Thurs. Dec. 29, 2022: Big Dreams for Small Spaces

image courtesy of Wow Phochiangrak via pixabay.com

Thursday, December 29, 2022

First Quarter Moon Waxing in Aries

Uranus, Mars, Mercury Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Birch

Partly Sunny and Mild

Sorry for the missed weeks. Without a working computer at home that could access the internet, I was limited in what I could do, and my time working on the library’s computers were also limited.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend, and are looking forward to the new year.

Some people hate the “Betweenmas” week. I fluctuate – at times I love it, at times I get impatient.

I’m going through the seed catalogues as they come in, dreaming overly ambitious dreams for next year’s growing season. I make a chart (yes, I know I could use Excel, but I hate Excel) with the seed company, the seeds I want, the price. This way, I can compare/contrast prices and varieties.

Then, I have to winnow it down for space and budget. I have limited space in the enclosed front porch and on the back balcony, and I have zealous squirrels out on the balcony.

The tomato plant that was doing so well around Thanksgiving gave up. I couldn’t give it the light and warmth it needed to generate tomatoes by Christmas. Also, no bees around for pollination had something to do with it.

Some of the bulbs are poking tiny green heads up, so we might have early tulips, hyacinths, and miniature daffodils. If that’s the case, we will enjoy them while we have them.

But our other plants are doing well. The night-blooming jasmine is gigantic. The peace lily is slowly coming back to health. The other plants are fine, and we’re coaxing them along. The snapdragon is supposedly an annual, but no one told it, so it’s growing along, which is great. I would love it if it would be hearty enough to bloom this year.

At this point, I’m not planning to plant vegetables. I’m going to focus on flowers and herbs. I want to add some more medicinal herbs into the mix.

I have the big binder for the past year’s notes, and I will move a bunch of 2022 notes over, and then set up the smaller binder for this year’s planting and tracking.

This is one of my favorite times of the growing year: sitting with the catalogues, spinning big dreams. It also gives me a chance to plan gardens for my fiction. The catalogues give me ideas, and instead of throwing them out, I put them in a file and refer to them when I need to create gardens in fiction.

Planning fantasy gardens can be even more fun than planning real ones!

How are your various gardens, both internal and external, growing?

Happy New Year, my friends. Peace, rich soil, and abundant harvest to you.

Advertisement

Thurs. Dec. 8: The Seed Catalogues Arrive!

image courtesy of kryciak via pixabay.com

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Last Day of the Full Moon in Gemini

Chiron, Uranus, Mars Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Elder

Cloudy and mild

The weather has been all over the place lately, especially temperature-wise. After a few cold days, it warmed up again. It’s supposed to be fairly mild through the weekend, then dip again early next week. Originally, the prediction was for a White Christmas; now that looks doubtful. We’ll see.

I thought life revolved around the weather on Cape Cod, but it’s even more so here. It’s rather fascinating.

I’m slowly nursing the peace lily back to health. I’d hate to lose it, after 11 years and so much growth. The jasmine is now gigantic, and needs water nearly every day. My lemon plant, grown from organic lemon seeds from a lemon from the market last year, will need a bigger pot in spring.

The seed catalogues are starting to arrive, which means dreaming of what we want to grow next year. We’ll skip vegetables, since we have access to the Farmer’s Market, and it’s hard to grow them on the balcony and porch. We’ll focus on herbs and flowers. I have to go through the binder with the sheets on this year’s seeds and make decisions on which to continue with and which didn’t work, before moving those sheets to the big, multi-year binder.

I know I want to grow zinnias next year. We didn’t grow them this year, and I missed them. I want to grow more Black-Eyed Susan Vine, because that did well. The morning glories worked, but the moonflowers did not. Cooking herbs (rosemary, sage, oregano, basil, etc.) I’ll buy at the garden center, rather than start from seed, but I might do some Medicinals from scratch.

Planning is one of my favorites.

