Design

I'm grateful for our blessings on this eve of Thanksgiving. Today was a beautiful warm fall day in the mountains of North Carolina, and the light at the end of day, reflected from the sunset, illuminated the view into the ravine behind our house in the mountains. Designed by a local architectural designer for his personal home, it's an 'ecohouse', small and spare in design, with radiant floor heat, instant-on gas hot water, Icynene insulation, and recycled materials, including using wood from the site (an empty lot overgrown with black cherry, tulip poplar and white pine). This is a legacy house for us - our moms, now gone, are part of this place and they'll be part of our thanks tomorrow for Thanksgiving along with all of the memories that they provided for us. My mom, a great traveler, will be remembered, too, as we travel during winter break, as will my gardening companion's (aka my husband's) dad, who was also a keen traveler. They inspired us to step ...

There are too many things to plan (for winter and spring programs, etc.) to be able to savor the last bits of fall in any depth, alas. A great walk before the rains of today and yesterday, and promise of clear weather to come help. I WISH I had a lot more time to read other gardening blogs (I'm going to recommend some in a program tomorrow), but for now, I barely have time to reflect on what was most interesting (in terms of nature and gardening) in my day, and do a short post. Thanks to all of you who do read my reflections and make comments! They're always appreciated.

I love being out in the garden, listening to birds, working the soil, and connecting with nature. I'm totally grateful, and perhaps (in the developed world) we need to be a LOT more mindful of what it means to produce food, grow flowers, and give back when we can. I have a freezer full of bounty from our garden over the last growing season, but it's not enough to sustain us for the rest of the year. That's where farmers come in. Those bags of lovely 'Green Giant' Yellow Gold Rush potatoes (from somewhere in the Northwest?), the fresh shitake mushrooms (from the mountains where my favorite local grocery chain is based), the fire-roasted canned tomatoes from Muir Glen, the rice from Lundberg Farms and Texmati; these aren't the work of 'small' farmers, to be sure, but farm-based companies that produce quality products. I've been re-reading Barbara Kingsolver's amazing book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , and been quite impressed (awed, actually) at...

I lost a gardening friend today. I shared her with many others, who knew her much better than I did. I appreciated her willingness to extend her experiences and knowledge with others, and always felt her encouragement and support. I knew her as a garden writer, speaker, and fellow wildlife gardening enthusiast, whose gardening interests encompassed an exuberant lack of tidiness, as well as a love for flowers. A recent talk focused on Flowering Shrubs: the Real Perennials , which embraced a transition to a vibrant, but lower maintenance garden as she approached her mid-seventies. Time spent with her was always interesting. Her first book, Earthly Delights: Gard ening by the Season the Easy Way , was a wonderful collection of essays honed from her gardening columns in The State (Columbia, SC) newspaper. Her second book is in press now. She was encouraging about my (small) book (written with others) about The Nature of Clemson , and always asked what my next book was. She was unf...