Irises

Read more about irises on my new blog.

This blog has been transplanted

Tulip Time Everywhere

Tip-toe through the tulips with me to my new blog at mountgardens.com

HAPPY TRAILS

If you haven't caught on yet, this blog has moved to Daniel Mount GARDENS. You can read more about tulips like this 'Happy Generation' there.

MOVEMENT

Those of you who have known me for a while will not be surprised that I am moving. I’ve been moving since I left the womb, whether running across my mother’s kitchen floor, or packing up and moving to my 3rd new apartment in a year, back in my college days. I have finally settled here in the Snoqualmie Valley outside Seattle, and dread the thought of ever packing up and actually moving again. But move I must. This time it is a very simple cyber-move. I have launched my new website and blog on wordpress. Please move with me by following this link: mountgardens.com, and continue reading about the joys and tribulations of this plantsman, gardener and farmer living in a flood plain.

FROZEN FOODS

Well, I got my wish. Snow, snow, snow and more snow with freezing rain and then some more snow. I know why people complain about snow. But being trapped in the house for a few days having to eat as much of the frozen food as possible because there is no power and everything is thawing faster and faster isn't so bad. ANd I think these cabbage will somehow survive.
I got the office cleaned and made a few hikes out into the glistening valley. Not so bad, now that it's over. Though I think the bamboo would have something else to say if it could talk.

THE END OF THE BEGINNING

When does the New Year end? and the regular year begin? In our rush to get back to work, on with our resolutions and to stash the Christmas decorations away most of us start the year on January 2nd. But when exactly does the baby become a child?
In the Shinto tradition the new year lasts until January 15th—now that’s a generous holiday. Of course in modern Japan like most modern countries people get started as soon as possible after the New Year’s Day. We are uncomfortable with fallowness. Even though I’m a gardener and supposedly more connected to the seasons than many other people, I have been very productive since January 2nd. Not gardening necessarily, though I have done a bit of clean up and pruning. I’ve been busy trying to get my unruly office in order, no success yet, and in getting my new website launched.
Each Year around New Year’s Day, Michael and I travel down Crooked Mile Road outside of Granite Falls to Tsubaki Grand Shrine. We go to wander the beautiful site of this Shinto shrine, to stand on the banks of the Pilchuck River which bends and eddies there with poetic vigor. We go there to receive the New Year blessing from the high priest, who sweeps a wand of crisp white paper over our heads, booms on a great deep voiced drum and jingles bells. Though it would be easy to dismiss this ritual as ancient mumbo jumbo, I can’t help but put some hope into it, as I do in touching the great stone frogs which are said to bring good fortune to those who return to the temple each year.
When we came home the mild weather had induced the tree frogs to start their spring songs. It fills the night air of the sleeping swamp that lies around our farm. They boomed and jingled like temple bells and drums. Though I know that spring is months away a great positivity rose up in me. After all the witch hazel’s already in bloom and I saw a flock of swans today decidedly flying north, though the ground was covered with snow.
And the baby has stood up and started to walk.

DIGGIN' IN

I sit here to write, sluggish and bloated with holiday cheer, a laughing Buddha on the precipice of the New Year. The landscape I survey is hazy, what will I make of it and what will it take of me. I know it will be busy with travel , gardening and writing.
Thomas Jefferson said, “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more of it I have.” So it’s time to get down to the digging and uncover some of that luck. I hope to share it with you here as the year unfolds.
Best wishes for good health and good luck in 2012,
Daniel