24 July 2008
What's Blooming Now
My garden is foliage-focused -- lots of variegated and neon forms of perennial leaves -- but there are some flowering plants. Right now, here are the perennials that are blooming. Most of the photos of these blooms were taken yesterday; the tradescantia photos are from earlier because their flowers had already closed in the afternoon rain.
The raspberries, as I feared, are molding on the canes. I snipped a bunch of the moldy berries off yesterday to encourage new fruiting.
hosta (white and lavender)
hydrangea (green that turns to white that is turning now to blue)
geranium 'mourning widow' (purple)
tradescantia (blue and magenta)
bee balm (purple on one side of the house, red on the other)
meadow sage (light purple)
daylilies (orange and rich yellow)
black-eyed-Susan (volunteer, maybe left over from a wildflower planting a few years ago)
daisies (no decent shot)
various sedum (pink, white, yellow)
anise hyssop (purple spikes)
the last of the astilbes (faded pink)
the last of the filipendula (also faded pink)
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15 July 2008
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Photos
Snaps taken over the weekend are here (the first 20 in the set), with a few samples below; click to enlarge:
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13 July 2008
Don't Videotape in a Storm
Even from inside the house. Here's why.
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09 July 2008
June and July Garden Photos
Twelve new garden photos at Flickr.
Also, photos from Tower Hill Gardens and Garden in the Woods, both in Massachusetts.
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27 June 2008
Current Events Quote of the Day
"It's so disappointing," Linda Wilmesherr, a local resident, tells the Associated Press. "With all the guns in this county, couldn't we kill a muskrat?"
from Muskrats blamed for levee breach in Missouri, in USA Today
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16 June 2008
Garden in June
The latest photos ... Click to enlarge; go here for best viewing:
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14 June 2008
Skunked
Our dog was skunked last night when she went out for her last pee of the night, around 9:15 p.m. She got it in the face and neck. At first she couldn't open her eyes and was foaming from the mouth. Though my spouse saw the varmint trying to escape our fence, he wasn't sure in the dark, seeing it at a distance from the rear with its tail held aloft, whether it was a skunk or a porcupine (it looked large), so we checked the dog's face for quills, and bites or bleeding, while she was still out on the deck. Finding none, and smelling a strong eau-de-Pepe-Le-Pew, we assumed a skunk spray.
We called the emergency vets, who told us to rinse her face over and over with warm water, which we did in the tub upstairs. We didn't really want to bring her in the house but it was dark outside, we don't have a portable tub or wading pool or anything large enough to use as one, and we weren't sure where the perpetrator was. After the warm water rinse -- by now her eyes were open and she'd stopped foaming -- we scrubbed her with a tomato sauce-water mixture. We are apparently quite ill-prepared for this sort of event: no tomato juice, no hydrogen peroxide and about a half-cup of white vinegar to our names.
Fortunately, it was warm and not rainy last night, so we opened most of the windows upstairs and some downstairs, using window and exhaust fans in some, but the house still stinks to high heaven today. Last night, it smelled like a chemical, a burning rubber kind of smell, not really the smell I associate with skunks. Much more concentrated and acrid. The forecast is not looking good for us, with rain and cooler temps expected from tonight through next Friday.
The dog slept in our room last night, on her foam bed covered double with washable material, but even the foam (three layers down) stinks today, so it's time for a new bed for her. The human furniture is of course off-limits to her for a while.
We humans also stink. I went to the Farmer's Market and grocery store today and heard people wondering if there was a skunk around. There was a fluffy black-and-white long-haired chihuahua running around at the Farmer's Market that caused some double-takes. :-)
My car stinks, though I sat in it only for about 8 minutes total. I'm running the 4th load of laundry now (so far, all dog-related) and have two more, at least, to go.
