Over the Labor Day weekend son Chris and his partner Michelle visited us. They gamboled on the lawn with their French bulldog Bibi, sat on the piazza with drinks - and we all drove to Williamstown and the great Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and its wonderful exhibit about Pablo Picasso's (1881-1973) relationship to, and admiration of Edgar Degas (1834-1917). The exhibit was really fabulous. It was amazing to think that these two artists who seem so…
Magical things happen at family reunions. The youngest set seems to bond almost instantly with their cousins two or three times removed (I don’t really know how that works) and even the oldest generation gets to hear stories about their parents that they never heard before. My Aunt Doris, the only representative of her generation at this reunion, said she never knew that as a 15th birthday present my grandparents arranged for me to accompany my grandfather on…
Netting the blueberries was the big garden task of the weekend. Between the heat, the thunderstorms, adventures with visiting grandson Tynan, picking raspberries and preparing to host the Heath Gourmet Club on Saturday night, this job kept getting postponed. Finally, on Sunday, with the sun shining and a deliciously cool breeze blowing, we set to. The berries are just starting to ripen here at the End of the Road, but the birds are starting to circle. We planted our blueberry…
All week we had been waiting for our daughter Kate and her family to arrive. We knew they had been at her husband's family reunion at a state park in NY, celebrating his parents 80th and 90th birthday - and their 60th wedding anniversary. I expected them to arrive mid-week, but there was no word. We called Kate's cell phone. We sent emails. We sent Facebook messages. No word. No word. No word. Had they been carjacked? We…
I was driving up our road yesterday noontime when I saw a doe standing in the middle of the road. As I slowed down a tiny, very young fawn came scrambling out of the brush on the left side of the road. Mama leapt into the brush and the field on the right, but baby could not quickly get up the bank. Either instinct or good training made her instantly fold herself up as small as possible in…
I found that terrific windstorms yesterday had knocked over one of our linden trees, Tilia cordata. In 1991 we invited our three daughters and three granddaughters to visit on Memorial Day to each plant a linden tree along the pasture fence to the west of the house. Tracy was almost 10, Tricia was 5 and Caitlin was only 13 months, but they all got their pencil sized linden trees in the ground. However, time brings change, not all…
The Ladies Who Lunch need to refresh their wardrobes with a new little black dress from time to time. While I was in Boston for the Flower Show I stepped into Macy's to get a new pair of little blue jeans. I like the styling of these which have retained the integrity of the originals designed by Levi Strauss. Blue jeans are a staple of the gardener's wardrobe, so easy to dress down, and versatile when combined with…
Although I am still surrounded by lawns and fields of snow, the sun has been shining with the predictable result. The snow is melting slowly and almost invisibly. Melted snow is running off and down the road. Have I ever mentioned that we live on a hill? Some of this water is actually coming from the hill that continues to rise behind our house. Is this water from the invisible melt beneath the snow, or is it coming…
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…
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…