I get a gold star this year for having my plant orders ready early. Last year several plants that I wanted were gone by March. I think people were shut in, bored, and were desperately wanting spring to come. That might well be true of this winter too. So --- I’m ready to call/send them in. I’m also ordering less. It’s an unhappy realization that the energy I have must be portioned out carefully --- and Kerm’s energy too. Dreaming about gardens is my panacea when winter annoys; I just need
“I will make you brooches and toys for your delight; of bird song at morning and starshine at night…..”* If I could, I’d edge this essay with lace, tie it up with a red satin ribbon, and maybe add a balloon or two; in another four days we’ll be celebrating St. Valentine. Actually, most of us aren’t celebrating the Italian (Roman) saint at all; we are celebrating those who are dear to us in some way. And the retail markets are rejoicing over our weakness for cards, candy, perfume and lacy linge
We are already at the end of January!!! It has been a month of astonishment, disbelief, grief, relief and, for some, continued fears --- many conflicting emotions as the world turns and our country goes through another stage of growing pains. As someone pointed out to me, we are really only a bit over 200 years from living under a monarchy. While 200 seems a lot of years to me, on a historic time line, that isn’t very long. We are still learning ---- and developing ----- and growing ---- and
Caesar Agustus!! Is the calendar page really about to turn again? In our circling of seasons, July is bringing its warm, humid self to closure as August comes along with its half-summer and half-fall days. Some garden produce is ready for harvest (lettuce, cherry tomatoes, kale….). The roadsides are full of periwinkle blue chicory and Queen Anne’s Lace, and golden rod is beginning to blossom suggesting summer’s waning. August is my birth month, a month with no holidays except my birthday,
Leaves are turning all shades of brown, bronze, gold and scarlet ---- and falling ---- falling ---wafting down into crunchy heaps---- and there’s a morning chill in the air. As the spooky time of Halloween nears and the weather grows less balmy, our daylight hours will shorten with the ceasing of DST next month. I moan and groan about this every year since, when the darkness closes in, my mind tells me it is time to cease labors and go to bed. Five o’clock is a bit early for that message. T
“It was a winter evening of transparent clearness, with an innocent young moon above the housetops...”* Isn’t that a great way to begin a story that could go anywhere? It is also a good description of a fine night in mid-December. Early winter evenings can, if we stop to absorb them, fill us with an awareness of how special life is, evening, morning or mid-day. Right now, outside my window a downy woodpecker is enjoying a cake of suet, and just a few yards away, the turkeys are cleaning u
Today is Earth Day ---- an occasion for taking time to appreciate the very ground beneath our feet and all that grows thereon. It is a day to notice the bees (dwindling in numbers) on dandelions, the white of shadblow on the hills and to appreciate the rain (although maybe not so much that mixed precipitation!). We (human-kind) have been careless and lacking in gratitude for the amazing connections and interconnections in our world from the depths of the seas to the starry endlessness of space
No matter how many Christmases have gone by, or how many gray hairs I have, every year brings this feeling of expectancy, happiness and a bit of mystique when the season of Advent arrives. This is when I pull out our collection of Christmas and Hanukkah stories and try to read one or two/day. It is when I begin playing Christmas CDs alternately with the usual classical and folk music. It’s time for my totally unrealistic “to do” list, designed to create the perfect holiday times. Of course, I
Planting season isn’t yet here for our gardens, but it is growing closer and closer. The red-winged blackbirds arrived two weeks ago. To discourage them from mobbing the feeders, I’m filling the feeders later in the day. They are, however, a happy sign that spring has arrived. There is also a starling that has found the little basket I put out for orioles last spring. He sits in it and demolishes the cake of suet hanging right next to the basket. There are four “gentlemen turkeys” (unattach
October ---- – the elixir of autumn! Of course, we have had snow in October; not often, but I remember one or two snowy Halloweens, and while Kerm was still with Cooperative Extension, there was always a inter-county horse show on Columbus Day weekend. More often than not, weather was yucky sometimes to the point of snow showers. The horses wouldn’t be too happy but the kids were fine. It takes quite a lot of weather to dampen the spirits of horse-riding teens. But in my personal view of O
Remember that old song (well, depending on your age, some of you may not!) ---- “What are you doin’ New Year’s, New Year’s Eve?”* Ella Fitzgerald, Andy Williams, Margaret Whiting and more recently --- Harry Connick Jr. ---- were some of the notables who made this song popular. 2021’s last day is tomorrow and how will you spend the Eve? How have you spent New Year’s Eves in the past? We have had all sorts of “eves” in our lives; parties, watch-night services, quiet evenings at home, and one s
Happy Birthday to my turning-seventeen today granddaughter!!! We’re sending virtual gifts of joy and delight, courage and wisdom and wish we could send a yummy birthday cake!
It is also, according to the Monday Morning Epistle from the Burdett Presbyterian church, “White Tee Shirt Day” “Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk Day” and “Peppermint Patty Day”. And elsewhere I heard it was “Make A New Friend Day”. So this is obviously a day worth singing about!
