Featured

A Year Removed and a New Rose Garden

Nov. 2021

The Rose Garden’s journey from March 2020 to Nov. 2021

follow link to explore the rose garden’s journey

  • Koi pond looking back towards the Butterfly Garden
  • Aug.2021

The past year the ebbs and flows of Covid continue to affect the world around us. Unlike the country, the virus transitioned easily from one presidential term to another. The year traveled through quarantines , vaccinations, masked, unmasked, masked, unmasked, and now booster shots and new viral medical treatments. The workforce and economy have formed a shaky combination that three years ago would have been unimageable.

Trump’s legacy

Trump’s first day and Trump’s last day
Democracy is not a guarantee

The Gardens the past year

Vegetable Garden

Cut Flower Bed

Butterfly Garden

Koi Pond

Kiwi Arbor and Herb Garden

Herb Garden
  • Hardy Kiwi
  • Looking past the cut flower bed towards the kiwi and grape arbors
  • Kiwi and Hops sharing the arbor
Kiwi Arbor

Covid now today

8,790 deaths in the state

753,919 deaths in the US

4,547,782 deaths worldwide

46.4 million cases documented in the US

Numbers for vaccinations

According to the CDC – One is 11.3x likely to die from covid if not vaccinated. In the US .75% fully vaccinated have caught covid. 438 fully vaccinated in the US have died from covid a % of .0185 of the population.

Bipartisan politics and the vaccination bogeyman

40% of Republican adults are unvaccinated. 10% of Democrat adults are unvaccinated. At any moment in a 2 party system the party in power can be the most vulnerable. The other side of the fence is the greenest.

Photos from the yard this past season

Monarchs and Zinnias
Circles

The Book of X an app play

An app play, a dedication, an inspiration of lost sentiments. An exploration of emotions and friendship, feelings and beliefs confused and gone adrift.

An app of poetry and photos from the yard and gardens. Enjoy our app on Google Play.

The Book of X, enjoy our app on Google Play

Fall

Leaf fall on a windy November day, backyard Tulip tree.

The Book of X

An app play and a dedication to confused sensibilities and lost emotions. An exploration of friendship by poetry and gardens.

An app of poetry and photos from the yard and gardens. Enjoy our app on Google Play.

The Book of X, an app of poems, gardens, songs and a story.

The End

2 Months Later….

  • A Fall of Masks
  • A New Water Garden
  • A New Regime
  • A pompous old whiny fool
  • The virus reasserts itself
  • Counting priorities completed
  • The Tragedy of a Failed Seduction
A Fall of Masks

No, they are still here. Saving lives, maybe. Making it difficult to breath, yes. Cannot be in public without one. The Ones who don’t cover, you wonder… Are they brave, making a statement for our rights or are they just ignorant, selfish, jerks? I’m not brave and I don’t want to be ignorant. The later, probably, is not a choice.

The Water Garden
October snow fall
A New Regime

Dancing in the streets

The Pompous whiny old fool

Coronavirus death toll– “So we’re down in this territory, And that’s despite the fact that the blue states had had tremendous death rates. If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at. We’re really at a very low level. But some of the states, they were blue states and blue state-managed.”

Whining about the election results in Georgia–“The governor has done nothing, he’s done absolutely nothing. I’m ashamed that I endorsed him. But I look at what’s going on — it’s so terrible.” Speaking about Republican Gov. Brian Kemp who has a long political history of supporting stricter voter registration laws and speaking out about suspected voter fraud.

Moving on.

The Virus reasserts itself

Hope of fall openings turn into spikes of positive tests. States turn back to increased measures as some areas show hospitalizations on the raise. Ct hospitalizations hit over 1,000. States brace for a new wave.

Ct 113k cases 4,961 deaths

US 13.3m cases 266k deaths

91,635 Americans hospitalized in US hospitals. Hospitalizations matching levels obtained last April.

