Thursday, June 10, 2021

Peonies and Woodchucks


Our peonies began opening up yesterday, and this year we're extra excited because the one above comes from a plant that has never bloomed before. We weren't even sure what color it would be. The plant has been in the ground for four or five years, and this spring we finally, finally got two beautiful yellow flowers.
 

This one is our "Bowl of Beauty" peony, which I've posted before, and we still have one more peony plant with dark pink flowers that at the moment has only buds.

Last year the peonies didn't bloom at all, and we're not sure why -- perhaps because last spring was so unusually dry. At any rate, this is a significant improvement!


This looks like such a peaceful photo -- Olga with our yellow peony -- but what you can't tell is that at the moment I took it, landscapers were next door on one side with mowers, trimmers and blowers, kicking up an incredible racket, and on the other side, Mrs. Kravitz was giving a lot of instructions to her poor sainted gardener. When did gardening become so noisy? Dave and I run the lawn mower for about 20 minutes every few weeks and that's it.

At work, the library is finally coming together. We have all the books out of the fiction room, which is now completely bare and ready for its transformation into a classroom. We've continued to get rid of some old stuff, including a huge two-volume edition of Henry David Thoreau's journal that's older than I am. This may sound like sacrilege, but neither volume had been checked out since 1977, and they weren't in great shape. If we replace them -- and the jury is out -- I think we need selections or highlights that are more accessible to a high school student.

I looked through them, and though I admire Thoreau, they can be a bit tedious. He can go on for pages about the clouds on a particular day, for example, but he does occasionally have funny passages. I liked this one, from March 25, 1860:

The boy's sled gets put away in the barn or shed or garret, and there lies dormant all summer, like a woodchuck in the winter. It goes into its burrow just before woodchucks come out, so that you may say a woodchuck never sees a sled, nor a sled a woodchuck -- unless it were a prematurely risen woodchuck or a belated and unseasonable sled. Before the woodchuck comes out the sled goes in. They dwell at the antipodes of each other. Before sleds rise woodchucks have set. The ground-squirrel too shares the privileges and misfortunes of the woodchuck. The sun now passes from the constellation of the sled into that of the woodchuck.

I was just out in the dewy morning picking slugs off my wildflower seedlings. I put copper slug rings around them to protect them overnight, but I found the slugs inside the rings, munching away, so apparently that was a futile exercise.

54 comments:

  1. Peonies are such showy flowers. These two are great examples. I love your assessment of Thoreau. I agree -- but also love that passage. Copper slug rings. I guess they work about as well as copper bracelets.

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    1. Yeah, the slug rings have proven to be a big bust.

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  2. I didn't know that peonies come in yellow ! Beautiful flowers , but they only usually last a few days....unless it rains and then they are done for!!

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    1. It's funny -- about a week ago I sent Dave a photo of some yellow peonies in the garden of one of our neighbors. I had no idea we'd soon have some of our own!

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  3. MRS KRAVITZ Bow your head when I am addressing you!
    MR FIACRE (Clasping his flat cap) Sorry your ladyship! I forgot.
    MRS KRAVITZ After fixing that damnable fence, you should ensure that every weed in that border is removed - root and all. If I find one, just one weed when I return from the hairdresser, your pay will be docked!
    MR FIACRE And what should I do with the weeds your ladyship?
    MRS KRAVITZ Toss them into that bloody jungle next door. Those whiney Americans are scared of me so they'll never complain. Now get on with your work lad!
    MR FIACRE Yes Mrs Kravitz. Straight away.

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  4. Try beer traps (on the snails and slugs - not Mrs Kravitz). They work a treat. And the slugs die, or so I hope, a happy death.

