The Ten Year Gardening Project

I started working on the borders at this house in the summer of 1998, even before Trevor and I got married. They were in desperate need of attention. I wish I had some "before" photos but you'll have to trust me on this one.
Over the years, I've moved plants around and just when I think I've got it the way I want it someone offers me more plants or I buy more plants or I just make a new bed, which then needs to be filled in.
It's looking pretty good and with the addition of the 5 tubs of day lilies I got from Sarah & Andrew (still need more), I might, maybe, possibly be finished? How can that be???

From top to bottom: lilies of the valley; hosta, daffodils, and violets at the bottom of the ancient lilac; the pink and purple garden of iris, violets and flox; spider wort around the sign post; the new bed which contains: iris (2 varieties) and 3 different bleeding hearts, false indigo, evening primrose, daisies, bee balm and a rock cairn that I built; before and after pictures of the day lilies bed; and the corner bed that I started with 10 years ago and contains, daffodils, red Asiatic lilies, a pink rose bush, a yellow rose bush, purple iris, yellow moonbeam, a few other things (I can't remember what they are) and lots and lots of violets.

Ask and you shall receive (it works!)

Just yesterday I was thinking I need more perennials for my gardens. I've spent several hours this week weeding, digging up plants and rearranging the borders. I do this on a regular basis, just ask Trevor. I'll decide that something would look better in a different area and dig it up and then plant it in another spot.

Last fall I had Jason do some rearranging for me because my back was still recovering from falling last May. He moved 2 irises and 3 bleeding hearts to a new bed that I'd been preparing for a few years. Now it's coming up and looking great but the spot where all of these came from is EMPTY! And we can't have that. I was just thinking that what I really need was for someone to want to give me some free plants. I'd even come and dig them up if I needed to. Well, that opportunity has arisen! When we were on a hike with Trevor's cousin, Andrew and his wife, Sarah, and their young son, George, this morning I mentioned to Sarah that I'd been doing a lot of gardening recently. After talking a bit she mentioned that they've been having people come over and dig up plants from their yard that they want to turn to grass. So, in a little bit, I'm grabbing my shovel, gloves and containers and driving to Amherst for free day lilies, iris, etc.

I think I'll try this method on finding the perfect job.

Highlights from the North Shore trip

I had a whirlwind trip to the North Shore on Friday. First, I stopped in at my alma mater, Salem State College, and visited with my old profs in the geology department, Jim Cullen and Lindley Hanson. It was great to see them and reminisce about the "old days". Jim was my academic advisor and professor in 4 courses plus a senior year independent study (which included a one-week intensive course in field oceanography in the Bahamas... oh, how I love geology...), Lindley was my professor in Coastal Geology which was awesome because we got to go to the beach once a week! I chose Singing Beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA (again, oh, how I love geology...). Now, I'm sure you're wondering what one does when they go to the beach once a week for a geology class but it was tough. We had to go once a week, regardless of the weather. Fortunately for us, it was perfect every time. We had to do beach profiles, and take sand samples, and measure the current (which is impossible if it's a "pocket beach" which Singing Beach is), and all of this is more challenging if your field partner has been smoking something all afternoon. And then put it all together in a 25 page paper with graphs, diagrams, photographs. But that was then...

After visiting the old profs, I had lunch with my old pal, Jocelyn who is just finishing up at Salem State College after a 10 year hiatus. She's very excited to be graduating in May. I'm very proud of her. We had a fun time gossiping about old friends and getting caught up.

Once we went our separate ways I took a little tour of the North Shore. I drove through Marblehead and stopped at Crowninshield Beach. Then drove to Beverly and stopped at the Dane Street Beach. Finally, I drove to Beverly Farms and stopped at West Beach. Once I got there I realized I should have just headed right there but how does one know these things? West Beach is beautiful. I love it there. I took some pictures and then realized I was a little late for getting to Heather's house (she's 2 minutes by car from the beach). I quickly headed to my car and drove to their house. We had a lovely dinner (salmon, fresh green bean, rice, lots of wine) and chatted, chatted, chatted.

