Saint Gertrude of Nivelles
I wish I had known about Saint Gertrude of Nivelles in Belgium (626-659) last week. It is National Women’s History Month and Saint Gertrude with her cats could have shared the stage with St. Patrick and his snakes on March 17.
At the age of 10 Gertrude stated she would have no other bridegroom but Christ. In 639, after her father died, her mother established a double monastery, one for men and one for women at Nivelles. She made the very young Gertrude abbess, and lived as a nun in the abbey, where she could give Gertrude the benefit of her advice.
As you might guess from this painting, Saint Gertrude is the patron of cats – and those who love them. Perhaps she allowed her nuns the companionship of cats. Also, water from her well, and bread baked with that water was said to repel rodents – and later many prayed to Saint Gertrude to protect them from mice and rats. St. Patrick is sometimes shown with the snakes he sent from Ireland; St. Gertrude is sometimes shown with mice running up her staff. That doesn’t sound repellent, but . . . .
She is also the patron of the insane and of gardeners. Maybe she is particularly sympathetic to insane gardeners, of whom I know quite a few. Alas, her reliquary was destroyed in 1940
I have barely begun my shopping, but I admit that much of my shopping is done in the bookstore. On the other hand many gardeners like to get plants – or gift certificates for plants to be used in the spring. I did let a comment slip about how many new roses I’d like in the spring.
Fountains and birdbaths attract the birds, but they are also a beautiful ornament in the garden.
Of course some things wear out and need to be renewed from time to time. Gloves. Clogs. What do you need or desire?What’s on your Christmas list? Plant society memberships? Garden magazine subscription? If you want books be sure to comment on Monday’s post, and next Monday’s post, and the Monday after that. Storey Publications we love you for helping me celebrate my third blogoversary!
Our henhouse 12-2
When we moved into our house I was thrilled that there was also a hen house in the back yard. The building is about 30 feet long, divided into three sections. We store the feed, kept in metal garbage cans, as well as bales of shavings, in the first section. We also brood our chicks in that section when they arrive around the first of June. There is a chicken door that allows the chicks to go outdoors into a separate fenced yard when they get old enough.
Our henhouse, second section
The second section has egg boxes, waterers and feeders for the chickens. During the winter when the waterers freeze I rotate them through our house where they can thaw.
You can see that neither the exterior, nor the interior are objects of beauty. However, the building is functional. We have used it ever since our first spring here in 1980. You cannot really tell, but I do use the ‘deep litter’ technique. I only clean the henhouse out once a year, in the spring. Over the summer and fall the bedding and the chicken manure build up and begin to compost. The manure and the composting create some heat which helps keep the chickens warm in the winter. The manue and bedding also encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria that helps keep the chickens healthy, although their access to fresh air and sun are also important to their health. Everyone always comments on the rich yellow color of our eggs.
Our chickens in their yard
I throw cracked corn to the chickens outdoors every day. You can see we have a mixed flock. I have several Araucanas; they are not especially pretty, but they are great egg layers. Blue eggs! They lay longer for us, into their second and third year. I also have barred rocks, and New Hampshire Reds. I love having chickens because of the eggs, and because of knowing that our eggs come from happy and healthy chickens.
In case you were wondering about the third and longest section – that is not used. It is missing the end wall which was OK when we had pigs out there. Pigs only need housing for four or five months, but the space is not suitable for our hens.
I’ll be showing more hen houses built by some thoughtful people. Don’t forget to leave comments on yesterday’s post to have a chance at winning a copy of Recipes from the Root Cellar by Andrea Chesman. today is my exact third blogoversary and I am celebrating the commenters who visit, and the other bloggers I have met over these past years. Please celebrate with me. This Giveaway ends Saturday at midnight, but two more books are coming through the generosity of Storey Publishing.
The Red Road by Pamela Snow and Ursula Snow
The Walking exhibit at the Art Garden in Shelburne Falls has closed but I am carrying the image of this joyful road by Pamela Snow and Ursula Snow with me as I start on the road to the holidays, beginning today when I set up the Silent Auction for Holiday Village at the Charlemont Federated Church.
The Silent Auction will have everything up for bid from bags of Donovan’s potatoes, blown glass, gorgeous jewels, and passes for the Zoar Outdoor Zip Line. But there will also be a delicious lunch, treasures for a mere pittance, crafts, and a whole room full of particular treasures for children.
Feet Topography by Hannah Lamar Simmons
There will be many feet wending their way to the Holiday Village tomorrow between 10 and 3. I hope you will stop by.
The Feet drawing by Hannah Lamar Simmons was also a part of the Art Garden’s Walking Exhibit, but now the fun begins for those of us who want to make some of our Christmas presents. Click here for a full list of workshops through November and December, book making, gift making, collage and figure drawing. I know just what I am going to make for my granddaughter who is studying cosmetology. Wait til you see it.
Arbor Day Square
I got the most wonderful present in the mail today – Arbor Day Square – written by my good friend Kathryn Galbraith. We met more than 30 years ago when we both lived in NYC and were taking a writing class at the New School of Social Research. Kathryn and I both left the city at about the same time, but she left for the State of Washington where she went on to write beautiful books for children.
Obviously I was thrilled to see her new book, Arbor Day Square, because it is about how important trees are to a community as well as love of family and a family history. Katie and Papa are among the new settlers in a prairie town that we see grow until the townspeople recognize they have no trees:
“There are no trees on the prairie.
No trees for climbing.
Or for shade.
No trees for fruit or warm winter fires.
No trees for birds. Or for beauty.”
That recognition is the first step to the first Arbor Day Tree Planting in that community, a celebration that continues every year. Papa turns into a grandpa, and Katie a mama with a child of her own.
