Day 2777 - The autobiographies I'm reading right now

Day 2777 - The autobiographies I'm reading right now

books celebrities friends

I'm a sucker for an autobiography.

Technically speaking one of these isn't actually an autobiography, but I do love a good book that is biographical in nature.  Particularly if the person has been consulted and is at least partly involved in the writing process.



I just love hearing real stories from real people.  Especially from people who are making their dreams come true.  Whether it's to be the best in their field, or to overcome personal challenges, or to embark on a sea change, or to thrive in the face of adversity, or to simply chat about life, the universe and everything, I'm in.

Why? Well I guess if feels as though we're all just sitting around having a cuppa.  Shooting the breeze.  Talking about life.  Reflecting on what was and encouraging each other about what is yet to be.

I have three biographies on my bed side table right now and depending on what mood I'm in, I get to choose which person I feel like hanging out with.

If I'm feeling like climbing a few metaphorical mountains I'll pick up The Girl Who Climbed Everest about the teenager who is officially the youngest Australian to ever make it to the summit.  Learning about her passion for adventure and walking the Kokoda Track before she hit double digits.  Understanding what it takes to train for Everest and the incredible risks involved.  All of it empowers me to keep on climbing.

If I'm feeling like hanging out with that friend who makes you laugh until you snort (while cringing behind your hands at the language) I'll turn to Amy.  I was recently at a coffee shop in Balmain just hanging out alone while the model daughter did her thing with Carla Z and I was laughing so hard I was crying. Just sitting there like a mad woman.  But I knew I wasn't alone.  Amy was with me.

When I need a bit more comfort and the kind of cuppa you can only have with your bestie I'll turn to Lauren. Of course I'm not actually with Lauren - I'm actually with Lorelei Gilmore - but potato, potato (I really should have written that as Pot-eight-oh Pot-art-toe for that to have the impact I was hoping for.)  

I love to trawl the autobiography aisle at the library or bookshop and the family often gift me books for birthdays and Christmas.  Books in recent years include Celine Dion, Kris Jenner, Tori Spelling, INXS, Terri Irwin, Magda Szubanski, Charlotte Dawson, Patsy Kensit and Judy Garland.

Yep, I'm a sucker for an autobiography.

I just love peering through the window into other people's lives. 

Any other stalkers out there?

Bulbs and Books

Bulbs and Books

books bulbs

Dear Gardening Friends,

Gosh no, those aren't my tulips in the picture, but I sure think they are pretty and I want some for my own garden. I saw these tulips and many others on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art this week.  They planted hundreds of thousands of bulbs last fall and a few mix-ins this spring for a big show they call Spring Blooms.

It really is a big show.

I posted

A letter about bird feeding

A letter about bird feeding

birds books letters to gardening friends

My Dear Flora,

I was so excited the other day to find a nest in my bluebird box that I thought straight-away about writing to tell you about it.

I was out planting some onion sets in the gardem—a little later than I had planned—and decided to peek inside the bluebird box.  To my surprise and delight I found a nest inside, already. I just put it up a few weeks ago.

You can imagine what I did

A New Book: A One Act Play

A New Book: A One Act Play

books Humor one act plays

A New Book

A One Act Play

By

Carol M.

Gardenangelist


Cast of Characters

Garden Fairies………………………………Assorted Garden Fairies
Granny Gus McGarden..................................The garden fairy who tends the vegetable garden

TIME: Early Spring
SETTING: A garden


ACT ONE

SCENE 1


(We see some garden fairies huddled around the compost bins in the vegetable garden)




GARDEN FAIRY 1(

Signed Copies of Potted and Pruned Now Available

Signed Copies of Potted and Pruned Now Available

books

"Potted and Pruned"

Though the many characters around here are clamoring to post about my new book, Potted and Pruned: Living a Gardening Life, I decided to wrestle the keyboard away from all of them to let folks know about purchasing signed copies.

I now have some inventory of my own so can provide either softcover ($20) or hardcover ($27) signed books. The price covers postage and sales

Garden Fairies Write a Press Release

Garden Fairies Write a Press Release

books fairies Humor

Garden fairies here.

We are garden fairies and we are busy because spring is coming early but when we got word of Carol's book that blew in during the big winds from a few days ago, we decided to pause in our spring flower duties and write a press release.

That is why the lovely crocus pictured here isn't open yet.  We had to stop everything and work on the press release.

Have garden fairies

Potted and Pruned

Potted and Pruned

books

"Potted and Pruned"

It's here!

Potted and Pruned: Living a Gardening Life is now available for purchase on Amazon.

There's a paperback version and for those who prefer, a hardback  edition.  Soon there will be a Kindle version.

What's in between the covers?

My personal selection of 36 essays and letters from May Dreams Gardens, "potted up and pruned" for the book.  Long-time readers may

Crocuses and Snowdrops

Crocuses and Snowdrops

books bulbs spring

I'm still on the look out for a good chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting, one that is good enough to spend the time, money, and calories on.

But alas, the garden calls with more warm days in February than I ever remember, and I am of the firm belief that one ought to answer any call from one's garden. Therefore, the idea of the cupcake is on hold for now.

