Way back in February, I started a slew of artichoke seedlings. The seeds are fairly large, and they germinate fast and well. Because artichokes are really biennials, which means the plants normally set fruit and flower the second year of their life, I had to trick the seedlings. So after I grew them up to […]

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Some people really like the process of dyeing wool. I’m neutral about it. I like magic of the process as the colors emerge. And I like the range of colors with the different shadings that I am able to get. There are some masterful dyers out there; I’ll never be one of those, but what […]

Yesterday walking to the nursery I was keenly aware of the fungal life surrounding us. Some of these mushrooms seem to materialize in an instant. And then there are those growths that keep getting steadily larger, starting out as little bubbles and becoming great shelves. I like this one that is starting to encompass the […]

Every April, when outside work begins in earnest, my body hurts, after a winter of general sloth. And each year, the April ache seems to last longer and longer, seeping into May and beyond. I’ve been lucky in having a body that has basically worked, never been tall and willowy as culture would have me […]

Ella flies when she chases sticks at the beach. Yes, poodles are retrievers. Actually, she’s much more interested in retrieving than Martin, the labrador(ish) retriever. And after her exertions, Ella demands a cookie. As does Martin. It is good to be a dog at the beach.

Julie’s been knitting a lot of socks. Here are a few pairs drying on the washstand close to the wood stove. There’s something delicious about wearing a pair of hand-knit socks, especially warm woolly colorful ones in the winter.

One of the gardens on Islesboro that we’ve been developing over the past few years in on four (or maybe it’s five, depending on how one counts) levels. When we first arrived the garden had a few peonies and thousands of poppies mixed in with weeds, along with climbing hydrangeas along the walls. We pulled […]

Our cat Stuart spent part of yesterday in a lobster trap. He was chasing a bird (at least this is how we reconstruct the scene); the bird flew into a stack of our neighbor’s traps; Stuart hurled after him, and before he knew it he had followed the path of a lobster and could not […]