Kathryn’s books always tell gentle stories with charm and humor. I love Boo, Bunny! (illustrated by Jeff Mack) that I sent to my two Great-granddaughters last Halloween, and Traveling Babies (illustrated by Jane Dippold) which I bought for the Buckland Library as well as for gifts for family children.
Here in Heath trees are important for sugaring, and for firewood, as well as for birds, and shade. And for beauty. Thank you Kathryn for this beautiful story, and your timing is perfect. Here in Massachusetts Arbor Day is celebrated the last Friday in April, so I have enough time to get a tree to plant on that day. I think it will be a witch hazel named Diane – for family love, spring bloom, and beauty at every season
L. henryi
The Chinese Year of the Tiger has been rung in with drums and dancing, and jiaozi, the delicious stuffed dumplings that are said to be shaped like silver money and symbolize a year stuffed with good things – and riches.
We have celebrated many Chinese New Years since our first trip to live and work in Beijing in 1989. While there we learned that while there are 12 animals in the 12 year Chinese zodiac, the full cycle takes 60 years to complete. Every 12th year is considered a ‘dangerous’ year, and when you think about it there are often great physical and social changes every 12 years or so. Puberty at 12, marriage at 24, full family life at 36, and edging into old age at 48. When you arrive at 60, the full cycle is complete and you begin again; 60 is a time of new energy and new possibilities.
My husband Henry was born in the Year of the Tiger and it just occurred to me that I made a lucky choice when I planted Henry lilies from Old House Gardens last fall. Henry’s Lily (Lilium henryi) is an old Chinese wildflower that is described as having ‘tawny-orange petals’ which sound very tigerish to me.
I have been planning a Henry garden, or at least a Henry collections for some time. In addition to Henry’s Lily, I also planted White Henryi, lily (white with a’starry heart of apricot and cinnamon”) a newer lily hybridized by the same man who created my sturdy and hardy Black Beauty lilies.
So far, the only other Henry plants I have are the white flowered clematis henryi that climbs through my Celestial rose, and Henry’s Garnet sweetspire, a small shrub that has white summer blooms and crimson fall color.
I am looking for suggestions for other Henry plants and will welcome all the help you can give me.
Images courtesy of Old House Gardens.
Hamentaschen
I won a box of hamentaschen from Kosher.com. I made a comment on one of my favorite blogs, Our Grandmother’s Kitchens, and this is my reward.
Hamentaschen are a treat served at the feast of Purim when the beautiful Queen Esther saved her Jewish people from the machinations of the wicken Hamen. I am ready to celebrate all holidays that are commemorated with sweet treats like this.
Some of my raw materials
As we prepared to leave the bookmaking workshop at The Art Garden, Jane Wegscheider, our teacher and muse, said those of us planning to attend the Valentine workshop should start collecting the memorabilia or photographs that we would need.
Hmmmm. This suggested that we would not be making traditional Valentines with lace and ribbon, or even clever and artistic Valentines like those Sandra Denis was selling down at the Arts Coop in Shelburne Falls. I was particularly taken with one that showed a candle with a shiny gold flame and a gorgeous moth singing ‘I’m attracted to you.’
But Henry and I have been married too long for mere attraction. How would I express that? MAPS! Henry loves maps and we have traveled many long roads together. I even have a photo that my cousin took of our backs as we walked down a dirt road in Leyden with Kathy, my youngest in 1972. I always called that photo The Road to Pork Corners, the mythical rural place where we would finally settle down.
About ten years ago Henry went back to school at Umass and got a degree in Geography with a specialty in cartography, the making of maps. His skills helped Heath get their first official tax maps while he served as an assessor. Maps would be my theme.
More raw materials to be photocopied
I made copies of maps and photos of roads we had traveled from The Road to Pork Corners, across continents, and to The End of the Road. Our life in eight pages.
The Road to Pork Corners 1972
When I began I expected to make a simple card, albeit with several pages, but it became something more, something unexpected, with layers, complexities and embellishments I never imagined. Something like our life.
Layers upon layers, with embellishment
New Snow, New Year
Red Brocade by Naomi Shihab Nye
The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends you don’t care.
Lets to back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.
No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.
I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.
I first read Naomi Shihab Nye when I was a librarian and bought her young adult novel Habibi for the collection. This story of a modern teen who moves from St. Louis to Jerusalem with her Palastinian family and her struggle with the clash of cultures could very well reflect her own multi-cultural background. She has also written many books of poetry. I don’t know which book Red Brocade is from; it came in the Crhistmas card sent by a young friend. It reflects their life, and the life I would like to lead.
It is also a perfect companion to the poem I had originally planned for this Muse Day. When I heard the 88 year old poet Marie Ponsot read from her new book, Easy, on the PBS Newshour I had to order it immediately. Simples is the poem that first inspired me.
Simples by Marie Ponsot
“what do I want
well I want to
get better”
Thank you Carolyn gail for hosting Muse Day. For more muses logon to Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.
My Thanksgiving cactus has been budded for weeks and I thought she would be blooming right on time. But right on time is tomorrow! I’m inviting her into the warm room of the house today. I should have thought of that earlier.
There is no question that this calendar will prompt me to get everything done on time. This beautiful calendar prepared by the University of Massachusetts Extension Service has 12 gorgeous photos of plants, exotic, common and useful and tips about the timing of garden chores. There is room to write in some of your own reminders.
I like the first page of the calendar which lists attractive plants for pollinators at every season. Sometimes we forget that bees and other pollinators need shrubs and trees as well as the perennials that put in our gardens.
The calendar makes a great gift. To order go to www.umassgardencalendar.org or send $12 payable to UMass and mail to: Garden Calendar, c/o Mailrite, 78 River Road South, Putney, VT 05346.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Fascinating Characters, Holidays | Pat March 24, 2011 | 
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