The last night of January

 and I have this item of good news:

and also this:

art by Jane Newland

Garden Dreams, continued

 I found some of the photos .

Closeup of Cherry Bells    May 22, 2012.  

Cherry Bells     June 24, 2016

Cherry Bells     April 11 2021    By 2022, they had spread to the right all the way past the last daffodil,

I didn't know they would spread like that.  And when I planted them in 2014, I didn't know they were not native plants.

Sigh.    So I will try to document my efforts to pull out the Cherry Bells and replace with native pollinator plants.

I know so much more now than I did 9 years ago!

Garden Dreams

 

I hope to have a sign like this in my garden.

Now that classes are back in session,  I am sliding into procrastination on this blog.  Once again, I give promises to improve my contributions.

It seems that these late January days, mostly rainy and grey here, are inviting me to think about the garden.   It's also because several of my sisters are working on improving our community's commitment to Laudato Si,  Pope Francis'  letter about the environment, our "Common Home." Also, I have been reading Doug Tallamy's book Bringing Nature Home, and watching his talks on You Tube.  He's a big proponent of the shrinking of the American Lawn, among other things.

So in the last few days I have been thinking about replacing one patch of my large courtyard garden ( it's not really mine alone --- but I am its steward right now.)   with native plants which are butterfly host plants.

I've been writing about this garden since about 2015, when I started working on it.  The garden has been there since the building was built in 1964. Back then, it was mostly rose bushes.  Then, in later years, it was filled with pachysandra ground cover and annual flowers.  Then, the garden guy who was the Attila the Hun of grounds keepers,  pulled all that out and spread mulch everywhere, except for the "Knockout Roses" he planted in the center beds.  The sisters complained that his favorite colors were brown and green!

Summer, 2014

Summer, 2022

October 2014   

July 2022

I could go on for pages with the before and after photos, but I am searching for the photos of the Cherry bells, and how they have taken over.

Hopefully, will return to this post.

Winter the Magician

 I like this poem   by Fyodor Tyutchev:

The Forest Is Entranced

The forest is entranced

By Winter the Magician.

Under velvet snow

It's mute, immobile, glistening

Wondrously with life,

Standing enchanted,

Neither dead nor alive,

Entranced by a magic dream,

Entirely covered, fettered

By light links of snow.

Should winter's sun cast a sudden flare

Glancing across its summits,

Not a thing will shiver in it.

It will sparkle and flame

And be blindingly fair!

Art by Lennart Helje

I've had a busy ten days: January 12-15 I hosted seven of my Saint Joseph College classmates at Mother Seton's White House for planning for our April reunion.... and, of course, partying.

Introvert that I am, I was exhausted by Sunday.

Tuesday ( yesterday) was the first day of class. I am again teaching Modernity in Literature - on Zoom- and it looks to be a very promising semester.

I will try to keep up with this blog, but I make no promises!

Wolf Moon , Winter Path by Jim Crotty

Epiphany Sunday

 

Skipped a few days with socializing and errands and just plain idleness.

I am longing for snow, even though it clogs up all plans.

Happy Feast of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton!

 We had a big crowd at the 11AM Mass in the Basilica today.  Lots of mothers with loud and active toddlers.  Nothing to worry about with the population of the Catholic Church!

As I watched those young mothers try to manage their squirming offspring, I kept thinking of Elizabeth, who had five young ones very close together.

Yesterday I finally retrieved my laptop from the Mount, all upgraded and working well. 

So  here are some poems and pictures from my blog post files:

Jo Grundy    Winter Morning

Here's a poem by Emily Dickinson:

The Road was lit with Moon and star

The Road was lit with Moon and star --

The Trees were bright and still --

Descried I -- by the distant Light

A Traveller on a Hill --

To magic Perpendiculars

Ascending, though Terrene --

Unknown his shimmering ultimate --

But he indorsed the sheen --

artist: Amanda Clark

It rained when it should have snowed

 

She Yi - Winter Moon, 1999.

Here's a poem by Seamus Heaney:

Holly - Seamus Heaney

It rained when it should have snowed.
When we went to gather holly

the ditches were swimming, we were wet
to the knees, our hands were all jags

and water ran up our sleeves.
There should have been berries

but the sprigs we brought into the house
gleamed like smashed bottle-glass.

Now here I am, in a room that is decked
with the red-berried, waxy-leafed stuff,

and I almost forgot what it's like
to be wet to the skin or longing for snow.

I reach for a book like a doubter
and want it to flare round my hand,

a black letter bush, a glittering shield-wall,
cutting as holly and ice.

art: Lynn Bywaters

Wrinkles collected

 

art by Luci Grossmith

Happy New Year!

Here's a poem by  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

On The New Year

FATE now allows us,

'Twixt the departing

And the upstarting,

Happy to be;

And at the call of

Memory cherish'd,

Future and perish'd

Moments we see.

Seasons of anguish,--

Ah, they must ever

Truth from woe sever,

Love and joy part;

Days still more worthy

Soon will unite us,

Fairer songs light us,

Strength'ning the heart.

We, thus united,

Think of, with gladness,

Rapture and sadness,

Sorrow now flies.

Oh, how mysterious

Fortune's direction!

Old the connection,

New-born the prize!

Thank, for this, Fortune,

Wavering blindly!

Thank all that kindly

Fate may bestow!

Revel in change's

Impulses clearer,

Love far sincerer,

More heartfelt glow!

Over the old one,

Wrinkles collected,

Sad and dejected,

Others may view;

But, on us gently

Shineth a true one,

And to the new one

We, too, are new.

As a fond couple

'Midst the dance veering,

First disappearing,

Then reappear,

So let affection

Guide thro' life's mazy

Pathways so hazy

Into the year!