Lilly Martin Spencer

Lilly Martin Spencer was born in England to French parents in 1822. The family immigrated to New York in 1830. Lilly began painting at an early age and was encouraged to do so by her parents who recognized her abilities. She spent many years living and working in Ohio. In her marriage she was the main breadwinner and her work achieved national recognition. She and her husband raised seven children and she was painting right up until her death in 1902 in Highland, New York.

Still Life with Berries and Currants (1859 - 1860)

For Groundhog Day - a tangelo

February 2nd is celebrated as Groundhog Day in various parts of the United States. It marks that point in the calendar when we are halfway between winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Whether or not the groundhog sees its shadow today is imagined to be an indicator of the remaining length of winter weather.

I was thinking of light and shadow - and the color wheel and theory of complementary colors this morning. Working with blue paper I realized it really is the perfect complement to the color of the tangelo I was about to eat. When I placed the tangelo on the paper it cast a shadow. Now, I know the tangelo probably doesn't see its own shadow but does this mean we're in for six more weeks of winter?

January's Wolf Moon

Our recent full moon of January 26th is called a "Wolf Moon" in the legacy of northern and eastern tribes of the Algonquin and Iroquois nations. In cold mid-winter snows, wolves roam the landscape in search of food.
No wolves are seen around here but the moon still rises bright, clear, and crisp over buildings put up to house the waves of immigrants of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: these are the buildings we refer to as tenements.

Jamaican-born poet of the Harlem Renaissance, Claude McKay (1889 - 1948), was inspired by the sight of moonlight over the tenements.


"Upon the clothes behind the tenements,
That hang like ghosts suspended from the lines,
Linking each flat,but to each indifferent,
Incongruous and strange the moonlight shines."

A Song of the Moon
Claude McKay


The use of the clothes drier and concerns for tenant safety have brought the sight of laundry lines to an end in most big cities; but the moon still shines upon the tenements and, in places far away, families of wolves are searching for sustenance.

Looking forward

The winter holiday celebrations are fading quickly. The green presence and the fragrance of our homes' Christmas trees are about to become a thing of the past. It's the start of a new year - 2013 - and we begin to look forward to spring's verdant growth and renewal.
Even if you have only a window box, it's a great joy to spend time on a cold and gray day browsing through garden seed and plant catalogues. The photographs and illustrations are splendid and bring on dreams of warmer, sunnier times, hands digging into earth, and bountiful harvests of flowers, fruit, and vegetables.
American essayist and novelist Charles Dudley Warner wrote seriously and sometimes humorously about gardening.

"To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch the renewal of life - this is the commonest delight of the race..."

"The thing generally raised on city land is taxes."

Charles Dudley Warner, American author, 1829-1900
My Summer in a Garden [1870]

St. Lucia Day

On December 13th every year we celebrate the feast of Saint Lucia, or Saint Lucy. She was martyred in Syracuse during the persecution of Diocletian. Her name, which is derived from the Latin word lux,meaning light, is mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass and invoked in the Litany of the Saints. Dante mentions Lucia in Canto II of Inferno and in Canto XXXII of Paradiso.
Since her name means "light" and her feast comes among the darkest and shortest days of the year in the northern hemisphere, there is great popular devotion to her in Scandinavian countries; young girls dress as the saint and their heads are wreathed in crowns of white candles. In Sicily the day is celebrated with an abundance of homemade pasta and there is a special dessert of wheat in hot chocolate milk.
Francisco de Zurbarán (1598 - 1664) painted Saint Lucia wearing a spectacularly voluminous dress.

Inspiration and the artist

Many artists have found inspiration in gardens and the shapes and forms of the natural world. That idea is beautifully realized in the Monumental Sculptures of artist Manolo Valdés at The New York Botanical Garden (Bronx, NY). These huge outdoor sculptures incorporate female heads and the forms of leaves, ferns, palm fronds - and even trellises.

Full Moon in November

As November comes to a close we're treated to a beautiful moon above us. British poet Thomas Hood often took a humorous approach to his subjects and that's very clear in his poem "No!".

"No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!"

Thomas Hood, British poet and humorist, (1799-1845)