    Should you ever consider eating your snails (not slugs) don't forget to starve them for twenty four hours. That way their digestive track is cleared out before you cook them. And, yes, once upon a time one of my neighbours used to take them off me - the ones I'd picked off my plants with my own fair hands, at dawn. Bags of the stuff. As I didn't use chemicals in my garden they were safe. I don't like the texture (rubber) of snails so don't eat them myself. Anyway, as far as I can tell they are just an excuse to eat a lot of melted garlic butter.

    U

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    1. There is no earthly way I am eating these snails!

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  5. Yes, tedious prose by Thoreau.
    Mrs Kravitz needs her bush perfectly trimmed.

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  6. Where I live it's mostly young families now and there is always the sound of a drill or saw going on somewhere. What happened to the gentle sound of hand sawing?
    I have given up on the slugs and snails and only buy plants that they do not eat, I was hoping that my hedgehog would stay around but haven't seen him since that night. Good job I took the photo or I would have thought I'd dreamt it.
    Briony
    x

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    1. No one uses hand tools anymore. I don't understand why people can't use a rake rather than a blower. Blowers are the WORST.

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  7. That's a lot of chatter about putting away a sled.

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    1. Ha! It's definitely not the most DIRECT writing.

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  8. "Bowl of Beauty" is the perfect name for that peony.

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    1. Isn't it? It kind of reminds me of shredded cabbage.

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  9. I loved the sled passage - it had me grinning all the way through :)

    Oh peonies - it takes FOREVER for the buds to bloom & then they're so fleetingly gorgeous!

    This has nothing to do with slugs, but I have a friend who gets rid of her aphids by putting Vaseline on the outside of a plastic cup & putting it (upside down) in her garden. Apparently the aphids are attracted to the Vaseline & get stuck.

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    1. I haven't heard that method of aphid control. With a few exceptions we just let the aphids be. They generally don't do enough damage to warrant execution. (The lupine aphids are an exception.)

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  10. Andrew wins the comments today in my opinion. Not to rile the masses but after I read that Thoreau regularly took his laundry to his mother to do while he was living in his famous little cabin, I sort of lost a little respect for him. He also strolled down to her house to eat with her every week. It's not like he was isolated on that pond.
    I sure wish you could take a picture of Mrs. Kravitz's garden. I'd love to see what it looks like.

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    1. I wish I could provide you with a photo of Mrs. Kravitz's garden. I feel weird about that, though -- I'd have to shoot over the fence and that seems a violation of her privacy. (Even though I think she'd love having her garden on the Internet.)

      It IS hilarious that Thoreau has this reputation for being such a go-it-alone rebel and yet he relied on his mom to do his housework. I think people often picture his cabin out in the middle of nowhere, but the truth is, he was right on the edge of Concord, within easy walking distance of everything.

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  11. Your yellow peony is gorgeous! I've never seen a yellow one. I have one plant that is white and another that is a deep rose color. Olga looks happy lying near those beautiful blossoms. You have a super day, hugs, Edna B.

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    1. Olga is always happy when she's lying in a sunny spot!

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  12. I've never read any Thoreau and judging from that passage, I don't think I will. The peonies are lovely. I've never seen a yellow one and it's gorgeous.

    Andrew's comment reminded me of this. You've probably seen it before.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW5rhvmAu0c

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    1. Ha! Yes, I have seen that video. So funny!

      Thoreau is definitely not one for brevity. I tried to read "Walden" many years ago and I only got about halfway through. I find that I like the idea of Thoreau more than I like Thoreau.

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  13. Some librarians before you sound like they should have been working in the museum rather than the library.

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    1. Apparently when my boss first arrived she weeded tons of books -- the library hadn't been pared back in many, many years. And we just don't have the space to be an archive. The thing is, studies have shown that well-weeded libraries are used much more efficiently and consistently. It's possible to simply be overwhelmed with options otherwise.

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  14. how many ways did he say the same thing in that passage? the yellow peony is lovely.

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    1. Ha! I know! But that's the funny part, at least for me -- the many ways he looked at that surreal juxtaposition of sleds and woodchucks.

