Every year the National Garden Bureau chooses a flower, a vegetable and an herb to showcase, but they have declared 2012 The Year of the Herbs and are showcasing all herbs, not just one. I have a long herb bed right in front of my piazza and the entry walk. Because it face south and is protected by the house it is the first garden I can work in in the spring and the last garden to be…
I open the bedroom window to the southeast breezes on this, the first day of the new year. The weather continues its unseasonable habit. There is a bit of ice but at noon the temperature is 44 degrees. These two photos almost make a panorama. Green lawn, brown fields and gray skies. Often at this time of the year I wonder if spring will ever come. This year I am wondering if winter will ever come. What does…
Many family Christmas memories revolve around the Christmas tree. These stories rarely have to do with the magnificence of the tree. In fact, Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree may be our culture’s most famous Christmas tree, standing for the true meaning of the season. We have many family stories about our Christmas trees beginning with our first Christmas in Greenfield in 1971. I was a single mother of five children when I came to town. Our life had changed…
The penultimate day of the year: 26 degrees, still, and gray. For more skies click here.
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What is any big family celebration without a few tears. Alas, although Bella loves looking at photos of herself, she does not like knowing the camera is pointed at her. It is not often we get four generations together. What a gift. Tears and all. Reading Aloud is one of my great pleasures - on any day of the year. I was happy to introduce Bella, oblivious to the camera now, to one of the great children's book…
As I look out my window today the ground is a tapestry of beige, green and white. The meadow grasses have died back, but the lawn is a brilliant green because it has loved this long cool, but not frozen, autumn and there are still patches, large and small, of the snow that keeps tantalizing us. Winter may be coming, but it is shy this year, stepping out and then retreating. The winter garden can be a challenge…
For more skies, visit Skywatch Friday.
High Line in New York City 5-3-10 Annik LaFarge, author of On the High Line: A Walk Through America's Most Unique Urban Park, which will be available in April, is also writing a blog http://livinthehighline.com/ In the blog he writes about many other elevated/railroad gardens including The Bridge of Flowers. I visited the High Line in 2010 and it is a fabulous space, but it has to be said that the Shelburne Falls Bridge of Flowers predates the High…
Last week I spent the better part of a day Christmas shopping. Needless to say I ended up buying a gift for myself. I have been so inspired by Debra Lee Baldwin's book, Succulent Container Gardens, that when I found myself near the Hadley Garden Center I had to stop in and buy some succulents. I had already bought this handsome classic container and potting soil at my 'neighborhood' Shelburne Farm and Garden Center. I did review Debra's…