Urban Oasis

Where the Dragons Roam in June....

2009-06-09T23:46:00.010-05:00

Ok, this weather is getting rather worrisome with all the rain and cool temperatures during the week and too brief warm respites on weekends ... normally I'm not one to whine (too much!) about rain, but this pattern we've settled into for the past several weeks has me a bit on edge. Long time readers will remember that just a year ago now we had a hitherto unprecedented flood in our basement (on June 12, precisely) and then several weeks of serious flooding in Des Moines, and me being the pathological worrywort I am, I hope we're not in store for any repeats of last year's events....

But on to more exciting things ... it's that time of year again to really and truly believe in Dragons! Well, Dragon Arums at least!

2009 is shaping up to be a banner year for what is arguably the weirdest flower we have at Casa IVG, our prize Dracunculus vulgaris that we have affectionately nicknamed "Mr. Stinky." Every June right about the time the Peonies are at, or just past their peak, he struts proudly to the floral foreground with a grand blast of his distinctive aroma of rotten flesh, brandishing his unmistakably phallic red hooded jet black bloom. Needless to say, he always attracts a lot of attention from innocent passersby, who probably don't know quite what to make of the demented gardeners who have such a decadent monstrosity growing in the middle of their shade garden right out there in plain sight!

Here are a few current views (as of June 7) that start out mundanely enough ... some remaining peonies (we cut most this year and brought them inside to save them from the rains), a pretty little stand of pink Camassia and a maidenhair fern... but if you look closely you can see the mysterious buds forming on that rather non-descript bushy plant near the center....

So let's go in a bit closer to investigate what's going on here ... can you see them? Those spiky, whip-tailed things with a hint of a red stripe? Yes, those are the blooms forming on the plants and this year are going to be a minimum of four blooms for the first time ever! When we we first planted this enormous bulb back in fall of 2005, we weren't even sure it would be reliably hardy to our garden, but by now I think we can confidently proclaim that it is hardy to Zone 5 bordering on 6! Since it first started blooming in 2007 it has only produced one flower per year, but the last couple of years it has been sending up offshoots from the original plant that have leafed out but haven't bloomed. Last year we counted 5 offshoots and when it emerged this spring, we were surprised to see eight! Each offshoot produces a stalk which will leaf out over the summer, but not all of them are likely to bloom for at least a year or so, but given its record so far, even more could be on the way for the next few years.

We have no idea if all four of these will bloom at the same time or on a staggered schedule, so you'll just have to follow along on our journey, but rest assured, there will be plenty of photos while they last! For all the drama and stench involved with blooming, Dragon Arum blooms are relatively short lived and go into a rather interesting period of decline on their way out! You'll see it all chronicled here over the next week or so ... we think these are less than a week from blooming at this point, so I just hope we get some sunnier days to show them off when they finally pop open their stench laden flowers for all the world to see....

Finally, just for fun, here's a newcomer to the garden this year for those curious plant IDers out there ... it's just begun blooming and I'll feature it sometime soon here, but for now, what do you erstwhile gardeners out there think this is? Some previously unseen hellebore? Maybe a Fritillaria? The flowers could resemble either of those guesses, but both would be wrong. If you grow this, you'll know immediately, but I have no idea how popular a plant this really is, but we're thrilled to have it join our garden this year, and may even plant more come fall! Weigh in with your guesses in the comments and I'll reveal its identitity soon!

Hanna sends gallons of puppy kisses to all her admirers out there who left such kind comments yesterday on her #500 post. She loves the attention and is always working on new ways to work the cute angle and will be back soon!

Mystery Flower UPDATE:
We have a spot on winner! Sylvana, The Obsessive Gardener, my compatriot from Wisconsin, was the first to correctly identify this flower as an allium, which we know as Nectaroscordum siculum (aka Allium siciculum) or 'Sicilian Honey Garlic.' It's a really pretty allium that blooms in early June, and though ours didn't quite reach its expected height of 36" this year, it's putting on a nice show, which I hope to feature more of in the next few days.... It's another of Van Bourgondien's "Best Buys from the Bulb Lady," so if you like it, it won't hurt your wallet too much to add some to your garden this fall! Just click on the link above for more information!

