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".

Biking along the Danube River in Austria

This year's summer vacation took us to Passau, Germany, which was the starting (and return) point for an eight-day boat/bike trip along the Danube River. The trip, which is called The Danube By Bike & Boat, is offered by UTracks. We biked along the Danube River mainly in Austria, but also part of one day in Slovakia. Our 'hotel' was the boat Theodor Korner, which took us to the different towns where each daily biking trip would start. We biked from Mauthausen to Grein (a beautiful village with a castle and old theater--the Stadttheater), from Devin to Schloss Hof (impressive palace with lovely gardens) to Bratislava in Slovakia, around the city of Vienna, through the beautiful Wachau Valley (wine country) from Krems to Melk, from Melk back to Grein, and then from Obermuhl to Engelhartszell (total biking distance including Vienna was around 210 km/130 miles). From Engelharszell, the boat sailed back to Passau and we disembarked.

The trip included three meals per day, a cabin on the boat with private bathroom, and bicycle rental. It was extremely well-organized and went off without a hitch. A big thank-you to UTracks for the professional organization of the trip and the support at all points along the way. We didn't lack for anything.

Austria is a beautiful country, and the Austrian Danube bike path is impressive. If you'd like to read more about it, you can find more information at these links: https://www.donau-oesterreich.at/en/danube-cycle-path/  and  https://www.danube-cycle-path.com/austrian-danube.html.
Here are some photos of a memorable fantastic vacation; I'd do something like this again in a heartbeat.....

bike path along the Danube River

one of many small cafes along the bike path 

one of many wheat fields along the bike path

an idyllic small brook 

approaching the lovely village of Grein

Greinburg castle

Sala Terrena at Greinburg Castle--mosaics made from tiny pebbles from the Danube River

courtyard at Greinburg Castle

Schloss Hof palace

bike path leading away from Schloss Hof

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna

bike path in Vienna

the beautiful Wachau valley--wine country

view from the town of Durnstein in the Wachau region

one of many roadside shrines in Austria

our boat--the Theodor Korner

approaching Grein on our return trip

one of the quaint ferries that take bicyclists over the Danube

Engelszell Abbey, a Trappist monastery, in Engelhartszell

The garden in June

It is a pleasure and a privilege to have a garden. It is also a manifestation of faith in the natural order of things--that the cycle of life, death, and life again will continue each year, unchanged, predictable, orderly. There is peace in knowing that.

The tomato plants in the greenhouse are already starting to grow tomatoes, and the pumpkin and summer squash plants are starting to flower and take off. The green bean plants are pushing themselves up out of the soil and starting to grow. The potato and yellow onion plants have been growing well for about a month already, and the carrot plants are showing their green fronds. The dahlias and gladiolas are quite high already; the hollyhocks are also doing well. The lavender and celosia plants are blooming, as are the carnations and Dianthus. The hydrangeas are also blooming, as are the panicled hydrangeas (syrinhortensia in Norwegian--translates to 'lilac-like hydrangeas').

I was in the garden yesterday and took some photos, as I always do, to document the garden's progression from one week to another. Enjoy!

One of three rose bushes that is blooming

Once a cherry tree, now covered in wild ivy, with coral bell plants and pansies at its base

Green beans, yellow onions, carrots, and potatoes growing. In the background, pumpkin and zucchini plants, sunflowers, and cornflowers

Outdoor tomato plants, royal geraniums, different hydrangeas, and my ninebark plant that has grown a lot this year

Lots of lavender plants, gladiolas, Cock's comb (celosia), carnations, hydrangea, dahlias, lilies, peony, and Dianthus ('pinks')

Pachysandra planted under the Emperor bush 

Strawberries from the garden--so good! There is nothing quite like them. 

Pansies 

Pansies

Pansies and coral bells 

Reflections on freedom, commitment, and following your own path

I reflected this morning on this short citation from the gospel of Luke (Luke 9:62), because it struck a chord in me: And Jesus said to him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. 

Once again, it seems as though Christ is being unnecessarily harsh with us humans, but the priest gave his interpretation of these words and meant that it had more to do with our freedom to commit to a path, and to not let ourselves be distracted by the myriad of duties and the demands of others that distract us each day from the commitments we make freely. The priest emphasized the 'freedom' aspect of the commitments we make. If we make those commitments freely, we are bound to honor them (with freedom comes responsibility). That is the gist of what Christ is saying here. If we choose to follow Christ in this life, we do so freely, we commit to that path. And we cannot look back; we cannot allow ourselves to be pulled off the path by family, friends, or others who do not understand that commitment or who do not wish us well.

