Quote du jour - Josephine Nuese

 “Anyone who thinks gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year; for gardening begins in January with a dream.” 

Josephine Nuese, 1901-1974, American gardener and author of The Country Garden, 1970

These words are so very true! My head is full of ideas, and I spend a lot of time looking at catalogues. I am just happy they still come in the mail. Some of them I don't even order from, but this year I feel like I should just as a little thank you for the pleasure I get from looking through them. 

I had declared that I wouldn't have to buy any seeds for this summer because there are still a lot left from last year. More fool me. My head is full of tomatoes, again. After months of eating them fresh, and then using the sauce I made from them, I am again bereft of tomatoes. I've begun thinking of having just a basil, garlic, and tomato garden but then I see a new climbing zucchini, and some varieties of tomato I just must try. And the packets of scallions that didn't get planted last year. And then I think the garden should be doubled! 

So yes, I am indeed dreaming in January.

What I Learned From TV - January 26

From 2014-2017, I wrote a few posts on What I Learned From TV. 

This is the introduction I always began with.

Each time I do a post about What I Learned From TV, I’ll begin with the explanation from the first posting:

Now that my kids are grown, and Tom has retired, I’ve been able to go back to my natural sleep pattern which is to stay up late and get up late. Tom’s natural rhythm is just the opposite. So, he’s the lark and I’m the owl. 

And what this owl does in the late hours is watch television- not in the traditional way but through Hulu, Netflix, TunnelBear, and Acorn TV. Most of the shows are British, though I am a great fan of a few American television shows, and have been watching some from other countries now that we have TunnelBear. Some of these shows Tom will watch in the mornings, but some of them are all mine. So, when I hear a great quote from a show I know he’s not going to watch, I’ll leave him little post-it notes near the computer keyboard. I had a notion this morning to begin a new ‘letter topic’ called What I Learned From TV so I can put up some virtual post-its for you to read and, hopefully, enjoy. Some are funny, some are educational, some are wise.

I no longer have Hulu, and we stopped TunnelBear when we found out it is rather illegal to watch British shows that way! We do still have Acorn, along with Britbox, Netflix, PBS, and Prime, and my many DVDs .

But I haven't done a TV post since 2017, so I thought it time that I bring back the topic.  I keep pen and paper next to my "TV chair" and I jot things down that interest me. The other day, I cleared out a desk drawer that had myriad post-it notes with those jottings. 

Because it has been so long, many of the quotes are not from shows I am currently watching.

I did once have a television like the one in the picture above, but nowadays this is the scene (currently watching the excellent New Amsterdam on Netflix):

With talk of oil and electric prices going up, we decided some months ago to put the TV in the kitchen where the wood stove is so I didn't have to turn up the heat in the living room when I watch television in the evenings. We have liked it so much that we probably won't move it back when the weather gets warmer. 

Without further ado:

I don't know where this came from but it is quite amazing. I am one of them.

"In 1967, never before had so many Americans been under 25. There were over 90 million of them, nearly half the population."

Being a watcher of older British television shows, I have noticed a lot of griping about two particular subjects - the National Health Service, and the European Union. Here is one from Dalziel in Dalziel and Pascoe. 

"Do they sell toffee hammers anymore? No, probably banned by those clowns in Brussels." 1996 show.

"GPS is just another way for the government to keep an eye on me." US televison show The Finder. This said by a man who buries his money because he doesn't trust banks.

From Darby and Joan. 

Joan says, "I never saw the appeal of sunrises. They're just like sunsets only bloody early." Those could be my words!

From Nadiya Hussain on one of her marvelous cooking shows:

"Oh, my God, mashed potato is my favorite thing in the whole wide world."

and

"I would rather have a baby than make soufflé."

I'll end this entry with a few quotes from Horace Rumpole in Rumpole of the Bailey.

"Who was it who said that Wagner's music is not as bad as it sounds?"

Upon hearing someone collapsed while jogging. "I've always said that exercise is the short cut to the cemetery"

"No pleasure on earth is worth sacrificing for the sake of five extra years in the geriatric ward in the sunset old people's hospital in Weston-Super-Mare."

Happy Birthday - Stevie Wonder

 

 The campaign for a federal holiday in Martin Luther King's honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later on January 20, 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000. 

 Stevie's album with this song on it came out in 1980. 

