Standard June lilies and standard blue Siberian Iris.
The rose is ‘Winchester Cathedral’ and is amazingly fragrant. The green is Lady’s Mantle.
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Floral Decorations Friday, Jun 7 2013
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography, roses 18:03
Chores Friday, Jun 7 2013
Esperanza and gardening gardening, history 10:07
Keeping up with a landscape of this nature requires a fair bit of work. This is made easier these days with an ever increasing armada of power equipment. And a modification to the types of gardening/landscaping. (I like shrubs for a reason)
In the 1870/1880’s it was a bit different. At that time there were a number of children around during the summer, usually six or seven.*
In addition to summer schooling and exploring all of the surrounding area, going as far as several towns away and hitching a ride back on a train, they were kept busy.
“There were chores which we were expected to do, and so we did them….On Saturday we were also required to rake the driveways and the many winding paths so as to have them look neatly cared for when Papa came up from New York on the evening train. We earned very good wages for that. Ten cents a week. And we had an extra privilege of earning more by digging dandelions from the lawn at ten cents a hundred, and nice long roots mind! Grandfather made us this offer and we were tremendously busy at it at every spare moment. But one day Wallace, who was the busiest digger of all of us, presented Grandfather with a heaping bushel basket full of thousands of dandelions. That was the end…as the suspicion that Wallace had gone far afield for those flourishing dandelions was strong…”
*The Ellsworth children: Helen Adelaide, Lucy, Bradford, Elizabeth; their cousin, Carl Davis; and the two Rood children, Wallace and Nan. The Roods were the family in charge of the farm.
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May apple or Podopyllum peltatum Wednesday, Jun 5 2013
gardening native plants 09:22
This native, which I once saw blanketing acres of wooded bluffs above the Missouri River, is reputed to be a sturdy ground-cover. It certainly looks like it will like it here. Last year I planted a miserable pot (of three stems, one was broken, one was Ok, and one was dead). This year the clump had five stems and all bloomed, and four have set fruit. It would certainly be nice of it to spread. The flowers don’t last long, but it is the most unusual looking plant as it comes up in the spring. Quite fun.
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What’s Blooming? Tuesday, Jun 4 2013
It would be easier to say what isn’t actually…
Iris, both Bearded and Siberian, at least 8 different varieties; primarily blues/golds/white, with a touch of bronze.
Oriental Poppies: RED
Clematis: pinks/purples
Dame’s Rocket: pinks/whites
Dianthus: white
June lilies: yellow
English Bluebells: Blue
Perennial Bachelor’s Buttons: bright blue
Columbines: mostly blues, a few pinks and maroons
Rhododendrons: mostly decent pinks (no fuschia!), only one white. The one that I bought which should be white….is a rather nice almost red….in the wrong spot naturally.
A few late azaleas
Beauty Bush (Kolkwitzia)
Weigelias: the big standard old fashioned red and the dwarf types
Deutzias: white
Rugosa Roses: white and pink
Pagoda Dogwoods: white, a very good year for them for once.
Kousa Dogwoods: Ivory
Peonies: just starting up
Various wild flowers: Wild Geraniums, Solomon’s Seal, Ox-eye daisies, English daisies, Yellow Hawkweed, clovers, other
(and all the things I can’t recall right now)
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Things that work Monday, Jun 3 2013
Esperanza architecture 15:35
or the beauty of double-hung windows.
We are slowly opening Esperanza’s windows for summer. That sounds distinctly peculiar, but it is the best way of doing it here. First a few doors, here and there, get the storms taken off the rest of the doors, then a few windows, then a few things in the attic, then a few more windows. By mid-June most everything that can be opened will be opened.
Remember this is a house with 17 doors (and two french doors) to the outside.* We are talking about A Lot of doors/windows, and every one is unique.
In any case, double-hungs, are my preferred window. There are problems: the biggest drawback is that, unless you have storms (which we do) you cannot have weather tight windows. I had an office with unsealed double-hungs, newspaper was useful. They also require carpenters with an actual grasp of…you know…Carpentry. However, the configurations of the storms, double-hungs, and screens are numerous. It is quite possible to have an open window that does not ship water, or a window that creates a constant, subtle breeze, or a truly open window. Furthermore, some of those configurations are, while not ultra-secure- very close to it; especially in double-hungs that are opened by means of interior catches in the casement. You can have an open window that is still as secure as an unopened window in that case. Which is rather nice.
It is a Project, of course, I just wrestled open a double-hung that has neither catches nor weights. It will stay open all summer. So five minutes now and five minutes in the fall. I think that is manageable…
*do I have that right? You’d think I’d remember.
Colours Saturday, Jun 1 2013
The Flagpole garden continues to come along elegantly: currently Red, White, Blue, and Gold with a green background. The Red are the big Oriental Poppies, each year they get larger and have more flowers. I picked up a fourth one this year, to help balance the other three. The older three (I think they are four years old now) are nearly the size of bushel baskets; the new one could fit in a quart. They are a true crimson red, ‘Beauty of Livermere’ (and I fervently hope the new one matches…). The flowers are massive, about the size of a baseball. The blue and gold come from the iris: true gold (unknown) and true blue (‘Breakers’ very fragrant), the white from the cerastum. Pure white iris might work well too…but I don’t think there is space.
