This has been a fantastic year for peonies — a flower as fantastic as the stories of its origin. The flower is named for Paeon, the physician to the gods in Greek mythology, who angered his teacher Asclepius when he used an extract from the root of the peony to cure Pluto. When a jealous […]
Peonies: A Fantastic Year for a Fantastic Flower
This is the first year that every single Cypripedium in our garden has bloomed — and sequentially, no less, so we’ve had lady’s slippers all May. No, these were not in our garden, but well worth the mile-long hike in 94 degree heat up the trail across the road from our house. First identified in
What’s in a Name? Lady’s Slippers at Byrdcliffe
Sidney McCall (Mary McNeil Fenollosa) was one of many novelists concerned with the “Woman Question” who found her way into the Byrdcliffe Library. The most famous of these today is Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a journalist whose short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is considered a classic depiction of post-partum depression. But McCall was a considerable feminist
Sidney McCall: The Breath of the Gods
“A curious belief [in Cheshire] about cowslips was that if they were planted upside down, they would come up red.” Christina Hole, Traditions and Customs of Cheshire Christina Hole is not really a gardener, but rather a folklorist interested in domestic folklore, including gardening. Editor of the distinguished journal Folklore, she was described as “rather
Please come join us at 2 pm on May 14 at Nancy’s Artisanal Creamery, when I talk to my fellow Byrdcliffe writer, Nancy Bilyeau, about her new novel, The Fugitive Colours.
It’s Going to be a LIVEly Spring
As nuanced as a dry martini and as evocative as Proust’s madeleine, Joseph Goodrich’s The Paris Manuscript explores the intersection of art, passion, and deception with perceptive elegance. Ned is an old man, who has reluctantly agreed to move in with his daughter’s family. As he begins to clean out his own home, he discovers
What I’m Reading at Byrdcliffe: The Paris Manuscript
William Wordsworth might be the English writer most immediately associated with daffodils, but his sister Dorothy is the one who captured the spirit of this year’s daffodils, striving to hold their heads up against wind, rain, and yesterday evening, sleet: I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about & about
Fables and Folk Stories is one of the myriad textbooks produced by Horace E. Scudder in a lengthy and varied literary career. The books is a conventional collection of well-known fairy tales, in keeping with Scudder’s stated pedagogical claim that “As soon as a child has learned to make out simple sentences, the wise teacher
What They Read at Byrdcliffe:Fables and Folk Stories
The weather’s nice enough to start clearing out our beds. IButt’s been a long, chilly, frustrating spring. But there’s nothing like a crocus to remind you that you still don’t miss the city. Then again, you should not forget Florence White’s sage warning in Flowers as Food: Receipts and Lore from Many Sources. (My copy
I’m not sure I’d go quite that far, but another ice storm might push me over the edge. Maria Theresa Earle (8 June 1836 – 27 February 1925)was born as Maria Theresa Villiers and wrote as as Mrs C. W. Earle. She published three Pot-Pourri gardening guides starting in 1897 with Pot-Pourri from a Surrey
Winter Weather Advisory March 25