You can choose what you look at.

 

Our little senior neighborhood is adjacent to an  industrial area.     We have a six-foot fence between us.

Beh nd us is a U. S. postal facility where  they service the little postal vans that you see everywhere.   It's a very large building with no windows on the side that faces us.  The workers show up at work at eight o'clock, and they leave at five.  There are several bays with big doors.  Every so often they open and a little  postal van pops in and the door closes.  Some time later it pops out.  There are security cameras and lights on the building.  All in all, I feel very safe and think that they are a very good neighbor.

I had a friend for lunch and she said with great sympathy that it was too bad I had to look at that big building.  I pointed out that there were no windows and we had absolute privacy.  When the trees are in bloom I don't even see the building. In the winter I have a choice of looking at the windowless building or at the mountains.  I choose to look at the mountains.

It turns out I sorta shot myself in the foot

 

It was about 40 years ago that I saw my first small flowering clematis in California.  I immediately fell in love.  Up until that time I was only familiar with the large 3/4 inch flowers that are common in most gardens.  I've thought these large blooming vines were gaudy and were not in harmony with the rest of the garden.  They were real drama queens.

I immediately started to collect these small flowers through the mail and from collectors until I had a collection of about 50 plants. They bloomed from April to September and were on trellises, fences, arbors, on rose bushes, and even growing up trees.

When I moved here, I brought about 30 with me.  They were slow to recover from transplanting, but this will be their year to really put on a show.

It turns out I sorta shot myself in the foot because now I wish with my eye condition that I had the large gaudy flowers.  I cannot see small flowers on my large collection unless I bury my nose right in the vine.  Even after all these years you seldom see them for sale in nurseries.  I have Prince Charles and Duchess of Albany that are doing well here, but I lost Princess Diana.  Once established, they are as tough as nails and need no special care. There are varieties that are delicate and garden friendly, and there are varieties that are rampant and cover a small building.  There is a variety that will fit any need you have in your garden.  If you haven't tried one, try to find one.

I love to plan menus

 

It's been a while since I posted.  I. recently spent a good deal of time dictating a post about gardening with impaired vision.  It was a long, detailed post.  I had included not only specific plants and their growth habits, but also criteria to follow to when looking for plants if you have impaired vision. 

I had the draft to the point that it was ready for my husband to edit, and I somehow managed to lose the entire post.  I spent a good deal of time trying to retrieve it--to no avail.  I just couldn't get up the gumption to try to re-create it,  and have not even looked at my computer for days and days.  But I'm beginning to recover and have decided to go on to something else.

For  Eastern I had the fun of putting together a menu for dinner.  For me, putting together the menu is more fun than the actual cooking and serving if the dinner.  Nowadays by the time I get the meal cooked, Im too tired to enjoy it.

On Easter the main appetizer was  seared tuna with a sauce.  The main course was corned beef braised in beer and a cauliflower-and-parsnip mash served with steamed asparagus and a purple cabbage slaw.  For dessert I had homemade ice cream and huckleberry pie. 

When I was discussing with a friend how much I like to plan menus,.she said she did the same.  Also every year she planned her own birthday party.  Everything from the table settings to the menu.  And she has never had the party--just planned it.

I think that sounds like a great idea.  My birthday is coming up in a couple months.  I'm going to plan a fantastic party.  And not invite anybody.  I'll have all the fun of tweaking a menu and none of the work preparing it.  

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throwing in the towel

When it comes to plants , I don't often  throw in the towel. But this spring I'm going to do just that with the fox tail lily.   When I left the farm, there were plants that I absolutely wanted to move with me.  And at the top of that list were the fox tail lilies. 

I took some starter plants, I took some seed, and I even ordered extra plants online.  All to make  doubly sure I’d have that plant with me.  But it didn't happen.

I got the original plant from a start I dug up in a vacant lot.  It was growing wild.  I planted it on the north side of the barn.  It not only grew, it thrived and self-seeded untill I had a large patch, and I was able to move it to other other parts of the garden.  It’s tall and stately and the spectacular flowers open slowly like a beautiful sunset.

It's hardy, drought tolerant, disease free and long lived  It’s only shortcoming is it’s fussy about being relocated.  Instead of a root or bulb, it has a tuborous corm that grows close to the surface in a spiral.

I loft oe area of the new garden free--just in case one of the seeds or roots decided to make an appearance.  This is the fourth spring, and  it has not appeared

So if  it isn't here by the end of May, I will plant that area with bully plants and mourn the loss of one of my favorites. 

I seldom give up on a plant.  I even had a pin on my hat that stated.: I don’t consider.anything dead until I kill it myself”

If you get a chance to add it to your garden, please do.  It’s not easy to come by. 

if old, go bold

 

Yesterday my friend Kathy came over and she put the crimps and clasps on the jewelry pieces I had just finished.  We spent the afternoon discussing our favorite subjects, cooking and gardening.  As usual,   she did not come empty handed and brought a wonderful loaf of her homemade bread, a plate of cookies, and a packet of squash seeds.  Before she left, we walked around the garden and admired the rhubarb poking up, a little  yellow crocus, and the brave chives that were bursting from the ground.

I could not have attempted the jewelry project without having her as a backup for what I can’t do.  No one could describe these pieces as delicate or demure.  My motto is, “If you're old, go bold.”   It's not that I need  new jewelry, but it's fun to have something new to wear at the beginning of spring.