Monarchs On the Move

Sometimes in the evenings, Romie and I will take a walk down to Blue Creek Cemetery, which is just a short distance from our house, and Simba, our dog, accompanies us. She's 13 years old, which is 68 in human years, and we like to exercise her like this every day while she is still able to do it. We decided to walk this evening because the weather today was just about perfect and I could take this all the way till Christmas. If only.

I meant to take my camera with me for our walk tonight, but as usual, I got distracted and I forgot it. And don't you know, I needed it when I was half a mile from home. We walked into the cemetery to look at some of the old headstones and found one belonging to a man who was born in 1798 and passed away in 1850-something. Most of the older stones are time- and weather-worn and really hard to read, but this one has to be one of the oldest in there.

We'd noticed as we approached the cemetery that there were several Monarch butterflies darting here and there and the closer we got, the more there were. We craned our necks to watch them and realized they were congregating in a single tree. That could mean only one thing...

Migration has begun.

We are in one of the major corridors for the migration of Monarchs east of the Rockies to Mexico and while we've only played host to a migrating group once several years ago, I've spoken with many others who have had the privilege at one time or another. At approximately 41° latitude, the peak migration period for us is expected to be September 8-20.

Romie remained in the cemetery, watching the fluttering of the many Monarchs, while I ran back home for the camera. I drove the Beetle back, hoping they'd still be there, and of course they were, resting for the next leg of their trip south, and I started snapping photos. The sun had just set, so the natural light was waning and I tried different things - flash/no flash, optical zoom/digital zoom. I managed to get a couple of acceptable images.

They'll rest overnight, then be on their way. I wonder where they were born and how far they've come already. Maybe they started out in Jodi's garden in Nova Scotia. Regardless of where they began their journey, they've still got approximately 1700 miles to go.

Meanwhile, I'm watching the growth of the Monarch caterpillar in our own garden, and it's growing very quickly. I actually saw a second small one on the milkweed plant we'd transplanted a couple of weeks ago (shown in photo at right), but sadly, when I checked on it a couple of days ago, it had died and was being consumed by other insects.

The big fat swallowtail cats have disappeared from the parsley and rue, and I just know they're hanging out somewhere in the garden. I will keep my eyes open for them and hopefully will get a chance to watch the pupating process of those or our little Monarch cat soon.

Sign of An Early Winter?

Sitta canadensis

As I was coming back into the house after doing a little more cleaning up out in the gardens, I noticed this little bird at the small bird bath near the trellis. (I also noticed the bird bath needs cleaning.) The bird didn't look familiar to me and the sound it made didn't either.

I quietly opened the door to the house, slipped in, and quickly got my camera. I zoomed in on it through the window and managed to take just one picture before it flew off. Then I got out my Birds of Ohio book to see if I could identify it.

Page 165 has a photo of a Red-Breasted Nuthatch that looks like my little bird posed for it. I skimmed through the information given ― 4½ inches long, climbs down tree trunks head first, wedges seed in crevice and pounds on it to open it, seen in Ohio only in the winter but some winters not at all.

And I'm seeing this bird NOW? It can't be a sign of things to come, can it? I haven't even seen a woolly worm yet. The leaves haven't started to change. We haven't gotten the first ripe tomato from 'Mr. Stripey' yet. We had the air conditioner running two days ago. The kids just started back to school last week. And now I'm going to have to dust off the snow shovel?

I'm depressed.

American Gothic

Two weeks ago, as Romie and I were sitting inside Mom and Dad's gazebo with Dad, having a nice chat, I mentioned that I needed to buy a pitchfork. Dad asked why I needed one and I answered, "To turn my compost." He told me he had one he never used that I could have, and if he did ever need it, he knew where he could get it. Great! That's money that could be spent for something else. Like plants!

So he went to the garage and got the wooden-handled pitchfork down and handed it to me. "This belonged to your grandpa." Ohhhhhh... I can't describe the feeling I had when he told me that. You see, my grandpa has been gone for nearly 39 years. He died in a car accident on the eve of my 11th birthday in 1968, and I think about him often, even yet.

For the first three-and-a-half years of my life, I practically lived at my grandparents' house. Mom and Dad were busy working in their family businesses - Dad, as a custom butcher and owner of a small town grocery store and Mom, as owner and sole operator of a beauty shop at the back of the grocery store. We lived in an apartment above it all.

I would go to Grandma and Grandpa's early in the morning and then Mom or Dad would pick me up when they were done working for the day. I spent the night often. Grandma and Grandpa were farmers and life there was typical. I remember Grandpa in his overalls either driving the tractor or doing something in the barn (probably with that pitchfork). Grandma had her garden, and I remember her teaching me lots of things. She introduced me to poetry and at a young age, I learned to recite The Night Before Christmas (Clement Clarke Moore) and Little Boy Blue (Eugene Field) by heart. Grandma taught me how to read at age four and now at 92, she's still teaching me things.

There was the tin button box that I loved to play with. I'd take them all out and sort them by type or by color, then put them all back in. There was something about that collection of like things that at the same time were unique that fascinated me and the tin box was pretty cool, too. Sadly, I left the box out in the rain once, and the fabulous round tin had to be discarded.

Grandma saved the back pages of McCall's magazine for me, because that's where the Betsy McCall paper dolls were. Grandma would save the white cardstock that came in her packages of hosiery and we'd glue the pages to that, then I'd cut out the paper doll clothing. That way they'd last longer. This all was kept in a shoe box and I don't know what ever happened to them.

I liked to explore the out buildings on the farm and walk the cow paths out in the pasture to the south. There was a large oak tree in the farthest corner and I spent time under the sprawling branches of that tree, sometimes writing poetry. I still have one piece that I wrote and I laugh when I read it now, because I obviously was trying to emulate the Victorian style that I'd read. Even my handwriting had a flourish to it.

And then there were the cats. The wonderful, ever-changing family of barn cats. There was 'Friend,' who was the most docile, easy-going calico you'd ever want to meet. She had a couple litters of kittens and for what a sweetheart she was, she was not a good mother. Once this was known, I would imagine they had her spayed, I don't know. But there were others - Big Yella Fella, who was a long-haired yellow cat, and Blackie, a long-haired - wait for it! - black cat. There was a calico kitten that fell into a can of paint up to its neck. Grandpa saved it and cleaned it off as well as possible, but that cat never had normal fur after that.

When Grandpa and Grandma had their car accident, my life changed in a big way. It was the first time I'd ever lost anyone that I was that close to and for decades after that, I looked at things from the standpoint of "before Grandpa died and after Grandpa died." When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969, the thought went through my head in later years, "Grandpa never got to see that." When I got married and had our children, he never got to see that either. So many things that I would have wanted to share with him...

My grandpa taught me how to remember the colors of the rainbow. You know - the ROY G BIV thing. I could never remember it and always had to ask him again and again, "How does that rainbow thing go again, Grandpa?" And he patiently would tell me one more time. After he died, I never forgot it.


So as I turned the compost after I got home, I remembered all that and pictured Grandpa pitching cow manure in the barn. I'll bet when he was doing that, he didn't think about where that pitchfork would end up someday - in his granddaughter's hands, pitching a different kind of fertilizer.

One Week Later

It's been one week since we woke up to three inches of water in our basement and it sure seems like it's been a lot longer than that. Much has happened since the events of last Tuesday - some good, some not-so-good. Life seems to go on, but sometimes you just want the world to stop until you can catch up with it. (Like you ever would anyway.)

This is the same room as this.

As far as the mess in the basement is concerned, the family room is stuffed full at present with three rooms worth of stuff. At least we got that room cleaned up. We had taken the carpeting up, as well as the padding, and cleaned it and let it bake in the sun. Before putting it back down on the cement floor, we scrubbed the floor with Lysol, then sprayed the padding and the back side of the carpeting with Lysol spray. Just getting this room cleaned up went a long way in getting rid of the awful smell of things.

Next move was to shampoo the game room carpeting, which is glued to the floor. It's a type of indoor/outdoor carpeting, so it lends itself pretty well to being wet and being able to be cleaned fairly easily. We have not gotten to that yet, however, because we discovered that the middle room's carpet was emitting an odor that needed to be dealt with.

We thought it was put down directly over the existing padded vinyl flooring that came with the house when we bought it, but when I was down on the floor vacuuming around the edges, I noticed the bad smell. So Romie pulled it back and we saw the carpeting used as a pad under this small piece of carpeting. It was then that we remembered that we'd used Grandma's kitchen carpeting from her condo, which was pretty new, that she had taken up when she put in wood flooring. It was now sopping wet. All of that had to be taken up and cleaned and dried. More washing with Lysol and more spraying.

So now we're ready to move on to the game room, which we will likely do in the next couple of days. During all this, we have had my cousin Jody, from Texas, and her husband Jesse staying at our house. It has been quite awhile since we've seen them, and while Grandma offered to put them up at the Holiday Inn, we insisted they still stay with us. They'd dealt with Hurricane Rita and fully understood what we were going through. Besides, we hadn't had flooding on the two main floors of the house!



On Sunday, Grandma had taken us all out for dinner at CJ's HighMarks, a restaurant at Fox's Den Golf Course in Celina (yum!). After returning to Van Wert, the guys went golfing and the rest of us piled into Mom's car and headed to Ft. Wayne to see Jenna's apartment. Dad had just finished making bedroom furniture for her and we wanted to see it in her room there. It was also the first time Grandma had seen the apartment.





Her fiance Joe was there, too, which was nice, because he's a pretty busy guy working at Best Buy and going to school at IPFW. He gave Mom lessons on how to work her new digital camera.




After getting home from a very full day, we made a fire in the firepit, fully intending to roast hot dogs, but we couldn't find a single one in the refrigerator or freezer, so we made pizza rolls and other things and ate those while sitting around the fire.


It was a perfect night for star-gazing and staring at the nearly full moon. Out there, it was easy to forget the mess inside the house. Just what we needed. :-)

Total Lunar Eclipse of August 28, 2007

Time lapse: 5:02 to 5:52 AM

I Want To Play Too!

I'm jumping on the Tiny Tomato Train. I was impressed and amused by Carol's royal treatment of her Tiny Tomato, but then Chiguy beat her. Hers are piled in a thimble! So little and so perfect!

I've got a little one, too, and here it is, perched on top of a AA battery:



I know it's not the smallest in the bunch, but it's worthy of mention and certainly doesn't have to take back seat in the cuteness category. I have no idea if it tastes good or not, nor will I know personally, because I don't like raw tomatoes. Not even these, which are 'Sungold' and are supposed to be super sweet cherry tomatoes. Romie likes them and says they are indeed very sweet, so he'll taste test this one, too.

The Journey Soon Begins

I wish you could have seen me on my hands and knees in the garden around 6:00 this evening. It's not unusual to see me like that in my garden at any given time, but tonight was unique. I was squealing with delight and couldn't get on my feet fast enough to run to Romie and step in front of him as he was mowing the yard, to share my excitement.

I'd been watching the swallowtail caterpillars - three of them - that we have had in the garden for about a week. Chomping away on parsley, dill, and rue, they were getting pretty chubby and I've wanted to keep an eye on them so I might see them pupate. I'd also been whining that in spite of lots and lots of Monarchs flying about, I'd not seen any caterpillars on the Asclepias, the only thing they eat.

And there it was.

No bigger than the nail of my little finger (if that), it was snacking on the buds of the orange butterfly weed, just like its ancestors did last year. I don't know if caterpillars can hear anything - let's hope not, because I let out a WOO HOO!!!! that scared Luna enough to send him running for cover.

Romie got off the mower when I told him we had a Monarch cat and came over to take a look. He couldn't believe I'd even seen it, it was so small. But I'd been looking for it, and those black tentacles they have help them to be seen easier than most, as well as the stripes - the tell-tale black, yellow, and white stripes. It was just adorable.

