Nature takes no halfway measures. When in balance, with the sure and languorous change of seasons, we are lulled into the belief that our regimes and schemes hold sway, that humanity is all powerful in its display of dominance and power. Our technologies collude in the illusion of control and eminent domain over earths terrain,…
The wonder of a soul in the outdoors
Update, Philosophical Distractions, Life
My instagram pic from last week We have only a coating of snow. Yes, I know. I should post more often. It is one of those winters that see-saw between normal temperatures and deep cold. I hate the deep cold. All our snow has melted away during the January thaws and now February has some…
Rural Landscape
Shepherds from my nativity set I’ve been in the middle of my Christmas devotions on my Advent blog. While writing about the shepherds watching their flocks (from the Christmas story), I thought about the fact that while sheep were once a common sight in fields around here, there has not been a flock in recent…
The Beauty Of Simplicity
Too often I complicate things. Design, schedules, life, conversations, in all these things I am a complex person who likes detail and intricacy. But therein is my great appreciation of simplicity. Sometimes all that busyness gets tiring, overwhelming, and the sweet refreshment of something simple stands out with such beauty that it makes me pause…
Do We Really Need To Dumb Down Gardening?
Putting Everything On The Level Of Garden Catalogs Do we really have to hype gardening with lots of meaningless superlatives? Run on the quests of finding “the latest trend”? Or promote that everything in gardening can be “made easy”?I know we pander to marketing ploys as writers, everyone hungry for that scrap ( or maybe…
Reconnecting With The Earth
Reconnecting with the earth is something a gardener does every year. There is a necessary time of dormancy in wintertime which is exacerbated for Northern gardeners like myself. That time of absence from the work of the garden, even from the presence of nature itself is something of a disconnection with time and season. As…
Some Lessons Are Sad Ones
It is the zenith of Christmas season, and at times I feel like I have been see-sawing an emotional pendulum of sadness and joy. Christmas is a time I most try to keep an equilibrium, because I want for my family to experience good feelings and memories from this time. I also think there is…
Garden Thoughts on a Garden Voice
“The chief vice of gardens is to be merely pretty.” -Fletcher Steel I came across that quote when reading grounded design, the blog of a landscape architect, on “Why We Plant“…and it got me thinking. It is an idea that can be extended to many an artistic endeavor. I think that people who are in…
Signs of Spring
I woke up to snow this morning… one of winter’s end of season visits, just to let Ohio know it is still around. But its days are numbered! I heard one sure sign of spring yesterday- the call of the mourning doves. When I hear that, I know we are on the way out of…
Too Much Candy Is Probably Not A Good Thing
Too much candy? Why is she writing about this in her garden blog? You can blame it on an article I read on garden writing, Garden Photographs – some problems. And while I am not a big fan of ranting about garden topics, occasionally I read something that resonates with some underground opinion of my…