Books, Cats, Gardening

Done Da Done! And: Ferns, Ferns, Ferns

55 Comments

Garden Report

Last week, I did it. Creaky knees and all, I raked the leaves from the last bed. Did I feel good about this accomplishment? You bet I did.

Now, onward to compost, wood ash, and fertilizer. Plus, moving things here and there. For me, as I’m sure it is for most gardeners, May is as busy a month as December. For different reasons, naturally. However, just as I love the holidays, I also love the month of May with its intense gardening.

Let’s hear it for hands in the dirt and a garden cart at the ready. Trowel, shovel, garden shears, cultivator. Check, check, check, and check.

For a gardener, life becomes pretty basic in the spring. But oh so good.

Fern Report

I’m not sure if I love ferns because I live on the edge of the woods, or if I live on the edge of the woods because I love ferns. But as readers might have noticed, I’m crazy about ferns.

Let’s take a look at the ferns I’ve been following since they poked their pretty little heads up at the end of April.

Here they are on April 27. Such dear little things.

And here they are, twelve days later: elegant, tall, and feathery.

Amazing, isn’t it? They really are all grown up.

But never fear. There are more ferns emerging for me to marvel at.

Soon, these little ferns will be grown-up, too, gracing the yard with their beauty, for which we are grateful. One of the best things is that, for the most part, I don’t have to do a thing to encourage them. They spread and grow on their own. (All right. I will admit that I might have bought a fern or two for my beds. But most of the ferns by the house and in the yard came here on their own. Seems like a miracle.)

Finally, a pleasing combination of pink and green.

First Drinks on the Patio

Saturday, May 16, was a banner day at our home on the edge of the woods. We had our first drinks of the year on our patio.

The owl wine glass belongs to my daughter Dee, who loves owls just as much as I love ferns.

Cheers to blogging friends near and far. Our happy time on the patio is here, and soon there will be a new addition in the backyard, which will add to our enjoyment.

Stay tuned.

Reading

When I Was a German, 1934–1945: An Englishwoman in Nazi Germany
(Original Title: The Past Is Myself)
By Christabel Bielenberg

When I Was a German, a memoir by Christabel Bielenberg, is a heavy book to read in the merry month of May. But maybe it’s good to read this kind of book when the weather is lovely, and things are green and growing.

In the book’s foreword, Christabel Bielenberg acknowledges that although there is ample material documenting this terrible time in Europe, she has “one advantage…I am English; I was German, and above all I was there.”

Indeed, she was. In England in 1934, Christobel married the tall, handsome German Peter Bielenberg. When she married, Christabel Bielenberg gave up British citizenship and became a German citizen. (Twelve years later, she would relinquish her German citizenship to “become a British subject once again.”)

At first, Christobel and Peter lived in Hamburg, Germany.  Both Peter, a law student, and Christabel were upper-middle-class and well-connected. From the jump, they thought that Hitler was “a clown” who would not be in power long. Turns out, they were wrong.

The Bielenbergs had friends who were staunchly opposed to Hitler, and they persuaded the young couple to stay in Germany to help bring down the government. Peter took a job with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Berlin to be closer to the Nazi government. By then, the couple had children, and they moved to Berlin, to the heart of darkness.

Things, of course, go from bad to worse. Friends are hanged, and Berlin is relentlessly bombed by the Allies. Christabel moves with her three children to a small village in the Black Forest, where they live in relative safety. Peter stays in Berlin and is eventually imprisoned because of his association with the men who tried to assassinate Hitler. (Peter himself was not involved in the attempt.)

All of this is riveting reading, and I especially liked Christabel’s descriptions of village life in the Black Forest, far away from Berlin. While the village and the villagers were officially allied with the Nazi party, they were kind to Christabel and her sons, and for the most part, they were not fanatical followers of Hitler. (This, of course, does not absolve them of their complicity, but it does add nuance.)

My one complaint about the book is that it covers too much territory too quickly. Those were, after all, eventful years. At times, the book felt rushed, and I think the material would have been better served by being expanded into several volumes, in which the various aspects of Christabel’s life could have been described in more detail. As it is, the book jumps from person to place, and I had a hard time keeping track of those not in the author’s immediate family.

Still, When I was a German is well worth reading, not the least because of Christobel’s insights.

I’ll conclude with one of her reflections, which seems all too relevant in today’s world, where the Right Wing is, alas, in ascendance once again.

“There would be few to pity them {the German People] for the wheel had turned full circle, as deluded by piffling ambition, bent on taking revenge for their failure, they were now slaughtering everything that was best about their country. No nation could afford such extravagance, there was no excuse,  no pardon for such things. This was the punishment, ruins, ruins and more ruins….When I married Peter ten years ago…I did not realize that I would be binding myself to the fate of the whole of this unhappy race.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

55 thoughts on “Done Da Done! And: Ferns, Ferns, Ferns”

  1. I also love ferns but sadly I don’t have enough shade to feed my passion of more than one variety.

    Saturday, May 16, was a banner day at our home on the edge of the woods. We had our first drinks of the year on our patio.

    Cheers!

    May is a busy month for gardeners and I sometimes wonder if we have enough hours in a day especially with our creaky knees.

