The joys of Zone 3
April 29, 2008 | 8:44 pm
4/29/08
Spring is such a tease. We just finished what might be a record-breaking stretch of gorgeous weather — two solid weeks of sunny, dry, warm — during which the ground changed from bare to green, the perennials jumped up 6-12 inches, the early flowering shrubs and bulbs came into bloom, the cool-season seeds germinated. This wonderful run ended with a 4″ rainfall, to be followed now by 3 days in the 40s and nights in the 20s.
Arrgggghhhhh!
All the potted plants on the deck have to go back inside. All the tender blossoms and sprouts must be covered. The windows closed again, the furnace reactivated, extra layers of clothing donned. Six months of winter, two weeks off, now back to winter again. (Yes, the word “snow” has snuck back into the forecast as well.)
Arrrggggghhhh!
I’m afraid to look outside tomorrow morning to see what got killed or damaged by the cold. Still, things are better than last year: At this time, we still had snow on the ground (a big nor’easter on the 16th, resulting in 4 days without power) and my first daffodil didn’t bloom until May. Every year contains a setback, which isn’t really a setback because it’s absolutely normal for things to rollercoaster at this time of year. There’s a reason we don’t plant until Memorial Day!
A few days ago, I heard from a friend in Minnesota. Things are further behind up there, and everywhere north of here. Nothing like perspective to stop one from whining!
Gotta keep in mind that crisp weather is best for doing heavy yard work, or lounging around inside with a book. Perhaps update the list and plans for the garden. After all, the dip is only for two days, this time . . . when it ends, things will start growing so fast that I won’t be able to keep up!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, spring — Carolyn Haley
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Thailand Trip
April 25, 2008 | 1:48 pm
My husband and I just returned from a two-week trip to Thailand. To describe it, I can only use a phrase that I have not used since the late 70s: Mind Blowing!
First, a bit about how we got there, since my husband frequently travels for business, we don’t see each other all that much. However, he does get a massive amount of frequent flyer points and frequent hotel points, so we have many occasions to travel together without spending any significant amount of money. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I actually paid for international airfare.
That said, as far as benefits go, this trip topped them all. Khao Lak was one of the stops on our itinerary. If you recall, this was one of the areas that received the most damage from the tsunami. When we got to our hotel, the agent told my husband that frequent guests of his status are usually upgraded to a suite.
“Unfortunately,” she said, “none are available.” She paused. “But, we have decided to upgrade you to a private villa. This comes with your own private butler, free breakfast and afternoon snacks.”
Needless to say, this is not how I was raised. However, Khao Lak is amazing. It is less popular than Phuket, perhaps because people expect to see too much tsunami damage. This could not be further from the truth. The best way to help revive this area is to visit it.
We did go to Phuket. The highlight of this destination was the pet baby elephant at the hotel, who was trained to give kisses. Bangkok was a whole other ball game. Although I’ve been raised in the cities, after four years of living in the Rocky Mountains, I am no longer accustomed to sweltering heat an high levels of pollution. But don’t miss Bangkok if you go to Thailand. The temples are amazing, and it is probably one of the most unique places in the world.
Finally, this blog post is meaningless without pictures. Fortunately, I was recently hired to write a travel blog for Flyaway Weblog. Be sure to visit and check out the incredible photos. The Thailand posts are interspersed with others, so be sure your scroll through all pages so you can see the baby elephant pictures!
Posted by: Opening the heart — lmercer
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Looking for Mr. (or Ms.) Author
April 23, 2008 | 12:49 pm
Last week I was at a lovely party. The condo was right on Provincetown Harbor, so we watched sunset and moonrise (though actually not in that order) while we ate, drank, and chatted together. The major topic of conversation was, of course, THE WHALES. There’s a pod of them off Herring Cove right now, accompanied by dolphins and gannets, and everyone is spending their time out there with binoculars and cameras.
