Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter Archives

Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter

Wake-Robin In honor of John Burroughs’ first book, Wake-Robin, I found a little-known poem by Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter (Books by this author) called The Wake-Robin. Rebecca was a descendant of Gene Williams Palfrey who served with George Washington and served as ambassador to France. When she was 28, she became the wife of a…

April 3, 2020 Gardening for Resilience, Magnifying Glass for the Garden Tote, Nikolay Rumyantsev, John Burroughs, Kate Brandegee, Graham Stuart Thomas, The Overstory by Richard Powers, and The Wake-Robin by Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter

Today we celebrate the birthday of a Russian Count who funded an expedition that led to the discovery of the California poppy. We’ll also learn about one of the country’s most beloved naturalists. We celebrate the life of the second woman to be professionally employed as a botanist in the United States. She died 100…

The Wake Robin

by Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter When leaves green and hardy From sleep have just uncurled — Spring is so tardy In this part of the world — There comes a white flower forth, Opens its eyes, Looks out upon the earth, In drowsy surprise. A fair and pleasant vision The nodding blossoms make; And the…

April 3, 2019 Garden Moods, John Burroughs, Kate Brandegee, Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter, William Glassley, Magnifying Glass, Trilliums, and the Wake-Robin

As I was preparing for today’s show, I kept thinking about this quote from John Burrows: “… One’s own landscape comes in time to be a sort of outlying part of himself; he has sowed himself broadcast upon it, and it reflects his own moods and feelings; he is sensitive to the verge of the…