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…
The first excitement last night was dodging the raindrops to harvest enough "Tango" lettuce from the Front Garden to make up our dinner salad. The first garden salad of the year. They are not very big, but I had to thin out those two French Breakfast radishes as well. A single spicy bite. The second excitement was watching the sky - and the TV reporting on the tornado that tore through Springfield, less than 50 miles (as the…
This is a close up of the old white lilacs that were on our property when we moved here in 1979. They are the earliest of all the lilacs we have and I can usually count on having them in full bloom by the 15th of May. Not this year. You can see not all the buds are open. But I only know that because keep this blog means I have pretty good records for the past three…
Icing on the Lawn Beds. Iced lilacs. The long road to home. It's a long time til spring.
Snowstorm! The chickens can't wait... I wish I had a portable chicken house! No joke.
It's been cold and we have had dustings of snow here in Heath, but our first snow storm arrived Sunday. Flurries on and off all day, but coming down hard by 9 pm. On Monday morning when I took this photo it was still flurrying but the wind was blowing so it was hard to say how much snow we had altogether. The governor declared a State of Emergency so Henry got to stay home. By evening the…
I have to say how happy I am that my alma mater, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has just installed its first Rain Garden. It is 150 feet long, 20 feet wide and 18 inches deep. It is near the new (and very green) Studio Arts Building, below North Pleasant Street. The rain garden will collect run off from the street, protecting the wetlands and Mill River on the west side of the campus from pollution and…
Our Frog Pond is beautiful. And useful. When our dilapidated barn was struck by lightning in the middle of the night, July 5, 1990, the volunteer fire department was able to pump water to help put out the fire. In fact, the previous owners had enlarged the pond which is stream and spring fed to make it a fire pond. The frogs like it, and so do the grandchildren. So do we. It's good for swimming and catching…
The past week was cold, wet and windy. Not much time out in the garden, although I did pick the last of the lettuce in the herb bed, and lots of sugar snap peas. We eat them raw. On the cloudy, cold and windy Fourth of July we went to a neighbor's BBQ where we huddled in the kitchen, only nipping out to the fire and hot dogs occasionally. We all know that kitchens are the best for…