Counting priorities completed
  • Vegetable Garden July
  • Winter Garden Scallions, Carrots, Arugula, Collards
Vegetable Garden
  • Butterfly Garden July
  • Butterfly Garden November
Butterfly Garden
  • Kiwi, Hop Arbor August
  • Arbor late October
Kiwi, Hop Arbor
  • Cut Flower Bed July
  • Cut Flower Bed August
  • Cut Flower Bed September
Cut Flower Bed
  • Rose Garden July
  • Rose and Water Garden October
Next Year The Rose Garden will be redesigned with new fencing and plantings.
  • Herb Garden June
  • Herb Garden end of October
Herb Garden
The Tragedy of a Failed Seduction

The sudden pounding weight in the middle of my chest

Absorbs dark emotions,

As a light tortuously welcomes the chasm.

I am a soul of a singular atom,

Waiting to burst with a whimper,

Carrying me through on waves of inspiration and disillusionment.

It doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter if it was factious.

It doesn’t matter if it was foolish.

To me

I have forsaken the earth,

Welcoming the drifts and drafts of a sorrowful breeze.

What matters is my despair to never quit.

A love for you.

Pictures from the Yard:

October Snow Fall
Milkweed going to Seed
Center of Town from the Yard
Ornamental Pear
Early November Morning
  • Sowing Carrots April
  • Picking Carrots November
Fall
Old Cellar Hole
Fallen River Birch and a Pair of Tulip Trees
Nasturtiums

6 months

The end of summer. Vegetable garden winding down. The state entering phrase 3. Back to school populations until now protected add to a surge of cases in some communities. The leader gives himself an A+ as the death toll surpasses 200,000.

Clearing the old perennial bed:

The perennial bed in March.

Over grown with blackberries, wisteria, wild roses, and a large fallen river birch. One time the bed consisted of a walking stick tree, lipstick plant, three ornamental dogwoods, ornamental grasses, Adams Needle, Irises, a large Martin House, and a flying model bi-winged airplane.

August started clearing the old perennial bed, along with the rose garden
  • The bed in Sept.
  • Clearing the brush
  • The old Martin House
  • The fallen River Birch piled up.
The Perennial bed cleared for next spring planting.
The water garden:
  • old koi fish pond background overgrown flowering Hawthorne

The water garden/the old Koi fish pond dug out and waiting for the new liner, pump, and waterfall filter. Arriving any day now by UPS.

The vegetable Garden, finishing up for the fall:
  • mustard greens, kale, scallions
  • last of the cherry tomatoes
  • carrots
  • bell peppers
  • picking the last of the plum tomatoes

The Inspiration

-With a burst of Photonic Energy,
-She moves with the fury of Electrons.
-Unapologetically, 
-she purposely stirs Emotions,
-Playing unconsciously with her hair.

-Her diminutive stature booms about,
-Directing, affecting all in her sphere.
-There are no options to ignore and persevere.
-A wave of light, with the pulse of life,
-Her surge humbles all whom brave her wake.

-Coffee Brown Eyes emulate a glance of -Grandeur.
-Oval Meccas of Allure and a hint of unsecure -Emotions;
-Cocoa, Umber, Chestnut - The search to -describe her Gaze -  Is Eternal --
-As are the depths of Her Beauty which Fascinate.

Monarchs

Monarch Butterflies visiting backyard

Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed in backyard. Becoming a rare sight in eastern U.S.
Eastern Monarch mitigation endangered
Eastern monarch butterfly population plunges below extinction threshold:
https://phys.org/news/2020-03-eastern-monarch-butterfly-population-plunges.html#:~:text=Eastern%20monarch%20butterfly%20population%20plunges%20below%20extinction%20threshold,-by%20Tierra%20Curry&text=The%20yearly%20count%20of%20monarch,predict%20the%20migration%20could%20collapse.
Center of Biological Diversity article

Photos from the Backyard:

Back porch
Cut flower garden
Herb Garden
Jalapenos
Dahlias
Sun Chokes
Butterfly Garden
Great spangled fritillary
Outside the basement door garlic chives

Mid Summer

Taking a moment to measure accomplishments and note goals yet to achieve.