Hanna Holds Down the Fort

2009-06-08T23:45:00.001-05:00

Hanna has this, the 500th post at Urban Oasis all to herself ... what's the occasion you might ask? Well, simply because she has so quickly become a truly indispensable member of our little pack here, due in no small part to her ability to bring a smile and laughter to even the seemingly darkest of days. And I've had a good run of those days the past week or so and Hanna has been right there for me the whole time holding down the fort, so to speak.

Most of last week it was cool, rainy, rainy and very dreary, and adding to which, I came down with another intestinal bug that kept me sidelined most of the week (now fortunately departed!) and feeling downright lousy. Along with my generally "down and bleak" mood, I just wasn't much fun to be around, thus my absence here around these parts....

But exciting things are happening in the garden, and starting tomorrow, I'm vowing to get on top of them and get cracking around here again! Even though the forecast is for another cool and cloudy week, at least the near daily rains we had last week are not currently in the picture, so there will be lots to catch up on ... and we'll maybe even be seeing the appearance of Mr. Stinky in all his glory within the next week, so stay tuned....

So let's focus on these photos of Warrior Princess Hanna on guard out on the front porch on Sunday morning when we had a brief period of sun before the storm clouds moved in. I really like this shot of her in shadow, surveying the situation just outside the porch in the Woodland Garden.

There's something very interesting going on out there ... is it a bunny? A squinny? Only Hanna knows, but no matter what, she's on the case!

Let's take a closer look ... If I could only just jump through this screen, I'm sure I could get to the bottom of this!

You wanted something? I'm kinda busy here, but I'm happy to help out if you need one of my puppy services! That's our little Princess ... always ready to spring into a new situation at a moment's notice....

Oh, and one last thing I should note about Hanna's Sunday afternoon ... she went with us to the grocery store and garden center, and on the way back we stopped at Sonic for a little snack (e.g. late lunch) and I ordered a dish of vanilla ice cream, which I of course had to share with Hanna. As far as we know, this was her first taste of this delicious treat and she absolutely loved it! Every last drop. This was her little reward for being such a good trooper on a humid afternoon, and though it's not something she'll get very often (we hardly ever have ice cream around the house), we do plan on getting her some Frosty Paws cups the next time we go to the store since they are a more dog friendly concoction (though she had no adverse reactions to the dairy in the soft serve). But given this first little taste of ice cream, she was clearly in doggie heaven and wanting more! Do we have a typical kid or what?

Purple Prose and a Pooped Puppy

2009-06-01T02:01:00.000-05:00

Continuing with the theme I started with yesterday's post, let's take a look at the blues fading into the realm of purple....

This beauty is Aquilegia alpina, or the 'Alpine Blue' Columbine, perhaps the most successful Columbine we've been able to grow over the years ... after failing miserably with some of the fancier 'Barlow' varieties in the past, we discovered this simpler, more natural variety several years ago and planted several, which continue to thrive at the edge of the Woodland Garden. Last year we collected a lot of seed from these but have neglected to get it in the ground, so sometime this year, we plan on spreading it freely around the area in the hope of encouraging more of them to colonize even further....

This is one of the many globe alliums we have around various areas of the garden, and this particular one is at the edge of the Woodland Garden in amongst the dearly departed Daffodils and near one of our three holly bushes. My gardening friend Marnie over at Lilacs and Roses just recently had a fantastic post up about her Alliums blooming alongside her white Irises, a most attractive combination, so check it out!

Not only are they lovely and unexpected surprises (shape wise) who emerge in late Spring, they are also quite a beneficial plant to have in your garden. All of the Alliums, including even the humble culinary chives (who also have lovely blooms) gradually leach sulfur into the soil over time, which is a great thing, especially if you have plants nearby that are susceptible to the dreaded powdery mildew (such as Monarda or Zinnias) because sulfur acts as a natural fungicide and will help protect your plants from infection. They come in a wide variety of sizes and colors (I still lust after the quite expensive 'Gladiator' Giant Globe) to fit almost any sunny garden position ... and last fall we planted a bunch of Nectaroscordum aka: Sicilian Honey Garlic, which we just discovered this weekend are now on the verge of blooming very soon. You'll be seeing them here when they decide to strut their stuff....

