The storied neo-noir film director Samuel Fuller observed, “Life is in color, but black and white is more realistic.” This sums up the problem with winter: too realistic. When photographing a winter landscape, you must scrutinize the resulting image to detect any trace of color. Occasionally, a shrub’s foliage, berries, or a foraging robin will […]
To technology-glutted moderns, the celebration of the New Year may seem like a fleeting one-day inebriation, a hiccup in the 365-day trajectory it takes for our planet to complete one orbit around the sun. May their hangover cure include realizing that without the sun’s heat and light, they, like the Earth, would be a lifeless, […]
At the dawning of the era of the personal computer, high-tech visionaries heralded the coming digital golden age. Technology would liberate us from drudgery and enrich our existence. Awaiting us was a new epoch of leisure and work-life balance. Our lives would be more than lives; we’d have lifestyles, with bountiful “quality time” to spend […]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously approached his first 100 days as president in 1933 to attack the demons of the Great Depression: unemployment, poverty, healthcare, and reviving industry and agriculture. All new presidents since have had a 100 day gauntlet to confront and address the many ills that face them. Having run more than five 100-day […]
Pundits and commentators in New York City and Washington, D.C. think that when president-elect Trump declares he will “drain the swamp”, he’s either expressing racism (Ray Lenz of the Southern Poverty Law Center) or wasting time since “it just rains and then there’s another swamp” (John Podhoretz of Commentary magazine). If these are examples of […]
E Pluribus Garden Today, the Fourth of July, you, me, and our 323,995,528 fellow Americans unite to honor and celebrate our nation’s 240th birthday. We bask in a happy blend of patriotism, love-thy-neighbor friendliness, and pre-electronic fun. Founding Father and future president John Adams anticipated the character of our jubilant annual observance: “It ought to […]
by George Ball The 4th of July is the sparkliest, most jubilant and expansive of all our holidays, secular or religious—a celebration shared by families, neighbors, communities and the entire nation. On earth, there are picnics in parks and gardens; in the heavens, flower-like fireworks. Perched between them, spangled on a million blankets are gaggles […]
Today, you may be surprised to learn, is the first day of Fall. Fall, you may feel, commenced weeks ago—just in time for the football season, innumerable Fall sales, and references to Fall in news reports. “Here Comes Fall Weather,” announced the Washington Post on September 15th. New York Magazine published its Fall Fashion issue […]
The Sunday Star, Easton Md, Sunday, February 10, 2008. As an estimated 40 million US gardeners select their seeds to sow for fall harvest, the nation’s voters choose their candidates for November’s presidential election. Resonant horticultural metaphors are not coincidental, but spring from the roots of civilization. Gardens illustrate the processes of democratic governments, from the […]
After closing our fiscal year at Burpee Seeds, I noticed some intriguing figures in the sales of flower and vegetable seeds to home gardeners that, while displaying great differences, also show affinities that would warm a compost heap. Politics, in my opinion, is not so much a contest between different states of red and blue as between different shades of green—a comforting reality in today’s frosty political climate.Lets’ first examine…
