Light Therapy

 

Winter is hard on many gardeners. Cold, wet, dreary weather just don't make for a happy Debbi. Add multiple family stresses and a flood, and I am pretty much a basket case. A basket case that cannot break down because, well who would raise the Monkeys if I broke down. It seems my little salt lamp is helpful, but just not enough.

Yesterday, was pretty and I was able to spend about an hour in the garden. Today was just as lovely. I was in and out of the house all day. After a while, the sunshine made me a little sleepy, weird. In my imaginary garden, I have a wonderful hammock strung between two deciduous trees. It is in the shade in the summer and in the sun in the winter. This imaginary hammock would have been perfect for today. As a alternate, I decided to layout on the Monkey's trampoline. I must have been a sight laying out there, but boy did basking in the warm sunshine do wonders for my mood.

Here is a hint. Trampolines and garden clogs can create quite a static charge in a middle aged woman. The shock when I touched the metal frame was painful and LOUD.

The rest of the afternoon in the garden was very enjoyable. There is one thing that is puzzling. Where are all the songbirds? I have put out seed and I actually cooked homemade suet for them, but very few have shown up. I am beginning to get worried. I did see some bees buzzing around some broccoli rhaab blooms and hen bit flowers. Their wing sounds were very pleasant.

Did you notice the picture? Abby got all excited and knocked over my plant stand. Somehow she broke a plastic pot. Goofy beast.

Anybody else missing songbirds?

Bottle Tree

 

 

 

 

While my coworker and I were looking at pictures of bottle trees on the internet doing really important official library research, I was inspired to do a little garden decorating to liven things up. I rebuilt my pot teeter-totter (obviously don't know what that thing is really called) and made a mini bottle tree out of a dormant hardy hibiscus. There are at least two other hardy hibiscus that I can also use as bottle trees so this one may get taken down. When I was stacking the pots, I noticed that some sedum was growing in the bottom of the lowest container in almost no soil. Now I know for sure that sedum is not only tough, but stays evergreen for me here in north Texas. I am going to get out a bunch of my empty pots and plant sedum in them over the next few days. Maybe I shouldn't, I don't want to have to buy more containers when spring gets here. What the heck, I can never have to many containers.

After work and a birthday party, I was able to do about an hour of gardening today. The temperatures soared back up into the sixties and the wind was finally quiet. My battery feels all recharged and stuff. If it is pretty tomorrow I will spend all day out there.

Hope you have some pretty weather too.

Like Christmas Just for Me

 

THE SEEDS ARE HERE, THE SEEDS ARE HERE!!!!! Monica over at Garden Faerie's Musings started an snail mail seed exchange and I was first on the list. Thanks Monica. I will spend my free time this cold cloudy weekend researching the seeds you sent me, making my selections from your stash, making cute little seed packets, and raiding my seed stash to add to the exchange. Tuesday, I will mail the package on the Illinois.

This was one very good day. The school finally admitted that Baby Monkey has dyslexia and are going to provide the focused reading class he so terribly needs. After that good new, I went to a master gardener meeting. We planned our trip to the state convention in Marshall, Texas. After that meeting, a group of us stayed and prepared the winter newsletter for the mail. After that, Hilde and I went to help to another volunteer organization with the plans for a new family shelter. Of course, our job was to do what we love the best, talk about plants and plan gardens. To top it all off, Manly Man took me and the Monkeys out to eat dinner at Fat Catz a restaurant in a neighboring town. The menu is Cajun and Creole. Manly Man had fried shrimp and crawdads. Middle Monkey had a shrimp Po boy sandwich. Baby Monkey had mini corn dogs (there is one in every bunch). I had the most incredible Cajun crab cakes served over crawdads in a Creole lemon sauce. I was in heaven.

Hope you had an awesome day as well.

If you are a blogger involved in the seed swap, leave me a commment and I will link you up on my sending the seeds onward post the first of next week. I am pretty sure Tina and Frances are on the list.

GBBD JANUARY 2009

This will be my saddest post for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day yet. Still it is fun to play. Thanks again to Carol of May Dreams Garden for hosting.

First is a fuzzy picture of a snap dragon. I waited until after work to take my pictures. Therefore, you can now imagine a crazy lady out in 34 degree weather, after dark trying to take pictures of flowers while the wind blows. I am nothing if not a dedicated garden blogger or maybe I am just cracked.

 

Second is a shot of my echeveria potted up with hen and chicks. The echeveria is winter sad, but I like the way the hen and chicks look. Their color seems more intense in the winter than in the summer.

 

Finally, a shot of a very sad amaryllis. It was purchased after Christmas and the stress of being in that box is obvious. I will plant it outside in a few weeks. Hopefully, it will give me a pretty bloom next August.

 

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Stay warm.

You Knew it Was Coming

 

I have been working at the library for a little while now. I have resisted the urge to post about books. Today I give in. Baby Monkey is getting about two books a week. I brought home one for Teenage Monkey Monday. Monday night Middle Monkey asked if I had brought him a book on science and hamsters. Now how in the world would I know he wanted a book on hamsters. Of all the critters in this house, hamsters are not among them. The Manx would murder them within minutes.

We received some new children's books today. Among them was the book in the picture. It is a book about scientists that work to control invasive species of plants, insects, and animals. South American fire ants have their own chapter. I would get it and give you a little more information, but Teenage Monkey took off with it.

I am reading "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." It is an incredibly good book. I am actually taking my time and really reading it. The writing is amazing. The only two books I have enjoyed more that this one are "East of Eden" and "The God of Small Things." Baby Monkey is reading a Little Bill book and Teenage Monkey is reading "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian."

So we may have a few book posts as I now can spend many hours a week looking at, touching, and reading all kinds of books.

I though we would play a few of these mind games. See if you can figure this out.

YYUR
YYUB
ICUR
YY4ME

Friendship

This is what I was yammering about a week or so ago. The definition of internet friend. I needed help and VP was there for me. We provide for and are served by this internet support system. These friendships are real. We feel each others pains and celebrate each others joys. I am blessed to have each of you in my life. And then Cinj does something sweet, like this.

This is the poem VP suggested to honor the gardener we lost last week. Thank you my internet friend.


What is divinity if it can come
Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
Shall she not find in comforts of the sun,
In pungent fruit and bright, green wings, or else
In any balm or beauty of the earth,
Things to be cherished like the thought of heaven?
Divinity must live within herself:
Passions of rain, or moods in falling snow;
Grievings in loneliness, or unsubdued
Elations when the forest blooms; gusty
Emotions on wet roads on autumn nights;
All pleasures and all pains, remembering
The bough of summer and the winter branch,
These are the measures destined for her soul.

Wallace Stevens, Sunday Morning, 1915

Help Please

This may seem like an odd, even crass request. We recently lost a fellow gardener. She died suddenly. She had worked for two days as an active volunteer in our group last week. We have known her a little more than a year. She was cheerful and enthusiastic, and now she is gone. Nobody saw it coming. I have been asked to write something in her memory. I am not comfortable writing something original to honor her life and service. I thought a poem would be nice, but I am at a loss to find something suitable. Anyone out there on the interweb know of a poem or quote that would honor a gardener who has passed on?