No Rain at the Annual Rose Viewing

  • Post published:06/28/2010
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The sky was gray and a few guests came early to the Rose Viewing, hoping to beat the rain, but blue skies arrived, as well as muggy temperatures, and more guests. It is always a pleasure to show people around the garden myself, but visitors can also go around with a rose list and map that my husband makes. Since I look on the Rose Viewing as a quasi-educational event I am always pleased to see people making…

Feed Thy Neighbor

  • Post published:06/10/2010
  • Post comments:5 Comments

Ev Hatch, now retired from farming, is a member of the Hunger Task Force and a member of the First Congregational Church of Greenfield. When the First Church began planning a special day of service they called ‘Feet, Hands and Voices to Faith’ he knew just what to do.  He donated a half acre of his farmland, and his services to prepare the field. On May 16th he and a crew, that included Luella McLaughlin (aged 93), set…

Growth – High and Low

  • Post published:06/07/2010
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The chicks are one week old! They all survived the USPS trip here and a week of hot weather which has actually been a great benefit. Chicks need 95 degree heat the first week.  I don't know that I have ever gotten through the first week with no fatalities before so we are celebrating. The photo is a little fuzzy. It was hard to take the picture and hold the chick at the same time, but you can…

Dream Housing

  • Post published:06/05/2010
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When I first met my husband in 1971 we used to dream about our ideal home. Inspired by a Beetle Bailey comic strip, we called this mythical place Pork Corners. There was nothing porky about my house on Grinnell Street in Greenfield, but there in the tiny side yard I planted my first vegetable garden. I kissed the friend who came to dinner and brought a load of old horse manure as a thank you.  He sent a…

Trees – Glorious Trees – Arbor Day

  • Post published:04/30/2010
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My friend (and noted author), Kathryn Galbraith, explained the importance of trees to community in her beautiful new picture book for children, Arbor Day Square.  I am fortunate to be surrounded by woodland here in Heath, but as a new member of the Bridge of Flowers committee I have been more and more aware of how healthy street trees, some of them quite new, add to the quality of life in a small town like Shelburne Falls, but…

The Witches of Oz

  • Post published:03/13/2010
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The Heath Elementary School joined other august institutions of learning like Yale University, Brandeis and Tufts (to name only a few) in working with the innovative Double Edge Theater in Ashfield, an international center for performance. collaboration and training. This year the production was an original adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. This all school performance that involved everyone from kindergarten munchkins and bees, to a very dramatic Wicked Witch of the West (is it possible she was…

The Meditative Gardener

  • Post published:03/11/2010
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I met Cheryl Wilfong at a recent Garden Writers (GWA) meeting in Boston. The meeting was excellent with good advice about blogging and writing  given by Richard Banfield of freshtilledsoil.com.  The speaker gave me more than I ever expected, but one of the reasons I attended was to meet other writers, some of whom I already knew through their blogs. Cheryl brought her book, which I bought, and information about her website, meditativegardener.com.  In spite of a weekend…

The Art Garden

  • Post published:02/09/2010
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There are all kinds of gardens, perennial gardens, cutting gardens, and vegetable gardens, but right now the only garden that is giving me special pleasure is Jane Wegscheider's Art Garden in Shelburne Falls. The Art Garden is a welcoming and well stocked studio space that is available to the public, including children, to express and develop their creativity. And we don't have to do it alone. Jane is on  hand to teach and demonstrate and inspire - as…

Phil Korman and CISA

  • Post published:02/07/2010
  • Post comments:2 Comments

CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) is familiar to many of us because of the bright yellow Local Hero signs at farmstands, farmer’s markets,  supermarkets and car bumpers. We have recognized the benefits of buying food from our local farmers: keeping our money in the local economy; preserving local farms that produce the rural atmosphere we all treasure as well as a variety of crops; and cutting down on oil-dependent food transportation. As consumers we see some of…

Elsa Bakalar, Gardener and Friend

Last October I joined with friends, and family including Jake and Susan Bakalar, Elsa's nephew and his wife, and 'honorary daughter' Marie Hershkowitz who had been a student of Elsa's, to celebrate Elsa's 91st birthday. It was a jolly affair with a buffet brought by Jake and Susan, cards, stories,  and tributes. And laughter. And champagne. Two weeks ago my husband and I visited Elsa at the nursing home and again had a jolly time. The menu was…