Back to the Blog World

This evening, one of my faithful readers said, "Mom! You never write anything on your blog any more!" Not wanting to lose this reader, who may be the ONLY reader I have, I decided to post again.

First, I will give you all my lame excuses for going a month without writing:

1. I was busy. Or, at least, distracted. I was serving as general contractor for a big household make-over, involving siding, gutters, demo of a rotting back porch, rebuilding of said porch, and the very sad removal of our huge tulip tree that was deseased and threatening to fall on either the roof or the car. Although I did not do this work myself, it was surprisingly challenging to coordinate the many people who did.

2. It's hard to maintain the pretense of being a "garden blogger" when there are concrete mixers driving over your lawn and ladderjacks in your flower beds. The best I could muster up in the way of gardening was to walk around the property every evening clucking about the damage the workmen had unwittingly done.

3. Additionally, the aforementioned faithful reader moved out. I was to be the helper with this move, but within minutes of arriving at the new location I managed to fall down the rain-slicked porch steps, requiring a trip to the ER and a month of rehab on an injured rotator cuff. I don't know why, but that kind of threw me off my stride, so to speak.

All that is now behind me. The school year and choir season have resumed. There are no more excuses! It's time to get this blog going again! You can expect posts about the hymn of the week, the rehabilitation of my gardens, and the usual general musings, along with some Saturday Silliness and Sunday Strolling. I will amuse at least myself, and perhaps that one other reader.

Sunday Stroll- May 17, 2009

After a week of intense storms, we're having a perfect May Sunday. It's graduation weekend at the University of Illinois, as well as prom weekend for my family's high school. Those events, celebrated by several generations of my family, are forever associated with "iris time" in local gardens.

All of my irises are pass-alongs from family members. My grandmother, who was an ace gardener, made sure that when we moved to this house we would have all the beautiful flowers we wanted from her divisions. Forsythia, iris, lambs-ears, jonquils- all unnamed but much loved, have flourished in my flower beds. Now, I'm ready to share with my children as they get their own homes.

These beautiful lavender iris are from Grandma H. I've divided them and sent some on to my sisters. There are also some pale beige-y ones that you can just see in the left corner of the picture. They are not a very pretty color, I'll admit, but they have sentimental value to me, so I keep growing them. No one wants to take divisions of them, though!

These royal purple iris are from my sister's garden. She got them from a neighbor. Who needs garden stores? These are very tall and stately, and my very favorites.

Finally, there are some shorter gold and brown iris that contrast wonderfully with the purple. These are also Grandma's, and she told me they came from her mother-in-law's garden, so they are a cultivar that goes back to the late nineteenth century. It's just fun to think about the way all that gardening knowledge is passed down in the family.

To see who else is strolling, and what else is blooming, visit The Quiet Country House.

Sunday Stroll-May 10, 2009

It's "almost" time in my garden. The peonies are almost blooming.

The irises are sooooo close!

The serviceberries are forming, and almost ready to be feasted on by the birds.

The climbing rose is covered with hundreds of small buds. It will be a treat to see in a week or two.

I had a wonderful Mother's day, with half my children here for lunch (Robin, Grant, and Grant's wife Traci). The other two sons live elsewhere, but we had nice visits on the phone.

To see who else is strolling on Mother's Day, pop over to The Quiet Country House.

Sunday Stroll-April 10, 2009

Despite a steady drizzle, everything outside looked so fresh and green, and I had to go out for a damp stroll around my yard, and record what spring was offering us today. Above are the lily-of-the-valley that have sprung up in only the last four or five days, and are already developing flower buds. These were originally transplants from my grandmother's place. She gave me strict planting instructions: put them in the bed that is surrounded by concrete sidewalks and the house; if they escape, you will never see the end of them in the lawn! I took her at her word, and have been able to confine them and enjoy them for years, though, if I'm not vigilant, they will actually try to advance toward the lawn by way of the sidewalk cracks!

We had a remarkably long, cold winter, with some long spells of single-digit temperatures, and unfortunately that means that there were no forsythia blooms this year, and possibly we won't get our pink cloud of crab apple blossoms, either. I also noticed as I worked yesterday that we've lost two rose bushes.

That means we'll just have to enjoy the other, more subtle blooms and foliage that go with April, such as the soft, pale green of the oak leaf hydrangeas.

The Japanese spurge is blooming, and smells heavenly

Wrapped around the foot of the crab apple is a skirt of violets.

The peonies are not only robust, but have far and away outgrown the cages I use for them.

This is a clump of Moonbeam coreopsis, something that also seems to have sprung up over night. I love that soft, feathery foliage.