And yes, before you ask, the tomato plants are still growing, although we don’t have enough sun to keep them happy. I’m considering getting a grow light.

The decorating is going slowly. Toward the end of next week, I will get in some more greens, and integrate them with the artificial greens we have. I didn’t want to get them too early, for fear they’d dry out.

How is your garden doing? What are your plans for next year?

Thurs. Dec. 1, 2022: The Season of Evergreens

Advent Table, photo by Devon Ellington

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Second Quarter Waxing Moon in Pisces

Neptune, Chiron, Uranus Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Elder

Cloudy and cold

Phew! It feels like ages since we got together, even though we only skipped last Thursday for American Thanksgiving. I hope you had a good one. Ours was lovely and quiet, filled with good food and good books.

I started the decorating over the weekend, but haven’t gotten very far, and there are boxes scattered everywhere. I hope to get another big push done this weekend, especially when it comes to getting the big tree in the stand, and start that decorating. We are learning how things fit in the space. Last year, we just kind of slapped everything up, in our first year here, to get it up. This year, we are taking more time to figure out what we want, and so there’s more box chaos early.

Tessa, the big black cat does not like it. She likes things tidy. Charlotte and Willa think it’s fun.

We will get there. I have to stop berating myself for not getting it all done in a single day. After all, I’ve accumulated a lot more decorations since the single-day-decorating years, and I have to get the writing and other paid work done before I can decorate. On weekdays, I’m often too tired.

But I got the wreath from Whitney’s Farm, and it’s decorated and on the front door. It looks kind of pretty. Remember last year’s wreath? It was fresh until June, and after the holidays, we hung the green wreath on the living room door.

Door wreath. Photo by Devon Ellington

I’m hoping, once everything is decorated and just before Solstice, I can get some fresh greens and scatter them amongst the decorations here and there. I’m worried if I get them now, they’ll dry out too early.

The photo above is of the Advent Table. We’ve kept it simple this year. The wreath used is artificial, not real. The candleholders for the four Advent candles have been in our family ever since I can remember, and the silver-plated tree in the center was a find at an antique store in Saybrook, CT, when we were moving from NY to the Cape. The bells attached to the top came to us on a gift probably back in the 1960s or 70s. The top cloth on the table is a gift from friends in Germany; again, we’ve had it for ages. The cloth underneath (barely visible) is one I made back when I was living in NYC. Everything has a story and a memory attached, whether it’s on this table, or anywhere else. As we decorate, we tell the family stories and keep our history alive. We combine old and new traditions, as works for us.

The fake fireplace (we don’t have a real one in this house) is a work in process. The artificial garland we use had blue poinsettias. In the back, you can see that I’ve put a seasonal ribbon on my broom.

Even though we don’t celebrate the traditional Christmas anymore (Solstice is my big holiday), the tradition of the Advent table and lighting the candles is a big deal. Each Sunday, after dusk, we light a candle. On the first of Advent, we light one; on the second, we light two, and so forth and so on. On Christmas Eve, we light all of them, plus the center (it’s often a bayberry candle; this year it’s the votives in the silver tree) and burn them all the way down.

I still have to get bayberry tapers. Tapers, in general, are difficult to find around here. I’m hoping to pick them up on my errands this weekend, if the weather clears up.

If you haven’t yet planted your bulbs, today is a planting day, by the astrological calendar. Better get them in. Ours are planted and on the front porch. There’s one little shoot, which started peeking out, probably a narcissus.

I’m still trying to nurse the peace lily back to health.

The Celtic Tree Month of Elder began last Friday. Elder is the thirteenth lunation, and is connected to death and regenerative magic. It’s bad luck to cut from an elder tree without permission (and even worse luck to cut one down). Elderberry syrup is a popular medicinal for the winter, helpful in promoting healing from coughs and colds.

Here we go, into the busy holiday season. I hope you take some time to enjoy the greenery, the lights, and the joy.

