50°f this a.m., clear, dry and sunny. A perfect morning. We had lots of visitors this weekend! A very good time with much conversation,  laughing, and of course good food.  Oldest son George and his daughter Grace came for the weekend. What a nice visit Friday evening! We missed the big Northern Lights show entirely, having no idea it was going on. But that's okay. I have seen them from here twice, and actually those were visible to the naked eye, although I wonder, if we had had cellphones back then, what the photos might have looked like. I did get this one odd photo Saturday nig ..read more

No idea of the temperature this morning as we were out early. But cloudy, then clearing with breezes and more clouds. Some areas got more rain but it missed us today. Thank goodness. Doctor's offices, yuck. So sterile, no green. So off to the bone doc this morning, bright and early! A 9am appointment means up at 6:30  to get ready, breakfast, take care of critters before leaving for the hour+ drive. But the good news is there is no additional damage to my knee beyond nerve damage that is causing the pain and numbness. The bruised areas are fading but my knee is still very tender to t ..read more

62°f, 17°C. Clear early but clouding up now and rain in the forecast. Good rain yesterday and last night. One of our neighbor's goats, waiting on a picnic lunch, I guess? I swear the grass grew 3 inches last night! It is not easy to keep up with it this time of year. And it seems that no matter what I am doing, I ought to be doing something else.  Like yesterday,  after we got home from town (we could have got what we needed Friday after we finished with the booths, but we were both just too tired to tackle Walmart, the only place in town that had what we needed), Larry got on t ..read more

66°f or 19°C this morning with steady rain. Rain is forecast all weekend  Maybe we should have stayed home and planted yesterday? But it has been 2 weeks since we were at our booths, so we really needed to restock too. And we have planted some of everything, pretty much, except peppers and cucumbers, so I am trying not to feel guilty about taking Friday to work the booths. I haven't posted booth photos in a while, so here's a look at some of them. This is the cabinet I just finished up. I am happy with how it came out. Blenko, Viking, Fenton, L.E. Smith and an unknown maker of the g ..read more

66°f this morning, clear. At the time of writing, it is 84. It has been hot, again, but garden work must get done. We try to be out early,  and then go back out in the evening. Making progress, slowly.  The flowerbeds need weeding. I have promised them I will get to it soon! They are patient, and there are new blooms every day. It's iris time! I planted a dozen different ones in 2022, so this is their first year to bloom. First rose of the year. The first of the prolific pink poppies.  The columbine is nearly finished. So sad to see it go. Dame's Rocket ..read more

55°f this morning, mostly clear and breezy. Reached 82. Too hot too early. Out in the gardens early. Some pictures taken recently that I haven't had a chance to post. Today, the log room is cool, with the ceiling fan on and the windows open. Coming home from our friend's greenhouse yesterday with a bunch of plants. 90 degrees. An old church, no longer in use, on the way to the greenhouse. Double tulip in my flowerbed. Another picture from Saturday, after the race. Pretty blooms on a tree. Sourwood, maybe? Marsh marigolds, Greenbrier County, WV. Old house in Pocahontas Cou ..read more

No idea of the temperature this morning as we were staying with a friend in Pocahontas County. There, it was about 50, cloudy and a brief shower at 8, then warming and sunny by afternoon. Man. What. a. day. My oldest son and his son and daughter competed in the Great Greenbrier River Race, a triathlon that includes a 3- mile run, floowed by a 4-mile kayak trip down the river, and a 10-mile bike leg along the Greenbrier River Rail Trail ( which was recently added to the National Trails system, and passes right by the Poet Camp). My son just turned 55, his son is 28 and his daughter is, I thi ..read more

40°f, or 4.5°C at 7am. Thin cloud cover, thank goodness, or it would have been colder. Full moon was a beauty last night. Along the way yesterday Yesterday was road trip to Huntington, WV, for a visit to the VA hospital there--nothibg serious, just picking up the shoes they supply about twice a year. Used to be that you would go in and get measured, then they mailed the shoes, but now they must be picked up. Since the VA reimburses Larry for mileage, it actually costs them about 8 times more for him to drive down to get the shoes. Crazy.  Since it was a wet morning I went along thi ..read more

39°f, or 4°C. Sunny, thin clouds. Rain expected tonight. A few things currently blooming: Volunteer columbine, which has scattered itself around my flowerbeds, much to my delight. Late snowshoes, an oldtime variety I dug up from around an old house 50 years ago, but somehow they died out. So last year I found the bulbs online. My clematis, about 30 years old, and has never gotten very big because it is under a maple, but it is always so pretty. It stayed right chilly all day yesterday, finally reaching 50° by 5 in the evening. With the strong breeze, it made working outside a bit ..read more

30°f this morning, -1°C. Clear, frost here and there. I am sure some places in the state had a freeze last night. Well, here we are back to winter. Well, not really, but it sure turned cold after last week's heat. I guess these big temperature fluctuations--50+ degrees in just a couple days--will keep us hardy, right? It sure keeps the wardrobe in an uproar, shorts one day, down jackets the next. Of course, I have seen people wear these together! Ah, our crazy modern times. I spent a few hours on Facebook Marketplace Saturday night and yesterday morning, searching for a replacement garden t ..read more