One of my favorite summer pleasures is al fresco dining. Sitting outside, particularly early in the morning with my newspaper and coffee is an elemental pleasure. On Sunday mornings it is even more sublime as the din of autos, delivery trucks, landscapers, etc. are eliminated leaving me just the birds and the simple rustle of […]
Summer’s Goldilocks
I often tease my wife Juana about what I call “The Goldilocks Zone” (also referred to by astronomers for the habitable areas of planets around a star) of temperatures that she finds comfortable. It can be maddening as blankets come on and off throughout the year in our bed and clothing the same so that […]
Spectacular Summer
As bleak as the winter and spring have been in the garden, the summer appears to be making up for it. We have long since cut down and dug up all the dead plants, the roses and butterfly bushes, letting the existing perennials and opportunistic annuals take their place. A few, like the fig tree […]
Just can’t catch a break
We spent a wonderful long weekend in Charleston, S.C., reminded that trees are supposed to have leaves and the grass is green. I spent the prior week working to clean the grounds and bought nearly 4 yards of pine bark chips to cover the beds, which emerged from the snow with only hints of their […]
Breaking Buds
There are a few signs that Spring has arrived in my yard rather than merely the calendar. We had our first BBQ yesterday dragging the grill through the snow. Two-thirds of the back patio has been cleared off though a persistent layer of ice that is shaded by a short wall of stone is hanging […]
Frozen vegetables
With Spring at my front door, I have always looked forward to an early harvest of wintered-over greens that I had planted in the fall. Kale, Swiss Chard, spinach, Miner’s Lettuce, mustard and the like have been ready for the picking and sampling. Tender sprouts of sorrel are ready to taste and enjoy. These late […]
Coconuts in Connecticut
Well not really. Back in the Nutmeg State after nearly a month in Florida I am typing between shoveling expeditions as we are in the midst of yet another Nor’easter. Apparently after I left for warmer climes, Connecticut like much of the country, had been hit by wave after wave of bad weather. In the […]
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 […]
Post turkey torpor
About a week ago, the skies finally opened up to deliver a few inches of much needed rain. For most of October and November we had barely three quarters of an inch of the wet stuff over the past two months reminding me of a similar drought in the Spring of 2012. Mother Nature continues […]
First snow
This morning we had our first snow of the season. It was the type of snow event that you can appreciate and enjoy. The shovel remained in the garage as the snow didn’t stick to the driveway or roads. Lovely white flakes floated down coating the bird feeder with a thin cotton like blanket. Titmice, […]