Tea at Trianon: Gardening and Health

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Gardening and Health

From Penn-Live:

It’s already possible to get out there and plant cool-season vegetable seeds, such as peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, carrots, kale, and kohlrabi, as well as onion sets, potatoes, and transplants of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce.

See George’s video on why you really should start your vegetable garden in March

Greenhouses have been exempted from the state’s guidelines for the closing of non-essential businesses since access to food (i.e. seeds and vegetable plants) is considered essential. On warm days, get out there and cut back last season’s dead ornamental grasses and perennial foliage. Overgrown perennials also can be dug and divided now. While you’re out there, enjoy the season’s first-blooming bulbs and shrubs that are two to three weeks ahead of schedule because of the warm winter. Pick up fallen branches, edge your garden beds, rake debris off the lawn, and go ahead and seed/overseed any bare or thinning areas of the lawn. (Read more.)