To the Moon and Back

 Gosh I love going to the quarry! It's like a weird trip to the moon or a surreal dreamscape. How many of you have ever been?! Our visits there give me the opportunity to share the joy and unusual visuals...

As you wind your way through, you experience piles of gravel, sand and quarry dust taller than your house. And weird structures where they do god knows what- creating smashed stone and asphalt. Additionally, trucks five times bigger than the average pick up whizz by and provide a sense of danger.

Oh I almost forgot to mention why we're here again. Neko the Wonder Pony's stall had been taking on water in a big way. Between torrential downpours and the frozen ground not soaking up water, quite a lot had flooded her stall on a regular basis. I had bailed it out multiple times, but was at my wit's end. And after years of cleaning the barn and several horses stomping in and out, the floor had actually been scraped down by like a good six inches. So we set off for the quarry to fetch a pile of processed stone.

You have to wait your turn! That truck is way bigger than us, so we hover until the coast is clear. Then this giant bucket loader approaches the truck and carefully lets loose 3/4 of a ton of rock into the truck bed. I'm sitting on the passenger side so I get to see the up close and personal back hoe in action. Kinda unnerving!

Yikes! Here it is approaching. But the operators are good and we're loaded and heading home...

It doesn't look like a lot once you get it home but believe me, after shoveling it out onto the wheelbarrow and pushing it into the stall, you get a much better idea of how much 3/4 of a ton is!

 

Many trips back and forth to the barn! And we returned to the quarry the next day for a second load. We sure do know how to have fun.

Here's a view of Neko's stall after the first application of stone. The center of her stall was really remarkably low. And here's the completed stall: nicely filled up after 1 and 1/2 tons of stone:

I couldn't be happier. We had rain and no water in the stall! I'm sure Neko is happy as her barn was not the high and dry refuge from inclement weather that it was supposed to be. But now it's ready for the deluges of spring...

Already Waiting for Spring

 

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for spring.The days have been getting shorter and darker, I'm still in a state of continual re-adjustment to the time change and suddenly it's cold. But tell that to the above primroses. These flowers are usually a tell-tale sign that spring has arrived; these crazy plants seem to bloom all year long. It's November, it's 23 degrees over night and they're like, "Perfect weather!" The kicker is that they came from Stop and Shop or Shop Rite- yes, I guess the variety is Super Market Mix. I buy them (marked down, of course!) in February so as to have color in the house and then plant them outdoors when spring finally arrives. Originally I thought we'd get a season's flowers and then they'd die but boy did I get a tremendous surprise when they came back, year after year. Truly perennial! 

I've got quite a few of them now. Last year, they were blooming in the snow so go figure: they must be some new mutant variety dreamed up in some horticulturist's perverse lab. But they're pretty and cheap so you gotta love them!

Okay but the main reason for my post is that I finally planted all the bulbs I bought:

As I've said before, bulbs are great; if you plant them and if they don't come up, no big deal! No one knows you wasted your time and money on them... not like some fancy-pants, over-priced perennial that looks swell at the nursery but immediately withers and dies when installed in your garden. So I planned on obtaining some bulbs. I have a spot where I plant tulips every year and then yank them to plant annuals. (Most tulips being not-too-perennial but soooooo lovely!) While bob and I were in Vermont recently, switching out his remarkable sculptures, I requested that we visit the Bennington Home Depot to see if they had marked down bulbs. Yes they did! And good colors! So for 50% off, I got Pink Impression and a beautiful mix called "Pride" (purples and pinks and reds). Also a bag of deep blue hyacinths for the Blue Garden.

I didn't stop there, however. Enthused by my luck and lured by the sales from nurseries that filled up my email in-box, I ordered petite miniature daffodils (Jack Sprite and Tete-a-Tete) and aliums (Bulgaricum and Christophii) and more tulips! Just you wait 'til next spring! Our gardens are going to be jumping! (*1)

(*1) I was fortunate that I encountered several warm sunny days to stagger around our vast estate, pushing a wheel barrow full of assorted bulbs, looking for spots to tuck them all in. It wouldn't have been fun had it been as cold as it was this morning!