 "Happy Birthday" 

 You know it doesn't make much sense 

There ought to be a law against 

Anyone who takes offense 

At a day in your celebration 

'Cause we all know in our minds 

That there ought to be a time 

That we can set aside 

To show just how much we love you 

And I'm sure you would agree 

What could fit more perfectly 

Than to have a world party on the day you came to be 

 Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you

 Happy birthday Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday 

 I just never understood

 How a man who died for good 

Could not have a day that would

 Be set aside for his recognition 

Because it should never be 

Just because some cannot see 

The dream as clear as he 

that they should make it become an illusion

 And we all know everything 

That he stood for time will bring

 For in peace our hearts will sing 

Thanks to Martin Luther King 

 Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you 

Happy birthday Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday 

 Why has there never been a holiday 

Where peace is celebrated all throughout the world 

 The time is overdue 

For people like me and you 

Who know the way to truth 

Is love and unity to all God's children 

It should be a great event 

And the whole day should be spent

 In full remembrance 

Of those who lived and died for the oneness of all people 

So let us all begin

 We know that love can win

 Let it out don't hold it in

 Sing it loud as you can 

 Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday 

Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday 

Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday

 Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday 

Happy birthday Happy birthday Happy birthday Ooh yeah Happy birthday 

 We know the key to unity of all people 

Is in the dream that you had so long ago 

That lives in all of the hearts of people 

That believe in unity 

We'll make the dream become a reality 

I know we will Because our hearts tell us so

JEFF BECK GROUP - SHAPES OF THINGS

A real sadness for Tom and I to hear that Jeff Beck has died. He was THE BEST as was this band. Rod Stewart vocals. Ron Wood on bass. Mick Waller on drums. Nicky Hopkins piano. In the comments to this video, a man said he saw them at the Boston Tea Party, as we did. Rod didn't stay in the band for long, and how I wish he had. For us this was the perfect group. On the first album, Truth, Beck writes about this song. "Shapes of Things Rearranged, but the same Yardbirds hit. This must be played at maximum volume whatever phonograph you use. Makes very appropriate background music if you have the Vicar over for tea." Go to YouTube and type in "Drinkin Again" Jeff Beck group. A masterpiece. AND it is a Johnny Mercer song! On his Instagram page, Jimmy Page wrote: "The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans. Jeff Beck Rest in Peace."

 

Today's picture/Turkey tracks

 

Top Ten Tuesday - Nine Favorite Books of 2022

 I have done a couple (though maybe just one) of the Top Ten Tuesday posts. I do enjoy them and mean to do more this year. I didn't happen to visit her blog today, but I did get to read an entry here, and decided to do my own. I haven't done anything with my year end wrap-up of 2022, and I think this is all I will do!

I didn't have ten, but nine. I reread many books this year, and though they are good old mysteries, they can't compete with the books below which were really excellent. Five fiction and four nonfiction.

I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg. I've not read a book by her that I haven't loved. This one was really very special.

4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie. One of my top favorite writers. This was a second reading.

The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. This became one of my favorite books ever. I've never read anything like it, and was wowed. 

French Braid by Anne Tyler. Some think this is her last book and if so, it is a lovely way to end a career of many wonderful books.

The Adventurous Chef:Alexis Soyer by Ann Arnold. This is a children's picture book about someone I had never heard of until the television series Pie in the Sky. Inspector/Chef Crabbe idolizes Soyer. We learn a bit about him in one particular episode, and I wanted to know more. He was quite a fellow, and this book is well-worth reading.

The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore. This was a reread, and I loved it just as much as the first time. I wrote about it here. I didn't have grandchildren in 2011, and the book had a whole new meaning and richness that I understood this time. It really is a wonderful book.

Trains and Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith. This is a standalone book, and I really enjoyed it. Four strangers on a train telling about their lives.

Doctor Turner's Casebook by Stephen McGann. The author plays Dr. Turner in Call the Midwife. The book is mostly nonfiction, with delightful bits of the fictional doctor's casebook complete with teacup stains and imperfect typewriter letters (remember them?). I learned so much about medicine and diseases from that time, and saw how very accurate the program is. 

And the star of stars, also going onto my list of favorite books ever is:

Cross of Snow

A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

by Nicholas Basbanes

My Letters from a Hill Farm blog is full of Longfellow's poems. I've loved him since childhood, and now my love and respect is much deeper. I so enjoyed my time within the pages. It is a perfect, perfect biography, and history of America and the world during his lifetime. A marvel, a masterpiece. Nothing better.

Books Read 2023

Books Read in 2023

I am simplifying - no more book facts or Tom's books.

I went back to 2022, and eliminated them from that year as well because they were incomplete. Also, I am no longer listing exact date I finished a book. It is enough to know the month.

