In the spirit of the mural I did for the kitchen at Oak Hill Lodge, I created this painting for the Garden Club Federation of Maine. Their annual summer conference will be next June, and they asked me, based on the theme Mid Summer Night's Dream, to create a painting which they could use to entice garden club members all around the State of Maine to attend. I plan to donate the painting so it can be auctionned off along with several prints which could also be sold to sure up the coffers! It was a really fun project for me and hopefully it will be a good "tease" for the convention.

First frost lands on the roof of Oak Hill Lodge. Such beauty, yet a harbinger of what is to come.

O.K., ...... not to brag, but, my Elephant Ear is tremendous! This is the fourth year I have had the bulb and every year it gets bigger and bigger... so exciting!  I guess various people have contests to see who has the biggest leaves on their plants and I really wish I could enter that contest! Funny, I used to remove the bulb from its pot and store it "dry" all winter, but found I undoubtedly planted the bulb upside down, so the poor plant had to wind itself around this massive bulb to make it to sunlight. I have left it in the pot and simply cut it off the past two years, left it dry until about mid-February then began watering it and by the time it goes out in late May, it has already begun forming its new leaves. It gives it a really great jump start!

We awakened a white roof and a slippery deck on Tuesday, October 16th. The white ice crystals sparkled atop the bright orange pumpkins and gave a winterish look to all surfaces on which it lies.
Thank goodness for the brilliant colors of the mums and the late summer grasses which withstand the frosts, at least for a while.

I love this time of year, the cooler temps, no bugs, the beautiful colors the autumn brings to Maine... but there is also a side of me who mourns for the plants as they encounter that first killing frost and all the growth I have watched with such wonder all summer long, withers while I lay sleeping. We had just such a frost October 16th, this year. I went to bed with my gardens still looking like they had in late September and awakened to blackened pole bean vines, wilted cannas and marigolds which I grew from seed in my living room at Raymond Court, laying sadly on the ground, only a slight glimmer of orange left in their blossoms, their foliage blackend and slimey. Alas, Jack Frost striketh with his mighty wand.

Gypsy Rose Lee

Thirty years of litter box duty and a son-in-law who is allergic to cats, had my mind made up that we would not be getting any more felines in the family. However, the Lord had a different plan for us. In the seven years at Oak Hill, we have never once seen a cat in the area. Last Tuesday morning, as I walked across the front deck, this tiny, guess to be 10-12 week old kitten bounds out from under the deck to greet not only me but both of the dogs with not the slightest trepidation. She made herself so much at home, she followed me from garden to garden as I did my early morning watering, sat just outside the curtain as Eric took his shower, and rubbed her head on the bottom of Guiness' chin as if it were her mother. As we were off to Bath to open the shop that morning, I left her with some dog kibble and asked her to go find where she came from, but two days later when we returned, there she was, guarding the Lodge and waiting patiently for our return. Again she endeared herself by being constantly at our heels, so after a brief hesitation, I was off to buy cat food and a litter box. Our "Gypsy" will stay as long as she cares to, but by the looks she has found her permanent home.

McEwan, Hound of the Hill

McEwan