Hooray for Spring (I think)

 

The Forsythia is blooming so it must be Spring! Yay! There are fabulous flowering events in all parts of our vast estate (hahahaha!) and after a pandemically gloomy winter, this brings happiness and relief. The beautiful Forsythia seen above was a gift from our friends Sheldon and Louise, years ago, I think during our first Spring here. Bob and I are so thrilled to see it explode and spread golden light. 

And look:

Another Spring charmer, erupting by the vegetable garden. This Prunus tomentosa was a gift from our friend Bob who is a horticultural dervish and can propagate almost anything from seed or cutting. You've gotta love the effusiveness of vernal blooms!

And here's another unexpected site in our Spring-time garden tour: Rhododendron prostratus "Bedspreadus".

Oh no! What happened to Spring?!?!? Bob comes in to tell me that it's (gasp!) hailing outside. (They even predicted snow overnight, but we dodged that occurrence, unlike some unlucky friends to the north. Ugh.) I gathered several sheets and covered our Rhododendron "PJM" as last year- just as it was starting to flower, we experienced a cold snap and all the blossoms died. I was so bummed! Having waited an entire year, I wasn't chancing snow/hail/sleet/frost or any other vile reminder of Winter past! I'm glad I covered this shrub as this morning an unveiling showed undamaged flowers... bring back that warm weather!

Cracks of Spring

 

I have been heartened recently by the sudden cracks of spring appearing in the world.  Yes, a new administration that doesn't embarrass us, a slowly returning sense of some decorum and peace but I mean this in a simpler way. The never-ending snows of February seem to be ending, we've experienced several 50 and 60 plus degree days and I even saw glimpses of lawn. Let's all utter a gigantic sigh of relief!

But wait; this morning on arising and letting little Robin the Good out the door, what did I spy!?!??! It's (gasp!) snowing again! Here, allow me to torture you with a picture:

Oh mercy! haven't we had enough?!?!? (I think you know my answer.) (Robin the Good was supposed to make a guest appearance but ran off way too quickly on some evil assignment of her own.)

I am being a tad melodramatic as it was a mere dusting and now what's falling from on high is simply a mix of rain and some freezing concoction, but can we just keep the sunny warm stuff going?

I was touring my Spring/Lilac/Daffodil Garden area yesterday and could feel the swellings of bulb noses waiting to erupt. And the lilacs definitely show burgeoning tips. They're ready too! The ground down there has warmed, the snow had (notice past tense) disappeared, and walking through this section of the yard was possible without sinking boot-high in crusty snow drifts. 

But I think I'll just keep looking at that hopeful begonia at the top of the page. It knows the light is changing. It's not quite ready to go outside and take it's chances but it senses better weather coming. Another sure sign that Spring is near is the horses beginning the months-long process of shedding their winter coats; my hand comes back from patting Neko coated in copper hairs. And the birds! the birds are singing a happier song!

Gardening Like There's No Tomorrow

So it's started: that mad scramble to buy, assemble and compose, feed, and plant. This part of Spring is so incredibly busy... that's MY excuse for not having posted sooner. I take my vocation as a "life style coach" VERY seriously and it's on me when I neglect my hungry followers. I apologize! But sometimes, living that heady, fast paced life style precludes the reporting on it.
So the picture at the top represents my initial foray into container planting. It's so much fun gathering all these colorful and seductive annuals and arranging for them to spend the summer together. Sometimes my head spins with the possibilities. Here's a shot of some of my raw material:

These are some of the plants I kept having to move out of my studio and back in every night when the weather was still chilly! It became quite the ordeal. Now I'm of the mindset that if we get a cold night- too bad! And that's only a fraction of what I've already planted.

Here's a shot of the amazing tulips that we obtained through our friend Hanneke who works at a tulip importer called ColorBlends. We can't say enough good things about their bulbs! Spectacular! So much better quality; the tulips and daffodils bloomed longer and were altogether bigger and more vibrant. Our Spring displays were amazing. Of course the irony is that few people got to see them as COVID 19 has put a cabosh on visitors!

Here's another tulip bed. These were inferior "Big Box" tulips and are already gone by. They also did not stand up well to the harsh weather and winds we experienced. I sound like an advertisement but boy there was a noticeable difference. I'm planting this bed in with cannas and zinnia linearis. That will be posted soon enough!

