Beach Weekend at Rehoboth

Dusk on the beach

Prudy, Eileen, and I spent the past weekend at Prudy's place in Rehoboth Beach. We had a great time, really relaxed the whole weekend. We walked the boardwalk, shopped in Reho and Lewes, went to happy hours both nights, cooked up some delicious scallops, laughed a lot,  and talked about all the things we are going to do when we retire!

Boardwalk at dusk

There were lots of signs of spring to be seen in Lewes. It's such a pretty little town, such charming houses and sweet little pocket gardens. 

Saturday was a perfect day for kites on the beach, cool and windy. Just look at that blue sky!

Prudy, Eileen, and me, with the cookbook we cooked up 5 years ago this weekend

Off to the Beach

I am off to the beach this morning with Eileen and Prudy for the weekend.  Prudy reminded us that it was five years ago this very weekend that we went to her place in Rehoboth to start writing our now famous cookbook, 3 Friends, 3 Decades, 3 Dozen Cookies!  It poured rain that weekend, and we sat inside Prudy's place all weekend (well, not all weekend) on our computers choosing and typing recipes. Looks like it's going to be chilly at Rehoboth, in the 50s, so I made us a raspberry almond coffee cake to have with our tea (or more likely, wine).

Chilly Days

Winter just doesn't seem to want to let go around here. As I write this at 8 am it is 28 degrees outside.  It sounds like it may warm up--finally--this weekend to the 60s, but we'll see. I just took a walkabout around the yard to see what is going on, and not much has changed in the last week. The cold has just kind of stopped everything in its tracks.  My cherry tree is just beginning to show a few blooms. And this tree was in full bloom last year on March 21, according to my garden journal, as was the serviceberry, plum, redbud, and viburnum carlesii. They don't look even close to blooming yet this year. Even my azaleas were in bud last year by this time. I think last year was unusual, though,  as that seems to have been the earliest yet. Even the cherry trees downtown around the Tidal Basin are late this year. They were predicting peak bloom for this week, but now they are saying Sunday through next week. Here is a link to the cherry blossom webcam if you are interested.  Last year we went to see the cherry blossoms on March 19!

I keep making lists of everything I need to do outside, and it will be nice to finally get started on some of those chores. I really need to spray my peonies with fungicide, as you are supposed to spray when they are first about 6 inches. But it seems so cold to spray!  They really seemed to look  better last year after I had sprayed them a few times.  They had much less black spot and mildewy leaves by the mid-summer. Maybe next week it will warm up and I can get started on some of those chores. We have been smelling skunk the past few nights, so I know spring is on its way. We have an unfortunate history with skunks, but so far no sign of them digging under our deck...fingers crossed.

Cherry tree

Iris pallida

Peonies

Forsythia

Bleeding Heart

Proclamation of a Birth, by Linda Pastan

The National Gallery of Art

Proclamation of a Birth, by Linda Pastan

Let every tree 

burst into blossom

whatever the season.

Let the snow melt

mild as milk

and the new rain wash

the gutters clean

of last year's 

prophecies.

Let the guns sweep out 

their chambers

and the criminals doze

dreaming themselves

back to infancy.

Let the sailors throw

their crisp white caps

as high as they can

which like so many doves

will return to the ark

with lilacs.

Let the frogs turn

into princes,

the princes to frogs.

Let the madrigals,

let the musical croakings

begin.

Dürer Comes to DC

I have had a thing for the German artist Albrecht Dürer ever since I took a German history class in college and for some reason, became enamored with him. It was one of the first classes that I remember being really passionate about. I wrote a paper about Dürer for that class that my history professor loved and he actually had it published in some obscure history journal. So when a new exhibit of Dürer's works from the Albertina in Vienna came to the National Gallery (it opened last weekend), I was pretty excited to see it. So on Sunday morning Walt and I went downtown to the National Gallery and first listened to a lecture about Dürer by one of the museum's curators of prints and drawings,  and then took a leisurely walk around the exhibit.  Dürer was  best known for his woodcuts and engravings, as well as his watercolors and realistic drawings of animals, birds, flowers, and grasses.  His focus on nature and his observation of the world around him is what really draws me to his work.

