The Holiday Season Approaches

"If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." 

Henry David Thoreau

 Since it's an off season in the garden and greenhouse, I could totally dive off a cliff into political discourse here but I won't. I will however say that we should impeach him and lock him up and I don't have a problem with anyone knowing my political convictions or positions. I will not say much more than that and get back to plants now. 

This is a glass lantern slide box that has the develop before October 1931 date on it. Jack Poff, Mrs. Berry's old gardener gave this to me as a going away present when I left the garden for other ventures.

I attended a wonderful Talk on Glass Lantern Slides showing some of the rock gardens of Portland in the prime days, Gardens like Elk Rock and Lilla Leach and the M. Loyd Frank Estate were featured, absolutely stunning. The detail in the slides is remarkable given that they are hand painted sometimes with such detail as would require a single hair brush! 

This is the slide, I think it's Primula matthioli but it's unmarked, I'm guessing it must have been Mrs. Berry's as she was a noted primrose collector. I wonder if she hand colored this herself perhaps as it was noted in the talk that it was mostly women how did the coloring, often to a standardized color chart so that plants could be identified and compared even if a different artist had painted it. If you are in the Portland area and get the chance to see Suzanne Bishop of the Portland Garden Club do her talk on the subject of Glass Lantern Slides you must make every opportunity to go.

The gardening work for the fall is pretty much complete, the greenhouse cleaned up and plants tucked away for the winters rest. I have a growing batch of tender bulbs I've been playing with and unfortunately have to move them into the house if temperatures are forecasted to get down into the 20's. But a small price to pay I suppose for the hopeful reward of interesting flowers of the Southern Hemisphere. Patiently waiting for the Hoop Petticoat Narcissus to pop into bloom now that the autumn bloomers have finished up. 

The above was really just filler for the weather report, which has been strange to say the least, the last few weeks of October and into the first two of November we had almost zero rain. November is normally our rainiest month and this year has been very strange to see so little falling from the sky. I had a big tree removed by the North Driveway and replanted the area with some evergreens to give a screening effect and noted that I had to water several times, a very unusual task for fall planting season in the Pacific Northwest. Temps in the 50's today with fog and a forecast of drizzle coming this afternoon. 

Cheers, 

Mark