The chicken is a familiar farm animal, but even those who are setting up backyard flocks may not be aware of the more arcane facts of their life. Some may not be aware of the most basic facts of their biology. I cannot count the number of times people have told me they would love to have chickens producing eggs in the backyard, but they just cannot stand the thought of having a rooster. BASIC FACT: Hens, like…
The Bridge of Flowers is beautiful, even garlanded with snow. However, this fresh fallen snow is melting rapidly and I am looking forward to daffodils. The Bridge is scheduled to open on April 1. Please, no April snowstorms like last year. For more information about the Bridge of Flowers click here.
Snow and ice are slowly melting on our Heath hill, but we are intermittently being teased by 50 degree temperatures. Will we really have an early spring this year? Will the ancient forsythia bushes at the edge of my lawn really bloom properly this year? The forsythia bushes were here when we moved at the beginning of the bitter winter of 1979. Spring did not arrive promptly and we watched the forsythia put on a half hearted show…
Gail Callahan, quilter, weaver, and dyer, said she never 'got' the color wheel with its confusing array of colors. After working with textiles and fiber for years she eventually found a way to make color theory less confusing; she turned the color wheel into a grid. My photos don't do this interesting tool very clear, but Gail wanted to find a way to eliminate some of the confusion she and others feel. The black template blocks out many…
For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.
More drama!
The Native Seeds/SEARCH catalog arrived in my mailbox this past week. This company located in Tucson is new to me, and so is the term native seeds. Included with the catalog that offers a variety of open pollinated seed from amaranth to watermelon was a tiny separate chart listing the best ways to choose seed. They say “Whenever possible, source your seeds first from the area where you live. Seed libraries, seed exchanges and local seed companies that…
If your housekeeping regime is anything like mine, there are bound to be surprises from time to time. Last week I shuffled the bins of knitting yarns slightly from where they had been pushed in front of the bedroom bookshelves. There under the shelves was a pot of bulbs that I had forced on top of the shelves last spring. And once again I had to cry Life Will Not Be Denied! The potting soil was dry and…
Snow melts in mysterious ways. Any ideas why? For more Wordlessness on Wednesday click here.
The Sunday New York Times did a fascinating story yesterday about Timothy Barrett, a man they call the Cellulose Hero and the work he has done with paper, and preserving important of historic paper documents. I read all this with pleasure in the paper edition of the New York Times. In addition to talking about Barrett's important work, there was a brief history of paper, invented by the Chinese more than about 2000 years ago. Before that those lucky enough to…