During January, February, and the first week of March of last winter, I was surrounded by lovely people, tropical hummingbirds, butterflies, bright flowers, and the Caribbean Sea. A few days ago, when snow was falling all around Flower Hill Farm Retreat, I was not longing for the beauty and warmth of Treasure Beach, Jamaica. Being home is inspiring. The beauty of snow fog adds a mystical and mysterious element to being out in the gardens and landscape. The leafless trees and shrubs are like … [Read more...] about There Is No Place Like Home for the Winter
Winter Blues ~ Eastern-tailed Blue, Summer Azure and Silvery Blue
Dreaming of Blues fluttering around the garden can shake off the mantle-of-melancholy winter sometimes weaves about our spirits. Today, I gather some delightful, inspiring and tender butterfly encounters, from this past sizzling summer, and toss them on this page of white, that they may bring a ray of light, to warm the inner gardeners folded inside our longing souls. Eastern Tailed-Blue Butterflies of 2013The progeny of these gossamer-wings are now chrysalises, or caterpillars in the Eastern … [Read more...] about Winter Blues ~ Eastern-tailed Blue, Summer Azure and Silvery Blue
Vermilion Murmurs and Malus within a November Landscape
Cinnabar and Dragon blood come to mind when seeing the vibrant vermilion sprays of our middle garden Japanese Maple. Its blazing breath reaches over towards payne's gray shadows racing through the forested hills, we call Walnut Hill and High Ridge, creating a stunning contrast. Sturdy oaks still grasping their last burnt sienna leaves are nearly naked now. The Japanese Maple is as out of place in our landscape as an ancient Dracaena cinnabari might be, but it is a dormant dragon so lifting the … [Read more...] about Vermilion Murmurs and Malus within a November Landscape
Vermilion Murmurs and Malus within a November Landscape
Cinnabar and Dragon blood come to mind when seeing the vibrant vermilion sprays of our middle garden Japanese Maple. Its blazing breath reaches over towards payne's gray shadows racing through the forested hills, we call Walnut Hill and High Ridge, creating a stunning contrast. Sturdy oaks still grasping their last burnt sienna leaves are nearly naked now. The Japanese Maple is as out of place in our landscape as an ancient Dracaena cinnabari might be, but it is a dormant dragon so lifting … [Read more...] about Vermilion Murmurs and Malus within a November Landscape
Stepping into September Haze Ironweed Holds Center Stage
August gave us cool days dressed in flannel and comforter nights . . . the coolest August I can recall since my transplanting to New England just thirty-eight years ago. Mostly busy days filled the weeks that passed in tones of green, with worldly guests and migrations stirring motes of dust, pollen and memories . . . both lived and dreamed. The last hours of Augustus suddenly lead into September's first dawn . . . breaking through a thick haze of clouded air with bolts of zagged light only … [Read more...] about Stepping into September Haze Ironweed Holds Center Stage
