Roses are red
Violets are blue
But they don’t get around
Like the dandelions do.
~Slim Acres
You know my secret truth is that I think dandelions are pretty, right?
PICTURED: google image of a dandelion.
Category Archives: 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons
June Days
“On this June day the buds in my garden are almost as enchanting as the open flowers. Things in bud bring, in the heat of a June noontide, the recollection of the loveliest days of the year – those days of May when all is suggested, nothing yet fulfilled.” – Francis King
How can it leave so suddenly?
So soon,
when I am absolutely
“knee-deep in June”? *
Oh, it’s been lovely, oh it’s so lush. I love the green, I love the breeze and the June moon has left me weak in the knees. And apparently these luscious summer days are causing me to have a tendancy to rhyme. Which is not a bad thing, right?
Farewell sweet month of June. I never shall forget you…Jeanie
*QUOTE REFERENCE: “Long about knee-deep in June, ‘Bout the time strewberries melts on the vine.” ~ James Witcomb Riley
PS ~ My favorite local, family-owned greenhouse/garden center is closing after Saturday for the season. Everything goes 50% off tomorrow and they have gorgeous flowers and veggies, plus amazing hanging pots left yet. Oh-and lots of gallon perennials! Check ’em out!
Horiuchi Bros Greenhouse 16315 Tucson Street ~ just north of highway 7 (aka 160th Ave) Brighton thru July 3
Hey, Sweet-Pea
SUGAR SNAPS
Peas are the gardener’s candy. Early on in my gardening experimentation I loved the early morning visit to grab some pods, pop them open and snack on the the green little balls. Mmmmm. I used to grow both regular peas and Snow Peas for stir-fry. Then I discovered Sugar Snaps.
They. Are. Wonderful! They are the best of both pea-worlds. You can eat the little peas or the pod or both. And they are sweet, inside and out, upside-down and all around. SWEET! Crisp and crunchy! Succulent!
“Give peas a chance.”
You can eat them right off the vine or take them in to dip in hummus or dressing. You can chop them in cold salads or stir fry for breakfast (because waiting until dinner just doesn’t work for me)! You can pick them when they are young and still pretty flat or when they have rounded and plumped out and you can actually see the round peas inside the pod.
If you forget to grab them and they get too big, you can de-string them or just pop the peas out like you would with a traditional pea.
Eat more peas, please.
- Try stir-frying them with garlic in olive oil
- Or in a flavored oil like walnut or sesame.
- Steam them and toss with hot pasta in cream.
- Have them in your favorite vinegairette with fresh mozarella or cucumber slices.
- Eat them in wild rice with almonds.
Peas out.
How corny am I? Well, pretty corny. Obviously.
Pictured: A tiny sampling of some peas I grew. And then ate. But had the good sense to photograph first. O, but wait…there are more, YES!
Paper Chains, Paper Roses, and a Sunny Day for a Baby Shower
Stef and Wrex are having a baby!
If they didn’t already both have great parents, we’d just legally adopt them. Meanwhile, since their bio-fams are far away, we have scooped them up and just love the stuffing out of them. It’s a match made in heaven. So, sweet bebe Sawyer is due to arrive on 8.9.10, which is a very cool date and works for me, but if if she should decide to arrive earlier, say July 31 when Heaven Fest is happening? I will have to miss HF for I am serving Stef and Wrex as their labor and delivery doula/keep-Wrex-in-line coach! Oh yeah, baby! I was pretty good at having babies myself and though there are three previous births I was supposed to coach people through, each time something would happen and I didn’t get to (medical or the out-of-town husband would make it back in time or whatever). So this will be FUN! I hope I don’t end up needing Wrex to hold smelling salts under my nose and Stef to fan me while she is laboring. I am pretty empathetic. Haha.
We had a little waiting-with-great-anticipation-for-you-baby-girl-Phipps Shindig.
Tredessa (Stef and Dessa are tight!), Tara, Stephanie, Jovan, Stormie and me threw a little shower in Casree’s backyard not long ago. The day was brilliantly sunny. Which is what we ordered. But exTREMEly windy, which we did not. For you see, we had decided on PAPER decor. We got together and gathered our zany-patterned scrapbook paper and big wads of brightly-colored tissue paper from another baby shower (recycle, people!!) and piles of paper the school was getting rid of and jars of old buttons and old pickle jars and some goldfish and glue sticks and bits and pieces of ribbons from previous projects.
