Princess Plants-a-Lot goes to a garden party

Twenty years ago, I was faced with empty beds after I ripped out the overgrown shrubs in my newly purchased home. So I came up with a scheme for people to give me plants, plants that grew well in this area. And so the plant exchange party began. I last hosted "my" garden party in 2004. Since then, Beth, the lovely lady in green in the picture below, opened her home for the plant exchange.

After we eat and socialize and scope out the plants, the exchange begins. This year, we moved to the garage because of the cold wind blowing across their lovely farmland. Here, our host is confessing to iris theft from the church and offering up bearded iris.
Next Vern brings out some tender bulbs. The lady selecting the bulbs flew in from Philadelphia for the party so you know how much fun we have.
Jennifer, my niece, has everyone's rapt attention as she explains the "garden in a box" that she brought. She brought coral bells for the front, hosta for the mid-section and garden phlox for the back. There may have been more but that's all I remember.

She did a good sales job, no wonder she is in marketing.

Here is one person's bounty.
Donna is getting started with the plants she brought. I've gotten to know Donna during the last year as we landscaped the church's new building and really enjoy her and respect her knowledge. Look at all the plants waiting to be given away. Donna's helper is Jennifer's daughter, Emily, my truly great niece.
Here's Emily with my tiara checking out the tub, perhaps for earthworms or maybe she is making a wish. Beth crowned me Princess Plants-a-Lot (P-Lancelot) in honor of 20 years of the plant exchange.

Beth offers up a hot item.

Here's an idea of the sheet number and variety of plants. Over the years, we've learned to limit the rampant growers, and people brought things like toad lilies, filipendula and sweet autumn clematis.
And a good time was had by all. The best thing is that you divide several plants to give away and you come home with literally hundreds of dollars of plants. This year I brought home garden phlox (I have is purple phlox and am hoping for some white and pink), rose flowered mother-of-thyme, calendula starts, centaura, hosta, and knautia. It's just unfortunate that I don't have more empty beds so I wouldn't have to show such restraint.

Releasing the wildflowers

I started tackling the garlic mustard in our woods several years ago. It is an endless task, but this year I may have seen some rewards. The appearance of these plants could be a result of the rain we received last winter, but please let me believe that it was the result of four years trying to eradicate garlic mustard, which prevents spring ephemerals from blooming.

As I was on my search and destroy mission against the garlic mustard enemy, I found a jack-in-the-pulpit. I had found one several years ago in the northwest corner of the woods, but this was the first time I saw one in the southeast corner.This is a trillium,trillium sessile, commonly called toadshade today but known as wake robin a hundred years ago. This is the first time I've seen it in the woods. It is clump forming and I am pleased to see two plants in my emerging clump.
Of course, this trillium, trillium grandiflora, is becoming abundant. It is so exciting to spot one in a new place in our little woods.This is known as lady's thumb. I heard a story about the "bloody" thumbprint and tried to find it online to no avail. She pricked her finger was one version and another version as she murdered her husband and left evidence on this little plant. Online I found a Scottish tale about the plant was at the foot of the cross. Or you can make up your own story!The mayapple patches are spreading. Steve and I wondered about the two distinct shapes in this patch. And this is my unknown but distinctive plant. The stems are a glaucous blue. No flowers yet. I'll have to keep monitoring it.

Spring is here, declares Earth Girl

Five sandhill cranes flew low over our house a few days ago. The spring peepers are serenading us at night. I've started my annual attack on garlic mustard in the woods. The red-winged blackbirds are calling for mates. Ducks and geese are checking out the pond as a potential nursery. My crocus are finally in bloom. The dogwood buds are getting fatter. One son is at a home opener for the Detroit Tigers and the other son is at Vero Beach, Florida. And I start work in the gardens at Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site in a few hours.

Spring is here.

Talk, talk, talk

With that title, this post could be about my sons. Both are quite the talkers. But, no, this post is about me and my willingness to say "YES!" when someone asks me to speak.

