Playing in the dirt

Our last frost date is May 15th here in Charmed Life land.  That's an important date for gardeners because it's the date that you can pretty safely put tender annuals and garden plants like tomatoes in the garden. Sometimes I throw caution to the wind, like this year. I have plans for May that include travel rather than gardening.

So I made plans to meet Mom at the Mennonite greenhouses in Chickasaw County. This is the fourth or fifth year I've traveled north to purchase my annuals. I still buy annuals locally and all of my perennials here in town. It's important to support our local businesses if we want to have a thriving community.

Still the trip to Mennonite country is so pretty.

Once we arrive in Mennonite country I feel transported back to my childhood.  We passed the country school with children at recess on our way to Deerfield Greenhouse.  As we pulled in we were greeted by the results of wash day.

The greenhouses are vast and the selection is incredible.

There are so many interesting varieties of flowers

If you go, stop at Klunder's Kafe in New Hampton.  They have wonderful, old-fashioned cafe food that will allow you to tromp on forever through all of the greenhouses.

This year we got to just two of the greenhouses before the car was full. There are at least 12 greenhouses so give yourself plenty of time and explore them all.  My favorite two are Deerfield Greenhouse 1517 Cheyenne Ave, Ionia, IA 50645 and K.R Greenhouse, 1505 170th Street Ionia, IA 50645.  All of the greenhouses are open Monday-Friday 8 to 8 and Saturday 8a.m. to 6 p.m. All of the greenhouses are closed on Sunday. 

I was so glad Mom agreed to meet me.  First because I was looking forward to spending an entire weekend with her shopping and gardening.  We're at our best together when we can work on a project together.  Second I'd taken a spill or two (two actually, but who's counting?) on the tennis court  injuring my back.  I was trying to dodge a ball and gain a point for my team when I took the first tumble. I may have the smallest competitive streak, hardly worth mentioning, really. Wanting to win the point, landing hard on the cement court beat losing.  See? Just the tiny tiniest competitive streak. The second fall happened when my legs wouldn't work because of the first fall.  Three chiropractic visits later I can do some really terrific things like stand, sit, walk and almost sleep.

Without all of Mom's help, I don't know how I would have gotten all 13 pots planted.

Mom hard at work.

The girls at K.R Greenhouse were especially sweet to help us carry everything to the car.

...READ MOR

Here's the load we hauled home.  Here's what it looked like in the pots

Full sun pot

Shade pots

And after a week, they look like this!

Shade

Sun

Speaking of wonderful mother's, if you haven't found the perfect gift for your mother yet, Here's a book I highly recommend

Gardens of Awe and Folly by Vivian Swift

I fell in love with Miss Swift's work with her first and one of my lifetime top 10 favorite books:

When Wanders Cease to Roam

Gardens of Awe and Folly is a romp through 10 gardens around the globe that each give off a unique vibe.  If your mother likes to garden or likes to travel she'll love this journey through beautiful watercolors of a Japanese style garden, a garden in New Orleans, Paris, Marekesh, Key West, Edinburgh, London, Long Island and Rio de Janeiro.

If you fall in love with Ms. Swift's sense of whimsy and joy de verve as I have, you can also catch her weekly at her blog which she dispenses life wisdom and lets us watch and learn from her weekly watercolor painting sessions.

And while you're ordering, Awe and Folly for your mom, order When Wanders Cease to Roam.  You won't be sorry. Or order her second book, 

Le Road Trip. 

The weather was "hot" over the weekend before the roller-coaster ride that is spring in the Midwest took us in for a big temperature dive mid-week.  And so spring got all fancied up. It's like drinking from a fire hose with everything blooming and then fading so quickly.  Though the cool temperatures irritate Prince Charming,

I was glad to see cooler temperatures so that everything could just slow down a bit. Besides it gave us an excuse to light another fire and spend an evening reading. See that book next to Prince Charming? Yep, it's the Gardens of Awe and Folly! A perfect read on a cool spring evening in front of the fire.

