Here at my Bedford, New York farm, today is clean up day after Winter Storm Sage came through the region dropping several inches of heavy, wet snow.
Yesterday's nor'easter began as rain during the early morning hours and then continued through the day and into the night covering everything in white. Fortunately, we were not among the hardest hit areas, but by afternoon, roads were slick and visibility was low - winter is definitely not over yet.
Here are some photos, enjoy. I hope all of you who were affected are doing okay.
Here at the farm, temperatures hovered in the low to mid-30s much of the day. The storm started as rain and slush. By late morning, snow started to stick on every surface, including the moss and sedum growing on this stone wall outside my Winter House kitchen.
Thankfully, all the ornamental urns and precious boxwood are all still covered with protective burlap.
Here, a burst of early spring color – the witch hazel in bloom.
Snow accumulated on the tops of the burlap-covered frames in my long Boxwood Allée. Here, one could see how large the snowflakes were. These larger flakes occur when temperatures are near freezing at 32-degrees Fahrenheit, which melts some of the snow crystals and causes them to become sticky. As they fall, they collide with other snow crystals, causing them to grow in size and appear as larger snowflakes once they get closer to the ground.
Here is another allée – the south section of linden trees, which lead to the espaliered apple trees behind my long carport.
Venturing into the woods is this stand of beautiful and upright trees. During winter, my outdoor grounds crew works hard to “clean the woods” of any fallen branches, invasive barberry, and dead trees – leaving clear views of the woodland.
These are some of the evergreen trees at the edge of my “Christmas tree garden.” The snow is beginning to weigh down on the branches, but fortunately no damage was done. I planted hundreds of evergreens here more than 10-years ago and they’ve grown immensely.
Here is a tree almost completely disguised by the snow.
This is an old stone wall on my farm. Stone walls are very common here in New England. They originally served as a boundary for property lines and as a way to keep animals away from crops. They still mark properties today, but are also used decoratively.
In this area of the woods, it is so quiet, one can just hear the snow falling in clumps from the trees.
Another sign that spring is on the way – the growing daffodils. There are patches of daffodil greenery bursting through the soil all over the farm. I can’t wait to see them in their full splendor.
This is our nicely organized stone yard, where I keep stone, granite, bricks, pavers and posts for future projects. These piles of stone are also covered in soft white snow.
Last fall, we planted a group of large Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Filicoides’ or Fernspray Hinoki cypress bushes along the carriage road just past my allée of lindens near the entrance to my Japanese Maple Woodland. I thought the space would look even prettier planted with these upright, bushy conifers – and it does, even with the snow cover.
By afternoon, the snow fell more furiously. This is the old corn crib, original to the farm, at the edge of a horse paddock surrounded with antique fencing.
The wild geese often visit my farm and gather in one of the pastures. Geese are very hardy and adaptable to cold climates – they don’t mind the snow at all.
Do you recognize this? It is the entrance to my herbaceous peony garden. The boxwood hedge surrounding it is protected in burlap, while the beds are completely covered in this blanket of white.
And here is the entrance to my living maze. I started planting it last year. I am looking forward to adding more turns and beautiful plants this spring.
These are some of the evergreens in my pinetum, an area I developed behind my Equipment Barn and near one of my weeping willow groves. The pinetum collection has grown so well over the years. It includes pines, spruces and firs, as well as other evergreens.
Here is one of the ancient apple trees in front of my studio building just below my carport. This apple tree is original to the farm and still provides multitudes of delicious fruits every year.
These are six weeping hornbeams. We prune these rare hornbeams regularly to keep the beautiful shape.
And here is the symbol of my farm – the great sycamore tree in the back hayfield. This tree is stands tall and majestic in every season. I love how the snow outlines its branches. Today is expected to be windy with possible snow flurries here in Bedford, but rest assured spring officially begins in less than a week.
My calendar is always filled with business meetings, events, and speaking engagements.
Last week, I made a quick visit to Utah for the Qualtrics X4™: The Experience Management Summit in Salt Lake City. After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, more than 10-thousand experience management professionals representing 52-countries gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center for the three-day conference. I was honored to be one of several headline speakers. I shared my thoughts on social media and technology, brand partnerships and collaborations, and the importance of learning in an ever-evolving environment. Afterwards, my team and I also enjoyed a visit to Rawtopia Living Cuisine and Beyond, where they serve Mediterranean-inspired raw, organic, and vegetarian fare.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Salt Lake City lies in a mountain valley with the Wasatch Mountains to the east and north, and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west. On this day, the skies were so clear, we had stunning views from the plane.
There was lots of snow – a very different winter scene than what we’ve had on the east coast this season. In general, Salt Lake and the surrounding mountain ranges receive at least 500-inches of snow every year.
Snow-capped mountains could be seen for miles. Among the many mountains in the region, the tallest mountain found within the Salt Lake City boundaries is Grandview Peak, which rises 9,410 feet above sea level. In comparison, Salt Lake City sits at an altitude of around 4,200 feet above sea level.