Thursday, February 28, Home and Garden Show, Allen County Memorial Coliseum, 5 PM, "Gene Stratton-Porter:Environmental Lessons from the Past"

Sunday, March 2, Allen County Home and Garden Show, 2 PM, "A Homeowner's Guide to Better Water Quality"

Monday, March 17, Huntertown United Methodist Senior's Group, after lunch (prepared by the culinary arts class at Carroll High School, which includes my son), "Restoring the Garden at Gene Stratton-Porter's Wildflower Woods"

Saturday, May 17, Unitartian Church's Garden Party, time unknown, "Jewels from the Past: Gene Stratton-Porter's Garden"

Every Wednesday until the end of April, I am co-teaching a class at church called "Godly Living, Green Living." During the last two classes, we covered scriptural basis and introduced water quality. This Wednesday will be practical tips to improve the quality of water, such as rain gardens, filter strips, septic care. Other topics will be cooking green, cleaning green, energy consumption, making sense of the science, sustainable agriculture, invasive species, air quality, and recycling and packaging.

So I'd better go finish my presentation for Thursday!

Lunar Eclipse

Are you watching the lunar eclipse? It is very cold here, so I'm running outside every few minutes.

Of Pruning and Foxes

Last weekend, my husband and I spent the morning pruning the timber trees at our tree farm. I love to prune. It is an art and a science: studying the tree to determine the dominant leader, envisioning the natural balance of the tree, thinking about the affect of sunlight, and removing deer damaged limbs. It is a physically and mentally active task that has aesthetic and financial rewards. It is also much different than pruning ornamental trees and shrubs, which I also love to prune. The point to pruning ornamentals (other than topiary) is to restore it to its natural shape, to encourage new growth and blooms, and to remove diseased branches or prevent disease. The point to pruning timber is to produce the largest and straightest trunk.

I took my camera planning to take before and after pictures of pruning, similar to the Purdue article linked above. After taking several "before" pictures of the first tree to be pruned and then several "after" pictures, Steve suggested that perhaps we didn't have time to both photograph and prune. Although, we did have time to hike down the river trail. It was much easier going down than going up.


I was glad I had my camera though, because we saw lots of animal activity in the snow. I didn't snap pictures of the bloody snow where some poor rabbit met its demise, but I did take pictures of the red fox tracks. You can tell it's a fox because of the size of the track and the track is in a straight line. Imagine keeping all four legs in a straight line while loping across woodlands. The other track isn't Bigfoot, but Steve leading the way.

Godly Living, Green Living

Starting this Wednesday and continuing for 11 weeks, I will be co-teaching this class at my church during its Prime Time Wednesday community classes. The class starts at 6:30 and ends at 7:30 and all are welcome to a join us for a meal from 5 to 6:15. This week we will be introducing the series and asking you what you want to learn.

I'm having fun researching this topic, learning what I'm doing right and what else I could be doing. I think my theme will be "Take small steps and don't feel guilty because you aren't doing it all." For example, if you are driving a car that gets good mileage, shouldn't you be driving a hybrid car? If you are driving a hybrid car, why aren't you riding a bicycle or walking? Another theme is "What did Grandma do?" except she probably heated with coal or wood, which is something that you shouldn't emulate.

Curious wet kitty

Just as I fell into a deep sleep during a heavy rainstorm this week, I heard a loud splash and gurgle of water. Disoriented, my first thought was that the rainwater was backing up through the tub drain. I stumbled into the bathroom to see what was happening. Miss Pippi leaped from the bathtub and streaked past me soaking wet. Quickly I grabbed a towel and threw it over her.

Miss Pippi, she is one curious kitty. To her surprise, Steve had not emptied the tub after using it to wet some wallpaper.

Grass-fed, happy cow

Several months ago, my brother John asked if I wanted to buy part of a cow, which his neighbor had been pasturing. Usually his friend will finish off the cow with grain the last two months, but I told John I was interested only if it was totally grass fed. John assured me that this was one "happy cow" as he has been watching it all summer. If you knew my brother, you would know how funny it was for him talking about happy cows.

When we divided the packages several weeks ago, John told us that the woman at the packing plant remarked several times how great the meat looked and she could tell the cow was not stressed. If stress affects our bodies, why wouldn't stress affect a cow's body? The cow continued to eat grass and was butchered within two hours of leaving the field. The packing lady said that cows stress out in 12 to 24 hours and it changes the taste of the meat. Here's John deciding how many steaks each of us get. And yes, the meat is very tasty. We don't usually eat much beef, but that has been changing.