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  15. That Thoreau quote set my head spinning with "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck" (you know the rest). Those peonies are beautiful. Peonies always bring back great childhood memories. My mother loved them and we had a row of them growing in front of our house.

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    1. It made me wonder about the difference between woodchucks and groundhogs (none) as well as gophers, prairie dogs and all other such burrowing rodents. We didn't have any of those critters in Florida so they all kind of run together in my mind.

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  16. Thoreau needed to learn the art of haiku. If you can't say it 17 syllables, forget about it. LOL.

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    1. There is definitely a LOT to be said for brevity. And actually his subject matter would be perfect for haiku!

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  17. Is that a Kong lying behind Olga?? If so, you'll understand... if not, you might think that's a crazy question! The flowers are beautiful. I've never grown peonies.

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    1. That IS a Kong! Olga loves her Kong. She used to carry it everywhere obsessively -- on all our walks -- but nowadays it pretty much lives at home.

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  18. Andrew, haha.
    The yellow peony is unusual isn't it?

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    1. Maybe! I don't know enough about peonies to be certain. Dave (who bought the plant) never mentioned that it would be yellow so apparently it didn't strike him as unusual enough to be noteworthy.

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  19. That quote from Thoreau sounds like a blog post from a blogger that couldn't think of what to write about but wanted a certain number of words in their blog post!
    I am not referring to any of your posts, Steve, as your posts are always terrific and your photos are great too!
    I agree with Ms. Moon about seeing Mrs. Kravitz's garden!

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    1. Ha! He definitely seemed to be going for emphasis through repetition! I wish I could blog Mrs. K's garden but that seems a little stalkerish to me. I do have my limits. LOL

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  20. Peonies are one of my favorites, although I don't have any.

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    1. They ARE beautiful. And they're hardier than they seem like they should be.

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  21. I didn't know peonies came in yellow and after seeing yours I want one! Bonus: they are deer resistant, which I know from them avoiding the peonies we currently have. Something else to look for in the garden centre.

    I wouldn't mind seeing Mrs K's garden either, but even more I'd like to see Mrs K! You know how you form an idea of how someone looks from hearing their radio voice? I've formed the idea of what she looks like from your writing. lol

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    1. They are also snail and slug resistant, which is one of the reasons we planted them in the first place! It's probably just as well that Mrs. K remains a sort of mythical character for all of you. It adds to her mystique. LOL

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  22. When we were in the Pacific North West, we had slugs up the ying-yang. We bought slug bait, a lot of it. They die, the plant lives. Then we'd have to go out and pick them up.
    That yellow peony is truly spectacular.

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    1. We have metaldehyde slug pellets but I hate to use them. In fact the British government is moving toward banning them, if they haven't already, because of the environmental damage they can do. I think in this case I'll just surrender the seedlings if it comes to that. They're planted too close together anyway! LOL

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    2. Look for iron phosphate slug pellets. Non-toxic to all but slugs and snails. "Please make sure if you use slug pellets, to use those containing ferric phosphate, this is harmless to hedgehogs, and usually labelled as 'organic'. The most well known brand is 'Growing Success Advanced Slug Killer' but there are others. "

      Chris from Boise

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  23. That yellow peony is an Itoh peony. I have 2, it took 5 years for the first one to bloom. I'm still waiting for the 2nd.

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    1. Thanks for that info! Clearly you know your peonies! I think this one is five years old, too. We kept wondering what we were doing wrong and why it was holding out on us!

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  24. I love that Thoreau passage - had never run into it before. Thanks for sharing!

    Chris from Boise

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  25. Yellow peonies!!!
    We have a small stack of books in our guest toilet (powder room? bathroom?) with the Thoreau diary one of them. Sometimes guest be spend a long time in there and the stack gets reshuffled but the Thoreau one remains at the bottom of the pile.

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    1. Well, Thoreau is awfully literary for powder-room reading! LOL

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