Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
This weekend we are in Antigua, Guatemala, for a family wedding. They say that Guatemala is the land of eternal Spring and I can’t disagree. When we got off the plane, a waft of warm fragrant air and the sound of marimbas told us we were no longer in frosty Connecticut. The drive to Antigua […]
It’s snowing today and there is nothing better to do than to have a fire, read (or write) and watch the yardstick slowly disappear under a white blanket. As Juana and I follow the birds fighting over position at the feeder, today’s New York Times has a story about how the signs of Spring this […]
In December, most of the vegetable beds are empty. The beds of strawberries and garlic have a few spots of green emerging from their strawed blanket. The asparagus and rhubarb have been cut to the ground and manured for next Spring. The early snow is stubborn stunting any harvest attempt. At that time of year […]
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 […]
While most of the tourists in Washington D.C. go to places like the Air & Space or Holocaust Museums, we spent much of our spare time last weekend at the National Arboretum and Botanic Garden. As the weather was hot and thick with humidity, the opportunity to spend some reflective time walking among tropical trees, […]
We are readying to leave the Keys and slowly make our way back North. One of the things we will most miss is the access to fresh vegetables and fruit that we have had over the past month. While farms are few in the Keys, we discovered a recently opened produce stand in Islamorada that […]
Though too few in number, we have experienced some spectacular sunsets. A few days ago, one particular sunset displayed for us constant changes in color and luminance. Every moment a new set of colors and shades emerged. Pinks, blues, reds, oranges. In the front of the horizon, behind us, on the side. It was one […]
It is the end of perhaps the most harsh February that I have had the displeasure to experience in recent memory. The worst was the winter of 1996 where nearly 120 inches of snow dropped in the Danbury, CT, region. But this winter is right up there with relentless blizzards coming one after another. Now […]
We fled the North nearly three weeks ago to embrace the warmth of the South, in particular the Florida Keys, but like many snowbirds have discovered that we need to crowd together to stay warm rather than luxuriate alone in a humid, warm climate. Don’t get me wrong, mid-60 degree temperatures (during the day) beats […]
Now that we have been in Florida for a week, my wife and I have thoroughly thawed out and started to brown up. In driving from the Northern portion of the state to the Florida Keys, the changes in vegetation were much more subtle than what we experienced on the earlier parts of our drive […]