Water

Snow plus more snow plus heavy rain equals another record discharge rate for Cedar Creek. It's at 5030 cubic feet per second today. Water from our pond is flowing through the overflow for the first time since a muskrat decided to lower the pond by burrowing several new outlets. We finally sent the muskrat down the creek by using smoke bombs. The dog didn't deter him. Neither did collapsing his burrows, filling them with rocks and setting live traps.

Thursday Update: It's still rising. 5120 cubic feet per second now.

The danger of growing Japanese maple seedlings

Maybe there is more to this story, but on the face of it, I'd warn my gardening friends to put LARGE labels on their Japanese maple seedlings.

Food and Fabric

Food and fabric sums up this week's trip to Shipshewanna with my mother-in-law. She's still doing good but tired quickly. This may be our last trip together.

Our first stop was E & S Foods. It's fun to try new things, but I don't recommend honey coated flax corn chips. There was no mistake with their cheeses and flours. I'm ready to bake some unusual breads now.

The second stop was Yoder's for fabric, which was my reason for the trip. I asked for retro apron fabrics and they had such a fun selection it was difficult to choose. But I fell in love with this fabric. These colors aren't true; the middle picture is the closest.


Then I tried dozens of contrasting material. The smaller designs that coordinated with the main fabric were too busy and the larger designs that worked well with the print weren't the right color. So I selected a plain color and then some polka dots for trim. My intent was to trim in rick-rack, but that didn't work without a secondary color to pick up.


So the plan is to use my grandmother's handmade pattern and make a reversible apron with a plain green pocket on the print side and a print pocket on the green side and use the polka-dots to trim the pockets and perhaps the yoke. Or maybe I'll make a polka dot pocket on the plan side.

I haven't sewn for almost 40 years and there are few instructions with Grandmom Diehl's pattern--just the word "apron" on the large piece and "Set in shoulder seam" on one end of the small piece shown below. I decided to mock up the apron using an old sheet before I cut into my fabric. No way could I figure it out. So yesterday I bought an apron pattern (and sewing shears and pins and thread. Also some fleece and a pattern to make a hat for my mother-in-law as chemo claims her hair.) This morning I looked at the handmade pattern and finally figured it out. The small piece is cut on the fold where it protrudes. The long end is set into the shoulder and the short end is attached to the apron body as it wraps around the waist into the back. The problem is that it didn't wrap around to the back of me. So now I have to decide whether to modify the pattern or use the pattern I bought. Stay tuned as I continue to get in touch with my latent sewing skills.

Excuse Me

I'm messing with my template as you may have noticed. I decided to add my own picture as the header (moss from last spring) and then wanted to pick up the colors from the photo in the template. However, I cannot change all the colors, only some. Gah, it looks bad and I can't revert. So come back later and see what it looks like.

Update one hour later: Now it's a spider from last fall and red is now brown. Who knows what I'll end up with. But my house isn't getting any cleaner as I mess with this.

Flood concerns

Cedar Creek at Cedarville, IN is now at 4790, but it looks like it may be cresting. I hope so. We pulled the riverboat onto shore of the St. Joe River, which shows no sign of cresting yet. The boat is now floating. If the water drops before it freezes, we will be OK. If the water freezes at the flood stage, the expansion will crush the pontoon tubes. Too bad we didn't move it to the barn.

Trying to set water records

With 60° temps and heavy rain, my crocus thought it was springtime. The foliage is just breaking through. Usually Not Creek, which runs through our land before feeding into Cedar Creek, is over its banks and gurgling over tree roots. The USGS Real-Time Water Data site shows Cedar Creek at 2720 cubic feet per second with the record at 2830 for this date. To give you an idea of how high this is, the 80th percentile is 401 cubic feet per second. Here's the link to the site but since it is in real time, I'm not sure you can tell much from it. But follow the link anyway and explore your favorite rivers.

UPDATE: I posted this and then viewed it and checked the link. Cedar Creek has set a new 60-year record flowing at 2880 cubic feet per second.

Update 2: It is now up to 3900 cubic feet per second and it is still raining.

As you look at these pictures of Usually Not Creek, remember that this is almost always a dry creek bed, it is the middle of winter, and none of this water has reached the already high Cedar Creek.

Stick a finger in my eye

What I've been doing: Cross my heart. Hope to die. Stick my finger in my eye.
What I solemnly swore as a child: Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye.
Most likely the origin: Cross my heart and may I die, if I so much as tell a lie.

