Yesterday spring arrived – Eostre came rushing in with the promise of warmer weather and regrowth. While you were busy celebrating The First Day of Spring, the madman was celebrating Snowman Burning Day. “It’s an actual holiday,” he insists. Honestly, I don’t know where he comes up with these celebrations, but he does. At least…
Beware the Ides of March. Thanks to William Shakespeare, most of us have heard this ominous phrase. But the madman says, “Don’t Beware, but be aware of the Ides of March.” Remember, the madman is a gardener, not a historian. The history buff is interested in the Ides of March in the year 44 B.C….
The madman absolutely loves his blueberries. They are by far his favorite fruit. Good thing he lives in Connecticut. With its acidic soil and temperate climate, it’s a great place to grow blueberries. As a kid, the madman remembers going to Platt Hill State Park in Winsted to pick wild blueberries. They were small and…
We are finally out of the Persephone Period – having 10 hours of sunlight each day is huge. But bigger than that is the success of some new technology. When we put in the new greenhouse, the madman knew it would be a challenging winter – “a learning experience,” he called it. Early winter really…
With our trip to the shore behind us, we are spending a lot of time wandering around our yard. As always, the madman spends a lot of time at the conifers, especially the hemlocks. He’s not really looking at the hemlocks, he’s looking at the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA). A Serious Problem “To steal from…
The year 2022, with its ups and downs, is coming to a close. It started with our usual trip to the Connecticut shore. As we watched the waves come and go, we talked about our plans for the year – remember, we made plans not resolutions for 2022. Plan Number 1 was to be present…
Here we are, one week from the Solstice – and the madman is waiting. For the next few weeks, we’ll have a little over 9 hours of daylight. But with all the Christmas lights, it seems it’s hard to find a dark spot around our house. As soon as the sun goes down, the lights…
The days keep getting shorter. On the other hand, shorter days mean the nights are getting longer. And that gives the madman more time to look up at the night sky. From our backyard, it’s easy to see Polaris. Polaris, also known as the North Star, is the only star that doesn’t move in our…
The madman has his eye on the birds. We finally took the hummingbird feeders down last week. You may think that’s awful late. Normally it would be, but the madman says it’s been a strange year. According to Journey North, some hummingbirds were late in leaving. There were reports of hummingbird sightings to the North…