Journal of a Sabbatical

August 27, 2000

garden in the woods - a minimalist entry

Today's Reading: Leap by Terry Tempest Williams, Thoreau's Garden by Peter Loewer

Today's Starting Pitcher: whoever it was lost

Nancy and I took a field trip to Garden in the Woods this afternoon. It's about an hour and 15 minutes from Providence the way we went. It's a lot closer as the crow flies, but I drive a Honda Accord not a flying crow.

Anyway, I think this is the first time in three years that I have gone to Framingham for a reason not connected with Zsolt and his obsolete computers. In fact he isn't even in Framingham at the moment as the Hungarians are gathering in Budapest and flying to Beijing from there, leaving me to meet them in China. In fairness, they did suggest it would not be "irrealistic" for me to meet up with them in Budapest but since BiB is here and what with La Madre's birthday and all...

Whoo, none of this has to do with Garden in the Woods, which is the headquarters of the New England Wildflower Society and is really nifty. We didn't get to stay as long as I wanted because Nancy's social worker support group is meeting tonight in Narragansett so her ride is picking her up earlier than expected... where was I?

I took some pictures:

Oak Leaf Hydrangea	Heart Leaf Ginger
A red thing I forgot to write down the name of. Probably Cardinal Flower.	A red dragonfly with yellow legs on a sign about Juniperus procumbens.

I bought some books:

Thoreau's Garden by Peter Loewer and Dragonflies through Binoculars by Sidney W. Dunkle.

Actually Nancy spotted the Peter Loewer book in the gift shop and called out "Egan! Isn't this exactly the kind of book you've been looking for?" Indeed it is. Loewer has illustrated the native plants mentioned in Thoreau's journals with gorgeous pen and ink drawings. And... It's keyed to the fourteen volumes printed as two edition edited by Torrey and Allen, published by Dover in 1962, the very one I just bought on bibliofind.com, which is sitting on my desk right now waiting to be decoded. If the Loewer book didn't exist, I would have to write it and since I can't draw worth a darn, it's a good thing it exists.

Checking in with Dragonflies through Binoculars, I conclude that the red dragonfly with yellow legs is a male yellow-legged meadowhawk. The book mentions its being seen late in the season and in woodlands, but nothing about any particular fondness for Juniperus procumbens. I can see this book is going to get a lot of use.

And Garden in the Woods offers a certificate program in Native Plant Studies. But let's not get carried away here.