Thurs. Dec. 30, 2021: Birch, the Month of Regeneration & Creativity

image courtesy of Alain Audet via pixabay.com

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Fourth Quarter Waning Moon in Scorpio

Uranus and Venus Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Birch

Rainy and cold

It’s rainy and raw over here in the mountains. We had some light snow, intermittently, over the past few days. We had snow on Christmas Eve, which was quite lovely, but it switched over to freezing rain by Christmas Day, and everything washed away. Then, the other night, we had just a bit of overnight snow, which the rain has, again, washed away.

The seed catalogs are coming in. After the holidays, I will sit down with books like ALL YOU CAN EAT IN THREE SQUARE FEET to figure out what we can and want to grow next year. I never got to use the seeds I ordered last year, before the move. In fact, I can’t even find them, although I hope to uncover them as I finish the unpacking.

Planning next year’s garden is always fun. I can dream as wildly as I want, before getting more practical, in terms of space available. It will be very different this year, because we can’t do any in-ground planting.

I miss my lilac bushes terribly.

The Celtic Tree Month of Birch is about regeneration and creativity. I could use some of that!

Happy New Year! I wish you health, peace, abundance, and joy.

Thurs. Dec. 23, 2021: Nameless Day and Changeable Weather

image courtesy of Hans via pixabay.com

Thursday, December 23, 2021

Third Quarter Waning Moon in Leo

Uranus and Venus Retrograde

Nameless Day

Today is known as “Nameless Day” in the Celtic Tree calendar. It’s between the Tree Month of Elder and the Tree Month of Birch. Mistletoe is associated with today. It’s a “between times” day. It’s the day of unshaped potential, and a good day to decide what it is you want to manifest.

The weather is so changeable here. It reminds me of Scotland, where it’s lovely one minute and then stormy the next. We’d been warned that winters were gray and stark here, and we’ve gotten off easy so far, so I am not complaining.

Since we are on the second floor, I enjoy watching the weather from our large windows, or the porch or the back balcony. I love being able to watch the mountains.

The Winter Solstice was a gorgeous day, and I got a good many of my cookie platters delivered. It was delightful to be out and about.

Yesterday was rainy and raw, so I stayed in and baked; that means I have to push to finish all the deliveries and errands by today.

We still have plants on the front porch, because it hasn’t been all that cold. The Mother’s Tongue was getting too much sun, and didn’t like it, so we brought it in and put it in the sewing room, where it’s recovering like a Victorian heroine.

We don’t have a working fireplace in this house, so we couldn’t burn the greens saved from last year. Instead, I took my big cauldron out on the back balcony, and slowly, branch by branch, burned the greens. I didn’t want flames or a lot of smoke to worry the neighbors. But it was done, and a nice psychological tool to release the past year, and the stress of the move, and the life on Cape Cod.

I’m curious to see what this winter brings. It’s been warmer and milder than usual (my heat bill is happy). But we’re supposed to have a couple of weeks of bad weather before it levels out again.

Fingers crossed I can watch most of it from my window, rather than going out in it.

Have a lovely, peaceful, joyful holiday weekend.

Thurs. Dec. 16, 2021: Unseasonably Mild

image courtesy of Vlad Chetan via pexels.com

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Second Quarter Waxing Moon in Taurus

Chiron and Uranus Retrograde

Cloudy and mild

Celtic Tree Month of Elder

We are having an unseasonably warm patch right now. The past few days have been mild and sunny. I took advantage of it by doing as many errands as possible on foot, so I could be out and about, enjoying the weather.

Last night, it rained quite a bit, and it’s supposed to get up to 61 degrees F today.

We’ve been warned there’s snow coming in on Saturday, so I better get as much done as possible before then!

It’s much drier here in the mountains than it was by the ocean. The indoor plants need watering far more often. We should probably have a humidifier on, but they’re all in storage. And, frankly, it’s kind of nice not to have things damp, although I’m using far more hand cream than usual.

Both trees are up. The big one is almost decorated; we still have a few more boxes of decorations to get on there. It’s fun to figure out how things fit in this place.