The next morning I got up at a ridiculous hour and drove to Salem State College and met the current group of geology students to go on a field trip of the CT Valley. Jocelyn rode with me in my car and the rest of the group rode in a van and an SUV. We drove down to Berlin, CT and spent a good 2 hours looking at an amazing outcrop of the East Berlin Formation. As usual, it was on the side of an on-ramp to a highway so there was the usual litter and dead animals to watch out for. And because it was a geology field trip we all had to be careful when crossing the HIGHWAY to see the rest of the outcrop on the other side of the on-ramp. These are the things you don't want your mother to know that you do as a geology student. Fortunately, we didn't have to cross the really busy part of the highway to look at the contact between the Hampton Basalt and the East Berlin Formation (phew!) because we could see it on the side that we were on.

I ditched them in Rocky Hill, CT after visiting Dinosaur State Park. (been there, done that) and headed home. It was really great to look at the rocks close up. We saw some really cool sedimentary structures (mud cracks, ripple marks, cross-bedding, slumping). And we saw red sandstone, gray mudrocks, black shale, dolomite and basalt. It was great! And dino tracks, of course! Oh, how I love geology...

Signs of Spring in the Happy Valley

You know that spring has officially arrived in the Happy Valley when you see 4x4's that are completely (even the windshield) covered with dried-up, caked-on MUD.

This was a new phenomenon to me when I first moved here almost 10 years ago. Back when I was working at Northampton High School, I would regularly see vehicles in the parking lot that were completely covered in mud in the spring. Just within the past few weeks I started to see those mud-plastered vehicles, presumably belonging to a new generation, but I suppose it's possible it's the same guys. It was only 5 years ago that I left NHS.

Kind of makes me want to sing a little tune...

Springtime for rednecks...

I must be really bored...

Yes, I must be really bored because on Friday I'm going to drive to Salem, MA and have lunch an old college friend who dropped out when I was a student 10 years ago and is just finishing up. (I'm really proud of her!) I'm staying at my friend Heather's in Beverly Farms on Friday night and (this is the part where I'm really bored) on Saturday morning I'm getting up at the crack of dawn and driving to Salem State College from Beverly (it really only takes 20 minutes) to be there at 6AM and go on a field trip to the CT Valley! Basically, I'm driving there to only drive back here the next morning but I'll make good use of my visit to Salem State College and catch up with my old profs. This is a field trip that I never had the opportunity to go on in 1996 when I was a student at SSC studying geology and taking Sedimentation & Stratigraphy (we shortened it to "Sed & Strat"), because we simply never went. We had a great field trip to Plum Island but no CT Valley field trip. There's some really cool rocks here in the CT Valley. I'm really excited! (I'm such a geek, did you know that about me?)

Mermaid Ivy

Here's my niece, Ivy, as a mermaid. She just spent a week in Florida with her mom and grandparents. I was a bit jealous. I'm sure she had a wonderful time.

I just adore Ivy. She's 4 1/2. She'll be 5 in July. We always have a great time together.

Except for that one time when I was trying to comb her hair out...

She'd been with my brother, Pete, in Vermont for a week and little dreads were starting to form. I knew her mom wouldn't appreciate getting her daughter back as a Rastafarian so I attempted to comb it out. Her mom had sent along a spray-in hair de-tangler which works pretty well, if you can get Ivy to sit still long enough.

I worked in sections around her head, spraying in the de-tangler and then combing it out. She'd last about 3 minutes (if that) and need to get up for something. Each time I'd have to ask her to come back and sit down. Sometimes, it was to get a doll. Other times it was to move a loaf of bread. And then move the same loaf of bread again. Halfway through she got up and got me a glass of water! I continued to comb out the dreads and when she got up one last time I told her I was finished. She said, "you didn't finish." I said, "you kept getting up." She went whining to Pete, who witnessed the whole thing, "Papa, she wouldn't even give me a chance."

More photos from Talcott Mountain

Here's a few more photos from our trip to CT. Columnar Basalt, CT 's largest tree (a sycamore), Farmington River, Heublein Tower at the top of Talcott Mountain, and Trevor in front of the sycamore tree for scale.