Tastes just like chicken or why did the iguana cross the road?
When visiting the Florida Keys one feels as if one has entered a foreign realm. Neither the plants nor animals have any direct northeasterly comparisons. There are no palm or mangrove trees on the beaches of Connecticut. Prehistoric looking pelicans do not swoop down catching fish with their pterodactyl-like beaks in Stamford harbor. And a […]
A squirrel, fox and groundhog
Spring may be tardy this year with over a foot of snow still coating the ground. Prior to the early March storms, we were hoping for early flowering bulbs making their way through the frozen soil. That is unlikely for at least a few weeks as the piles of shoveled snow have melted and then […]
Embracing your enemies
Recently I helped my friend Eric and sister-in-law Rosana move their possessions into a new summer rental for the next year. They have always been very generous to Juana and me inviting us to their house on Fire Island. As a gardener, the visits have forced me to return to my Long Island roots of […]
Oh rats. It’s not like Charlotte’s Web
One of my granddaughter Charlotte’s favorite videos now is the wonderful E.B.White story, Charlotte’s Web, which tells the story of how the smart spider Charlotte keeps Wilbur the pig off the dinner plate. One of the major characters of the tale is Templeton, a lazy and eventually corpulent rat who gathers words for Charlotte to […]
A bed never felt so good. . .but the cars
You rarely appreciate how good you have it until your creature comforts disappear. To a degree, that’s how I now feel as I have returned from a 9-day kayak trip to the Everglades in Florida where I paddled from Flamingo to Everglades City. This is one of those “bucket list” kind of things that people […]
Prepping for fall
We came back from a two-week tropical in the land of mangos, papayas and tropical fish to falling leaves, colder temperatures and a lower, less intense sun. While the warmth of the past week or so has been welcome, it is but a last gasp tease of what we had will no longer be. A […]
Bird feeder
As I sit cuddled up to my wood stove, I can only imagine how lovely the flowers and trees will look in a few months. That was not the case last week as I worked on my tan in the Florida Keys with my skinny white legs acting as a beacon to bugs and a […]
The immutable force of hurricanes and squirrels
I’ve been feeling rather smug with myself as over the past week as I have seen little evidence of squirrels able to thwart my bird feeding setup that sits somewhere between a Rube Goldberg contraption and a bizarre kinetic sculpture created by a youth with too many body piercings and too little (or much) sporadically […]
Squirrels 97, Erik 1 (so far)
Educated as an engineer and having a father that was pretty handy, I take pride in my ability to fix or build most anything. When I didn’t have any money as a college student, I did my own brakes and rebuilt carburetors. As a young father with only a little money, I repaired TVs and […]
Multiplying mushroom madness
The last few weeks have been difficult in the garden as relentless rain and cloudy skies have kept everything damp and difficult to work on. Grass can’t be cut, leaves raked, and any activities are a damp and depressing mess. While this weather is lousy for people, it is great for mushrooms as has been […]