Tea at Trianon: To Create a Winter Garden

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

Saturday, December 18, 2021

To Create a Winter Garden

From Lifehacker:

Although winter typically isn’t thought of as a gardening season, it is possible—with the proper arrangements and precautions—to plant and grow a handful of vegetables during the colder season. Of course, that depends on exactly how cold and snowy your winter gets, but thanks to climate change, who knows what a “normal” winter looks like anymore.

If this is your first winter garden, you may be looking for recommendations on what to plant. Fortunately, in an article for Hunker, expert gardener Teo Spengler provides some examples. Here are a few to consider, and why.

Turns out, there’s a variety of the leafy veggie called Brassica oleracea—also known as winter cabbage. Unsurprisingly, this is your best bet for a winter garden, Spengler says. But even this seasonally appropriate cabbage comes with a caveat: While it’s frost-tolerant, winter cabbage can’t survive any hard freezes without protection, he explains. (Read more.)