The big tree completely dominated the living room, and, indeed, the entire downstairs in the Cape house. Here, it just looks normal-sized (it’s 7-1/2 feet tall). It looks good in the space, and it’s amazing how much more breathing room there is, both physically and psychologically, with higher ceilings.

We still have plants out on the front porch because it just hasn’t been that cold (at least not for long stretches). The small tree is out on the front porch, along with lights strung up along the windows. People look up as they walk past and enjoy it. The delivery guy from a local restaurant says the address is easy to find, because it has the “happy lights.”

Soon, I will have to hunt for the seeds I didn’t get to use last year, and figure out what we can and want to plant for next year. It will mean re-reading ALL YOU CAN EAT IN THREE SQUARE FEET, I’m sure.

But first – the winter holidays!

Thurs. Dec. 9, 2021: Just Enough Snow to Be Pretty

Small tree on the front porch. Photo by Devon Ellington.

Thursday, December 9, 2021

First Quarter Moon in Aquarius

Chiron and Uranus Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Elder

Snowy and cold

It snowed twice yesterday, once in the morning, then a break, then again in the evening and into the night. It wasn’t a lot of snow, either time, just two or three inches. It looks pretty, it needs to be brushed off the cars.

They’re good about plowing here. Unlike on Cape Cod, where it could be days before one saw a plow, and there were times when I could see the cleared street at the end of the block, but couldn’t actually get to it, the plows are out regularly. They’re strict about the “no parking on the street” regulations from November 1 to April 30, so that they can plow, and people actually respect it. With everyone working together, it works.

Because we are on the second floor, and have these magnificent windows, I love to sit or lie on the couch and watch the snow fall. It’s becoming one of my favorite mountain pastimes! And it’s wonderful to look out of either the front or back windows and see the mountains.

I love the way snow puts a quieting blanket on it all. Our neighborhood is reasonably quiet anyway, even with the college right here. For some reason, the clock isn’t chiming anymore, or right now. I don’t know if they turned it off because there was a film crew here, or for maintenance, or if it’s off for the winter. I miss it terribly. I loved keeping track of my day with it.

We have the small tree up on the porch, with the blue and silver ornaments. It’s the tree that used to be in my office. It’s got the painted shells and starfish and sand dollars that we accumulated and painted through the Cape years, and I also strung colored lights along the windows. It’s very pretty.

detail of small tree. Photo by Devon Ellington.

The stair bannisters are wrapped in lights and garlands, and look pretty, too.

This weekend, we put up the big tree. We finally decided to put it in the doorway between the living room and the sewing room, because I can tie it off to the door hinges for security.

It will be a big job. And there are still other decorations to unpack and put up. Since this space is new to us, there’s a lot of rearranging involved! But it’s fun.

After the holidays, I will have to sit down with the seed catalogs, and we will have to decide what we can, realistically, plant on the front porch and on the back balcony in containers. The garden will be very different this year, but it will exist.

What is it like where you live?

Nov. 11, 2021: November Energy

photo by Anna Rye, courtesy of pexels.com

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Second Quarter Waxing Moon in Aquarius

Neptune, Chiron, Uranus Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Reed

Sunny and cool

In spite of the predictions we’d have our first snow this week, the weather has been glorious. Cold at night, down into the twenties, with a need to scrape frost off the car in the morning.

But during the day, it’s up into the fifties. It’s been sunny most days, a little bit of rain here and there.

I’ll enjoy every beautiful day I can.

This will be my first winter in the Berkshires, and I keep hearing how harsh they are, so I’m ready.

Last Friday, we drove about an hour and a half east, and it was just hitting peak foliage and gorgeous.

There are still some wonderful colors here, but many of the trees have shed their leaves, and they’re getting into the stark, tree-and-branch that has its own loveliness.

The pumpkin my friend carved on Halloween lasted until yesterday, and it started caving in, so we had to throw it out.