In fact, I have been sticking my middle finger in my eye ten times each day since Thursday. I'm getting contacts this morning and training the reflexes in my eyes.

I use reading glasses, but my eye exam showed a very significant change in distance vision also. So I tried on about ten thousand pairs of glasses, before deciding on a pair that definitely made a statement. Then we talked about bifocals with or without a line. Then I realized I needed some type of sunglasses. It was getting more and more expensive, so I finally said, "What about contacts?"

This afternoon I should be able to see the birds in the trees and bushes around our feeder!

Absolutes

It is absolutely guaranteed that my husband will love his Christmas presents if they are power tools. It is absolutely guaranteed that my sons will love their Christmas presents if they are electronic. It is absolutely guaranteed that I will love my Christmas presents if they are books.

Pickle Party

When my teenagers were starting grade school, my niece started having a pickle party for the children the Saturday before Christmas, which also coincided with her birthday and my birthday. Plenty of reasons for a party, eh?

What's a pickle party? She hides a pickle-shaped glass ornament on her tree and the children try to find it. The one who finds it gets the Grand Prize but she always has prizes for all the children. Here are my great nephew and niece searching for that elusive pickle.
And here are the original children, now teenagers, still pickle pondering.
And Ricky celebrating finally finding the pickle after a ten plus year domination by his cousins.I love that my family will pop the Christmas crackers and wear the crowns. No hesitation. No shame. Notice the gingerbread houses decorated that evening behind Jennifer (the gracious hostess). That's her mother in red, my sister.
I found Jennifer's not yet two-year old daughter behind the chair in this pose, pondering the unthinkable. "You mean one day I'll have boobs?" I love her pink cowboy boots. They would go well with my dress.

Food Trip

I asked my mother-in-law what she would like to do while she was still feeling well. After considering a trip to Nashville (Brown County, Indiana), she decided that she wanted to go to Shipshewanna shopping. So we took off for a day trip during the week after Thanksgiving.

Our first stop was Yoder's General store. The fabrics!! I have been reading A Dress A Day and getting the itch to sew something with pockets and my mother's vintage buttons. Since I haven't sewn for 30+ years, I may start with an apron using my grandmother's hand-drawn pattern. So one reason for a return trip.

Our last stop was E & S Foods. The food!! The entry I linked (the store has no web site) calls it the Amish Trader Joes. I stocked up for Christmas baking and have another reason for a return trip.

In between the fabric and foods, I bought myself a fringe cowgirl dress with pockets for $5. It gives me great joy. I tried it on for my husband the other night and was prancing around asking, "What do you think?" He was so intensely quiet, I had to laugh to see the effort he was making to formulate the right answer. It was obvious to him that I loved it and it was obvious to me that he didn't. Perhaps it is telling that I couldn't find anything in a Google search for "fringe cowgirl dress" other than for little girls or Halloween! Another clue that my husband may be in the majority was the large rack of these dresses with numerous mark-downs.

I'm not ready for this...

It's the night for merry-making and resolutions. My merry-making will be burning the brush piles in a snowstorm. Strange but delightful because I'm doing it with my husband. My resolution is to post at least once in December.

There has been lots of blog fodder, but mid-November we learned that my mother-in-law has lung cancer. Fast-growing and non-treatable. At first she was given 4 to 6 months. She decided to take chemo which will not cure it but may give her another 4 to 6 months. So I haven't posted because I wasn't ready to post this news and all other content paled in comparison.

I've seen a lot of "outtakes" of Christmas pictures, but usually it was the little ones goofing around that "spoiled" the picture. My husband's family decided (after we got there) to take a picture on Thanksgiving but it wasn't the little ones causing the problem. I thought the composition would be improved if I sat on my husband's lap, which ended up with us rolling on the floor. Of course, they snapped the picture then.

Cat Naps

When I downloaded some pictures today, I found a lot of kitten pictures, probably taken by Ron. I was taken by these two photos, perhaps because I so rarely see the kittens at rest.

Christmas in the Garden Shed

Barefoot Ricky

Both boys had overnight activities this weekend. Ron spent Friday and Saturday at Butler University in a Jazz Choir workshop. He learned a lot and had fun. Ricky spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at a Campus Life retreat. So Friday night was date night for Mom and Dad.

