Armchair Gardening

In the bygone days of blogging (yes, we can now talk about the bygone days of blogging), it was normal to have numerous mini-posts comprised of only links or quotes, etc. That is greatly frowned upon by Google today (not yet known in those days when “Altavista” was the search engine we used. )

So this post will collate those ancient posts which I do not simply delete from the blog.  Each entry will have a title and the date it originally appeared in the “Journal”. Sometimes we called such things “a blog” rather than the entire site. How time has changed the social medium of blogging!

I am now refurbishing Ilona’s Garden Journal for today’s readers. If you like trivia collections, this post will entertain you.

Autumn Garden Report

Published on: Oct 14, 2003 @ 23:58

Did I mention planting the Iteas? I did. They look great in their decided placement. They are backed by the Viburnum burkwoodii which really looks good. I hope they do well.

Pines are not looking good in Ohio this year, including mine. Losing lots of needles. But I don’t think it is serious for mine, they have some good green growth, too…. so it may be just losses that are either natural or from the drought of last year.

Every year seems strange in some way anymore. I don’t think we have normal, I think normal is something of the mythical past.

It is raining fairly hard today after yesterday’s perfect weather. Very windy.

I cut down many of my perennials-mostly the asters. Some years I leave everything til spring, but I wanted the asters out of the way-they are very messy in winter. Spring is always wet cold work, so the fall is my preferred time to get things out of the way and prepared for spring.

I am trying out a new tulip -‘Lipstick’ or something. I will put in the proper name later. It is a triumph type I hope it matches up with the Apeldoorn’s …if not, I will have to seperate them with some gray or white things. Taking chances this year.

Musings from an Untimely Bloom

My crabapple trees are blooming. And I have seen this in the general area which inspired these thoughts:

The Coming of Winter

Published on: Oct 16, 2003 @ 17:16

Some things come to their winter. They come to the time to put them to their proper end -cover them over and look beyond.

The crabapples should flower in springtime, but they are blooming in Autumn.

=====

Winter is not a time of blooming and we are surprised when we see  flowers then. As though we had forgotten it was possible, this out-of-time-sequence. Thinking that what is customary is somehow eternal.

The mind becomes steeled for the barren and the frozen, and bloom out of it’s time disturbs that, it softens us in our memories and transports us to a delight of another season.

Quickly it passes and the turn of mind is again toward the elemental matters of a warm fire, a shining light, and a hot drink. The blooms are garnered to their proper station of time, again.

Not everyone’s seasons are the same, but there is always some sort of marking of time and tasks.

I have always liked the Northern seasons,  Maybe it is the clarity of differentiation in the types of beauty and the comforts of each one in turn. Their severity of cold or heat is not the attraction. Not for me any more, anyway.

======

I am already thinking of winter. The unseasonal blooming of the crabapple trees was unsettling. This year it has been as though I wanted to become a chrysalis and then somehow miraculously emerge next year as something wonderful and beautiful and able to fly.

Brisk Autumn Day

Published on: Oct 16, 2003 @ 22:41

It was a brisk day today, with a storm brewing on the West. I passed a farm with a horse that was galloping full run into the breezy gusts, tail up and rippling muscle. It seemed to speak the essence of autumn, the feeling of invigorating chill and yet warmth of sun and clear air. I felt I knew what the horse was feeling, just for a few brief seconds.

It reminds me of our day-trip to visit my mother this past week. We drove up through Ohio to the north, it was a beautiful warm and clear fall day. Leaving very early in the morning, the mists were rising from ponds of water and wisping about the fields. The morning sun sparkled on the grassy pastures with either frost or dew. I couldn’t tell which, in its white webby blankets.

The leaves have just been turning with fits of red among the yellow and greens. I made a little word picture in my mind of the smoking mists from the waters igniting the flames of the autumn trees. It entertained me quite a bit as I took in the scenes that are all too fleeting in their season.

Art and Beauty Musing

Published on: Nov 9, 2003 @ 22:32

Photography of John Beale is a thing of joy.

There is nothing I like better than for someone to have an eye for beauty and the talent to tender that into something I can enjoy. I think this is true for most us, right? This is what makes much of art: being able to transfer the message of something to another’s senses.