The dog went to the vet's this morning for a booster rabies shot; she was current on her rabies vaccine but they recommend a booster any time a pet has a run-in with a wild animal. She's now getting her second and third baths, with a mixture of white vinegar, baking soda and a little Dawn liquid detergent -- to neutralise the skunk's potent oil. The vet recommended this, or rather instead of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, but though I bought some hydrogen peroxide earlier today -- along with white vinegar, gloves, sponges, and more baking soda -- we still don't have enough of it to do the trick, and the vinegar seems to be working well. We're keeping it away from her face. (The vinegar is also working well added to the laundry.)
Our dog is a short-haired shedding variety that doesn't get groomed. Her fur can't be shaved without her looking like a Gloucester Old Spots pig and leaving her prone to sunburn and other skin injury. Judging from other spots she's had shaved for medical procedures, the hair may not grow back, either.
The skunks are around, we think, because our neighbours on both sides have grubs, which skunks love. We have a lot of nightcrawlers in our lawn -- not sure whether that's a skunk food source, too. We don't have any garbage outside and thankfully, the skunks don't seem to be nesting under the deck.
Sunday Update: We gave her another bath yesterday using the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, Dawn recipe linked below. She still stinks. Part of the problem is that most of the spray was on her face -- eyes, nose, mouth -- and that's where we can't wash much using the solution.
(Photo: The dog with a treat resting on her nose. One of her other tricks, besides disturbing skunks.)
Helpful de-skunking websites
What to do when your dog has been skunked (PetPlace.com) - our vet printed this out for us
The best way to deskunk your dog (Brian Retzler)
Solving problems with skunks (The Humane Society)
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02 June 2008
Incredibly Close(Up)
Sit in front of this weblog -- In a Dark Time ... the Eye Begins to See -- and see / don't see.
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Local Food
Interactive map to show what's fresh in your state, by month. How come New Hampshire and Vermont have artichokes in June but Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut don't?
(via Rebecca)
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20 May 2008
Spring Is Here
Photos from the last few days are included in Garden Photos here. A few to make the blog look purty:
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13 April 2008
Correlation between Rainfall and Witch Killings
Nicholas Kristof's column in the NYT today -- "Extended Forecast: Bloodshed" -- connects the killing of witches with the environmental affects of climate change:
"Here’s a forecast for a particularly bizarre consequence of climate change: more executions of witches. As we pump out greenhouse gases, most of the discussion focuses on direct consequences like rising seas or aggravated hurricanes. But the indirect social and political impact in poor countries may be even more far-reaching, including upheavals and civil wars -- and even more witches hacked to death with machetes.
"In rural Tanzania, murders of elderly women accused of witchcraft are a very common form of homicide. And when Tanzania suffers unusual rainfall -- either drought or flooding -- witch-killings double, according to research by Edward Miguel, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.
"'In bad years, the killings explode,' Professor Miguel said. He believes that if climate change causes more drought years in Tanzania, the result will be more elderly women executed there and in other poor countries that still commonly attack supposed witches."
Kristof also looks at the strong relationship between economic hard times and lynchings, civil wars, and other forms of violence against 'the other' who is judged to have caused the hardship.
14:50 Posted in community , earthcare and environment , finance and business , gardening and weather , girardian anthropology , politics, government and law | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
09 April 2008
Spring Photos
Spring finally seems to be making headway here, with temps in the 50s and crocus blooming.
Photos below are crocus, taken last week in the rain; crocus and galanthus (snowdrops), taken yesterday; bleeding heart (dicentra) emerging from the soil, taken yesterday. Click on any to enlarge somewhat, or see larger versions at Flickr.
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28 March 2008
More Winter
More snow today!
The same galanthus (snowdrops), now covered with a few inches of new wet snow.
This false bunny (left by previous owners) wanted her photo shot, too.
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15 March 2008
Winter continues
Yesterday I took photos of a clump of snowdrops (Galanthus) poking their heads up in the garden bed. Earlier in the week, they were still covered by snow and ice, but a few days of rain and warmer weather melted the snow and they were visible on Thursday and Friday.
Today, it's snowing again. I had to guess where the snowdrops were and move the snow that lay on top of them in order to photograph them.