We had just ordered appetizers and settled in with a microbrew when my cell phone rang. "Mom, they threw my shoes out of the bus. Go get me a pair of shoes out of my closet and bring them to me." It was Ricky. Being the compliant mother, the hovering helicopter parent, I said, "Handle it, son." Sputtering, he hung up on me. I smiled and shared the conversation with Steve. Then I started to worry about my poor shoeless son. Steve suggested after we finished eating, we could go home and get him a pair of shoes. That settled me down.

The phone rang again. It was Ricky who put his leader on the phone. Joe immediately apologized for throwing his shoes out the window! It seems that a pair of shoes hit him in the head, the window was open and he just deflected them out the window. But they were near their destination and he sent two kids to find them with a flashlight. He was on the panel speaking so he didn't have time to find out whose shoes they were and reassure the shoeless soul (not soleless shoe).

Basket of Flowers

This is Sharon.

This is the quilt she is making.

Here's more information.

I'm posting on this site also so my sister will see what Sharon did with Mom's material. Remember those boxes and boxes of sewing, handwork and craft supplies that we didn't know what to do with, Peg? I gave them to Sharon, who lives in subsidized senior housing, and she was going to get "the old ladies" interested in doing something. And here is what Sharon did with some of the material. I instantly recognized the fabric and that brought a big smile to Sharon's face.

Sharon has had a rough life. I suspect she doesn't know how to read and she doesn't drive. She never worked outside the home until her husband became terminally ill. She works at the site through a federal government retraining program for the elderly. Despite some health problems, she works hard at a hard job. And she finds time to serve on the housing board as a resident representative, volunteers at her church and creates masterpieces with her needle and thread.

Apple Taste Test

My usual source of apples, my brother Tim, had a poor year, so I stopped at an orchard on the way home from work earlier this week. I bought Cameos and MacIntosh and then sorted through a bin of "seconds" for a large bag of Honey Crisps at only 50 cents a pound! I already had a few Jonathon apples, so I set up a taste test to discover which apples were the best for freezing.

I usually fry the apples and then freeze them. I leave the skins on the apples, cut then into thin slices and fry in butter until partially cooked, and finally add brown sugar and cinnamon to taste. When thawed, it should resemble chunky applesauce unlike anything you can buy.

Both the Jonathons and MacIntoshes turned into mush. The Jonathons had the desired underlying tartness, but the MacIntoshes were tasteless. The Honey Crisp were a delightful surprise. I think of these as eating apples, but they held their shape and had a wonderful taste. I didn't cook the Cameos, but I will try them this weekend.

Oh, and I'm stopping back at the orchard to sort through that bin of Honey Crisp again...if there are any left.

Fall Sunset

We were cleaning brambles out of a clearing in the woods and planting some trees when the sun set this evening. This photo has not been modified. It was just awesome. Then as I was browsing some blogs I frequent, I saw a similar photo, which was just awful. I can't imagine the horror of a firestorm.

Senior Busy Times

Despite the best efforts of the team, which included Ricky getting a Carroll Charger lightning bolt shaved into his head, the boys soccer team was stopped at the regional final game.

Meanwhile Ron's activity in Jazz Choir is gearing up. He just joined this choir his senior year and he really enjoys it. The choir sang several numbers at the fall concert last Friday and were very good. Ron will be attending a two day workshop at Butler University next week.

On to the Regionals

Go Chargers! The boys won the soccer sectionals today and will play Wednesday night in the regionals. Ricky noted that they were only 4 games away from the state finals, but I reminded him that the only game that mattered was the next game.

Soccer Sectionals

We won the first game last night against Leo, so play in the championship game on Saturday against Bishop Dwenger, always a tough team. Ricky was put in during the last 2 minutes and had a perfect set-up for a goal with seconds left, but he missed it. The crowd went crazy with Ricky's near goal. Here are the seniors on the team. I can always spot Ricky on field, with his rec specs and headband. There is also a picture of the "round" I created for Ricky's locker this week as they gear up for the tournaments.

Glorious Mornings

From my previous post, you may guess that I like morning glories. So much beauty from a small pack of seeds. I planted them around the garden, along the fence row by the road and in front of my bay window to create a green and blue curtain from the inside. They remind me of summer days, with the hot yellow sun and bright blue sky. The blooms are almost luminescent, depending on the sunlight and I can get lost in the center.