outside in the garden

Monday, February 11, 2002

I have been fooling around with the inner workings of this blog for a day and a half. My first effort was to get the archives to show up. In he course of foling with the template, I lost all connection to my server and could no longer ftp anything from blogger to bronzefrogs. This had to do with the path settings.
AFter much tweaking, reading the help files and blog discussions, I got some advice from my web host on the correct path. That fixed the uploading to bronzefrogs. But I still cant get the archives right.
If you click the link to archives on this page (I finally got the link to work!), it takes you to a drab unstyled page with some javascript showing ('document write...'). I do not know why it doesnt link to the page I put on my server by the name of "archive.html" which has a style and no longer includes the javascript. Anyway, style aside, when you click on one of those archive links, you get a Page Not Found error; Blogger is not sending my archive files to that location, and nothing I tell it will convince it to.
Grrrrrr
Do we really need archives??????
Pamela Shorey 7:11 PM

Sunday, February 10, 2002

It's a chill gray day, of the sort I associate with November. The seasons are a mess this year!

Pamela Shorey 8:39 AM

Saturday, February 09, 2002

Early Friday morning (2-8-02) when I stuck my head out the door to let out the cats, I sniffed the air, and it smelled like spring. I heard a robin trilling, and thought Spring !! Then I thought Wait, wait, it's only February 8! Granted, it has been a mild winter so far; but we will surely get a whopper or two in the second half of February and early March.
I dunno. I truly hope that robin makes it through February and March without having to contend with a blizzard.
The daffodils are coming up, too.

Pamela Shorey 10:11 PM

Saturday, February 02, 2002

2-2-2
Don't you love that date? When I stuck my head out the door this morning a little while before dawn, it seemed bitterly cold; I suppose it was about 30 degrees F. I had to postpone my walk 'til the sun came up and the ground thawed a little. I am not used to such chillsome weather. Now, at nearly 10 a.m. the sun is out. I hope that dang groundhog looked out early in the day so as to not see the shadow.
I read somewhere recently that our story about the groundhog came from German settlers in Pennsylvania; the original critter in the old country was a badger. Possibly the badger was better at foretelling the weather than the groundhog, which, I have read, is correct less than 1/3 of the time.
February 2 is also Candelmas, a day associate with the birth of spring lambs, and the crossroad between winter and spring. An old poem contains the same forecast as Groundhog day:
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Come, winter, have another flight
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go, winter, and come not again

February 2 is also associated in Ireland with Brigid, the Celtic goddess of brides and birth among other things. Later the Roman Catholic Church adopted Brigid and transformed Brigid's nigth into the purification of St. Mary (which came 40 days after the birth of Jesus). Both occasions involved lighting fires or candles. The Celts burnt the evergreen boughs they had kept in the house for the dark days and cleaned up the fallen needles. Hence Spring Cleaning.
Everything is connected.

Pamela Shorey 9:50 AM

Saturday, January 26, 2002

So far [fingers crossed] this has been an uncommonly mild winter. We have had only a few inches of snow that lasted only a few days. Often the temperature has been above freezing. Forty degrees may not seem all that wonderful to someone who lives in Florida or even Virginia, but to a lifelong Northeasterner, it's delightful! We get the azalea without the drawl!
IF this keeps up, I will wish I had a greenhouse like arrangement or at least a coldframe in which I could keep going an herb garden and be starting plants I do not have room for in my apartment.
I shouldnt hope for it, though. Im sure winter is not gone, but merely late. I lived in this mild river valley for two decades before I ever saw a March snowstorm. February snowstorms were common and often severe; snow in March was always a few flakes, a light dusting on the lawn and gone by afternoon. About four years ago, we had a blizzard in mid-March that astonished me and left me with a sore sholder from shovelling snow two feet deep away from my car. My shoulder has recovered, but I havent forgotten.
I'm afraid winter isn't milder, just later incoming.
On the other hand, if Virginia winters are moving North, I should consider moving North as well. Soon Nova Scotia will begin to seem habitable.
Pamela Shorey 9:27 AM

Saturday, January 05, 2002

I forget if I mentioned previously that this blog was listed as blog of the day on Oct. 26, 2001. The link shows the entire list for the year 2001. Just look down and you will see "outside in the garden" listed for 10-26-01. I'm proud. And I have no idea how that happened, either. How did they even know about me??
Pamela Shorey 12:21 PM

Friday, January 04, 2002

I need a good space for indoor gardening. Of course I have some houseplants near every window that could accommodate them. But I need a spot with good light where I can start seedlings, do cuttings, etc. A BIG space. I am thinking of clearing away some stuff in front ofmy study window - if only I can figure out where to put it - and setting up a table or some shelves there. Except that it's far from the kitchen (and water) it would be a good place. Good light in winter, facing southeast, so it gets the morning and noonday and early afternoon sun.

Pamela Shorey 3:59 PM

Friday, December 28, 2001

This is probably the worst time of year. Everything outside looks barren and brown. There is no snow and the backyard does not have an elegant structure to it.
Yesterday I purchased a wall calendar at the Willimantic Food Co-op that shows scenes of Japanese gardens in the U.S. -- 3 or 4 of them on the west coast out of reach. But one is in Brooklyn NY and I would love to go there and see it.
A well structured garden looks enticing at any time of year because good bones, so to speak, make all the difference.
Pamela Shorey 2:05 PM

Tuesday, December 18, 2001

Ok the truth can be told: I was Alison's secret Santa. Now she has her gift and knows it's me, so the need for subterfuge os over. She has a nice site- you should go look at it.
I got a gift from my secret santa today. No email address though! hm.
Pamela Shorey 7:08 PM

Wednesday, December 12, 2001

My cool site of the week award goes to Alison, partly because I like her name. This is a new thing I am starting, where I pick a name that has meaning for me (Alison was my favorite aunt, a serene woman who eschewed the material) and do a search on it.

Pamela Shorey 6:21 AM