Thanks in great part to the cool and rainy weather of late, the Pansies we planted earlier this spring are still going strong out front, so I thought I'd include a couple of shots of some of the more striking specimens. Just feast on the depth of colors exhibited by this particular bloom ... it's got the entire range of colors I love in flowers, from the fiery yellows and oranges to the darkest of purples approaching black. I don't recall what this particular variety is named, but I'm sure glad we picked it out (actually I think it was Fernymoss' pick)! For some reason, this particular shot makes me think of a dramatically colored butterfly, perhaps a black swallowtail?

This was definitely my pick, with the real fire going on in the flower and I just love this one ... One thing I've always appreciated in Pansies and Violas are the incredible ranges of colors one can find in a single bloom, and if for no other reason, that makes them worthy annuals to plant in the Spring garden. Of course they tend to disappear when the hotter months arrive, but until then, they sure provide brilliant splashes of color to the emerging perennial border!

Shortly after I started this post, I thought it sounded awful quiet downstairs, so I went down to see what Fernymoss and Hanna were up to (though I already knew), and they were both fast asleep in their respective lounging spots. Lately, Hanna has been spending more time on Pepa's old bed that we have behind the recliners against the wall ... though she shied away from this cushy bed for a long time, she has finally seemed to consider it one of her spaces (I suspect she was given permission from a higher Doggie Power), so I'm glad to see her enjoy it, along with the blanket we gave her to nest in there.

She had quite the day on Sunday, from supervising the weeding and planting we were doing, to doing porch sentry duty (scouting out squinnies, rabbits and neighborhood kitties) and going on her late afternoon walkie with Fernymoss. She clearly had a good day and when I was watching some HGTV earlier, she had a couple of quite dramatic dreams behind me as she was curled up on this comfy bed. We think she's happy here in her new home ... what's not to love? She gets constant attention, has lots of cushy lounging spots and gets to supervise the garden and shake the weeds to death! And pretty soon, if she has her way, she's going to teach those nasty bunnies a lesson for nibbling in our garden ... she's clearly a natural born rodent hunter ... we just hope she can scare them away without having to make an actual kill, which she appears ready to do if given the chance. But if it comes to that, I guess we'll have to endure the bunny screams (which I'd rather avoid, having heard Pepa produce that from them in the past).

Finally, some exciting news I hope to chronicle soon via photos ... we were looking at the Dragon Arum today and discovered that among four of the eight new offshoots, there are four buds coming on! And on the original stalk this year's bud has yet to appear ... so in all probabability we're going to have at least five blooms this year from Mr. Stinky! There may be more, but we're really excited at the prospect of this, our most bizarre plant, producing multiple blooms for the first time this year. Not bad for a bulb we planted in fall 2005, eh? Obviously this is not a plant for everyone, but we're proud to be the only people we know who have such a bizarre bloom arriving every June. Not bad for an original investment of about $8.00 for the bulb, which is clearly very happy where we put it in the Woodland Garden, not far from the Peonies who help to temper its floriferous stench!

When the Good Blues Come Around

2009-05-31T01:27:00.008-05:00

We have always sought out the many shades of blue flowers for our garden, and some might even think we border a bit on the obsessive about it (though I am equally well known about my obsession with fiery colors). The garden is currently morphing into its blue phase before ceding to the fire of summer, as demonstrated by today's shots, which are only just a sampling of what's to come....

First off, one of our favorites (and we actually "inherited" this particular plant with the house), Salvia nemorosa, commonly known as 'Meadow Sage.' This particular, quite popular variety, is called "May Night," no doubt due to its prompt arrival on the bloom stage in mid to late May. Like any of the Salvias (and there are multitudes of them!), this plant is a bee magnet and our resident bumblebee population is never far when it's in bloom. Deadheading Salvia nemorosa will reward you for your work, and you can often maintain bloom time throughout the summer if you're diligent about it (I'm not, alas). If you look to the right in this shot you can see that the Primroses that were so spectacular a couple of weeks ago have gone into a resting phase. I'll keep watering them and hope for more blooms, but even if not, as long as they're concentrating on bringing more to the party next year, I'm just fine with that too! That these little troopers have multiplied from an original 5 puny plants into over 20 in 4 short years has been reward enough for me! And you know, I do love me some Primroses!

