In more ways than one. This morning I noticed a fairly large dark brown blob on one of the Birch sticks that I've had leaning up against the Studio wall lately. Don't ask me why I have sticks leaning up against the wall, I just do.They're on one side of the door, there's a Welcome sign on the other side. Seems sort of right, somehow. At one point, I had sticks there that were painted blue, yellow, green... now I have Birch sticks. Looking more closely, I saw that the blob was a slime mold! Chocolate Tube Slime, Stemonitis splendens, to be precise. Slime molds are totally weird. They are ..read more

 33 degrees Celsius today! And still hardly any rain. But, after lunch and a morning spent on the computer, I went walkabout in the garden and the inevitable happened. I went and fetched a hoe and went after a few Sumach roots that were left when I dug over the vegetable patch this Spring and which had sprouted. It was amusing to see the sprouts in a line, with the ones nearest the parent Sumach the tallest and the rest getting smaller as they got further away. It was satisfying to pull up the largest, get hold of the root, and pull and watch the others get dragged under the surface and t ..read more

 It finally rained a bit this morning. Not much, just enough to dust things off a bit, but better than nothing. I was up early and the morning light on the wet flowers was wonderful, so cool, so refreshing.     A lovely, damp, Aquilegia canadensis flower with a small bite taken out of one petal! Hesperis matrionalis, Dame's Rocket, white form. I love all white flowers. There is something tender and endearing about them. A medium blue Siberian Iris. This clump has done well for me, in spite of being at the top of my very dry Hillside Garden. At least a hundred flowers this yea ..read more

 When I came in the door from the garden the phone was ringing. The land line, you know, the one you don't carry around.  I picked it up and it was an acquaintance who does sometimes phone.  "I called earlier", she said, "but I guess you were out." "Well, I was in the garden, pulling euonymous." There was this total silence. Now, this is not a person I know very well. We have several friends in common, so she probably knows me better than I know her. It took me a minute to realize that she probably isn't a gardener, so what I'd said might have sounded a bit strange. I decided no ..read more

   It begins ..read more

  But I still have some snow! Want some?  There's a nice big pile of it where Mr. SnowBlowerMan throws the snow from three different directions so it becomes a dense icy pile and never melts until about the time farmers are taking off their first hay crop. If you want some, just come on over. Bring Scotch.                           **********************************************************  Snowdrops are out - actually, I tell a lie, they've been out for a week already. This is Galanthus morrowii, a larger-leaved ..read more

   I was taken to task, politely but quite firmly, by someone who asked why her Hoya plant wasn't blooming.  Her post, on Facebook, included a very nice picture of a healthy looking Hoya carnosa. Now I've had Hoyas, several species and several variations of the main houseplant, H. carnosa, for over 50 years. In fact one of the plants I have now is a distant offspring (are things grown from cuttings 'offspring'?) of a plant that covered the better part of a 20' by 20' brick wall inside the building where I worked. It's only light, other than the artificial office lighting, was a ..read more

 It's Hallowe'en..... spooks are abroad and the woods are filled with scary things.... One of them starts with what looks like an egg pushing up through the ground: Barely 2" across, it seems to have a slightly crinkled surface. It's white, more or less, and dry-looking. It doesn't change for several weeks. Eventually, one day, it begins to grow: The top splits and an odd little white process appears. The surface has darkened and split. More days go by. It's getting cold at night, but underground much is happening. Our Egg is preparing itself for a sudden burst of growth: The Egg spl ..read more

 Mind you, not a lot of it! Just a dusting so far, but it's coming!  I guess Hallowe'en is the right time to scare us with that news! Have a good weekend; stay safe ..read more

 I was surprised, amazed, delighted, astonished, gob-smacked to find a fungus I had never seen before but had been wanting to see for a long time, when I was pulling out old Goldenrod stalks this afternoon. There has been a large plant, or maybe I should say, plantation, of Solidago Altissima at the top of the steps from the driveway to the side door for almost as long as there's been a side door. It's fine until after it blooms, then it is just a big mess and too large for the space it's in. At that point I pull all the stalks, and the following year just as many new ones grow so the pat ..read more