What an election year! It is time to vote for the best in blogging and I am overwhelmed! I am new at this and I am so impressed by the thoughtful, informative and inspiring blogs that I have found in the past few months. How to choose the best? Or best photography? Or most innovative? And I am totally stumped tying to decide which of the four Garden Ranters I would most like as a neighbor. Can't we…
With all the snow and ice outside, the only gardening activity I can enjoy is reading garden books. A Child's Garden: 60 ideas to make any garden come alive for children by Molly Dannenmaier. My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Luppinaci, read Frances Hodgsen Burnett's The Secret Garden to us, and I don't know if the vision of that garden has ever left me. This beautifully illustrated book has lots of ideas for garden spaces that will entrance children…
After a night and day of snow and freezing rain, we had a brief respite. Then it began to snow again. Two more inches of fine cold snow. I had to leave at dawn today for a Library and Legislators breakfast and almost didn't make it because the nighttime winds had frozen the car doors shut. Much gnashing of teeth later I got the passsenger door open, climbed over the gear shift and pretzeled myself into the car.…
We think a lot about 'critters' here at the End of the Road. We hear coyotes at night - and at noon when they respond to the noon whistle at the firehouse, bears, deer (grrrrrr) and fisher cats who once killed 60 month old chicks. Recently, there have been owls. Different owls watching over different houses, even an owl sitting on the recycle metal bin at the Transfer Station. Last week I woke in the night and looked…
Some people have snowdrops. Here in Heath we have new snow on March 15. The only thing blooming is the ever faithful abutilon. See postings for January and February Bloom Days
Water, water everywhere at the New England Flower Show. There were still ponds, splashing waterfalls, jetting fountains, dripping pillars and balls. It seems we must all have water in our gardens.Actually I remember reading Beverley Nichols over 20 years ago and he said that water was absolutely essential in any garden. I was a new gardener at the time and I couldn't imagine how you could ever manage this and I thought it was a ridiculous requirement. No…
This is how things looked on the hill on Tuesday. We still had three feet of snow and everything was covered in ice. But I left and slid down the hill to Northampton. This is what I saw at the annual Smith College Spring Bulb Show. The sun shone through the glass house. The air was cool, but damp and fragrant. It might as well have been spring.After spending delicious time in the two bulb show room, I…
Eleven year old Rory came to visit last week. All the grandchildren had school vacation and we nabbed one for some fun in the snow.However, it was so cold that we enjoyed a lot of indoor activities as well. He needed to study up on light opera in preparation for finishing his requirements to become a Boy Scout in May so we listened to The Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan's tale of a slave to duty who,…
Since I took this photo of Krishna, chest deep in snow, early in the week we have had more snow. More wind. And more snow. Krishna is now neck deep in the white stuff, and snow shoes are required to get out to the hen house. However, the sun is bright. The days are a bit longer. Our bedroom is bright by 6:45 am and getting up is easier and easier. The weather man even forcasts temperatures of…
It snowed and iced last week and the radio today promises another bad storm tomorow. It has been a very very long winter so I was more than usually eager to find flowers and dream of spring.The Amherst Orchid Society provided the perfect antidote, an exhibition and sale of hundreds of fabulous orchids from the big corsage type cattleyas, all ruffle and frou frou to airy dendrobiums to the elegant phalaenopsis, which is my favorite, and not just…