Holiday Wishes for You

While many parts of the U.S. have been hit by snowstorms the past few weeks, most of the snow has missed our little corner of the central Midwest. Finally, this weekend, a little of the White stuff fell, just in time for this week's ABC letter of W.




Although it has felt like Winter for several weeks, now it finally looks like Winter here as well. Christmas decorations look so much more festive with a little coat of snow, don't you think?






You can see what I mean by a "dusting" of snow. By midday yesterday, most of it had melted. The forecast for Christmas is for either freezing rain or snow. I'll take snow, if you please.

Little time is spent outdoors these days, other than to track down a wayward dog who finds the newly harvested cornfields fascinating. But it's hard to resist checking out the transformation a little snow can make in the garden. Coneflowers have donned their furry winter caps.

The "Snowy Sedum" mentioned in my last post has finally materialized.

And the "Hibernating Hydrangeas" now look quite "hyperborean." They add what every gardener wishes for this time of year--a little winter interest.

But this is a busy time of year, with little time for thoughts of gardening. Decorating, wrapping presents, and baking are done in the Warmth of the house. This year I am either more organized or have had more time, but most Christmas chores are done. The house has been decorated for several weeks, Christmas cards have been mailed, and presents are wrapped and under the tree. There is time to enjoy the true meaning of Christmas. Time to attend grandchildren's Christmas programs and even time just to gaze at the tree. Holiday ornaments bring back memories, like this beaded bell which reminds me of my grandmother lovingly creating gifts for each of her grandchildren.

Crocheted angels are a treasure made by my mother, who remains very active

yet always has time for her family.

Other ornaments made by little hands bring back thoughts of Christmases past . . .

. . . and of loved ones far and near. Everyone in the family has an ornament on the memory tree; some have been put up for many years . . .

. . . while others are new, adding to the tradition.

Warm Wishes to all of you. My wish for you is simple--

Peace, Love and Joy in this holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

ABC Wednesday is hosted each week by Mrs. Nesbitt; other posts can be found here.

ABC Wednesday: The Vagaries of Winter

Note to Garden Bloggers visiting today: My Bloom Day post can be found by scrolling below this one. But I do hope you'll take a moment to read my silly little poem here, since it describes the way my garden looks in December.


One of the things I've come to enjoy about ABC Wednesdays is the chance to meet some other bloggers around the world who I probably wouldn't encounter from reading primarily garden blogs. Each Wednesday I visit a few familiar "faces" from this group, but I usually meet a few new people each week as well. One of the more familiar bloggers in this group, Brenda at Rinkly Rimes, commented on my post last week that my photo of "frozen fennel" suggested a poem to her. Those of you who read Rinkly Rimes' posts know that Brenda is a poet extraordinaire with clever verses on a wide variety of topics. If she does write a poem about frozen fennel, I would be very honored. But in the meantime, she inspired me with the idea for today's V post . . . a little light Verse about my garden:

December 2008

My Garden in Winter

Winter winds have swept the prairie
Cold, ice, and snow have left their mark.
The garden is still—
Zero Zinnias and No Nasturtiums
To brighten each day.
Only Frozen Fennel
and Dill Dusted with snow,
Alongside Pummeled Phlox,
Icy Iris, and Arctic Asters.

Crumpled Coleus and Prone Pansies
Sit by the door.
Dormant Daffodils and Daylilies
wait for warmer weather
Along with
the Tulips under the Tundra.
Slumbering Salvia stand next to
Snowy Sedum and Congealed Coneflowers.

Rain turns to ice, creating Sleety Susans
And Glacial Gaillardias.
In the shade garden
Hyperborean Hellebores shiver
Next to Hibernating Heucheras,
Hostas, and Hydrangeas,
all on Hold till the end of the season.
Frigid Ferns, Polar Primrose, and Bleak Brunnera
Hide under a light coverlet of leaves.

Quivering Quince and Cowering Clematis
Suffer the onslaught.
Lilacs and Lavender Languish
while the Roses Rest
Under a blanket of white.
Verbena and “Victoria Blues” bear the Vicissitudes
Of Winter’s wrath.

My garden sleeps—
dreaming of spring.

Editor's Full Disclosure--Please note the photo above was taken a year ago. I've taken some poetic license in the poem as well, because we haven't had any snow other than a few flurries. But I know that the snow will come eventually--probably with a vengeance--and a brown, muddy garden just doesn't sound very poetic, does it?

Thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt for hosting us once again; for other varied V posts, check out the ABC Blog.

GBBD: Dreary December

Today is December 15, and you know what that means--well, yes, you do have only 10 more shopping days until Christmas. But in the gardening world it also means this is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, the day each month when garden bloggers all over the world show off what's blooming in their gardens. For Northern gardeners, it's also a time when we have to flex our creative muscles. Unless you have a collection of houseplants, there's not much to show in the garden after the temperatures have plummeted to below freezing and winter winds have ripped off any remaining blooms.



Unlike many other Midwesterners, I don't even have the benefit of snow to make dried blooms and wilted foliage look appealing. Instead, my garden is simply brown and muddy. Going outside in hopes of finding the one bloom remaining, I found that even the purple primrose that appeared last week had given up and gone South for the winter. At least its leaves are still a lively green, and, of course, the heucheras nearby add a little more foliage interest.




Apparently, though, there is a little more green in the garden than I thought. As I walked quickly back to the house and out of the cold, Sasha pointed out that the Nepeta "Walker's Low" still has some fresh growth--just enough for a little bit of cat heaven.





I am not a houseplant person anymore, so there's not much to see indoors. However, when Youngest Daughter moved out and I turned her room into a guest room, I had an epiphany. This room has lots of natural light and was perfect for overwintering plants! After my Thanksgiving guest, Arizona Daughter, left, I set up a table and moved in the geraniums and my rosemary plant from the garage. Arizona Daughter had politely asked about my little "tree," and when I suggested she sniff it, she recognized it immediately. She may not be a gardener, but she is a cook and was excited when I cut off a few sprigs to send home with her to use in her kitchen.







Also now residing in the guest room is the begonia I showed off several times this summer. This one was just too pretty to let die over the winter. It seems to prefer its new cooler home to the overheated office and has set a few new buds to show its appreciation. I have a feeling you're going to be seeing a lot of it as well as the rosemary and geraniums over the next few months of winter Bloom Days!





And, of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without at least one red poinsettia to make the house a little more festive. In the midst of this busy time, I hope you all have time to stop and smell the proverbial "roses" and enjoy the beauty and peace of this season.




Today is also the eve of ABC Wednesday, and GBBD has inspired me to write a silly little poem about the garden, which I will post later today. In the meantime, take a few moments to visit our Bloom Day hostess, Carol at May Dreams Gardens, and see what is blooming all over the world.

ABC Wednesday: Not the Usual

As the ABC round winds down to the end of the alphabet, I find it harder each week to find a suitable word or words to highlight. Is there such a word as Un-Snow?? I think not, but that is pretty much what we've had here the past twenty-four hours. While blogging friends in Indiana and as far south as Mississippi and Texas have had snow, the big snowstorm forecast for us last night turned into a wet, cold, miserable rainstorm. So let's turn to the garden for a unique U . . .

. . . Umbel

Since beginning to garden, I have found that there is much more to a plant than just the stamens and sepals I learned about in junior high science class. Flowers like roses or lilies that produce one flower per stem are called solitary flowers. But other flowers produce an inflorescence, which refers to a cluster of flowers and how they are arranged on a single stem. One type of inflorescence is the Umbel, in which the clusters of florets are borne by small stems that arise from one point on the main stem of the plant. An example of an umbel inflorescence is the "Queen Anne's Lace," pictured above.

You can see more clearly in this budding "Queen Anne's" the shape of the umbel, which resembles an inverted umbrella, and, in fact, the two words come from the same root. This plant is also known as "wild carrot," but I much prefer the more regal name of "Queen Anne's Lace." Though it grows wild on the roadsides here, it's much too pretty to be called a weed, in my humble opinion.

Two other excellent examples of plants with Umbels are dill and fennel--I think the fennel is to the left, and the dill to the right.

To illustrate further how different inflorescences can be, you need only to look at other flowers in the garden. Notice the florets growing along the stem of this pineapple sage. I think this is a spike, but it is definitely not an umbel.

Neither are these--another salvia, "Black and Blue," and the rudbeckias, or Black-eyed Susans, illustrate other types of inflorescence as well.

Regular readers of this blog know that my knowledge of botany is very limited, so I had to do a little research to clarify this definition of umbel. I had planned to include this photo of a geranium, more appropriately known as a pelargonium, as another example of an umbel inflorescence. But when I looked it up to be sure, one source called this a pseudo-umbel. I think I'm getting in over my head . . .