A rather nice colour scheme. There is a bit of pink rocket in there, I think it has to come out!
It all goes rather nicely with the flags. When it all works, of course, last year the gold iris didn’t bloom for unknown reasons. And the blue iris are new, and seem to be a bit shorter than they ought to be; but we didn’t expect them to bloom, so maybe next year.
The poppies, of course, get nicely hidden by the asters and the shasta daisies later in the summer, so the gaping holes simply aren’t visible.
I can’t take any credit for this garden, it is all Mom’s!
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A few photos from the last week Friday, May 31 2013
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography 10:06
Small blue iris originally from Vermont, also Star of Bethlehem.
Blue iris, columbines, in the Little Kitchen garden
Columbine ‘Ruby Port’
Clematis ‘Mayleen’ on the pergola
Japanese painted fern, sweet woodruff, standard hosta, by the ramp
Double-file viburnum, Exbury Hybrid azaleas, Bleeding Heart, Dame’s Rocket, on the edge of the big garden
New England weather Thursday, May 30 2013
Uncategorized 12:47
There is something rather absurd about a frost on Monday night, severe enough to curl some young leaves, and on Wednesday night a line storm with a spectacular hour long light show, and today it is about ninety.
I will say that last night’s storm was impressive to watch: the fast moving black front edge with a sudden increase in wind and drop in temperature; the lightning streaking across the sky; and the sub-audible thunder that you really ‘heard’ because the plate on the wall in the dining room was constantly vibrating, with periodic rattles from nearby strikes. It rattles when low-flying planes come over or in thunderstorms, why that plate (or that wall) picks up the vibration I am not sure. It doesn’t pick up road noise.
Still being able to scan the meadow in close to daylight conditions (albeit a purple sky), but picking up greens and reds, with the light lasting long enough to really look at the meadow and the hills beyond, on average once every thirty seconds for well over half an hour is an awful lot of energy! Lots of ground strikes on the hills to the west too. Would have been neat to get some pictures, since with a much faster camera it would have been possible as the strikes tended to last for ‘long’ times.
I have to admit that while those storms are spectacular to watch, I can’t help but think of all the trees that make lovely targets here, and what a mess it is when they are hit…
Visitors Wednesday, May 29 2013
Esperanza 10:54
The house gets few visitors. So it was rather fun last night to host a very brief choir rehearsal. For a little while the Keeping Room sprang into life. The old ghosts of the many formal and impromptu concerts given around the grand piano were there, whether it was in Chopin or in the Whiffenpoof songs of Yale. Outside, the lush green of summer rises, and inside, the golden room echoes with voices and laughter. The Keeping Room is large, ample space for a Steinway and eight people to stand and sing in the north bay, leaving the rest of the room open for the audience. Rather good acoustics too.
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Memorial Day Monday, May 27 2013
Uncategorized memorial day 12:08
(Speech given by yours truly at the town’s ceremony)
“Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”
That quote is from General Logan in 1868, on the establishment of Memorial Day. Memorial Day was established, following the Civil War, as a day of mourning for those fallen in the service and defense of the United States. It is fitting that Memorial Day was first associated with the Civil War, for that war is the most glaring example of the nation’s failure to live up to its ideals as a free republic.
The observance of Memorial Day spread gradually, by the 1890’s most of the Northern States recognized it. Following World War I, it became a national day, honoring the fallen Americans of all wars, and so it continues to the present. It is probable that in New Hartford, the earliest public observances started in the late 1880’s, when a monument for the Civil War began to be discussed by New Hartford’s veterans. That monument, in the North Village Cemetery, would be dedicated on July 4th, 1893. Nine percent of New Hartford’s population served in the Civil War, about on average for Connecticut towns. That is a percentage that America has not seen since, for which we are thankful; though, one need only look at the town’s parks and graveyards to be reminded that the need for such service and the sacrifice continues to the present day. The roll call of the fallen is long, and grows ever longer.
We are often told to thank the active military, and veterans, for their service. And that is surely a right thing to do. But, I would argue, that a quick word of thanks is an easy option, little repayment for a life.
The military’s oath, states in part: to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. Their faith is given not to the people, not to the government, not to the continental land mass labeled on a map.
To the Constitution of the United States. That remarkable document which sets forth a narrow way between the individual’s inherent free will and the collective duties of society, with the idea that in so doing the greatest possible freedom of opportunity can be preserved.
As civilians we take no such oath. Our lives are not the coin which buys our freedom back from enemies. We are not asked to bear undaunted the final sacrifice. But if we neither honour nor guard our freedom, than our thanks, and our love, is poor indeed.
Freedom is not easy or safe; there are no guarantees of equal success. It costs, it costs lives, it costs time, it even costs money. But it does not cost the spirit. There is no greater thanks than to live as free men. There is no greater way to honour a willing sacrifice of a life than to ensure that the cause for which they died is not corrupted. The fallen give up their lives, not for love of war, but that we may live freely.
We live because of love, and so on this day and all days, we should remember Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
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Acair Fearann 