This is one of our last spring bulbs to bloom, Camassia quamash, commonly known as Indian Hyacinth, of which we have become ardent fans since we first planted it back in 2005. At first, we made the common mistake of planting these bulbs here and there, for that "natural" look ... wrong move! They deserve to be planted in small masses (say, 6-7 bulbs) so they can really show off their presence when they bloom. And since they look so much like some kind of grass before they bloom, they just naturally look better in groupings ... and they do like to naturalize gradually, so do give them some space to expand. You'll be seeing more of this plant in future posts as the ones we got planted last fall start springing into bloom ... we usually have these through at least mid-June, so at this point they are just getting started.

This luscious bloomer is Hyacinthoides hispanica, aka, 'Spanish Bluebells,' a most reliable late spring bulb bloomer that has been naturalizing quite prolifically for us since we first planted them in 2005. As bulbs go, they're fairly aggressive (much like Crocus), which to my mind is a good thing! I suppose that should they ever become truly invasive, we could always just dig up the bulbs and give them away, but as far as I'm concerned, that's going to take quite a long time ... I think of these 'Bluebells' and the Camassia as the grand finale of the spring bulb bloom season, and when they have finished their show and moved on, Summer has truly begun ... and the Dragon Arum will be stenching its way on to the stage any week now. We did notice today that the first of this year's peonies have opened, and amazingly enough, they are the newest ones we planted just last Spring! The rest won't be far behind, and we'll soon be enjoying that blissful fragrance in the house once again (along with the stray ants)! I can hardly wait....

"Aerodynamic Lounging"

Just a couple of shots of the (apparently) ever popular Princess Hanna, here enjoying the evening air wafting through the Cabana Room on 22 May, 2009. Any guesses as to what she was thinking at this moment? (My guess is that she was gazing at whatever I was eating at the time while we had dinner on the porch!)

Fernymoss took this shot last night and is quite fond of it, despite its obvious flaws ... different lounging, here on the couch (in her favorite spot) and getting late ... Lil Miss Hanna has a bad attack of the snoozies!

In Which I Become an Economic Casualty

2009-05-30T00:30:00.003-05:00

First off, I'd like to apologize for this unplanned hiatus in my posting the last week or so, and to extend my deepest appreciation and thanks to those who have emailed me recently inquiring if things were ok here at Casa IVG. These expressions of concern have really meant a lot to me and lifted my spirits in the past few days....

I'll be blunt and get this over with: I haven't been posting because a week ago this past Wednesday, I lost my job, due to deep staffing cuts brought about by the financial woes of the company I worked for for almost 10 years. So far I'd escaped all the previous cuts, but not this time. Needless to say, I've been pretty laid low emotionally and spiritually by this unwelcome change in the course of my life. I'm still getting my head around the whole scenario before me (unemployment, job search and all), so frankly, for the past week, I've just not been able to put this all into words and mostly avoided the internet and especially the blog. Though technically, I'm on vacation now (I found this out 2 days before I was to begin a long-delayed week of vacation) and will be for the next several weeks (I had that much time built up but never taken ... due to work), then I'll have to rely on Unemployment until I can find other suitable work.

So there you have it, short and not so sweet. But life will go on, assuredly, just a little more unsure and bumpier than usual, at least for a while....

The garden, however, is forever, and continues its march into Summer, which you'll soon be seeing again on these humble pages ... that much is certain. We've been making some good progress in the past week (though this week was pretty much a rainy and cool washout) ... we have most of the veggies already planted and more will go into the ground this weekend, so there's plenty to talk about in the coming weeks. We've got a bit of a backlog built up of the flowers currently blooming so I've got material to keep me busy here ... so just be patient!

The first project I tackled after being "let go" (yeah, I was really chomping at that leash, yearning to be 'liberated') was cleaning up our overwhelmed and messy porch so we could re-open the summer "Cabana Room" we like to use as our lounge during the summer months. There was so much Halloween and Christmas stuff still stored out there that it took me an entire day to organize, clean, sweep and vacuum to get the space into shape for habitation once again. At this point, we're almost there ... we still need to move a couple of shelves and hang some appropriate summer lighting, and then we'll be there. That, as you can see, hasn't stopped Hanna from enjoying her whole new room to exploit ... we have a table (where we often eat on summer evenings), a few chairs and a bench that we need to get in perfect position, but Princess Hanna has already claimed a couple of chairs to herself, just like Pepa used to do....