And I certainly don't want to mislead anyone, in case you think all these flowers are now in bloom in my garden. Other than the geranium now residing in my garage, all these photos were taken in the summer.

No, this is what an Umbel looks like in my garden at the moment . . .

Frozen Fennel, anyone?

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

I had planned to end this post here, but this past weekend brought to mind another U for the Unusual harvest we have had this fall. The cornfields surrounding us were finally harvested on Monday, the latest I can ever recall. Usually the harvest is done by the end of October, but a late spring planting coupled with a very wet fall kept farmers out of the field until recently.

Once the soil was dry enough so that farmers could enter the fields with their heavy equipment, there was yet another problem. The corn itself had retained so much moisture that it had to be dried before it could be stored.

Grain elevators could dry only so much grain at a time, resulting in limited hours of operation while the corn was readied for storage. Semi-trucks loaded with grain found themselves sitting in line for hours at the local elevator or even having to wait until the next day to unload. This meant the harvest was extended even longer, as the farmer had to stop his combine and wait until he could unload the corn into an empty truck. In our fields, for example, what should have taken a day or day and a half to complete turned into a four-day task instead.

But all this doesn't matter much to a two-year-old who finds tractors, combines, and any kind of machinery totally fascinating. I picked up Youngest Grandson one morning so that he could get a firsthand look from the family room window. I think he was pointing out the combine to Sophie, who also finds all this activity very exciting.

Idle hours spent waiting for an empty semi also gave Grandson a chance to get a close-up look.

Looking out my window as I type, I can see corn still standing in some fields in the distance. After last night's downpour, I don't know when those fields will be harvested. Some farmers may find themselves working in the fields while Santa gets his sleigh ready.

Once again, thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt for hosting ABC Wednesday, and do check out the ABC blog for more interesting takes on the letter U.

Sophie's Turn: Nature Walks

Where did autumn go? I was wondering this on Monday, the last day of November, as I took advantage of a little sunshine and warmer temperatures (50's) to put up Christmas lights and take care of a few neglected gardening chores. A few geraniums were potted up and brought inside, and two of the potted mums that still showed some signs of life were planted in the garden in the hopes they will survive until next fall. Everything else that didn't get done during this wet and busy fall will just have to wait until spring.




With the garden put to bed for the winter, this is a good time to sort through some unused picture files and finally put together a post I had planned a month ago. In an attempt to enjoy the last remants of fall, I've taken Sophie on a couple of nature walks. She has plenty of room to run around our yard each day, but I thought it would be good for her to have some different experiences. This week we visited one of my favorite places to walk, the prairie restoration area at Meadowbrook Park, and earlier this fall I took her to a local forest preserve just a 10 minute drive from my house, which we refer to as Homer Lake.



Sophie often lies by my side as I sit at the computer, and since Toby and Coconut have been allowed to guest post here, I've decided to let her provide the narration for the photos. Please keep in mind she just turned a year old, so she's not too literate yet, though she is quite articulate in making her wishes known. Here is her perspective:

On my birthday this week, my Mom took me to Meadowbrook Park.

We had to walk over a bridge. Mom stopped to look for the beaver dam she had read about in the paper. She thinks that might be one of them at the far edge of the river. But I didn't smell any beavers here . . . um, what's a beaver?




This is the path we followed on our walk. Mom said we had to stay on the sidewalk, but I wanted to follow all those strange smells off to the side. There must be lots of creatures living in these trees and shrubs.

We stopped to look at trees, like this one with berries on it.

And we looked at plants. Mom says this is goldenrod.

And these are milkweed pods. Mom says that butterflies like these, but I didn't see any. I wonder where all the butterflies are? I like butterflies; they're fun to chase.

Most of the plants were all dried up like these. Mom says they look really pretty in the summer when they are different colors, but I like everything in black and white anyway.

We had a good walk, but Mom grabbed my leash and made me sit when I saw a squirrel running next to the path. I really wanted to chase that squirrel! I bet I could have caught him, too. We also saw some other dogs, but Mom kept a tight hand on my leash and wouldn't let me say hello. I don't know why not; I just wanted to play with them.