And Bob has been busy in the vegetable garden. We have been devouring salad after salad of wonderful delicate little greens.This is the same bed I featured in a previous posting. You can see how much these seedlings have grown. And take a look:

Bob meticulously transplants all those individual plants so they have room to grow. We eat the thinnings... I'm so lucky. Nothing I like better than tiny tender lettuce!
So forgive me if it's another few days before I post again; we're both busy in the great outdoors. We've also started grass seed in the horse field, mowed the lawn, Bob's planted his birthday present azalea (Delaware Valley White) and peonies (Festiva Maxima, Scarlett O'Hara and Do Tell) in a completely new display garden by the driveway. That way, when people pick up their metal plant supports (mostly peony rings!) they can see his work in action. It looks terrific! No wonder we're tired!

Not Ready For Cold Weather!!

Not very thrilling, huh? To you it may look simply like an empty plastic bucket, but to me it signals victory. I did it: I planted the three million daffodil and tulip bulbs I "accidentally" ordered!
The "accident" part is a somewhat amusing story of friends collaborating on an order and a few substitutions later, I wind up with a lot of bulbs. I had anticipated the spots I had marked in my Lilac Border would be sufficient for the thirty or so white daffodil bulbs I intended to plant. Believe me, I got varieties that I'm certain will be marvelous, but I had to dig quite a few more holes and prepare an entire new area. Suffice it to say that next year's garden is going to be spectacular. I am eagerly awaiting the vernal appearance of "Snowboard", "Frosty Snow", "Thalia", and "Starry Night"- and that's just the daffodils! (These, of course, are to compliment the "Ice Follies", "Mount Hood", "Thalia" and "Barrett Browning already in place!)
I was fortunate that despite a couple of rainy days (read downpours) that impeded my planting, (along with several art-related events that I was frantically preparing for) it was relatively mild and I was able to get everyone buried before the snows fly. Yes, it is expected to rain and then snow today, in direct contrast to yesterday's benevolent 60 degree weather. I'm for sure not prepared for that! It was nice to plant in reasonable temperatures; typically, I am a "cheap date" and I purchase my bulbs marked down at home improvement centers in late November and flirt with frostbite while planting in sleet and worse. The things we endure for next year's garden!
So here's a more fantastical scene:

That's my garden helper and all around shadow Robin the Good adorning our bedazzled stairway. She looked so sweet when I took the picture, but the carpet looked so dingy that I had to improve on it. Robin thoroughly enjoys helping in the garden and keeps me in good spirits when my energy flags. (Believe me, removing the sod from another area was not what I originally anticipated!) Robin is sneaky, though, and steals gloves, empty plastic perennial pots and generally anything not weighted down in the wheelbarrow. Some help!
Anyway, everybody's planted and I'm ready for some serious indoor activity. (My mosaic project is regrettably on hold until next spring as cement isn't happy in cold weather.) My studio awaits!

Random Vernal Bits

So I've completed my taxes... yaaaay!!! Always a source of stress and weird eruptions (like I have this zit forming on my chin; I KNOW that's from tax preparation!), it grants me peace of mind (as opposed to a piece of my mind. Yes, large chunks of it break off whenever I'm forced to do financial things which is why I'll never master balancing a check book. How can anyone in their right mind commit to sitting down and spending time and more brain cells on something so numbing and futile?!?!) So taxes accomplished, I'm on to more valuable time consumers.

Like Spring garden clean up. This, of course, entails hauling 80 large tarp loads of soggy leaves and spent ornamental grasses off into the woods. The grasses inevitably torque sideways while attempting to navigate through any one of our garden gates, which leads to major events of cursing and re-wedging the grasses back onto the completely twisted tarp...fun!
At least the garden looks better, freed of last year's desiccated stalks and seed heads. I feel like I got the clean up well under way earlier than I sometimes do. I'm ready for things to start growing!

 

And I am happy to report that things ARE growing. (Nice shot of the over-wintered indoors plants that didn't die. The begonia that our good friend Bob gave us is blooming it's pants off.) The lilacs have actual flower buds and the daffodils are all budded and starting to burst. A few species tulips managed to not be eaten by (the mother fucking) squirrels and are in hesitant flower. (I think they're cringing and afraid to be singled out and then devoured). But it's shaping up to be a pretty spring.

World's Tallest Amaryllis!