Like Pepa, Hanna clearly is entranced by having a prime vantage point on our little corner of the neighborhood, and this week, when given the chance, she's spent a good portion of the day out there on her "throne" observing the goings on in her little corner of the universe. This was hard work, well spent on my part, to get this room back into habitable shape for the summer months, and you'll no doubt be seeing more views from here....

When in the living room, Hanna loves to keep an eye on what's going on in the Woodland Garden on the North side of the house ... though she often perches "vulture style" on the top of the couch, we happened to catch her all stretched out and peering out the window. Just another one of the many cute poses we see her strike on a daily basis, but we don't always have the camera handy!

I was just remarking tonight, as we both enjoyed watching It Happened One Night again (thanks, TCM!), that even though it's only been slightly over 4 months since Hanna came to live with us, it seems that she's always been here ... all those little doggie things we become accustomed to seeing and expecting are so clearly in place. She's home. Hanna will be my attentive fan while I'm cooking, Hanna will choose her lounging spot while we watch a movie, Hanna will tell us when she needs to go out, when she wants to play, when it's "walkie" time ... the list goes on. And all you dog lovers and owners know exactly what I mean by that....

And that's a great comfortable stability dogs give us, even in the most unstable of times. I know I'm going to need it, and Hanna seems ready to provide it in spades, as best she can. Her arrival in our lives happened at just the right time, and for once synchronicity has worked in our favor. Thanks again, Pepa.....

Crazy Hanna Explained

2009-05-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

After this past weekend, with its clouds, threats of rain and downright chilly (for spring!) temperatures, the work week arrived right on cue with a gloriously sunny, warm and breezy day! Just my luck ... but aside from work, my preoccupation today was getting the new refrigerator delivered and installed so we could save most of the food we had in the freezer on ice over the weekend. I managed to salvage the majority of things, but some stuff totally thawed and got soggy, so I had to pitch it ... still, it could have been much worse!

Last night we cleared out the kitchen and set about giving it a good cleaning and mopping ... you can't believe the dirt that accumulates behind a refrigerator over six years! It was nasty, so out came Mr. Clean and the mop (and several buckets of very hot water), and after a few moppings I had the kitchen looking pretty good ... it needed it anyway after all the muddy paws over the past few weeks, so at least the refrigerator came into a clean home for a good start.

And arrive it did, late this afternoon when the Sears guys rolled up outside ... they were very efficient and quick about it and were done in perhaps 25 minutes or less. They marched in, measured everything, carried in the new fridge and set it up, then hauled "old unreliable" away in short order ... good bye Harvest Gold, hello modern black! We couldn't be happier with the new one ... even though it's a bit smaller, it seems to have so much more space, and is sooo quiet in comparison with the old one. With its Energy Star rating, it's also going to save on the electric bills (something the old one was awful about ... it was a pure power hog), and we even get a $50 rebate back from the utility company for buying a more efficient model. Add to that the special they had at the store, we also get a $75 rebate that covers the delivery and haul away, so not a bad deal in all, considering we'll get $125 back in rebates ... have to admit that made the whole experience a lot more palatable....

Ok, I know you're really here for the crazy puppy pictures, so here goes, along with an explanation of what probably appeared to be naughty behavior in that shot from last night. This is a game we play with Hanna in the mornings on weekends ... one or both of us will put a hand under the comforter and wiggle it around like some kind of critter, and it drives her wild! She darts from one side of the bed to the other trying to catch it and though I think she really understands that it's one of us (she will nip but never really bite), she has a ball playing this game....

Aha! I've got it for sure this time, I just know!

I'm gonna get you, no matter what it takes ... so there!

I'm done now. It's time to go to bed, ok?

