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Gardening Check out my gardening blog: Jean’s Garden! I am a passionate gardener, growing flowering
perennials. I don’t love the hard work
of gardening (double digging, weeding, hauling around heavy loads of soil and
soil amendments); what I love is the beauty that is created by all that
work. What makes garden design
particularly exciting is that these are not static compositions of objects.
Plants are living beings; sort of like raising children, you set the process
in motion and then watch how it unfolds. |
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Food and Cooking I am interested in eating delicious food that
is grown sustainably. I try to buy local food, organic whenever possible, and
I enjoy using fresh local ingredients to cook simple meals. I bake my own bread, can tomatoes in the
fall, and make most of my meals from scratch.
I have long been a member of the Maine Organic Farmer’s and Gardener’s Association. This
year, I joined the CSA at Summit Springs Farm here in Poland. |
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Photography I have been addicted to photography since I
first held my first SLR camera, forty years ago. I came late to digital
photography, because I was very dissatisfied with point and shoot cameras.
Two years ago, I bought an affordable digital SLR (Canon Rebel digital). I almost never take pictures of people. My
favorite pictures to take are close-ups of flowers, plants, or landscape
features. |
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Travel I enjoy travel, both within the United States
and abroad. I love to travel alone – the freedom to meet new people, and the
ability to really focus on a new place. When I can, I like to use public
transit (especially trains). Every few years, I like to take a big trip,
lasting several weeks or more. Some of
the places I have visited in this way are England, France, Alaska, and
Newfoundland. Alas, I am overdue for a big trip and have made do in recent
years with much shorter vacations, like this one two years ago to Montreal
and the Montreal
Botanical Gardens. |
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Reading My most important leisure activity is reading; I am almost
never without a book. My reading habits are wide-ranging and include all my
other pastimes. Genres that I am particularly fond of include murder
mysteries, travel narratives, gardening narratives, and memoirs. Long-time and recent favorite books and
authors include: Michael Pollan, especially The Omnivore’s Dilemma Alexander McCall Smith, especially the 44 Scotland Street series Mystery writers Elizabeth George, P.D. James, Reginald
Hill, Gwendolyn Butler, Dana Stabenow, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Laurie King. Adam Gopnik, Through
the Children’s Gate Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield
Park George Eliot, Daniel
Deronda Katherine S. White, Onward
and Upward in the Garden Vita Sackville-West’s Garden
Book Barbara Kingsolver, Animal,
Vegetable, Miracle Alice Steinbach, Without
Reservations Eric Stiller, Keep
Australia on Your Left Michael Ruhlman, Ratio |
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