Just when I had despaired that our purchased amaryllis bulb had decided not to bloom (and we were stuck with figuring out what to do with a couple of strappy leaves and no flower) our friend Bob (one of many Bobs) gave us another bulb. This one was already promising to flower...
It's really out done itself. As you can see in the picture, it's a full 36" tall (that's a yard stick next to it) and has four large siren-like blossoms. AND it had another bud stalk rising form the pot!

It has made me so happy to see color and leaves as outside remains grey/tan/brown and bleak. It is a bit warmer (not over night!) and things are beginning to grow (not fast enough for me!). I guess Spring will officially arrive. I'm so eager to see how all those tulip and daffodil bulbs did.* And the lilacs! My infatuation with lilacs continues: I already have a short list of ones I need to find this year, like "Monge" and Charles Joly" and "Katherine Havermeyer". I guess this keeps me going when it still seems like warmth and flowers are so far away.

* I am a bit concerned as it's been so damned wet, and then we had a sheet of ice with water sort of trapped underneath. I'm afraid some of the bulbs may have rotted as they prefer a drier situation.

Spring Break

It was so warm, so sunny, so NICE that you could almost forget that it is only the beginning of February. And whether it's a slightly late January thaw or an aberrant benevolent snap, it really doesn't matter... it was beautiful weather.
When I checked the thermometer, saw that it read a hair above 60 degrees, I removed our thermal window cover and let the sun and warmth stream in. It made me feel so much more optimistic and want to do things...
Perhaps I overdid, as today I can barely walk. I went (horseback) riding for the first time in over a month. It felt both oddly familiar and strangely odd to be aboard a fuzzy 900 pound being. The riding part came back to me quickly- thank goodness or my riding instructor would probably have brandished a quirt about my ears!- but my muscles felt savaged and resistant, and that's despite my exercising diligently at home! Riding calls into play all manner of interesting muscle groups; inner thigh and lower abdomen particularly. It feels good to work these areas, but not so good that sitting still for a few minutes makes getting and crossing the room a uniquely torturous adventure.
Adding to my soreness was my enthusiasm to cut back some of the grasses and perennials in the long border. The birds have no doubt eaten all the seeds they're going to eat and the plants are shattered from beatings of ice and rain. They look messy so I lopped them back and dragged them away. Now my shoulders are protesting...

Maybe that's why my latest WTF sculpture is green- a longing for spring. I am excited about the second kind of Spring Break I'm celebrating here. My work is  being included in a booth at the eponymous art fair (Spring Break). This is something I have wanted for years. My work was almost taken to an art fair a few years back and I was sorely disappointed (more soreness!) when my sometimes art dealer (hi Ellen!) decided not to participate. (Let's be real: art fairs are expensive and peculiar, a very complicated aspect of an already complicated contemporary art market). Many people express disdain and contempt for art fairs; truth be known, they are like shopping malls for art consumption. People stagger around, ostentatiously absorbing Kulture and impressing each other with their conspicuous "good taste". But as an artist, you gotta love the exposure! Holy cow! How many eyes will fall upon my work?!?!?? I'm psyched.
Another good reason to throw back the curtains and enjoy the nice weather!

Our Own Little Botanical Garden

Hahahahaha! See? We've got dandelions! We didn't see too many of these at the New York Botanical Garden, but they probably were there as they seem to have loads of everything that grows. And it was humbling: coming back from touring over 400 acres (or some such hard to comprehend number), and seeing the modest patch of ground that you spent all summer digging wild roses, assorted brambles, rocks and small trees out of (not to mention battling seriously entrenched poison ivy) to plant a modest batch of daffodils and vinca...
But I don't have a staff of a hundred. There's just me and the dog (Hi Lil' Robin!) and occasionally Bob (when a rock or tree is just too much!). And I am thrilled with my efforts to produce a spring garden. The lilacs- although young- are in bud and the predominately white daffodils are in full bloom thanks to the rain and warm weather.

That's Mount Hood- spectacular when full out as they just get whiter and whiter and more imposing...

No wonder this variety has been in cultivation since the 1920's!
And here's "Barrett Browning", which has a nifty orange center but is a creamy white:

 

And then there's "Ice Follies", which is especially cheerful...

