Thoughtful musings on various topics by interesting people at Blithewold

Back to school

The schoolbus yellow rudbeckias foretold the inevitable starting weeks ago. School has started in Rhode Island, it’s about to start in Mass., and suddenly the property has gone quiet. No more laughing camp kids in … Read more.

The awesomeness of agastache

I am as fickle as any gardener. I’ll pick a new favorite color, fragrance, leaf, flower, and plant habit every other week (or day) and reserve the right to change my mind over the slightest … Read more.

Big changes

Do you remember the scene in Grosse Pointe Blank where Joan Cusack’s character describes going to her 10 year high school reunion? She said, “It was just as if everyone had swelled.” I couldn’t help … Read more.

Hold that thought

I’m off. Way off, as my mom would say. For the next two weeks I’ll be a million miles away (figuratively speaking) staring at the ocean for one week and pulling enormous crabgrass and pokeweed … Read more.

AUGUST 1903 – NORWAY, SWEDEN, AND DENMARK

At the end of July Marjorie left England by boat from Newcastle, sailing overnight to Bergen in Norway.  The party of four – Marjorie, her cousin Dorothy, her friend Gertrude, and their chaperone/guide Helen Macartnay … Read more.

To be adventurous

Yesterday, Gail and I had the pleasure of a road trip to a garden in the wilds of southwestern Rhode Island that would have felt as far away as Borneo or any other exotic tropical … Read more.