Our garden in mid-August

I haven't posted many pictures of our garden this year, but that's because it took so long for it to really take off. But during the past several weeks, it has grown like wildfire--the pumpkin plants have long trailing vines now and the pumpkins are looking good, the zucchini plants have already produced three large zucchinis, the greenhouse tomato plants have produced a few tomatoes, the dahlias look lovely, the gladiolas and hollyhocks likewise. The marigolds, cornflowers, and sunflowers are also doing well. My bean plants are producing string beans, and the carrot and potato plants are growing well (hopefully they'll produce well). It's been a banner year for berries of all sorts--strawberries, red currants, black currants, gooseberries, blackberries, and blueberries, but strangely enough, not raspberries, at least not in our garden. I planted two panicle hydrangeas, which are hardier than the usual hydrangeas and which seem to bloom for quite a long time, and two potentilla shrubs, which produce lovely small yellow flowers. They also seem to be quite hardy. I hope the warm weather continues into September so that the tomatoes, potatoes and carrots can grow to full maturity.

Here are some photos of the garden that I took yesterday and a few days ago......

Cinderella pumpkins growing happily

Lavender, gladiolas, dahlias, and Coreopsis flowers

one of four giant sunflowers 

Cinderella pumpkin patches

entrance to the garden

panicle hydrangea

tomatoes growing on the outdoor tomato plants

Scientist forever

I saw this saying on a coffee mug that was advertised on Facebook, and it struck a chord, apropos my previous post. I think I will buy this mug as a reminder that no matter what, I will always be a scientist. In a more serious vein, as long as we continue to read, learn, discuss, hypothesize, gather and summarize data--we remain scientists.......

The image credits are as follows: Copyright:© Illustrator Georgie Retzer #illustratorg - http://www.redbubble.com/people/illustrator
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Traveling, gaining new perspective, and life changes

Traveling opens the mind to new ways of thinking and looking at situations. I don't know how many times I have returned from a trip filled with renewed hope, enthusiasm, and motivation to tackle certain aspects of life that may have appeared complicated or tricky before I left. While I am away, I seem to be able to let go in a much better way than when I am continually faced with the same situation day after day. Sometimes it IS good to get away in order to get perspective. What may seem overwhelming on a daily basis becomes manageable after getting distance from it. That is my experience and I'm sure it has been the experience of others.

Traveling allows the mind to relax and focus on the now. When I am traveling, I don't think too much about the past or the future. I enjoy the present, because the things I am doing are enjoyable and fun, and I am doing them with people I love and care about.

This will become ever more important as I get older. I know now when I want to retire, and I am moving in that direction, moving my daily life in that direction, so that all my actions translate into a gradual rather than abrupt transition into a life without a daily work schedule. Some days I think about what I will do when I retire, other days I realize I don't need to plan it all now. Perhaps it's best to let life happen, to see what life brings at that point. Many of my American friends have retired already. Those who have not, have unusual work schedules; they either have home offices or they travel a lot and are not office-bound. They've had that alternative work style for a number of years now, and seem to function quite well. They haven't had the social camaraderie of a daily workplace and they don't seem to miss it, with one exception. I don't know if I will miss it; I don't think I will. I've had it for a number of decades now, and I find it tiring to think about continuing in the same vein for another ten years.

What I will miss is my career as a scientist. As I wrote to my close friend recently about starting to clean out my office and getting rid of old files and papers I don't need anymore, I find it freeing, but a bit sad at the same time. It makes me realize that those days will be no more, those fun days of science, and that my career is ebbing. But then I remind myself that it's not impending retirement that took the fun away or caused the ebbing. It's the fact that academia turned into a huge money-making business about a decade ago, and so many of us were just blindsided by it. It's never been the same since. And that is true. It's not the getting older that changed things, it's the fact that academia is akin to the corporate world now, where huge sums of money are involved and necessary if you want to survive in it. If you don't have a business plan, or plans to patent your findings, or plans to grow your research group into a huge conglomerate, or plans to create a center of excellence, there really is no place for you anymore. You are a drain on the system if you don't bring in large grants or obtain many PhD and post-doc positions. So it seems right to plan on leaving it behind in the near future. I know it won't happen without conflicting feelings; I have accepted that major change is accompanied by uncertainty, anxiety, sadness, happiness, exhilaration, and confusion. Life is messy and it's just to accept that and live it and live through major changes in the best possible way. Many others have done it before me. I have their experiences and wisdom to guide me.

