On The Road Again...:)

Picked three peonies for good luck and headed to IOWA today with Mabel Lane in tow. It's always so amazing to watch the terrain change as we head east. Met a couple of very cool ladies with a loaded semi (70,000 POUNDS of wine) who LOVED Mabel!  Sydney greets the new canine love of her life :) and we finally arrive at a place I know and love well. That old favorite bridge (where I walked the top rails as a youngster) peeks through the tall grasses in the garden on the home farm.

Mrs. Log Person's New "Do" :)

Well, my log people certainly are not going away, so a change of decor was called for in order to have a spring "look."  I think she is rather becoming in her fake lilacs, don't you :) And the carrot nose is just not in style right now.

Pretty as they Bloom AND as they Fall :)

Oh these gorgeous flowers have "pooped" all over my countertops (as Vern says), but I kind of like the look of petals surrounding the vase. However, tonight they are turning into "nothing, forever" as Mary Oliver states. Into the compost they go. I'll say goodbye to these fragrant beauties via her poem.

Peonies by Mary Oliver

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers
and they open —
pools of lace,
white and pink —
and all day the black ants climb over them,
boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away
to their dark, underground cities —
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,
the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding
all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again —
beauty the brave, the exemplary,
blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?
Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,
with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?

from New And Selected Poems by Mary Oliver

The "Aunts" Supervise Hatching for Little Miss Red!

Little Miss Red's fellow hens were VERY interested in what was going on below them. So much so, they both decided to lay their eggs "together" in the same box closest to the hatching eggs - while two other nesting boxes sit empty! :) I call them "The Aunts" :)  One chickie hatched, hopefully more to come.

The Old Fashioned Yellow Rosebush is BACK!

When Vern's brothers built our house 26 years ago, an old fashioned yellow rosebush and several wild lilacs had to be removed. I was SO sad about this but they were smack in the middle of the house site and there was no way around it. All these years later, we've planted a dozen lovely lilacs that bloom their hearts out every May. Only this year, I finally found a great place for that old fashioned yellow rose. The first bloom was very welcomed :)

My Badass Little Red Hen

I have a special pet chicken in my little brood whom I hatched from an electric skillet a few years ago and she follows me around. This is now the second year she has become a "real" mother hen. For the past 21 days, she has ruffled her feathers when I peeked in - like a badass protective mother to those warm eggs below - and today the first one hatched! My niece, Hannah, and I gently placed Little Miss Red and her brood in a new area so the babies will be safe. What a girl! We'll see what tomorrow brings and if the others make it. (Thanks for the pics, Hannah!)

Peony Perfection

Oh what a gorgeous, old-fashioned, well-endowed, and timeless flower is this bright red bushy Peony. My first memories of them are the brilliant spots of color in old Iowa graveyards, lining the fence in the first Quonset Hut my family lived in up to when I turned 5, then transplanting them to our own farm from Grandmom's house, my mom's huge bouquets of the heavy flowers on the kitchen table - with the occasional ant brought in with them (!), transplanting a few to our place in Washington, dear friends Jack and Jewell Swan generously giving me many of their extras over the years, and now, my very own 15 bushes are just beginning to bloom extravagantly in my own garden!  How cool is it that the first huge bloom fits so nicely into the lovely vase which was a wedding gift for my folks in 1950.  The whites and pinks and ruffly peonies are soon to come. How sweet it is! :)

From Destruction to Fuel to Warmth to Comfort

Vern had some "help" today :) The last of the November 17th windstorm storm destruction is now cut and drying in our log pile. We've got several friends with woodstoves who might receive some warmth and comfort from these old logs which were violently toppled. My favorite environmentalist writer, Aldo Leopold, wrote:  "There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm.  One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery and the other is that heat comes from the furnace.  To avoid the first danger, one should plant a garden, preferably where there is no grocer to confuse the issue.  To avoid the second, lay a split of good oak on the andirons...and let it warm shins while a February blizzard tosses the trees outside.  If one has cut, split, and piled his own good oak and let the mind work the while, much will be remembered about where heat comes from and with a wealth of detail denied to those who spent the weekend in town astride a radiator."

I wrote a post about the biggest old pine last year - 129 years old. Put on it's first ring of growth in 1886 back when Grover Cleveland, Apache leader Geronimo, and Sigmund Freud were around and the same year someone named Karl Benz patented the world's first automobile in Mannheim, Germany.

We are just a tiny part of this big picture called our world, aren't we...

"After Yoga" Gatherings

What a treat to have some of my buds stay for a cool drink and chat on the deck after Barn Yoga! Catching up with Megan Schmidt today and playing with Mabel. Whenever the pup disappeared, we found her laying under the clothes hanging on the line. I think she was dreaming of camping and can't wait to get in that tent!? :)

Magnificient Molcajete!!!

We absolutely LOVE the Molcajete at the one and only Mexican restaurant in Cheney - El Rodeo - and Vern's brother, Aaron, a real "foodie" attests to it as well. A stew with beef and chicken and shrimp, peppers and avocado and onion and mushrooms, cilantro and lime and tomato sauce...yummmmmm.  Well, Vern tried to duplicate it at home for the first time, and it was a success! Of course I always put WAY too much on my little corn tortillas to wrap them up, but oh were they ever good! And the leftovers even better. Such a simple pleasure on a rainy Sunday :)

Bye Bye to Mabel's Baby Face...

