Musings on horticultural therapy and the soothing effects of plants and nature
In mid-July when ripe blueberries are ready to be picked, the fireflies emerge at night. At first there are a few whose solitary flashes for attention are in vain in the search for a mate. But when the temperature and humidity is just right, they emerge en masse in an irregular synchrony of a low-powered, […]
A week ago the last of the strawberries were harvested. The pickings were slim and even the chipmunks abandoned the vegetable garden looking for food. As I scoured the patch for the last time, removing the bird netting, I found a few perfect fruits reminding me how fortunate we have been this season with bountiful […]
We were lucky. The weather was great and everything and one showed up when they were supposed to. I often fret too much about working with large corporate volunteer groups at Ann’s Place as I want to ensure that everything occurs without a hitch. So when I did not get an e-mail or phone call […]
When you are away from your garden for even the smallest amount of time, compared to being away from a loved one, days seem like months. The garden I left was not the garden I came back to. As expected the most significant change is in the amount and size of weeds. The garden left […]
When I lived on Long Island, strawberry season was always between Memorial Day and Father’s Day. In that short stretch, when we lived on Long Island, Juana would get me out to the Eastern End farms to pick strawberries for eating and jelly. It was one of her favorite activities now reminding her how she, […]
As we wound up Erik and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, on the way back from Washington D.C. I persuaded Ted to take a slight detour (ok it was more than slight) to a carnivorous plant nursery in Smithsburg, MD, called coincidentally Carnivorous Plant Nursery where we met Michael Szesze, the owner and propagator. We went there […]
It’s a beautiful cloudless day and after a quick ferry ride across the Potomac, we are ready and excited to be finishing our trip. Though the trail is 335 miles long we figure that after today’s 38 miles we will have biked somewhere between 350 and 360 miles over our 8 days on the GAP […]
We leave Shepherdstown on another perfect day with no clouds in the sky. As we cross the Potomac to rejoin the trail, old bridge supports are to our right supporting only vegetation rather than a means by which the river can be crossed. A solitary fisherman pushes his skiff out from the West Virginia shore […]
This area of the United States has many tiny jewels of history. That was no where more apparent when we finished our day at the towns of Sharpsburg, MD, and Shepherdstown, WV. We first rolled into Sharpsburg on our way to Antietam noticing that nearly every house on Main Street had at least one U.S. […]
Just finished lunch at Captain Benders Tavern and spoke with our trail friends who own a landscaping business in Ohio. They clued us in on what routes not to take so that we could avoid any extra hills during our tour of Antietam. Our goal is to see as much as we can while avoiding […]