The Qualtrics X4: Experience Management Summit was held at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center, named after Utah’s 11th governor. For those unfamiliar with its history, the first Salt Palace in Utah was built in 1899, but was destroyed by fire in 1910. An indoor arena was completed in 1969 for area concerts and other large events. And then this convention center opened its doors in 1996. Over the years, expansions increased the building’s size to nearly one-million square-feet. (Photo by Qualtrics)
The X4 event featured hundreds of sessions covering topics such as customer care, customer research and insights, digital experience and employee experience for several key industries including professionals in education, government, healthcare, and financial services. (Photo by Qualtrics)
The host company Qualtrics started in 2002 and grew from a basement startup to a multi-billion-dollar business focused on helping organizations in more than 100 countries manage the four core experiences of business: customer, employee, product, and brand experience. Qualtrics has 25 offices around the world with nearly 17,000 customers and more than 5,000 employees. (Photo by Qualtrics)
More than 10-thousand were in attendance at the conference. It was nice to see such an enthusiastic crowd. (Photo by Qualtrics)
The event was well-organized and well-managed by the Qualtrics team – so important in a venue this large. (Photo by Qualtrics)
I was interviewed by Gina Sheibley, Chief Communications Officer at Qualtrics. Gina leads global communications for the company, including analyst relations, public relations, executive communications, internal communications and the customer office. (Photo by Qualtrics)
During my interview, I talked about one of my biggest mantras – to learn something new every day. I need to always learn new things in order to teach others. I also feel it is important to take risks – in business and in everyday life. In business, one must expect that there will always be bad partnerships and good partnerships… and great partnerships. (Photo by Qualtrics)
While at the Summit, I met up with another speaker, Olympian Shaun White. He recently started a new brand of snow boarding products called Whitespace. Here I am with Shaun and his business partner, Miles Nathan.
After the event, we had just enough time to eat lunch at Rawtopia Living Cuisine and Beyond. This is tabouli with no bulgur wheat. It’s an authentic Lebanese mix of parsley, tomato, hemp seeds, red onion, scallion, mint, lemon, olive oil, Celtic sea salt – served with cabbage and lettuce. It was fresh and delicious.
We also had miso soup, along with their signature homemade veggie seed crackers.
These are deep leafy greens topped with avocado, tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, celery, red onion, olive, parsley, crunchy falafel crust, served with a side of tahini dressing.
This taco was served on an organic corn tortilla filled with sautéed wild-caught cod, topped with bell pepper, tomato, onion, avocado, cilantro, and cashew-lime cilantro sauce.
We also enjoyed coconut water straight from the coconut.
My team and I headed back to New York that afternoon. It was definitely a quick trip, but I always enjoy visiting Salt Lake City. See you soon, Utah!
It's always so nice to repurpose materials and put them to good use in projects around my Bedford, New York farm.
Recently, my outdoor grounds crew used dozens of pressed red clay bricks that used to surround my pool at my former East Hampton home to line a footpath inside my Silkie chicken pen. It looked so good, I decided to create a similar path outside the yard. I also thought the bricks would look pretty edging the garden bed in front of the enclosure, where we planted a hedge of European beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Gold' - a deciduous and relatively low-maintenance tree with a narrowly upright and columnar growth habit. The area now looks entirely different and more manicured.
Here are some photos of the project.
I have thousands of these red clay bricks. “Pressed red” is the general term given to solid red bricks traditionally manufactured from clay, pressed into individual molds by hand, and then heated at very high temperatures. Each of these antique bricks measures about eight and-a-half inches by four inches.
Before this project, we were using these flat pavers as a footpath to the pens; however, we didn’t have enough for all the footpaths I wanted to create, so I decided to use the bricks and pea gravel. I wanted everything to look uniform. Here, Moises removes the old stones. They will be saved and used for a future project.
Twine is secured to make sure the edges of the bricks are completely straight. We use a lot of twine for our outdoor projects here at the farm – it is easy to put up and creates a straight and accurate line every time.
Once again, Pete removes the grass and some soil along the line, creating a narrow trench just wide enough for the bricks and about five inches deep.
And then one by one, he angles the bricks and positions them in a sawtooth style, laying one on another at a 45-degree angle. It isn’t hard to do, but it must be done carefully, so everything is straight and perfect. The string also helps to make sure the points are at the same level.
Pete uses the end of the hammer to gently tap the brick into place. In time, the soil will fill in any gaps and keep the bricks secure.
From this angle, one can see how helpful the twine is to keeping the bricks straight. Using bricks to line the footpaths handsomely defines the boundaries between grass and path.
On this side, Pete uses the side of the air conditioner pit as his guide for laying the bricks.
Once all the bricks are in place, Fernando cuts the weed cloth to size within the path.
And then Pete follows behind to hammer in sod staples at various points.
These sod staples secure the weed cloth and are easy to get at any garden shop or big box store with gardening supplies.
Next, is the gravel. All around the farm, I like to use quarter-inch native washed stone. Each stone is about the size of a pea. This same gravel stone is also used to line the paths in my flower cutting garden. It s nice to keep everything uniform when possible.
Fernando uses our trusted Scenic Road wheelbarrow to transport the gravel from the truck to the path. We have more than a dozen of these wheelbarrows – they’re great for so many jobs around the farm.
The gravel is spread evenly with a hard rake. Afterwards, Fernando will go over it with a gravel tamper. A tamper is a tool with a long handle and a heavy, square base used for leveling and firmly packing gravel, dirt, clay, sand, and other similar materials.
Next, Pete digs another trench along the garden bed, where I planted a long European beech hedge three years ago.
The ganders are watching every move – guarding their mates. Here’s “Bear” coming to the front of the pen to see what is going on.
These two are also watching all the activity from inside their enclosure. The birds are always so curious.
Pete places the same bricks in the sawtooth pattern along the garden bed.
Every so often, Pete looks at the bricks from above to make sure they are all in alignment. He uses his feet to gently press any that look out of place.
These bricks look great marking the edge of the bed. They will also look very pretty this spring when the grass grows.
And here is the footpath leading to the Silkie chicken yard – so much neater and more tidy. Spring officially starts next week – what do-it-yourself projects are on your list? Share them with me; I’d love to hear from you.
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