January - 3

1. A Winter Away

by Elizabeth Fair

fiction 1957

Kindle

2. What W. H. Auden Can Do For You

by Alexander McCall Smith 

nonfiction 2013

Kindle

3. The House That is Our Own

by O. Douglas

fiction 1940

Kindle

February - 6

4. Three Witnesses - book 27 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1956

re-read

Kindle

5. As They Slept (A Year in the Life of a London Commuter) 

book 1 of 4

by Andy Leeks

nonfiction 2013

Kindle

6. Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop

by Roselle Lim

fiction 2020

library book

print

7. Danger at the Drawbridge - book 4 in the Penny Parker series

by Mildred Wirt

Young adult mystery 1940

re-read

Kindle

8. Almost American Girl

by Robin Ha

An Illustrated Memoir 2020

Print

9. The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax - book 3 in the Mrs. Pollifax series 

by Dorothy Gilman

mystery 1971

re-read

Kindle

March - 6

10. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax - book 2 in the Mrs. Pollifax series

by Dorothy Gilman

mystery 1970

re-read

Kindle

11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

fiction 2008

re-read

print

12. A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax - book 4 in the Mrs. Pollifax series 

by Dorothy Gilman

mystery 1973

re-read

Kindle

13. Mrs. Pollifax on Safari - book 5 in the Mrs. Pollifax series

by Dorothy Gilman

mystery 1976

re-read

Kindle

14. Hippie Food

by Jonathan Kauffman

nonfiction 2018

print

15. Crocodile on the Sandbank - book 1 in the Amelia Peabody series

by Elizabeth Peters

mystery 1975

re-read

Kindle

April - 2

16. Something Fresh - book 1 in the Blandings series

by P.G. Wodehouse

fiction 1915

re-read

Kindle

17. Titanic Town

by Mary Costello

fiction 1992

print

May - 7

18. Lord James Harrington and the Spring Mystery - book 2 in the Lord James Harrington series

by Lynn Florkiewicz

mystery 2013

Kindle

19. In My Mind's Eye

by Jan Morris

nonfiction 2018

print 

20. Silent Witness - book 2 in the Patrick Grant series 

by Margaret Yorke

mystery 1972

Kindle

21. Still Life at Eighty

the next interesting thing

by Abigail Thomas

nonfiction 2023

print

22. Crying in H Mart

by Michelle Zauner

nonficition memoir  2021

print

23. The Lighthearted Quest - book 1 in the Julia Probyn series

by Ann Bridge

mystery 1956

reread

Kindle

24. The Summer Mystery - book 3 in the Lord James Harrington series

by Lynn Florkiewicz

mystery 2013

Kindle

June - 5

25. Mr. Lynch's Holiday

by Catherine O'Flynn

fiction 2013

reread

Kindle

26. 84, Charing Cross Road

by Helene Hanff

nonfiction 1970

reread - looks like the last time was 2007

print

27. This Hill, This Valley

by Hal Borland

nonfiction 1957

Kindle

28. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

by Helene Hanff

nonfiction 1973

print

29. Q's Legacy

by Helene Hanff

nonfiction 1985

print

July - 5

30. An English Murder aka The Christmas Murder

by Cyril Hare 

mystery 1951

re-read

Kindle

31. With A Bare Bodkin - book 2 in the Francis Pettigrew series 

by Cyril Hare

mystery 1946

Kindle

32. Virginia Woolf At Home

by Hilary Macaskill

nonfiction 2019

print

33. Tragedy at Law - book 1 in the Francis Pettigrew series

by Cyril Hare

mystery 1942

Kindle

34. Tenant For Death - book 1 in the Inspector Mallett series

by Cyril Hare

mystery 1937

Kindle

August - 2

35. Fer-De-Lance - book 1 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1934

re-read

Kindle

36. Some Buried Caesar - book 6 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1939

re-read

Kindle

September - 4

37. The League of Frightened Men - book 2 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1935

re-read

Kindle

38. Confessions of a Bookseller - second in The Diary of a Bookseller series

by Shaun Bythell

nonfiction 2019

library book - ILL

print

39. The Bloomsbury Cookbook

Recipes for Life, Love and Art

by Jans Ondaatje Rolls

nonfiction 2014

print

40. The Rubber Band - book 3 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1936

Kindle 

October - 4

41. The Red Box - book 4 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1937

Kindle

42. Too Many Cooks - book 5 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1938

Kindle

43. The Mirror Crack'ed -  book 8 in the Miss Marple series

by Agatha Christie

mystery 1962

ILLed from the library

print

44. Over My Dead Body - book 7 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1939

Kindle

45. What you are looking for is in the library

by Michiko Aoyama

translated from Japanese by Alison Watts

fiction 2020

library book

print

November - 3

46. Where There's A Will - book 8 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1940

Kindle

47. Black Orchids - book 9 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1942

Kindle