And "Geranium" is starting to come out and looks sort of cosmic and cluster-y (these are all new and exciting to me as I had never planted daffodils! I think you can tell...) and "Misty Glen" and "Thalia" are later still so I still have plenty of spring flowers to enjoy. Hey! I waited all winter for this extravaganza to erupt!
The only perplexing aspect to all this loveliness is that the daffodils- to a one- insist on facing toward the sun and you have to walk on the lower path to enjoy them; from the upper side, they've all turned their backs on you. I never considered this when planting. Oh well...

*And there is some foolishness going on with the blogger site! For four days, I couldn't even access my blog account and then I was entirely unable to upload any more pictures. Probably those pesky Russians or the evil rethuglicans!

Spring Break!

Bob and I took a short but well deserved trip to the New York Botanical Garden today. We went to deliver more of Bob's fabulous metal work to the garden shop there, but they give us passes so we spend the day wandering around in a state of horticultural bliss. The weather cooperated handsomely and we got thoroughly oxygenated and made new friends. That's me with a new friend in the picture above. I have always had a soft spot for those tall narrow conifers...

Another fine fellow with a curious question mark of a top.

Look at that one! Bob spotted this charmer off in the distance. You have to laugh at some of these specimens. Here's another one:

Sort of a scrappy fellow! But it's surrounded- and honestly upstaged- by the lovely daffodils blooming behind it. There are daffodils everywhere. And entire hillside blanketed by what must really be a million blooming all at once. It smells intoxicating, too.

Here's a variety I particularly liked. It's apparently a very old type called "Seagull" (I guess you could have just read the tag...) that I'll be looking to add to my lilac/daffodil collection this fall. I did develop a real hankering for those white narcissus...
And look at this:

There are these amazing, magnificent blooming cherry trees all over the Botanical Garden. Huge old specimens with gnarly trunks and weeping over rocks; it's quite breath taking.
We had a fun and relaxing day and managed to get only minorly lost on our way home.

There's a Garden Under There Somewhere!

I started cleaning up the garden this afternoon. So late in the season! Sometimes, by the very beginning of March, all the beds are raked and expectant. However, this winter will not leave and it's late. I got two beds cleaned; perennials and tall grasses cut down, leaves removed... just a rough, first clean up. It was overcast and not especially warm, but I needed to be outside.

Here's the initial tarp filling up. That's the hard part, dragging it all away into the woods. Somethings can be composted, but this debris is full of sticks and grasses and tough oak leaves. they take a while to break down. It's better to just dispose of them in the woods.

Maggie looked unimpressed but Robin was eager to jump into the middle of my leaf piles and chew on twigs. Very helpful! It's hard to believe that we have had Robin the Good in our lives for a little over two years. She's still really hard to photograph; as I lift the camera thinking she looks particularly cute, she immediately moves her head...

And what's that white stuff? I am ignoring the right hand side of the garden. The glacier is receding  but there's still too much snow for my liking. I'm ignoring it! But wait! There's more!

It's going to be a while before I get to clean up the Long Border. It's still buried. But I have plenty to do on the left side of the yard. And there are tulips emerging! And daffodils! There will be a garden after all!.

Swell!

 OOops! That title makes my post sound like another tick tale: but it's not. I promised a nice blog posting and I am delivering. Here is a story of nascent, burgeoning spring! The buds are swelling...
Take, for example, my friends the lilacs. I planted a whole array of lilacs- offsets of Mommy's plants that have been healed in by the horse barn for ages, a few I purchase marked down at big box stores- and even one (full price) that just caught my fancy. They now have a permanent home with presents from family and friends (thanks Beatrice! thanks Bob S.!) I have "Primrose", "Red Wine", "President Grevy" and "Pochahontas", to name a few; I can hardly wait to see who blooms. (Secretly, I'll be happy with just green leaves at this point. Everything is that brown and tan and grey of late winter.)

But in the meantime, just the simple fact that these beautiful buds are erupting and creating heightened expectations for a spectacular spring are buoying me through these last brutal end of winter storms. We're supposed to have another "snow event" on Tuesday night and I'm not looking forward to it. At least the days are longer and it's not so cold- in the forties as opposed to the teens.

It's so exciting! I know there's a few fragrant blooms in tips. And all that hard work of excavating rocks and poison ivy (and getting a couple of nasty cases of poison ivy!) paid off. The lilacs all made it through the winter and seem ready to explode. I'm cheering them on!