I also took a photo of the bench and urns yesterday and today, for comparison. The winterberries in the metal containers lasted from Nov. into Feb., providing a bold stroke of red against the snow that lay on the ground all that time, but in February the red berries were eaten by some very hungry birds.
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12 January 2008
Snowfall Amounts
Having done this exact search myself, I offer to you herzogbr.net's "Reference Question of the Week" for this week, which is to find actual snowfall amounts on two recent dates for one location. If someone asks you this question, or you want to know yourself, and the dates fall within the last month, reading his report might save you several hours of hunting down the data. (Bottom line: Go to accuweather, type in your zip or city, and near the bottom of the resulting page click "Past Weather - Past Month." You'll see a chart for the current month, and you can also "select a new month" to see data for the previous month. Any data further back in time will cost you.)
Also potentially useful is the National Climatic Data Center's text listings of snowfalls (amount of snow that fell that day/night) and snowdepths (amount of snow laying on the ground) for every county in the U.S., and for multiple towns in many counties, listed by month of the year for the past 2.5 years. The snowfall listing files are dlysnfl.txt files; the snowdepth listings are dlysndpth.txt files
Have I mentioned that we have had a lot of snow this year?
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04 January 2008
New Year's Day Photos
We got heavy snow on New Year's Day, another 5-6" in addition to the 10" of lighter snow we had about 48 hours before. I took photos.
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04 December 2007
We've Got Snow!
I've posted some winter garden photos in the Winter Garden album.
And here's what the dog thinks of snow:
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03 October 2007
Garden photos, more
Added a few more photos to the early fall garden album.
Also created a summer garden album
and
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02 October 2007
Garden Photos: Early Fall
Early October is happy time in the garden. Not too much raking, hardly any weeding, a little watering and pruning, severe cutting back of some perennials, annuals still going strong, a few perennials blooming, and foliage catching the low fall sunlight. Check out the early fall garden photos in the album.
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12 September 2007
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
George Africa at Vermont Flower Farms visited Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay, Maine, and photo-blogs it here. Some lovely shots.
My photos of same are at Flckr.
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11 September 2007
Photo Journal of Woodsy Urban Walk (Boston)
Nice: 9 Miles of Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace, thanks to Evan at Life Is Sweet in the Fenway
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10 July 2007
Around the Garden with Astilbes
I've got seven astilbes in the garden, six currently in bloom, more or less, and one on the way. I know the varieties of only two of the plants, which range in size from a foot tall and wide to hefty shrub-sized. Herewith, the astilbe gallery (click to view larger size):
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21 June 2007
Summer Solstice
The summer solstice occurs today at 2:06 p.m. (EDT). Hence, flowers and wine.
Our first peony bloomed a couple of days ago, at the tail end of Spring. Here's a photo of the underside:
... which is quite different from the pink-streaked underside of another white peony that started blooming yesterday: 
Another peony in bloom is magenta with a magenta/lavender center:
Most of the peonies are not yet blooming but are on the verge.
Tip from The Vermont Gardener on prolonging peony season: "Peonies can be cut in the bud stage when they are just showing color and then wrapped in newspaper or a loose plastic bag and placed in the bottom of the fridge. They'll last there for about a month and then with a fresh cut and a vase full of water they'll open up to everyone's surprise." I haven't tried this.
Two more garden photos, one of the purple and yellow iris I've featured previously, and one of the bloom of the Filipendula hexapetula (Meadowsweet), which has ferny foliage (foliage not shown). As always, click on photos to see enlarged images.
On another note, this is the wine I am enjoying for summer, a fresh, crisp, light Santola vinho verde (with a crab on the label!):
"The clean nose exhibits aromas of limestone, cardamom and fruit spice hints, along with limeaid spritz. The sip offers a bright, tropical lime along with earthen notes in the middle, then concentrated lemon citrus in the finish. " (per Darryl Beeson). Others detect a hint of pear.