OK, I promise I will not post TOO many more pics of Sydney's sweet pup, but this one melted me just a little as I see that baby face disappearing. She has already doubled her weight in the five short weeks we've had her home - from 10 to 20 pounds! Even though she still pees on the floor occasionally and chews up washcloths, she does sit, loves her kennel, "sort of" walks on the leash if a treat is before her, and has a wonderful spunky personality!  Aaaahhhhh well, 13 weeks old and Mabel Lane Brock has stolen all our hearts :)

Moon Memories of Mother's Day! :)

When I graduated from college 40 years ago, I flew 4,000 miles to Alaska for my summer job. Since we figured it would be far too expensive to talk, Mom and I sent messages "off the moon" for those three months. We figured it's the SAME moon over both of us, so when we missed each other, we just noticed it more. It was quite a rite of passage for me and a wonderful adventure. Owl Moon Meadow was an awesome children's book and is the name of our property. Goodnight Moon was a favorite nightly ritual reading as Adam and Sydney were growing up, and when Sydney went to Australia at age 15 for a semester, we also sent messages "off the moon" (plus through the internet!!).  So, as you can see, the moon is very special to me.  When I got this gorgeous Mother's Day MOON necklace today from Sydney,  I just smiled all over. Tucked inside the beautiful brass locket is a little crescent moon with an M carved on it.  It's such a perfect symbol for our relationship - plus cool pens which we both love. :) Thank you dearie, for this thoughtful reminder of great love.

Today is a Special Day in May...

Today is my mom, Nadene Bryan's, birthday. She was born in 1929 so would have been 87 years old. I think of her so often and feel lucky and grateful to have had a mom who made it a point to notice the little things. She lived her life with such grace - even to the end when Parkinson's took it's severe toll on her. Here's to special memories of my one and only...

With a Little Help from Mabel

Tackled a BIG project today. Dug up all my Burgundy Glow ground cover (planted 25 years ago and steadily getting weedier the last five years), raked out the pathway, and raised the rocks which line the path. Of course, Mabel grabbed every bit of sod, shook the dirt out, then barked at the rake and hoe for hours!?! Sydney, you would have been proud :)

Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Monticello!

What a great four day ROAD TRIP with my buddy Cindy :)  We covered a lot of miles, dodged alligators in the Middleton Place Plantation, gathered some Atlantic Ocean sand between our toes, roamed among the Monticello vegetable gardens, and met some cool folks - like the Washington sisters who run Southern Brews Coffee in South Carolina and give out outstanding Fireball Cinnamon Spiced Mochas, the kind Black Gentleman on the bicycle who "watched over us" while we walked around Charleston at night, and Eva, the Sweetgrass Basket Weaver extraordinaire! Best wishes for your next three weeks, dear friend, and may your miles continue to roll into special memories.

A Great Friend and a Full Tank of Gas!

Am heading out EARLY tomorrow to Charleston, South Carolina to meet my dear friend, Cindy. We're heading up the coast through Myrtle Beach, to Williamsburg, then over to Charlottesville, Virginia over the next four days! She is touring clear around the United States in her little RV named Lucky. I am looking forward to joining her for a few days on this great adventure :)

47 Hours, 33 Minutes

There is a digital clock in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) where I rock babies once a week. Today, it was clicking away minutes for a tiny baby who was leaving morphine behind. Kicking the habit as an infant is an experience none of us would ever wish on anyone - yet the horrible iron grip of addiction is also an experience we would never understand unless we, too, passed through it. I am amazed and proud to say all the staff and nurses are incredibly compassionate and non judgemental. They are here to promote healing. You ROCK little one - may your life be blessed with love and luck after this rocky start.

Nepal Necklaces Need a New Home!

Just made the labels and getting ready to ship off some special future gifts for someone. I know the amazing group of young women who made these thirty necklaces in Kathmandu last month.  Now they are hoping to raise a little money for their communities and the Nepal earthquake victims. These will be for sale in the HealthEd Connect fundraiser/gathering on May 21, in Independence, Missouri. :) Check out the organization at HealthEdConnect.org for more information.

On a Rhubarb Roll...

SOOOO much rhubarb this year!  We've made MANY rhubarb recipes lately and I think our "Rhubarb Roll" has finally come to a close. The last recipe has been in the refrigerator several days now. But one of them, actually called a Rhubarb Roll, was a rather strange recipe - and a pretty one! Best served warmed up with a little vanilla ice cream or whip :)  Here is the before, after, and recipe - from Dorothy Heinz in the Dawson United Methodist Cookbook around 1980.

A YouTube Lesson on Espalier "ing" Fruit Trees!

Well, my little bargain apricot and plum trees got a trim today in the garden barbershop and HOPEFULLY will learn to grow sideways. Supposedly this is not a rocket science endeavor so I'm crossing my fingers I did not do anything wrong. These are dwarf, self-pollinating trees and LOW maintenance - just my style! Here's the before and after photos. Was kind of fun.  :)