My snowdrops are blooming. I

Getting ready for... February!

Getting ready for... February!

books gardening winter

Snowdrop bud

I've heard some rumblings from a few people concerned about me getting bored as we begin to walk through that big valley of winter called February.

No worries. I'm all set. Ready to go. I've got plans. I've got seed catalogs and books. I've got little snowdrops I check on daily when I am out filling up the bird feeders, which I do on a near daily basis.

I've got ideas

Dear Garden Blog...

Dear Garden Blog...

Blogging books Humor

Hellebores, what would winter be without them?

Dearest Garden Blog,

I'm writing to offer my apologies for neglecting you for over a week. It was not my intention to leave you with no new updates for such a long time but time slipped away from me.

Rest assured, of course, that I have not been blogging elsewhere. I would never do that to you, my faithful blog who has been with me for well over

The Exciting Conclusion of a Tale of Two Plant Catalogs

The Exciting Conclusion of a Tale of Two Plant Catalogs

books

And now, the exciting conclusion of a tale of two plant catalogs.

To catch you up, dear readers, we begin a ways back when I fell into a rabbit hole of old plant catalog references, which resulted in my desire to hold the catalogs in my own hands, to read them and find out for myself if Hennessey was a really a bully and if Houdyshel was really a sweet, nice man.

First came the Hennessey

Old plant catalogs

Old plant catalogs

books gardening

I was quite pleased to recently purchase a copy of Roy Hennessey's 1961-62 Rose Catalog after reading about it a few days ago in a book of letters between the writers Eudora Welty and William Maxwell.

After I got it, I read bits and pieces of it.

Welty and Maxwell were right about Hennessey's writing. He does not hold back his opinions and he is not one bit shy about writing exactly what he

Hennessy leads to the search for Houdyshel

Hennessy leads to the search for Houdyshel

books

Knock Out Rose, I don't think Hennessey would approve

I found Roy Hennessey unexpectedly the other evening while reading What There is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell.  While most of the letters are about writing and publishing and family, there are a fair number of gardening references, especially about roses.

Maxwell wrote to Welty that he had

Summer Reading - The Squabbling Garden

Summer Reading - The Squabbling Garden

books

The Squabbling Garden, 1934

I love summertime reading.

Every summer, I think I'll discover some new-to-me old garden writer.  I live for that possibility. I search for old garden books in antique malls and bookstores and online, knowing I'm really searching for old garden writers, kindred spirits from the past, from another era of gardening.

I always remember it was summertime when I

Do you have a theme for your garden this year?

Do you have a theme for your garden this year?

books gardening

Requisite photo of a garden-y thing

Do you have a theme for your garden this year?

I've been reading Sissinghurst: Vita Sackville-West and the Creation of a Garden by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven and have gotten all fired up about my garden, again.

I'll admit, I usually have a big fire of passion about my garden going most of the time.   Sure, in the winter time I usually just keep

"In the soft, warm bosom of a decaying compost heap..."

"In the soft, warm bosom of a decaying compost heap..."

books compost

I almost didn't see the box tucked behind the flower pot by the front door. Who knows, it may have been there for a couple of days.

But I did finally see it.

Inside was my new-to-me copy of The Complete Book of Composting by J. I. Rodale and staff (Fourth Printing, 1967). Coming in at 1,000 pages plus (if you count the index), it's a hefty tome.

I look forward to the secrets of

Book Review: The Writer's Garden

Book Review: The Writer's Garden

books reviews

Cold weather is heading this way and the activity in the garden is starting to slow down a bit.

And though I still need to plant a few bulbs, clean up most of the vegetable garden, cut back all the perennials, and hopefully harvest the compost from the compost bins before it freezes up,  I've started into the winter garden book reading season.

Well, yes, I do read garden books year round, but

Obsessed gardener looking for an old variety...

Obsessed gardener looking for an old variety...

books houseplants

Begonia 'Gloire de Lorraine' (American Gardening, 1900)

Obsessed gardener looking for an old variety of Begonia, 'Gloire de Lorraine'.

Described by Buckner Hollingsworth in Gardening on Main Street (1968) ~

"From a tight cushion of bright green foliage a great many lax stems emerged, each tipped with only two flowers, but when these fade and fall the stem lengthens and two more flowers

Buckner Hollingsworth

Buckner Hollingsworth

books

I will always remember this summer as the summer I discovered Buckner Hollingsworth's books.

My first discovery came when a friend and I were browsing in a nearby antique mall. I had gone my way in search of old gardening tools and books and she had gone her way in search of whatever.  I met up with her as she was looking through several shelves of  old books.

She handed me a copy of

Summer Reading Head Start: Rosemary Verey

Summer Reading Head Start: Rosemary Verey

books

A few weeks ago, three weeks ago as a matter of act, I was sitting in a restaurant at the airport having a little brunch of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and fried potatoes before jetting off to Savannah for a long weekend.

Cricket-chirp, cricket-chirp, cricket-chirp... I got a call on my iPhone from a number I didn't recognize.  I swiped to answer and listened to an automated message about my