Rose blossoms come in many shapes and forms. Rose hips are more limited is form, but have their own beauty and use. I planted Rosa glauca nearly 30 years ago because the catalog description said that it looked like a Pompeian wall painting and the black hips were beautiful. I had never thought about the appearance of rose hips before, but the description intrigued on all counts. The hips are ripening right now and though they will never get really…
It has been exactly a week since I wrote about our experience of Irene here. Since then towns across the region have been busy picking up the pieces. Governor Deval Patrick made his third trip to Heath (the first governor in history to pay so much attention to Heath) and on Wednesday he met with town officials. Here he is looking at a map of damaged road with Mike Smith in his Fire Chief uniform, but he is…
We moved to Heath in the fall of 1979 and attended our first Heath Fair in 1980. However, we had heard about the Fair years before when we were living on Grinnell Street in Greenfield. Deb Porter of Heath was visiting her friend (and my temporary boarder) Wendy Roberts in my kitchen, but she had to cut the visit short that day in order to race back to Heath and bake pies for the Fair. Deb still works…
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.
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…
This morning dawned cool and misty. A walk through the garden was so quiet and peaceful. A glorious morning indeed. And we look forward to a glorious day at the Heath Fair. Yesterday was all energetic activity. We had scores of boxes of books to bring to the Fair for the Annual Friends of the Heath Free Public Library book sale. $1 for hardcovers! This is our big fundraiser for the year. After loading up the books, we…
The week before the Heath Fair is full of activity and anxiety. Rory wanted to enter pickles this year - as he did last year. Last year we somehow got the sugar and the salt mixed up, but the good news is that the judges don't taste the pickles, they just look at the jars. Consistency is paramount. It takes a lot of slicing to make bread and butter pickles. Fortunately, I was once given a really fancy…
The weather has been hot and dry. Our Texas grandsons Anthony and Drew were glad to take a dip in Rowe Pond near-by this past week. They are excellent swimmers after several years on their local swim teams. We left the Pond when we heard thunder, but we never did get the longed for rain. When Kate returned to Heath after tending to other family responsibilities in the eastern part of the state she did a little touring…
Last fall my neighbor gave me several of his famous garlic bulbs to use as seed so I could plant my second garlic crop in the vegetable garden. My first crop was not very successful, mostly because I did not pay attention to cutting off all the scapes in the spring. My harvest in July was puny. This time I planted each clove in well tilled soil and mulched heavily with spoiled hay in mid-October. You can read…
If one grandson visits the beehive charcoal kiln in Hawley, others will demand the same opportunity. Anthony documented everything for his vlog. That's V for video. He's way ahead of me. Drew is just astounded. We stopped at Avery's General Store to pick up a couple of things for supper, but we could have bought boots, or plumbing fixtures, or paint, or a slow cooker - or anything! After supper we went out to check the worms. I…