Berkshire summer begins
And now, here I am back in the Berkshires, smelling the last of the lilac scent, which is slowly fading from remembering as the thicker summer air seems to be moving in. I am always amazed at the sneakiness of the seasons, how they manage to slide into play subtly. I am trying desperately to catch spring sneaking off; it seems that I came back to a changed Farm, everything had bloomed from one shade of green to about one hundred different hues of foliage--everything from celery to forest tones. And flowers bursting forth in places not even I imagined they would come out to greet the dawn.
The gardens have begun to bloom. The leafy heads of plants are bursting through the soil and starting to shade the ground below. Asparagus and bibb lettuce has been making their way into the Kitchen and into our bellies. The thick shoots of asparagus, which push forth from the ground--a green tipped mound, cracking through as some sort of iceberg tip, breaks forth from the sea--are especially delicious. Nothing goes wasted.
This year's asparagus actually grows behind the garden plot that TSO, Mummy Dearest and I are making into our little trial grounds for flowers and food stuff this summer. I have planted Detroit beets (insert shout out to my homies here) and green onions. Tonight I plan on planting my cosmos and columbines, and as soon as my little seedlings in my house get a little bigger, my delphiniums, shasta daisies, parsley and red peppers will be going into the plot too. TSO is planting scads of tomatoes, all kinds of corn (ornamental and edible), peppers, beans and some other things which slip my mind; Mummy is planting flowers. (Pictures to follow).
Though it has been cool and rainy these past few days it seems that summer is lumbering ever toward us; we saw it in the first wave of the summer vacationers who trekked into town en masse this past weekend for Memorial Day. Why do the Berkshires get so busy during the summer?, you ask. Well, the Berkshires (always farm land) became a vacation spot and home to the wealthy beginning in the mid-1800s and the pattern has not changed. In olden days the Berkshires were (summer) home to Edith Warton (Lenox), Herman Melville (Lenox), and even Nathaniel Hawthorne (Stockbridge?) to name a few. In more modern times, Normal Rockwell (Stockbridge) has given way for persons including James Taylor (Stockbridge) and Yo Yo Ma (Tyringham), as well as a slew of other famous faces who pass through and can be seen as frequently in town as some wildlife sightings around the farm. (I am still hoping to see Kate Winslet--my favorite actress--who is frequently spotted in town).
The Berkshires are just over two hours from both New York City and Boston and aside from the Berkshires dazzling beauty, it is also known for its artisans: glass blowers, potters, knitters/weavers, as well as it's cultural atributes: Jacob's Pillow, Shakespeare & Company, (TSO and I just saw Romeo & Juliet here last week-good!) MASS MoCA, and Tanglewood (where the Boston Symphony Orchestra summers). Berkshire County offers a rural, quaint, quiet retreat from city life, without being too far from diversions. And so it begins. Our quaint, rural life will be full of traffic until the first leaf peepers creep away in October...
The gardens have begun to bloom. The leafy heads of plants are bursting through the soil and starting to shade the ground below. Asparagus and bibb lettuce has been making their way into the Kitchen and into our bellies. The thick shoots of asparagus, which push forth from the ground--a green tipped mound, cracking through as some sort of iceberg tip, breaks forth from the sea--are especially delicious. Nothing goes wasted.
This year's asparagus actually grows behind the garden plot that TSO, Mummy Dearest and I are making into our little trial grounds for flowers and food stuff this summer. I have planted Detroit beets (insert shout out to my homies here) and green onions. Tonight I plan on planting my cosmos and columbines, and as soon as my little seedlings in my house get a little bigger, my delphiniums, shasta daisies, parsley and red peppers will be going into the plot too. TSO is planting scads of tomatoes, all kinds of corn (ornamental and edible), peppers, beans and some other things which slip my mind; Mummy is planting flowers. (Pictures to follow).
Though it has been cool and rainy these past few days it seems that summer is lumbering ever toward us; we saw it in the first wave of the summer vacationers who trekked into town en masse this past weekend for Memorial Day. Why do the Berkshires get so busy during the summer?, you ask. Well, the Berkshires (always farm land) became a vacation spot and home to the wealthy beginning in the mid-1800s and the pattern has not changed. In olden days the Berkshires were (summer) home to Edith Warton (Lenox), Herman Melville (Lenox), and even Nathaniel Hawthorne (Stockbridge?) to name a few. In more modern times, Normal Rockwell (Stockbridge) has given way for persons including James Taylor (Stockbridge) and Yo Yo Ma (Tyringham), as well as a slew of other famous faces who pass through and can be seen as frequently in town as some wildlife sightings around the farm. (I am still hoping to see Kate Winslet--my favorite actress--who is frequently spotted in town).
The Berkshires are just over two hours from both New York City and Boston and aside from the Berkshires dazzling beauty, it is also known for its artisans: glass blowers, potters, knitters/weavers, as well as it's cultural atributes: Jacob's Pillow, Shakespeare & Company, (TSO and I just saw Romeo & Juliet here last week-good!) MASS MoCA, and Tanglewood (where the Boston Symphony Orchestra summers). Berkshire County offers a rural, quaint, quiet retreat from city life, without being too far from diversions. And so it begins. Our quaint, rural life will be full of traffic until the first leaf peepers creep away in October...
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