But as the evening wound down I found myself in conversation with Char Priolo, host of a radio show called Sail Away Ladies, who last November interviewed me about Open Your Heart with Reading. “What I love about your book,” she told me the other night, “is all the authors it introduced me to! I’ve been reading books by people I never would have found on my own, and I’m loving it!”
That conversation made me wonder how it is that we all find new books to read, especially now as browsing in bookshops is regarded by some as an antiquated pastime. How do we move beyond our familiar literary circles and try something new?
(If you’re at a loss for reading material, by the way, do check out Nancy Pearl, a librarian who’s written a series of books that … recommend books! Book Lust is the title I reference most often, but there are others. She might be able to kick-start your reading.)
Most of us listen to recommendations by friends, family, and coworkers (at that same party I got a line on some birdwatching books I’m saving my pennies for now!); often we read reviews of books in the newspaper or online. Sometimes we stumble upon them: I was looking for a book by Ian Rankin when I picked up my first Phil Rickman, and he has since become one of my absolute favorite authors.
I’d be interested in hearing from you. How do you find new titles or authors to read? Have you read something recently that excited you? Tell us all about it!
-Jeannette Cézanne
www.jeannettecezanne.com
Posted by: Opening the heart — jcezanne
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Lasagna — at last!
April 21, 2008 | 9:06 pm
4/22/08
As if to make up for the preceding months, the weather is now bestowing all of its good graces upon us. The corresponding urge to plant, unfortunately, must be suppressed. What’s comfortable and inspiring for humans is not always good for seeds and seedlings. In fact, April is when the subsurface soil is at its coldest temperature of the year.
Nevertheless, peas can be planted “as soon as the soil is workable,” so in they go! I favor snow peas over shell peas, but either type can be the first crop of the season. In this case, they are the groundbreaking crop for my new lasagna garden.
Lasagna gardening is a cultivation method published by Pat Lanza in 1998. It’s basically sheet composting: building soil in layers, reminiscent of preparing lasagna in a baking dish. Instead of layering noodles, tomato sauce, cheese, however, you layer peat moss, lawn clippings, brush, compost, straw — whatever you’ve got lying around. No digging required, you just build your layers on top of the ground, then plant and mulch.
I assembled my first lasagna bed last fall then let it steep over the winter. Here’s how it went together:
*Â I marked out the desired area on the ground (10×4, with actual planting space around 9×3, owing to space taken up by the supports I use, and a border area for companion plants).
* Filled a pail with water and dropped newspapers into it. Laid out the sodden squares atop the soil (in this case, packed sand), several sheets thick. This is to create a smothering barrier beneath the garden, discouraging grass and weeds from poking through.
* Gathered the yard waste I’d compiled around the property over several years. Many wheelbarrow loads.
* Purchased two cubes of peat moss.
* Started layering, using the peat moss as the “noodles” in between layers.
* Topped with leaves raked up from the yard.
* Placed a stake at each corner and ran foot-high chicken wire around the perimeter.
The whole exercise took up a sunny afternoon, at a leisurely pace with many breaks.
Planting peas took about a minute to poke 12 holes into the surface and drop seeds into them. I covered them by scuffing the loose material over the holes, then covered the row with wire mesh to prevent nocturnal feeders from rooting around. Rigged a little trellis for the peas to climb, made from found materials. I will water them lightly once a day until they germinate or the rains return, whichever comes first.
As the spring advances, planting the rest of my vegetables will be just as simple. Judging by other people’s results with this system, I should have a nice crop this year.
We’ll see in a few months!
Carolyin Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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A Different View of Spring
April 17, 2008 | 9:50 pm
In my deepest essence, I’m a skier. Skiing is an ethereal passion for me, and it colors every aspect of my life. As a result, I see spring differently than most people. How do you see it?