In the shade garden, chartreuse hostas are proliferating. These were also pass-along plants from a friend, so I can't tell you their name, despite scouring hosta sites to try to identify them.

It would hardly be April without daffodils. I need to remember to divide these poor things next fall; they're looking pretty crowded!

I have a favorite green glade, where the maple and Ye Olde Yew compete for space, and purple wintercreeper is sending out it's new bright leaves. I keep this groundcover trimmed at about four feet up the tree or it would climb to the top, I think! I saw that way of pruning it in a couple of English gardening books, and liked the effect. I think English gardeners value mature plantings and contrasting greens perhaps a bit more than most American gardeners, while we tend to go for color more. I'm glad I have this little spot near the patio.

There is also a "view" that appeals to me through an opening in this area. It would be even more striking on a sunny day. I'll try to remember to capture that on film sometime soon.

That's the end of my stroll; I needed to get back in out of the rain.

To see who else is strolling, visit Aisling at The Quiet Country House.

Spring, So Far

I'm trying to enjoy the spring weather as best I can, and be done with whining about having walking pneumonia, so yesterday I headed outside with my camera. It shouldn't contradict medical orders too much to take photos, should it?

The above picture is of a squirrel's nest in a hollow spot in our tulip poplar. Living as it does just a few feet from our front window, this critter has been endlessly entertaining over the years. I don't know if we see the same one all the time, or if we are seeing a succession of squirrels. I looked online, and found that they live for 7-8 years, so I think we've had this one for a while, which explains it's complete unconcern for us and our (now deceased) cats. I'd love to know if it's male or female! Are there babies up in the tree? Is that the reason for the major housecleaning it is apparently undertaking, judging by all the junk it has tossed out of it's hole? I learned that the nests are called "dreys", and they usually make two or three in the same tree. When one gets too flea-ridden, they change nests for a few weeks. I guess that's one way to deal with a dirty house!

Here are the daffodils, heroically pushing up through the heavy mulch of leaves that should have been removed last week by the gardener. Poor things! But I suppose they have to do this in the wild.

A previous owner of this house planted these tulips, which now come up through the oak-leaf hydrangeas as a spring underplanting. I love it! I couldn't have planned this if I tried. They bloom before the hydrangeas leaf out, giving a nice shot of color to that spot, and then their dying leaves are hidden by the shrubs. I'll try to remember to post a picture of them in bloom.

Finally, I've got snow drops blooming all through the Japanese spurge. Again, they will do their thing and then be hidden by the groundcover when blooming is done.

I hope your spring is going well, and you take time to enjoy all the signs of life bursting out around us.

Sunday Stroll-February 8, 2009

This was my first Sunday Stroll in several weeks, and the sun was beckoning!

The mounds of snow that built up along our driveway over the last five weeks are all but gone. This is the third, and predicted to be the last, day of our January, er, February thaw.

The ground is still frozen rock-hard, but the snow is mostly to be found in the shadows.

We are entering the prime time of year for tree pruning, and this year we'll have to clean up the damage we received from the three big ice storms we had. The ragged breaks will have to be pruned back to the branch collars, and all that big mound of downed limbs will need to be cut up and hauled to the yard-waste recycling site.

I would like to give a shout-out to this wonderful shrub, the inkberry holly. I have several in my yard, and they are so beautiful and hardy I'm tempted to plant more. They are native to the area, and despite a long spell of single-digit weather they show no sign of "freezer burn", nor did they snap and break in the ice. Their leaves have remained a lovely glossy deep green through the whole winter. In summer, they look fresh no matter if we're having a flood or a drought. I like to keep mine pruned in a loose, natural shape, but some people clip them like boxwood and create a much denser look. If you're looking for a carefree native, the inkberry is my recommendation!

We're headed into the more interesting time of year for strolling. To see who else was tempted out by the 40 degree weather, go to The Quiet Country House.

Book Review- "The More-With-Less Cookbook" by Doris Janzen Longacre

As our economic crisis deepens, and frugality has become the mode, I've thought more and more that I should post a review of "The More-With-Less Cookbook", by Doris Janzen Longacre.

As a young mom, living on a shoestring budget, and trying to learn how to cook from the large vegetable garden I grew to help feed my family, I came to rely on this remarkable little volume, with it's garden-to-table recipes, and instructions that emphasized cooking "from scratch". As a Christian, trying to align my lifestyle with the doctrine of justice for the poor, I loved it's emphasis on consuming only our fair share of the planet's resources, so that we could not only control our own budget, but have enough to give and share with others.

Amazingly, it's still in print, and available through Amazon.com, though Doris Janzen Longacre died of cancer in 1979, shortly after the publication of her second book, "Living More With Less". Both of these books were very influential for me, and have continued to color the way I look at homemaking over the years.