  2. Cheers to the first drinks on the patio Laurie and so lovely to see the first grown up ferns too! 💚🌿 xxx

  3. Sounds like a challenging book. I’m a bit cowardly about anything gruesome — although I know I can run but can’t hide. Right now I’m reading *Island of the Missing Trees,* a novel covering the tragedies of Cyprus and the relationship between a Greek and a Turk. Among other intriguing things, a fig tree tells quite a bit of the story.

    1. The book is harrowing, but it is not all gruesome. Violence is mentioned — of course — but there is no graphic description of violence at all. I am sorry if I gave that impression.

  5. I love e ferns, too! We have ostrich ferns, the kind that make fiddleheads, but I think they are too bitter. How I wish I liked them. I also live on the edge if the woods, and wouldn’t have it any other way.

  6. May is indeed the month for gardening. We have not been on a bike together this month because of the call of the garden for one of us. There is no time to waste!

  7. Love the look of the ferns I also cherish . . . selfishly, even more, like to have learned about the book you have described . . . since I was an Estonian child escaping from the Russians during the last years of WWII and living in the Black Forest area of Germany during the last year of it . . . and belonging to the same social stratum . . . shall look out for it for a ‘memory read’ and heightened learning curve!

  8. The next time I get to east Texas (and I hope it’s sooner than later!) I’ll have to spend some time photographing the ferns in the woods there. They’re quite beautiful, and they might be of interest to you; in the fall, they can be as colorful as tree leaves! I’m so glad yours are with you again, and that your patio drinks are once again possible. Today, I heard the first cicadas of the year: summer’s here!

  9. First drinks on the patio is certainly something to celebrate. I love ferns too – and of course a symbol of New Zealand too (the silver fern).

    The book sounds interesting if a difficult read.

    1. The silver fern sounds lovely! I will take a look online as soon as I am done with this message. Yes, the book is a difficult read, but very worthwhile.

  10. Thumps up to ferns, patio drinks and a good book.
    Sadly we don’t have this book in our library but I am reading “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism” a memoir by Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former director of public policy at Facebook.

  15. That is very weird that she “relinquished” her British citizenship. When I became a U.S. citizen I had to renounce my British citizenship, but I was informed that Her Majesty did not accept renunciations, so I have dual citizenship, even though at that time–about 1960–the U.S. didn’t recognize dual citizenship, it does now. My daughter even got a British passport (her son was attending school in York) based on my English birth certificate. I’m reading a very dark book, too: “Cult of Glory,” by Doug Swanson, the very bloody and brutal history of the Texas Rangers. Much of the early history takes place around where I live, so I find it quite interesting. My neighbor is a retired Ranger, so obviously I don’t share my reading list with him or his wife!

    1. Yes, it is weird, but that is what she did. Different times, I guess, and I think many people were unprepared for what Germany would become. Later, she renounced her German citizenship.

      I don’t know much about the Texas Rangers but can well imagine their bloody, brutal history.

  16. Laurie, your ferns are a delight. I’m a fan of them as well, though they prefer your climate to ours. I’m excited to see and hear about the new backyard development. I hope it’s not a long wait.

    Regarding the book, I was in a book club for many years, and we finally agreed to take a break from books set during the Second World War. We read many good books, but my tender heart grew sad and weary, unable to cast off the horrors.

    I agree with your assessment of our times, and I appreciate the quote you shared.

    I’m glad you are enjoying the May garden chores. I completely relate.

    1. Yes, I can see how your climate would be too dry for most ferns.

      I understand how books set in World War II can be a bit much after a while. But for some reason it’s a period I am drawn to. I am not sure why. This weekend we are going to see Pressure, a World War II movie starring Brendan Fraser and Andrew Scott. Anyway…

      1. It’s a compelling time in our not so distant past. Mom was a WREN in the Canadian navy, dad served as a translator in India, and my Aunt Alys brought clothes and other items to people in England when bombs fell at night destroying communities in their wake.

      6. It was handled in such a unique way. I always enjoy Chris O’Dowd and Bret Goldstein voices and in my estimation, Emma Thomas can do no wrong. The sheep were delightful.

  17. Congratulations on your first patio drinks of 2026! A big deal, indeed! And your ferns are lovely! I’ve so enjoyed watching them grow and unfurl through your documentation 🙂 Hope your week is rounding out nicely, Laurie!

  18. I have lots of ferns too and they are brilliant for a burst of green and some interesting shapes and textures. First drinks on the patio is a day well worth marking!

  19. Lovely. We are about to have a mini heatwave, so I’m sure plenty of drink will be consumed on various patios over the Bank Holiday weekend!

  20. Congratulations on the garden cleared and tended, and cheers! first of many drinks on the patio!

    What are those lovely pink & white blooms?

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  22. As a kiwi, I am also very partial to ferns – the silver one in particular 🙂 Hooray for the first patio drinks of the year; I can imagine all the conversation and laughter. As for the book, I very much believe in the Santayana/Churchill/Burke quote re: those who don’t know history repeating it. And as for dismissing Hitler as a clown…sounding a wee bit too familiar for me.

    1. I have another blogging friend from New Zealand who mentioned those silver ferns. I took a look online. How pretty they are! Yes, dismissing Hitler sounds all too familiar. We did the same thing with our own clown. Sigh.

  23. I love ferns too! A few years ago I visited Ferndale on the California coast, as the name suggests there were ferns everywhere, and it was magical! Your ferns are very beautiful. I understand why you love them.

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