I think this is the generation that will make the trip to Mexico. Only the last brood of the summer lives long enough to migrate and with peak migration dates for our area at September 8th-20th, this has to be one that will be in it for the long haul.

You know I'll be out there every day several times, watching the progress and looking for more. Hopefully, I'll get to see a chrysalis or two, like Jodi in Nova Scotia. I've never seen one other than in photographs.

As I've said before, we are a certified Monarch Waystation and I no longer have to feel like we've failed to provide a good place for Monarchs to stop and eat and make little Monarchs.

After the Rain

Honeysuckle Leaf
(Lonicera x brownii 'Dropmore Scarlet')

This is what I'd originally planned on posting last Tuesday, before it was pre-empted by yet more rain. The title of the post could have remained the same, and yes, there's beauty in lingering moisture after the heavens let loose, but it just wasn't beautiful last Tuesday. These pictures were taken the afternoon previous to "The Flood".

White Pine

(Pinus strobus)

Sweet Autumn Clematis
(Clematis terniflora)


Snow-On-The-Mountain
(Euphorbia marginata)

'Endless Summer' Hydrangea
(Hydrangea macrophylla 'Blushing Bride')

Hardy Geranium
This is supposed to be 'Purple Pillow', but it doesn't seem dark enough to me.


Dahlia 'Peaches 'n' Cream'


Nasturtium Leaf
(Tropaeolum majus)


Obedient Plant
(Physostegia virginiana)


Rosa 'Sutter's Gold


Chenille Plant
(Acalypha pendula)

That's Hot

Helianthus annuus

This is what happens when you combine a sunflower with the sun in the sky at late day. The intensity of color makes it look so hot it might burn your fingers if you touched it. No, I did not change this photo in any way other than some cropping. The 'glow' is what made me run for my camera in the first place and I'm happy that it was pretty much captured by the camera.

At this time of the day, the butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds are attracted to its fire, too, and all of them want to get a piece of it. When you see a flower looking like this, you can understand why it's called a sunflower.

Join

A Blog Called "Sketch Life"

I love it when I come across a wonderful blog that I hadn't seen before, like I did today. Technically this blogger came across mine first. Lisa Mertins e-mailed me this afternoon to ask if I minded if she'd linked to my blog in her post entitled The Enchanting Gold Bug in her blog on the Orange County Register called Sketch Life. I visited the link she provided and was pleased and surprised to see that she had referred to my post about the Golden Tortoise Beetle.


While that certainly made my day, I was even more thrilled to discover her wonderful, charming, and sometimes quirky watercolor sketches. Her narrations are pretty good, too. In fact, I can't really tell if the illustrations came first, or the words that go along with them; they're both fun.

Watercolor is my first love when it comes to art. I actually did a watercolor of my own, once upon a time during an art class I took at Wassenberg Art Center in Van Wert. Well, it wasn't all my own, because I copied a watercolor print that was on the front of a Christmas card we'd received. Let me tell you, as someone who doesn't have an abundance of natural artistic talent, this was HARD! And that's why I only did one and may never do another as long as I live. I'll just admire the talents of other artists that do them, like Lisa.

Lisa is a journalist and illustrator for the Orange County Register in California and I've placed a link to her column in my list of Other Blogs I Read located on the left side of this page. I'll be enjoying her charming and amazing artwork on a regular basis. I mean, besides her artistic talent, she loves shoes too, and that alone makes us instant friends.

Lisa has also written and illustrated a children's book, Ginkgo and Moon.

Does This Make My Butt Look Big?

Black is supposed to be slimming. I like black. Not that I've really ever had to worry about my butt looking big (I'm lucky that way), but it looks better in black. I'm not sure even that could help the Spined Micrathena though. I call them Big Butt Spiders.



You know them. When they stroll across their webs, the whole web shakes. They look like they're carrying all their worldly possessions on their backs. They're creepy and menacing-looking and these days, I run into them EVERYWHERE.




Most of our spiders around here are not dangerous and though the Big Butts look mean, they're not. Once you get past the spines and the mere fact that they're spiders, they're actually rather cool in a so-ugly-they're-cute kind of way.

I just wish they'd make their webs somewhere else, because they're everywhere you want to be.

*********************

Amazing Fact: Only the females build webs. When the sun goes down, she consumes her web except for the foundational threads. In the morning, she spins it anew.

Progress Report

As I woke up this morning, my nose reminded me of the events of two days ago. Our house smells like a locker room. Ick.

We've got several fans running down in the basement and two dehumidifiers, as well as the air conditioner.


It would be nice if we could open the windows to help air things out, but here's the weather report for today:

We're not going to rule out a clap of thunder or some areas of heavy rain but the big story today is going to be the oppressive heat and humidity. Temperatures will soar quickly into the lower 90s with dew points in the 70s. (Anything over 65 degrees is considered uncomfortable). We will continue to see humidity in the area through Saturday morning. A western front will take its time getting here and it looks like thunderstorms will linger into Saturday morning with humidities dropping by Sunday. The cooldown won't last long with temperatures up towards 90 degrees by the middle of the week.

The thought has occurred to me more than once that I'm glad this wasn't 100 years ago. I can't even imagine what people would have done to deal with this.



Yesterday, Kara and I went out to see the water levels immediately surrounding our area. Within the mile around our house, three roads were closed due to high water, and that didn't count the high water in front of our house.

Our house is the two-story gray one you can see peeking through the trees. The road has a dip here and the water level was about 12-15 inches at this point.

This is our neighbor's house and barn, just to our north. The 'lake' is the front yard of another neighbor.

This is county road 60, looking east towards Wayne Trace High School. School had started on Tuesday and this is one of the major routes the buses take. Not yesterday.

This is south of our house and there is a road that runs right through the middle of the picture under all that water. You can see by the debris laying in the road that the water was even higher.

The postmaster called and wanted to know if the rural carrier could make it through right in front of our house. Kara and I had made it through there, so I told her yes, but she'd have to come in from the north instead of the south as she usually does. Then our trash service called to tell us there would be no trash pick-up this week. There were too many roads closed in our area, so they weren't running their routes.

On the news last night, there was video footage of flooding in Findlay, which is an hour east of us and also of Van Wert, just ten miles south. Van Wert County has been declared a disaster area, making residents eligible for some state disaster aid. Paulding County was not included in the nine counties he mentioned, but unfortunately the flooding didn't magically stop at the county line, which is just three miles south of us. The postmaster had told me that some Haviland residents had water as high as their armpits in their homes. Our little corner of the state also made the national news.

I'm still irritated that our standard homeowner's policy doesn't cover our damage. I can understand it not covering anything had we not had preventive measures in place, but we did. The sump pump failed, and the flooding was a result of that. Like I said before, we've lived here thirty years and even though we'd certainly had many rains capable of causing our basement to flood, this is the first time it did - due to equipment failure. <>

We haven't decided whether or not to replace the pad under the carpeting in the family room. As we rolled out the carpeting to let it dry and walked over it, we didn't find it objectionable without the padding. We've had the pad rolled out in the driveway to let the sun dry it out, just in case we decide to put it back down. Once the carpeting is dry, we'll need to have a carpet layer come in and restretch it and fasten it down.

Outside, the waters have receded and in good garden news, we never had water laying in the flower beds. This was encouraging to me, because prior to this summer, we had several low areas that always had big puddles following a rain like this. All summer, I'd put any extra soil we had into these low areas and finally they're at a high enough level not to hold water.

Yesterday's mail had brought the solar fountain I'd bought on eBay, so I got that installed. Easy peasy and it works very well! It's one that stores solar energy so that it will still work even when the sun isn't directly shining on it. It's also got three different fountain heads for three different looks.


I continued to do laundry and got that done (I think). There isn't a single room in the house that doesn't have stuff sitting in it that doesn't belong there. That, I can deal with. The most annoying thing right now is the smell. I look forward to getting things dried out and things back to normal. This too shall pass, but it's going to be awhile.

"The Stand" by Stephen King

As if this book wasn't big enough already . . .

*

Not The Way We Planned To Spend The Day

"Life is just what happens to you
while you're busy making other plans."
~ John Lennon

A few weeks ago, I bought some new shoes. Crocs™ had come out with a true white professional closed-toe style and based on my love of my celery green Crocs™, I wanted a pair for work. As I was browsing the other styles they made, I saw some sandals I liked in black, so I ordered those, too. I love all my Crocs™ - they're so comfortable - and today I found another reason to like them. They work great under water.

Romie leaves for work before I'm usually ready to get up, and today was no different. He kisses me goodbye and sometimes I remember it and sometimes I don't. But today, he woke me up and said, "Honey, we have a big problem. There's about three inches of water in the basement." Nooooooo...

I got up and ran downstairs with him as he explained that he had noticed that Simon wasn't anywhere around like he normally was, so he had gone downstairs to check on him. Simon usually sleeps in the basement, but comes up to join Romie as he gets ready for work and eats his breakfast.

We'd gotten over five inches of rain since yesterday, with about two of it after midnight last night. The sump pump was working fine when Romie went to bed, but sometime in the night, the impeller had worked loose and the pump quit. With rain like we'd had, it didn't take long for the water to start filling our basement.

In the thirty years we have lived in this house, this is the first time we've had water like this in the basement. We've had it in the room where the sump pump is and on into the next one, but only enough to wet things a little. What we had now was not a little bit of wet.

Romie got the spare sump pump and got it going, then fixed the original one, so both pumps were working and it didn't take long for the water level to go down. While he was working on that, I started taking things upstairs to wipe them off and start the drying out process.

Our basement consists of four rooms: a large family room, a good-sized game room, a small room between the other two, and a yet smaller room which holds the water heater, water softener, water filtration system and the sump hole. You may have guessed from my description that our basement is finished. Yes, finished, carpeted, furnished, and at least one room (game room) filled with all kinds of everything because we use it for storage right now instead of gaming and two of the rooms had bookshelves totally filled with books - top to bottom. It was the bottom that I was most concerned with.

This storage room contains furniture we'd been saving for the girls if they needed it, boxes of stuff for our upcoming garage sale as well as for eBay, cardboard drums holding the girls' toys, boxes of books and videos, and other miscellaneous things. Today it also held Simon, sequestered somewhere in the nether regions of all that stuff. We could hear him meowing, but couldn't see him. He had headed for higher ground.

Romie refrained from using profanity, but he did use a substitute, over and over and over and over. We knew we had a mammoth job ahead of us, cleaning it all up. I got on the phone and called Mom to ask her to try and get hold of Dad. I'd already tried several times and got the answering machine where he works, which is also where Romie works. Then I called both the girls to see if they could help out any after they got off work.

Kara called Adam at work and he took the day off to come and help with moving things out and extracting the water. (We love our son-in-law more and more every day!) First to arrive was Dad, then Adam, then Mom. Jenna happened to have the afternoon off and came around 1:30, bringing pizza for everyone and Kara was here as soon as she was able after getting off work at 5:00.

I called our insurance agent and he already suspected why I was calling, as he had done nothing but taken similar calls since he'd arrived at work this morning. It was a pretty short and disappointing phone call, because he informed us that our policy didn't cover basement flooding due to weather. Even though we were not in a flood plain, we needed extra insurance for coverage of this type. Sigh.

The biggest job for me personally was washing and drying all the wet clothes that were in cardboard boxes and paper bags that we had stored for the garage sale. Too much, too much, too much laundry! I'll be doing laundry most of the week.

The guys got most of the things moved out that they needed to for right now and started sucking up water from the carpet using shop vacs and our carpet shampooing machine. In the game/storage room, Dad suctioned for a couple of hours. The carpet in that room was glued directly to the cement flooring, as it was in the next one. But in the family room, they had to tear the carpeting up after suctioning it and deal with the pad underneath. More suctioning. In the end, the entire pad was removed and the carpet rolled up.




