Wednesday, May 30, 2012

My Holiday Weekend

How was your holiday weekend? Did you do anything fun?

Saturday was mostly spent doing gardening and housework, but Sunday was a relax and have fun day (although it was, in part, research for my current series, which features a hero who is a Seneca Indian). My best pal Ellen and I went to the Fenimore Museum in Cooperstown, NY--they have a fabulous collection of Native American art, including, at the moment, the Thaw Collection, which has been traveling the country. If you live anywhere near there, I highly recommend it.

Ellen and I went for the day's event, an Iroquois Festival. (The Seneca are one of a number of tribes who are collectively known as Iroquois, in case you didn't know.) There was amazing Native singing and dancing
And the folks doing it were lovely and friendly, besides being talented. In case you can't tell, I'm the one second from the right, with my arm around the cute guy :-)
I got to see a genuine bark longhouse, one of which I used in my book, SEEDS OF CHANGE. And was happy to see I got all my facts right :-)

And there were a lot of Native American vendors selling truly beautiful crafts and art--including this barrette, which I couldn't resist. (Because I have long hair, I tend to collect cool hair doodads...and this not only was my colors, but it had stars!)
Not only did I get to enjoy the museum, the Festival, and do research at the same time, and spend the day with one of my oldest friends, it was one of those rare *perfect* upstate NY days...low 80's, not too humid, sunny, and hardly any bugs. All in all, a wonderful day.

Then on Monday, I came back to reality, and spent some time in the hot & muggy morning, pulling massive amounts of weeds to reclaim the sort-of flower beds at the front of the house. I should have taken a "before" picture--but it would just have looked like a mess of overgrown unidentifiable greenery. This is what it looked like "after."

As you can see, once the heaping wheelbarrow full of weeds was removed, there wasn't much left...guess I need to buy some perennials to plant there. It gets full sun, and of course, it is Zone 4, so not much survives the winter. Any suggestions?

I hope you had a lovely weekend too. Anything you want to share about what you did?

8 comments:

  1. You could do peonies, echinacea, iris or alliums or a combination. They are all easy to grow, easy to find, grow in zone 4 (although check the variety to make sure) and deer-resistant. Looking at your picture, I might do a peony on either side of the door and then echinacea (white, yellow pink and purple) and daffodils and grape hyacinths down to the corners. That would give you spring color - the hyacinths and daffs, and then the peonies would bloom and then the echinacea for the rest of the summer. And in the fall, just cut back the dying stems and wait for spring. Weed occasionally, water if needed and you're good to go.

    Yeah, my flower gardening is being totally frustrated right now by the on hold construction and I'm taking it out on you!!

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    1. Great suggestions! I love peonies and have them in other spots, but none there...also echinacea in the herb garden, but none elsewhere....

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  2. Look for a rose called, "The Fairy". The last time I was in New England I saw it growing in a bunch of different places (Nathaniel Hawthorne's house in Salem & in gardens up in Shelburn, Vermont, for example), which told me it's a hardy little plant. My weekend wasn't nearly as much fun as yours. Got to stay home and work while the family went all over the place. I'm just glad to have everyone home safely. ;)

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    1. I've seen them in catalogs and the look lovely...and would be very nice at the front of the house.

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  3. Yay perfect Upstate NY weather!! It's rare!!

    I haven't been down to Cooperstown in forever, but there's usually something fun going on down there!

    Glad you enjoyed your weekend -- and post pictures once you choose your plants! :)

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  4. I lived in NM for quite a while so I am familiar with how fascinating First Nations stuff can be. Sounds like a good place to check out.
    My weekend was mostly sad and frustrating. Both my daughters had a major crisis. There were too many people in my house for me to write and my word count was zero for several days. There was too much morning noise for me to get sleep. Meep, meep whine, whine. Sorry.
    The one bright spot was I spent rare time with my brother who was visiting from California.

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  5. I love the hairtoy - so beautiful!! Glad you had such a fun and relaxing weekend. :)

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  6. hostas all differnt ones very colorful ones. the come back every year. even if you think you dug them up.

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