Category Archives: Ephemera
To A Good Home
The wind has battered the alstroemeria. The support I provided, a bottomless wrought iron chair, serves more as a guillotine, bending the stalks around knee level. A gigantic tomato cage, 6 feet high and as much across, might contain this … Continue reading
The Face of the Earth Remains the Same
I found this interesting take on the seasons in the 2/11/10 New York Review of Books, from Christian Carryl’s review of Robert Walser’s The Assistant. Carryl quotes this excerpt from the book: “And the world, was it changing? No. A … Continue reading
Posted in Ephemera, MB Maher
Tagged gunnera, New York Review of Books, Robert Walser
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The Cat and the Fringe Tree
Joseph the cat in his current favorite spot, the grasslands, his personal Serengeti just outside the kitchen door. Comfort creature that he is, he prefers his grasslands have nice dry pavers to sit or lie on, or on which to … Continue reading
Nameless
Among the minor reasons I took up blogging was to simply make an effort to retain plant names again. I’ve got shelves of old garden notebooks, in which I kept copious notes of plants desired, plants purchased, when they were … Continue reading
All In A Day’s Work
The desultory, unfocused morning stretched into the same kind of afternoon, and I gave up the pretense of attempting to accomplish anything and headed for a bath. With an unread December Gardens Illustrated issue propped on the reading stand (often … Continue reading
Posted in Ephemera, essay
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Spring?
Seems impossible that just two days ago I was having that tender moment about spring. Yesterday and today heat records were broken, and now everyone is grousing that it’s hotter than Jakarta (really only mid 80’s but we’re a delicate … Continue reading
Posted in Ephemera, MB Maher
Tagged ' Phlomis italica, bronze fennel, MB Maher, Prostranthera ovalifolia 'Variegata
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And So It Begins Again
Yes, phrases do bubble up from the depths unbidden until I find myself saying them aloud on a day such as this, about 75 degrees, neither cold nor warm, more like an amniotic bath, birds and insects attending to their … Continue reading
Dog’s Breakfast
British slang dating to about the 1930’s, meant to convey an unholy mess of dribs and drabs, a hodgepodge. Although origin is uncertain, it seems likely to have dated from the morning someone, possibly slightly hungover, dumped last night’s fried … Continue reading
Posted in creatures, Ephemera
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Three-Quarters Full
Day job intrudes on blogging, which is good (half full) in the sense the economy must be picking up if I’m busier, but which is also not so good (half empty) since I can’t grab a few minutes to blog … Continue reading
Posted in Ephemera, MB Maher, photography, Plant Portraits
Tagged angelica pachycarpa, coprosma, Hellebore argutifolius
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Poppies in February
Of the many things I don’t do that cause me a small pang from time to time, like speak a language other than English, keeping a book of poetry on my reading table ranks probably in the mid to low … Continue reading