It wasn't just our basement that was flooded; our road had more of Cunningham's Ditch running through it than Cunningham's Ditch did.

Some cars and trucks braved the deeper waters, but some decided not to risk it and turned around.

One of our neighbors to the north decided to use a different mode of transportation:




Kara is spending the night here tonight since she doesn't have to be at work until noon tomorrow, so she'll be helping again in the morning. The guys will all be going Round Two later in the day. Me? Doing laundry, of course.

Tomorrow night, they'll move the furniture out completely, so that the carpet can be unrolled and more suctioning will take place. We've got fans and two dehumidifiers running continually. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.


While this is a royal pain in the you-know-where and we'll incur some financial loss, a little voice is reminding me that this is trivial compared to what the people of New Orleans and other areas suffered as a result of flooding to their homes. No doubt one day we'll look back on this and remember fondly the week we decided to clean out the basement. Well maybe not fondly and it really wasn't our choice, but if you procrastinate long enough, decisions sometimes get made for you.

Lack of Rain Will Do That To Ya

This summer will be remembered for its dryness and high temperatures that went along with it - a lethal combination for all but the strongest and well-established plants. I feel like I've walked around the yard with the hose permanently attached to me like a tail most of the summer. It became one of the cats' favorite things to chase as I pulled it behind me.

Signs of the drought conditions we experienced in June and July can be seen throughout the garden, but this Spider Flower (Cleome hassleriana) shows it best.


Normal height of this is 36-48 inches. Mine is twelve and most have not gotten beyond the seedling stage. I started them this spring from seed saved from last year's flowers and grew them in the same location as last year. Those were also grown from seed and were normal height. As I said, I watered constantly during the dry period, but since these were located in the furthest spot in the garden from the spigot, they didn't get a shower as often as most everything else. They obviously suffered.

Now we're deeply entrenched in August and today we're under a flash flood watch from all the rain we've gotten in the last couple of days. It's thundering as I write this and I was driven back inside by more rain as I was taking my first stroll of the day through the gardens. That's okay, though, because it's going to take a lot of it to get the ground back to a normal moisture level and it's been wonderful to not have to drag the hose around with me.

Legless in Ohio

Okay, this has really been bugging me, this grasshoppers-missing-a-leg thing. As I said, it's not the first time we've seen missing legs this summer. (See picture at right, taken by me on 7.28.07.) I mean, what is up with that anyway? Not that it matters, but doggone it, it does matter. It's just not normal. I couldn't take my Sunday nap because I kept thinking about it.

So I did the logical thing - I googled it.

And lo and behold . . . it . . . is . . . apparently . . . not . . . that . . . uncommon.

Huh.


Amazing fact - The extensor muscle from the back leg of an adult female locust (Schistocerca gregaria) can develop a force of up to 1.4 kg. This means that the muscle from one back leg of a grasshopper (admittedly quite a large one) can lift almost a bag-and-a-half of supermarket sugar!

Beans, Beans . . .

Beans, beans, the musical fruit
The more you eat, the more you toot
The more you toot, the better you feel
So let's have beans for every meal!

We've been picking green beans since the end of June, and we're still picking them. And it looks like we'll be picking them for awhile yet, because the plants are still producing and they're still blossoming, which means still more beans. Too bad I don't can them.







The foliage looks like it got caught in the crossfire, but the beans don't appear to be affected too much. Apparently, the beetles prefer the leaves. I like the beans better myself.


I wonder which will happen first:

1. The plants will quit producing beans.
2. The beetles will eat all the leaves and move on to the beans.
3. Frost will kill the beans.
4. I'll get tired of picking beans.
   
5. I'll get tired of eating beans.

Taking a Sunday Nap

As I was walking through the garden this morning, I noticed this grasshopper laying in the red zinnia. At first, I thought he was dead, but when I touched him, he moved a little, so I'm guessing he was just taking a nap. We'd had rain overnight and it's still cloudy and looks like we could get more. It's one of those days where you feel like you could just spend the entire day snoozing on the couch.

Or a zinnia.

Join

EDIT: You may have noticed the grasshopper is missing a hind leg. Alarmingly, this seems to be the case with the majority of grasshoppers observed on Our Little Acre this summer. More often than not, they will be missing a hind leg, and almost always the left one. There has to be some reason for this, and I can't think it's a good one. We don't use pesticides other than neem oil, so I can't imagine that it's anything we're doing. The farmers use other things though, so that might be one possibility. Is there some explanation for this that any of you have heard before?

Chasing Butterflies

Romie hooked the little trailer up to the back of the mower and we headed back to Cunningham's Ditch, which runs behind our house. It's called a ditch officially, but it's really a creek that feeds into Blue Creek just a little further east.


I walked beside him as he drove the mower and once we got between the creek and the cornfield, there was about 20 feet of wildflowers and weeds all the way back to the next field. We knew there was still quite a pile of rocks back there that Doug the Farmer had removed from his field, and we were in search of more for the edge of our new little pond.





What we didn't know was that this was 'The Place To Be' if you're a butterfly. Monarchs, Commas, Swallowtails, Cabbage Whites, Summer Azures, Pearl Crescents, Painted Ladies, and Clouded Sulphurs were flitting about by the dozens and it was amazing that we didn't get in their way.





I can understand why the butterflies liked it back here. The wildflowers were nearly waist-high in most places and if they got tired of food, the creek was right there to provide a drink. It was pretty secluded, too, and yes, we did see some that took advantage of that fact, if you know what I mean. Not that insects are shy about much of anything.

The first thing we found wasn't rocks. I walked through the weeds to get to the creek bank and came upon some berries. LOTS of them. At first I thought they might be blueberries, although that didn't seem likely. Then I noticed the leaves and the tendrils on the vines and they were growing in clusters that hung down. Grapes? I took a couple of leaves with me to look up online to make an identification.


We did find a few flattish rocks for the pond, so we loaded them up and headed back towards the house. Romie challenged me - "Let's count the butterflies on the way back. I'll count the Monarchs and you count the white ones. And make sure you don't count the same one twice." Ha. Ha. Ha.



When I got home, I determined that they were indeed wild grapes growing back there. We'd also seen a really nice Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) plant in full bloom and I had decided right then and there that it was coming to live in my garden for the Monarchs.

I returned to the creek with shovel, scissors, and bags in hand. Romie went with me and while I collected the grapes, he dug the milkweed. Just as we left the field, I noticed a large wild gaura! Though it's native to our area, this was the first time I'd ever seen one and recognized it as such. Its blooms were spent and ready to fall off, so I wasn't able to get a picture of the bloom, but its unique growing form was familiar to me and I could see the flowers had been much the same as my hybrid gaura in my garden.

I got the milkweed planted and watered while Romie arranged the rocks around the pond. The grapes got washed and now I'll search for a recipe for making grape jam/jelly from wild grapes. I've never made jam or jelly in my life, so this will be a new experience!

We did some heavy pruning and late summer clean-up in the gardens today, too. The Morrow's honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii) at the back corner in Max's Garden is once again pretty bare. It's a vigorous grower and this is not the first time we've 'butchered' it like this. It looks kind of funny right now, but it won't for long. In fact, if we don't cut it like this, it would get out of control, just like it did before we made this garden around it.

We removed two of three young maple trees growing in a cluster in the middle of the garden, which we probably should have done years ago. Only one of them was growing in a nice shape, so we left that one. We also cut one large trunk of the white mulberry that came up volunteer three summers ago. It now has two and it looks much better.

I ripped out the cucumber vines and moved the trellis to storage for next year. We'd not gotten any cucumbers from it that were actually edible, and the vines didn't even look good, so out they came, along with what was left of the second crop of spinach. Same thing for the scarlet runner bean vines, which were still blooming, but whose leaves had looked like swiss cheese for several weeks, thanks to the cucumber beetles. I was tempted to tear out the anemic nasturtiums too, but decided to give them a reprieve for now.

I spoke with my dad on the phone right after we'd finished our outside work and told him about finding the wild grapes. He said they used to grow everywhere around here years ago, especially on fence rows, but he hadn't come across any for quite some time. His dad had worked for the county and knew where all the good vines were. He and a friend of his would go out and pick bushels of them and make their own wine. I'd not heard that family story before!

It was a beautiful day today, with cooler temperatures and lower humidity and Romie and I both said it felt like fall, big time. I love these kind of days, but not what they portend. I think I'll just decide to live in the moment for the next month or two and worry about 'later' later.

A Big Bird Bath . . . For the Kitties

Romie and I have talked about putting a water feature in Max's Garden almost from day one, which was sometime in October of 2005, but we never could settle on just what to do. Then a couple of weeks ago, Kara and I were in Meijer and we saw these 3-foot diameter kiddie wading pools out in the garden center for a dollar. Kara thought that one could be sunk into the ground for a small garden pond. Brilliant!

Last night, while I was spending the evening with Kara, we went back to Meijer and I bought one of the dollar pools. Got a brown tarp, too, at Lowe's. We would use that to line the pool, which was a bright turquoise.

I had to move a few plants in the garden to make enough room for the pond and still be able to walk around it on the current path - Siberian Iris, Monarda punctata, Centaurea, and some Japanese Anemone. I got that done and the mulch scraped back so when Romie got home from work today, we could begin the digging.


I said 'we' but Romie dug the hole. I had put the wading pool upside down where I wanted it and spray painted around the rim so he'd know just where I wanted it to be dug. The soil out in this garden is pretty loamy, so it wasn't hard digging. Once that was done, he trimmed the tarp a bit ...


...then we wrapped the tarp around the pool and set it into the hole. It was situated a few inches above ground level so that there was a slight slope away from the edge all the way around. We then filled it with water.



We no sooner had it full when Luna and Sunny came to check it out. Luna seemed to approve the new watering hole. I would imagine that the birds will make use of it, too, as long as the cats are spending their time elsewhere.



We need to get some more rocks to put around it, so we'll be looking for field rock again. If we can't find enough flattish ones, we may need to make a visit to Beining's Nursery, where we can buy some for a minimal price.

I have a few plants growing in the ground that will also grow in water and I dug one of them - Corkscrew Rush (Juncus effusus 'Afro') - and repotted it into a solid black plastic pot in heavy clay. That's what one water pond website advised to do, and we sure have plenty of clay soil around here. Next spring, I'll put a couple more plants in the water, including water lilies. I'm looking for a small solar fountain now, so we can keep the water moving which will help reduce algae growth. I found this one for $44.96 and I think it will do the job.

This has been a pretty inexpensive project, so far:

Wading pool $1.00
Tarp liner $10.50

Flowers and a Movie

Kara called me early yesterday and asked if I wanted to come up and go nursery hopping and mall shopping with her and then spend the night. Adam was leaving after work to go to Chicago with friends to see the Cubs play the Cardinals at Wrigley Field today. (Lucky Adam! I got to see a Cubs game from the rooftops two summers ago. It was GREAT!)

At first, I said no to Kara because I had to be at work at 7:30 for OSHA training. That meant I would have to leave Kara's house by 6:30 and not being a morning person, that didn't really appeal to me. But I love spending time with her and was pleased that she wanted to spend time with me, so I decided to go anyway.

When I first got there, we did the usual - took a tour of her yard and gardens. She is a talented gardener and has a greener thumb than I do. She thinks she doesn't know much about it all, but I can see that she is a quick study and knows more than she thinks she does. She doesn't fuss over her plants nearly as much as I do, because she doesn't have as much time for one thing, and I think maybe her things do well because she lets them do their thing without much interference from her. I'm especially envious of her Martha Washington geranium (Pelargonium x domesticum).

They have a nice deck at the back of their house and we've enjoyed spending time there several times over the summer. Adam recently stained it a red cedar color and it looks really nice. Kara has several potted plants there and clematis that vines up and through the railing.

