garden — Page 172

Let’s Hang On

October 17, 2015 at 8:59 am by Claudia

10-17 zinnia

Do you remember that old Four Seasons song?

Let’s hang on to what we got
Don’t let go, girl, we got a lot
Got a lot of love between us
Hang on, hang on, hang on to what we got.

That’s what I’m singing to my plants today and tomorrow. Yes, the dreaded hard freeze will be here for two nights, not one. Crap. I followed Janet’s advice and watered everything at dusk yesterday. I’ll have to cover everything with sheets around 5:30 pm, as I have to get to the CD Release Party by 6 or so. Earlier than planned, but better to be safe. And I have to bring in all the plants from the porch and there are a lot of them.

And then I’ll have to do it again tomorrow, if all goes well tonight.

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The only bee balm blossom that’s still going strong – the others are long gone. Will he make it through the freeze?

Don and Dan (who stayed the night with us) are on their way to the radio station, which is in the Catskills. They’ll be on live from 11 -12 this morning – if you’re interested in listening to them you can catch the program streaming live here.

Tonight is the CD Release Party, with lots of friends coming to celebrate. Some of them will also be performing along with Don and Dan. I wish you all could be here, too! I know we’d have a lot of fun.

Quandary: what does one do when one has a stack of books from the library, among them All the Light We Cannot See, which said person knows she should read but for some reason isn’t very excited about, and an email arrives informing that person that after weeks of waiting in a long queue, Make Me by Lee Child is finally sitting on a shelf reserved under said person’s name at the local library?

(Quite a long and awkward sentence but you get the picture.)

Answer: One drops everything in her own personal ‘queue’ and runs to the library to check it out, which she will be doing as soon as the radio show is over.

I mean, come on, it’s Lee Child. It’s Jack Reacher. End of story.

10-17 wildflowers

Dad is being transferred to rehab today and it is the one we wanted him to be in all along. He had a rocky day yesterday. We finally figured out that he’d been given a sleeping pill in the middle of the night and he was out of it for most of the day. By the time I spoke to him a second time later in the day, he sounded better.

We’re grateful that everything has worked out in the end. Now to rehab and, hopefully, back home in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed.

Okay. To those of you battling the hard freeze, I wish you luck! Wish me luck, too.

Happy Saturday.

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A Pox on Hard Freezes

October 16, 2015 at 9:12 am by Claudia

10-16 mgbuds

Do you see those little buds? Suddenly, there are morning glory buds everywhere, quite late in the season. I’m sure you will understand when I say I’d like to see them open up and bless us with their beauty.

But…Sunday night the temps are supposed to drop into the twenties. Just for one night. Then it’s back to normal. I’m in a little bit of a panic. The porch plants I can bring inside. The zinnias and morning glories? No can do. I’m already making plans to cover everything with a sheet and hope against hope they hang in there.

Otherwise, I’ll be in mourning.

10-16 butterfly bush

It seems especially cruel when there’s a hard freeze for just one night; it’s like a tease, but not a good one. I know winter is inevitable, but since the remainder of the nighttime temps are going to stay in the forties or high thirties for a while, it seems a shame not to see my flowers bloom.

Dad is still in a rather cheery mood. Meredith and I suspect that some of that is due to the pain meds he’s on. They’re mellowing him. As my dad can be rather irascible, to put it mildly, I must say it’s nice to hear him sound so happy. He calls me to tell me what he ate for breakfast and lunch. He details his conversations with the nurses. He talks about physical therapy. My dad, by the way, is pretty strong for a 92 year old, so I have no doubt that he’ll do well in PT. Tomorrow, they’ll assess his progress and decide whether he goes home or to a rehab facility. I’m thinking it will be rehab, but maybe not for as long as predicted.

10-16 openingzinnia

Don’t you want to see this flower open? I do. A pox on any hard freezes!

Don and Dan will be on The Front Burner radio show on WIOX on Saturday morning. They’ll be playing their music and talking about the new CD from 11 am to 12 pm. The show is hosted by our friends Elly and Dave (who will also be at the CD Release Party later on Saturday.) If you’re at all interested in giving it a listen, WIOX, which is a Public Radio station, streams live. You can find it here. Don’s going to be on another radio show next Thursday evening and I’ll share what I know about that later in the week.

If you have any wise tips as to covering plants during a freeze, I’m all ears – or eyes, in this case. The morning glories and zinnias are right up against and on top of a stretch of the chicken wire fence. Thanks, everyone!

Happy Friday.

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The Defiant Ones

October 10, 2015 at 9:43 am by Claudia

Throughout the garden there are signs of the inevitable decline that comes at this time of year. Flowers have stopped blooming; in many cases, there are dried up stems where once there were beautiful, green plants. I’ve been looking at all of it through the camera’s lens for the past couple of days.

There are, hidden among the fallen leaves and debris, a few defiant ones – flowers that still bloom despite the disarray around them.

All of the purple coneflowers look like this:

10-10 dried up coneflowers

But, almost hidden away in the side garden, I saw this:

10-10 coneflower

The last man standing. So beautiful.

10-10 brown-eyed susans

A few defiant brown-eyed susans.

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The last of the roses.

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A bloom hidden deep within the butterfly bush.

10-10 catmint

There are some catmint flowers here and there.

10-10 spirea

The spirea is giving us one last burst of flowers.

10-10 phlox

And the phlox isn’t giving up without a fight.

My goodness, there is such a beauty in this decline, these flashes of color amid the fading greens and browns of the Autumn garden. It’s easy to focus on what was, instead of what is. And what is, is completely gorgeous in its own right.

Oh, I saw a Monarch Butterfly the other day! I didn’t have my camera and it was flying quickly around the property. It was gorgeous. Sadly, I don’t see them much anymore, so when I do, I stop and watch it until it fades out of sight.

Today is another beautiful, sunny fall day. I’m lapping all of this up. Tomorrow, I head into the city again to watch a run-through of the show.

I stopped by the library the other day.

10-10 library haul

I’m pretty sure the Sue Grafton books I’ve missed reading are S through V. Fortunately, my little local library had them on the shelf. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Ace Atkins but have yet to read any of his books. This one was on display, so I grabbed it. I had been in the queue for All the Light We Cannot See and it finally came in.

Just as it did when I was a little girl going to the bookmobile every week, a stack of library books makes me very, very happy.

Happy Saturday.

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Let’s Hang On

A Pox on Hard Freezes

The Defiant Ones

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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