True Happiness

True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self, but the point is not only to get out you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.

– Henry James

Hosta to the rescue

Every garden has a problem area it seems, and mine is the spot closest to the house. The hollyhock experiment worked well — beautiful flowers, although the leaves were decimated by insects. And the columbine under the pin oak is thriving, too. But after pulling the third flush of nettles that threatened to drown the rest of the area, I figured it was time to do something about it.

I declared a three-foot Weed-Free Zone (WFZ) along the length of the narrow walk (with the help of landscape cloth). Then I planted nine hostas (three varieties), on sale from Dana’s, my new favorite nursery in Littlestown, all in a neat, measured row. Finished with a heavy layer of mulch, and an impromptu bamboo border fence. Bamboo is a theme in this year’s garden, one that I like a lot.

So one-third at least of that problem is solved. I’m glad I bit the bullet and went for the hostas; I am a borderline garden snob sometimes, and hosta is one of those plants that many consider pedestrian. But I’ve had them before, and they can be quite striking in bloom, and certainly pull their weight in civilized greenery as a low border plant. In this kind of service, I think of them as a sort of working man’s boxwood.

Now I will have to relocate some of the herbs again; the spot is just too damp for the lavender, and my prized santolina is simply misplaced. Stay tuned…

Coming soon: Photos of some exciting new blooms, including my favorite new discovery, peacock orchid (speaking of peacocks, had four of the real thing strutting through the yard this morning).

Believe it...or not. How much per gallon?

This seems a bit extreme, but who knows? Thanksgiving? His point about negligence is hard to dispute. From today's New York Times:

"Oil supplies will diminish, that's geology," said Kenneth S. Deffeyes, a professor emeritus of geology at Princeton University and the author of "Beyond Oil: The View From Hubbert's Peak" (Hill & Wang, 2005). Professor Deffeyes predicts that global oil production will reach its peak around Thanksgiving Day and decline after that. "The negligence comes from doing nothing about alternative fuels or conservation measures over the past 20 years. Now it is too late. The oil is gone."

The Gettysburg Address

On this day in 1863, the battle of Gettysburg came to its bloody conclusion with Pickett's ill-fated charge, following orders from General Robert E. Lee. In November of that year, Abraham Lincoln delivered what I would argue is the most powerful oratory of any American president and indeed, among the greatest in all of human history. Here are the words he scribbled, partly on "Executive Mansion" stationery, and partly on plain lined paper, that shall live on as long as our nation endures.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Chinese Proverb

A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.