http://www.tallcloverfarm.com Homeward bound on Puget Sound. Putting in a good day on Vashon Island time. Wed, 16 May 2012 17:03:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4814/wjs-sweater-a-gift-of-warmth http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4814/wjs-sweater-a-gift-of-warmth#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:11:39 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=4814 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } Not sure if Boz is cuddling up to me or the cashmere. Last September, summer’s extended stay gave notice to the night with a persistent chill insinuating itself on our outdoor gathering. While my friends Nancy and Scarlett had decorated their gazebo and garden table in floral and fabric finery, dinner guests came prepared, outfitted [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4814/wjs-sweater-a-gift-of-warmth/feed 22 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4774/a-couple-more-lessons-from-summer http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4774/a-couple-more-lessons-from-summer#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2011 18:03:15 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=4774 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } A followup to my post: 10 Things I Learned This Summer Summer is too generous a season to limit my learning curve to a wee bunny slope. A mere 10 lessons to be learned, I think not. As I sit at my kitchen table ignoring autumn’s various and persistent calling cards, I ponder a few [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4774/a-couple-more-lessons-from-summer/feed 19 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4738/plums-in-a-jar-spicy-spirited-keepers http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4738/plums-in-a-jar-spicy-spirited-keepers#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 20:38:23 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=4738 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } I’m a man who’s a fan of things to can, a preserve practitioner ready to bottle up summer sweet things at a moment’s notice or as availability allows. So when the folks at the SweetPreservation.com asked me to be a CANbassador, delivering a case of succulent Washington state plums, peaches and nectarines along with the question, [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4738/plums-in-a-jar-spicy-spirited-keepers/feed 10 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4707/homegrown-postcard-dahlias-by-the-bucketful http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4707/homegrown-postcard-dahlias-by-the-bucketful#comments Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:17:37 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=4707 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } Not much to say today; I’m heading out the door to secure a hearty hug from the final days of summer. The breeze is light, the sun determined and the garden is offering an encore performance at every turn. I title this shot: Beauty and the Beast.

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4707/homegrown-postcard-dahlias-by-the-bucketful/feed 7 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4514/how-to-make-your-lilies-last-longer http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4514/how-to-make-your-lilies-last-longer#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:05:50 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=4514 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } Boz and I share a love of lilies; me for its beauty and perfume; Boz for its vertical nature. August is the month when my garden really goes full-on Victorian, a color explosion of old fashioned flowers plucked from a John Singer Sargent canvas. Hollyhocks, phlox, lilies and roses dot my landscape as if applied [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4514/how-to-make-your-lilies-last-longer/feed 18 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4396/summer-photos-a-gallery-of-firsts http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4396/summer-photos-a-gallery-of-firsts#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:18:18 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=4396 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } Utah Giant cherry: first of the season, first for the tree While the rest of the country smolders under the debilitating heat of summer, the Pacific Northwest chills out with unseasonably cool days and generous cloud cover. In fact, this year Seattle meteorologists have only recorded two times, for a total of 78 minutes, when [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4396/summer-photos-a-gallery-of-firsts/feed 24 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4219/garden-tour-the-grass-is-greener http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4219/garden-tour-the-grass-is-greener#comments Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:33:14 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=4219 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } I take my hat off (Elmer Fudd wants it back) to any homeowner brave and hardworking enough to participate in a garden tour. For a man who thinks folding clothes is a chore, the idea of maintaining a dandelion free lawn or growing a rose bush without black spot sends me scrambling for the security [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4219/garden-tour-the-grass-is-greener/feed 25 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4028/how-i-can-tell-its-almost-summer http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4028/how-i-can-tell-its-almost-summer#comments Tue, 31 May 2011 22:43:11 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=4028 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } Not so fast, this was last summer. I don’t need a calendar to tell me summer is fast approaching. Here in the Pacific Northwest, the signs are everywhere: the mercury is tipping 60 degrees Fahrenheit; I’m donning cotton sweaters instead of wool; and my tomato plants are beginning to bend their stems toward the sky. [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/4028/how-i-can-tell-its-almost-summer/feed 20 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2425/so-long-summer-a-photo-finish-and-farewell http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2425/so-long-summer-a-photo-finish-and-farewell#comments Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:52:59 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=2425 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } Summer has slipped through my fingers again. Warm days have given way to morning chill, dew lingers well past first light and every branch is a spider trapeze.  Yes, I tearing up. (Photo: Olympic Mountains, Puget Sound: view from West Seattle ferry dock.) Autumn is here and winter will insinuate itself shortly. I must face the the fact that summer is over. Since I have [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2425/so-long-summer-a-photo-finish-and-farewell/feed 15 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2287/hollyhocks-signal-summers-last-stand http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2287/hollyhocks-signal-summers-last-stand#comments Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:04:21 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=2287 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } As summer wanes, my hollyhocks mark its passage, each blossom a page in the season’s story.  June finds an optimistic sprout fighting off the early advances of ravenous slugs and resident rust. July showcases a robust adolescent, standing tall above the sword ferns, taking on the foxgloves in a race to touch the sky. August arrives with a floral flourish; plants dotted [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2287/hollyhocks-signal-summers-last-stand/feed 5 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2230/chutney-love-recipe-for-preserving-summer http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2230/chutney-love-recipe-for-preserving-summer#comments Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:03:45 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=2230 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } Whether praising peaches, exalting raspberries or ogling apricots, I’d have to say I gush over seasonal fruit. What I don’t grow well (and that’s a big category this year), I try to buy locally. I just received a box of fruit from the Washington Sate Fruit Commission, a cardboard treasure chest layered with summer’s finest jewels: peaches, plums, and Italian prunes. [...]

]]> http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2230/chutney-love-recipe-for-preserving-summer/feed 26 http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2142/dandelion-wisdom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/2142/dandelion-wisdom#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 05:34:12 +0000 Tom http://www.tallcloverfarm.com/?p=2142 #leftcontainerBox { float:left; position: fixed; top: 60%; left: 70px; } #leftcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; clear:both; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; padding-bottom:2px; } #bottomcontainerBox { height: 30px; width:50%; padding-top:1px; } #bottomcontainerBox .buttons { float:left; height: 30px; margin:4px 4px 4px 4px; } Yesterday, I stood on my porch grousing about the legions of dandelions encamped on my lawn. Hours later, my goddaughter Isabel stood among them, delighting in their presence.  Where I saw weeds, she saw limitless bouquets.  Where I decried a villain, she beheld a beauty. Sometimes all you need is a bouquet of perspective to transform the irksome into the acceptable (but I’m still getting out the mower), and truthfully, sometimes [...]

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