Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

A Dream of Beauty Holiday Walk

"Our Christmas was a dream of beauty," wrote Gene Stratton-Porter about her 1917 Christmas in The Cabin in Wildflower Woods. Come join us as we celebrate a 1917 Christmas on Saturday, November 21 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Draft horses pulling a wagon will meet you in the Visitor's Lot and make regular trips around the site. After dark, the site will be lighted with luminaries transforming the woods into a place of magic.

Your first stop will be the Carriage House where you can purchase your wrist band for $3 and browse the Gift Shop. I'm really impressed with the variety and quality of items for sale, especially for you gardeners and nature lovers! And there is a special 10% discount on the day of the Walk. Decorations used at the site in the past will be for sale in the presentation room. (I'm planning to make a stop there early in the day because these are beautiful decorations.)

Upstairs in the Carriage House will be homemade cookies and candies. There will be two crafts in the Carriage House (corn husk dolls and pine cone bird feeders).

On the way down to the Cabin, stop by the Garden Shed and see a tree decorated with dried flowers from the Garden. In the Garden Shed you can also do a flower transfer craft.

On to the Cabin where I will greet you at the entry (OK so that may not be the high point of this stop). Get your senses ready for this experience. Music by Nancy Blough and two other musicians. She loves people to participate, whether with rhythm instruments or dancing the jig. Quick breads baking in the kitchen with one to take home. And Gene's dream of beauty decorations.

Here are some pictures from two years ago.

I hope to see you this Saturday and let me know if you read about the Holiday Walk on this blog.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Post-Freeze Garden Blooms

Can you believe there are still blooms in the Tame Garden? Recent visitors have commented on the nasturtiums, snapdragons, hydrangea (pink and blue), toad lily, calendula, profusion zinnias, gaillardia and geraniums. We have had several hard freezes, but the garden is situated so that a lot of the plants are spared.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Nature Writing Workshop

The day after the nature poetry program for students, Joyce Brinkman led a program for adults at the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site. Gerard Manley Hopkins and, to a lesser extent, Mary Oliver were given as models for "inscape" or more than surface descriptions of nature. We were instructed to select an object and delve deep into its essence, using word combinations, even made-up words and internal rhyming. So these are not finished poems, but the beginning of poems.

Poplar Seed Pod by Steve Ferguson

Splotch-brown, mold-white stripes
Delicate grooves, banana-bruised
Densely pregnant
With
Ten Ten thousand trees
The breeze sighs and rising,
Frees
The babes to sprout, grow
Destiny fulfilled.


The Nursing Log by Martha Ferguson

You beckon me,
With slanted sun skimming you
As you sink into the soil.

Bright red in the sun, out of shady dark brown.

You're cracked, perfect squares, rectangles.
All linear where once you were round
Invaded-insects, your only round now.

No long gray-barked, but green-mossed
No long standing, but supine
No longer green-leafed, but feeding tomorrow's green.

September Garden shots





























































































Photos courtesy www.aceofimages.com

Westview students visit GSP on Sept 18th for Poet Laureate Joyce Brinkman's postcard poetry program



















































Photos courtesy www.aceofimages.com