Resolutions and Visualization

  • Post published:01/02/2009
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The Commonweeder website did not exist in January 2008; I thought it would be fun to reprint this New Year’s Between the Rows column and see how I did. For a number of years now I have not been too keen on New Year’s Resolutions. This is partly because I have lived long enough to have developed what I call the Driver’s Philosophy of Life. I remember when I was learning to drive I was always concentrating on…

Love is Sweeping the Country

  • Post published:01/01/2009
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Love is Sweeping the Country lyrics by Ira GershwinWhy are people gayAll the night and day,Feeling as they never felt before?What is the thingThat makes them sing?Rich man, poor man, thief,Doctor lawyer, chief,Feel a feeling that they can't ignore!It plays a partIn ev'ry heart,And ev'ry hearts is shouting "Encore!"Love is sweeping the country!Waves are hugging the shore;All the sexesFrom Maine to TexasHave never known such love before.(Addional lyrics sometimes used)Spring is in the air-Each mortal loves his neighbor.Who's…

Mary’s Garden

  • Post published:12/30/2008
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  The Christmas story is filled with familiar scenes and characters, a harsh innkeeper, a stable, shepherds, wise men, angels and friendly animals keeping watch over a Babe in the manger. And, of course, the parents of that Babe. It is easy for me to imagine that those parents would have been even more anxious than any new parents. What did those angelic visitations and dreams really mean? Poor Joseph doesn’t play a big part in the telling…

Gifts for the Gardener

  • Post published:12/29/2008
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My gift shopping schedule fell to pieces when ice began falling out of the sky last week. But there is still time for the last minute shopping that any of us have to do. I’m a gardener and I love presents so I don’t think it is hard to shop for a gardener. It’s not that we are greedy, it’s just that there are always new gadgets and equipment to try. Gloves, boots and clogs wear out and…

Chistmas is Over

  • Post published:12/29/2008
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Saturday we went to daughter Betsy's house for our third family Christmas gathering and we got all the traditional holiday treats. First there was a toy needing assembly. In this case a very simple cat Rolling Rocker. Rory and Tynan are going to the animal shelter this week to choose two kittens and all they wanted was everything about cats. They got a calendar (365 kittens!), two books about cats, kitten napkins, kitten toys and the rolling rocker.…

Christmas Eve

  • Post published:12/24/2008
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Alerted by Michelle over on Garden Rant, I read the NYTimes op-ed piece by Oliver Morton about the strength of living systems on the earth. It is a beautiful piece, science and poetry combined, that is appropriate to the season of miraculous birth and new beginnings.

Sastrugi

  • Post published:12/23/2008
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Heath is famous for its winds. The Montreal Express comes racing down our hill creating wind ripples that are properly known as sastrugi. I learned this word last year when my husband gave me Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape edited by Barry Lopez for Christmas. "A snowfield covered with sastrugi can look like the top of a lemon meringue pie, or like a desert sandscape, sculpted by wind into curvaceous dunes. The word comes from the…

Hellebore – The Christmas Rose

  • Post published:12/22/2008
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                As a lover of roses, I longed to plant a Christmas rose, although I could not imagine how, in Heath, it would bloom at Christmas. When my garden knowledge grew I realized that while I may be able to plant a Christmas rose and have it bloom, it is no rose, and will probably not bloom for me at Christmas.             The Christmas rose is, in fact, a member of the buttercup (Ranunculaceae) family. Its…

Holiday Cactus

  • Post published:12/22/2008
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                  Flowers are a part  of the festive holiday decorations.  Some are even named for the holidays. Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus bloom in shades of white, pink and red all through the holidays. They are hardy plants needing very little care, but it is important to remember that even though we call them cactus, they are not desert plants. Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus are actually a part of the Schlumbergera family, natives of moist tropical…

Winter has arrived

  • Post published:12/21/2008
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Winter is officially here. Last week my daughter said she was tired of winter, and it hadn't even started yet. Krishna is knee deep in snow, but he prefers it to the ice that left many people in our town without power or phones for eight days.We had substantial snow Friday but yesterday it just flurried. Early this morning it began again and is falling, falling falling.