Early Morning at The Farm Two Days in a Row
Last Friday morning was perfectly splendid at the farm. As you may know from reading this blog, I love capturing spectacular sunrises and Friday's was particularly impressive. Please read today's Daily Wag for a really good lesson about the Compost Tea System from Growing Solutions.
1 When I came downstairs into the kitchen last Friday, I noticed a warm and inviting glow through the window. I immediately grabbed my camera and went outside to investigate.
2 The sunrise was spectacular!
3 The sky was aglow with many shades of mauve and salmon.
4 Even the high windows of the carport were dazzling.
5 The tall and stately spruce trees around the tenant house looked fantastic against this backdrop.
6 The following morning was a very different experience.
7 There was no discernable sunrise because of the dense blanket of fog.
8 The Camperdown Elm is an attractive tree during all seasons. When its thick foliage drops, it has a pleasant weeping form. The first Camperdown Elm was produced around 1835 in Scotland when the Earl of Camperdown's gardener, grafted a mutant contorted branch upon the trunk of a Wych Elm.
9 Walking through the grove of apple espalier trees, the remaining snow on the ground was quite crunchy that morning.
10 These odd-looking burlap-covered objects are standard lilac trees. I look forward to spring when the air is filled with the heady perfume of their blooms.
11 One of the original apple trees of the farm - A couple of its heavy limbs are cradled by upright supports to keep them from breaking. These old apple trees also have terrific form all year long, as well.
12 Francesca, in her orange jacket, is always hopeful of catching the squirrels that live in a hollow of this tree.
13 Looking across the lily beds, the bald cypress trees, and the long pergola - Not much else is visible beyond.
14 Walking past the vegetable garden towards the headhouse of the greenhouse - I am developing plans to move the vegetable garden elsewhere and install a swimming pool and formal gardens in its place. I miss not having a swimming pool.
15 This grove of pear trees produced quite a bit of fruit last season. This was helped by a good pruning the year before.
16 Stonehenge of Bedford - Remember my blog from Nov. 30th about topping off the damaged white pines near the greenhouse because of the climbing hydrangea growing upon their trunks?
17 Looking toward a grouping of fastigiate oak trees. Columnar or fastigiate trees make ideal candidates for landscape areas where space is restricted or where a conventional tree with wide-spreading branches would not be appropriate, like this area next to the greenhouse parking area.
18 Another look at those spruce trees - After having one land on the roof of the tenant house during Hurricane Sandy, I feel uneasy about their proximity to the building. During a prior windy storm, another spruce uprooted and crashed down just inches from the house.
19 These recently planted evergreens in front of the tenant house are growing nicely and are intended to provide privacy from the road and to fill in where other trees were lost or damaged from storms.
20 Another Camperdown Elm was luckily spared by the fallen spruce that fell on the tenant house.
21 This is the gym/garage located at the front gate to my property. My gym is located on the second floor and I frequent it most weekday mornings.
22 This is the shade garden behind the tenant house. With two more spruce trees down, there will be far less shade. We'll have to see if it can still be called the shade garden when summer arrives.
23 The dirt patch to the right is where we extended the garden bed to make room for an additional 3,000 narcissus bulbs of various varieties. It will be so exciting to see come spring.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
Martha, love the morning sky and how exciting a swimming pool! Thanks for sharing this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | January 16th, 2013 at 1:10 am
Amazing colors in the early morning sunrise. The fog and greyness are pretty much a constant in our Vancouver, BC winters.
Spring will be glorious on your farm when all those bulbs rise and open. Nice plan to incorporate a swimming pool into the landscape as well as formal gardens...it's never finished is it Martha. Always fun to plan for another project!
Posted by: sherey | January 16th, 2013 at 1:41 am
A beautiful sunrise, Martha. You like to take pictures of sunrises and I like to take pictures of sunsets. Where I live is not a good place to get a fantastic sunrise.
Why is a head house called a head house? Do you know? I used to work in a small greenhouse, and worked out of a small headhouse, but no one knew why it was called that..
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | January 16th, 2013 at 2:16 am
Beautiful photos Martha, looks so peaceful.
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | January 16th, 2013 at 4:37 am
What a stark contrast in the two mornings! Oh Martha! A pool! How much fun
will that be! I can just see all of you already having a ball! Let us watch you build it! I'm looking forward to Spring coming to "The Farm" Thanks Martha.
Posted by: Patricia Posey | January 16th, 2013 at 6:05 am
Good morning Martha,
What spectacular pictures. And the next day it was altogether different with the dense fog but still beautiful. I know you mentioned it a while back but could you tell us what camera you use and the lenses? Your pictures are always so amazingly clear. I bet Truman and Jude will enjoy your pool also.
