Behold this Tea Party in the Garden. My husband has been taking a drawing class at Greenfield Community College this semester, a gift to himself to celebrate his semi-retirement. I have occasionally given him a hard time, but he holds no grudge and painted my fantasy of a Garden Tea Party. Not quite finished yet. Of course, before there is a tea party there must be tea, which begins with the tea plant Camellia chinensis. Pastels, both. He's…
After heavy rain enough puddles on my path to flash back at me all the faces I might choose to wear. In her newest book of Tanka, Faces I Might Wear, Carol Purington opens with a poem that most of us can identify with. How often do we arrange our face based on the action or emotion of…
Beatrix Potter is known to almost every parent, but not as well known as her most famous creation, Peter Rabbit. In Marta McDowell’s new book Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life: the plants and places that inspired the classic children’s tales (Timber Press $24.95) we meet Peter’s progenitor. In 1890, the 24 year old Beatrix bought Benjamin Bouncer at a pet shop and used him as the model for Peter for some paintings that she sold. That was the…
Six years of blogging and I'm celebrating with a Giveaway. It hardly seems possible. Six years of documenting my garden, mostly, but also family events. Because of my blog I have met gardeners from around the country at Flings. All you have to do to meet some of them is click on the Buffa10 badge on the right side of the page. Over these six years and 1,406 posts I have learned that gardeners have a wide range…
The View from the Bedroom is a new attempt to capture the passing of the seasons. Another dusting of snow which will disappear quickly. For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.
Winterberry, Ilex verticillata, is a native deciduous holly. Its tiny white flowers appear in midsummer, and in the fall beautiful red berries add their color to the autumnal show. Winterberries are dioecious, which is to say that it takes a male and a female plant to create those bright berries. If you are adding winterberries to your garden it is important to order a male and female. Only the female will produce berries, but it only takes one…
Last month when I went to visit Shelly Beck at the Greenfield Community Farm I learned that a new Heath neighbor of mine, Jessica Van Steensberg, is the Associate Director. I immediately had to meet her. I found her at the house on a three acre plot she bought with her husband Jeff Aho and moved into two years ago. Behind the house I saw hens free ranging everywhere, a big hog in a pen and a…
This year 2004, just after Thanksgiving, we will celebrate our 25th anniversary of living at End of the Road Farm. Twenty-five years ago we emptied our apartment over a greengrocer and two doors down from a supermarket into a U-Haul truck; then my husband Henry took off in the truck and I took off in the car with our three teenage girls for an old farmhouse in Heath where the nearest groceries, at Peter’s General Store, were…
As I prepare for Thanksgiving in my nice American kitchen I cannot help thinking of other Thanksgivings, most notably two that were celebrated in Beijing where we lived in the Friendship Hotel. The first was in 1989, and the second in 1995. While many things had changed in those five years, much much more car traffic, much much less bicycle riding (because of the vehicular traffic), the arrival of big department stores and McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken,…
Suddenly there seem to be many young oak trees growing by the side of Heath roads. They are particularly noticeable at this time of year because they retain their leaves until late in the season, and they have turn a burnished shade of red. I do not know for sure which of the 600 species of oak they are, or even of the 70 species that grow in the United States, but it is possible they are Quercus…