December Celebrations for All

  • Post published:12/30/2017
  • Post comments:4 Comments

December celebrations for all. Today is December 23. The Hanukkah celebration has concluded, Christmas is two days away, and Kwanzaa is three days away. December is a month of celebrations with traditions that lead us through the days. As I prepared for our own family Christmas I suddenly realized that the celebration of each of these holidays involves plants, plants which are essential in one way or another. Hanukkah is a moveable feast because, like Christian Easter, it…

Houseplants in Print and in Pots

  • Post published:12/09/2017
  • Post comments:1 Comment

Houseplants: The Complete Guide to Choosing, Growing and Caring for Indoor Plants by Lisa Eldred Steinkopf (Cool Springs Press $30) has a cool green and white cover

Thanksgiving Dinner – Granddaughter Hosts

There has been a lot of emailing and telephoning among the women in my family as we plan the Thanksgiving dinner. This year, for the first time, it will be granddaughter Tracy and her husband who are hosting the feast. I got to thinking about where the makings of our holiday meal had come from over the years. When I was very young we lived on my Uncle Wally’s farm and much of our food was produced on…

Groundhog Day, Candlemas or Cross Quarter Day

  • Post published:02/02/2016
  • Post comments:6 Comments

February 2 is best known in the U.S. as Groundhog Day, the day Punxatawny Phil comes out of his burrow to see if he has a shadow and let us know if spring will be early. No shadow today! An early spring!  Of course, here in western Massachusetts we haven't had much of a winter.  I have been worring that  winter will arrive in April but I will trust in Punxatawny Phil. Candlemas is also a Christian holiday…

Christmas Trees – Large and Small

  • Post published:01/03/2016
  • Post comments:3 Comments

One of the very first things I liked about our new house, or more specifically our new yard, was the very tall evergreen in the northwestern corner. It is a magnificent tree that might be 30 feet tall with graceful pendulous branches. On our first drive past the house I admired this beautiful tree in the backyard. It is not like any tree we had in view in Heath. There most of the conifers are pines or hemlocks.…

Celebrating Eight Years of Blogging – Giveaway

This year Cool Springs Press is helping me celebrate my eight years of blogging with a Giveaway of Terrariums: Gardens Under Glass. These have been rich years for me be cause my blog has brought so many wonderful gardeners into my life, and so many beautiful gardening experiences. With other garden bloggers I travelled to Buffalo and to Seattle and saw beautiful gardens, large and small and all different. This past summer I attended a Garden Writers Conference…

Is Your Poinsettia an Annual or Perennial?

  • Post published:01/13/2015
  • Post comments:4 Comments

Do you treat your Christmas Poinsettia as an annual, and throw it way when it finally loses all those beautiful bracts, or do you care for it, baby it, and suffer its dormancy in order to bring it back into glorious bloom next December? Can you guess which approach I take with a Christmas poinsettia? I'll give you a hint. This is my second poinsettia, a gift from my husband. I left my first one in the car.…

Mary Gardens for Meditation

  • Post published:12/08/2014
  • Post comments:5 Comments

Mary Gardens do not bloom in December, but since the liturgical season of Advent is a time of waiting for the momentous birth of the Christ Child I cannot help but think about what a confusing time it must have been for Mary. All mothers waiting for the arrival of their first child often feel confused because emotions can range from frightened to joyous. What will the birth be like? What will the baby be like? What will…

An Incredible Tale of Squash Strength

  • Post published:11/29/2014
  • Post comments:3 Comments

Turkey, squash and pumpkin pie are the Thanksgiving triumvirate. And we will give thanks for all three, as well as the oyster stuffing, creamed onions and all the rest. A groaning board indeed to stand in for all the blessings the year has brought us. Thanksgiving has been a tradition from our founding, but the harvest has been marked with festivities probably since the invention of agriculture. Squash was probably a part of our first thanksgiving meal because…

The Road to Thanksgiving

  • Post published:11/26/2014
  • Post comments:2 Comments

The road to Thanksgiving leads from our house to our daughter's house. We were trying to beat the big snowstorm but we met it on the way. Fortunately, the snow did not get beyond pretty by the time we arrived. Our assignment for the Family Feast was to bring a farm fresh turkey, cranberry sauce and cranberry bread and my famous Green Apple Mincemeat Pie. Still a lot to do before the rest of the family arrives tomorrow.…