I took all of these photos in the space of probably 10 minutes, from start to finish ... that's how easily Hanna's "switches" work: she's up for play as long as we are, but when it's time to settle down for the night, she takes the cue without complaint and promptly gets with the program. We both swear that she has been the easiest dog either of us has ever had to train ... it seems that just a few repetitions and demonstrations of what we want her to do, and she's got it down! She's a really sharp little gal, it's easy to see, and though that will sometimes mean she's a bit willful (just a terrier!), it's a small compromise to make for having such a bright little pup sharing our lives. Though when I first had Pepa, that was a constant source of frustration and discouragement, but once I got her through that rebellious stage, she grew into one of the best dogs I've ever known. We haven't had any of that with Hanna (so far) and training her has been joyful and fun, just like it should be! You can't imagine how gratifying it's been to watch her learn new things and understand her little quirks more and more, one of which we just discovered last night: she barks at wiggling brooms! So the broom can join Mr. Rake Monster and the roaring Vacuum as her least favorite implements around the house....

Crazy Hanna!

2009-05-18T01:57:00.002-05:00

Just a moment of silliness and egged on craziness for Hanna ... she's really not being destructive here, just playful! Explanations later ... we got her all wound up for a photo op for Coneflower!

Pansies and Primroses in Primetime

2009-05-17T00:35:00.005-05:00

After all the rain this week, it looked like this weekend was going to be our only chance to get out and do some work in the gardens, and once again, reality had to butt its in head again, so we didn't get anything accomplished today. Granted, it was a bit on the chilly side (low 50's for highs), but it was sunny and at least helped out to reduce the mud in the beds so we can work a bit tomorrow outside, along with our new little weeding helper ... so wish us luck!

No, the big. expensive distraction this Saturday involved a refrigerator that just decided to give up the ghost late last night! Right around midnight (just after our weekly James Bond fix on TCM), I went to get a few ice cubes out of the freezer and discovered to my horror that they were melting ... yep, our aged (mmm ... Harvest Gold!) refrigerator that we inherited from my sister several years ago had finally definitely gone kaput suddenly. Though the timing was anything but convenient, we really couldn't complain because it had served my sister quite well for at least 30 years before we got it, so we really should have expected it sooner ... but still. Luckily we have our old fridge (a really ancient one we bought used when we still rented) downstairs for storing beer and soda and such, so we got most of the lower compartment items down there for safekeeping and stuck a big bag of ice in the freezer (which has been keeping things frozen so far) to hold us over until Sunday when we can defrost downstairs and get the frozen meat and such down there until we get the new one.

So, this afternoon it was off to Sears (who happily was having a big appliance sale, just in time) to see what we could get to replace it without breaking the family bank. We ended up deciding on a slightly smaller (18.2 cu ft) black model that should fit better in the space we have for it (the old one really cramped our already tiny kitchen) even though Fernymoss is going to have to rip some of the overhead cupboard out to fit that extra inch in height. Anyway, we plunked down our money and arranged for it to be delivered on Monday, and best of all, they will haul the old one away to the great fridge graveyard in the sky (or wherever it is). Actually, this was a bit of a blessing in disguise ... the old one was impossible to keep clean due to its age, and the door didn't quite close right, so we know it was using a lot of power. The new one is an Energy Star rated one and should eventually pay for itself in saved utility bills ... and it has no drip glass shelves, so it should be much easier to keep clean as well.

So, despite my worries about the expense, it turned out pretty well after all and soon we'll have a nice, clean and quiet refrigerator to spruce up the kitchen a bit ... it just seems that the past couple of years we've been replacing big things around the house ... first the furnace (that was big!), then the washer and dryer in January and now the refrigerator. Just in case, today I glanced at stove prices while we were at Sears, figuring that will be the next thing to go or (goddess forbid!) the air conditioning. We know it's all part of being a homeowner (we've already had to replace the water heater too), but when you're working on a limited budget to begin with, it does get a little scary when these things happen! At least, the current crisis is solved and by Monday night, we'll be admiring and enjoying our new fridge ... one more thing for Hanna to want to investigate thoroughly ... she already knows full well what goes in there and when the door is opened she's always ready to check out what we've got inside!

Now on to the main attraction, more pretty blooms from out front ... with all the rain this week we haven't been getting any pictures, so these are from May 8, and though these are blooming even more, these should give you a good idea of some of the color going on currently as the perennials continue to leap out of the ground with all this rain....