This saying could be applied to many aspects of our lives; we must forge ahead on the path we choose freely despite setbacks, despite misunderstandings, despite outright hostility at times. There are family situations I remember well from my childhood, where some adults irrationally demanded loyalty from children in situations where children should never have been asked to choose sides or to prove their loyalty. But the adults behaved irresponsibly, childishly, or in a demanding way that was often frightening to children. Breaking away from those adults was tough, but necessary, in order to create a life unencumbered by those adult problems. The breaking away was done in a loving manner, but in a firm way. It had to be so. The adults had to be made to understand that their lives were their lives, and that the children's lives were not simply extensions of their own. The children would never have made anything of their lives if they had had to accommodate and acquiesce to the petty wishes of those adults. Similarly in marriage; a childish or narcissistic spouse will try to hinder the growth of his or her partner, will try to pull them off the road that their spouses have chosen freely. Sometimes love is destroyed by that behavior; other times the behavior is tolerated, but the repercussions may not be good ones. You know you are in the presence of narcissistic people who do not wish you to follow your own path, when nothing you do for them is good enough, when their demands drown out your own wishes and goals for your life, when your daily life becomes nothing more than slavery to such people. This cannot be allowed to happen, and yet it does, every day somewhere in the world, because the behavior of narcissists is enabled by the ability to make others feel guilty and to feel inadequate. Narcissists play on our guilt and inadequacies; narcissists are 'people of the dark', not 'people of the light'. I think that is what Christ is really saying. I think he is saying that we are each unique individuals with our own road to follow, and that we have our unique talents and gifts to make our own individual journeys. Freely committing to our own path means not enabling others to freeload on our paths, means insisting that others do 'their own work' on their own paths, means disconnecting with those people who are unhealthy and who do not wish us well. We know this instinctively, but we let guilt and pity enslave us. Christ is saying, follow me freely. Your life may not be easy, but it will be yours. And that is all we (men, women, children) can ask for in this life--the freedom to choose our own lives and to follow the path that is uniquely ours.

Cultivating an image that is false

In keeping with yesterday's post, today I'm writing about countries that love to think of themselves as the 'best' in all things. Of course most intelligent adults dismiss such claims as nonsense, since there are no perfect countries, and no one country that is the 'best' compared to others. And yet, Norway likes to think of itself as the best country in the world to live in. Yes, it is a good country to live in--it is wealthy, it has universal healthcare and relatively inexpensive university education. All those things lead to an improved standard of living for a country's inhabitants. But no one country is the best country in the world, not the USA either. Wealth is not everything, and 'good' is one thing, whereas 'best' is another. Norway has its share of problems, among them a controversial immigration policy that differs very little from that in the USA, corruption in politics, green party hypocrisy, a high tax rate that I consider almost immoral, contempt for politicians, air pollution, diseased farmed salmon, a gap between rich and poor that is increasing day by day, sexual harassment like in other countries, and workplace bullying and sexism like in other countries. Many Norwegians are fond of criticizing the USA for many of its social policies (or lack thereof), its greed, its brutal corporate mentality, and its politics. Yet, in many ways, it is no better than the USA. It just likes to think that it is.

When I lived in the USA, I was vocal in my critique of my country and of the things I found disturbing, unethical or just plain wrong. I was well aware of my country's problems and still am (I am no Trump fan and MAGA holds little appeal for me). I will defend my country in spite of its faults, but will not pretend that it has no faults. I expect Europeans to do the same concerning their countries, but often they prefer to criticize my country and not their own. In the face of countries that present false images to the rest of the world, I will open my mouth to present the other side. Because if you as a European criticize my country but not your own, then you will hear from me about that. I am not going to take your criticism of my country lying down.

The following article demolishes the idyllic image that Norwegians have presented to the world about themselves as being gentle farmers and caretakers of animals. I am sure that there are Norwegians who think that animal abuse in their country is non-existent. This article will prove just how wrong they are. Having said that, I know that there are many gentle and good Norwegian farmers as well, and I feel sorry for those who take good care of their animals and are kind to them. Because the following expose is quite disturbing; the article is entitled: Pork industry's secrets revealed: https://www.newsinenglish.no/2019/06/20/pork-industrys-secrets-revealed/  Again, hats off to the journalists and socially-engaged individuals who work to expose their country's problems and to change the societies they live in. They literally risk their lives in some instances. They provide the counterbalance to the daily propaganda that is fed us.