To the south of their house, they have a fire pit, hammock, and flowers dotted all around. There are several very old tall trees (oak, I think) and this part of their yard is very inviting. Near the street, Kara has dug a square flower bed and it has several annuals as well as perennials and a stepping stone that was a gift from one of her girlfriends.

This dahlia is a stunner and I was with Kara when she bought it on one of our plant shopping trips. I was tempted to get one, too, and didn't. I will get it next year, because it has been a prolific bloomer for her and I love the color combination and the flower form.

She has the cutest whimsies here and there and knows just how to place them. Here is a case where art imitates life - can't you just imagine the sun really smiling down at these Black-eyed Susans? :-)

She has 'Heavenly Blue' morning glories vining up an arbor, but they weren't very open while I was there. They are the most wonderful shade of icy blue! I'll have to remind her to save the seed from them and maybe she'll share some with me.

After we walked through her yard, we took off for Meijer, Lowe's, and Bath & Body Works. At Meijer, I bought two 'Queen Charlotte' Japanese Anemones for half off, plus a Coreopsis rosea 'Sweet Dreams.' As Kara and I were checking out, she noticed some plants that were marked 50 per cent off and said, "Mom, aren't these the same as what you're buying?" I walked over, and sure enough, there were two anemones exactly like the ones for which I was ready to pay full price. I asked the cashier about it and he said, "Our department manager goes through and pulls out plants that don't look so great and marks them down to half off."

Well.

Other than a few dead leaves, they didn't look any worse for wear than the ones I'd almost bought. They had healthy new growth, so of course I bought them at $2.50 each and they are now happy in my garden, next to the three small ones just like them that I already had.

My main reason for going to Meijer was not to buy plants, however. (Funny how I always manage to find some that I need, though.) When Kara and I were here the last time a couple of weeks ago, we had seen kiddie pools for a dollar. She asked me why you couldn't sink one of those in the ground and make a small garden pond out of it. Huh. Great idea! I had gone home and asked Romie what he thought about it, and he agreed it was a great idea, too. They still had some of the pools, so I bought one. A dollar!

The pool was blue, so we needed some plastic to line it because no pond I've ever seen is bright turquoise. I bought a brown-colored tarp at Lowe's for $10.50 which was considerably cheaper than the regular pool liner plastic or black contractor's plastic. All we want it for is to change the color of the pool, so it will work fine. I did NOT buy any plants there, which was miraculous.

Next, we went to the mall, where I bought some antibacterial liquid soap at Bath & Body Works. They have them 5 for $15 right now, plus I had a coupon for a free product with a $15 purchase. I got those and was ready to leave the mall, but Kara wanted to go to another store.

As we walked down the mall to that store, Christopher & Banks was calling to me, so I answered. Half an hour later, I was the proud owner of a new sweater with little kitties on it and matching linen capris, bought at a greatly reduced price.




There was a denim shirt with kitties also, which I hadn't noticed and the sales associate was only doing her job by showing it to me. While it was not marked down, the manager thought I needed it and made me a deal I couldn't refuse (*cough*$15 off*cough*). These clothing purchases were all Kara's fault.

We finally found our way to the mall exit, stopped at Walmart to get chips and salsa for snacks and went back to Kara's and got comfy. I had brought a movie, The Girl in the Cafe, which had been sent to me by Kate in Canada. The DVD is traveling around the world being viewed by bloggers who then comment on it. Kara and I munched on our chips and watched the movie together. I'll blog about it soon, but I'll say here that I really liked this movie and the way it made me think about some things that I'd never thought about before. I love movies like that.

I got to sleep in the Paris room, which is a guest room decorated with a Parisian theme. Kara has been enamored with Paris for years and one day dreams of going there. (Me too, Kara.) Oreo kept me company through the night, sleeping at the foot of the bed. Oreo is a brother to our Baby, Boo, and Luna, and came to live with Kara and Adam shortly before they got married. Kara has another inside cat as well - Cali the Princess. Cali actually let me pet her while I was here! I feel so honored.

I got up this morning at six and was out the door in plenty of time to get to New Haven on time and I'm really glad I changed my mind about spending the night at Kara's. It's always fun to hang out with her and do girl stuff. Love you, Kara!


Photo of Cali and Oreo by Kara Fritz.

Yet More Blooms . . .

For Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - I keep forgetting some! I'm kind of ruining the one-day thing, aren't I? But these are all in bloom now, too.

Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora
Sometimes called Montbretia, but the proper name is now accepted to be Crocosmia. I can't find where I recently read this and I don't know why it's changed. I mean, all the rest of the flowers only have one common name, right? We wouldn't want things to be too confusing . . .

Leptodermis oblonga
This is a lovely small shrub that I've had for two years, but this is the first year it's bloomed. It's very tidy and it handled our hot, dry summer perfectly! Even the foliage looks nearly perfect.


Spotted Bee Balm (Monarda punctata 'Fantasy')
Oooooh! I love this monarda. It doesn't flop, it doesn't get powdery mildew, it still has that lemony scent to the foliage and the flowers are cool. Each one builds on the previous flower. I've got some that were five 'stories' tall and they all looked great. The bees and butterflies love it, too.

This is another one that's sitting on the fence for me, as far as zone hardiness goes. I've seen 5 and I've seen 6, so I'll mulch it well after frost and keep my fingers crossed. It's been in bloom nearly all summer (unlike its cousin) and I'd hate to lose it.


Floribunda Rose (Rosa 'Chihuly')
This, along with 'Disneyland' and 'Glamis Castle' has been my best rose performer this summer. Still, the blooms were smaller in general and not as many as last year, but the hot, dry summer is bound to take its toll. While I generally find that the Japanese Beetles like the yellow roses best, this one has escaped their evil clutches somehow.


English Rose (Rosa 'Falstaff')
This is a healthy grower and prolific bloomer that's seemingly untouched by bugs and disease. Fragrant, too.


Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria 'Zavina')
This isn't hardy to our zone 5, but there is one cultivar that is supposed to be ('Sweet Laura'). I'll take it inside and save the bulbs/corms for next spring. This has bloomed non-stop all summer, but it's showing signs of slowing down now. I'm just awful about fertilizing anything, so that could be the reason or else it's just time for it to slow down, I don't know.

Okay. I'm done now. Promise.

But Wait! There's More!

I hurriedly posted pictures late last night of blooms we've got here at Our Little Acre, and I missed some...

Dwarf Morning Glory (Convolvulus tricolor)

This is a robust annual, just like the vine, growing at about 12 inches tall and blooming profusely. The Gold Bugs have really done a number on the foliage though. They don't seem to bother the blooms.


Dahlia 'Hawaii' I really like this one when it first opens up, but then it gets ugly. It fades and even with faithful deadheading, subsequent blooms are much smaller.


Gazania (Gazania rigens) Planted from seed, these take awhile to reach bloom stage, but they're going strong now. I grow them every year and they never fail to amaze me with their coloration.


African Daisy (Osteospermum 'Orange Symphony') These I've grown (along with 'Lemon Symphony') from seed saved from blooms for several years now.


Zinnia (Zinnia elegans 'Whirligig Mix') This isn't supposed to look like this, but I kind of like it, especially in light of its name.


Bells of Ireland (Molluccella laevis) This one really surprised me. I've tried twice before to grow this annual from seed with no luck. When I saw these coming up, I couldn't remember what I planted and then I saw the bells. They aren't as tall as they're supposed to be, but at least they're green and they've got bells! Third time's a charm!


Obedient Plant (Physostegia sp.) I have to keep my eye on this one, especially as it's first coming up in the spring. It's one of those 'give it an inch, it will take a mile' kind of plants. I love it right before it's in full bloom when the spires are all standing at attention in identical uniforms.


Mexican Shell Flower (Tigridia pavonia) These are bulbs that I have to lift in the fall and I store in my basement over winter. There are several colors in this mix (red, white, yellow) and they're real conversation starters, with their spotted throats.


Goldfish Plant (Nematanthus gregarius)
I bought this a little over a year ago, and since it's a tropical, I needed to bring it inside in the fall. This is pretty much a no-care plant. As long as I throw a little water its way and make sure it gets at least bright indirect light, it's happy.


Bougainvillea
I bought this one in February 2006, while on a trip to Florida. I never knew what color it was until last week, when it bloomed for the first time. Just a few florets, but I was thrilled. The plant looks healthy and I probably was watering it too much. Apparently, they bloom better when you keep them on the dry side.


Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia sp.)
Last winter, several Dave's Garden gardeners shared some brug cuttings with me. I rooted the 'sticks' in water, then planted them and grew them under lights. When it warmed up enough, they went outside. They did better, but only when I put them in the ground did they really take off.

I will have to dig them up and repot them when fall comes so I can take them in for the winter and once again grow them under lights. They're really fast growers, so if I can keep them all alive over the winter, next year they should get very tall. I just love these and their lemony soapy scent.

August Blooms

Morning Glory (Ipomoea nil 'Chocolate')

Just the last couple of days have felt different when I go outside. It's still hot, but the nights have started to get cooler and for the most part, the humidity has decreased. There are more bugs - spiders in particular - and the chewing ones are really taking their toll on the garden. The hint of fall suggests that summer has begun to wane.

But there is still plenty for me to ooh and ahh over when I do a garden walk-through . . .

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Sarah Christine')
This is the largest daylily I've ever seen, measuring nine inches across! I got this one from Barb Wolff last summer. It was just a seedling then and didn't bloom, but I got five very large blooms from it this summer. It's actually still in bloom, with one more bud yet to open. That's 'Frans Hals' on the right in the background. I love that one, too.

Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus) in a double form.















Appleblossom Grass (Gaura lindheimeri) - This appears to only be hardy to zone 6, but I'm going to attempt to overwinter it outside here in zone 5 by mulching heavily. It's the Energizer Bunny in my Japanese Garden. It just blooms and blooms and blooms . . .












Hardy Geranium or Cranesbill (Geranium 'Rozanne') - I started three small ones in the fall, purchased from Big Dipper Farm. Only one made it through the winter and they replaced the other two. The one that wintered over got HUGE! The two newer ones, planted this spring, did well also, and I have no reason to believe all three won't winter over this year, since the newer ones have had all summer to get established.

Clematis 'Mrs. Robert Brydon'
I LOVE this clematis! I purchased it last summer from Bluestone Perennials and it was small, so I never got to see it bloom. This year, it grew like crazy, and while it's not a vining clematis, it grows tall and can be trained to 'vine' around a support. It started blooming a week ago and it's loaded with tiny light blue bells. Very, very pretty dark green foliage and blooms!

Dahlia 'Who Dun It' - Probably the prettiest of the dahlias I have. Grows quite tall at four feet or more and color doesn't fade in the sun like the other ones I have. The Japanese Beetles like it, too.









Sneezeweed or Helen's Flower (Helenium) - I got these from Michigan Bulb and while they were a bit small, they didn't stay that way for long! Very robust and lovely daisy-like blooms starting a couple of weeks ago. Looks a bit like the gaillardia bloom, but it's much smaller and refined.











Purple Hyacinth Bean (Lablab purpureus) - I got these seeds planted late (mid-June), but they wasted no time in playing catch-up. They remind me of sweet pea blossoms. I'll save the purple bean pods since this is an annual vine, and I'll plant them again next year, but earlier. Pretty purple foliage, too.

It is believed that Thomas Jefferson grew this vine at his home at Monticello.

French Hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla 'Endless Summer® Blushing Bride') - I've only had this one about a month, but I love the shading on the mophead blooms.














Coreopsis 'Jethro Tull' - This is supposed to be a cross of 'Zamfir' and 'Early Sunrise.' I had 'Zamfir' for a couple of years and it was really bothered with powdery mildew, but this one doesn't seem to have that problem in the same location. This hot, dry summer has probably been a good test for powdery mildew resistance.

Toad Lily (Tricyrtis 'Tojen')
I've got several toad lilies, but this is the first to bloom. It provides the shade garden with a lovely splash of color. They always remind me of tiny orchids.