As I've mentioned in previous posts, these Primrose polyanthus 'Elite Hybrids' have been thriving the past few years and currently going great guns, and with any luck, they'll likely last through mid June at least before they take a rest and maybe bloom again in fall. They don't do that often, but have been known to put on a quick second blush of bloom when it starts cooling down in the early fall before going dormant for the winter. I actually really like this shade of pink (horrors!) and their detailed yellow centers and think they're quite lovely. But it's hard for me to pooh pooh any Primrose flowers, no matter what color ... they're welcome in this growing stand of plants that I'm more than willing to pamper during the drier months of the summer, which I think has been the secret to their success so far.

Definitely take a click through (or open in new tab) at this close up, and you can see just how distinctive these centers are to this particular variety ... to my mind, Primroses are all about those luscious yellow centers and all the rest of the color is just the icing. Of course I also find the foliage really attractive too, but the flowers are surely the main attraction for most people, and for those blooms that have an actual fragrance (mostly the pure yellow ones), it's heavenly as well ... a bit like a lighter rose fragrance, but all its own. You'll just have to get down close sometime to experience it for yourself if you get the chance....

It's no secret that reds are one of my favorite shades of flowers, and this variety really delivers on all levels! Just look at that deep, rich red with its delicate white edging around the petals ... a designer could hardly come up with a more elegant accent to this bloom. And again, the yellow centers provide a lot of contrast and interest to the overall blooms ... and if you look closer, you can see the delectable whites in the background ... I'm going to try to get some good shots of the yellows and whites this weekend, as they have been a bit behind the others so far.

Here's a close up shot of the reds so you can take an even closer look at just how intricate each flower is ... there's a more almost fuschia colored one blooming behind it that I'll also try to get soon, so stay tuned....

Since the weather has been cooperatively cool lately, the pansies are continuing to thrive and we're happy they're still growing and happy. Here's another variety we planted several weeks ago, and after a brief pause, they are doing quite well now that most of the bulbs have left or are departing the scene right now....

Another sun soaked shot showing off its best colors on a sunny day ... as most of you know, it's hard for me to resist deep yellow flowers and when they're mixed with deep reds, I'm hooked. These previous two shots were my picks when we bought these (along with some of the "Black" ones that are taking a break right now), so I had to include them as well.

So, once we get some garden work done today, I hope we can get some pictures as we work to keep up with what's going on out in the garden ... it's getting hard to keep up with everything popping and growing up so quickly right now ... it's been a great spring so far and let's hope it continues without any flooding this June! Just as an aside, the Dragon Arum now has not five, but eight offshoots up right now and it's shooting right out of the ground, so we're hoping that Mr. Stinky has company this year (even if we may have to keep the dining room windows closed for a couple of days)! You'll definitely know when it happens....

Update on previous poll: I've had this poll up a couple of weeks and it seems to have run its course, but I thought I'd report on the rather interesting results. Top scorers were The Godfather (6) and All of Me, (6) which kind of surprised me. Not that I thought those were obscure, but that a Lily Tomlin-Steve Martin film would tie Coppola's masterpiece, so those results pleased me. Even more surprising was Dinner at Eight coming in at 5 votes ... I was glad that others appreciate this classic does seem to have an audience out there, even if only among Urban Oasis readers. The real surprise to me was that Iron Man, with all its positive reviews and commercial success only scored 4 ... after all, I was recommended this by other garden bloggers! (You know who you are, Mr. McGregor's Daughter and Annie in Austin !) Despite what you may think of Robert Downey, Jr., it's a great film and lots of fun and comes up 4 barks up from Hanna and us! I was gratified that 3 people chose Gods and Monsters, one of the finest semi-biographical films I've seen in a long time about Frankenstein director James Whale, a fascinating character in his own right. With stellar performances from Sir Ian McKellan, Brendan Fraser and Vanessa Redgrave, this is an engaging and touching drama that deserved to be seener by a much wider audience when it came out ... it's stil not too late, thanks to the miracle of DVDs! And finally, I really didn't think anyone would choose Persepolis ... because it didn't get wide exposure, but whoever chose it, I'd like to hear what you thought about it, because we both thought it was a remarkable film to be coming out of Iran these days. No surprise that no one chose That Obscure Object of Desire, since Luis Buñuel is one of my particular pleasures (I've been a student of surrealism for years) and is his beautiful swan song as far as I'm concerned ... even after all these years, I don't have Fernymoss converted to Buñuel's work, but I keep trying ... I'm just too much of the literary critic and film historian at heart to completely win him over. But he does enjoy these when he sees them, problem is, he can't remember them. And that's probably something that would make Buñuel proud, because he always wanted his audience to rediscover his works whenever they saw them, and he worked hard at that. Bless you, Buñuel, wherever you are ... I still revere your memory, as do many others of film scholars over the years. You are missed!