48. Not Quite Dead Enough - book 10 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1944

Kindle

December - 4

49. The Silent Speaker - book 11 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1946

Kindle

50. 18 Tiny Deaths

The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics

by Bruce Goldfarb

nonfiction 2020

library book

print

51. Too Many Women - book 12 in the Nero Wolfe series 

by Rex Stout

mystery 1947

Kindle

52. And Be A Villain - book 13 in the Nero Wolfe series

by Rex Stout

mystery 1948

Kindle

Tom's 2023 Reads

 This is just a collecting post.

January - 

1. Marked Man - book 32 in the Joe Gunther series

by Archer Mayor

mystery 2021

print 

library book

finished January 3

Quote du jour/Charles H. Spurgeon

 "Begin as you mean to go on, and go on as you began..."

Charles Spurgeon

I have often read these words in British books, or heard them on British television. And they have been spinning in my head as this new year arrived.

The past years have been pretty blogless for me. I haven't writtten much or read much. It's been an odd time, and I am going to begin on this day and go on. I miss writing. It is good for me. It takes me completely into what I am thinking about, rather like a meditation. But even more, I miss reading. I miss all the different voices of fellow bloggers. I miss reading about your lives, and gardens, and books. A blogging friend's father died and I didn't know for too long. That made me so sad, and pretty much brought about this new resolve. 

I am going to give myself the gift of sitting down each day in the study and either reading or writing or both. I love this room with its south and west windows, a computer desk, a writing desk for letters (which I am also working on doing more often) and paying bills (yes, I still pay as many as I can by check, which isn't a lot these days and I still check my checking account!). And the rest of the room is photographs, plants, books, and Tom's mother's dolls. It has two doors, so I can be quiet when I'm in here.

So, what brilliant topic will I write about on this first day of the year?  I thought I would tell you how much I love paper calendars. I have two. The one in the study, just to my left as I write this, is by a New Hampshire woman. 

 Cindy Hendrick does the most delightful drawings, and has created a whole little world of animals. Her website is here. 

The second calendar is in the kitchen. Susan Branch is probably very familiar to most of you. I've had her calendars for many years, and also have her address book and birthday book. I love her work, and all the wonderful quotes she has introduced to me. Actually, her newest book is one of quotes. I don't own it yet, but will before long.

I love this quote:

So, there you have it. A little blog entry to welcome in this new year, and as Mr. Lennon said, "Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear." That kind of says it all, doesn't it.

I don't write on either of these beauties. I have a desk engagement calendar I use for jotting down days we take care of the grandchildren, etc. And speaking of grandchildren, this is the 2022 Christmas card!

Campbell Walker, 8

Hazel Nina, 9

Indy Thomas, 7

Queen - Thank God It's Christmas (Official Animated Video)

I posted this a couple years ago, and just had to put it up again. I can never hear it enough. Warms my soul and breaks my heart at the same time.

Christmas sheep

The Christmas sheepys. You can see we have no snow! The real sheep aren't complaining because they are still doing some grazing in the pasture.

Frank Sinatra & Ella Fitzgerald - Moonlight In Vermont

This is a beautiful version of the song "Moonlight in Vermont". Here's something cool I learned on a jazz radio show. I was amazed to learn that each verse is a haiku. From the dictionary: a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

Quote du jour/Ross MacDonald

The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters.

     Ross Macdonald

I came upon these words near the end of my book, The Diary of a Bookseller, and they rather stopped me in my reading. I am very struck by the truth of them when it comes to my own life. My books are indeed a kind of "insulation". Looking at a shelf, or taking out a particular book seems to soothe me when the world is a bit much. I so don't understand this new trend I've read about where people want all their music on a phone and their books on a Kindle. What must their homes, their "insulation" look like? And this other trend of simplicity and spareness is beyond me. I love my books, records, CDs, DVDs, pictures, photographs, cookbooks, recipe boxes, old worn furniture. They are the signs of me, of my life, of who I am. That "I am", period. Not that I necessarily have to have them to be a real person, but they are, for me, my heart and soul. 

