How Will You Spend Your Extra Second?

2008 was an interesting year, to say the least. Some say you either loved it or hated it. Personally, I'm somewhere in between those. There's good to be found in everything and tonight, I get a chance to add another second of good to 2008.

Our earth is a aging ball that is slowing down as time goes on. What this means is that every so often, in order to keep everything copacetic (I think this just might be the first time I've ever really used that word in a sentence where it was apropos), the powers that be add a second to our year.

Like its cousin the leap year, it's called a leap second. The last time we had to do this was in 2005.

We won't have to wait until midnight to get our extra second, though. Since the master clock is in Greenwich, England, we get ours here in the Eastern Standard Time zone at 6:59:60. Now the question is, what will we do with it? We don't want to waste it now, do we?


Here are some ideas:

• Give someone an unexpected kiss
• Take another breath. The oxygen will do you good
• Eat another M&M
• Smile at a someone
• Catch another second of sleep
• Read three more words
• Wink at your sweetie
• Snipe an auction on eBay
• Scratch an itch
  
• Sniff a rose
• Take a second look
• Plant a seed
  
• Say a little prayer
• Pet your cat
• Speed dial your mom
  
• Take a picture

How will you spend your extra second?

I Heart Electricity

Sunday, December 21, 2008

4:30 AM I awaken, look at the clock. Where's the clock? Why isn't the nightlight on? Why can't I see the clock? Oh no. The power's off.

4:32 AM I shake Romie. He moans. "Honey," I say. "The power's off."

4:33 AM "Honey? Did you hear me? The power's off."
You woke me up just to tell me the power's off??
"Uh, yeah. I thought you'd want to know."

4:35 AM Romie gets up to go to the bathroom and announces that it's about 4:30 and the power is off. I notice how cold the room is.

4:37 AM Romie crawls back into bed and proceeds to be uncharacteristically chatty. I moan in response until finally I shush him and tell him to let me go back to sleep. He complains that I woke him up and he can't go back to sleep so I shouldn't be allowed to either.

12:00 PM Romie shakes me awake and asks if I'm going to sleep all day. I then hear the clock downstairs strike 12:00. Wow. I think to myself that it's no wonder people who have hypothermia want to sleep.

12:05 PM I contemplate crawling out of my nice warm cocoon. Romie opens the blinds and implores me to look at the pretty, glittery, ice-covered trees. He thinks I should bundle up and go outside to take pictures. I give him "the look."


12:12 PM I crawl out of bed, put on my fuzzy microfiber robe, go downstairs and wrap up in a blanket on the couch. Romie joins me at the other end. Baby joins the snuggling and helps keep us warm. Where are the other cats when you need them?


2:48 PM Why isn't the power back on yet?

4:30 PM We bundle up and go outside. 35 mph winds with gusts to 45 mph. Wind chill is -30° F. We do this not because we're crazy, but because we agreed to take care of the neighbor's chickens. Why can't they be our next-door neighbors instead of three houses away?

4:40 PM The chicken's water is frozen solid, but there are 15 eggs. We check the house and it's 34° F. We start the gas stove to warm the house up a little. House reaches 43°. Turn the stove off and go back home.

5:45 PM There's a knock at the back door. It's the next-door neighbor we invited over to keep warm in our 55° basement. Talk of food ensues and Romie and The Neighbor take off to get pizza. I snuggle up with the kitties by candlelight, listening to the battery-operated radio playing Christmas carols.

6:45 PM Pizza arrives and we chow down. If we had electricity, I would have heated mine up in the microwave because it's already cold, but beggars can't be choosers.

7:00 PM Romie mentions perhaps we need to bring the houseplants downstairs so they don't freeze. I know the cold is starting to affect my brain, since I never even gave this a thought. We start to haul them down and this means that all 175+ houseplants are crammed into every available space in the basement with us. It feels like a botanical conservatory.

8:12 PM I take the flashlight upstairs to go to the bathroom. Romie brings water from the sump hole to put in the back of the toilet so we can flush it. I decide to check the thermometer to see what the state of affairs is now.


9:30 PM After stimulating conversation about past ice storms, the declining morals of the country, and just when the power might come back on, we all settle down for a cold winter's nap. I never go to bed this early unless I'm sick.

10:00 PM Since Romie is on the longer couch and I'm on the shorter loveseat and can't stretch out, I go upstairs to our bed. I pull the covers over my head and it's only cold for about ten minutes.

Monday, December 22, 2008

6:30 AM Romie wakes me up because he's going to work and can't believe I've slept in the frigid bedroom all night. He's afraid I'll freeze to death while he's at work and tells me he doesn't want to come home to a dead wife. Oh brother.