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19 June 2007
Current Reading
A smattering of online ideas, opinions, images that are intriquing, amusing, perplexing, and inspiring me right now:
1. America Assimilates Terrorists. Source: Onion: "After 5 Years In U.S., Terrorist Cell Too Complacent To Carry Out Attack." TV addiction, weight gain, and debt has done 'em in.
2. Sorted Books Project. (via Blog on a Toothpick.) Fabulous. Books and journals shelved to tell a story. Example: A Day at the Beach. The Bathers. Shark 1. Shark 2. Shark 3. Sudden Violence. Silence. Also: Genealogy of the Supermarket.
3. Eye contact and shame as invitation to violence at Preaching Peace: "Using shame to keep order will ultimately result in violent chaos and death as the citizens and community become each others' police. While there are laws and agencies to prevent this, the fact that the leadership has resorted to invoking shame suggests that they're not working..."
4. Sex and death, reminders of mortality, from Experimental Theology: "[I]t appears that there are good theoretical, observational, and scientific reasons to believe that religious faith is operating as an existential buffer, as a defense-mechanism to repress death anxiety. This will not prove to be the final story about faith. But it is the beginning of all faith." Believers who remain in "this 'defensive stage' of faith ... never fully confront the anxiety that necessarily accompanies an existential sifting of faith. This adventure is, simply, too scary a prospect. Thus, most retreat from this work and remain, keeping with Freud's metaphor, intoxicated." Hence, bodily sins (sex and drug use) are most shameful in American society and in Christian (among other faiths) culture. Hence, our 'animal-reminder disgust' triggers: Body products (e.g., feces, vomit), Animals (e.g., insects, rats), Sexual behaviors (e.g., incest, homosexuality), Contact with the dead or corpses, Violations of the exterior envelope of the body (e.g., gore, deformity), and poor hygiene.
5. Photo of a Royal Poinciana in bloom in Miami in June. Mmmm.
6. How to keep lettuce and other greens 'bright, firm and flavorful' for a week.
7. In Seattle, 31 church-goers report their experiences at (or almost at) 31 faith community worship services, including the Seventh-day Adventists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, Episcopals, a mosque, a synagogue, Sea-Tac's (airport) meditation room. church on TV, and 'the Jesus freaks at Mars Hill.' (The prospective attender couldn't find the Baha'i worship space and no one would answer the phone.) They weren't that chuffed with what they found. (If you're skimming, read #10, #13, #15, #18, #19.)
16:20 Posted in books and reading , gardening and weather , lists , politics, government and law , pop culture , sex , silliness and humour , theology, spirituality, philosophy | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this
14 June 2007
Fooling Around with the Camera in the Garden
I'm learning how to use my digital camera in manual mode, so that I can control the focus, the exposure (lighting), the aperture, or f-stop (for range and depth of focus), and/or the shutter speed.
Here are a few close-up, (relatively) low-light photos from the garden yesterday and today, taken manually. In order, they're two yellow iris, a centaura montana (cornflower), a yellow and purple iris in bud, and a (different) purple iris in bloom.
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27 May 2007
The Garden in May
Photos of the garden in May are available at Flickr. Here are a few to whet your appetite (if you hunger for flora):
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15 May 2007
Spring Garden
The garden is getting underway now in mid-May, with days in the 60s and nights varying from the 30s to 50s. Today we're getting an "April shower" that's beneficial for the plants, though T-storms are predicted for tomorrow.
Blooming at the moment are forsythia, tulips, a few daffs (most haven't bloomed yet), bleeding heart (pink and white), azalea, ornamental cherries (one weeping), brunnera (bug gloss; pictured), pulmonaria (lungwort), and of course the annuals I've planted (geraniums, impatiens, and pansies).
I've spent perhaps 20 hours this week and last raking, weeding, planting, clearing out old raspberry canes, pruning, etc. Finally have begun to tackle the wooded area that we've left untouched for almost 5 years.
Photos are here (the first 13 are from this season).
