The Holidays - Open House!

Since our first frost was a hard frost this year, we started our fall clean-up right after  that. We got about halfway around before the big storm hit. Had to Wait for things to dry out after that. One thing that didn't die off was the coconut scented geranium I have in the 4-square garden. Scented geraniums are not hardy here in zone 6; however the seeds of coconut are winter hardy reseeds each year for me. I was surprised that the plant itself was not  killed off when the temperature dropped into the 20's. I know it will die off soon, but it's a tough little plant in addition to smelling yummy.

We do have a few flats of potted herbs and topiaries going for holiday sales, but most of my work now is in the shop. I've been crafting for Christmas for awhile, and now I‘m decorating and putting it all together. l'm sure I‘m in the minority, but I like to wait until November to see holiday decorating.

Our holiday open house will be held Friday November 30 and Saturday December 1 from 9 to 5. We'll have the aforementioned potted herbs and topiaries in the greenhouse. The shop is full with seasonal gifts and decorations, along with our standard stock of oils, handmade soaps, lotions and spritzes, books, calendars, jewelry, pet treats and Catnip toys, etc. During our open house, we'll run specials in the shop on several items, serve herbal refreshments and have prize drawings. I know this is a very busy time of year, but we hope you will find time to drop by during the holiday season.

Our fall newsletter comes out in mid-November. If you're not on our mailing list, sign up when you visit the farm. We send out both paper and e-mail copies, whichever you prefer. Lots of ideas for holiday gifts, plus a peek ahead to spring.

After the Storm

We made it through the hurricane or superstorm or whatever with no problems-certainly much better than the tropical storm in 2011.

We had a little water in the basement which was easily cleaned up with the shop-vac. We had some water in the shop because a piece of spouting blew off. But of course, all the products are up on tables and counters, so that also was just a matter of cleaning up some water. We were lucky in that we did not lose electricity, When that happens, the greenhouses deflate, because the blower fan between the layers of plastic doesn't work, That’s one of the main reasons we got a generator. John was ready to go, but didn't need to use it.

l‘m very glad we replaced the plastic on greenhouse 2, because the old plastic was very patchy and I don’t know how well it would have held up. Both greenhouses stood up very well to the winds.
John was ready with his vast array of flashlights. He has big flashlights, little flashlights, LED ones, one you shake to charge-just an amazing number and variety of them. I don't think we were more than 4-6 feet from a flashlight anywhere in the house. I do think people learned from the 2011 storm and were really prepared this time around.

We had a Very exciting sighting after the storm. We saw a bald eagle in the field right across the street from our house. John saw it first and after trying to figure out which tree he meant, I saw a very large, dark bird with a white head sitting in a tree. It was far away so We couldn't see detail. John went out to get his binoculars and got a good view, but it had flown away before I got to look with the binocs. I know they are seen around the river.  We wondered if it got blown off course by the storm. It was a pretty cool sighting.

On one of our walks, Lucy went racing across the yard and jumped on a purple flower. I thought it was an artificial one blown about by the storm. Turns out it was a saffron crocus! John‘s aunt had given me bulbs several years ago. They were all eaten by voles.

They missed this one and I got three threads of saffron.