Category Archives: garden

:: Vote for the Newmarket Farmers’ Market

WITH YOUR HELP, THEY COULD EARN A CASH PRIZE

Have you been to the Newmarket Farmers’ Market yet?
What’s that? You hadn’t heard that there was a farmer’s market here in Newmarket!?! Well, it’s been mentioned on my blog a time or two, and you can learn a lot more about it over at Newmarket Happenings [linked removed], the Lamprey Arts & Culture Alliance‘s blog. Local farmers and vendors offer a terrific selection of fresh, locally-produced foods — and other great stuff! — every Saturday morning from 9 AM–1 PM (no market on July 4) in the parking lot of the historic Stone Church meeting house. You’ve got to check it out!

And, of course, if you have been, you already know what a great little market we’ve got here in town. So I shouldn’t have to ask you twice, then, to give them your vote.

PLEASE VOTE
By clicking on the graphic (above) [link removed], you’ll be connected to “care2care,” an organization who, along with “Local Harvest,” is running a contest amongst farmers’ markets to promote fresh, local, healthy foods. The winning farmers’ market (that is, the one with the most votes) wins a $5,000 cash prize! All you have to do to is give the Newmarket Farmers’ Market (Newmarket, NH) your vote. It’s quick and painless, with no strings attached — and it could help the Newmarket Farmers’ Market to win $5000!

Please vote today (and tell your friends)!

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ED. NOTE: This entry was first posted on Blogger, under the handle “ampersandblogger,” in June 2009. : : kf/&, 12/21/18

: : Ode to Purple Lilacs

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S STATE FLOWER

Who doesn’t love the wonderfully fragrant bouquet of lilacs, wafting on the breezes across New Hampshire, in the month of May? Always one of my favorite flowers (so lacy and delicate, in varying shades of one of my favorite colors!), each spring I eagerly await the budding of the lilac bush outside our home. It was transplanted from a neighbor’s yard —24 years ago — in celebration of our first home and the birth of our first son.

There’s nothing quite like sitting out on the porch on a sunny day, and taking in that familiar fragrance carried on the warm spring breeze. My whole family looks forward to this small window of time (two weeks at most — and early this year!) when we can throw open the windows and let the heady lilac fragrance in; so we hack off a few glorious bunches for good measure, and bring them inside, allowing their luscious scent to seep from room to room. It’s a comfort, and a reminder — of family, of home, and of childhood memories.

NEW HAMPSHIRE NATIVES

I’m a New Hampshire girl (born and raised and forever true). When I was young, we used to sing a happy song about NH and lilacs at summer camp, which captures the feeling perfectly:

I want to wake up, in the morning,
where the purple lilacs grow;
where the sun comes a peepin'
into where I'm a sleepin'
and the songbirds say, "hello!"

I want to wander, through the wild woods,
where the fragrant breezes blow,
and drift back, through New Hampshire,
where the purple lilacs grow.

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

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ED. NOTE: This entry was first posted on Blogger, under the handle “ampersandblogger,” in May 2009. : : kf/&, 2/3/2021

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:: Winter, fare thee well

Welcome Spring: Winter Beds Awaken

WELCOME, SPRING

Tired gray piles
of granular snow
sit slumped by the roadside
waiting to melt
in the warm noonday sun.

Beneath them
the slender
and varicose
leaves of crocus
tentatively, cautiously,
poke their heads up
through the soil.

With each day,
the piles recede
and the grass-like blades
grow taller.

Eventually
(finally!)
the snow does melt
and the crocus do
pop out
to welcome Spring.

I was inspired by April’s being National Poetry Month, and by the crocus photos I took recently, and the unseasonably warm & sunny weather we’ve been having of late, to write and post this poem today — Welcome, Spring!

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ED. NOTE: This entry was first posted on Blogger, under the handle “ampersandblogger,” in April 2009. : : kf, 7/25/19

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:: Welcome, Spring

MY CROCUS ARE UP!

First signs of spring (photo by kf/ampers&)

…and I saw a Robin the other day. Two telltale signs that spring has, indeed, arrived here in New Hampshire.*

Since our neighbors across the way (those who live on “the sunny side of the street”) already had daffodils in bloom while we still had two-foot snow piles, we sent our son out to rake the piles a bit, to help with the melting. And lo and behold! There were the crocus poking out to greet us—in all their purple and yellow glory.

After that, I was itching to get into all my gardens, clean out the beds, divide some overgrown perennials, put out the ornaments, spread the mulch, plant the annuals….

(SLOWLY) MAKING PROGRESS

On Monday morning, I raked and hauled leaves out of one half of one bed before the rain came. It was about all I could handle anyway, before being totally out of energy and breath (and having to get ready for work). At this rate, it’s looking like it could take me a while to get them all ready for spring planting, but that’s fine with me. It’s the simple act of being out there, puttering about, that’s the real joy of having a garden in the first place. So, welcome spring!

*I would be remiss not to add that winter is my favorite season and as much as I like playing in my garden, I, for one, am not happy to see the snow go. You see, I am an avid skier/snowboarder and, even though it’s spring on the NH Seacoast, there’s still plenty of snow up on the slopes. Cannon Mtn (aka “my happy place”) got four inches last weekend and their season is still going strong. Plus, next weekend is the annual Reggae Fest at Sugarloaf (always a good time!). So, even though I welcome spring on the one hand, I still say “let it snow!” :)

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ED. NOTE: This entry was first posted on Blogger, under the handle “ampersandblogger,” in April 2009. : : kf/&, 7/25/19

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