As spring progresses, I see the snow begin to disappear. First, the rock outcroppings become more stark as the snow pulls away from their jagged faces. You hear water trickling beneath the surface. Sometimes, your skis skim across a small creek that’s beginning to make it’s way to the bottom of the mountain through the departing snow.
Summer is coming.
But, before then, there’s much skiing to be done. Spring skiing is full of magic as the seasons collide on a mountainside. Most casual skiers are thinking of golf or getting their bikes rolling, so the slopes are empty. For the most part, dangers are limited, so options for skiing actually expand. And the snow is miraculous, turning all of us into heroes.
The sun is warm, the sky its deepest blue, the snow its most brilliant white.
So we ski…
Soon, too soon, the snow will retreat to its hiding places in hidden snow fields and glaciers. Some of us will climb for a few turns and the joy of the snow. But summer will be here.
We’ll bike to the upper reaches of our beloved mountains, hike to a new alpine lake, or even discover a new country. It will be a new season.
Soon, though, the nights will turn cooler. There will be a whisper on the wind. The clouds will rest lower on the peaks and the trees will sigh and change…
Winter won’t be far behind…
Let’s go!
Stephen Hultquist
http://stephenhultquist.com/
Posted by: skiing, ski books, Spiritual issues, spring — Stephen Hultquist
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Why Do It?
April 16, 2008 | 7:46 am
I’m going to be the guest on two different radio shows this week, talking about Open Your Heart with Geocaching, and one of the shows (11:00 pm to 12:00 am Eastern time tomorrow night on TalkStar Radio, in case anyone is interested) asked for me to send them a list of questions to ask. (Back when I hosted my own radio show, that never occurred to me, and I spent hours trying to figure out questions to ask guests; this host is brilliant!)
And those questions got me thinking. One of the reviewers for my book, actor Mary Votava, said, “In a sea of how-to books, there is a why-to book. This book doesn’t just teach a new hobby, it reveals new tools for finding greater fulfillment and passion in our lives.”
In a sense, all of the books in the Open Your Heart series are just that: why-to books. We talk about activities that interest us, but we take a different approach from other authors – we show how these activities enrich our lives, make us more well-rounded people, help us in our day-to-day activities, and give us fulfillment. From the joy we find in interacting with our pets to the thrill of skimming down a mountainside on skis; from the quiet pleasures of the garden to the high intensity of basketball; from the solitary moments of inspiration in art to the partnership and competition of tennis, all of these books address that need for fulfillment in some way.
It’s not a bad question to ask yourself, either. Bringing this back to my radio show, I found that I was deriving less and less joy from it as time went on. I finally took a step back and asked myself, why am I doing this?
I didn’t have a satisfactory answer, so I stopped doing it.
Finding activities that bring us fulfillment is part of discovering who we are. Sorting through our priorities so that we can make time for what fulfills us is essential. Take a moment, now, and think about what you do for “fun.” Is it, in fact, fun? Why are you doing it?
And if you’re looking for something else to try, take a look through the DreamTime Publishing offerings. You may well find your next passion in one of our books!
РJeannette C̩zanne
www.JeannetteCezanne.com
Posted by: Opening the heart — jcezanne
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Help the environment with your quilting choices
April 15, 2008 | 12:19 pm
I’m back from the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. I went with my friend Wilma and it was a very eventful weekend. It all started with her alarm going off two hours early and our train being delayed three hours because a drawbridge was open. We ended up driving to another city to catch a completely different train, but we eventually made it. There were a whole series of mishaps, but the worst was me losing my cell phone! (I’m waiting to hear back from the show organizers to see if it turned up in lost and found. Meanwhile I’m waiting for UPS to deliver a new one.)
But we kept an open mind and kind of rolled with the punches and just went from one near-disaster to another. At least we had good company (each other, and our friend Diane who joined us there). We had a great time even while we were waiting two hours for the train home (because we missed the 6:00 PM train).
