The Eternal Season of Midwinter Spring

  “MIDWINTER SPRING IS its own season,” writes T.S. Eliot in “Little Gidding,” one of The Four Quartets. “Sempiternal, though sodden towards sundown, / Suspended in time between pole and tropic.” I’ve always loved that description of “midwinter spring.” I’ve been thinking of it today because it’s the perfect midwinter spring day [...]

2022-02-22T17:19:25-08:00February 22, 2022|My Garden, Seasonal Joys, Small Pleasures, Uncategorized|

The Season of Love

VALENTINE'S DAY IS just around the corner, which has me thinking warmly about things—and people—I love. But first, a brief history. Apparently, there was more than one Saint Valentine: Valentinus, from the Latin word for worthy, strong or powerful was a common name between the 2nd and 8th centuries A.D. The St. Valentine who [...]

2022-02-09T10:26:12-08:00February 9, 2022|Books, My Garden, Small Pleasures, Uncategorized|

Festive Books for Christmas

HERE WE ARE IN the middle of December already! Every year I try, with varying success, to find books with a Christmas theme to companion me through this busy and sometimes difficult season of decorating, shopping, and preparation. And before we get too far, I’d just like to say that if you [...]

2021-12-16T09:24:32-08:00December 16, 2021|Books, Small Pleasures, Uncategorized|

Speaking the Language of Flowers

I'VE ALWAYS LIKED THE IDEA of one person giving another flowers that might appear to others to be just a casual bouquet, but with the power to communicate secrets only the recipient could understand. As I was writing The Walled Garden, I realized I needed a code that two gardeners might use [...]

2021-12-01T09:52:51-08:00December 1, 2021|Books, English Gardens|

Damsons and Yellow Roses

It began with a bowl of beautiful reddish-gold plums and a question: are those damsons? The young woman behind the bar at one of my favorite places in the world, The Old Parsonage Hotel in Oxford, England, shrugged her shoulders and said she didn’t know. Why did I want to know about [...]

2021-11-16T15:05:04-08:00November 16, 2021|English Gardens, Small Pleasures|
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