Last week Stefanie Hollmichel posted this lovely observation on our nurturing planet. I think when we feel loved and nurtured, we in turn find it easier to love and nurture in return. Maybe part of our troubles come from not believing in the love and nurturing abundance of our Mother Earth. We has so abused… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 25 August 2021
Category: Nature & Weather
Perseids
I wanted to write about the joys of getting up early in the morning in mid-August to watch the Perseid meteor shower. It is at its glorious peak right now with at least one blazing meteor every other minute and up to two per minute. This year with a young moon, there is no moonlight… Continue reading Perseids
Language of Flowers for Ecologists — Autumnal Hues
Sunflowers & morning glories in August This is my favorite time of the year. There is the food, the cooling temperatures, and the lengthening night. But there are also the best flowers! This is the garden I wait for all year long. Sunflowers to asters, these are the flowers that speak to me. They are… Continue reading Language of Flowers for Ecologists — Autumnal Hues
Ministry for the Future: Review
Ministry for the Future Kim Stanley Robinson Orbit Books, 2020 This is not an exhaustive review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future. I don’t feel competent to write such a thing, nor do I think it’s strictly possible to say all that could be said in a review in less than several pages… Continue reading Ministry for the Future: Review
The Wednesday Word: 28 July 2021
People have always climbed mountains to gain wisdom. Perhaps it is the embodied metaphor of height, perhaps the clear, thin air. Maybe it is merely the belief that there is meaning in the arduous task itself. But I think it might also be true that mountains offer most people their only escape from others. Mountains… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 28 July 2021
St Swithin’s Day
St Swithin's day, if thou dost rain, For forty days it will remain; St Swithin's day, if thou be fair, For forty days 'twill rain na mair. It did not rain today. It was bright and sunny all day long. However, it was airless and so humid it felt like being submerged in tepid beef… Continue reading St Swithin’s Day
A Xeriscape in Vermont
The front bank. I have an awkward garden, an awkward property actually. I have a house on the east side of the road. In front of the house is a bank at about a 75° downward slope. That is, it’s more like a cliff than a slope. At its highest, it is about eight feet… Continue reading A Xeriscape in Vermont
The Wednesday Word: 7 July 2021
The cicadas began singing their strange song this week. Summer gets down to business when the cicadas come out. The days are getting shorter, but the heat is intensifying. Planting is over for a few weeks and the main activity in the garden is keeping the rampant growth in check. The weeds are taking over.… Continue reading The Wednesday Word: 7 July 2021
Dog Days of Summer
The Dog Days are upon us. For me, this name evokes childhood afternoons spent with my collie, Toby, reading under the fig tree, swimming in river pot-holes, and generally doing as little as possible. I have never loved summer best. I’ve never liked heat. Nor did Toby. We invented all sorts of escapes. Mind you,… Continue reading Dog Days of Summer
The Midsummer Garden
Penstemon in the herb bed. It is Midsummer and as promised here is another list of essential plants for the ecological garden, my Language of Flowers. This list has more lore and fewer entries as I decided to break the growing season into three sections rather than two. Too many plants bloom after May to… Continue reading The Midsummer Garden