Longacre was commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee to use her background as a dietitian to collect recipes and ideas from the world-wide Mennonite community and adjust those recipes to reflect contemporary nutritional research and food justice issues. Many of the recipes submitted by the mostly agrarian Mennonites were heavy on sugar and fat. Longacre experimented to readjust them so that the well-loved family dishes could be enjoyed just as much, but with healthier ingredients. She collected many meatless dishes, reflecting our growing understanding of the impact of raising livestock on our environment. She gave good, clear teaching regarding moving away from a meat-heavy diet while maintaining good nutrition. At the same time, she managed to celebrate the Swiss-German and Russian culture at the heart of the Mennonite denomination, and elevate the custom of unpretentious hospitality.

I practically wore this book out! It was my essential guide for learning to cook for my growing family for years. In pulling it out to reread the other day, I was flooded with memories of days in our kitchen, surrounded by small children who always wanted to stand on a chair next to me and "watch" as I worked with produce from the garden, or bulk items from a foster parent's food co-op we were part of, or the bags and bags of apples from a second cousin's orchard. Many a dollar was stretched, many a tummy was filled, based on the information and recipes found in this wonderful cookbook.

I hope that you will find a copy of "The More-With-Less Cookbook" and read it, really read it, and absorb the wonderful spirit of Longacre and the Mennonite cooks who submitted recipes to this collection. It has a place in every kitchen where the cook(s) are focused on meals made with love.

I Guess You Could Call It Beautiful...

I woke up in the wee hours to the sound of limbs breaking and falling. It had begun to ice up mid evening last night, but we were hoping it wouldn't be thick enough to do any real damage. No such luck. We fortunately still have power, but there will definitely be some clean up to do this weekend.

After it got lighter, I went out to inspect. There's no question that an ice storm is beautiful.

But there's no question that we experienced some "natural" pruning as well. My night time prayers the the house and car would be spared were answered, though. Everything fell the other way.

School was canceled. I feel bad for all the children who were looking forward to their holiday parties. Some of the schools were going to have winter concerts today, as well. As a former elementary school music teacher, I was commiserating with them all.

It's starting to melt off now, so we won't really be housebound. That's good; I still have one more present to get!

Sunday Stroll- December 7, 2008

Today is busy with extra seasonal obligations (all fun!!), so I took my stroll pictures yesterday. We were having a "snow globe" sort of snow, with giant flakes whirling down, sometimes with great intensity, other times gently.


I like to leave the sedum and chrysanthemum plants for "winter interest".

I did NOT mean to leave the asters and hollyhocks, but, because of a foot injury I didn't get the gardens cleared out the way I would have liked before the cold set in. I'm sure those reckless self-seeders will have planted their progeny everywhere by next spring, and I'll be weeding them out as fast as I can. Still, even my neglect was made attractive by the snow.

It's been unusually bitterly cold for early December, with wind chills down around zero most days this week. I look at it as a positive- fewer insect pests next summer!

To see where others were strolling this week, visit Aisling at The Quiet Country House.

Sunday Stroll-November 23, 2008

It is a brisk, breezy November afternoon here. We haven't had any snow that has actually accumulated yet, but it's been plenty cold. There isn't much color left in the gardens. The chairs under Ye Olde Yew are not occupied any more. It's not the right season to sit out there to read.

The Lamb's Ears are still soft and pretty, because the warmth of the ground has kept them green.

The last few leaves remain on the burning bush.

Inside, it's very quiet. Robin has gone out to Washington, D.C. to take an audition. I keep expecting to hear the trumpet start playing upstairs, but all is still. Mike is immersed in his painting down in the studio. He has an art show in a couple of weeks that he's preparing for.

Cinnamon has found her favorite sunbeam to warm her old bones.

It's all very peaceful.

If you'd like to see what others are finding this Sunday, go to The Quiet Country House.

Sunday Stroll- November 16, 2008

At the beginning of the week we still had beautiful fall color. Then, Tuesday night it dropped down to 19 degrees F, and the Big Leaf Drop began in earnest.

I've been nursing a little foot injury, so my husband got stuck with Round One of the raking job. It was lovely 36 degrees while he worked, with a stiff wind and a light precipitation of some sort- snow? sleet? drizzle?- coming down.

We could never find room to compost all our leaves at home, but fortunately our city has a collection program and they are all taken to a municipal yard waste recycling location. Next spring folks can go out there and get very good mulch, or even have it delivered to their homes for a reasonable price.

We've got thirteen bags for them this week and will have that much or more next week, including things that we need to clear out of the garden.

That's my "stroll", so to speak, this week. If you'd like to see if anyone else did something more interesting, head on over to The Quiet Country House.