Message from the Mountain

As I have mentioned many times before, my wife has a special “garden” outside her office window. It is filled with low maintenance garden sculptures. She has allergies and this is her way to enjoy Na…

There is a tradition in New England and perhaps other places where people decorate their lawn with pink flamingos. Part of the fun is decorating a friend’s yard when they are not home. It is good to …

Milton Erickson told a patient once to go out and count the shades of green in grass. I assume the person was stuck in just one view of life. The lesson is that life itself has many different shades,…

Ten years ago I dug up some hydrangeas from the grounds of the local historical society when the building was moved. Now I am enjoying beautiful white blooms. It can take time to establish transplant…

A lot of people, including myself, look to the sky for information that might give them guidance in life. There is a term called cloud scrying, where one lets their eyes go out of focus so their unco…

The pink spirea, a shrub we have had for fifty years, keeps spreading, and now we have three of them established at the Center. If you prune the blooms after they have gone by, they will come back. “…

Thirty years ago my father-in-law passed away, and that summer a small wild rose started to grow outside our window. We believe it was a gift from the Other Side. I also believe other people get sign…

The hens and chickens continue to expand their presence each year in the gardens at the Center. I think of people who set about intending to do positive acts of kindness each day and how these acts e…

One of the goals of the Ormond Gardens at the Center is to plant flowers that attract insects, butterflies and moths, and that is exactly what is beginning to happen. The concept of the Law of Attrac…

The lighthouse perched on a rock outcropping at the entrance to the harbor has been guiding sailors safely for many years. I am reminded of people who are beacons of light that help guide others in t…

Looking down from the 9th floor of the ship docked in Bermuda, we noticed the water had a very unique design to it. If the pattern could be duplicated, it might make for some interesting clothing. I …

We have dragon fly reminders both inside and outside our house. Several years ago, Penny was in an auto accident where her car was bumped over a bank and into the water. As she waited in a truck for …

The single mock orange shrub does not have the dense number of flowers as the double, but the aroma is just as nice. It spreads easily and can take over the landscape if not paid attention to it. Sti…

One flower book describes orange day lilies as the bane of the garden. The author considered them too common to rank high enough on the flower scale to be included. I, on the other hand, love to see …

July 4th is a day of celebration in this country marked by parades, fireworks, picnics, strawberry shortcake and watermelon, to name a few. It is the time for each of us to commit to sewing these see…

There is another yellow color blending into the garden palate. I am not sure how it got there, but it is very welcome and comes back year after year. I am reminded of people that somehow connect to o…

The tall slender, delicate astilbe is a flower that is much more resilient than it looks like and provides a wonderful balance for a flower garden. There are people who appear to be delicate but are …

I don’t think I have ever seen a chipmunk stop and rest for very long. They are constantly on the move. There are people who never pause very long either, going from one project to another as they ma…

Over fifty years ago my parents gave us a collection of shrubs and trees that were advertised on the back cover of Parade Magazine. We still have a few of them surviving today, including a double moc…

Derek has spent a couple of weeks here shaping the gardens at the Center and adding plants, including ever bearing yellow lilies that bloom all summer. I love to see the Ormond Gardens expand, just a…