Winter Melts Away! A Garden Walkabout!

This was what Flower Hill Farm looked like two days ago. . . with the warm days this snow may be all gone today!! Snow falls from the metal roofs and becomes mountainous in front of the house and barn.

Walking through the little Crabapple Orchard on the north side of barn.

Out of the orchard looking back at the barn studio and house.

Still on the north side of Flower Hill Farm looking southeast. This slope is filled with invasive bittersweet and sumac I battle each year... I am trying to get it to be only wildflowers but would love to plant native low fruit bearing shrubs for the wildlife. 

Walking down towards the wild looking over between White and Gray Birch towards Native Black Cherry and Apples in the distance.

There is a great amount of movement on the ground . . . Robins dot the landscape happy for the bare earth.

Hellebores are stirring and today I would guess I will have flowers standing up!

The sky is filled with movement too . . .  alive with calls and songs! I love looking for the V flying high, when I hear Canadian Geese calling out. Spring is a time of welcomed migration and exciting change.

Zooming in . . .  each little goose silhouette brings to mind various movements in Japanese calligraphy.

Now I am leading you over to Flower Hill's south side. We are standing in the lower garden and above the Blueberry fields looking out over Walnut and Carey Hill.

Looking the other way and up towards another Apple, Rock Maple and the house.

Moving out into the south field we get a larger view of the eastern hills and the Tree Swallows house! They will be back soon!!

We take a few more steps into the field and look more left facing east and the 'Bonsai Apple' Nate and I will be pruning later. We also see the Weeping Cherry and two other Apples along with the Gray Birches.

Many a year I climbed and pruned this old Apple this way, but now I leave it to my neighbor Nate.

This tree was let go for too many years . . . Nate is casting out the old suckers that were near small tree sizes! We have more to do but you can see it is much better already. Thanks too to my friend Brian's hard work last year!

You can see from the earlier picture of this view (Three photos above) that we are nearly finished with pruning the old mohawk hairdo! We will finish the job on Saturday and then move on to many more!

Here we are working on another old Apple tree. What glorious days we are having!!

Even 'Old Bob' is glad to see the snow melted away! This was a brief walk along the edges of the gardens . . . I am so happy to see all the snow melting and to have a working monitor so I can see what I am doing here. This is my offering for Blooming Friday to see other gardens with more blooms visit Katarina's Roses and Stuff! Happy Gardening Everyone!!

BLOG ACTION DAY 2009 CLIMATE CHANGE

All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.

BARACK OBAMA, speech, Apr. 3, 2006

After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study. Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases.

-Michael Pollan, “Farmer in Chief,” New York Times, 12 Oct 08

The models that have been constructed agree that when, as has been predicted, the level of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases doubles from pre-Industrial Revolution concentrations, the global average temperature will increase, and that the increase will be 1.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius or 3 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit... In Dallas, for instance, a doubled level of carbon dioxide and other gases like methane, would increase the number of days a year with temperatures above 100 degrees from 19 to 78 each year.

-Bill McKibben from The End of Nature, 1989

Calls of Canadian Geese always bring me to my feet and I gaze out on the sky and landscape in hopes of finding the tiny V formation migrating north or south as the season dictates. Often their honks correspond with the rising or setting sun inspiring me to linger and watch as hillsides become awash by the first or last golden rays of light . . . early morning or nearly night. Migrating birds are heralds of Spring and Fall they bring us news of change though most of us are already anticipating their arrival or departure by the time we chance to hear them. Today there is another type of migration occurring . . .  a displacement of peoples due to climate change . . . these migrating populations are heralds of change that  cannot be ignored and they must be protected. As the geese fly closer overhead I notice they seem confused as to where they are going. . . the formation breaks up. . . but then perhaps with the aid of their leader . . . they find their way and head south. We too depend on skilled leaders to help us find a way out of the crisis we face today. Each of us can act independently however, as if we were all in a formation moving in unison with a common goal to curb our carbon footprints. So many millions of small changes add up to large change and we cannot afford to wait . . .  the cost is far too high. When looking out over the beautiful New England fall landscape I cannot bear to imagine what it would look like without those trees that make our Autumn so unique. With rising temperatures trees too will be displaced . . . rituals will be lost such as our spring Maple Syrup Season  for there is great concern for our beloved Rock Maples. So on this Blog Action Day for Climate Change I join thousands of others in acknowledging our plight but with hope for all those garden bloggers and others who will help make a difference. We are the stewards of our Earth . . .  for all those now living and for those of the future . . .  we must act in earnest.

A Question of Black and White with Gray Tones Nearby

Often it is a question of black and white, right and wrong, day and night... then sometimes there is a muted blue gray... lying right there in the middle ... in the sky so high and lofty... a place to contemplate a better way. Will we ever find that path that leads to a warmer more just world... warmer in tones of heart-felt and clearer mind-set... not global threat... maybe not... but each year there is a pull towards survival ... for many winged creatures... who know it is time to change course... for if they linger on in the same place... they will not survive... they know it ... sense it ... feel it ... and make ready for the difficult and necessary relocation... migration... a journey long and arduous. As I see silhouettes of geese and ducks... flying by in the sky... I wonder why? Why we too cannot see the need for change ... to see that change is ever present in our world and lives... we cannot step into the same day twice... Heraclitus said it differently... and though rivers and days run by us... we might somehow see a way to step lighter... we do not have to fly away... just make simple changes everyday. Sometimes the truth is hidden... as if behind a veil, or fog, or smog... covering the view, but when an image (as in my first photo) is enlarged... most often the mountain of truth stands... as it always has... slightly harder to see... to comprehend. We always need to ask... what guides a mind... to follow a certain path. I find joy in a new bird sighting... this little Black-throated Blue Warbler graces my day... though it will not stay... I am grateful for the glance... for our brief chance meeting. He will be off to the West Indies soon. All the images today were taken within about a half hour of each other a few days ago. First with a gray foggy sunrise... geese fly over the Mount Holyoke Range ... then nearly right away mystery ducks fly overhead... not far from my perch at the barn studio doors... right away again... a parade it seems ... not shown here several large black crows eclipse the sun and I say why not... snapping what I think to be silhouette of crow... but what is it? Buteo chasing crow... it is most often the other way around... now there is a surprise... but then ... another change ... Why Not? Enough from those pesky crows... I say ... about time! 'White Moth' hydrangea does not seem to mind the time... it simply will not stop creating new blooms... little moths fluttering along with lovely silhouette of duck and geese ballet.