Gray and chilly. Temperatures in the 40s with winds gusting at 14 miles and more. There is still one pile of snow in The Sunken Garden. Still, I got a lot done over the past week. First I found out that the old daffodils growing here when we bought our house in 1979 are Van Sion, a heritage variety. I have Kathy Purdy of Cold Climate Gardening to thank for the ID. Van Sion is a beautiful…
Again! Another 5 inches.
Yesterday, February 2, was the day the whole United States celebrated the groundhog. TV cameras were set to watch Punxsutawney Phil come out of his burrow to determine whether or not spring is upon us, or whether we will have six more weeks of winterIt is recorded that about 90 per cent of the time Phil does see his shadow which means spring is only six weeks away. While the United States, or at least readers of the…
We did have a snowfall that covered the ground already this fall, but this is a March 9 photo of our road this spring. It is the merest reminder of snowfalls that we had in the past. I told one of those stories to my friends at Garden Rant last week and won a Troy Built Snowblower!My story is of an April (yes, April) blizzard in 1982 (and I think I have the year right). It was the…
Need I say more?
Heath woke up in the clouds this morning. There was a very Brigadoonish feeling in the misty air as I drove to the Transfer Station with my trash and recycling. The dim headlights of oncoming cars could very well have been flickering torches as the hunt went on for the the missing Harry Beaton whose flight threatened to destroy the magical village.But the only tartans are on Henry's and my flannel shirts as we prepare to tackle the…
While browsing through the garden blogs this rainy morning I came upon the Human Flower Project and this recent post about the Books in Bloom garden created by St. Michael's College (Burlington, VT) education professor Valerie Bang-Jensen and biologist Mark Lubkowitch and their students. All the plants in the garden have a connection to a children's book. There are lupines for Miss Rumphius, poppies for the Wizard of Oz and blueberries for Blueberries for Sal. Of course, there…
This is our old stove, a Magic Chef c.1930s. It was in our old farmhouse when we bought it, and I used it for the first couple of years. It only has three working burners, but the oven worked and as the cook I was happy. But we worked on the house and moved the kitchen space and I got a modern stove. After renovating the old kitchen space (some years later) the old stove was moved and…
How can it be? The leaves are turning and the other night there was a frost warning. I had a fire in the wood stove the past two days. This year, as we approach the heating season with some trepidation, and a new (efficient we hope) heating system, we are still getting our firewood ready and hoping that the Farmer's Almanac's prediction of a very cold winter is wrong.
A perfect end to a perfect week with grandson Tynan Matthews. Even the heavens put on a farewell show his last night in Heath. The weather has been tropical with storms almost every day. Will we ever be able to mow the lawn again? Happily it doesn't take good weather to have a good time. We went to Mass MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) and saw lots of Badlands exhibits about the depredations of Man and Nature of…