I couldn't take pictures inside the exhibit, so I have copied images of some of his most famous works. I have always loved this watercolor of cowslips (primroses).

Tuft of Cowslip, 1526

Probably his most recognizable work is Praying Hands, a drawing done in pen and ink, with a technique called chiaroscuro.

Praying Hands, pen and ink, 1509

Another of Dürer's masterpieces is Great Piece of Turf, below. This is one of his most famous watercolors, and the picture of wildflowers, grasses, and weeds is "filled with light and space, creating a scene balanced between scientific observation and artistic poetry." Painted in 1503, it is considered the earliest realistic depiction of plant life. I learned from the exhibit that Dürer was one of the earliest painters of flowers and botanica, and influenced the botanical artists of the seventeenth century. No wonder I like him so much!

Great Piece of Turf, 1503

Hare, 1502

I was so excited to see and think about Dürer again that, when I got home,  I went down to my basement and look what I found in an old box of college stuff.  Believe me, I didn't keep all my papers from college, but I did keep this one because it meant a lot to me. Who knew I would reconnect with Albrecht Dürer, 40 years later!!

Friday Fleurs: Hellebores

A Little Tool Maintenance

Yesterday was a chilly day, but the sun was out, so I decided to do a little garden tool maintenance out in the garage. I got out the WD-40 and cleaned and oiled my favorite hand tools, and then went to work on the hand pruners. I have a cheapish pair and 2 pair of Felcos,  No. 2. The Felcos last forever--I have had one pair for probably 20 years. (I really can't believe I haven't lost a pair, as I am always misplacing them, or leaving a pair in the garden somewhere, so it is somewhat of a miracle that I still have that original pair.)  Last fall I read in Fine Gardening magazine about this nifty little sharpening tool, called Speedy Sharp. It sharpens your garden pruners and small garden tools easily and quickly, so I ordered it online. I tried it out yesterday and it seems to work great.  You just put the sharpening blade at a 45' angle to the blade you are sharpening and use about 5 or 6 smooth strokes.  You won't believe what a difference it makes with sharp pruners. I like this little tool cause it's so compact and it can sharpen anything with a blade, even the curvy blades of my pruners, and you can just keep it in your pocket.

Next on my list is to take down the gourd birdhouses and clean them up, and then put a coat of spray shellac on them.

And I'm happy to see all my pots again after the long winter.  I am partial to terra cotta. I have a few of those recycled material pots and I like them, but terra cotta always wins on looks, hands down. Love my ruffled pots.

And my succulents are still hanging out in the garage. I gave them a little water a few weeks ago when it seemed like spring was on its way. They can go back outside in a few weeks, if it ever starts to warm up.

Six Years

I really like Harlan Coben's books (loved Gone for Good, and Tell No One),  but this newest book left me disappointed.  I found myself turning the pages faster and faster, just wanting to get to the end and be done with it.  Six years ago, college professor Jake Fisher fell in love with Natalie; suddenly she broke it off with him and married an old boyfriend a few days later. He goes to her wedding and she makes him promise to leave her alone. And he did--for six years--until he reads an obituary of her husband in the local paper. Jake then goes looking for her, and guess what, she is nowhere to be found and no one has ever heard of her. The dead husband turns out to have been married to someone else, and even the church where she was married denies that there was a wedding there six years ago. So off Jake goes on the trail of this convoluted mystery. I never really got into the characters, or the plot. I did finish it, just to see what happened, but it's not a book I would recommend. I get so annoyed with these authors who seem to stick with a certain formula in all their books. It just doesn't hold up after so many tries. IMHO. Coincidentally the Washington Post gave this a great review yesterday, so what do I know.

