Jack is in bloom

Our unpretentious Jack-in-the-Pulpit, or Arisaema triphyllum, in bloom on May Day, 2012. We transplanted this one a couple of years ago (with permission) from a farm in southern Roane County, West Virginia, to our backyard in Clarksburg. This is the first spring it has bloomed.

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April Nears the End

April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. – T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” The land was not dead after the warm winter, and the lilacs appeared early. Through several weeks they brightened the yard, then gradually faded, then shrank, then [...]

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The Green Man

They stared at his complexion, The oddest face they’d seen; He bore it to perfection, But ’twas completely green. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Theodore Silverstein.

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Confetti

Strange weather, a strange day. Wind chimes ringing in the frigid air, a covering of dark clouds interrupted by drifts of clear sky. Sudden bursts of wind blowing fragments of fluffy white, confetti cut from a box of tissues or shaved from a block of ice, blotting out the sky, as in the final scene [...]

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An Early Spring?

In a year of little snow and unusually warm winter temperatures, spring seems to be ready to arrive in Clarksburg earlier than it has the past few years. Last October, startled by Clarksburg’s very early first snow of the winter, I thought we were going to have another long, snow-filled season, perhaps longer, colder, and [...]

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Autumn Chores

Part of what I did last Saturday. I raked the leaves onto a tarp, then hauled them to a depression in the hill that we have decided to fill, gradually, with leaves and clippings in hope of its becoming black compost. Then we planted the last of the new bulbs for this year — 50 [...]

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First Snow, 2011/12

This may prove to be a snowy year. I was told that 3 weeks ago the mountain resort area to the east got 9 inches (23 cm). We didn’t get that snow here in Clarksburg — it’s not yet Halloween and there are still leaves on the trees. But today we are having our first [...]

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Pressing Cider, or Something Like That

It was something over a year ago, in July I think, and Lisa and I were wandering through an antiques shop in Flatwoods. I was poking about at old woodworking tools in a back aisle and Lisa had moved on to look at other things. After a bit she came back to me and said, [...]

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Landscape Aftermath

The tree guys came by the other day to clean up the mess left by the fallen Norway spruce. I was surprised that it all fit in their truck. I guess the chipper helped. Now there’s a new look to the yard, but there are still enough trees to keep the squirrels reasonably happy.

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First Moon Flower of the Summer – 4

The summer’s moon flowers continue. The seed pod matures.

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