9:30 AM I awaken to the sound of my cell phone ringing. It's The Neighbor. He had gone to work and they sent him home. With a generator. His house is 60° and he has TV. He says, "Why don't you come over?"

9:35 AM I knock on The Neighbor's door. TV! A warm spot! I plop myself down with a cold Diet Pepsi Max, which I'd brought from home, along with some bagels. The Bonnie Hunt Show is on TV.

10:00 AM Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? is on TV.

11:00 AM The View is on TV. Why isn't the power on yet?

11:15 AM The Neighbor and I go down to The Chicken Neighbor's house and light the stove again. We wait until the temperature goes from 33° to 40° and then we go back to his house to get warm again.

12:00 PM The noon news says 44,000 customers are without power and it may be four more days until it's all restored. Dang.

12:20 PM Romie calls from work to check on things and I give him the latest news on the power outage. He's instantly depressed. But at least he doesn't have a dead wife, I tell him.

2:30 PM Okay, this is getting old, but at least I now have a place to stay warm. I go back home to check on the cats. They're doing fine and aren't even down in the warmer basement. I check on the outside cats, which are in the garage and the pool house. I clean the litter. Some of it is frozen to the bottom of the litter box and I have to chip it away. Geesh.


4:20 PM Romie gets home and we go back down to The Chicken Neighbor's to take care of the chickens. Fourteen eggs this time. My thumbnail fractures from the cold when I bump it on the door and I don't have long nails. Ow.

4:30 PM Romie calls his mother, who has been using his brother's generator, and finds out she has her power back. He calls his brother to ask if we can use his generator then. Sure! Romie leaves to go get generator while I stay at The Chicken Neighbor's house. I start the gas stove in the house again and wait about half an hour until it reaches 40°, when I turn it off and walk home.

6:15 PM Romie and his brother return with the generator and proceed to work on hooking it up.

7:00 PM The generator is running and the basement is now heating up a bit.

7:40 PM Romie's cell phone rings. It's The Neighbor To the North calling to say the power is back on.

7:40:30 PM My cell phone rings. It's The Neighbor Who Spent the Night calling to say the power is back on.


In the end, we were without power about 41 hours total. The house reached its coldest at 31° and you could see your breath. The basement was better, with 50° being the lowest it got.

My thanks and gratitude to those workers that had to be out in that frigid weather with dangerous wind chills of -30° to restore power to so many. God bless them.



Today, we had more dangerous icing and a thunderstorm, all in the same day. And tomorrow, just five days after our power was restored, we are to have a high of 62°, rain, and possible flooding. It's as if Mother Nature had some weather days left over and needs to use them before the year is up.

A Christmas Message from Our Little Acre

Christmas is upon us, having rushed in as it does every year. Anxiety runs high - will we get it all done, will we find the right thing, will we be late to the party, will we stay healthy? Invariably, Christmas gets here, right on schedule, whether we're ready or not.

But imagine Mary, as she traveled to Bethlehem with Joseph. I'm sure she was hoping the impending birth of Jesus would hold off until they could get back home. But time waits for no man, not even when it's the Son of God.

So Christmas comes, in spite of our readiness or lack of it, and we rejoice in the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. Not for the presents (although we like them), not for the culinary delights that are prepared (we like those, too), but for the birth of Jesus, who we as Christians believe is God come to Earth in the form of a man.

We at Our Little Acre wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and for those that don't celebrate in the way we do, we hope your holidays are good ones as well.

Romie, Kylee, Simon, Baby, Jilly, Jack, Luna, Boo, Max, Sunny, and Lola.

Here a Chick, There a Chick...

...everywhere a chick chick. Our neighbors don't have a farm, but there's one on three sides of them, just as there's one on two sides of us. They have a big white barn and a little gray chicken coop, with 37 chickens and two roosters.

Last year, some of their brood paid us a visit and I was so enamored with them that for months I talked about wanting some of our own. It would be great to have fresh eggs and the roosters were downright handsome. Romie vetoed the idea and my aunt convinced me that I really didn't want them pecking in my garden. She assured me they would.

Okay then. We'll settle for admiring the neighbors' and we'll buy our eggs from them. It's worked out rather well actually and we laugh about how we eat green eggs and ham.

Last week, they asked us if we would take care of the chickens while they took a trip to Florida for Christmas. Sure we would! They showed us what to do and it didn't seem too difficult. They left on Saturday morning, just as we were recovering from an ice storm. And then...the bottom dropped out of the thermometer and we had below zero temperatures, with 35-40 mph winds, creating biting wintery conditions. Around 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning, we lost power.

Now that makes for quite a different scenario, but those chickens are tough! Almost tougher than we are, when it comes to surviving the elements. At five below zero, they clucked around like nothing had happened, even running in and out of their coop through the little opening.