Rose Garden:
  • Rose Garden and Trellis: March
  • Rose Garden and Trellis: July
Clearing away the thickets; beginning of August
The old Rose Garden August 2020

This fall paint and repair the fence and trellis. Next spring plan and replant the garden, Roses and Clematis, again, will be the theme.

The Kiwi Arbor:
The Old Kiwi Arbor: March
  • New Kiwi Arbor: June
  • New Kiwi Arbor: July
Future plan is to build a stone patio that extends from the Kiwi Arbor to the Butterfly Iron gate.
Butterfly iron gate
The Butterfly Garden:
The Butterfly Garden: March
Butterfly Garden: June/Planters
Butterfly Garden: Beginning of July

Butterfly Garden end of July into August

Butterfly Garden: August/Zinnias
Butterfly Garden: August/Planters
Butterfly Garden: August

The stone walls at the Butterfly Garden’s two entrances will need to be rebuilt or replaced with brick columns.

The Old Vegetable Garden:

The old vegetable and fruit garden: March

Cut flower bed in old vegetable garden running along rebuilt kiwi arbor and new grape arbor. Artemisia patch and rhubarb.

Zinnias and swallowtails
Humming birds and Monarch playing tag!

Future plans: multiple cut flower beds and a blueberry patch.

Old pumpkin patch:

Old Pumpkin Patch: March
Old Pumpkin Patch = New vegetable Garden: April/May
New vegetable garden: May/June
July
August

Future seasons we will plan for successive plantings of cukes and summer squash.

The Herb Garden:

  • Herb Garden/March
  • June/July
  • June/July

Photos from the Yard:

Butterflies and Masks

Sail AWOL Nation
New Butterfly Garden 7.26.20
Old Butterfly Garden March
Butterfly Garden 7.26.20

At one time, I thought, by the end of July the need for masks would be fading away. But with 21 states dealing with rising infection rates, the end is not anywhere in sight.

The country has surpassed 150,000 deaths. But our state is doing well, only 79 new cases out of 12,367 new test conducted. Only 53 hospitalizations in the state, back in April nearly 2,000.

Finally the Rose Garden: Work has begun!

  • The first day
  • The trellis hidden
  • A wall of wisteria, bittersweet, and trumpet vine line one whole side.
  • Looking into the overgrown garden from the rear.
  • The back overgrown with wild roses and blackberries
The first day of work with a brush cutter in the old Rose Garden.
  • The trellis after 18 years
  • of wisteria, wild rose,
  • trumpet vine and bittersweet overgrowth is still standing!
  • A Buddha uncovered
  • In the middle an old sundial.
Tomorrow a gas powered hedge trimmer to continue cutting away the overgrowth

Photos from the Yard

Purple cone flowers
Zinnias
Dahlia
  • Plum Tomatoes
  • Beefsteak
Jalapenos
Snap Peas
Kale
Discovered a Rabbit’s nest with bunnies in the Kale bed
The Buddha in the Old Rose Garden
Formosa Tree
The old Peach tree growing a couple of peaches

Work continues as the Virus has a Resurgence

7.06.20

Perhaps resurgence is not the correct word. It seems to imply at one point the virus had disappeared, but, of course that is not the case. States across the country started their re-openings some seemly with little planing, 38 states have increases in reported cases. Hospitals in Houston and Miami are filling up. Florida is setting records in cases reported daily. Our state doing better than most has paused its phase 3 re-openings.

All this while the leader deflects and divides. His strategy apparently is to ignore reality and brandish proudly a mask-less face.

