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…
Since moving to Greenfield we seem unable to get through a day, or night, without thinking and dreaming about trees. When we bought our house, which was surrounded by nothing more than lawn, our attention was taken by the giant American sycamore on the tree belt in front of our house. I called an acquaintance, Dennis Ryan, who is a retired arborist and professor at the University of Massachusetts. I described our tree which we believed was a…
What are the essentials for an apocalypse? The New York Times listed essentials for the apocalypse in the September 24, 2017 issue. I did note that these are essentials as deemed so by a certain affluent group of Americans. Author Alex Williams lists 13 things to have on hand in case worse comes to worst, what with daily threats from North Korea – and our own White House. Is money one of the essentials for the apocalypse? At…
Kylee Baumle can date the beginning of her passion for monarch butterflies to September 17, 2006, the day she found a tattered Monarch butterfly with a tiny sticker on its wing in the field where the United Flight 93 Memorial stands. Most of us remember with horror, and pride, the passengers and crew of that flight that crashed on September 11, 2001. The sticker listed the monarchwatch.org website, a phone number and a set of three numbers. Baumle…
Last week I wrote about several neighborhood gardens that would fall into the category of The Foodscape Revolution which also happens to be the name of a book, The Foodscape Revolution: Finding a better way to make space for food and beauty in your garden by Brie Arthur. Arthur would have applauded the Chicoine/Ayers garden which eliminated grass completely from the tree strip, as well as the front and side yards. Most of the back yard was also…
My neighbor Wendy came over to our house to watch the solar eclipse. You can see our scientific arsenal, a colander, a red plastic dish pan filled with water and a big stainless steel bowl filled with water. We did not have any of the special glasses but we heard that you could watch the eclipse as a reflection in water, even if it was only a bowl of water. You can also hold up a colander with…