Dumber Than A Fifth-Grader

I like to think that I know a little about a lot of things and a lot about a few things. But today, a nine-year-old put me to shame.

While at work, I had a young man as my twelve o'clock patient. As he followed me down the hall to the treatment room, he explained the intricate origami figures he had brought with him. Now I'm a big fan of origami, so I listened closely as he showed me the Hydra, Chimera and oh dear, I've forgotten what the third one was, I was so taken with the Hydra.

First of all, the Hydra was red, my favorite color. Secondly, it had three heads. And finally, it was made from a single piece of paper and it had more folds than a chubby baby's legs. He said his dad had made it last night.

Then Nathaniel* asked me, "What is your favorite mythological character?" Up to this point, I had deduced that what we had here were creatures from Greek mythology, and while this isn't an area that I have a particular interest in, I was doing pretty well keeping up with the new information I was hearing. It really was interesting - did you know that a Hydra has poisonous breath? I was being a good listener and I had responded with an occasional "wow" or "uh-huh" or "cool." But now he'd called my bluff.

Not wanting to appear to be totally in the dark, I answered, "Uh, I don't really have a favorite. What's yours?" What followed was a dissertation on his favorite creature that would likely qualify him for his doctorate's. And it was at this point that I knew I was way out of my league.

From there, we moved on to the world of dinosaurs. When Nathaniel was two, I remember him accompanying his mother for her dental cleaning, and while most two-year-olds have their blankie in tow, this one brought a dinosaur half as big as he was. As I worked on his mother, he entertained me by reciting the names of half a dozen dinosaur species without missing a consonant or a vowel and telling me what each one looked like and what it was capable of doing. Mom took a snooze. I imagine she had heard it all before, but I was in shock. He was two.

Nathaniel is now nine and it takes about thirty to forty minutes to complete a dental cleaning appointment for a child this age. But when you have to allow for such long words as spinosaurus, pachycephalosaurus, and acrocanthosaurus, you need a few extra minutes. (Did I mention that Nathaniel was only nine?)

As the appointment wore on, we discussed Jurassic Park III (no, I hadn't seen it, in fact hadn't seen Jurassic Park Two) and Arthur. ARTHUR! I KNOW ABOUT ARTHUR! My kids had the Arthur books! I even know who D.W. is! Now we're getting somewhere. But Arthur's vocabulary was different, sadly. The Arthur of my girls' childhood never used words like "vomitrocious." Such language, I swear.

And how many nine-year-olds do you know who use the words appendages and simplistic and use them correctly? I know one.

By the time we got out the floss, my brain needed a nap and I felt like a Dumbasaurus. Shown up by a nine-year-old. I'll bet Nathaniel knows a lot about comets, too.


*Name changed to protect the intelligent.

*****************************************************

Hydra graphic from ThinkQuest
Dinosaur graphic from Dinosaur.org

Waiting For A Star To Fall

At the pool party, we talked about watching the Perseid meteor shower, which started tonight. Every August, the earth passes through the tail of the comet Swift-Tuttle. When that happens, small particles of debris thrown off by the comet enter the earth's atmosphere, burning up in the process and we see it as a flash of light. In the case of bigger particles, they leave a streak across the sky.

Cool.

I'm a die-hard night owl. Staying up to watch the Perseids tonight wasn't difficult for me and I watch them every year, so around 2:00 a.m. I put on my flip-flops, grabbed a blanket (to protect myself from the mosquitoes) and my camera, and headed outside. It was a perfect night for watching, because there's no moon to dilute the darkness. We live in the middle of nowhere, so there are no city lights to contend with either. The neighbors on each side have security lights, but there's a spot by the pool where the trees block that light, so it's nice and dark and perfect for meteor watching.

I pulled the patio lounger out a bit so I could get a better view while laying on it. It had already become damp with the night moisture, so I grabbed a beach towel and wiped it off. I wrapped myself up in the blanket and plopped myself down on the lounger to watch and wait.

Hmmm . . . I forgot that I'm near-sighted. I got back up and went in the house to find my glasses, then returned to my post. I left my camera in the house this time, because after laying there for a minute, I could see that getting an image of a meteor was going to require an immeasurable amount of luck and I didn't feel that lucky.

So now I was bundled up in the blanket, lying down looking up and waiting. I heard the train whistle from the Norfolk & Southern train, three miles away. There were the crickets and frogs providing background music, with the staccato percussion from a katydid now and then. The classic night sounds of summer.

The sky is really big. With ideal conditions (meaning you're not too tired, too old, or too a-lot-of-things) the eye takes 200 milliseconds to track something, once the moving object is detected. That's pretty fast. But so is a meteor. They travel anywhere from 25,000 to 160,000 miles per hour.

I'm not a math whiz, so I'm not sure how that all works out, but I know if you're looking east and the meteor is in the west, it had better be one of the streaky ones or you're going to miss it. So I tried to look straight up and consciously use my peripheral vision to hopefully catch a glimpse of a few meteors. As I laid there, I wondered which would happen first - a mosquito bite or a meteor?

A METEOR! I saw one, and then another. I even saw one large enough to leave a streak. They averaged about one every three minutes or so and most seemed to be traveling from eastish to westish. (I know those aren't words, but they should be.) Each time I saw one, it made me smile. The streaky one even caused me to say OUT LOUD, "Now that was cool." I don't know who I thought was going to hear me say that, but it really was cool.

I laid there for about half an hour watching them and each time after I'd see one, I'd tell myself, "just one more." In all, I probably saw a dozen or more. The frequency of them increases the nearer you get to dawn, so I decided to come in, then set the alarm for 4:30 so I could go back out and see more of them. They're supposed to be visible all week but more so on Sunday and Monday nights and there's a chance of rain tomorrow night, so I want to be sure to see them all I can tonight.

I have a couple of observations that puzzle me about these things. One, the Perseids were first noted in 1863. Doesn't the comet eventually burn up? I need to study up on comets. Second, If we're passing through the path of the comet's debris, it seems like some of it should hit the earth as meteorites. Maybe it does, but apparently not much, or we'd hear about people finding them every August or getting bonked on the head by one. Wouldn't we?

Okay, so I wasn't a science major. Wait. Yes, I was. Indiana University awarded me an Associate degree in Science. But we studied teeth and I sure don't remember hearing about any comets. And this is precisely the reason that Al Gore invented the internet. Thank goodness for Google.

I'm going to go lay down on the couch now, because 4:30 will be here before I know it.


Photo from YES I Can! Science.

Hot Fun In the Summertime

the sun is hot


the pool is cool


the cicadas are loud


the flowers are pretty


the food tastes good


the games are played


the family is big


the love is bigger

...the memories are made...

Black-Eyed Susan Season

Rudbeckia hirta

Two summers ago, we stopped near our house to dig some wild Black-Eyed Susans growing in the ditch by the side of the road. They were always so thick and beautiful until the county decided to mow them down. That's when we decided to 'relocate' some of them to our gardens where they would be better appreciated rather than cut down in the prime of their lives.

At first, we put them in our back garden, where they thrived. Really well they thrived! They weren't sited in the best spot to allow them the freedom to come and go as they pleased. The strawberries were competing with them for real estate and neither one was willing to give in to the other, so I moved the flowers.

They're fairly well-behaved now, as you can see, although I've had to remove a seedling or two from time to time. Right now, they're shining brightly in a small bed near the pool and closer to the house, which pleases Romie because they're one of his favorite flowers.


We've got a couple of other hybrid rudbeckias, a.k.a. Gloriosa Daisies, out in Max's Garden. Both 'Irish Eyes' and 'Prairie Sun,' which have larger blooms than the wild species, are planted together and I often get them confused as to which is which. 'Irish Eyes' is in the middle, with 'Prairie Sun' to the left and right.

In the upper left is a Gloriosa Daisy left from last year and I have no idea which one it is. Those are quite varied in appearance as far as shading and spotting go. I love it when they do this:

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There Are Hibiscus, Then There Are Hibiscus

Every time we'd go to Florida, I'd be enthralled by the tropical hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) in bloom. So many vibrant colors grabbed my attention every time we'd pass by them when walking or driving just about anywhere. Sadly, I knew we couldn't put them in the ground here in Ohio and expect them to live through the winter.

But that didn't mean I couldn't have hibiscus in Ohio. I could keep them in containers and take them in and out of the house as the weather dictated. Two winters ago, I bought a hibiscus plant for two dollars when we were in Florida and I brought it home on the plane. It survived the rest of the winter with a southern exposure in the house and then I planted it in the ground, pot and all, when night temperatures reached 50° consistently.

It bloomed beautifully for me, both the following summer and even most of the winter while it was inside. Then as spring approached, something happened and it suddenly died. I suspect I forgot to water it one too many times. Usually I overwater, so I'd been trying to not do that and I fear I went to the other extreme and the hibiscus didn't survive. For two dollars, I sure got a lot of enjoyment out of it anyway.

But there's a way to enjoy hibiscus in the north without all that in and out business. There are two hybrid hibiscus that are hardy to our zone 5 winters: Hibiscus syriacus and Hibiscus moscheutos.

The easiest way to tell if a hibiscus is hardy for us here is to look at the leaves. If they're glossy, it's probably tropical. Last week, Kara and I went nursery hopping to see if there were any late season bargains to be had and we found some gorgeous tropical hibiscus at KMart for $5.50! They were lush and healthy and came in nice-looking square pots, too. Kara bought one and I bought two to put on each side of the pool steps.

'Carolina Breeze'


'Reggae Breeze'

I'll bring them in this winter and attempt to keep them going until I can put them outside next summer. The gorgeous citrus blooms scream "Florida!" to me and they're worth the extra effort to try and overwinter them.


Last year, I planted two Hibiscus moscheutos, which are hardy. They have ginormous blooms measuring 8-10 inches across. This hibiscus dies all the way back to the ground after a hard freeze in the fall, and begins growing again in late spring.

'Luna'


'Plum Crazy'

I also planted four Hibiscus syriacus, also known as Althea or Rose of Sharon. The blooms are similar to other hibiscus, but are much smaller, being approximately 3-4 inches across. These do not die down to the ground after frost, but they do lose their leaves. They too are rather slow to break dormancy in the spring, so don't think they've not made it through the winter just because they're later than most plants to show signs of life.

'Aphrodite'

(grown as a standard)


'White Chiffon'

'Blue Satin'


'Blushing Bride'

Unfortunately, 'Blushing Bride' didn't make it through our crazy winter and spring. Many people lost their Rose of Sharon bushes this winter, so I guess I'm fortunate I only lost one. Right now, all of the hibiscus are blooming - tropical and hardy.

A Dream Becomes a Reality

When my mom enrolled in Master Gardener training three years ago, she did it so she could learn more about something she loved - gardening. Mom had always had gardens and beautiful ones, too. She already knew more about flowers and plants than most people I knew and I wondered why she would want to put herself through the classes, but little did I know (nor did she) where it would lead.

Master Gardeners are required to give 50 hours of service in the form of a project as part of earning their designation as a Master Gardener. In Mom's class, each member submitted an idea, then the group voted on the ideas to choose how they would give their time back to the community in which they lived.

Mom had a vision of a community children's garden where area kids could learn about the growing process and all that was involved in caring for a garden. She saw it as a happy, fun place for them to be, while learning in the process. She had seen children's gardens in other parts of the country and wanted this for her own hometown. The group voted and Mom's idea was chosen.

Only those involved in this mammoth project could have any idea of the degree of cooperation, volunteerism, and philanthropy it took to bring this garden to fruition. Yesterday, though the gardens are not yet completed, it was presented to the community and there was an official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

L-R: Andy Kleinschmidt, Austin & Stephanie Adams,
Ollie Adams, Louise Hartwig

The star of the show is the Butterfly House, designed by Twyla Hayes and funded by KAM Manufacturing, which produces products for Vera Bradley, maker of the colorful, stylish fabric accessories such as handbags and luggage. The child-proportioned house is pink with a green roof and has a netted garden behind it, where butterflies will live.