Karen
Posted by: Karen Tracy | January 16th, 2013 at 6:31 am
Hi Karen,
I'm so glad you like my photos. These images were taken with a Canon PowerShot S100. It's an auto focus that's fun and easy to use.
Posted by: Martha Stewart | January 16th, 2013 at 7:28 am
Martha, your pictures of the sunrise last Friday are beautiful. You're inspiring me to witness them myself! I'm usually up at that time but I have mini blinds on all my windows and don't open them till daylight. I do love sunsets and saw an amazing one Monday evening.
What a study in contrast between both mornings you captured with your camera.Your farm looks lovely in any light! I love the shape of the Camperdown Elms and pics# 11and 12 of the apple tree are perfect!
How exciting to hear your going to put in a pool, the grandbabies are going to love it!
Posted by: Cindy F | January 16th, 2013 at 7:44 am
For Gloria G- I believe a headhouse gets its name because that is where the business of a greenhouse takes place. There is usually an office for ordering supplies, a library of catalogs and reference books, an area for planting and potting, and a restroom.
Posted by: Martha Stewart | January 16th, 2013 at 7:47 am
I love your photos of your farm. I would like to ask your permission to use them as a photo reference in a pastel painting class I'm taking with Kay Hurley at the Baker-Hunt Foundation in Covington, Ky. Kay is a landscape artist working in both oil and pastel and I am a beginning artist. Thank you!
Posted by: Jane Thaman | January 16th, 2013 at 8:17 am
Hi Martha, I loved learning about the celeriac yesterday and today seeing the awesome sunrise at your beautiful farm is absolutely outstanding! I just read your latest tweet about The Daily Wag and their information about Sharkey and Ryan making that great compost tea in the greenhouse-fabulous! The Daily Wag is my other favorite daily blog and yours is my most favorite!! I love seeing and touring your beautiful farm and these photos are so beautiful to see! We sometime have kind of similar sunshine glows in the early mornings and the evenings, also and I love enjoying them over the Puget Sound area near us! Your photos are so terrific and some of the buildings are reflecting the sun and appearing kind of pink colored! Even the windows are dazzling! Even the Spruce trees looked rather pink! We have the fog out there this morning similar to photos #6 to 23, also beautiful! Loved seeing Francesca out there looking for squirrels! This was really fun to see today! Hope you have another great day! Hope everyone will check out The Daily Wag today, also! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | January 16th, 2013 at 9:07 am
Hi Martha,
I love your farm and your pictures. Thanks for this lovely attention to all of us.
Malú
Posted by: Maria Lúcia | January 16th, 2013 at 10:01 am
Hi Martha,
First off, I hope little Franny is okay. I was sad to hear about her having mild seizures all night and I hope the vet finds the cause. She’s so sweet and I know you’re worried as is Sharkey and G.K. You’re both in my thoughts and prayers.
~
Thanks for the early morning tour and the lessons along the way. I only know there are oak trees. I didn’t know there were fastigiated and columnar oak trees. I’m trying to picture that in a story line – “as I gazed at the fastigiated oak tree, I couldn’t help but compare it to my ponytail palm with the pudgy bottom.” Great pictures of the sunrise – we get those a lot down here as you already know from your trip to the Keys, and how nice that you might install a pool. I wondered why you didn’t have one there – it will be great for the grandkids to learn how to swim. All of the kids in our family are water babies; most could swim and dive before they were five. I remember our four year old niece scaring the daylights out of the seniors at her grandmother’s house whenever she would dive off the deep end of the pool and then swim underwater to the shallow end. She stayed under so long they thought she drowned!
~
Thanks for today’s blog and I’ll check in on Twitter for news of Franny. Trish
Posted by: Trish | January 16th, 2013 at 10:27 am
Hi Martha,
Simply breathtaking. Thank you for sharing. And I hope Francesca is okay. Please keep us posted on Twitter.
Lisa
Posted by: Lisa Gordon-Miller | January 16th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
There is so much to enjoy in wonderful world we live in. Thanx for these photos and information about camera.
Posted by: ann | January 16th, 2013 at 12:20 pm
Lovely shots. The sunrise is always beautiful, but the foggy ones are so moody and capture the stark beauty of winter. You property is always interesting to view. Thankyou for sharing these beautiful images and the bit of info about each one. I always enjoy having a glimpse into your world. Btw, I love that you entitled this entry "THE farm" instead of "my farm" as you sometimes do.
Posted by: mark | January 16th, 2013 at 12:31 pm
Martha,
Always love your pictures of your farm! Sharkey was sneaking in that one pic!
Posted by: Alexis | January 16th, 2013 at 12:58 pm
Beautiful sunrise! And I love your mini Stonehenge even more in the fog
!
