Thoughtful musings on various topics by interesting people at Blithewold

Block by Block by Dan Christina

Whew! What a difference a couple of weeks can make.  While I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and down about the state of the garden these past weeks; finally progress has been made.  No longer … Read more.

One step back…

…two ahead. By now there should be a spring in our dance step – and there is. I can tell because it squishes. This week another 2″ of rain fell. But on top of that, a … Read more.

Not all is a washout by Dan Christina

(Originally this post should have ran last week, but was never loaded. Oops!) As you most likely saw in Kris’ post last week, Washout, things around the grounds have been quite a mess.  We have been … Read more.

Spring forward

Even though the forsythia hasn’t bloomed yet, we declared it time to prune the roses. We can tell that the roses are ready because their buds have swelled and the Ballerinas in the North Garden … Read more.

An Evening at the Opera

An Evening at the Opera, 1912 Bessie and William McKee spent their winters in Boston at their large, elegant townhouse on Commonwealth Avenue.  Among their favorite entertainments was the Opera.  They were members of the Boston … Read more.

Washout

We were about to open for the season. Even though the daffodils in the Bosquet aren’t quite in bloom yet, the grounds and gardens looked spiffed and ready for a spring hurrah. And then over this … Read more.

Shedding the springter blues

Just as spring was beginning to assert itself — Iris reticulata opened the other day, the daffodils are up and some are budded, Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) buds have cracked open — winter hurled another … Read more.

Pop Quiz Answers by Dan Christina

A little later than I had hoped but here are the answers!  I definitely had a couple challenging ones up here, but kudos to all who tried!  Metasequoia glyptostroboides Dawn Redwood     Cryptomeria japonica Japanese Cedar … Read more.

Spring cleaning

According to the calendar — and the redwing blackbirds — the pendulum between winter and summer has finally swung into spring. Huzzah! (Never mind next week’s forecast.) To celebrate, we did some extremely gratifying spring … Read more.

March ado

I’m not even going to bother go in search for spring outside today because it looks and feels too much like winter again. Blustery. Bitter cold. Snowy, even (though nothing compared to other parts of … Read more.