The house is trimmed in Vera Bradley's Bermuda Pink pattern, and is the first time the company has allowed their copyrighted prints to be used outside the company. One of Vera Bradley's two founders, Pat Miller, was on hand for the ribbon cutting and addressed the crowd of about 300 children and parents.

Ollie Adams, co-owner of KAM, also spoke, as did Van Wert mayor Don Farmer, City Parks Director Sue Heppeard, OSU County Extension Agent Andy Kleinschmidt, and my mom, Louise Hartwig. The mayor presented keys to the city to Ms. Miller, Adams, and Kleinschmidt.





The highlight of the opening was the release of 200 Painted Lady butterflies by the children in attendance. Fifty of them were released inside the butterfly house, while the rest were let go outside.















It was thrilling to see all those butterflies rising from the crowd and immediately many of them landed on the flowers planted in the gardens. The looks on the faces of the children as they opened their little packets and saw the butterflies flutter out was just the beginning of what these children will experience here in the time to come.


There is a red-roofed gazebo situated in the center of the gardens, surrounded by a low wall lined with ceramic tiles made by third-, fourth- and fifth- grade children of the county. Nearby is a granite rhinoceros for climbing.






The Secret Garden is a touching tribute to Melody Mohr Hicks, given by her family. There is a small table and chairs made of cement in the shape of mushrooms, surrounded by mulberry trees which will eventually grow to give this garden a secluded feel.

A garden of this magnitude has required thousands of dollars in donations since Master Gardeners has no money of their own. They have a plant sale in the spring and host a garden walk, which helps fund their projects, but they rely on volunteers for work and the generosity of individuals and corporate donations to make projects such as this a reality.

One way that individuals and groups can help contribute to the Children's Garden is through the purchase of a personalized brick. There are two sizes for purchase, with the smaller one at $100 and the larger one costing $200.

There will be ongoing maintenance costs, so even when the gardens are completed, there will be a need for donations, which can be made through the OSU Extension Office in Van Wert.

Future gardens planned are a "Healthy Me" Garden, Rainbow Garden , Sundial Garden, Enabling Garden for the handicapped, 100 Acre Wood, Discovery Garden, Pollination Garden, and "Petals and Feathers" Garden.

The Children's Garden is located in Smiley Park, across from the Van Wert Airport on Leeson Avenue on the west side of town.



I can't end this post without saying a few words about my mom to those of you who don't know her or who have never met her. Those of you who have, know I don't need to say any more. You have seen her in action.

My mom was just a farm girl who grew up and stayed in our rural community, but her zest for life and the ideas that come out of that pretty head of hers know no bounds. She's an incredibly positive person who knows how to get things done, whether it be for herself or for others. "Can't" just isn't in her vocabulary.

To be sure, she's had a supporting cast - mainly my dad - but the creativity and motivation for what she does pours forth from her like the fountain of youth, which surely she drinks from daily. How one person can have so much drive, ambition, and energy - and still have it at 73 - is beyond me. I didn't inherit it. But I'm proud that she is the woman, along with my dad, who raised me. As a family, we are surely blessed.

EDIT: The Van Wert Times-Bulletin has posted a video of the ribbon-cutting ceremony on their website.

Is It a Weed or Is It a Flower?

When I was writing about the coneflowers and the origin of their botanical name Echinacea, I thought of another flower in my garden - Echinops ritro. Both owe their genus names to the Greek word for hedgehog - echinos. In the case of Echinops, there's more. Opsis means "spines around the flower."

I grew Echinops ritro last year and when spring came around this year, the thought went through my head that it was a good thing I had a plant marker stuck in the ground identifying the location of this, otherwise I would have pulled it out. Its common name is Globe Thistle and its foliage looks very much like its infamous cousin (Family : Asteraceae).

It likes full sun and well-draining soil. Mine is in amended clay and does very well, despite getting more moisture than most of the garden. Its steely blue balls are about two inches in diameter and if you let them go to seed, they'll germinate easily. This is one of those plants that will also grow from just a section of its root. Mine grows to a height of about two feet.

So is Globe Thistle a weed or a flower? It depends. There are no hard and fast rules for this, and if you want it in your garden as a flower, no one is going to stop you. While I detest regular thistles, I love this one. Even the foliage, and the flower is fascinating and beautiful. To me. You can decide for yourself.

I'm a Conehead!

I'd heard of echinacea as a means to improve your immune system, and I knew it was an herb or plant of some sort, but never bothered to investigate. Then I invited my friend Bonnie to go with me on a bus tour to Chicago Botanic Gardens, back in the summer of 2004.

I didn't know a whole lot about flowers at that time, and Bonnie shared her knowledge as we walked through the gardens. We came to a purple coneflower, which I learned was the same thing as echinacea, and she said, "Touch it." It looked really soft in the middle, but I was surprised at how firm it was! It felt like plastic. Cool.

We took the little tour that was offered and the docent drove us through all parts of the gardens and told us interesting tidbits of information about the gardens, the flowers growing there, and the ongoing plant research conducted in the gardens. I remember being told that an orange coneflower was in production and that it had never been grown anywhere else. It was to be called 'Orange Meadowbrite™' and would be the first in a series of Meadowbrite™ echinaceas that would be developed at CBG.

I now have this coneflower as well as 'Mango Meadowbrite™' in my garden and they're among my favorites. I've got several other echinaceas and I've always got my eyes open for possible new additions for the garden.

'Orange Meadowbrite™'

'Mango Meadowbrite™'

'Twilight'

'Harvest Moon'

'White Swan'

'Hope'
A portion of the sale of this echinacea goes to the
Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer research.


'Sunrise'

'Sunset' or 'Sundown'
I have these labeled correctly in my garden, but failed to take note of which I'd photographed in what order. They very similar and I can't tell the difference between them.


'Summer Sky'


Tennessee Coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis)

I have native coneflowers, as well as 'Magnus' and 'Sparkler.' The latter has variegated foliage and I found that it doesn't tolerate full sun as well. I've got it placed in part shade now and it's doing much better.

'Sparkler'

There's space reserved for 'Green Envy' whenever I manage to find it in one of our local garden centers.





TRIVIA: The word "echinacea" comes from the Greek word "echinos," which means "hedgehog," and refers to the flower's spiky central cone.

Friendship Revisited

Our garden had a visitor today, and got me in the process. She came to see the garden, but we spent more time catching up on each other's lives in the family room. Brenda (more affectionately known as 'Brennie') e-mailed me on Monday and asked if she might come see the garden on Tuesday. Of course!

This morning arrived amid gray cloudy skies and rumbles of thunder. The radar showed what looked like rain approaching from the west. Brennie e-mailed again and said,"...today is not looking very promising for a garden tour :( what do you think?? " I think a little rain never hurt gardens or people.

I kept reading, and she went on to say, "Rain or Shine I'll be over just to see you!!!" That's my girl! And by the time she came and we'd hugged and talked and laughed together a bit, the rain was over.

We headed out to the garden, where Brennie placed two stones she'd brought for our cairn. One, she chose because it looked like a tooth. With a cavity. Brenda and I had worked together for years in a dental office in Van Wert. We were a tightly knit group and though it's been 14 years since I worked there, I still see many of the people I worked with and count them as my friends.

The second stone she brought really touched my heart. It was a round, speckled ball of granite-looking stuff, and Brennie explained why she had to bring it, too. She said she'd never seen a stone so perfectly round before and that it reminded her of me. She used the word 'perfect'. Oh, Brennie, you really need to hang around with me more, girl! Your impression of me in this way would do a 180! She then explained that the different colors in the stone represented my many interests, and when the sun shone on the stone, it sparkled. Like me.

I think Brennie is the new president of my fan club.

Seriously, what a wonderful way to start a day, having your ego inflated like that. But what meant the most to me was who had said it. You see, I view Brenda as a person of high caliber. She's got integrity, compassion, and a positive outlook on life. Our visit made me realize how much I miss being around her.

Why do we do this? We let people that we once knew very well drift out of our lives. We all do it. Changes in the logistics of our lives puts distance between us that is unavoidable. Jobs change, we get busy with our kids, and we keep moving on down the road, leaving those wonderful relationships behind, or at least putting them on a shelf, meaning to take them down later. And sometimes later never comes.

Thank you, Brennie, for taking the time to come visit my garden, but more for coming to see me and making me realize how fortunate I am to know you. It's people like you who have put that sparkle in my life.

Look What I Found!

Trifolium repens

It's been ages since I just came across one of these without even looking for it. Yesterday I was digging out around some bushes and there it was. It took a few seconds for it to register what I'd seen and even then I figured it was an optical illusion. Sometimes when you think you see one, it turns out to be one superimposed on another. But this was the real deal.

I know a place where the sun is like gold,
And the cherry blooms burst with snow,
And down underneath is the loveliest nook,
Where the four-leaf clovers grow.

One leaf is for HOPE, and one is for FAITH,
And one is for LOVE, you know,
And God put another in for LUCK –
If you search, you will find where they grow.

But you must have HOPE, and you must have FAITH,
You must LOVE and be strong – and so –
If you work, if you wait, you will find the place
Where the four-leaf clovers grow.

~ Ella Higginson

It's a Cat's World

Yesterday was just one of those days. You know the kind - you do a little of this and a little of that, but you never quite feel like you've accomplished much of anything. It seemed like the day was made up of a bunch of little moments stacked on top of each other, with none of them having anything in common with any of them.

Maybe it was the low barometric pressure and the resulting rain. I awoke to hear it falling gently and was smiling before I even opened my eyes. Though we got 3¼ inches over two weeks ago, we'd gotten none since and the grass had started turning a crispy gold again. So the rain was certainly welcome, but weather like this makes me hurt more and my brain doesn't function as well.

It was a day that I could have just spent curled up in a ball, sleeping - like the stray cat that's been helping himself to our bowls of cat food for the past couple of months and generally just making himself at home . . .

This kitty doesn't have a name yet, because he won't let us touch him. Romie says he doesn't get a name until he decides to trust us. I have no doubt we will accomplish this, as he slowly is letting us get closer to him, but it will take some time yet. I haven't decided on a name for him that seems appropriate anyway, so for now he's just "that cat."

The other cats all seem to accept him just fine. We haven't noticed any territorial fights yet. This makes me wonder if he's really a she. Because of the long hair and us not being able to get close enough, we haven't yet determined what he/she is. So the taming continues.

I don't know why we're even trying, because we certainly don't need another cat. We've got six outside cats and two inside ones and have I mentioned that Romie is allergic to cats? He loves them as much as I do (maybe more), so he manages to sniffle his way through life with the aid of weekly allergy injections and Allegra. He's allergic to everything else anyway, so cats don't make a whole lot of difference.

We never intended to own and care for this many cats. It just happened. I mean, we've always owned at least one cat since we first got married 32 years ago, but EIGHT?? I'll give the short version of how and why we ended up with all those cats: Three of them were rescues as very young kittens that were dumped out down by the cemetery, two were born last year in our pool house to a mother that was pregnant when she showed up here, one just showed up to the party, another was actually chosen by us on purpose, and one was rescued by Kara and Adam and they couldn't keep him so they asked if we would. Kara begged.

Our cat family, in order of their appearance:

• Simon (2003) - The Chosen One. And he knows it. Simon is a Maine Coon mix and he lets us live in the house with him. He makes it clear that if it weren't for us providing him with food and a place to shed his long hair, he could just as well do without us. He's definitely got catitude.
  
  We got Simon as a kitten from my cousin shortly after we had to have our 16-year-old cat Mimi put to sleep. I didn't think I wanted another inside cat and we had Jinx outside, but I missed having a fluffy furball wandering around in the house with us more than I thought. Thus, Simon.
  
