Every year the UMass Extension creates a beautiful and useful calendar to teach, advise and remind us of our duties and opportunities all year long. COST: $14, bulk pricing is available on orders of 10 copies or more. Shipping is FREE on orders of 9 or fewer calendars - FREE SHIPPING ENDS NOV 1! FOR IMAGES IN THE CALENDAR, details, and ordering info, go to umassgardencalendar.org. The 2019 UMass Garden Calendar features the use of tomography to identify internal decay in trees. Many people also…

This ensemble of Strings for Kids played  for shoppers at the Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago. They are serious and talented musicians. Strings For Kids is a free music program run by Artspace in collaboration with Greenfield Public Schools. Students who enroll in Strings For Kids are offered a choice of learning to play violin or cello, and receive the following benefits at no charge: Instrument loan for the duration of enrollment Weekly in-school group instruction led…

April is National Poetry Month and Carol Purington, Colrain's noted haiku poet has donated a matted set of poems describing the Bridge of Flowers through its seasons. It is available by writing to bridgeofflowersmass@gmail.com. Carol has written several books  of haiku describing life on a family farm, the essence of the seasons, the love of family, joy and  sorrow. Carol, and her friend Susan Todd also put together an anthology of poems, Morning Song: Poems for New Parents.…

Richard Wilbur (1921-2017) winner of Pulitzer Prizes for Things of This World (1956) and New and Collected Poems (1988),was named the second Poet Laureate of our country and won many awards and prizes. I knew Richard Wilbur had long lived in our corner of western Massachusetts, but I never expected to get a letter from him.  And for that I thank Carol Purington and Susan Todd who were longtime friends of his. Carol and Susan were putting together…

All through April people will be celebrating National Poetry Month, giving gift books of poetry and attending poetry readings. However, I think National Poetry Month (instituted in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets) was created as a response to the lack of attention to poetry and its joys. Actually, we are surrounded by poetry in advertising jingles, popular songs (at least that used to be true) even when we are not aware. Last week I started thinking…

Here in New England we can take trees for granted. Trees line our streets, our roads, and our highways. We do not have to work hard to find a woodland that invites us to stroll and enjoy a period of cool tranquility. The Japanese even have a word, Shinrin-yoku, or ‘forest bathing,’ for the practice of taking a walk in the woods for the health benefits it brings. And yet, many of us are not familiar with the…

We officially moved into our Greenfield house on October 24, 2015, just in time to stock up on bags of candy for the 100+ children - mostly very young children - who showed up in princess and ninja attire on Halloween. The celebrations had begun. No longer could we go out into the field to cut  our own tree, but we were happy to shop at the open air market on Main Street and buy a beauty. This…

After a very mild autumn I woke up this morning to the first snowfall of the year. Or am I just jumping ahead into winter prematurely?  I have a whole month before Winter officially arrives.  We never know what the future will hold, weatherwise - or any other -wise.

This Garden Blogger's Bloom Day arrives during a very mild October. We have had a very few fold nights with temperatures going below 40 degrees, but the daytime temperatures still reach well into the 70's and even over 80 degrees. It has been fairly dry except for a couple of welcome rain we got as hurriane Nate touched us for a couple of days.  The Fairy rose will stand in the the sprinkling of other rose blossoms, Folksinger,…

Pumpkin Season is here!  Jack o’ lanterns seem as American as apple pie, but pumpkins, squash and gourds, along with tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, and cocoa, are native to Central America and Mexico. Over time they migrated to North America and Europe. In fact, New World foods are essential to a large portion of the African population. We don’t often think about the important nutritional value of pumpkins. Pumpkins are all about Cinderella’s coach, Jack ‘o lanterns…