Purging the Dead in 2020

When snow left early in the spring of 2020, though not for good, we began working on the never-ending cutting of the dead pines which are everywhere in the woods surrounding the Lodge. Our best guess is that they must have perished due to overcrowding when all of them started to grow at once as a result of my Grandfather not being able to till the land and keep his garden there any more. There are more dead pines than live ones and we chip away at them when we can. Before bugs; ticks, mayflies and mosquitos come out, it is a great time to work the woods. We got close to 200 trees down, burning and chipping the branches, cutting the trunks into 2 foot chunks and laying them to define the paths. Since we were confined to the Lodge due to Covid-19, it was a perfect project. Got us outside, gave us plenty of exercise and the results were amazing.
New growth is happening on the trunks of the trees and green forest plants are emerging throughout the wooded areas. Though we still have much more to do, the progress made this spring is very rewarding. 

Christmas 2019 at Oak Hill Lodge

Lodge Tree

Festive for Christmas

After having taken a trip to the Newport, Rhode Island mansions shortly before Christmas, I was especially inspired to decorate. They offer a pass to visit five of the mansions and not all in the same day. However, since we were sure not to have the time to revisit, we squished as many of them into our daylong visit as we could. It was wonderful!

Newport Mansion

Winter 2019-2020

With the exception of a nasty ice storm that brought down many pine branches and broke two large limbs off the maple which is central to fall foliage splendor, the winter of 2019-2020 was snow-wise a very easy one. Proof of this is our plowing budget which was way below the norm for the year. Of course, the winter was not an easy one in other ways... it was the winter that Coronavirus struck, leaving us all quarantined in our homes. Lucky for Eric and I, there is a project list a mile long, so being "stuck" in the Lodge, is never going to be a problem.

A Slow Start to Spring

Mid-May was when the daffodils started to bloom at Oak Hill Lodge this year. The nights were still going down into the 30's and low 40's and the days are only getting up  to the high 40's and low 50's.
My hostas are just tiny fingers protruding from the soil. The soil is still so wet, it is stopping me from doing my much loved edging. You can see the first few blossoms on the magnolia in the background of the fully blooming weeping cherry. The grass is just starting to green up, though "City Folk" have already been mowing. The ground phlox is not yet blooming. I am thankful for the number of spring bulbs that I have planted as without them, the gardens would seem glum. Please, Mother Nature... reward us for our long winter with some heat!!!

A Rainy Spring Made for Lots of Time in the Workshop

In April, we had 22 days out of 30 that were rainy or rain mixed with snow, or just snow. As the thick sheet of ice slowly melted off all the gardens, I was lucky that some melted faster than others. I made a pack to try to keep up with the melting and clean gardens as they thawed. It was a pretty successful strategy though the wetter areas on the far side of the field are yet to let me into them as they are still flooded. Days that the rain was too heavy to go out, we spent the days in Eric's woodshop, creating things for the garden. My birthday was rainy and the pub I wanted to go to in Kennebunkport was not open until the weekend, so we spent the day starting work on this beautiful arbor to replace the one I have thought was just "too wimpy" in the rose garden area. The wood ended up costing us just under $175 and it took us about 2 full days to construct. Can't wait for the PT to season a bit so I can paint the posts!

Next Time Someone Calls You A Pansy...

...remember this picture! These tough little guys withstand being buried in the snow and come back even more brilliant in color. Our late April snow in 2019 completely buried all the pansies I had place in urns about the property... but when the sun reappeared, so did they... unscathed! 

An Icy Winter for 2019

Though there was not much snow this winter, the ice was indeed something to be reckoned with. Our new puppy MacIntosh needed to go out lots and with the early nights and frequent dustings of snow, we wisely kept a pair of boots by the door which were always equipped with grippons. More than once, that strategy saved the day!