All we had to do was water and feed them and gather the eggs. I laid claim to the gathering eggs part right away and Romie has been taking care of the watering and feeding. The water trough has a heating element in it to keep the water from freezing, but when the power goes out, of course it freezes. During our outage, they were without water some of the time, but it didn't affect their laying.


They average about 15 eggs a day. We gather them around 4:00 in the afternoon, because they're generally done laying for the day by then. One of the hens likes to sit on the eggs all the time, even if they aren't hers, so I have to reach in under her to get them. She doesn't seem to mind.

So far, it doesn't seem like a big deal, this having chickens bit. Of course, we haven't been asked to clean the coop out yet either.

Ice Ice Baby

I was nearly ready to publish this blog post late Saturday night (December 20th) when we lost our power due to the ice storm, high winds, and below zero temperatures. We didn't get it back until earlier tonight, after 41 hours without it. That - in another post.


Sometimes the weather people miss their predictions and I'm happy about it. Sometimes they get it right and I'm happy about it. Other times, they get it wrong and I cheer. And then there are the times they get it right and I wish they'd been wrong.

Take Thursday night, for example. Freezing rain, with a potential of .1 to .25 of an inch of ice was predicted. We got that, and then some, as did most of northern Indiana and northwest Ohio.

When it was all over, we ended up with .5 to 1 inch of ice that coated everything except the west side of vertical objects. Branches broke, trees fell on power lines, and travel was treacherous and very dangerous. Thousands lost power and are still without it as I write this. Ours went off briefly several times, but we never really lost it for any length of time.

There's a weather poem that pertains to fishing, but a part of it is appropriate for weather in general, in our area.

When the wind is blowing in the North
No fisherman should set forth,
When the wind is blowing in the East,
'Tis not fit for man nor beast,
When the wind is blowing in the South
It brings the food over the fish's mouth,
When the wind is blowing in the West,
That is when the fishing's best!
~ Author Unknown

There was evidence that the wind was out of the east. Not only were the west sides of trees free of ice, but the icicles hung at an angle pointing westward.













The bird feeders hanging on the pole were frozen at a similar angle. It was as if the world lost its balance.


An ice storm brings with it some beauty though. Otherwise drab winter features suddenly become glittering jewels. Nearly everyone grabs the camera to record the event, whether it be to have a record of the damage or to save the beauty to look at later.



Here at Our Little Acre, we lost some branches out of a few trees, with only one suffering major damage. The Amur Maple in the northeastern corner of the property, behind the two apple trees was completely topped out.

The weight of the ice, coupled with the wind, was just too much for its branches to take and they were broken. The tree will survive, but it will take a few years of growth before it looks somewhat normal again.

I went out to take pictures while the freezing rain was still falling. Every so often, a loud crash could be heard and it sounded like there was some logging going on all around us. Crack! Swoosh! Bam! With the trees that line both sides of the creek that runs behind our house, there were branches both small and large coming down every few minutes.


The hope was that the temperatures would rise above freezing long enough to melt the ice from the trees and power lines before the next weather system comes in, but that didn't happen. If we get the wind that is expected, there will likely be more damage and more power outages. This is one of those times when I'll be happy if the weather report is wrong.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photos of the ice that coated Our Little Acre:

Blue berry on Cedar tree


Pond fairy resting on a stump under the Willow tree


Bluebird house on Shagbark Hickory tree


Oops! Forgot to bring in the Monarch...


English Ivy on a large oak tree


Ice along the split rail fence


Oak leaf in ice


The pussy willows have taken on a festive red color.


The Weeping Willow tree in Max's Garden is twined around other plants in the garden and hangs low to the ground


Colorado Blue Spruce


The yews are literally dripping with ice


First-year Brussels sprouts that didn't quite make it to harvest


The Washington Hawthorn looks handsome as ever with its scarlet berries

Detail of berries and thorns


Xeranthemum


This close-up of Xeranthemum reminds me of those glass paperweights that have flowers inside them.


The miniature rose I pictured earlier has been preserved in ice


Icy drops suspended on a spider web
(I can't believe I even noticed this tiny thing!)


Needles on the pine tree we brought home in our suitcase from Maine in 1979


Pasque Flower foliage

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

If there ever was a better way of describing how I feel about certain poinsettias, I don't know what it is. In my recent post about saving poinsettias from the garbage heap after Christmas, I expressed my distaste for what some stores have for sale in the poinsettia department. Disgusting colors and that glitter.


We put glitzy findings on our Christmas trees. Lights, beads, shiny balls and ornaments. We ooh and ahh over those. But poinsettias just shouldn't be sparkly. They're pretty enough all on their own.

