The Conway Festival of the Hills is a grand autumnal event in our region. This year I got to share tent space with other authors like Marie Betts Bartlett (left in blue) who brought her book The (true) Story of The Little Yellow Trolley Car and Heidi Stemple (right oogling the baby. Heidi is the daughter of and co-author with Jane Yolen of many books, true, mysterious and delicious. In the center is Jessica, owner of The World…
On a Tree Fallen Across the Road by Robert Frost (To hear us talk) The tree the tempest with a crash of wood Throws down in front of us is not bar Our passage to our journey's end for good, But just to ask us who we think we are Insisting always on our own way so. She likes to halt us in our runner tracks, And make us get down in a foot of snow Debating what…
In our part of the world we are surrounded by trees. We are so used to seeing trees that we don’t really look at them anymore. When we do attend to them we see them in their entirety, trunk and an undifferentiated mass of leaves. As autumn approaches some of us pay a little more attention, the flame of maples, the sheen of dark oaks and the gold of birches, but still we are not seeing the whole…
Our house is surrounded by fields, and the fields are surrounded by woodlands. Trees are an important part of the New England Landscape and I just learned that Massachusetts is about to join Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and 34 other states in an online organization called The American Grove. Their website is full of useful information about planting trees, even coming at how to choose a tree in an unusual way. We have planted trees for our each of…
Right now the roadsides in our area are blooming with the late purple aster, Aster patens. I think I have identified this aster properly, although as you can see the color of the blossoms is NOT deep blue violet. The crooked stem aster, Aster prenanthoides, has the more accurate 'pale violet' flowers, but not the crooked stem or teeth on the leaves. Can anyone give me a better ID? Thank you Gail at Clay and Limestone for hosting…
This is the view out the window next to the breakfast table. From August into October and really killing frosts these Grandpa Ott morning glories prepare me for my day. And what a way to start the day - with Glory! Surely the day will be filled with moments of beauty, of inspiration, of opportunity to spread a little glory. Of course the sun does not illuminate and gild the glories every morning. Sometimes the light is dim,…
In yesterday's NY Times Mark Bittman asked the question, Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? Can you really feed a family for less at McDonalds than at your own table filled with home cooked food. In spite of the protestations that a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli and other such, the answer is NO! A meal for a family of four at McDonald's will come to between $23 and $28. How many groceries can…
The days are growing shorter. When I drive down my road I have begun averting my eyes from a maple branch that has burst into flame. Autumn is officially upon us. And yet there is a lot of bloom in my garden. One of the benefits of annuals is that many will bloom well into the fall. I have pots of snapdragons, petunias, osteospurnum and ‘Million Bells,’ a healthy blooming border of an annual salvia around the Shed…
Our area suffered flooding from Tropical Storm Irene and the storm that followed a week after causing enormous damage as rivers and streams overflowed their banks. We have recovered on our road so today I prefer to think about the gentler water in our gardens that calms and soothes. Here are some of the the quiet waters I saw in Seattle this summer at the Garden Bloggers Fling. Only a big public garden can have a big water…
While in town yesterday I met a friend who said he was busy cutting back the peonies and generally trying to close up the garden because he is leaving for Paris in a week or so. Until the end of October. Poor baby. So I came home and looked at my peonies, which will need a lot of weeding as well as cutting back. Of course, the tree peonies which produce large blossoms like Guan Yin Mian on…