He mainly has articles for those who like to do the picture taking, which judging from the results should make helpful reading.

=======

I always wanted to make good web pictures of my garden moments, and I am actually thinking of trying to learn to manage a camera. Right now, the nuances of fine photography seem mysterious to me. But all mediums simply need to be worked with, we can’t all be masters, but just attempting something gives us satisfaction and a greater appreciation for those who are masters of their medium ( or media, is this a pun? I’m not sure).

That is how I feel about gardening. An artful, masterful garden is not something all of us will make. I know I gave up that dream a while ago, but something that gives expression to the personal vision we have is do-able. Very do-able.

So we look at others art, and others gardens, and we get inspirations and enjoyment, we understand something that we otherwise might not, and we make our own expressions and the world is richer for it.

If you would ask me at the moment, I think this is the grand purpose of all of art: enrichment.

It takes what is there and creates the moment for someone else. I am sure this is too simplistic, but there is so much beauty to experience, and so many different visions of what that is, I think there is opportunity for everyone to create and enjoy another’s creating, and that this is part of what gives our lives meaning.

Customary November Weather

Published on: Nov 14, 2003 @ 19:49

The winds blew and blustered yesterday, but today is calm. Very cold, though. Not exactly winter cold yet… but starting to feel that way.

The days have had that clear yellow shaft of sunlight against gray lead skies that are customary for November. And the lawns are still green and LOOK SO WONDERFUL with the leaves all vacuumed , mulched, and stored in my vegetable garden. Today is a plain pale gray day.

I scanned in my photos, They are pathetic. Can’t even improve them. I think I will ask for a digital camera for Christmas.

I need something that shows my mistakes while I am taking the pictures.

Peace in the Garden

Published on: Nov 17, 2003 @ 05:49

I accidentally put a rant in here, but it is all deleted now.

Sometimes I feel I handle disappointments better if I can garden. It doesn’t have to be actual gardening, it can be anything outside that is quality and quantity of time in soaking up the observations and experiences of God’s good earth.

I believe we have done a great disservice in paving over and engineering so much of our world. We have more need of trees and of wide spaces in the cultivating of man’s spirit than we have realized.

There is calming and anchored sensibleness in the realities of nature that we desperately need.
It isn’t the answer to everything, I am not saying that, but is one part of sanity, it is a seed bed of balanced thinking and inspirational creating. Something is built within the earth, the wind, and the sky, and it speaks to us… the Bible says it tells of God’s glory. Maybe that is the comfort and the awe that we absorb when we are enclosed by something other than manufactured walls.

But even as I say this I know that nature is not all benign, that the walls are our security against real challenges of an uncontrolled and uncontrollable natural world. It is the balance, the interplay of what is there and what we are able to do with it that gives sense to us as we go about our practical lives.

I just think we need more of the “what is there” to look at and walk around in. I am sure there is a wonderful poem that would express it well, but I am going to bed now…..

First Snow Flurries

Published on: Nov 25, 2003 @ 14:38

The pleasant weather has come to an end. We had our first snow flurries yesterday. I finished the mowing on Saturday, which was a beautiful day, just slightly chilly.

The cotoneaster is filled with its burgandy berries, the stellata magnolia has buds that almost look like pussy willow buds, and the pyracantha is holding up well with exceptional amounts of orange berries this year.

I am not sure how they escaped the brown wizening they often get. I haven’t had the time to observe much, but no new birds have shown up. I think I ought to borrow my kid’s binoculars and identify some of the little birds that flit around.

I don’t know when the robins left, but both they and the swallows are now gone for the winter. we didn’t have the huge flocks of starlings that usually invade in the fall. Not that I am complaining.

I wish baking blackbirds in a pie were once more the fashion 😉

I need to buy some mulch now. December is a good time to put it on the roses and renew around the dooryard gardens. Neatens up things for winter, and protects from the harsh winds that are coming.

The winds here can be brutal.

But today is very quiet, and all seems to be restful. The husband and helpers put up the Christmas lights on Saturday, as well. We are on schedule for the holidays.