 Here's what's blooming in the garden this week:

Magnolia

Crab Apple

Red Bud

and the most exciting, aromatic, lovely of all

Lilacs!!

Enjoy this lovely spring weather with all of the good and beautiful flowers spring heaps upon us. Our cups truly over flow with abundance.  Take care of each other until we meet again next week.

Porch Time!

As often happens here in the Midwest we went directly from spring with highs in the low 40's to summer with a high temperature of 80 degrees. Perfect weather for a good porch cleaning.

Usually I try to have the porch set up for spring before Easter.  But I just couldn't bring myself to dunk my hand in a bucket of water when the temperatures were hovering closer to 45 than 65.

Last Friday as soon as I rung off with all of you, I filled my bucket and headed for the porch







It was a mess, as it usually is after the winter.

The best way to get rid of five months of winter dirt and spring pollen is to vacuum the floor a couple of times. Make sure to replace the vacuum bag when you're done, you don't want all of that grime and pollen let loose in the house.

Then use a power washer or the "jet" setting on your hose nozzle and blast away the loose stuff.
Then you're ready for the big guns:

Dirtex cuts the dirt with just 2 tablespoons mixed into very hot water.  This year I tried a different mop and I've got to say that I think this mop worked the best of any of the varieties I've tried.

It's just a simple wringer mop from Menards.  But it's firm sponge handled the dirt and grime beautifully.  Two moppings with a squirt from the jet set hose between them and the floor was looking pretty good.  It took me all afternoon Friday to vacuum and mop the porch and I still needed to make a pass with my Swifter mop to get the last of the grime up.  But it was time for cocktails with Bob and Linda followed by a dinner out and dancing to some live music provided by my friend Wendy's band Ace at Luna Art + Wine.

All I can say is it must have been the warm weather, or spring fever, or Bob's wicked Manhattans because once Prince Charming heard the music this happened.  I knew PC was a good, maybe even wonderful, dancer.  But I had no idea PC had "the moves".

Saturday dawned with bright sunshine and continued warm weather. I bounded out of bed, ready to tackle day two of the porch project.  Prince Charming needed a little more rest after his wild night of dancing and charming the ladies.

All of the porch furniture came out of the shed for washing and mending.

Washing station

Mending station

Last year I tried to get all of this work done in one day.  In my rush I ignored wicker that had come loose from legs and peeling paint.  This year, I've called a truce with myself over my sense of how long something "should" take versus how long it actually takes.  We added this porch when we bought the house seven years ago. So after trying and failing for seven years to clean the porch and all the furniture in one day, this year I scheduled a two day cleaning. I was much happier and the process was a joy rather than a grind.

Our friend and handyman Emrah suggested using super glue to reattach wicker. I hate super glue. It's messy, my fingers always stick together before whatever I'm gluing has a chance to dry. But since I was taking things slow this year, I had time to think.  I was going to need something to hold the loose wicker pieces in place.  I had a lot of loose wicker and not enough clamps. Besides the clamps were too big for many of the small legs.

So I came up with this!

Rubber bands worked as wonderful clamps to hold the wicker in place. I wrapped the wicker around the legs, put the rubber bands around it, and pulled the rubber band away from the part I wanted to glue.  No stuck fingers, just re-glued wicker!

After that it was time to paint.

Grab our first lunch on the porch.

Chicken salad on a bed of spring greens, pink lady apples and extra sharp cheddar cheese. Yum!

The paint I used only took two hours to dry.  So after lunch all of the furniture was ready to be put in place.

I'm trying a new arrangement this year.  Prince Charming isn't sure he likes it. I'll let you know what he decides because in our family, PC has the best eye for proportion and so he gets to make final decisions about furniture placement.

In June everything has to come back off the porch and we go through this whole routine again to wash off all the tree pollen. That's when we put the rugs down and really decorate. So if PC still hates this arrangement, we'll change it.

