For the third year the Greenfield Garden Club has offered a hard cider tasting. We have been learning about the difference between ciders. Sweet ciders that are available in supermarkets come straight from the apple press.  Hard ciders require fermentation.  The ciders at our party had about 5.7% of alcohol. Our part of the world has become an important place for those who enjoy hard cider. That is my husband carrying in a gallon of sweet cider, for…

I’m not sure how we got to October with blooms! It’s been hot! The rains have been torrential. Nothing was sure. We don’t have a lot of blooms, but we  begin Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day with my ‘Firelight’ hydrangea. The name is because it gets pinker and pinker in the fall. the ‘Fire’ in Firelight is slightly exaggerated, but it is wonderful to  watch the shades of ‘red’ increase through the  fall. (more…)

In her book, Garden Allies: The Insects, Birds & Other Animals That Keep Your garden Beautiful and Thriving, (Timber Press $24.95) Frederique Lavoipierre opens up amazing worlds of  the creatures who may live in our garden, creatures who will benefit the garden! We learn about so many creatures from soil-dwelling micro-organisms to bats. For example: Did you know that the common woolly bear caterpillar is really the larva of a tiger moth? (more…)

There seems to be no end to beauty on the Bridge of Flowers in Massachusetts. This is Dahlia Season and many visitors have been arriving to admire the beauties of autumn. (more…)

Sun Science was not what I expected when I stopped at the Post Office for stamps. I browsed and began to realize that I have chosen many beautiful and honoring stamps in the past. In my stamp sleeve I currently have American Gardens, Women Vote-19th Amendment, Caffe Latte, Herb Stamps, Tiffany Lamp, Wild Thing, Flowers,  Panther, and Mary Cassatt stamps. I have used many more stamps noting important people and days, but I have never seen, and bought, stamps about our Sun. (more…)

It is Autumn and time to look at asters – like Alma Potchke! The beauty of asters is that they will  bloom when there is very little  color in the garden. This is a favorite aster of mine because I am reminded of Elsa Bakalar who first showed me this aster. She had quite a lot in her own Heath garden. I also like this aster, and other asters, because they do attract pollinators. Lots of buzzing around these flowers. (more…)

I am familiar with Independence Day, but I did not know about Constitution Day.  Neither did I know that there was "I am an American Day." That day was  suggested by William Randolph Heart - and others -  in 1940. Congress then designated the third Sunday in May as "I am and American Day. I can imagine there were a lot of people in that year, and continuing, who wanted to declare their love of the United States.…

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day brought a great gift – six (and I stress SIX)  Monarch butterflies dancing on the Joe Pye Weed. This is very unusual. Until yesterday we have only had one Monarch at a time, but yesterday THREE monarch were dancing on the zinnias. With six Monarchs we are in a celebratory mode. (more…)

The Alchemy of Avalon storefront on Miles Street in Greenfield, prepares us for a very new business. Suzanne O’Gara is the entrepreneur, welcoming all those who are interested in tea. She makes many types and flavors of tea, and O’Gara can help visitors to the shop choose a tea to help heal, as well as familiar kinds of tea to delight. (more…)

We love our Sycamore, in spite of all the little branches it throws down at this time of the year. A few leaves have also blown down but not enough to start raking. The unpleasant thing about sycamores is that in the summer the sycamore develops fine dust on  the underside of its leaves. This dust is a respiratory irritant which affects some people more than others. My husband wears a mask and goggles when he is raking up leaves and twigs in the fall. That work can be quite unpleasant. (more…)