Category: Uncategorized
-
WitchHazel ‘Arnold Promise’ Still Wearing Its’ Winter Cloak
I’ve been feeling restless lately. This happens when winter merges into spring. The early March landscape in New England may be snow covered as it is as I write this or thawing to a condition we call ” mud season”. Spring thaws and freezes come and go, but mainly the gardens look a mess. The seed heads that look charming in the snow look…
-
Connecting Deep Land Experiences and Planning to Daily Life
A recent conversation transported me to a forest landscape in Maine. An unique opportunity to advise a client during the pre-construction planning phase took me on a six hour car ride to deep woods and a barely passable road–it was late March and the snow a lingering shadow. The building site sloped to a noisy…
-
Distant Sunrises
Ice Plant Blooming on Santa Cruz Coast (April) 2009 copyright Maria von Brincken Waking in darkness, the time of day some call the “hour of the wolf”– that time of legend when babies are born and people depart this world — my body programed to an east coast clock, I seized the gift of time offered before my scheduled meeting, and headed to the…
-
Sunrise Musings
The dawn that woke me mid-week felt different. At some level of awareness I noticed that the sky’s color, the greener foliage of the distant white pine and hemlock, and the sound perception differed from the day before. Later I realized it was a relatively “warmer” morning than the twenty plus degrees today. The sun’s angle wakes…
-
Its Melting!
Ah…the ice is melting! I write these words and instantly the image of the ‘wicked witch of the north’ screaming “I’m melting! I’m melting!” or a friendlier image of “Frosty the Snowman” melting with the song reminding us that “he’ll be back someday!”…It’s happened…in mid February the light shifts so that I notice it shinning thru…
-
Amazing Amaryllis Enchants
Amaryllis ‘Dancing Queen’ Single Flower She’s enchanting all right. But which dance? Has she waltzed into my awareness? Or tangoed? Maybe her style is not old world, but contemporary, more like Alvin Alley than Strauss. Yes, I realize one is a choreographer and the other a composer. Imagine ‘Dancing Queen’ on a dark stage, minimal set, dark green sheer panels…
-
Amazing Amaryllis Begins to Open
Wow! Its a beautiful baby. One of three! Yes, triplets! You can see the other buds behind the opening one. The photograph below shows the Amaryllis in relation to the other plants grouped together. Notice the role of foliage and form in the composition. You’ll want to know…
-
Amazing Amaryllis Creates Multiple Flower Buds
Beautiful. Isn’t it. I’ve been watching the lengthening stalk for a while now with its promise of flower. A dear friend gave the bulb to me early in December. I potted it up with no idea of its color. So I wait and watch and wonder. The anticipation of its emergence is part of the…
-
Bluebirds in January!
Amazing! A flock of bluebirds visited my feeder a couple of days ago. In the three years I’ve lived in this location near a man-made wetland in the vicinity of a really large pond, they’ve visited on their way to somewhere about the same time. (Now its the magic number three I will have to…
-
Beauty Surrounds Us
A friend recently sent me a story about a world class violinist playing one of the most intricate musical pieces on a rare instrument. He played incognito in a DC metro station for about 45 minutes during peak travel. It was a social experiment organized by the Washington Post about perception, taste, and priorities of people. In our…