We saw other people, too. Mom finally let me say hello to a nice lady after I whined a lot and the lady said she liked dogs. She was a nice lady. Mom says I can't go up to strangers. But I don't know what a "stranger" is. I like all people. I really like the little kids who come to visit me; they're fun to play with. But I also like the man who drives a brown truck and delivers packages to our house sometimes. And I like the man who fixed the furnace and the men who brought some furniture to our house--I helped them unload their truck. But I really liked the man who put new carpeting in the spare bedroom. I watched him all morning, and he didn't mind when I took some of the old carpet to play with for awhile.

Okay, Sophie, we all know you are definitely a people-lover and that all you want is a little attention. But could we get back to our walks, please?

Okay, okay. The park is nice, but my favorite place is Homer Lake. The first time we went there the trees had all their leaves, and it was warm.

The next time we went there, most of the leaves were on the ground.

There are lots of neat things to see and smell. Mom says this is a bird station,

but I didn't see any birds in it.

There are trees everywhere. Some of them are kind of strange

and don't have any branches like this one.

And there's lots of water. I bet I could swim in it if Mom would just let me.

But Mom wanted to look at other things. Especially the trees.

Some of them still had leaves and what Mom called "fall color."

There were pretty orange trees on the road into the park.

Mom lets me lead the way most of the time, so I don't mind if she wants to stop and read a sign.

Or stop to take a picture of a flower. She said this was goldenrod and that she was surprised to see it still blooming in early November.

Most of the flowers weren't blooming any more. But I like the white fuzzy things on their heads.

I like to smell wildflowers. But I don't like cock-a-burrs. Sometimes I run into them when I'm chasing rabbits. They stick to my fur, and Mom has to help me get them out.

I'm glad these aren't those sticky things. They're pretty, aren't they?

My favorite place in the whole park, though, are the trails. There's a new smell around every corner. I sure hope Mom takes me back here soon!

As long as the weather permits, I want to make these infrequent excursions with Sophie more often. Besides giving her a chance to survey new surroundings, these walks are great exercise for me. Not only the walking, but being pulled on a leash by a 67-pound dog has to be some kind of weight-bearing exercise, I would think. But most of all, both of us enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of our surroundings; it's a sensory experience we both can enjoy.

ABC Wednesday and Garden Muse Day: Two-in-One

Not only is this ABC Wednesday, it is also the first of December, meaning Garden Muse Day as well. Since I seem to be able to manage only one post a week lately, this is another one of my two-for-one posts.

T is for Tree

Winter Trees

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.
--William Carlos Williams

While I miss the blazing color of autumn trees that light up the landscape, there is beauty to be found in the bare branches of winter trees as well. And certainly those bare branches make for much easier bird-watching, a favorite indoor winter activity.

T is also for Thanksgiving. While I should have shown here a picture of the Turkey and all the Trimmings, the truth is, I was much too busy cooking and trying to get everything ready on time to grab a camera. The little turkeys above, by the way, were a craft project I did with my grandkids last year. I think I've mentioned before that Martha Stewart I am not:)

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and this year's was extra special. Arizona Daughter came home, her first trip home in over a year, and she and Almost-Son-in-Law spent the better part of five days with us. That meant a thorough cleaning (neglected all gardening season!) and the grocery shopping was all done before she arrived in order to spend as much time with her as possible. Also keeping me busy these past few weeks was painting and refurbishing Younger Daughter's bedroom into a guest room.

Toby put his seal of approval on the new bed before Daughter arrived and kindly agreed to let Daughter share it with him.

The days were filled with an abundance of food, family, and lots of laughter. Youngest Grandson didn't really remember his aunt, but a few Oreos quickly won him over. The time flew by all too quickly, and by the weekend Daughter and boyfriend were flying back to Arizona. I'm hoping to see her again mid-winter--but this time I'll be traveling to her warmer home!

Thanksgiving weekend was also a time for two celebrations. Yesterday Sophie, pictured above with Oldest Granddaughter, celebrated her first birthday! She thoroughly enjoyed the visit with Daughter, the consummate dog lover, and all the attention from the grandkids. She even had her own birthday cake--a little pumpkin pie.

Another milestone yesterday--my husband and I celebrated our 40th anniversary. Won't you join me in a Toast?

"I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich."

--Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, M*A*S*H

Garden Muse Day is hosted by Carolyn Gail; I hope you'll visit Sweet Home and Garden Chicago for other musings on the day.

ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt, with posts from all around the world found here.