Brilliant Autumn Color is Flooding Heath’s Hills

  • Post published:10/02/2013
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All of sudden the autumn color we hope for and wait for has appeared. Every hour it seems more brilliant.     Down with invasive Burning Bush. Up with blueberries. Delicious berries and delightful autumn  color. Deep autumn color on the oakleaf hydrangea is stunning and unusual. For more Wordlessness this Wednesday click here.

John Bunker and David Buchanan on Cider Day

  • Post published:11/05/2012
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John Bunker and David Buchanan gave a couple of talks on Cider Day all  about their experiences with finding and planting heritage apples. They also got to sell their books. I knew about David's book, Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter,  but I didn't know that John had also written, and illustrated, a book about the apples and orchards of Palermo where he lives in Maine. Not Far From the Tree: A Bried History of…

Taste, Memory by David Buchanan

  • Post published:11/02/2012
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  David Buchanan and I met at the Conway School of Landscape Design (CSLD)  reunion in September where he gave a six minute talk about what he had been doing since he graduated in 2000. He talked as fast as he could, and I listened as fast as I could, but I was glad I could slow the journey when I received a copy of his new book Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter.…

Priorities and Preparations for Hurricane Sandy

  • Post published:10/29/2012
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While Hurricane Sandy was making its slow and warning filled way to Heath we had to set priorities and make preparations to weather the storm. With so much notice, and stories about a possible Sandy snow  storm (like last year) I realized it was time to plant the garlic. Fortunately I had already prepared the bed so it didn't take much to pull apart my choice garlic bulbs and plant each clove about eight inches apart in four rows. Then…

The ABCs of Heritage Apples, and Others

  • Post published:10/27/2012
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A is for Apple, but if we look at heritage apples we can march right through the alphabet. Baldwin, Cox’s Orange Pippin, (Old) Delicious, Esopus Spitzenberg, Golden Russet, and on through to Northern Spy, Roxbury Russet, Stayman Winesap and Westfield Seek-No-Farther. The Roxbury Russet and Westfield Seek-No-Farther remind us that some apples had a very local fame and audience before they spread to wider fields. In fact, Roxbury Russet was the first named apple in Massachusetts. Even though…

Surprising Blooms on a Gray Day

  • Post published:10/25/2012
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These surprising blooms are from Bluestone Perennials, one of a mum collection I bought a couple of years ago. The rabbits got to the planting of that collection and I rescued what was left and just stuck them anywhere in the garden and forgot about them. I hope I am not the only gardener in the world who sticks in anywhere and then forgets. This spring I saw what looked like chrysanthemum foliage in an odd place, and…

Sunny Saturday – On the Road in Heath

  • Post published:10/22/2012
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After more t han three inches of rain came sunny Saturday and the pleasure of Saturday morning rounds. Past the abandoned beaver dam and off to the Heath Free Public Library. This is the prettiest abandoned beaver dam in Heath. We are not totally sure whether beavers have left our beaver pond or not. After the library onto the paved road and the Town Transfer Station. After the Transfer Station it was down 8A and off to Avery's…

A Marital Discussion

  • Post published:11/07/2011
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This fall I mentioned to my husband that I was amazed at how many beeches there seemed to be in the woods all of a sudden. How had I not noticed all these beeches before when so many of them grew right along the roadside and still retained their leaves when most of the other deciduous trees were bare. I knew that beeches kept many of their leaves until the old leaves were pushed off by new leaves…