So it may come as a surprise to you that I succumbed to the wiles of a certain poinsettia that I saw in a certain unnamed Big Box Store that urges us to save money and live better. There are methods to my madness, however.

First of all, they had the color I wanted - salmon with white edges. Secondly, they were inexpensive, so if I manage to kill it, I won't be losing much ($8 for the larger ones).

I tried to look past the glitter, which really wasn't all that offensive on this one. After all, if I do manage to keep it alive, it will outgrow its glitteriness, won't it?

Desperately Seeking Susan

Some things are just not meant to be.

Three years ago, I ordered an amaryllis bulb called 'Susan.' It was to be a lovely clear pink and I looked forward to seeing it bloom. The bulb almost immediately shot up a flower stalk and I began to get excited. I saw hints of pink as the buds began to form and then open. Finally, there she was, in all her glory.

Sort of.

She was big and she was pink. But something was wrong. She looked as if she'd gotten caught in the rain without an umbrella and her blush got smudged. What happened here?

It turns out 'Susan' was sick with some sort of virus. I was disappointed, but I let her go on and do her thing. I planted her outside the following summer and planned to let her bloom again the following year, hoping she'd get rid of the virus somehow, even though I knew that wasn't likely. I still have the bulb, and while she puts out foliage, she has never again bloomed.

A few weeks ago, while shopping at Meijer with daughter Jenna, I came across some boxed Amaryllis bulbs. It's common to find them in the Big Box Stores at this time of year and at a reasonable price, too. Sometimes I pick one up, if the bulbs looks healthy and they're decent-sized. You can usually peek into the box to check them.

Meijer had many varieties and one of them was 'Susan'! I checked the bulbs and they were nicer than I expected in size and appearance and the price was unbeatable at $3.99. I bought one and went home looking forward once again to having a beautiful 'Susan' among my collection of Amaryllis bulbs.

The bulb had just a hint of green poking its way out of the top of the bulb when I planted it and over the next few weeks, it grew tall and the day of its debut arrived. I saw hints of color as it slowly opened...wider...wider...until finally there she was....

Uh-oh.

*Sigh*

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - December 2008

It's easy for me to post for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day this month. I don't have anything blooming in the garden. That means I'm technically not eligible to participate, I guess, but just because I don't have anything blooming outside, that doesn't mean I don't have any blooms.

I do have one plant blooming out there, if you can call freeze-dried blooms "blooming." The rose that I posted a picture of last week is still there, although more faded in color.

I looked for viola blooms, like I had last year, and wouldn't have been surprised to find them under the layers of frozen leaves. But though the plant itself is still a vibrant green, there are no blooms. So, we'll have to go back inside to find color, and that's okay with me because with it being 17° F. out there, I'm not about to spend much time admiring the garden.

Most of what I have blooming is downstairs in the basement greenhouse. I could bring them upstairs while they are blooming, but there's such a difference in the temperatures that I'd hate for them to get used to the warmth upstairs and have them think it's spring. Most of the basement plants have gone into a semi-dormant mode and I don't really want to disturb that too much.

A couple of the Kalanchoes (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana) are putting out blooms. Winter is their normal bloom time here, so I might bring one of those upstairs and just leave it until it can go back outside in the spring.

The Heliotrope (Heliotropium arborescens 'Fragrant Delight') gets to looking pretty pathetic by spring, but it always manages to eke out a few pale blooms throughout the winter. It's not as fragrant in the basement, but still has that telltale vanilla scent.

One of the Brugmansias put out a few blooms in the last few weeks. I think this is the last bloom until next summer for 'Cupid's Blush' though. It's not particularly fragrant in the evenings as is usually the case with the brugs, but that may be due to the much cooler conditions it's in. It's such a pretty color though.











The Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii) is in a south window where it gets the most sunlight possible in the house, and it blooms all winter, although by spring the blooms will be less vibrant. Summer sun deepens their color.















I brought the pot that has the Cordyline in it for overwintering and that pot also contains purple Angelonia (Angelonia gardnerii). I was surprised to see a single bloom on it this morning. As prolific and carefree as the Angelonia was out in the garden this past summer, I shouldn't have been surprised, I guess!








Not truly in bloom yet, the Bougainvillea (which didn't bloom at all the entire summer) has been producing its gorgeous bracts ever since I brought it inside. I can see the flower buds forming, so they will be in bloom soon, but it's the raspberry bracts that I love so much about this tropical.



I'll soon have Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) in bloom inside from three of the bulbs that are in pots right now. And one of the orchids has the promise of future blooms. It's always a big event when both of these plants break into flower.