So, how can you help the environment with your quilting? While at the show I visited the booth of Maeda Importing (http://www.maedaimporting.com/) and saw Japanese quilting fabric made from recycled plastic bottles. The fabric came in gorgeous Japanese prints and felt like polyester. It could also be used for making clothing. I thought it was a fabulous idea and I hope it catches on.
The fabric is a little expensive right now compared to cotton, but it should come down in price as it gains popularity. Best of all instead of chemical-intensive farming, this fabric reuses something many of us throw in the trash every day. One piece we saw was a lovely robin’s egg blue and had a print of flying birds on it. It was about 30″ x 30″ and about $25.00. I thought it would make a beautiful scarf.
While there the woman working the booth got Diane and I hooked on Sashiko. Neither of us had tried it before (and Diane is not even a quilter), but we each fell in love with the simplicity of it. I bought a little kit and got a good start on it during that two-hour wait at the train station! (Diane lost hers on the el train! I told her it was our bad luck rubbing off on her.) Wilma bought 9 small printed blocks and we spent some time at the train station trying to figure out what she should do with them.
All in all we had a great time and we wish we could go to Paducah in a couple of weeks for the AQS show! I don’t have the time off though. Oh well, maybe next year.
Posted by: Opening the heart, Quilting, quilt shows — Kelly Smith
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The crocus
April 14, 2008 | 8:26 pm
April 15, 2008
Last week, as the snow receded and the ground emerged, I toured the yard checking on the daffodils’ progress. Mostly they looked like green fingertips protruding through the dirt, a green contrast against the browns, grays, and ochres of the ground litter.
But out of the corner of my eye, I saw something purple. Given the amount of tattered stuff lying around, I figured it was a bit of plastic bag or carton that had blown free months ago while I was hauling out the trash. So I rotated to pick it up — and almost keeled over in astonishment upon realizing it was a blooming crocus!
This shouldn’t be a surprising event. After all, it’s Spring, and crocuses are one of the earliest flowers. However, I didn’t plant any. And they don’t grow wild anywhere near here.
Ten years ago I put crocuses in the garden but they didn’t survive the moles and the cold. I never saw a blossom or a leaf. Where, then, did this thing come from?
Even if some horticultural miracle regenerated one of the original plants, it couldn’t have traveled 25 yards under the ground, including below the driveway, to spring up beneath the lilac bushes. Must have been a seed carried by the wind or a bird. A lucky shot to drop it into the garden where all my early spring bulbs and flowers are clustered!
Given that you can only buy crocuses as corms, I never thought of them in terms of seeds. Yet they make seeds; and, according to Wikipedia: “Some crocuses, especially C. tommasinianus and its selected forms and hybrids (such as ‘Whitewell Purple’ and ‘Ruby Giant’) seed prolifically and are ideal for naturalising.” In that case, the only mystery is, Whose garden donated the seeds?
It must be the lady in the village who planted her entire front lawn in crocuses and miniature tulips. This time of year they are all in bloom — a sight that literally stops traffic. Her lawn-garden is only two miles from here by road, less as the crow flies. So some crow or sparrow or capricious air current must have scooped up one of her seeds and deposited it in my garden. There are no other crocuses I’m aware of in the area.
Surprises like this are what enchant me about gardens. Who knows what dramas are going on under our feet every day? A few inches from this crocus are the daffodils I’ve been fretting over for the same ten years, because they keep dwindling under conditions where they’re supposed to flourish. Somehow, instead, those conditions gave rise to a little plant whose relatives didn’t survive around the corner. (That microclimate thing again!) It reminds me of the pink bleeding hearts that grow through the front wall, rearranging themselves underground to pop out between different rocks each year. Huh? Why do they move? How do they do it? What’s going on down there?
What other surprises will this season bring?
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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A Dubious Honor
April 11, 2008 | 8:42 am
In the world of geocaching, there is a sort-of police force: the “approvers” to whom one sends one’s caches and who, hopefully, approve them and enable them to go online at geocaching.com and therefore be discovered by other geocachers.