Hasn’t February been fun so far? Of
I just knew it!! I closed my eyes for a few minutes and suddenly, it’s mitten weather although we have a brief few hours of warmth today before a cold front comes through! We’ve finally had several black frosts and I hope all the mosquitoes have turned into little entomologic ice cubes! There was snow last Sunday evening as we drove home from Pennsylvania; not unexpected, but unwelcome! An upside of this late fall season is that mornings are now made cheerier and warmer with a wood fire, t
What wonderful golden days, even though steamy weather came too early! Here, in the Finger Lakes, it is strawberry season. This year I’m hoping to make jam as well as enjoying the fresh berries. Even strawberry-less gardens are starting to look good with their emerging rows of green seedlings. High school graduations are coming too. Because of standardized Regents tests, school endings in NYS are written almost in stone, but there seems to be no set season for graduations elsewhere; a neph
Our recent spring-like weather has most of us who garden looking through our seeds and perusing the plant catalogs once again ---- just to make sure we have all that we need. Last week, the turkeys stopped coming down so often and I think the deer didn’t come at all. Of course, another snow-fall, and they will all be back. We probably are not quite done with wintry weather, but soon, soon! Someone (not sure who) said, “The first day of spring and the first spring day are quite different even
Mid-July and outside I hear the buzz of lawn mowers, the subdued sound of birds and occasionally, the rooster next door. I haven’t done a whole lot of dancing up and down the lawn recently, but there have been lovely twilights for porch-sitting or around a campfire. This has been a dreadful year for mosquitoes, but the “fragrance” of punk sticks keeps them at bay where we are sitting. That aroma reminds me of 4-H camp in the Bristol Hills of NYS, where I went as a camper and later as a couns
We’ve had snowfall nearly every night --- another half to three-inches on top of our since- Christmas snow. This morning there was NO new snow. There is a slight change in the air, and some of the birds are singing spring-ish songs. I’ve heard from one or two observers that a few robins have emerged from the swamps and are out there conning people into thinking spring has come. I expect they won’t stay around long; finding worms beneath our banks of snow will be impossible. But yesterday’s
Here in the northeast, we are well into Fall. Good weather lasted long this year, so we really can’t complain when the season starts being seasonable. Our cover crops never made it onto the gardens, but the potatoes are in storage and many of the weeds are pulled. Kerm has replaced the broken rails in the garden fence and repaired the dog pen where the bear broke through in July. One ursine youngster returned last week on his fall trek, but managed to get around the yard without breaking a
How about this? This year’s last essay on the last day of the year! It is a transition time! Betwixt and Between! Transitioning reminds me of the Star Trek method of travel. Teleporting, however, provides rapid transit from one place to another while this year has required mental and emotional transitions at a slightly slower pace. As a comment for 2020 ---- I’ll just quote Charlie Brown: “ARRRRGGGGGHHH”! And 2021 -----will hopefully be a TA-DA as we land on our feet!
Actually
The arrival of March is always encouraging even though I know that we can get snow-fall half-way into April. And as one of our sons said: “The way this winter has been, we’ll probably get two weeks or so of spring and then a blizzard will hit us.” Could happen! But it just seems that when March comes ---- especially with the onset of Daylight Savings Time ---- spring cannot be far away. The old saying is that if March roars in like a lion it will bring an early spring for it will go out like
How wonderful is the month of May? Its thirty-one days are all too short, even as February’s twenty-eight days are far too long. It is a month of moderate temperatures and new growth everywhere — flora and fauna. A perfect picture of May would be a spotted fawn peering out from a mélange of ferns, trilliums and dogwood. There are so many shades of green as the trees and shrubs leaf out, and many of my favorite plants are in bloom. The very air of May is fragrant. We planted potatoes last w
Is the aroma from my kitchen wending its way out? Do you smell cinnamon---- chocolate----orange? This is cookie-baking week ---- a variety of cookies for that family gathering I mentioned in the last essay. Pineapple cookies, ginger cookies, chocolate cookies and some melt-in-your-mouth buttery nut cookies. One thing I’ve noticed is that the cost of ingredients for cookies have risen a lot, and so desserts are actually as valuable as restaurants have been trying to make us believe all along.
Easter parades are over; a total solar eclipse before us. Birds are returning. I heard, in late February, that a friend had seen two bears, locally, and another friend mentioned the return of her bluebirds. The bluebirds were a welcome sign, but we hoped the bears would stay away until May. However, one or two have already come by, briefly, and so we will soon be moving the big seed cans into our storage shed. This means some inconvenience for me --- up our hilly lawn and around to the back of
The season of Advent is here; a time of preparation, waiting and expectancy. It feels as though, not that long ago, I was putting away the Christmas decorations from last year; the CDs, the bright ornaments, the door wreath. But we picked up the new evergreen wreath yesterday, made by S-VE FFA students, and also a lovely pink poinsettia. The time of many holiday celebrations is surely with us.
I’m a little puzzled by what seems to be jealous clutching of the Christmas holiday and the r
It is mid-January and more light is coming through the tunnels of our winter days. The Christmas tree is out beneath the lilac, giving the birds another refuge from the always interested cats and hopeful hawks. The manger scene on the kitchen buffet and all the cool little animals have been carefully wrapped in tissue and packed away for another year. Hopefully, the wonder of this world-changing event more than 2000 years ago, doesn’t also get put away, but remains with us to light our days!