By the time I put everything in it's place for this spring version of the porch and fluffed the last cushion it was getting late. I headed in to get cleaned up.  When I came back out, look what that Prince Charming had done!

The fountain was up and running.  Here's what it looked like before I went inside.

He really earned his title as Prince Charming this week !

Before I ring off I want to show you what's blooming in the garden this week.

Cherry trees

Blue bells!!

Can't recall the name of this one

Redbud

Fern

Tulip

Bleeding Heart

If you've got time, join me on the porch for a cup of tea or a glass of wine.  Until next week take good care of each other!

Spring Fever and Riding the High Horse

Last week as soon as I finished writing you dear ones, I raced outside to pull the towels off the line because it was snowing little ice pellets. They felt like little scud missiles lancing my body as I hurried to get the towels off the line and into the dryer.

But this week it's officially spring! Just look at these gorgeous white Magnolias in full bloom.

Boy do I have spring fever. I looked up spring fever on Wikipedia, apparently it's a real thing. Characterized by both a feeling of vitality and a feeling of malaise. The condition is variable, in my expert opinion, depending on whether the sun is

Shinning like this as you greet the day, or

a day with driving rain, high winds and cold. When the days are longer, but cold and cloudy apparently our hormones are at war with each other and can leave us feeling a little "off".

Which could explain the past week when I've been riding the high horse of righteous indignation.

Three times in the last week, (but who's counting?)  I've mounted this fine steed because of misunderstanding, or a certain snotty tone, or being yelled at because I've asked a (innocent) question. Each time I was "off to the races" going over in my own mind the "wrong" actions of the other person.  After the third incident, my steed was getting a little winded. Once I slowed down enough to really think through each situation, I could  see my role more clearly.

In each case the other person's great sin was in challenging my ego, or in fact letting a little of the hot air out of the gas bag that is my ego. In almost every case I could have chosen to de-escalate, extend some compassion to the other person and to myself, or to shrug it off and let it go.  But no, I chose to do a running mount on said high horse, I'm not nearly as graceful as Roy Rogers with his running mount of Trigger. Imagine Pooh Bear trying to run, mount the ladder to this horse and you'll have some idea of how ridiculous the whole situation was.

It's true isn't it? World peace starts in our own hearts.  And my heart this past week has been the site of some ugly name calling and recriminations, starting with other people, but coming back to myself.

So yesterday I called a cease fire, climbed off my high horse and went to sit outside in the sunshine and warmth.

I drove several miles out into the country to Hickory Hills Park. Sitting in the warmth and sunshine did a lot to rebalance my hormones and extend an olive branch to myself and the others involved in the dust-ups.

Isn't this a magnificent Hickory? It's twisting, gnarly branches remind me that life shapes us in interesting ways.  Riding my high horse isn't fatal, but it's good to climb down, slow down and appreciate all of the beauty around me.

I went out to the park on a mission to try drawing from real life, inspired by the work of One Day One Sketch - Jens Huebner

Lovely aren't they? Here's what I managed to do:

I've got a ways to go.  And that's the good news dear ones. We've all got aways to go.  In the meantime we can climb off the high horse, pour ourselves a cup of tea, sit in the warmth and sunshine and extend a little compassion and forgiveness to ourselves and then to others.

It must start within our own heart because we can only do for others what we are willing to do for ourselves. If we can't extend a little love and care to ourselves, how can we offer anything to others?

Having filled up my own bucket with sunshine and compassion here is a little love and spring from me to you this week. Enjoy!

White Magnolia with crab apple

The azalea is ready to bloom (or is it a rhododendron? I always get them mixed up).

You know it's "officially" spring when the street sweepers start spring cleaning.

The first periwinkle bloom!

The lenten roses just keep getting prettier and prettier each week.

Wishing you springtime, sunshine, flowers, bird song and all happiness this week.