A Bad Policy Continued — No Mulch

Spring cleanup and plant replacement have now begun, but it looks as if the bad policy approved a few years ago is going to be continued this year: the beds and plants in Princeton Landing will not be mulched.

This is a terrible mistake. Simply from an aesthetic point of view, mulching enhances the attractiveness of our whole community. If you visit other communities, notice how mulching renews and improves their landscape. Then notice how Princeton Landing looks in comparison.

Mulching is also essential for the health and longevity of our landscape. It protects the big investment we have made (and are making) in plants and maintenance. For example, most ornamental shrubs and trees in our community (especially rhododendrons and azaleas) are shallow rooted. Mulching protects their roots from the hot sun, conserves water and eliminates weeds that compete for water and nutrients. This allows our plants to survive longer and look better.

Mulching controls weeds as well. Look closely at the weeds now sprouting in our beds. They will be well established by summer and our community will look shabby and unkempt. Those who think we save money by not mulching are overlooking the cost of replacing plants and the effect that an unattractive landscape has on the value of our homes.

The Bletchley Circle Episode 1

The Bletchley Circle premiered Sunday night on PBS. It was engaging and suspenseful, delivering strong performances by the four women who play the codebreakers. Like Call the Midwife, another PBS favorite, The Bletchley Circle gives voice to the stories of quietly extraordinary women doing important work—typically unsung—in a society run by men. If you missed the show or would like to watch it again, Episode 1 is posted here until April 28, 2013.

Bald Eagle and Eaglet

Happy Earth Day!

The Bletchley Circle Premieres Tonight

There's a new period drama from PBS that looks promising—and it begins tonight at 10 pm. The Bletchley Circle is a three-part murder mystery series that aired in the UK in fall to critical acclaim. The story follows a group of women who have an extraordinary ability to break codes, a skill they honed during World War II when they worked undercover at Bletchley Park, the site of the UK's main decryption establishment.

The Bletchley Circle is set in 1952 when all four of the women have returned to civilian life and have been keeping their intelligence work secret from everyone—including family and friends. A series of grisly murders targeting women that have the police stymied reunites the team and they set out to decode the pattern behind the crimes. The drama series stars Rachael Stirling, Sophie Rundle, Anna Maxwell Martin and Julie Graham (left to right above).

The Bletchley Circle will air on Sundays at 10 pm until May 5, 2013. Here's a preview of Episode 1.

Photo:  Content Television/Laurence Cendrowicz

D&R Canal — 3:35 pm

Poem in Your Pocket Day

My life closed twice before its close
by Emily Dickinson

My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

                                                 Photo: Paul Burnett

Poem in Your Pocket Day

The birds have vanished into the sky
and now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me
until only the mountain remains.

                              — Li Bai (Li Po)

                                            Photo: Matthew Paulson

Poem in Your Pocket Day

Ghost House
by Robert Frost

I dwell in a lonely house I know

That vanished many a summer ago,

  And left no trace but the cellar walls,

And a cellar in which the daylight falls

And the purple-stemmed wild raspberries grow.

O'er ruined fences the grapevines shield

The woods come back to the mowing field;

The orchard tree has grown one copse

Of new wood and old where the woodpecker chops;

The footpath down to the well is healed.

I dwell with a strangely aching heart

In that vanished abode there far apart

On that disused and forgotten road

That has no dust-bath now for the toad.

Night comes; the black bats tumble and dart;

The whippoorwill is coming to shout

And hush and cluck and flutter about:

I hear him begin far enough away

Full many a time to say his say

Before he arrives to say it out.

It is under the small, dim, summer star,

I know not who these mute folk are

Who share the unlit place with me—

Those stones out under the low-limbed tree

Doubtless bear names that the mosses mar.

They are tireless folk, but slow and sad,

Though two, close-keeping, are lass and lad,—

With none among them that ever sings,

And yet, in view of how many things,

As sweet companions as might be had.

                                                                             Photo: Cedwyn Davies

Poem in Your Pocket Day

The world of dew
is the world of dew,
And yet, and yet . . .

        — Kobayashi Issa

                            Photo: Kenji Oka

Pettoranello Gardens — 4:06 pm

Celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day

Thursday, April 18, 2013, is the 11th annual Poem in Your Pocket Day. This event is held every year during National Poetry Month. Poetry lovers are encouraged to keep a copy of your favorite poem in your pocket to share with friends and family. You can also share your poetry selection on Twitter by using hashtag #pocketpoem.

In 2002 the Office of the Mayor of New York City, in partnership with the Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education, initiated Poem in Your Pocket Day as part of the city's National Poetry Month celebration. In 2008 the Academy of American Poets took the initiative national, encouraging people all over the country to join in with open readings of poems from pockets.

Lovers of poetry, we will be posting some of our favorite poems on Thursday. You can browse poems to download and print at poets.org.

Male Bald Eagle — 4:32 pm

Adding to the Nest

D&R Canal

Mountain Lakes — 3:28 pm

Annette Funicello

Annette Funicello

1942 – 2013

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Call the Midwife Episode 2

Episode 2 from Season 2 of Call the Midwife aired on PBS last evening. If you missed it or would like to watch it again, it is posted here on the show's website. Episode 1 is available here until June 18, 2013, as are all six episodes from Season 1 until April 17, 2013.

Photo: Neal Street Productions/PBS

National Poetry Month

The 2013 National Poetry Month poster, designed by Jessica Helfand, features the line "Write about your sorrows, your wishes, your passing thoughts, your belief in anything beautiful." from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letter to a Young Poet.

Bald Eagles — 10:27 am

National Poetry Month

 
Moonlight

by Sara Teasdale

It will not hurt me when I am old,

A running tide where moonlight burned

Will not sting me like silver snakes;

The years will make me sad and cold,

It is the happy heart that breaks.

The heart asks more than life can give,

When that is learned, then all is learned;

The waves break fold on jewelled fold,

But beauty itself is fugitive,

It will not hurt me when I am old.

Photo: Timothy West

Call the Midwife Season 2

Episode 1 from Season 2 of Call the Midwife premiered on Sunday. If you missed it or would like to watch it again, PBS has posted it here on the show's website. All six episodes from Season 1 are available here until April 17, 2013.

Photo: Neal Street Productions/PBS

National Poetry Month

Poetry

I, too, dislike it.

Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers in

it, after all, a place for the genuine.

— Marianne Moore