Have you read anything by Ross Macdonald? I looked him up, and saw the words "hard boiled" and I'm not really one for that kind of book, but I could be convinced to give him a try.

Walking around the house...

Book connections

 Years ago when I read and wrote about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I mentioned the way a book you are reading can lead you to others, just by a mention. 

Well, my current print book (on sidebar) is one that the local library email recommended. I immediately signed up for it, and began the book a couple days ago. I have gotten through just a very few pages because I have been caught by so many titles that I have to put the book down and come to the computer to learn more. 

George Orwell's "Bookshop Memories" - an essay I now have on the desktop.

Three Fevers by Leo Walmsley - a title that had me visiting the LW society and reading about his books and his life. And which sent me to Stuck in a Book because I just knew that he would have read this author.  

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell.

The Bankrupt Bookseller Speaks Again by William Y. Darling.

Ian Niall, who was mentioned by the author as having believed that the "land of milk and honey" was Galloway (Scotland) "in part because there was always an abundance of both in the pantry in the farmhouse in which he grew up, but also because, for him, it was a kind of paradise." Well, that certainly caught my interest and I have found in my searching that he is definitely someone I must read. 

All this in five pages! I'm sure there will be more to come in this wonderful book.

Quote du jour/from Call The Midwife

 I wish I'd written down the date I began watching all of Call The Midwife on Netflix. It has been a few weeks now. I've put aside The Great British Baking Show (still known to most as GBBO!) and Gardeners' World. It has been a supreme joy to see the episodes one after another. I have filled many post-it notes with quotes.

This is from episode 8 of series 9, spoken by Vanessa Redgrave at the start of the show. 

"When autumn starts to dampen into winter, should we say, 'the nights are getting dark'? Should we thrust our hands into our pockets and anticipate the chill? Or should we say, 'light the fire, draw close, it will not be as cold as you imagine'?"

And at the end of the episode.

"The seasons will always turn, the clouds will gather and the cold will come. We will survive them. We will grow regardless of the weather. We will know wonder where there has been despair. There will be happiness, and we will remember it. There will be friendships which we won't forget. Love is the constant whereby we endure all winters and all storms. It is the climate in which all things can thrive. Welcome the darkness. Embrace it as a canopy from which the stars can hang. For there are always stars when we are where we ought to be, amongst the faces we love best, each with our place, each with our purpose, as fixed and familiar as the constellations. The darkness is beautiful, for how else can we shine."

Old soldiers and old cleomes

 Old soldiers just fade away

Mick Jagger - "Old Habits Die Hard"

This line from Jagger's song was running through my head today as I walked toward the garden and looked at the cleomes. You may think I am obsessed by them, and I suppose I am a bit.  Even on this first day of October, they have a grandeur as they "fade away".  Amazing flowers.

Last stewing of the season

 

Sorry to go on and on, but I like to keep track of the gardens here on the blog. You may just skip over!

Today I just got around to stewing the tomatoes in the last post. Instead of freezing, I'm going to add a jar of crushed tomatoes, strain both the fresh and the canned, and make sauce for supper. Sad to see the season end, but happy to have some for the winter.

Pretty much the end of the tomato harvest

 

If you have stopped by recently, you will have seen the chopped tomatoes as my blog header. I've stewed and strained quite a few tomatoes in the past weeks, added a little tomato paste, and frozen them. I look forward to that taste of summer on my pasta this winter. We tried many new varieties this year - some heirlooms. They are so individual both in look and taste. Here is a pic I took a while back.

The ones on the front left are called Purple Cherokee, from seeds found on a Cherokee reservation. They just may be the best tasting tomatoes I've ever eaten. On the front right are Rose de Berne.They are a Swiss heirloom. We didn't get too many, but they were very delicious. On the yellow plate is a super producer with a terrific taste, Moskvich. Not an heirloom yet, but a great tomato from Russia. Not sure what the time table is for declaring a tomato is an heirloom. I think the Moskvich was developed in the 1970s. 

The yellowy orange one is Marmalade, not an heirloom. Great producer and such a beauty. It is really stunning in the garden.

The green and yellow ones are ripe. That is their color. The variety is Green Zebra. I always pronounce the name with the British "Zeb", not the American "Zee" because I first heard of it on Pie in the Sky, one of my most favorite television series. There is an episode where Henry Crabbe makes this delicious looking dish, stuffing a Green Zebra with bread crumbs, parsley, garlic, olive oil, and something else I think I'm forgetting. I was so looking forward to making it, but my Green Zebras just didn't get big enough this year.  Will try again next year (the gardener's motto). The first picture was taken today - maybe the last tomatoes of the season. The little one on the bottom with those grooves is called Costoluto Genovese, an Italian heirloom. What flavor, and I love the grooves - I just cut one section out and eat it! 

