Cottage Ornee

The view from my bedroom window on January 27, 2012.

White Birch and Green Conifers

Ice is heavy.

Iced branches

And to think I was planning to collect forsythia branches to force today.

Yellow Birch

View from the Welcoming Platform. I have photographed this tree in every season and every weather. It is always beautiful.

Snowy stream 1-25-12

Temperatures hover at 32 degrees and the stream keeps flowing.

January's Wolf Moon

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Then after supper we sat watching the snow fall, blowing across the lawn. By now over eight inches has collected on the Welcoming Platform and the TV weatherman says we may get another foot of snow before dawn.

October 29 7 p.m.

ADDENDUM

October 30, 2011 8 a.m.

Sixteen inches of snow and 32 degrees! Not bad for the first snowfall of the year.

Gingko

This fall we have truly been having a ‘golden season.’ The weather has been relatively mild, if rainy, and the usual flame of the maples was muted.

But a golden glow shone on every sunny day. But today we got rain – and a surprise.

This photo was taken around 4 p.m on Thursday.

October 27 9 p.m.

October 27 10 p.m.

October 28 7:15 a.m.

October 28 7:30 am

So I came home and looked at my peonies, which will need a lot of weeding as well as cutting back.

Guan Yin Mian tree peony

Of course, the tree peonies which produce large blossoms like Guan Yin Mian on shrubby stems, that do not die down to the ground, and that bloom earlier in the spring than the herbaceous peonies, do not need cutting back but they will need some weeding.

Hydrangea 'Pinky Winky'

My year old ‘Pinky Winky’ hydrangea will need some snipping around its base, too. Fall chores must begin. But not today. It’s raining.

September 21, 2011

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Because former members of the group were invited to this celebration we did not have enough room in our dining rooms, so we appealed to Jan and Cal who own what I call the Party Barn because it has been the venue for Friends of the Library potlucks.  They agreed to provide the venue AND be Guest Eaters for the evening.

During a period in the kitchen where Jan and Cal were watching the cooks at their work, stories were told. Heath Stories. When I worked at Greenfield Community College Monday mornings were all about debriefing what we had each done over the weekend.  It got to the point where after describing some Heath adventure my  colleagues  would say “Is this another Heath  story?” suggesting that I exaggerated. I never exaggerate. Saturday night I got to add my Heath story about Win Warriner who smoked 3 packs of Parliments a day, rammed through snowbanks when he and his plow were called on after a storm, and ran a small sawmill. One winter evening in 1981, we could not get our big old Chevy up the final hill in the Dell. We parked and considered our situation when Win came along in his old car. He stopped and said he’d be able to get up the hill if we would provide a little extra ballast. By sitting in his trunk. I can’t recall the specifics of his persuasion but Henry and I  found ourselves sitting in the trunk, the lid bouncing over hour heads, our legs dangling over the bumper while he gunned the engine and squealed up the hill. I am obviously here to tell the story, but even as we were sliding up the hill Henry and I looked at each other and asked if we had just made the most stupid decision of our lives.

The entree was two pork roasts and we made good work of them both – along with salads, scalloped potatoes, and homemade applesauce. Lots of Heath Stories were swapped over the course of the evening.

Liz made the piece de resistance – a chocolate stout cake topped with a grappa cake, butter cream and fondant icings. Do I need to tell you that Liz is an artist as well as a brilliant baker and cook?

When the celebration ended we took away our dishes and leftovers – and another memorable Heath Story – focusing on the weather, as so many Heath Stories do. The Party Barn is a wonderful space, but we all have to remember, it is a barn. Temperatures outside – and inside the barn hovered around 55 degrees all evening. Refreshing!

Pink Grootendorst

There is lots of activity in the area as roads are cleared, stranded wedding parties released, MREs (the military’s Meals Ready to Eat) delivered by helicopter by FEMA, and damage assessed but all is quiet here at the End of the Road. The roses enjoyed their deep drink,  fatten their buds and bloom. The goldenrod is happy too.

Signing The Roses at the End of the Road at World Eye Books

The weekend started out happily with my book signing at World Eye Books. I got to meet new readers, and chat with old friends like Bob and Sue Gruen who gave a wonderful talk last night for the Heath Historical Society about weaving in colonial times – and now.

But, by the time we left their talk around 9, Irene’s rains had arrived. Heavy rains on and off  all night continued until noon, then let up somewhat. We didn’t get heavy wind which was a blessing. I thought we had escaped all damage until a friend called to say that Rowe Road, which leads to Knott Road and our house ,was washed out. She said there was no way Henry would get to work on Monday. Later in the afternoon, when the rain was light we set off to survey the damage.  Our bit of road looked fine, but the drainage ditches were tumbling streams. This freshet was bubbling off the hill from our field, into the ditch.

Knott Road

Towards the end of Knott Road where it joins Rowe Road we saw the first washout, and a tree hung up on the power lines. Fortunately, we still have power and phone service.

Rowe Road

The was the first major washout we came to, just before the turn onto Knott Road.

Looking at that same washout from below you can get some sense of the water rushing over a newly revealed giant boulder in the road bed.

Rowe Road

Just a few yards further down the road this is what we saw.  We decided to end our travels in that direction.

This stream on the other side of Rowe Road is usually a sleepy trickle, but not today. My husband was able to check an on-line record of the flow of the Deerfield in Charlemont. The readings there are almost unbelievable.  The river depth is measured at over 16 feet, instead of the normal 4 feet, and the cubic feet per second flow is 20,000 or possibly more, where the usual flow is 600 cubic feet per second.

When we got home from our walk we checked our very informal rain gauge – 7 -3/4 inches since last night.

Over the afternoon we have heard stories about terrible damage in the area, and do indeed count our blessings that End of the Road Farm came through relatively unscathed.