It was all about creating a colorful, vibrant, bright, engaging, fun, delightful afternoon for Stef and her beautiful friends and family, all of whom adore her wholly. And the key words were: Lavish. Recycled. Reuse. Re-purpose. And utilize dishes and serving utensils we already have!
Pictures of the preparation~
Click on thumbnails for a closer look.
We cut circles and made pinwheels, by hand!
We created miles and miles of paper chains. We made accordion-fan circles. We created old-fashioned paper fans with pinwheels on them and fancy tags for all the treats and foods. We used every bright color from the spring pallette, but zeroed in on orange and hot pink. Goldfish swam in a bowl on the treats table, around the orange daisy stems, for they matched the decor. Huge, fluffy tissue-paper flowers hung as garlands from posts. Hot pink coffee-filter roses were woven vines ’round about. No one knew, it is safe to say, they had once been white coffee filters. We also grew some triticale (a wheat/rye-blend seed) for display purposes on the serving and buffet tables.
We ate, drank and made merry.
There was a triple-layer coconut cake made with love especially for mommy-to-be. There were candies and sweets galore, lemon-poppyseed cupcakes filled with fresh lemon curd and topped with mounds of delicious cream cheese icing. There were swedish meatballs and spinach-artichoke dip along with deli meats and cheeses. Fruits artfully arranged on skewers and chocolate, of course, were there, too. All the girlies and me made the food. Bright-colored cookies on sticks were even more incredibly delicious that they looked!
We withstood tornado-force winds. A slight exaggeration, perhaps.
Seriously? It was windy. That was the one tiny, little thing that did not go our way. Kinda messed up some backdrops and wreaked some havoc on having all-paper decor. Had to go to Plan B (devised there on the spot), but it was still lovely because Stef is lovely and it was our chance to tell her so. But the one thing that was nice about wind? No sweat. The wind kept us cool in spite of the heat and brilliant sun.
Thing that made me most happy at the end?
Mandy asked if she could have the decorations for her daughter’s upcoming birthday party. Yes. Yes! YES! Recycled yet again, which I LOVE! Because I am sort of becoming a greeniac. {I may just have invented a new word again} I kinda like that whole waste-not-want-not idea. I am so happy Sawyer will see these pictures someday and know that the real value of the day, the place most of our energy was spent? Was on the love for her parents, on our delight in the creating, all because she was going to soon arrive!
Etc.
The people. Are the real decorations. And everyone of us? Love Stef and co. Something to celebrate!
PICTURES: Mostly by Stormie, but 5 or so by Mary!
Family Frolic, Merriment and Conviviality~
We have just emerged intact from our very own,
annual, familial FEU de JOIE
Father’s Day 2010, Dave and his family.
“Celebrate the little things in life, appreciate tomorrow, love your neighbor…never condemn yourself to a life without cause to celebrate and be thankful for what you have. Never forget the people you love and love them when you have an occasion to do so. Celebrate their life and celebrate yours.” ~Unknown
Feu de joie, a French term meaning “fire of joy,” is actually a gun salute, described as “a running of the guns” as they are fired on occasions of public rejoicing and celebration. It can also reference a large bonfire being lit as a token of national joy.
But we have just navigated our way through our very own rapid-fire of joy and celebration. For during a 12 week period between Dave’s birthday (March 23) and Father’s Day (3rd Sunday in June), we do a whole lotta shaking! There are 9 family birthdays during that time…no wait! Amelie was born a few days after Dave’s birthday, so now 10! This is immediate right-here-local family, people! Plus, there was a HF fundraiser, a big baby shower or two, the aforementioned birth of a new grandbebe, some travel among us, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a couple of theater productions for the patriarch, a holiday, tax-day and some end-of-the-school-year plays and programs. Oh. And cakes.
I think I feel a summer cold coming on. A little worn out, but whew! Still, mostly intact.
Jubilate
Oh, how Averi loves her little Flintstone-esque car; Gemma said of her big sister, “Guini is so nice.” Hunter is a great big-cousin to the girls!