The work

The lawn filling in for the butterfly garden.
The flower beds filling out.
The planters doing well.
Echinacea, Zinnias, Gladiolus, Coreopsis, Dahlias, Black eye susans and Heliotrope.
Clearing out the old playhouse
The old playhouse overgrown with bittersweet.
I don’t think the kids ever played in it. Always looked look an old falling down log cabin.
Zinnias
  • Cut flower bed
  • of Zinnias taking off.
For the house.
July 4th Firefly Works
Fireflies in front of the old rose garden.
And then there is the Rose Garden
Yes, again, there is an arbor and picket fence in there.
The vegetable garden
  • Beans
  • Summer Squash
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Dill
The Peppers and Beans were suffering from mineral deficiencies. Maybe, the inability to draw magnesium from the soil. Epsom salts and seaweed foliage feed seem to be helping.

Photos from the Yard

Peaches trying to grow on the old diseased tree.
Jalapeno Peppers
Roma Tomatoes
Adam’s Needle
Catbird’s nest? They always seem to find a ribbon to decorate with.

Kiwi Arbor

6.17.20

March 2020; Kiwi Arbor and Old Grape Trellis looking towards the Old Butterfly Garden
First week in June taking down the old Kiwi Arbor
  • Still working in the old Butterfly Garden
New Kiwi Arbor 6.17.20
The new Grape Arbor
Kiwi Arbor, Grape Arbor, and the unfinished new Butterfly Garden.
  • Beans, Radishes, Cukes, Squash
  • Tomatoes and Kale undercover
  • Broccoli under the cover
  • Snap Peas
Vegetable Garden

Photos from the yard

Pots and Planters Butterfly Garden
Golden Hops
Climbing Hydrangea
Kiwi and Grape Arbors
yellow bush cinquefoil

Summer Garden Blog

06.06.20

The Governor announced Phase 2 re-openings will begin a few days earlier than originally planned. Phase 2 will start on 6.17.20 (Bunker Hill Day!)

The death of Dr. Joseph Warren 6.17.1775

Phase 2 re-openings will be:

  • Accommodation (no bar areas)
  • Gyms, fitness & sports clubs
  • All personal services (nail salons, tattoo parlors)
  • Outdoor arts, entertainment, and events (up to 50 people)
  • Outdoor amusement parks
  • Movie theaters
  • Bowling alleys
  • Social clubs, pools
  • All museums, zoos, aquariums
  • Restaurants (indoor dining, no bar)

As of 6.7.20: The state 4,007 deaths, U.S. 112,000 deaths, world wide 397,000 deaths from Covid-19.

The week of 6.6.20; worked in the Herb Garden and the Old Butterfly Garden.

The old Butterfly Garden
Built and planted three additional planters.
Will seed the garden with grass seed. A lawn hopefully will tie everything together.

The old Butterfly Garden: A trimmed hedge of burning bush. Echinacea, Dahlias, Coreopsis, Black Eyed Susans and Butterfly Bush planted as perennials. Planted pots have Sage, Thyme, Rosemary and Basil. Planters have cherry tomatoes, Red Geraniums, Purple Petunias, Impatiens, Sweet Potato Vines, Vinca, Orn. Red Grass, Spiked Dracaena. There is a planted bed of Zinnias and another bed planted with Gladiolas Bulbs.

Grass needs to be sowed. A Trellis or Arbor needs to built for the grapes/hardy kiwi and have to figure out how to rebuild the old, fallen down arbor that supports the mature kiwi and make a home for the hops.

The Herb Garden
The Herb Garden: chives, mint, lemon balm, marjoram, sunchokes, thyme, sages, rosemary, scented geraniums, horse radish
Blooming
Right outside the front door sounds of the early morning.

Photos from the yard:

Row covers over the Kale and Broccoli in the Vegetable Garden.
Tomatoes; Cherry and Beefsteak
Rows directly in front: Cukes, Summer Squash, Beans, Dill right in front of the uncovered Broccoli. Radishes are planted in between the squash and cukes.
Holly
Clematis flower peaking out from behind the Bittersweet in the Old Rose Garden
Another Clematis surviving in the Old Rose Garden. This one peaking out between the Wisteria, also over taking the Rose Garden.
Behind this wall of wild roses, bittersweet, and wisteria is the white picket fence and arbor of the Old Rose Garden.