I'm sure January won't bring any new blooms outside, but with all the Amaryllis I have here and orchid blooms lasting so long, we'll have those to look forward to!

Planthropology by Ken Druse - A Book Review

Planthropology: The Myths, Mysteries, and Miracles of My Garden Favorites by KenDruse

©2008 Clarkson Potter/Publishers
List price $50 / Amazon price $31.50



This is the book I wish I'd written. I'm sure it was all kinds of fun for Ken Druse, as it would be for most of us gardeners. Think of it! If you were asked to list your garden favorites, then given an assignment to find out all you could about them, how fun would that be?

The first thing you'll notice about this book is the stunning photography. From the poppy on the front cover of the dust jacket all the way through to the hosta foliage at the end of the book, it's just one fabulous photo after another. Even if you never read the book, it's worth the price (List price: $50 ... Amazon price: $31.50 and free shipping) for the photography alone.

But once you've taken a look-through of the photos, the real fun begins. Druse shares the most fascinating tidbits of trivia and information about his favorite plants (many of which are probably yours, too), all while imparting helpful tips about growing them. His obvious love and knowledge about all things gardening is apparent here and we are the benefactors.

"Living with plants is life affirming; there is something new to see, and to learn, every single day—about nature and about life. In the end, the great discovery is that gardening is a collaboration, an alliance if you will, between people and plants."

As you see, Ken is really just one of us, which is why this book is so charming. His own "love of the game" drove him to dig deeper into the history and unique characteristics of plants and he pours it out onto the pages. It's a factual book, yet there is nothing dry about it and you'll find it hard to put down.




Need a last-minute Christmas gift for the gardener on your list? I can't imagine who wouldn't be thrilled to find this treasure under the tree. All done with your Christmas shopping? Buy it anyway and pick one up for yourself while you're at it. This is truly a book that every gardener needs to have in their library. I love it and you will, too.



Ken Druse is the author of many award-winning books, including his groundbreaking title, The Natural Garden, which initiated a design movement that continues to grow in popularity today. His most recent book, Ken Druse: The Passion for Gardening, was touted as "one of the five gardening books to own" by the Wall Street Journal. His podcast, Ken Druse Real Dirt, is available at www.KenDruse.com.

_________________
The product or merchandise being reviewed in this blog post was the sole compensation for testing and reviewing the product. All opinions expressed here are mine, with no suggestions whatsoever by the manufacturer or distributor. If I like it, I'll say so. If I don't, I'll say that, too.

Scenes From First Snow 2008

We received our first measurable snowfall yesterday, but barely. The last several forecasts have been for 1-3 inches of snow and we just haven't gotten it. Even this one, which was supposed to be on the deep end of that, didn't come through that way. But when it was over, at least there was still snow on the ground that lasted all day long without melting.

Romie and I took off for a walk during late afternoon, making sure to bundle up, because it was a chilly 22°, with a slight breeze. The sun was out when we began, but as we made the return trip up the road to home and the sun began to set, the clouds started to roll in. No words were needed to say how cold it was. The sound of the squeaky snow as we walked along spoke for us.

Most of the images here were taken in our gardens or yard, with a couple from our walk. It's not hard to find beauty when Nature blankets her world with snow, even when it's just a little bit.

Usually the first to disturb freshly fallen snow are the kitties.

In summer, the cotoneaster is thick and green with leaves and the giant hostas behind them provide privacy for the cats as they nap in their shade. Not today. The hostas are sleeping and what's left of the contoneaster leaves are a deep and beautiful burgundy. A few red berries remain.

Even redder are the apples that are left hanging on the tree.

Mom's favorite astilbe ('Sprite') is beautiful in summer and winter.

I was surprised to see these small drifts created by the wind swirling around the boxwood next to the driveway.

The narrow bed in front of the house provides winter interest with Pennisetum alopecuriodes 'Hameln' and Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus' towering over Carex hachijoensis 'Evergold', with variegated Euonymus behind them, which in winter has taken on a pink hue.

A close-up of the 'Evergold' Carex shows it to be still pretty lively in its cream and green. I've seen places that says it's hardy only to zone 6, while others say 5. We're in 5, so I mulched them well and I'm hoping for the best. This is their first winter here.

We have four beautiful Washington Hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum) trees that are loaded with bright red berries every winter. These are a favorite of the cardinals and other birds. By spring, the tree branches will be totally devoid of the berries.

Oops. It looks like I missed cleaning some leaves out of this area of the Japanese Garden and now they're covered with snow. I'd better get those out of there before heavier snow comes so they don't mat down. The plumes of the Miscanthus sinensus 'Strictus' look great all winter long, as do the wide dark green spikes of the Yucca. I'm hoping the Gaura that's planted in front of the stone pillars lives through the winter this time.