  
• Baby (2004) - One of a litter of five kittens that we found in a field across from the cemetery that's near our house. Obviously, someone had dumped a whole barnful of cats there, because there were three different sizes that we saw all together. We took the kittens home and gave them baths and fed them. We tried to find homes for them, but only managed to find one person who took one of the two females. Baby was the other one.
  
  She was the runt of the litter and so tiny. Her littermates acted like she didn't exist and she was definitely the most feisty of the bunch. She'd hiss at us and hide, but after daily loving-up of all the kittens, she decided she wanted some of that. We moved her inside due to her tiny stature and the fact that she was female. We didn't want her to be subjected to the whims of the many tom cats out there. Surprisingly, Simon didn't mind sharing his domain with her.
  
  Today, Baby has grown to be one of the largest cats of that litter. She's a hypercat, but when bedtime comes, she joins us on our bed, sleeping at the foot for most of the night. She's got one of the loudest purrs I've ever heard.
  
  
• Luna (2004) - Luna is a brother to Baby and is also black and white, but with long hair. Luna is the never-has-a-care, all fun all the time, 'whatevah' cat. He sleeps a great deal of the time and couldn't care less about catching mice, although he does it once in a blue moon.
  
  We like it when he gets caught out in the rain because then he'll lick himself dry and get clean in the process. While most cats are known for being meticulous groomers, Luna apparently was sleeping when that gene got handed out.
  
  He's a very affectionate cat who will take his nap on your lap if possible, and preferably inside the house. All of the cats in this litter have abnormal cat voices, but probably none more than Luna. He is affectionately known as "Squeaky." When you hear him speak, you instantly know why.
  
  
• Boo (2004) - Boo is a brother to Baby and Luna and is all black with long hair. We should have called him Dapper Dan, because he's the polar opposite of Luna. Though he's a big old furball, Boo keeps himself immaculate. He's a great hunter, too, and regularly catches mice and birds.
  
  Boo has issues with Luna sometimes and Max all the time, and is definitely the alpha cat since Jinx died last November. However, with people, he's very affectionate and laid back. He isn't vocal at all, but when he does meow, it's a bit of a squeak, too.
  
  
• Max (2004) - One day there was Max. We don't know where he came from, but once he arrived, he stayed. It took him a little bit to warm up to us, but once he did, oh boy, did he. This cat would lay on your lap and let you pet him all day long. He's the cat I can hang around my neck and he'll let me walk around the yard wearing him like a fur collar until I take him off. And he drools. Really. When you scratch his head or pet him, he loves it to the point of drooling.
  
  I didn't like Max at first. He was orange and I've never liked orange cats. I don't know why; it's just one of those things. But soon after Max got here and had me wrapped around his paw, I learned from others that orange tabbies are the most affectionate cats there are. Even our vet's assistants tell me that. And if Max is typical, I'd say it's true, and I now love him to pieces and he loves me right back.
  
  
• Jack (2006) - Silly kitty with Pikachu cheeks who likes everyone. He's not afraid of the vacuum cleaner and he loves water. He also climbs screens. We've tried various methods of breaking him of this habit, but so far nothing has worked. He doesn't do it on a daily basis, but once is more than enough because he no longer is a kitten and by virtue of his weight, he does some damage to the screens.
  
  Jack is one of the kittens that was born in the attic of the pool house to a wonderful little gray cat that showed up here in the family way last April. We named her Sweetie Pie because she was one, and she passed her personality on to her babies. We decided to keep Jack and attempted to give Sweetie Pie and her other kittens away. My friend Shelley said she'd take them all because they wanted some barn cats.
  
  We took them over to Shelley's when the kittens were weaned, but in the first two weeks one of the kittens was killed under a car and Sweetie Pie and one of the other kittens disappeared. That left one female kitten all by herself and she cried constantly. We decided to take her back so that she could at least be with Jack. And that's why we now have . . .
  
  
• Jilly (2006) - Well, this is little Miss Personality Plus. She's very petite like her mother was, but don't let her size fool you. She's got a big voice and she uses it. All the time. If you aren't paying enough attention to her, she'll let you know quite loudly and persistently. Last week, we were in the kitchen and we could hear her out in the garage meowing like crazy. Obviously something was going on, so Romie walked out there to see what she wanted. She had caught a mouse and she wanted us to see it, because once Romie made a big deal over it, she laid down beside it and was quiet.
  
  Jilly is a beautiful silver gray color and she keeps herself very clean. She's got a lean line to her body and her face has an exotic look to it, unlike any of our other cats, including her brother Jack's. She looks very much like her mama, including the teeny bit of white on the tip of her tail. We suspect that there is some sort of exotic breed in her lineage, but we'll never know for sure.
  
  
• Sunny (2007) - Earlier this year, Kara called to tell me about this yellow cat that had been hanging around their house. She started feeding him and well, you know what happens when you do that. She fell in love with the long-haired fluff ball and asked Adam if they could keep him. While Adam likes the two cats they already have (Cali and Oreo), he didn't want another one, so Kara called the cat rescue in Defiance to see if they would take him. They were full.
  
  She called us and pleaded with us to take this cat. "He was such a nice cat," she couldn't bear to take him to the shelter where he would likely be euthanized. I left it up to Romie completely and he simply said, "What's one more?"
  
  So Sunny now lives outside with the rest of our ecumenical feline family, and Kara was right. He is a wonderful cat, very affectionate and friendly with everyone. He's also very playful and it's fun to watch him chase butterflies or cicadas. He's the only one of our cats that comes when you call, "Here kitty, kitty, kitty!" and announces his arrival on the scene with a small meow.

That's the current family of cats, but it's always subject to change. In fact, you might be wondering what happened to Abby. If you recall, we adopted Abby, a Bengal, back in March of this year. Abby lived in the house with Simon and Baby and things were going pretty well until sometime in May. At that time, Simon decided to start giving Abby some grief and Abby retreated to the top of the refrigerator. After twice being bitten in the back by Simon, we started talking about how we were going to deal with this.

Poor Abby had had a rough life up to this point, having escaped from a breeder in Tennessee, living outside on her own for awhile during which time she suffered a broken tail, was eventually caught and lived in a shelter until she was adopted by one of the shelter employees. The employee and her husband moved to Roanoke, Indiana, and Abby seemed to be doing okay until a couple of other male Bengals in the home started terrorizing her. She spent most of the time on the very top of the kitchen cabinets and that's no way for a cat to live, so they began to search for a home for her. We got word of this, and she came to live with us.

My grandma's cat Elvis passed away suddenly on Easter Sunday and Grandma was devastated. it was a very special relationship that Grandma and Elvis had and when he died, she didn't think she wanted to let herself fall in love with another cat. But in a few weeks, she realized she missed having the company and love that a cat can give you and she decided she wanted another one. Since we have no shortage of cats at our house, we offered her any of ours that she wanted. We explained the situation with Abby and we thought it might be best for both of them if Abby was the one that came to live with her and she agreed.

It has worked out beautifully. There was an adjustment period, to be sure, but once Abby realized she wasn't going to be chased and tormented by any other cats, she took Grandma into her confidence.

Abby is definitely a one-person cat and there's another feline/person love affair going on there now. Abby never leaves Grandma's side at night, sleeping tight against her. When we or anyone else visits during the day, Abby goes into hiding, but when we leave, she comes out and spends her time with Grandma. Abby is a special cat and Grandma understands her. Abby knows this and has give her her trust and love. I hope they'll enjoy each other's company for a long time.

Just today, someone dumped another litter of kittens out near us. One of them, a butterscotch male with a white moustache and white feet, has discovered that there's food here. While it's a cute kitten and extremely tame and friendly, WE DON'T NEED ANY MORE CATS. Those that we have are costing us plenty, as we have had them all spayed or neutered, they get their shots and flea treatments regularly, and then there's the ongoing matter of food and litter.

I don't know why people do this dumping out of animals. There are shelters that will take them. Yes, they may eventually be euthanized, but do they think it's a good thing to just put them out there to fend for themselves if they don't surreptitiously find someone who'll take them in? This is a rant that I could on and on about, but I won't, because you've heard it all before and you know what I'm likely to say anyway.

So what do you think we should name "that cat?"

A Butterfly Flutters By

The Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is in bloom and has been for a few weeks. Up to that point, I'd only seen the occasional Monarch and worried that they'd passed us by this year. But this week, they're back en force. Just like last year, there isn't a day where you can't go out to Max's Garden and see one flitting about. Sometimes there are two.

As I mentioned before, our garden is a certified Monarch Waystation and we grow a couple of different kinds of Asclepias and other butterfly magnets to attract Monarchs and any other butterflies that care to stop for a sip of nectar.

We love it when they stay and raise a family here, too, which is just what Monarchs and Swallowtails did last year. So far, I've not detected any eggs, chrysalis, or caterpillars - just the butterflies.

Oh wait. We have had an abundance of one certain caterpillar. TheTomato Hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata), which if allowed to remain, turns into the Five-Spotted Hawk Moth. They're not on our tomatoes (not yet, anyway), but they're devouring the leaves of the 'Dropmore Scarlet' honeysuckle! I've picked off at least a dozen of these squishy, plump green leaf hogs and tossed them into the corn field behind the garden. Romie seems to think they won't find their way back to the garden, but I wouldn't bet on it.

One of the ones I found was no more than a half-inch long. I can't believe I even saw it. The larger ones can be hard enough to see, due to their color being so close to that of the foliage they're eating.

I saw a Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) butterfly this week that was so tattered I wondered how it even flew, but it seemed to have no problem.


Compare that one to a perfect Monarch (Danaus plexippus) that showed up a couple of days later ...


In addition to the Cabbage White, Tiger Swallowtail, Red Admiral, and numerous other unidentified species, we've had lots of Spicebush Swallowtails, too.







Just a couple of weeks ago, I spied this Eastern Comma.

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La Première Morsure du Melon

"Men and melons are hard to know." ~ Benjamin Franklin

The Charentais melon laid waiting for me in the midst of a tangle of vines. There were others, including watermelon babies, but this canteloupe looked different. It was pale yellow while its siblings sported a shade of gray-green. I looked at it for a bit, then contemplated whether it was announcing, "Pick me."

I thumped it. No hollow sound. Wait, that only works for watermelons. I tugged on it and it wouldn't let go without a fight. I sniffed it. Mmmmmmmm... Okay, that did it and I broke it from the umbilical cord holding it to its life support, which by now was a shriveling thread with the strength of heavy-duty fishing line. I wondered how nutrients and water could course through such pinched veins, but it's just one of the mysteries of plant life, and come to think of it, maybe that's why the melon was turning yellow.

Romie took it inside, poised it on the cutting board, and with one fell swoop of the knife, it was split and spilled forth guts of juice and seeds. What was left were two perfect halves of ambrosial sweetness. One for Romie, one for me.

I wish I didn't have to wait a whole year to have this summer treat, but Charentais melons (Cucumis melo var. cantalupensis 'Savor'), a French hybrid, have tender skins and don't transport well. Unless a local grower supplies the grocery store, you likely won't find them there. So we grow them ourselves. I don't know that I'd consider them far superior to the Indiana melons we're used to around here, but they're good enough that I'd recommend trying to grow your own.

Growing melons takes a lot of space, what with the extensive network of vines that results from planting them. We marked out a plot for them this year with a few treated landscape timbers that Romie scavenged from the steel delivery trucks at his work. Once the hills were planted, I laid lightweight landscape fabric over the growing area and cut out holes for the hills. This way, precious moisture would be slower to evaporate under it and the melons wouldn't have to sit on the ground directly and perhaps rot.