A visit to Bannerman Island

Bannerman Island, also called Pollepel Island, is located in the Hudson River near Cornwall, New York. It is the site of Bannerman Castle, which was once a weapons arsenal and ammunition depot, but which suffered a major explosion in 1920, leaving only the shell of the castle standing. The island is open to the public via organized tours. Beacon, New York is the embarkation point for the ferry boat that takes you to the island for the tour. The boat trip takes about thirty minutes, and is a pleasant ride, especially on a hot summer day like the one on which we had booked our tour. I'd been wanting to visit the island for several years now, and on this trip to New York it became possible for Maria, Jean and me to do so. Visitors are not allowed to walk around the castle ruins as the structure is too unstable and is currently being held up by large supports, but the rest of the island is open for exploration. We enjoyed the tour and can recommend visiting the island.

Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, New York

I visited Innisfree Garden with Jean on my recent trip to New York. I had read about this garden online; it is a 185-acre public garden located at 362 Tyrrel Road in Millbrook, New York, and is "recognized as one of the world’s ten best gardens". Its existence is yet another reminder that there is so much to see and do in beautiful New York State. As the years pass, I realize more and more how privileged we are to call this state our home state. It is also very nice to be able to visit different places with my good friends now, some of whom are retired and enjoying the freedom from the daily work routines that they followed for so long. "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens"; that is how it feels now, even for me who is still working. I am winding down my own work life, and preparing for the eventuality of retirement. I will write about that in a future post.

You can read about Innisfree Garden here: http://innisfreegarden.org/  When we arrived, the woman sitting at the entrance booth told us that it would take about 1.5 to 2 hours to see the entire garden, and that was about right. We could have used more time, but the weather report for that day was thunderstorms starting in the early afternoon, so we decided to get to the garden at mid-morning and leave before the storms started. The walk around the lake would take about one hour if you didn't stop along the way at the different sculptures and gardens. But if you don't stop, you won't experience the beauty and peace of the garden. Walking around the lake reminded me of walking around Lake Derwentwater in England's Lake District, but that walk took much longer. I took a lot of photos as I usually do, and am posting some of them here. I would love to return to Innisfree Garden in the autumn and winter months, as I am sure the garden would have a different feel to it then, probably due to the variations in intensity of the light. I will return to it at some point. I would like to know who decided to call the garden Innisfree, and why they chose that name. I am certain that whoever did so was a William Butler Yeats fan.

The poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats

This is a beautiful poem by William Butler Yeats, one of my favorite poets. Yeats spent his childhood summers in County Sligo in northwest Ireland, and Innisfree is an uninhabited island in Lough Gill in County Sligo. The poem gives me peace just upon reading it, especially the last line, where Yeats talks about his heart's core hearing the lake water lapping. I understand that intuitively.


The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Kindness as a response to rude people

One of the wiser descriptions of kindness that I've run across online (from the Facebook page Empaths, Old Souls & Introverts).

"Being rude is easy. It does not take any effort and is a sign of weakness and insecurity. Kindness shows great self-discipline and strong self-esteem........"

Worth remembering when faced with the onslaught of rudeness that passes for 'honesty and truth' in society and politics these days. Kindness and civility are not signs of weakness, and those who think they are are those with the real problem. We cannot continue to foment an 'in your face' attitude as a response to every situation we don't like or agree with; anger only breeds more anger. While it is good to let out anger every once in a while, it is very unhealthy to make a daily habit of it. Our current political situation is a good example of the latter.

So let us practice kindness. "It only takes one candle to light the darkness".