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An illustrated report today from the backyard garden. The rain is welcomed after a long hot spell. Watering from the outdoor spigot is good, but rain has the added benefit of carrying nitrogen from the atmosphere, which enhances the growth of plants, flowers, and trees. — PM
Read More »Lowell Folk Festival “Here we are dealing with living traditions. We know that the urge to preserve is based on the fact that we know the things that we are passing on have value, and we want to hold on to them. So we try to build continuity and to…
Read More »In response to a friend’s Facebook posting about a photo of candidate Trump’s family of great white hunters with their big-game safari trophies, I added a few thoughts (expanded here) about what this Trump thing means, if we even know what it means.—PM Where are we headed? Or have we…
Read More »Not watered down. The Trump thing.
Read More »There’s a major museum exhibition in Paris about the Beat Generation writers this summer. Geoff Dyer, one of the best writers working today, has a piece about the show in The Spectator in England. He gives Jack Kerouac high marks for literary achievement but minces no words about the author…
Read More »My father collected stamps most of his life. Below is an item called a First Day Cover, which can be a card or an envelope with a postal cancellation mark on the day the stamp was released to the public. This one is from 1962, the stamp issued in connection…
Read More »Heirloom lily from the zealous gardener Elizabeth Nesmith in the backyard garden contributed by Richard Marion, who rescued the plant from a greenhouse site that closed down a few years ago. We have another one from the 1940s that has three buds and should bloom later this week.—PM
Read More »I don’t know why I thought of this today, this morning while sitting on the back steps as the straight rain began to douse the trees, grass, cars. Excited small brown birds darted from the lilac bush to the low branches of maple trees bordering the driveway. What came into…
Read More »The flamingoes landed.
Read More »Following is a list of books I have in play this summer. Some I’ve read through; many others are either partly read or waiting for their time to be picked up. When I wrapped up my management job at UMass Lowell, one of my goals was to re-engage as a…
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