The Yucca casts a late afternoon shadow over the staggered stone walkway through the Japanese Garden.

Even cement and stones create an interesting texture when snow has filled in the spaces.

Max's Garden is down to its bare bones and blanketed with the new snow.




Sedum 'Autumn Fire' holds fragile snowflakes in its dried seedheads.

This little vignette of St. Francis offering bird seed (it's under the snow in his bowl) looks quite different now compared to a couple of months ago.

This is the view out our front door, across the road. I like how the snow accentuates the neat rows of winter wheat.

This is the same miniature rose bush that was pictured previously here (second photo), and I like the freeze-dried version of its blooms, too!

Grandma's big clusters of Christmas ornaments are back up on the pergola, as they have been every year since she gave them to us. I like how they look when they're heavy with snow. They are beautiful at night, too.



Now I feel like I've properly participated in Nancy's Garden Bloggers First Snow Project. Please click on the graphic below to visit her list of other participants. There are some gorgeous snow pictures that other bloggers have shared from their parts of the world. Have a look!

First Snow at Our Little Acre

Nancy at Soliloquy has been hosting the Garden Bloggers First Snowfall Project, where garden bloggers around the world have been posting photos of their first measurable snowfall. I've been waiting and waiting for the day when I could participate and finally, that day has come! It's interesting that when I looked back to see when we received our first snow last year, it was nearly one year to the day (December 5, 2007).

I find it difficult to make the transition into winter, partly because I'm not a big fan of winter in the first place, but mostly because living in a climate such as ours, there are those periods between the seasons that are enough to drive a sane person mad.

When our exchange student Karina, who was from Quito, Ecuador (where every day is like spring), lived with us, she found it puzzling that once the calendar declared it to be winter, there wasn't cold weather and/or snow every day until March 21st. And on that date, she thought there would be no snow anymore. She also thought that snow stayed white until it melted. But of course, it isn't that way.

We have beautifully warm days in the fall and then in the span of 24 hours, the high temperature for the day can be 40 degrees colder. The next week might be warm again, and so it goes, until finally - once and for all - it's really and truly winter. When that time comes, I want snow. If it's going to be winter, give me snow!

This morning, I awoke to light flurries and they continued off and on through the day. It wasn't that nice, dreamy snow that drifts down lazily from the skies. The wind was blowing at a pretty good clip and it just looked downright nasty out there. I'd been down with the flu (or something) for the past two days, so there was no way I was going out in it to take pictures. It didn't look all that pretty anyway. But something did.

Luna had apparently run out of the garage when Romie left for work this morning and I could see him huddled in the cold out by the trellis garden. I opened the door to let him in, and I noticed the door mat. Luna took a flying leap over it, into the warm house, and I grabbed the camera.



This is the 2008 version of The Door Mat. It is just outside the back door that leads into our family room. Maybe you can see that the snow contains sleet, which looks like minuscule pellets.

The 2007 version of The Door Mat is of the one just outside the french doors in our dining room.




While I stayed in the house all warm and toasty, the inside cats enjoyed a little Cat Theater, watching the blue jays chase the house finches away from one of the window feeders. I'll admit, it was pretty entertaining to see. I was never able to get a photo of any of the jays; every slight movement sent them flying off. But the house finches didn't care. They were just hungry.



It's late and we're to get a little more snow by morning. I'll venture out tomorrow and get some pictures of "the real snow" and share them here.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

How To Have Poinsettias in July

This is going to be one of those posts where you should do as I say, not as I do. Or maybe I should say "as I did." It's been years since I've had a live poinsettia in my house, and for good reason. I was lucky to get the things to live until Christmas, let alone past it.

Don't get me wrong, I love poinsettias. I see one and it screams "Christmas!" and all the good things the season entails. They just make me feel all warm inside. Even when I saw one growing in its native climate in Ecuador, and topping out at somewhere around 10 feet tall, I made my exchange student daughter Karina turn the car around so I could take its picture. I was in awe. Why couldn't I do that? (Besides the fact that Ohio is very different than Ecuador.)

And now it's that time of year again, when you see them in the garden centers, the grocery stores, the big box stores, the gas stations, and anywhere they think they can get you to buy them. Everywhere you turn, there they are, enticing you with their leaves of all colors - red, white, pink, orange, purple, and god forbid, glitter.

Now if - just if - I were to want to attempt to bring a live poinsettia into this house this Christmas season, it would be red or pink or one of the shaded pink ones. As much as I like "different," I like my poinsettias realistic and traditional. To do otherwise is akin to having a skinny Santa Claus. It just ain't right.

