting. Leave a comment by midnight tonight and I’ll have my drawing tomorrow morning. I want to thank Storey Publishing and Liquid Fence for making this celebratory Giveaway possible. Many thanks to both of them.
And the wind is blowing. I barely made it out to the hen house and back.
This is a day for staying home, browsing through Right Rose Right Place by Peter Schneider and considering what roses I want to add to The Rose Walk in the spring. My daughter Kate in Texas suggested I build a wish list on the Antique Rose Emporium website. So I did. I hope someone looks.
You all have a chance to win that excellent book, Right Rose Right Place if you leave a comment before midnight December 11. On December 12 I’ll have a drawing and the winner will get the book and 2 dozen CowPots for their spring seed starting. Storey Publishing and Liquid Fence have made this celebration of my second blogoversary possible. Thank you both.
Right Rose Right Place
Because it is my second Blogoversary, both Storey Publishing and CowPots are making it possible to have two Give Aways. Right Rose, Right Place: 359 Perfect Choices by rose lover and expert Peter Schneider will be a lovely and useful holiday treat for any rose gardener, or would-be rose gardener. There is advice here for the experienced gardener as well as for the novice. I have already added a number of roses I never knew about to my must-have list. They are all marked reliable because I still don’t trust my warming climate. Schneider talks about every kind of rose, old roses, modern roses, climbing roses, tree roses, and roses for containers. Just leave a comment and I’ll enter your name in a drawing that will be held in the morning on Saturday, December 12.
CowPots
But the CowPots people also wanted to help me celebrate twice. I have another two dozen Cowpots to send along with Right Rose Right Place. Peat pots for seed starting help to deplete peat bogs, but cow manure is definitley a renewable resources. CowPots are made of composted manure that will add fertilizer to your garden when they are planted, and will get your seeds off to a really good start. They are made by the Liquid Fence people who also make a line of products like Deer and Rabbit Repellent. I’ll be using this as the winter progresses to keep hungry deer away from my rhododendrons.
For those of you who have begun your holiday shopping, I have a local resource – Artspace on Mill Street is holding its annual Holiday Shop with gifts made by local artists and artisans. You will not be surpised to know that I could not resist notecards featuring a porcupine.
I’d rather have porcupines on cardstock rather than in my compost bin and keep them as a lovely country memory. There are lots of other beautiful cards for sale, as well as art prints, blown glass ornaments, beautiful candles, jewelry, honey, CDs by local musicians and much much more. Gifts are priced under $50 with many under $25. Shopping at Artspace supports arts education and artists – and the local economy. The Holiday Shop will continue through December 13, every day, 10 am to 6 pm except Sunday 1-6 pm.
When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far,
in that full might of glory.
With one melodious voice they sweetly did rejoice
and sang the wonderous story,
sang, praising God on high, enthroned above the sky,
and his fair mother Mary.
The eagle left his lair, came winging through the air,
his message loud arising.
And to his joyous cry the sparrow made reply,
his answer sweetly voicing.
“Overcome are death and strife, this night is born new life”,
the robin sang rejoicing.
When rose the eastern star, the birds came from a-far.
The Carol of the Birds
Yesterday the thermometer made it up to 60 degrees, but I went out to bring in the greens and arrange my annual 12 foot ’swag’ above the big south windows in our living room. One year I realized I had a number of Christmas tree bird ornaments – which deserved more attention. Some birds are feathered (and I use the word loosely) bought at Michael’s craft store, some are hand carved and painted by a man in our church and some are sparkly birds with brushy tails. Some are tiny, and some are quite large/life size. I’ve hung a few sparkly pine cones ornaments as well. Aside from our tree this constitutes the major part of our holiday decoration.
And so the Christmas preparations begin. I have an extra celebration on December 6, the Feast of St. Nicholas, when instead of cookies or a shoe full of coal some lucky gardener will win Nan Ondra’s new book, The Perennial Care Manual, and 2 dozen CowPots. You still have a chance to leave a comment, and tell me about one of your favorite books, or seed starting tip. Entries close at midnight tomorrow.
Now that Thanksgiving has been celebrated in riotous style (23 for dinner!) it is time to move on to the next celebration.
On December 6, 2007 I asked myself the question, as posed by another blog, whether I was too old to blog. The only way to find out was to begin the commonweeder.com, and I guess the answer is no, because I am still standing. Or kneeling, bending, stretching, digging, weeding, in the garden and sitting at the computer.
To help me celebrate this blogoversary two companies are giving YOU a present. My very premiere post, coming during a very wintery season, was about a book, Green Thoughts by Eleanor Perenyi. The particular section was about the approach of two very different gardeners, E.F. Benson and Henry James to the same garden. I have written about many books since then including excellent volumes by Storey Publications who has given me The Perennial Care Manual, the newest book by our sister blogger Nan Ondra to Giveaway. I challenge you to come up with a question that Nan doesn’t answer in this useful and beautiful book with photos by Rob Cardillo.
CowPots
IN ADDITION! Liquid Fence is giving away two sets of CowPots. There is a box of 3 inch CowPots, and a box of 4 inch Cowpots that will give an extra boost to seed starting in the spring. You see the number two is key in all these gifts. CowPots are a way to get our plants off to a good start, and avoid transplant shock because the seedling in its CowPot goes right into the garden where it will continue to nourish the seedling with its composted cow manure. Unlike peat pots, CowPots are made from an ever renewable resource!
Just leave a comment here and tell me what garden book you have most enjoyed or found especially useful OR the best seed starting tip you ever got. On my blogoversary, December 6, I will draw the winning name. Once I have the winner’s home address I will put the book and CowPots in the mail. Then I will also announce a second Giveaway for the following week. A different book, and more CowPots.
On December 6 last year I launched the Commonweeder blog. I had only discovered garden blogs a short time before and I was fascinated by a subject that was commented on at length (I can’t remember which blog) about whether older experienced gardeners were too old to blog or read blogs – and thus help younger gardeners. Well, of course, I never feel too old to do anything I want to do, so I began a new life as the Commonweeder.
It has been a wonderful year. I can’t say I have been the swiftest student in the flower beds or at the computer desk, but I have learned a lot. My garden does show the benefits of what I have learned about plants and issues in the garden and general environment.
Along the way I have been instructed by the Garden Ranters, and even got to be a virtual colleague of Susan Harris for a while at Organic Gardener, an Australian website. Kathy Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening inspired by her example and with her blogging tips. I’ve participated in Bloom Day and Muse Day, First Snowfall of the Year and Blog Action Day. I’m so grateful to the bloggers who invent these days and provide a super way a making new friends.
I’ve checked out Blotanical and all the Mouse and Trowel winning blogs to see what I can learn about content and design. Of course, I can’t begin to talk about the pleasures I’ve had visiting and being visited by garden bloggers all over the world. It has been amazing and delightful.
By trial and error and conversation with techie people in my neighborhood, most especially my own personal tech support, my husband. I’ve learned how to take, adjust and import pictures, add links, run Google analytics (WOW!)
The photo above is our house seen from The Rose Walk, with the flowery mead I call a lawn, embroidered with dandelions, that most commonweed. It would persist, even if I tried to weed it out which is one of the reasons I like it. Beautiful and persevering. Not a bad model.
Now it is on to my second year of blogging pleasure. Thank you, all you readers.
Blogoversary, Garden Books | Pat December 11, 2009 | 
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