Posted by: Andrew Ritchie | January 16th, 2013 at 1:09 pm
Dear Martha,
Thank you for the great photos of the sunrise at your home. I always like to
think that a photo is a moment frozen in time where one can go back in time and
remember the time and place. As you have great sunrises, i also have the same great sunrises....and, also sunsets.....nature has give us something great and beautiful to take photographs of...i also have taken photos of nature that one could not see with the naked eye....i enjoy taking photos of nature up close and i mean up close....i have a small 10.1 megapixel E 1035 GE camera...and am hoping to up grade to a more professional one in the future. I would love to send you some of my photos if you would like to see them. Thank you for your time and the smile your photos and blog put on my face..
Elizabeth
Posted by: Elizabeth J. Collins-Clapp | January 16th, 2013 at 1:42 pm
Miss Martha ; I so enjoy your sharing pictures of what is happening in your life and your family. Western Pennsylvania enjoyed the beautiful sunrise Monday also and I stood and marveled at it and wished for spring! My love of "playing in the dirt" is what keeps me going and of course sharing with neighbors what comes from our garden. Miss your old programs from the past; personally I think a network should start passing them along as Vintage Marha programming!! It would be received with alot of pleasure. God Bless.
Posted by: Karen Pappas | January 16th, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Greetings Martha !!!
First time visit to " The Farm ". The photos remind me of mymornings,every day surveying , that I do every A.M. It sets the tone for what has to be tackled . The Sedona area is a bit different,but in December and January we get very cold weather, snow and fog. Lovely to see the different growth and vegetation. Makes me recall the years in Oregon. Looking forward to seeing as much of the farm as possible. Thank you. Gina.
Posted by: Gina Loughe-Cleary | January 16th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Martha, I too am a huge lover of sunrises. Every morning I have my cup of coffee in our family room by the patio door where I can observe the eastern sky. After my coffee, I usually get into my walking attire and take a 20 to 30 minute walk where I can observe more of nature. I love the early, quiet mornings. Martha, your farm is outstandingly beautiful!
Posted by: ester | January 16th, 2013 at 2:28 pm
Hi Martha
I enjoy pics of your farm, it's like walking on a private tour of your farm with you.
I'm sure you will be glad when everything starts greening and flowers and plants start coming up. I will, too.
Sorry about Francesca, hoping for a full recovery. She seems to be a sweetie.
Vivian
Posted by: Vivian Price | January 17th, 2013 at 11:37 am
Hi Martha! This reminds me of growing up in Minnesota with my brothers and sister! Being next to the youngest-youngest girl-I was a Daddy's girl and I would always wake up just before sunrise so I could kiss and hug my Daddy goodbye before he headed out to work! He was always so happy to see me and would say-"Catherine, look what God has given us this morning! One of His master pieces! I'll bet He had that just for you in mind when he painted it!" I would giggle and say "Thank you Lord!" A hug and a quick peck on the head and he would say, "Now, I will see you little lady when I get home-make sure you are extra good today!" I was five years old! Thank you for the pictures!
Posted by: Catherine | January 17th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
WOW martha i love waking up mornings as well . You so lucky having that sky over there .
Posted by: julian 43 | January 17th, 2013 at 8:26 pm
Hi Martha,
You have the most beautiful Sunrises at your Farm,we don't have Sunrises like that where I live in Oregon-Love the pictures of your Farm in winter- Hope Franny is okay,please keep us posted on how she is doing-I so enjoy their adventures on the Farm and at your other homes,they are very precious little dogs-Thank you for sharing the pictures of your Farm, Fran
Posted by: Fran Danville | January 18th, 2013 at 12:23 am
Martha, You continue to inspire my creativity since your very first issue of your magazine! I enjoy seeing photos of your homes, and I most recently unpdated my interior paint color to "Bedford grey" which garnishes many compliments! Thank you for the inspiration you and your team supply. Keep making the world a more beautiful place!
Posted by: Todd J Loscalzo | January 20th, 2013 at 9:35 am
Thank you for posting your blog I really enjoy it so much. My son and his family live in Chappaqua and they own Fivecat Studio Architects in Pleasantville, NY so I always enjoy seeing the weather in NY since I spend the winters here in SW Florida. Your farm and home are very inspirational and I really love your photography since my oldest son is a photographer in NC. Keep posting your photos I so look forward to seeing them every few days when I catch up on my email.
P.S. I really miss your daily studio show, but I'm sure spending time with your grands is a lot more fun. Love the pool idea. My grands love our pool.
Posted by: Elayne LePage | January 23rd, 2013 at 12:14 am
Martha,
Great pictures i love the early morning getting the coffee brewing although now its a K-cup Keurig whole grain toast and cereal thru the week and big hearty breakfasts on the weekends. I have always thought of you as the Renaisance woman of our generation . I love your shows and your enthusiasm for life both the culinary side and the craft side . May you enjoy many more years of your zest and joy for life .
Posted by: Gary Knowlton | January 30th, 2013 at 10:39 pm