Another Monday Morning Surprise

Out my window this morning

More snow! I wonder if these will be the last snow pictures of the winter?  I love the snow so much and we have gotten so little the past few years that every snowfall now seems like a gift, even on the 25th of March. It was wonderful to wake up this morning and look out the window and see white. Winter just doesn't want to let go, it seems. It's okay with me.

I am going in to work this morning, but for now am sitting here enjoying my tea and the snow (still falling!), and listening to our new Sonos wireless hi-fi system.  Yesterday Brooks helped me pick it out and set it up, and it's amazing. I am a radio fan so love having this new toy to play with.

There's a cherry blossom bud under that snow

Oh hello there

McCoy Flower Pots

Back in the day when I was really into antiquing and flea markets, I started collecting McCoy flower pots. McCoy was a manufacturer of pottery in the early 1900s from Zanesville, Ohio, and their pottery has become quite collectible.  I first started buying them because I liked their colors (green) and their floral designs,  but then I started getting into it and looking for different designs and now I have a pretty nice collection of pots. There are a lot of pottery planters out there, and a lot of reproductions,  but the way to find "the real McCoy" is to look for the mark on the bottom of the pot.  I use my planters all the time, and while I am not in the collecting mode anymore, I still keep an eye out for anything unusual when I am at a flea. I know my kids will be happy to have them someday. Haha!

This one is my favorite--it's tiny, only about 2 1/2" tall.

Oops!

So this is what happens when you forget to water a button fern. Crispy. And dead. I hate when I do that.

First Day of Spring!

Here in the Time Between, by Jack Ridl

Here in the time between snow

and the bud of the rhododendron,

we watch the robins, look into

the gray, and narrow our view

to the patches of wild grasses

coming green. The pile of ashes

in the fireplace, haphazard sticks

on the paths and gardens, leaves

tangled in the ivy and periwinkle

lie in wait against our will. This

drawing near of renewal, of stems

and blossoms, the hesitant return

of the anarchy of mud and seed

says not yet to the blood's crawl.

When the deer along the stream

look back at us, we know again

we have left them. We pull

a blanket over us when we sleep.

As if living in a prayer, we say

amen to the late arrival of red,

the stun of green, the muted yellow

at the end of every twig. We will

lift up our eyes unto the trees hoping

to discover a gnarled nest within

the branches' negative space. And

we will watch for a fox sparrow

rustling in the dead leaves underneath.

Garden on March 19

Herb garden and lavenders

It sure doesn't feel like spring the past few days, with the snow and chilly rain we have had. Yesterday was just the most miserable day. I went out this morning to look around, and in the garden at least, there are signs of spring. A little snow won't hurt the garden. The weekend before last I cleaned out this front garden and I love how it looks now, early spring,  so full of possibilities. Little patches of perennials, clumps of bulbs appearing, so much going on below the surface. We just need a week of sunshine and lots more will be happening. Once it warms up a bit, I will spread bonemeal around the emerging perennials and bulbs. Speaking of which, the sun just came out!

Perennial garden

The lawn companies have been making their rounds and can I rant for just a minute about how these 'supposed' landscapers are doing the 'volcano mulch' around trees in my neighborhood?  Aren't they supposed to know how to mulch a tree for goodness sake? It drives me crazy to see them just pile on more and more mulch around a tree. Mulch should never be more than 2-4  inches high and should never be placed up around the trunk of the tree, which allows diseases and pests to attack the tree. Thick blankets of mulch will prevent the tree from getting water and will eventually suffocate the tree. When we mulch our trees in the spring, we always break up the old mulch around the trees and poke some holes into the ground a little, then we spread a thin layer of new mulch around the tree, and out to the drip line, and always leaving the base of the trunk exposed. Just saying.

Volcano mulch in neighbor's yard

Monday Morning Surprise

Woke up this morning to a little snow, so grabbed my camera and went out for a walk.  I had been planning to take pictures of my neighbor's lawn full of crocus this morning, so the snow was an extra bonus. I love seeing the emerging blooms covered in snow. I'm sure it will all be gone by this afternoon, but it made for a lovely morning walk.