Wednesday, March 07, 2007

On whiskey barrels and snowy woods

I love the four seasons of my garden. This morning, the whiskey barrel looked interesting edged with snow. A few months from now, it will be full of water, a small fountain splashing on the lacy ferns snuggling against its oak sides and rusted iron bands.

I spent part of yesterday perusing flower catalogues (I think we need some red lilies in the front garden) and sighing over several of Claude Monet's paintings and some actual photographs of his lush gardens in Giverny. I'm longing for "garden weather," but must admit that my spring, summer, and fall gardens wouldn't be nearly as wonderous if they weren't preceded by the stark, snowy landscapes of winter.

There's a metaphor on life in there somewhere, but I'll leave you to work it out on your own because my tea kettle is about to whistle.

Speaking of stark, snowy landscapes, The New Republic published Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," on this day in 1923:

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

5 comments:

Laura Vivanco said...

To go from the poetic to the childish, you can have some virtual gardening weather if you go to the BBC's children's website. It has a game which allows you to create a garden and then watch it grow and change as the year progresses. It's called My Secret Garden and my five-year-old is very fond of it.

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

My mom has been ordering her seeds for her gardens for about a month now. She's got her geraniums started and several have come up already. Mind you, they won't be ready to plant out front for awhile yet - they just need to be started early. Her and dad were checking out their dahlia tubers yesterday to see if they are starting to sprout as well.

Domino said...

I really appreciate you. It kinda brightens my day to see a snow picture and Robert FROST poetry in the same blog post.

HOW COOL!

=D

Adam E. Luther said...

Was reading this post/poem while listening to Springsteen's "Downbound Train" whose lyric "woods" echoed Frost's "woods" in the first line almost simultaneously...just thought I'd share that.

Brenda Coulter said...

This ought to make you grin, Adam: Right now I'm listening to "Thunder Road" on my iPod.

Thanks, everyone, for reading and commenting.