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10 May 2007
Guide: Hallucinogenic Plants
Finally online ... The Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants by Richard Evans Schultes (1976). I like the useful division between Old World Hallucinogens and New World Hallucinogens.
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06 April 2007
Snow Photos from Yesterday
We got a foot of snow Wednesday night and Thursday morning. It's beautiful, and melting fast in sunny 33 degree temps.
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29 March 2007
Thrifty Tips
One of my favourite magazines, The Oldie, offers hints for thrifty living from its audience of oldies who made do or did without. Pretty run of the mill (though worth recalling that baking soda stands in for almost any modern cleanser), besides this recipe:
We had a few variations on this dish made using pieces of leftover stale bread and cheese (which can be stored in the freezer until you have accumulated enough) [Do people still trouble to accumulate stale bread and cheese?]
Make some cheese sandwiches in the normal way with the bread and cheese but butter the bread on the outside and cut the sandwiches into triangles. Lay it all in a shallow Pirex or suitable ovenproof dish.
Soak in white wine (or fling a bit of sherry over it) letting it soak in for a while. Mix up two eggs in milk and pour this over the top. One now has to leave it alone in the refrigerator for about half an hour whilst polishing off a bit of the wine or sherry during the tedious waiting time.
Take out of the 'fridge, sprinkle some grated cheese over, dot with butter and bake in a moderate oven. Insert a knife and if it comes out clean it is ready.
10:57 Posted in consumption , finance and business , food and drink , gardening and weather , householding , simple living | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this
20 March 2007
Heterotopias
Fascinating idea I've never come across before, from French philosopher Michel Foucault via John Doyle at Ktismatics:
"Society designates sites for work, for recreation, for rest, for education, for transportation, and so on. What interests Foucault in particular are 'counter-sites,' places positioned on the outside of cultural space, irrelevant to the practical functioning of everyday life. These are real places but 'absolutely different' from other sites; not utopias but 'heterotopias.'
"In traditional societies the heterotopias are reserved for people undergoing transitional crises: adolescents, menstruating women, pregnant women, the dying. Remnants of crisis heterotopias persist in boarding schools (perhaps also universities), the military, the honeymoon trip. But, says Foucault, the crisis heterotopia has largely been replaced by heterotopias of deviation: prisons, psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, brothels.
John names some other examples, such as cemeteries, gardens, and theatres, then goes on:
"Heterotopias open onto heterochronies -- disjunctures from the evenly spaced and empty continuum of time. Theater time passes differently from the time that surrounds the theater. The cemetery is a juxtaposition of the end of time and eternity. Museums and libraries accumulate past time in a place outside of time. Resort towns exist only at certain times of the year. Entering into a heterotopia often requires a rite of passage: enlistment in the army, arrest and conviction, death, travel. The ship is the heterotopia par excellence."
Other less hefty rites of passage might be crossing a bridge, walking from a big space to a small one through an archway, waking up from a dream, moving from a sunlite meadow to a dark forest, and so on. Lots of implications for garden and home architecture here (as Frank Lloyd Wright certainly employed in his houses).
I'm still stuck on the resort town thing, though ...
17:31 Posted in books and reading , community , death , gardening and weather , language , theology, spirituality, philosophy | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this
06 February 2007
Have You Heard of Miracle Fruit?
Have you guys heard of miracle fruit (Sideroxylon dulcificum)? It supposedly changes and/or enhances the taste of everything you eat for hours after eating it. It's not legally available in the U.S. yet but some folks are growing and distributing it. Apparently you can buy the seeds on eBay (and people have).
From one tasting: "Limes tasted like lime candy, lemons like lemonade, and meyer lemons and red grapefruit were some of the most tasty things I've ever eaten in my life. On the other hand, pineapples and kiwi were cloying, coffee was mostly unchanged, and wine was just plain disgusting."