So I went off into the great big world that is the internet, in search of advice for growing poinsettias. I found a great site that seems to have all the bases covered, and they make it look so easy. And after all, the poinsettia is really just a type of euphorbia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) and I grow those in my garden, both perennial and annual ones, with no problems.



Here are the rules:

• When you buy a poinsettia, look for a plant that has little or no yellow pollen. This means it's a fresh plant.
• Protect the plant from even brief encounters with cold temperatures or drafts. They hate that.
  
• In your home, they like a temperature of 60-70 degrees, with nighttime temps around 55.
• Make sure it's in soil that drains well and only water it when the soil is dry.
• If you plan to keep it after the holidays, fertilize it monthly with a houseplant fertilizer. If you only want it for the holidays, don't worry about feeding it.
  

If you've made it this far with your poinsettia, good for you! You're ready for the second stage!

• In February or early March, cut the plant back to about 4-6 inches in height.
• Keep up with your watering as usual and monthly feeding.
• Repot in late spring or early summer into a pot about two inches larger than the one it was in, making sure the soil is moist when you do it.
• Keep it in a sunny window.

You have the option of putting it outside in the ground:

• Wait until all danger of frost has passed, and the night temperatures are at least 60 degrees.
• Put it in a shady area for a few days at first, to get it used to the bright sunlight gradually and it doesn't get sunburned.
• You can sink the pot into the ground where you'd like it to be for the summer, once it has become acclimated.
• Turn the pot weekly, to prevent roots from growing through the bottom of the pot, and to help with even sun exposure.
• Fertilize every two weeks.

You can pinch it back every 3-4 weeks, which will help it to become a bushier plant and have more blooms. The cuttings can be rooted in moist soil, with the help of a rooting hormone, to propagate more plants. (If I make it this far, this is even more than I could hope for!)

Before the night temperatures reach 55 degrees, bring the plant inside to a sunny location, and go back to fertilizing the plant just once a month.

Now, I would imagine if you're like me, and you've gone to all this trouble to keep your poinsettia, you want it to bloom during Christmas, don't you? Okay, then there's something special you need to do - put your plant in the closet. Don't keep it there, though.

In order for poinsettias to bloom, they need a prolonged period of darkness every night for 2-3 months. So in September or early October, put your poinsettia in a dark closet for at least 12 hours every night, but bring it out in the daytime and put it in the sunniest spot in the house.

Doesn't this remind you of having kids with a bedtime schedule? They were worth it, weren't they? So is your poinsettia. It's worth a try anyway, and I just might. If I'm not successful, I can go back to doing what I've done every year since I killed the last one...

(It's silk. Looks almost real, doesn't it?)

Did you know that the belief that poinsettias are poisonous is just a myth? The milky sap contained in their stems can cause a reaction to those that are allergic to latex, just as it is with other Euphorbias, but the leaves are not poisonous. So go ahead and eat them if you want.

In the US, December 12th is officially National Poinsettia Day, so named by an act of Congress, to commemorate the death of Joel Roberts Poinsett, an American who first brought the plant to the US from its native Mexico in the early 1800s.

Want to send an e-card to someone on Poinsettia Day? Here's one! Don't like that one? There are more!



Information in this post pertaining to growing poinsettias is from eSSORTMENT and was written by S. Masters. I could never have come up with this on my own.

Thankful EVERY Day

While Thanksgiving was last week, I came across something today that deserves a second take on this giving thanks thing. I discovered a blog that I'd not visited before. I think I came across it by reading a comment that this particular blogger made on another blog.

When I spoke to the Master Gardeners about Our Little Acre, and blogging in general, a couple of months ago, one thing I encouraged the members of my audience to do was to follow links and to click on other bloggers' names in the comments. That's how I've discovered some wonderful blogs and the people that write them. That's how I found this:

Who am I grateful for?
Most any one I've known!
Those close to me, as well as those
who briefly come and go.

What am I grateful for?
Much more than words can say.
Just waking up, with all the aches--
the chance for another day!

When am I grateful?
The opportunities abound!
Every day that I've been given--
every moment I'm around!

Where am I grateful?
No need to stop and think!
It's everywhere; it's here, it's there--
any place where I can blink!

Why am I grateful?
Because I don't deserve a thing!
The gift of life--and that alone--
is reason enough to sing!

How am I grateful?
I'm afraid I haven't shown
the thanks I should--the ways I could--
for everything I've known.

So each and every day,
(through all the wind and rain),
find something to be grateful for--
that chance won't come again!

~ by jan doble

Isn't that lovely? I wish I'd written it, because it expresses exactly how I feel. It makes me think of all the wonderful life I've lived since I nearly lost mine almost 10 years ago. Every day is truly a gift.

Jan, thank you for putting into words what I hold in my heart. I'm grateful you wrote it and that I came upon it today.