I’m hoping the weather will hold for the next few days, so we can spend some time up at the lake, and walking around The Spruces.

They have the trees up and decorated on the Main Street of town. The tree lighting is supposed to happen the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (or the Friday after, if it rains). I might meander the few blocks down for it. I bet it will look pretty.

The porch is still warm enough to keep plants out there. Tessa is out there as many hours as possible, every day. It’s her porch, and she will miss it if/when we have to close it off for the winter. I admit, I sit there as often as I can in the afternoons, reading and soaking up the sun!

One of the many good things about this place is the large windows with lots of natural light. On any sunny winter day, we will enjoy sunshine.

How are things in your neck of the woods this November?

Thurs. Sept. 30, 2021: Celtic Tree Month of Ivy begins

image courtesy of pexels-pixabay.com

Thursday, September 30, 2021

4^th Quarter Waning Moon in Cancer

Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Chiron, Uranus, Mercury Retrograde

Celtic Tree Month of Ivy begins

Rainy and raw

We haven’t had frost yet, but the nights are getting cool enough to bring in some of the plants: the African violet, the Christmas cacti, and some of the others. We are figuring out how to reconfigure things inside when we have to bring in all the plants, and some of the furniture that’s out on the back balcony. The front porch is still warm enough, with its southern exposure, to enjoy during the day, although we keep the door closed now at night.

The red geraniums are still blooming like crazy.

I’ve been putting up one decoration a day in the front windows; tomorrow I put up the rest of the Halloween/Samhain/Day of the Dead decorations all over the house.

I turned on the thermostat, and it says “heat on” but nothing comes out of the radiators, so I have to ask the maintenance guy what other switch needs to be flicked, and where it is. It’s too cold and raw not to have the heat on. Plus, we’re the ones who pay for it, so it’s not like we’re waiting for the landlord to turn it on.

The Celtic tree month of Ivy begins today, a good time for banishing, and getting rid of negativity in one’s life. I feel as though that’s what the entire move’s been about, but it’s good to spend focused time concentrating on it.

It smells good, even though we are in a city. It smells woodsy and full of the mums and the apples and all those other lovely autumn smells. I hope to bake an apple cake later today, which should scent the house even more (and maybe warm it up a bit).

Everything looks so pretty. I hope the weekend is sunny, so we can get out and enjoy the landscape. I love looking out of the front and back windows to see the mountains every day, and to watch the colors change.

What’s changing in your neck of the woods?

Thurs. Jan. 7, 2021: Wish for a Real Winter

image courtesy of Hans Braxmeier via pixabay.com

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Waning Moon Fourth Quarter in Libra

Uranus Retrograde

Cloudy and cold

I wish it looked as it does in the photo I chose for today’s post, but it’s much milder down here on Cape. It worries me; if the plants don’t get the rest from a good cold snap, it will negatively affect growth patterns. Not to mention all the bugs.

It feels frivolous to write a garden post when domestic terrorists stormed the Capitol yesterday. But I’m in touch with my elected officials, and they are representing my views in this. Thank you, Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey, Bill Keating.

Seed catalogs are arriving, which means there will be hours of delightful daydreaming, a nice antidote to what’s going on. However, I’m not sure what seeds to order, or if I should order any, as I’m moving in spring. Since I don’t know where I’ll land, or if I can transport seedlings, I have a feeling most of my catalog reading will remain in daydreams.

We’re still in the process of taking down the holiday decorations. It will take a few days.

The live green wreath has been stripped of its decorations and is now on the hook inside the door. I have an artificial gold-painted bay leaf wreath on the front door for the rest of the month, until I put up the Valentine door décor.

I’m tired and sad and angry. I have a morning group meditation via Zoom. If the weather clears up a bit and it’s mild enough, I’ll do a meditation later in the day under the beautiful maple tree in the back. I will miss the maple and the lilac terribly when I move. They’ve both brought me a lot of joy in the past decade.

Let’s hope there’s better news to report next week. Stay safe, my friends.