It was a good plan. We've got several canteloupe and watermelon working their way to our plates right now. It's always a problem for me to decide when they're ripe though. How DO you figure that out anyway? There's nothing worse than to pick an unripe melon and be filled with remorse over what might have been. Well, okay, there are worse things, but I hate it when that happens. It's such a waste.


I did find some guidelines for knowing when to pick canteloupe:

• The best indicator is smell. The melon's fragrance should make your mouth water. It's overripe if it has a strong musky smell.

• Look for a slight color change from gray-blue to cream, but don't wait for the rind to turn orangish; by then the melon will be overripe.

• The melon may slip (detach) from the vine and still taste good, but often it's overripe at this point. Normally, you want to pick a melon before it slips.

Johnny's Selected Seeds recommends examining the smallish, long-stemmed leaf attached to the vine at the same point as the fruit. When fruit is ripe, the leaf is pale.

Had that first canteloupe for breakfast this morning. It's as good as I remembered.

A Garden Full of Sunshine

There is a small plot at the north end of all of the rest of the gardens at the back of our property where I've designated space for annuals. I grow them other places, but with the exception of some very bright asiatic lilies, everything that grows in this spot gets planted fresh every year. This is only the second year that we've had this bed, but I doubt it will ever be as pretty as it is this year. It's so vibrant and alive, you nearly need sunglasses to look at it.

The first thing you'll notice is the cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus 'Ladybird Mix'). Due to a mix-up on my part - mark this down - I was wrong! - I thought I'd planted marigolds here and when these started blooming I thought I could like marigolds again.

Then Kim and Alyssa alerted me to the fact that these are cosmos, and that's why I thought they looked like cosmos. Because they are!
I did plant some marigolds ('Disco Mix'), but they apparently didn't come up and that's why I have a big blank spot elsewhere in the garden. It's the place where the marigolds aren't growing.



I will, for the rest of my life, plant these cosmos. The color hues of these things are just right and they don't get ridiculously tall and flop over like other cosmos I've grown. They bloom like crazy, and keep doing it. They're show-stoppers and heartbreakingly cheerful.



Next to the marigolds are zinnias that are a mix that I put together. If you recall, I don't care for pink zinnias, so I bought individual colors and mixed the seeds together.


Behind the zinnias and the marigolds are the lipstick red hardy gladiolus 'Atom' (Gladiolus x hortulanus).I grew these last year, too, but they were tucked in behind the cosmos and zinnias that I'd mixed together that grew like they were on steroids, so we didn't get to enjoy them unless I cut them and put them in a vase (which I did).

They're charming and delicate, looking more like a species-type version of traditional glads, and with a picotee white edge. Though they're called hardy, they aren't in our zone (5), so I have to lift them in the fall and store them through winter, but they're worth the effort.












To the left of these are more zinnias (Zinnia haageana), this time 'Chippendale.' They look sort of like marigolds - the kind I don't particularly like - but I love these! Go figure. I grew these last year also, and I saved the seed so that I could grow them again this year. They appear in a delightful mix of oranges, reds, and golds and the flower heads are quite small, being about an inch-and-a-half in diameter and 12-18 inches tall overall.



Behind 'Chippendale' is a mix of sunflowers (Helianthus sp.). I tried to plant shorter varieties this year than last, but I don't know what happened. They're taller than ever. One is even at nine feet right now.

The birds and the bees love these. When the petals fall off, I cut the flower heads off and lay them on a small utility table we keep nearby for when we use the fire pit. The birds don't care if the heads are attached to the stems, judging by the amount of the seed shells on that table!

I've got some cannas planted in this bed, too, but they aren't blooming yet. This is the first year I've ever grown them. I remember how my dad grew them in a circular garden between our house and my grandma's when she lived next door. They were bright red and there were lots of them. They were always so pretty. I chose 'Lippo' and 'Gaiety' which are each a yellow and red combination.



Now somehow I managed to sink some dahlias ('Peaches & Cream') in here at some point, but I forgot that I had planted them, so I now have these dahlias blooming and they don't really go with anything else here, but I'm not about to dig them up now.







In the middle of all this is a dead pine tree, which is all that is left of a sapling that Kara brought home when she was in the sixth grade (1991-92). It grew very quickly and became a lovely tree until it decided to die two years ago. Instead of cutting it all the way down, Romie left about four feet of it and we put a decorative birdhouse on top of it that my mom didn't want anymore. This spring, wrens made a nest inside the birdhouse and raised their family there.

Below that are directional markers painted in bright colors with the names of towns where family live and how far they are away from here.








I planted cypress vine (Ipomoea quamoclit) by seed at the base and it is now climbing up and around the tree.









This is just how I envisioned this part of the garden, but I'm rather surprised that it turned out this well. I wanted something that screamed "SUMMER!" and for me, this does it. And you probably won't be surprised to find out that the hummingbirds approve, too.

89° and Snow

We're having those 'dog days' of summer you hear about. Hot and sultry and the air stagnates. You can wake up in the morning bounding with energy and five minutes outside zaps it right out of you. The air is as thick as pudding and sends you running back to the comfort of air conditioning.

Dog days got their name because of the constellation Canis Major (Big Dog), which contains the star Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. In late July, Sirius coincides with the sun and the ancients believed it added to the heat of the sun, making summer days extra hot. So for twenty days before and after, the period of intense heat became known as 'dog days.' Today, dog days occur between July 3rd and August 11th. The exact dates change a bit over time as the earth and stars gradually drift.

So, while dog days have nothing to do with dogs, it's still hot, but here in the flatlands of Ohio, we've got snow!

Euphorbia marginata ('Kilimanjaro') is commonly known as Snow On the Mountain and is an annual I grow every year from seed. It grows smack dab in the middle of Max's Garden and right about now it's glowing. At night, as I look out our second-story bedroom window on a moonlit night, I can see it in all its whiteness, when I can make out nothing else in the garden.

The flowers are quite small and it's the white-margined leaves (bracts) that really make this plant a standout in the garden. It grows quite tall, reaching three feet or more in my garden.

Though it's an annual, Snow On the Mountain will self-seed and if I'd let all the seed pods fall last year instead of collecting most of them, I wouldn't have had to plant any seeds at all this spring. Many of the plants you see in the picture above came up as a result of self-seeding.

A word of caution about this beauty, though. Its milky sap is very irritating to the skin for some people and can cause burn-like blistering when exposed to it, so handle with care!


*Canis Major sky graphic from All The Sky

Gardening in the Last Century

I know...the last century wasn't that long ago. But my grandma is going to be 93 years old in December, and when she was a girl in the 1920s ... well, that was a long time ago by anyone's calendar, even hers.

When we were flying back home from Florida earlier this year, we somehow got to talking about gardening (imagine that!) and she started telling me about how her mother did things. I was fascinated and wanted to hear more. The more I heard, this idea popped into my head about writing it all down and posting it to my blog. This kind of thing was just too good not to share and keep for a family remembrance.

I didn't have any scrap paper, so I looked for whatever blank anything I could find for writing on. Ah, there's something! The flight attendant walked by and stopped at our seats. "Are you writing on our air sickness bags??" Uh, yeah, I was. It was plain white, except for "Patent No. 7,041,042" and I wasn't planning on getting sick anyway, so I used it. But this was Allegiant Air, where you pay for every little thing you use, so maybe I owed them a quarter or something.

I had been telling Grandma about my wintersowing and starting seeds inside. She said her mom used to do that, too - sowing things like tomatoes and cabbage in dishpans. She usually had three or four of those going and they sat in the sunniest windows of the house. She grew geraniums in tin cans on the windowsills in the winter, too.

When she could work the ground outside, she grew peas, green beans, carrots, lettuce, onions and 'Late Dutch' cabbage. She liked to make big crocks of sauerkraut out of that cabbage. She'd put the ten-gallon crock on the porch, fill it with layers of cabbage shredded with the kraut cutter and salt, mix it up really well, then lay a cutting board on top and weigh it down with a rock. Some weeks later, stirring occasionally in the meantime, it was sauerkraut. In the winter, they'd go out and get a scoop of kraut from the crock for eating. It never froze solid, she said, because of the high salt content.

Her mom grew wild horseradish, too. She'd grind it in the meat grinder, add sugar and vinegar and right before serving it, she'd put in the cream. It sounds kind of good...

Her family had a small orchard, where they grew seven varieties of peaches. In Ohio! The best, she said, were the white freestone. They were about the size of walnuts. They also had apples, cherries, strawberries and wild blackberries, as well as a grape arbor. Oh, and gooseberry and currant bushes, too.

There were seventeen kids in that family, so what they grew helped feed them, as was the case in nearly every farm family back then. They canned tomatoes in tin cans, using red sealing wax to seal the lids around the edges. Grandma remembers helping make ketchup too, where she had to take her turn stirring it on the stove. It required hours of stirring before it would be thick enough. Apple butter was another thing they made on the wood stove. They did cold-pack when they canned that. There was jam to be made from the strawberries and blackberries using Certo. Everything canned was kept in an up-ground cellar. I remember Grandma and Grandpa having one of those themselves and I loved to play in that cool place as a little girl.

Grandma said her dad had a truck patch, which was where they grew the 'big' stuff like potatoes and buckwheat. At harvest time, they'd take the buckwheat to nearby Ottoville, where the canal went through and at Lock 16 there was a mill, where it would be ground into flour.

One thing they didn't grow themselves was rhubarb. That, they'd buy from a neighbor, Mrs. Goodwin, for ten cents a bunch. With all the other 'growings on' it makes you wonder why they wouldn't grow rhubarb, too!

While they grew fruits and vegetables to eat, they also had plenty of pretty flowers. Grandma remembers cosmos, marigolds, snapdragons, asters, and zinnias. Heirlooms. They'd grow nasturtiums with the cucumber vines, too, because they were supposed to keep the beetles away.

When Grandma got married and had a home and garden of her own, she had a cold frame made of two-by-fours at the side of the garage. They'd work the ground, get a wheelbarrow load of other soil and add manure. Then they'd mix it all up with a hoe and plant the seeds. It would get covered with an old house window, with a block of wood stuck in there to keep it open just enough for ventilation. When the seedlings reached the glass, the window would come off.

There's much to learn from the older and wiser members of our family. The more things change, the more some things stay the same, and thank goodness. They experienced the same trials and tribulations that we do in our gardens today. And there's wonderful value in it - learning from their experience.

There's also the feeling of kinship - literally - from knowing these common everyday things about your family. I'm glad I've still got both my parents and my grandma here with me from whom to learn.









L to R: My mom, my aunt, and my grandma. Circa 1944

Love-In-A-Mist

I grew Nigella damascena from seed last year with some success, at least well enough to collect seeds to try them again this year. I sited them in a partly shady spot this year as opposed to full sun last year and what a difference it made! This year's little patch of gossamer fluffy loveliness lives up to its common name, Love-In-A-Mist.

Seed pods forming

Because You Loved Me . . .

Thirty-two years ago today...

For all those times you stood by me
For all the truth that you made me see
For all the joy you brought to my life
For all the wrong that you made right
For every dream you made come true
For all the love I found in you
Ill be forever thankful baby
You're the one who held me up
Never let me fall
You're the one who saw me through, through it all

You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn't speak
You were my eyes when I couldn't see
You saw the best there was in me
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
You gave me faith 'cause you believed
I'm everything I am
Because you loved me

You gave me wings and made me fly
You touched my hand I could touch the sky
I lost my faith, you gave it back to me
You said no star was out of reach
You stood by me and I stood tall
I had your love I had it all
I'm grateful for each day you gave me

Maybe I don't know that much
But I know this much is true
I was blessed because I was loved by you

You were always there for me
The tender wind that carried me
A light in the dark shining your love into my life
You've been my inspiration
Through the lies you were the truth
My world is a better place because of you

You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn't speak
You were my eyes when I couldn't see
You saw the best there was in me
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
You gave me faith 'cause you believed

I'm everything I am
Because you loved me...

~ Diane Warren