“That it will never come again
is what makes it so sweet.”
~Emily Dickinson
Dave with original 5, and with the 6 grandbebes. On Father’s Day.
Make merry
Scenes from good times: Jovan and Aunt Dessa with baby Amelie. Gemma and the cone.
The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck
Dave with grandbebes, left-right: Hunter (5), Amelie Belle (almost 3 months), Gemma (3), Guinivere (almost 5), Averi (2), and Gavin (7)
Celebrate ~ a LIST of reasons:
Birthdays, anniversaries, firsts, promotions, making the yellow light, getting the good parking spot, your husband’s first novel getting published (buy here!), a moist spring, summer arriving, a full moon in an azure-blue sky, the first sip of amazing morning coffee, a grandbebe tying his own shoes and riding without training wheels, tomatoes ripening on the vine, and a new granddaughter. Also, achievement and success, failures we made it through together, a good movie, really green freshly-cut grass (that deserves an ice cream cone at the very least), a completed project, an upcoming festival, finding out some one is praying for you, healing for dad and brothers in light of heart junk, first teeth, first lost teeth, seeds that sprout, weeds that pull out easily. Moms. Dads. Brothers, sisters, neices, nephews and grandbebes. Aunts and Uncles and family in the faith. Growing love and re-ignited passion. Good times. And even hard times with people who won’t leave.
For these and many other reasons, throw a party. It can be filled with lavish decor and a seemingly endless buffet of tempting tidbits, or as simple as a blanket on the grass with milk and cookies as the stars come out to dance. Find your reason.
Can you over-do on celebrating?
I guess that remains to be seen. On our deathbeds, when total clarity and perspective comes to us, we may realize that some of the extra fancy cakes or over-the-top decor wasn’t themost important thing, but I doubt I will ever regret using every possible chance I could to show the people I love the most their great worth to me by planning, scheming and finding ways to celebrate their lives and existance. And if it should disrupt “normality,” or be a little taxing, so be it. I’d rather know I did it because I loved them. And not regret missed chances to say so.
My family always complains that when I take pictures, I never count and give them warning. See left. Well, when I FINALLY did a one-two-three count, this is what I got (see right). Improvement? Not sure. My photographic philosophy: just snap away and hope for the best.
“Love your life and prove it.” ~You may quote me on this, actually
Nehemiah 12:43 (New Living Translation)
Many sacrifices were offered on that joyous day, for God had given the people cause for great joy. The women and children also participated in the celebration, and the joy of the people of Jerusalem could be heard far away.
I would say our neighbors, based on what has been “heard far away” would think we have!…Jeanie
.
Song for Summer
Today is the FIRST day of S U M M E R,
as my Gavinators reminded me.
We will work in his b-day GARDEN a bit
{after VBS, of course}
to CELE – BRATE!
Hunter* and Gavin: Best Cousin-buddies. On Father’s Day
Summer Breeze (by Seals and Croft) so totally makes me feel fine!
*NOTE: Hunter’s shirt, a gift for his poppa on Father’s Day, references Dave’s main character in his first novel, Altar, which is available on Amazon. CLICK HERE.
I Love a Rainy Night
…I love a rainy night I love to hear the thunder Watch the lightning When it lights up the sky You know it makes me feel good
I do love a rainy night – especially after a sunny day. I am not really a fan of several days of rain, but a rainy night is good. Very good. I love the green the rain brings. And I love how the garden looks because water from a hose just isn’t the same. Rain from the sky is magic. Green magic!
Well, I love a rainy night It’s such a beautiful sight I love to feel the rain on my face Taste the rain on my lips In the moonlight shadow
Galoshes
On the way home from church today I saw the cutest little girl in my neighborhood running up the driveway in her pink galoshes and pink and yellow rain slicker. She was so cute twirling her pink and yellow, floral umbrella. It took me back to the 1960s when we all owned galoshes and rainslickers and umbrellas and placed them in the cloak room at school. Yes. I am that old.
Showers washed All my cares away I wake up to a sunny day…
I saw this at church this morning:
I got permission to snap some shots of some little girls at church. I don’t know them, but aren’t they sweet?
