The Sunday Record of the Bedroom View shows winter is coming in on snowy feet. The 'first' snow came and went in pretty quick order, and this overnight snowfall is slightly more substantial. Do you think it means we might have a snowier, wetter winter this year? I will take precipitation in any form. 35 degrees at 8 a.m.
Chrysanthemums are an iconic autumn flower. Pots of blooming mums are sold at every garden center, supermarket, and roadside stand by the end of August. Their rich colors of garnet, purple, bronze and brilliant yellow or pale cream have tempted me many times. I buy them, but am mildly disappointed that even after I put them in the ground they maintain a strict military stance, never softening into a graceful slouch. Neither have I been able to overwinter…
How do you identify the first snowfall of the year? I woke to 32 degree temperatures and a snow shower. but I don't think it qualifies as the first snowfall. It is nothing like the October 29 snowfall of 2011. However, it does qualify as the prompt to finish stacking the firewood.
Seeds and seed cases make something new to see in the garden. Coriander is the little round seeds left on the cilantro plants. That means cilantro/coriander is both an herb and a spice. Cotoneaster (Co-tone - e - aster) berries are brighter than coriander. These rose hips are not the kind for rose hip jelly. The tiny black seeds inside the petit columbine seed case will scatter themselves. More plants in the spring. This milkweed stem shows…
"Let's pick a fight with kale," Chris Cima, creative director at Victors & Spoils advertising agency said. The upshot, reported in the NYTimes Sunday Magazine yesterday is a PR campaign to get people to CHOOSE to eat broccoli - and lots of other vegetables. This a a great article with lots of depressing 2010 statistics: "diet surpassed smoking as the no.1 risk factor for disease and death in America . . . One is three children is on…
The first of the month record is late - as usual - but things have been so busy here at the end of the road, with Halloween parties and the beginning of Christmas baking. Fruitcakes! For the record, the first of the month felt like a tropical monsoon, with temperatures in the 70s, wind and lashing rain. The rain began during the night and by the time the wind died down and the rain stopped at noon, we…
Recently my gardening chats with friends all begin with “Have you put your garden to bed yet?" The answer usually comes with a groan, or a non-committal Mmmmmm, letting you think they might actually have done all the jobs on the fall clean up list. I certainly have not. Cleaning up in my garden begins with cutting back. I’ve cut back the astilbes, veronicas, delphiniums, Artemesia lactiflora, lilies, Achillea ‘The Pearl’, various other yarrows, and I’m almost done…
Because we are such a rural, spread-out town children can't easily go trick or treating from house to house. A Tailgate Halloween in the town center was planned, but the rain called for an instant revision. The community hall was quickly turned into Trick or Treat Central and the youngest children, baby pumpkins and kittens, arrived first, followed later by the older kids who had a map of all the houses in town where the Trick or Treat…