Even before I scanned the weather forecast, you could tell that it was going to snow. A clear solitude outside heralded its approach. The last of the oak leaves have dropped giving me the opportunity for one last rake. The Japanese maples were still stubbornly holding on to their cover as their terminal buds had […]
Hard Frost
All frosts are not created equal. The first often arrives in October as a sprinkling of powered sugar on the roof of my house and pickup truck. Unlike that sweet confection, it disappears with first light and is easy to miss if one is late to wake or not attentive. There are a few other […]
Late Fall
By the middle of Fall, most of the yard work is done. A cold spell or two has crushed the hostas wilting their leaves in a prelude to a collapsed desiccated skeleton. The golden rod has gone gray and the remains of astilbe stalks poke through the accumulating leaf litter. Most of the tree leaves […]
Summer’s Unending
Labor Day is unofficially called the last day of Summer as children return to school and the equinox approaches. This year, however, it is hard to see something ending that for many practical purposes never seemed to start. With the exception of a few humid and hot days, Summer never got off the ground. The […]
Red, white and green
Different seasons stimulate different senses. The Spring shocks the sight into recognizing colors that could only be imaged a few months prior. Early May is the apex of that stimulation with the simultaneous flowering of trees, shrubs and bushes. We get some teasers of color in early Spring with different colored crocuses or the blue […]
Early eats
May is the first month when the garden begins to become more reliable for food. There have been years where the cold frame has provided early March greens, and sometimes dormant carrots and leeks that have been left in the soil after last Fall’s harvest can be pulled as a unfrozen treat. But newly grown […]
Final melt
In a typical winter, late March is when we often get our final melt in Connecticut. There are false starts where a few snow drops will make an appearance and daffodils start to poke their heads through a veneer of snow. But invariably a late winter blast burys any hope of an early Spring. After […]
White birches, grey spaces
White birches are one of those trees that make their best mark in the winter. Against a landscape of grey detritus, they offer a clean and differing diversion to the eye. One of the nicest stands of betula papyrifera is on the way to Boston via I84 in the upper east corner of Connecticut (known […]
Home fruit
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 […]
Snow seedlings
Often the effects of nature arrive in lumps or large batches. This was more than the case this week with my beds of seedlings and the foot plus of snow sprouting up and falling down, respectively. I planted three trays last week thinking that perhaps I was a bit late. But upon checking my past […]