Jan Doble is the author of this poem and many more, which can be read on her blog, Thanks For 2Day.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World - A Book Review

We gardeners understand that cats and gardens just naturally go together, as witnessed by the many bloggers that have both. Apparently, they get along pretty well with libraries, too.

As a world-renowned cat lover (well, this is the internet), and rescuer of many, it's hard for me to understand how people can do the things they sometimes do to them. When Vicki Myron reported to work one cold January day at the Spencer, Iowa library and found a tiny, freezing kitten in the after-hours book drop, she couldn't understand it either.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter (list $19.99, Grand Central Publishing) recounts the story of Dewey, so named for the numbering system a library uses to file its books.

I'll admit, when I first started reading the book, I wondered how it came to be that there was enough material involving this cat to fill even a small book. Oh me of little faith...

Not wanting to reveal too much about what happens with Dewey, let's just say that he does what we cat lovers have known about our beloved felines since the first time we fell in love with them. Dewey charmed the staff and went on to become the library mascot and win the hearts of the town and many around the world.

The book is an easy read, peppered with actual photos of Dewey (I wish there were more). I smiled as I read of Dewey's quirky habits and antics and as you can guess, before the book was done, I reached for the Kleenex box. When all was said and done though, and I closed the book after the last page, Dewey left me feeling good and marveling at the power that a small animal can have on human beings, many of whom he'd never met.

But wait! There's more! Just today, I read that there is going to be a movie based on this book, with Meryl Streep slated to star as the librarian who discovered Dewey in the book drop. When you read the book, you'll want to see the movie.



Vicki Myron, with Dewey
Tim Gallagher/Sioux City Journal

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The product or merchandise being reviewed in this blog post was the sole compensation for testing and reviewing the product. All opinions expressed here are mine, with no suggestions whatsoever by the manufacturer or distributor. If I like it, I'll say so. If I don't, I'll say that, too.

The Circle of Life in a Compost Bin

Hard to believe now, but there was a time when gardening didn't interest me. I think it must have though - on a subconscious level - because I can think of instances that stick out in my mind that do have to do with growing things.

In 1987, Romie and I were fortunate enough to get to visit the pen pal from Switzerland that I'd had since 1969, when we were both 12. All through our growing up years, we'd exchanged letters and photographs with the hope of getting to meet each other someday.

We met for the first time in 1974, when my grandma took our family on a tour of the Alps for my high school graduation. Then in 1987, Romie and I spent a week with Therese , Hansruedi, and their three children at their home in Reichenbach (near Interlaken). We're still in touch, now through the internet.

There are three things I remember about that trip that have to do with gardening:

• There was a caution about eating vegetables from the gardens grown that summer, because of the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster, which had occurred the year before.
  
  
• I noticed all the gorgeous, colorful flowers that every house seemed to have growing and was told that in Switzerland, it was considered lazy if you didn't have them. I can tell you, there aren't many lazy people there! We even saw a dog house that had window boxes with flowers in them!
  
  
• My pen pal had a compost bin.

I've seen many compost bins since then, of course, and it wasn't too long after I started gardening three years ago, that I decided I wanted one. I knew I threw away a lot of good stuff from the garden and we burned an awful lot of leaves in the fall. So building a compost bin was on the list of 2008 projects and earlier this year, Romie built a two-section bin.


We had a pile of compost we'd started the summer before and I didn't like the looks of it. To me, it was a big lump of dead stuff that was unattractive. Romie thought it looked just fine like that. "As long as it works," he said. Men.


It was originally supposed to have a divider for the two sections, but we've found that it works for us to have one big section and generally try to act like it has two. At the end of the summer this year, there was plenty of wonderfully black, crumbly goodness at the bottom to put on the garden where we needed it. We stirred the rest and by spring there will be more.

When we started shoveling the compost pile into the completed bin this spring, we came upon a winter hibernator. Now for someone who's absolutely terrified of snakes, Romie surprised me by picking this one up. His rationale? "It's just a garter snake." I can remember when we encountered a rattler while hiking in Arkansas a couple of years ago. He was so upset he couldn't drive the car.

This year, we had so much stuff from the garden and yard to put into the compost bin that it was overflowing and we had to burn some of the leaves instead of adding them to the bin. What did we put in it? Deadheaded flowers, dead plants, kitchen waste (no oil or meat products!), sawdust from my dad's woodworking shop (no black walnut dust though), leaves, grass clippings, and shredded newspaper.


It was nice to have compost so conveniently handy when we needed it. Not only does having a compost bin give us good nutrients to add to the garden, it makes me feel good to be a proactive part of the circle of life - returning to the earth that which came from it.