More:
I Believe in Miracle Fruit at Barzelay.net, Jan. 2007: "One chews the fruit and coats one's tongue with the pulp, then swallows, making sure not to swallow the seed. And then, for a couple hours, everything one tastes is changed by the fruit. Sours taste sweet, and hidden flavors come out of ordinary foods. Lemons and limes taste extraordinarily sweet. Bland cake is transformed into a flavorful experience. Chemotherapy patients suddenly regain their appetites. Lepers cast off their wrappings and break into choreographed dance. Water turns into boxed wine, and Lazarus rises from a night of heavy drinking with a splitting headache. Apparently, it also works wonders for diabetics. It is an entirely unique and wonderful experience. And it's banned by the FDA."
Covert Dining in NY at Gothamist, Jan. 2007: "It's an elusive, illusory effect that depends on what you eat afterwards. With lemons, it has a kind of deep sweetness.” While some dismiss the berry's properties as a useless food gimmick, a Mentos and Coke sort of thing, consider that chemotherapy patients in Florida currently have limited access to the fruit, because it restores appetite for some whose palettes have been destroyed by massive doses of radiation."
Miracle berry lets Japanese dieters get sweet from sour in The Guardian, Nov. 2005: "Mariko Noguchi had barely started on her premium lemon gelato but confirmed she had been touched by the miracle. 'I tried a bit beforehand but it just tasted like bitter ice,' the 46-year-old said. And her verdict, post-berry: 'I can now honestly say it's delicious.'"
The Old Sweet Lime Trick, by Donna McVicar Cannon, 1992: Way much about the plant itself.
Photo credit: Tropical Fruit World
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31 January 2007
In Praise of Parsley ...
... which, last time I checked, was still growing strong in my garden, with snow all around it.
Barbara Damrosch writes about the tastiness, nutritiousness, and winter-resiliency of the herb parsley.
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15 January 2007
Gardening
A couple of gardening links to share:
Vegetable Garden Dreaming on Such a Winter's Day
Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening posts "Rethinking Your Vegetable Garden," in which she cites Barbara Damrosch's column recently in the WaPo: "If your vegetable garden isn't fun anymore, this is a good time to ask why it's not. ... Use the tranquil dormant period we're in [or wish we were in] now to make a new plan. Not somebody else's plan. Yours."
Kathy adds: "The rest of her column is an aid to thoughtful analysis of the garden that was, and recommendations on how to bring it closer to the garden you want." Damrosch's suggestions include improving your soil (in poor soil, most veggies will fail, which isn't fun), make the plot sunnier, mulch to control weeds, don't try to grow as much, move the garden closer to the house so you don't forget it, keep critters out with fencing, remember to replant during the season. To these, Kathy adds, grow what you really want. Don't grow vegetables just because you think you should, or because your parents did or your neighbours do. Grow what you like to grow and what you like to eat.
I found out when I had a large veggie garden that I like growing baby vegetables (carrots especially), colourful vegetables (Joseph's Coat Swiss Chard, e.g.,), green beans, cucumbers, and greens. I found I didn't really like growing squashes, radishes, corn (which never survived a summer due to critters), and tomatoes (esp. the year we had the invasion of the tomato horn worms).
Ten Rules of Eco-Gardening
The Times Online offers 10 rules for eco-gardening, by Rachel de Thame. Her brief introduction is worth reading. Her suggestions aren't new but serve as another reminder that we can minimise garden labour, costs, and destruction to the planet by doing things like conserving water, putting the right plant in the right place, recycling garden waste, leaving messy piles in the yard, using garden lighting responsibly, and teaching kids where food comes from.
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05 January 2007
Do They Know It's Winter?
No, apparently some plants in my garden don't know it's winter. Maybe because it's 48 degrees F out on 5 January. Photos taken today show a little bit of the snow from a week ago still lingering (with evergreen ginger and non-evergreen but not-yet-dormant tiarella showing), and irises popping up (click on them for larger views):
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24 December 2006
Winter Photos
My gift to you ... some of my favourite winter shots at Longwood Gardens:
