LYME/OLD LYME — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s latest COVID-19 Community Levels Map for Connecticut (CT), pictured above and dated Thursday, Jan. 19, shows an improvement over the previous week’s map dated Jan. 13. New London County not only remains in the Yellow/Medium category but Fairfield County has rejoined it there.
The remaining six counties in Connecticut, however, are still in the Orange/High Category.
Because all eight Connecticut counties are either in the High or Medium categories, the CT Department of Public Health (DPH) recommends that all residents consider wearing a mask in public indoor spaces. People who are at high risk for severe illness should consider additional measures to minimize their exposure to COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.
To help protect themselves, their families, and the state’s most vulnerable residents and to preserve capacity in the CT health care system, people are also advised to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and get tested if they have symptoms.
The links to all these resources can be found in the DPH COVID-19 toolbox at www.ct.gov/coronavirus.
Additionally, the Federal Government has now made available four free self-test kits per household. These free self-test kits can be ordered by visiting www.covid.gov/tests.
The COVID-19 Community Levels inform CDC recommendations on prevention measures, such as masking and testing. The guidelines include a color-coded system available on the CDC website of “Low,” “Medium,” and “High.” This approach focuses on preventing hospitals and health care systems from being overwhelmed and directing prevention efforts toward protecting people at high risk for severe illness.
Editor’s Note: This article is based on a news release issued Jan. 7, 2023 by the Connecticut Department of Public Health and sent to LymeLine by Ledge Light Health District.
Your yard in winter can be an anchor, connecting heart, body, mind and spirit to Mother Nature.
Maureen Haseley-Jones is “The English Lady.”
I know it is only early January, but it is never to early to begin to plan for this season in your garden. My motto has always been to plan, before action and production. Mother Nature is waiting for us with her gifts of renewal, growth and nourishment as we begin to plan for the coming season. She tells us that in this wonderful pastime called ‘gardening,’ we can escape from the trials and tribulations of our world. Each day we move gradually from the dark into the light to a longer, brighter day and welcome spring.
A few weeks ago, I retrieved my second batch of Narcissus from the brown paper bag in the refrigerator and planted them on pebbles, with just enough pebbles to anchor the bulbs in place or you may use potting soil. I use tall glass vases, making sure to keep the pebbles moist with just enough water to cover the bottom of each bulb.
I brought my Rosemary plant indoors in September, as Rosemary is not hardy outdoors in Zone six. I spray the plant twice weekly with warm water and run a cold-water humidifier and two germ guardian air cleaners with UV lights for personal health and the health of my plants.
After planting the paper white Narcissus, I placed them in a dark, cool closet until the foliage is about four inches tall. Today I moved them from the dark closet to a cool room with indirect light and where the temperature remains at about 65 degrees. When the buds are almost ready to open, I will place them in a brighter area to be enjoyed, not only for their bloom but also the heady fragrance which permeates the house. The new bloom draws me out of the winter doldrums and their gentle fragrance lifts my spirits.
Paper-white narcissi have a beautiful fragrance. Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash.
I know that the severe changes, which are occurring with global warming combined with pollution in the air, water and the earth, are severely damaging our planet. Your personal contribution to saving our planet is to organically tend the soil with compost, manure and natural brown mulch, which builds the humus component in your soil. Your plants and vegetables will thrive, as will you. Throughout the year, allow your garden to anchor you, connecting heart, body, mind and spirit to Mother Nature’s life-giving bountiful gifts and spiritual energy.
The cold, harsh winds of January and February extract moisture from trees and shrubs, especially the evergreens. Winter winds are more harmful to plants than cold temperatures, not only causing plant breakage but also soil erosion. For that reason, it is helpful to have a few bags of topsoil and mulch in the garage. With these items on hand, any roots can be covered when they become exposed by wind or frost heave.
Roots exposed to the elements for any length of time can kill the plant, so when you notice exposed roots, quickly cover exposed areas with soil and mulch. When spring arrives, and the earth warms up, the plant can be resettled in place together with composted manure and natural brown mulch to provide protection and nutrition.
On a sunny day in January, take a walk round the garden and breathe in the freshening air, and as you walk, make some notes and decide what worked for you last year and what you will never try again.
Later, when you are back indoors, relaxing in your armchair, browse through the catalogues that began arriving a few months ago. You have already begun making lists of plants that you are thinking of buying. However, a word of caution when gazing at the photos, which are meant to tempt you with their lovely but “doctored up” pictures of plants.
Don’t be fooled by these pictures, instead decide that this season in the garden will be for sensible and organized change. Do not allow your imagination to run amok and get caught up in the fantasy of the brightly colored, high-maintenance garden pictures you see in the catalogues.
Suit your garden to your lifestyle and what will work within your timeframe and physical abilities. If you follow that construct, you will have the time to sit, relax and smell the roses, without being overwhelmed or disappointed.
As you sit and plan for the coming season, it’s important to keep your budget in mind. It’s hard to believe as you look outside at the muted landscape, that in a few months, sunshine and gentle breezes will warm the soil and new growth will appear.
When the soil is dry enough to tread on, winter debris may carefully be cleared away. Then with a clean palette, make a clean edge on the borders; this simple task makes such a difference to the look of a garden. Then in mid -April, add that lovely layer of manure and compost (the ratio being three parts manure to one part compost). With that prep completed, you are ready for the fun stuff — the placing and planting!
For those of you who are vegetable gardeners and look forward to a bountiful year with fruits and vegetables; spring rain, extra irrigation and sunshine will produce delicious bounty. As spring moves along, so will the appearance of both good and bad insects, moles, voles and other critters, that can be dealt with naturally. My remedies for this problem I will give in an upcoming gardening letter.
Your memory of your garden from last season may be lost in the enthusiasm of a new season, therefore, I am asking you to be kind to yourself. If last year you became overwhelmed with too much gardening, and not enough time to relax and smell the roses, the following are some suggestions you might follow to avoid that problem:
For example, send some of your borders back to grass.
If you are tired of mowing all your grass areas, spread wild flower seeds in the grass and enjoy the pleasure of a prairie meadow.
Turn some of the high-maintenance perennial borders into mixed shrub borders. To accomplish this, take out some of the high-maintenance perennials and donate them to a worthy cause.
In their place, plant small- and medium-size evergreen shrubs; some green, some blue and some of the lovely gold species of evergreens. With these shrubs displaying their all-season beauty, add small flowering deciduous trees and shrubs that begin flowering in April and successively through June. The Carlesii viburnum, also known as Korean Spice, is a favorite small shrub of mine, with its white buds that open to a pale pink with the most delightful fragrance.
Add a Ben Franklin tree with its white cup-like blooms and gold center that flowers in August through September.
Nestle three Blue Mist shrubs in the mixed border; this plant will delight with purple blooms and fragrant leaves into September.
On a fence or trellis, plant white autumn clematis.
Add a groundcover as an evergreen framework – my favorite is Myrtle with its glossy leaves and miniature blue flowers that bloom in April.
I feel it is never too soon to introduce your children and grandchildren to the wonders of the garden and begin by introducing them to the garden fairies. Through the years I have asked children to draw a picture of the garden fairy and make a list of questions to ask the fairies, who live in the wild patch in the garden. We all have a wild patch in the garden; and at this point you are probably saying, “Maureen, my garden is one large ‘wild patch.’
Children become so excited and enthused about their lists and pictures of the fairies because what you are showing them is the transformation of science into magic. These days we seem to have forgotten about fairy tales, dreams and magic; it is way past time to bring those wonderful energies back into our lives and into the lives of our children.
In spring and on into summer I would find my children or their friends impatiently checking the garden wanting to see their planting efforts come into bloom. In the vegetable garden they gathered to check what was ready to eat from the produce they had planted. I have found that this introduction to the garden has inspired these children when they become adults to enthusiastically plant and tend gardens of their own.
My son Ian is a great example of this as he has partnered with me through the years in the garden – and thus the old adage that ‘the student is better than the teacher’ has certainly proved to be correct. Ian is a designer par excellence and I invite you to check his website LandscapesbyIan.com and his Facebook page for lovely examples of his work.
In my March gardening tips, I’ll offer you some suggestions of ornamental trees, shrubs and long-blooming perennials. With that list in hand, it is a good idea to obtain your plants from local garden centers that carry tried and true plants that will flourish in Zone six.
On the other hand, if you feel that over the years, you have been throwing good money after bad and you are feeling desperate because you feel that your garden, no matter what you do, never looks right. If that is the case then get in touch with a landscape company like LandscapesbyIan.com, who will keep your budget in mind whether you want to do your own work, or wish for a design to install yourself.
But if you are planning your garden for this coming season, there are important facts to keep in mind:
What are the plants requirements for sun, shade, soil, and water?
Will they survive in this zone, Zone 6?
What are the growth patterns of the plants? Do they grow fast or slow?
You do not want a 50 ft. tree up against the house with tremendous roots that will play havoc with your house foundation. Or do you want that lovely but very large, Catawbiense Rhododendron, all 10 ft. of it, climbing through your dining room window in five years?
To find those facts, either check the plants in a book, on the Internet or read the labels attached to the plants in the nursery.
Check every aspect of the plant before you buy. The red or green Lace Leaf Japanese Maple looks lovely in spring but is it something you can enjoy, without its leaves in the winter? Personally, I not only enjoy the foliage of plants and trees but also the shape and bark of trees without foliage in winter.
For those of you just beginning to garden, I must be honest and dispense with the myth that gardening is always a relaxing hobby. At the end of that first day of digging, lugging soil, manure and fertilizer, and planting everything at the proper depth; you will feel rather exhausted.
At that juncture, you remember that you still need to water the newly-installed plants as you drag your tired body to switch on the hose. Thank goodness, the mulching can wait until tomorrow or next weekend.
Watering by the way can be meditative. Imagine that the hose is your umbilical cord so that as you nourish the earth and the plants, the earth can nourish you.
By now the sun has gone down, and you trudge indoors muttering to yourself, “What the heck did I get myself into?” To this comment I say, “You did not have to tackle all of the garden in one day.”
In gardening, there is always tomorrow, or next week, and even though the label says to plant it by the end of May or June, believe me folks, a few weeks later does not matter, the garden will wait for you.
You may be saying to yourself at this point “Maureen are you trying to put us off gardening”? No, but I would remiss, as someone who has gardening in my blood (as well as manure) for over 400 years to tell you, however reluctantly, not only the pleasures, but some of what can cause aches and pains.
The idea is not to bite off more than you can chew. For first-time gardeners, don’t scatter your energies all over the garden, tackle and complete one area at a time. That area should be priority one until it is complete.
A water feature need not be elaborate. Photo by Dan Hayman on Unsplash.
If you have a new home with no landscaping, some hardscape may be required. Hardscape is walls, walkways, patios, ponds, decks and so on. The sound and look of a water feature in the garden is delightful. A water feature need not be elaborate, a fountain is fine – the reflection of water is Mother Nature’s mirror. If you are not able to do this construction yourself, get in touch with a landscape contractor now, so that a plan can be done now, installed and ready by spring. (I say to connect now as Ian tells me that many landscape products are short on supply this year.)
All of these endeavors mean you getting yourself in shape physically, so get off that couch, put away the catalogues and your plant lists, stretch, then wrap yourself up in warm gear and take that walk.
As you walk, look at the trees in winter, the elegant shape of them, the lichen on the stonewalls, and the moss tucked in cracks and crevices. Clear your mind and allow nature’s spirit to surround you. As you walk, look at a few gardens in your neighborhood; gardens that you have admired when they were in bloom and see what they look like in winter.
I remember one of my professors saying to me when I studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, England, “In winter you can tell a really good landscape by its bones, without the flesh of flora and foliage.” In spring, get in touch with those neighbors whose gardens you admired and ask them some of the secrets of their garden. They will be happy to talk with you, not only of their successes but their failures – true gardeners are realists when they speak about their gardens and love to share.
Well folks, I’ve given you plenty to think about right now so enjoy your daydreaming of the season to come and I’ll see you next month in your garden.
About the author: Maureen Haseley-Jones is a member of a family of renowned horticultural artisans, whose landscaping heritage dates back to the 17th century. She is one of the founders, together with her son Ian, of, The English Lady Landscape and Home Company. Maureen and Ian are landscape designers and garden experts, who believe that everyone deserves to live in an eco-conscious environment and enjoy the pleasure that it brings. Maureen learned her design skills from both her mother and grandmother, and honed her horticultural and construction skills while working in the family nursery and landscape business in the U.K. Her formal horticultural training was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey.
Millennials are the first “digital natives,” who experienced the internet, mobile devices, and social media from childhood onwards. Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash.
Behavioral economists report that Americans’ attitudes about work and the workplace have gone through some remarkable changes.
News reports on CBS, both national and local, have presented several stories on one aspect of this change, “the rise of the side hustle”. Another aspect, “quiet quitting”, was addressed on 12/06/2022 in the comic pages in “Hi and Lois”, by Mort Walker. Then, the “side hustle” received some additional coverage in the week of 12/19/2022 in two “Peanuts” comic strips in which Sally Brown pitched her patriotic Bicentennial souvenirs to her brother, Charlie.
Accordingly, I developed an interest in the topic and decided to do some research that extended even beyond CBS and the “funny papers.” Note that “Peanuts” originally ran from 1950 to Charles Schulz’s death in 2000, but continues in reruns; and so, all current “Peanuts” comic strips are repeats of those that have already been published. There is no “ghost cartoonist,” and the two comics mentioned above were originally published during America’s Bicentennial. I am impressed that “Peanuts” appears to stand the test of time.
This essay reviews some of the generational factors that impact our work expectations, defines a few of the trendy buzzwords that form the lexicon of this emerging work phenomenon, and touches on the longer-term impact that the pandemic had on the workplace.
I had several hours one-on-one over the holidays and holy days with my youngest daughter, “D”; who was willing to share both her insider-millennial’s view, and provide me with a way to illustrate the topic.
Boomers vs. Millennials:
The “baby boomer” generation includes those born between the end of WWII and the mid-1960s; and named for the booming birth rate that occurred in the post-war period. This was the generation that started the families that Americans postponed during the war — and even earlier, during the Great Depression. They were promised the “American Dream” and enjoyed a sense of confidence that the coming era would be safe and prosperous. However, they experienced the tensions of the Cold War era, and many constructed backyard bomb shelters in preparation for a nuclear attack by the USSR.
Boomers are driven by loyalty, value stability and commitment. Many worked for the same company for long periods of time and were most comfortable when promotions and pay raises were earned by dedicating years of service to the organization. Forty percent of boomers stayed with an employer for at least 20 years, and 18 percent stayed for 30 years or more.
Baby boomers embraced the “automobile culture” and discovered the suburbs and “country life” in their 20s and 30s.
They were “digital immigrants” (see below), and needed to accept and adapt to new technologies that then became the tools essential for both work and life. Baby boomers are more comfortable with face-to-face than digital communication.
Millennials are generally considered as those born between 1980 and the mid-1990s, and are mostly the children of baby boomers. They grew up in in a hyper-connected society and became the first generation to be fully globalized online during adolescence and early adulthood. These “digital natives” experienced the internet, mobile devices, and social media from childhood onwards.
They surpassed the baby boomers as America’s largest generation in 2019 when they comprised more than one-third of the American labor force. They are America’s most racially diverse generation and are less likely to buy homes and get married in their 20s and 30s than their parents. They are the first generation to be happier living in larger, more urban environments than rural or suburban settings.
They are more willing than baby boomers to change jobs or work independently and are motivated to seek jobs where they feel that their work matters and has an impact.
Millennial women are much better educated than their mothers and grandmothers and have greatly increased their participation in America’s workforce. The men are also better educated; but a greater share of this generation’s women have a bachelor’s degree than their male counterparts — a reversal from the past.
Millennials have higher levels of student loan debt and individuals are poorer, in real dollars, than their parents. However, more than one-half of U.S. households are now dual income; so, their total household income may not have changed as much. The events of September 11, 2001 shaped the millennial generation, much as the Cold War affected the baby boomers.
Significantly, millennials are more concerned than their parents with achieving a healthy balance between work and home; and the statement, “It’s not supposed to be fun; that’s why they call it work,” would be anathema to them. They are health-conscious and are probably responsible for menu items like avocado toast.
The Lexicon:
As you might infer from the words, “act your wage” refers to accomplishing only the work for which you are paid and nothing more; and so, if you are making minimum wage, you would put in the bare minimum of effort.
Similarly, “quiet quitting” isn’t really a resignation, since the worker doesn’t actually leave their position and continues to collect a salary. Quiet quitters do their jobs and nothing above and beyond. They may not make themselves available for Zoom meetings after hours and are unlikely to take work home to deal with over the weekend.
Proponents of “act your wage” and “quiet quitting” view them both as just what’s required to set firm, healthy boundaries in the workplace.
The “side hustle” may be easiest to understand because it seems to be just old-fashioned “moonlighting”. It’s the work you do outside your full-time or primary job and people typically engage in sidehustles to supplement their income. It can be online, in-person, freelance, etc.
Finally, the “hybrid work model” has its roots in the pandemic, and refers to work arrangements that enable the employee to work remotely part of the week at home or somewhere off-worksite; and the remainder of the week in the physical office.
The Pandemic:
Business and government agency leaders had explored work arrangements like flex-time, telecommuting, job sharing, and work-from-home for years.
However, it was the rapid onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, when businesses closed and millions of workers were forced to adapt to new working arrangements that the transition to remote and hybrid work accelerated.
A few years later, restrictions were relaxed, and employers had to decide how to re-architect the post- pandemic workplace. Some companies (e.g., Goldman Sachs) required a fulltime return to the physical office. However, many employers still allow employees to work from home full- or part-time. Researchers at Harvard and Stanford have independently concluded that the hybrid work model may be the most reasonable solution going forward for both employers and their employees, who often want to continue to work remotely and be flexible in their schedules.
Of course, many jobs cannot be performed remotely and require that workers be physically present at their worksites.
Offices will look different with a hybrid workforce. Less space will be needed and every worker will probably not require a designated desk. Companies will need to manage technology in remote settings. Collaborative space in the office will become a priority for more team-focused work, while individual work will, of course, be done at home.
Case histories:
I am a baby boomer and digital immigrant. My first cell phone had a retractable antenna. My e-mail address ends “@AOL.com”; and keeping it has become an “embarrassment” for my middle daughter. I originally connected via a telephone modem. My personal computer was a DEC Rainbow and it was mouseless. I wrote my papers with an early release of “WordStar” and stored files on floppy disks. I still think of myself as an “early adopter”, despite the e-mail address.
I was surprised at how closely our youngest daughter, “D” aligns with the above profile of her generation. She is probably our most millennial child. She announced to the family at age seven or eight that she was no longer eating meat; and she has remained a vegetarian thereafter, which we have all supported. She went on to NYU after graduating from Westminster School; and then, after that graduation, went on to Brooklyn College to pursue advanced training in some arcane computer science field.
Her first job was with an international “big data” company. She kept her Brooklyn apartment and worked from their Manhattan office and was very happy in that environment. Her colleagues were all young, smart, and high energy.
Her team included a group of engineers located in India and she had the occasion to meet with them in-person on the subcontinent
She now works with a large, international cyber security company. She works with a team of engineers located in Belfast from either Brooklyn or a second residence in Red Hook, NY on the Hudson River. Except for occasional meetings in her company’s East- or West-coast hubs, she is totally remote. She visits us and her Connecticut nieces and nephew regularly, but not frequently. Her nieces and nephew, who are six years old and younger, all think of her as “Cool Aunty ‘D’”
Author’s Comments: If this evolution of attitude is at all surprising, it may be because we haven’t been listening to the music; or perhaps, just been too focused on the beat and inattentive to the lyrics. Harry Belafonte (1956): “Work all night on a drink of rum; daylight come and we want to go home”. Pete Seeger (1957): “I’ve been working on the railroad all the live-long day”. The Who (1965): “Why don’t you all fade away; and don’t try to dig what we all say”. Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel (1969): “Asking only workman’s wages I come looking for a job; but I get no offers”. Joan Baez (1969): “Where workers fight and organize; it’s there you’ll find Joe Hill”. Bachman-Turner Overdrive (1973): “And if your train’s on time, you can get to work by nine; and start your slaving job to get your pay”. Donna Summer (1983): “She works hard for the money; so you better treat her right”. Bob Dylan (2006): “It’s a new path that we trod; and they say low wages are reality if we want to compete abroad”.
Sources: Fry, Richard, Patten, Eatten, Eileen; and Igielnik, Ruth. “How Millennials today compare with their grandparents 50 years ago”. Pew Research Center. 03/16/2018. Fry, Richard. “Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force”. Pew Research Center. 04/11/2018. Taylor, Stephanie. “Five major differences between the lives of millennials and baby boomers. Business Insider. 04/03/2019. Vasel, Kathryn. “Two years later, remote work has changed millions of careers”. CNN. 03/18/2022. Kaplan, Juliana. “How to ‘act your wage,’ according to two millennials who did it.”. Pew Research Center. 11/27/2022. Auginbaugh, Alison and Rothstein, Donna S. “How did employment change during the COVID-19 pandemic?” Bureau Of Labor Statistics Supplement. Vol. 11/No.1. 01/ 2022. Walsh, Colleen. “Hybrid work’s sweet spot”. Harvard Magazine. 01-02/2023.
Editor’sNote: This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.
About the author: Tom Gotowka is a resident of Old Lyme, whose entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.
SALEM — Charles Frederick Dimmock Jr., 86, of Salem, passed away Jan. 17, 2023, at Apple Rehab in Colchester where he had recently been residing. Born in New London, May 4, 1936 … He married his beloved wife Mary Romagna Jan. 10, 1970. They made their home in Salem where they raised their children and tended to their dairy farm.
He leaves his children, Sherry Dunn of Key Largo, Fla., Stanley Hislop of Old Lyme and Sandra Garside of Waterford; a sister, Florence Robbins of Oakdale; six grandchildren; five great-grandchildren … He was preceded in death on Oct. 1, 2022, by Mary, his beloved wife of 52 years.
Calling hours will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23, at the Aurora-McCarthy Funeral Home, 167 Old Hartford Road, Colchester. A graveside service will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Salem Green Cemetery, Hartford Road, Salem …
OLD LYME — Dr. James J. Korst “Jim”, 91, formerly of Old Lyme, CT, passed away at home in Bloomfield, CT, on December 19, 2022, surrounded by his loving family … He spent his entire career at Pfizer Central Research in Groton, CT, where he met and married the love of his life Hedy Rubin in 1960. They moved to Old Lyme to raise their family, where they enjoyed the next 50 years …
In addition to his wife Hedy, Jim is survived by daughter Karen Korst Bullot and partner Louis Hahn of Spencertown, NY; son Gregory Korst and wife Jill of San Anselmo, CA; son Dr. Robert Korst and wife Marisa of Franklin Lakes, NJ; as well as grandchildren …