We've grown Peacevine cherry tomatoes for years. Next year we may try a few heirloom cherries, too. I bought quite a few from a local farm this summer, and the taste was out of this world. Here is a whimsical picture of them with my colorful bowls.

We did a few different things with our tomatoes this year - one was cutting all the shoots off except the main flowering ones. That was okay, except we didn't get nearly as many tomatoes as other years. Will go back to letting the side shoots flower, until later in the season. I'm always up for trying new ideas, but this one just didn't work out that well. Plus I missed the huge, tall plants we got before.

When I was a kid, I never ate tomatoes - not even tomato sauce. And these summer months, they are all I wanted to eat!

Death of a Queen

 If you go here, you will see the last picture taken of the late Queen Elizabeth 11. It is the picture many of us saw when we first read the news that she wasn't well, and that family was heading to Balmoral. I would have put it up but it does have a name on it, and I did not want to infringe.

When I first saw it, I thought it was my favorite of all pictures I have seen of her during her long life. She looks like any woman at home. That sweater! Just like any of us might wear, especially those my age or older. It made me smile, even as the news made me fearful.

I know a staunch Irishman, and yet he cared for the Queen. As did so many people, no matter their politics.

I am terribly sad. It feels like someone in my family has died -  a relative I didn't ever see but still loved.

And I'll tell you a weird story. It begins a long time ago. Just before my uncle (by marriage, on my father's side) died, my mother heard three knocks on the window and saw his face there. Then the phone rang with the news. Well, today Tom was at a friend's house. After I had read that the Queen was so ill, I was in the kitchen when I heard three knocks on the front door. Lucy, our yellow Labrador went to the door, as did I. No one was there (and no face). Soon I saw Tom walking from the parking lot to the house. I asked him if he had come to the door and knocked thinking it might be locked. He said no.

The phone didn't ring just after but when I heard those knocks I did fear that she had, or would, die. As far as I know that happened to my mother only once, and this is the first and hopefully only time for me. 

Quote du jour - Henry David Thoreau; and summer pictures

I began this post in July, and am just getting back to it on this first day of September.

 

Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817-May 6, 1862) Such a short life.

I am living fully in this summer season, and want to share some pictures of the beauty at Windy Poplars Farm. This summer has been spectacular. Everyone I talk to comments on the flowers everywhere. 

The brown-eyed Susans are all over the place. They just pop up and don't care what the soil is like.

Beautiful daylilies

Hollyhocks  - my friend said this color has such an old-fashioned look. It is really achingly beautiful. This is a perennial one that I bought from White Flower Farm years ago. 

And this is one that comes back year after year - just a regular hollyhock. I recently read that if you leave the seedheads on, they will fall off and root the next year. Since I never cut mine down in a timely manner, that must be what happens here.

 

Now that I am here, and late, I thought I'd post some August pictures, too. This is the side yard on a beautiful morning around 8 am. Not the clearest but that's part of what I like - that misty/sunny look.

                                                                      Zinnias

                                                                Goldenglow  

                                                                Monarda -

 I finally found one that grows in zone 3. I bought one plant. It grew well last year, though the leaves had mildew. I looked it up and one result was from Martha Stewart who said to never mind it - that it wouldn't hurt the flowers at all. Well, this year, that one plant spread and overtook the entire terrace garden. Some other kinds of plants disappeared, and others were greatly diminished, but that's alright. It is in the mint family after all. Every single minute of the day, these plants have been full of bees and butterflies. 

 I'll end with the pride and joy of Windy Poplars Farm - Cleome, and Amaranth! Last year we grew cleome and it was a lovely, big addition to the vegetable garden. This year, we started seeds inside under the lights, and they again have been beautiful. A surprise for us is that last year's flowers self-seeded, and are actually double the length of the ones we transplanted! What a plant!! And the amaranth came in my CSA bouquets years ago. I asked the grower what it was, and she called it "love lies bleeding." Whatever it is known by it is the weirdest plant we've ever grown. Weird but very wonderful. We will grow both flowers again next year.

I plan to do another post on the vegetables this year. 

And the font changed as I wrote. I didn't do it on purpose. I started with the font of our computer, comic sans, but then it went to something I didn't like. I tried to get CS, but it wasn't offered so I used open sans.