Book - A Country Year by Sue Hubbell

I am not sure what in my life is drawing me towards books about women and beekeeping, but here is another wonderful book about both.

Sue Hubbell has an easy style of writing that drew me through this book in just over a day. While she talks about her time as a commercial beekeeper, she also writes about the simple qualities and hard realities of living close to the land and close to poverty in rural Missouri. Her observant style brings back memories of my own small town upbringing. This is just the right book for curling up on a cold Winter day or lounging in the hammock trying to escape the heat of Summer.

A Country Year : Living the Questions

Other books by Sue Hubbell

Grow your own chair!

Arborsculpture by Richard  Reames

This botanical artist makes furniture, sculpture and even housing out of living plants and trees. There are a host of examples on his web site.

Via BoingBoing

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Spring Flower

Created using ProCreate Painter and Wacom Tablet

Inspiration from the garden

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Termite Prep and the Azaleas

As part of the preparation for the termite fumigation coming next week, we need to get all the plants trimmed at least 1 foot from the side of the house. Luckily, there isn't a lot of plantings right against the house so this shouldn't be too big of an issue.

That said, the front bed of azaleas has gone almost untouched for the 8 years we have lived here. I have lightly pruned these shrubs, but never taken any dramatic action. Now I had to approach the project with a stronger hand.

Along with pruning the foliage back from the house, I decided to do a heavy pruning to open up the plants and give them a bit of a fresh start after 10 years or more of free-wheeling growth. I think I did pretty well. While the shrubs look a little spindly now, I think they will quickly rebound and respond with more appropriate growth. In one case, the azalea had been trimmed into a hedge shape using a hedge trimmer for years. This took more of an effort, but I believe a more natural habit has been restored.

Here are before and after pictures of the front bed.

Next, I have to spend a few minutes pulling the Wisteria and Clytostoma vines off the house and garage, and pulling back some Agapanthus foliage. With the big project out of the way, though, I feel I am right on track to be ready for next Monday.

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