Puts a song In this heart of mine Puts a smile on my face every time ‘Cos I love a rainy night… Yeah, I love a rainy night
Oh – and look: The Gav borrowed Aunt Stormie’s umbrella
Yeah, I love a rainy night… Well, it makes me high… I love a rainy night You can see it in my eyes….*
And as Gemma always sings: The sun will come out tomorrow…which is what I am hoping for!
But this rainy night is luscious, too.
Gemma at Cold Stone with Aunt Stormie recently. The sun always shines on GemGem.
*LYRICS: I Love a Rainy Night, Eddie Rabbit
Another Layer of the Onion
“Someone” {ahem} said from the previous pictures of my garden onions-turned-bouquet which I posted HERE, you couldn’t actually tell the size…that they might have been 10 or 12 inches in heighh from my posted pictures.
So just to clarify, I snapped a couple of shots with the yard stick. They are 42″ for the highest several stalks, maybe 43″. Do you call them “stalks”? Anyway, days later, they are healthy, tall and making me smile. Did I mention they are tall?
Just saying.
A good kind of tired
7 Things that wear you out, but for good reason
- Weeding in the garden, fertilizing the soil. Hard labor in God’s creation.
- Throwing big, joyful family birthday celebrations with homemade gifts and silly songs and specialty cakes and desserts and decorations to reflect the recipient’s interest – just going a little bit over-the-top to say I LOVE YOU!
- Helping a friend who needs you even when it isn’t on your schedule, especially when it isn’t on your schedule.
- Growing really, really good tomatoes.
- Laughing your head off at ridiculous things: like finding out you are just as forgetful as your mother – right after you have made fun of her.
- Two+ hours singing old songs at the top of your lungs with your mom and dad from the sheet music case in dad’s office: the songs he loved when he first found Jesus in the 50s (Ira Stanphill, Mosie Lister) and the ones he and mom and I sang together in the 70s (Lanny Wolfe, Dottie Rambo).
- Laughing so hard you can’t breathe with people who love you enough to resuscitate you if you fall over cold from it
4 Things that drain the ever-loving life out of you and probably won’t be worth it
- Working hard to be number one in your chosen field; being the first one to work and the last one to leave.
- Being the best at everything.
- A perfectly clean house, one where every single thing is in its’ place and where there are never ever kid fingerprints on the patio doors and no dog hair in the vacuum cannister and the laundry is always finished the day it is started. You know-a house that reveals nothing of the people living there…
- The burden of always being right.
Pictured: early morning from the patio. Left, “Snow on the Mountain” near the pond trickles toward the house. Middle, an unplanned pot gets whatever flowers I haven’t used elsewhere and will declare its’ own identity eventually. Today the white ruffly petunias are asserting themselves. Right, white petunia to snow-on-the-mountain, “Hello. How is it going down there?”
The conclusion of the matter~
All has been heard, all has been said and done; the end of the matter {the conclusion} is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man.
Ecclesiastes 12.13 The Amplified + other words I think fit
The Russian Sage, left, thinks it is ok to naturalize and extend its’ borders. We will have to have a talk. Balloon background, right, from Wrex’s birthday.
SENT TO ME IN AN EMAIL FORWARD, and o-so-true….There are five things that you cannot recover in life:
(1) A stone…………..after it’s thrown,
(2) The word……….after it’s said,
(3) The Occasion….after it’s missed
(4) The Time……….after it’s gone.
(5) A person…………when they’re gone
When all has been said and done, most of what we worry our pretty little heads over (people’s opinions of us, status, getting ahead) won’t matter 5 minutes from now, let alone 10 years down the road. I really want to figure out how to be tired for the “right” reasons. The good kind of tired….
Digging In
It is almost 100 degrees. My sweat actually drops into the soil I am planting.
I move landscape timbers, build trellises, water, plant seeds and seedlings. I weed and re-arrange and haul and feed. I pot and dig and sweep and fight off mosquitoes, spiders. I instigate a battle against wasps.
My reward? I tuck a spring of lilac into my hair behind my ear and the sweet scent, released by the emmanating heat of garden labor from my body, surrounds me. Everything aches, {ooohh…worn out}, but it’s a good kind of tired.