It’s a volunteer position. And it’s a position I wouldn’t take for all the tea in China. Why? Because human nature being what it is, everyone has something to complain about, and it’s the approver who gets the brunt of the complaints. People complain because a cache wasn’t approved. Other people complain because certain caches were approved. One cannot win.
However, it is also a tremendous honor to be asked to become an approver. One has to be known in the geocaching world, be seen as fair and a good judge and level-headed. Many aspire to the position, but in general the very desire to be approver cancels out one’s eligibility.
Just as we were moving away from New Hampshire, the then-approver resigned and a new one was chosen. I couldn’t have been more delighted with the choice: the new approver is a friend and fellow geocacher called Hockey Puck (guess what other activity he enjoys). But there are good reasons to be pleased about his appointment. One is, of course, that he liked my book, Open Your Heart with Geocaching (see his review here — scroll down to Trevor Pope); but another is that he has used geocaching in a most extraordinary way to help him through a bad time.
A couple of years ago, Trevor was diagnosed with cancer and started driving down to Mass General in Boston for treatments twice a week. It was a very stressful time, and instead of spending his commute to the hospital worrying about his health and his treatments, he used it to figure out the puzzle caches set out by my spouse, Paul, famous as NotThePainter for very difficult puzzles. Trevor would mull over them and often find the solution even as he battled his cancer.
It’s a wonderful story, and one that even has a happy ending: the cancer is in remission, and Trevor has been honored by being selected as New Hampshire’s new cache approver. He has compassion and intelligence, and there couldn’t have been a better choice.
РJeannette C̩zanne
www.JeannetteCezanne.com
Posted by: Opening the heart — jcezanne
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Taking down the wreath
April 8, 2008 | 11:33 am
April 8, 2008
When it happens, it happens fast — one day to the next, the season changes. The harbingers that have been trickling in one at a time suddenly achieve critical mass, so that I draw up short and realize: The Season Has Turned. Today, it is spring. HOORAY!
I used to define spring as when the grass turns green and flowers bloom. After ten years in Vermont, however, I consider spring a fleeting transition between winter and summer. “Winter’s back is broken,” my elders used to say, which runs through my mind when the sun becomes strong enough to vaporize the snow and rot the ice, even if the air temperature stays below freezing. But more often and for longer intervals, the temp stays above 32. Dry stream beds on the hillsides start to gurgle, then flood, and the rivers below begin to gallop. The first migratory birds arrive: robins, red-winged blackbirds, the woodcock, the fox sparrow. And the first bulbs protrude through the first patches soil.
Up north (in the real north — Alaska, Yukon, etc., not here in the middle north) they call it “break-up” — a term used to describe the ice letting go, and people going a little crazy. Here it’s similar though less dramatic, and it constitutes a few weeks of messy change. Once it gets underway, I know the time has come to take down my Christmas wreath.
The wreath goes up in November, when the leaves have fallen and the snow begins — and Holiday Season consumes consumers. Some of us display our wreaths for the entire winter, seeing them more as an icon for the cold season than the holidays. I was unaware that this might be a regional custom until a relative visiting from the southwest asked why my wreath was still up in February. She had noticed on her way here that many homes in the area still sported holiday decorations. I had failed to observe this, feeling that it was a perfectly normal practice and as much a part of the scenery as snow and trees.
I keep my holiday wreath up for the winter because, well, why not? It’s the only splashy color in a world of black, white, and neutrals; and winter includes most of the major holidays, of which Christmas is the biggy. Ergo, a Christmas wreath seems the perfect symbol for the whole season. Only when I know for sure that the season has changed do I take it down.
Then it becomes a spring-summer-fall wreath, for I hang it around the fence post near the garden until next year’s wreath comes down to replace it. The balsam circle browns as the rest of the world greens, reminding us of the never-ending cycle.
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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