By the way, there's a new poll up about summer blockbusters, so don't forget to vote! I've already weighed in, so you can see how I voted....

Species Tulips: Little Beauty

2009-05-12T23:30:00.001-05:00

A viewing tip for the photos: Most of you may already know that I include a higher resolution, larger photo of everything I post here, and I encourage everyone to either click through or open photos in another window (or tab if you use Firefox) to see much more detail than the version posted on this page. You'll be glad you did....

You'll recognize this lovely species tulip "Little Beauty" from last Friday's "Bloomfest" preview of coming floriferous attractions. But it definitely deserves its own post, don't you think? As I noted previously, these were a freebie I got with a large order of bulbs and at first I was dubious about whether I'd like them or not ... I just thought the whole idea of red white and blue flowers has been a bit overdone (ever notice the specifically designed "patriotic" combos sold in plant catalogues?), but now after having them perform for us so magnificently over the past four years, I'm a believer! Especially when they morphed into those orange throwbacks, mutants or whatever you want to call them. We're both delighted to have them gracing the area in the front boulder bed adjoining the steps....

This first bloom seems a bit coquettish to me for some reason, as if she's beckoning the viewer to get closer but still maintaining a modestly chaste distance....

This bloom, however, has no qualms about showing off all she's got to offer, and wow she's got some set of stamens going on in there! I do declare, Fernymoss did a stellar job on these photos, and in the larger versions, you can even see the individual grains of pollen! We just love being able to get macro shots that reveal that level of detail in an individual bloom, because often we can see how much variation there can be from flower to flower....

I just liked this ensemble shot of both the orange and reds together ... they make quite a contrast, and I find it fascinating how even in the orange "mutants" you can see the linkage of color to the original cultivar when you compare the blues at the center of the blooms. And you get a bonus flaming pansy in this shot too!

Growing these species tulips is really pretty foolproof, as long as you can provide them with a good loamy, well drained soil in a sunny position (ours get morning eastern sun and early afternoon southern sun). I've often seen them recommended for rock gardens with lower growing plants, and as seen in the previous photo I posted, they make an excellent companion to Grape Hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) because their bloom times coincide. I think they'd look wonderful with the Iris Reticulata (Dwarf Iris), except that the Irises are long gone before these little guys bloom. In fact, in previous years I've wondered if these died off because the "Persian Pearl" variety we also have planted has bloomed and gone before we see these. It's merely a matter of a staggered bloom time, which actually, I think is a nice feature. Just when you're missing the "Persian Pearls" the "Little Beauties" march on to the stage for their moment in the sun....

I got more of our bulb order in the mail today ... the Mixed Caladiums arrived, so now we've got even more bulbs that need to go into pots this weekend! I haven't grown Caladiums since I was in college and these will be a first for the garden here at Casa IVG, where we plan on placing them in shady spots (like under the spruce in back) where we want a splash of color. At least having them in pots will spare us the hassle of digging them up in the fall to bring in! So the time spent now potting them will save us time and effort later... It looks like our Fancy Cannas are on backorder, so I hope they get here in a reasonable amount of time to allow for them to get in the ground and do their thing. But on the other hand, the area we have planned for them is not cleared out yet, so we've got time ... we decided to try to eradicate that inherited Lysimachia ciliata ('Firecracker') that is trying to take over the northeast boulder bed out front. It's just gotten too aggressive where it is and since our planting space is already at a premium and dwindling every year, we just can't justify it anymore. Though it is very pretty, it needs to be at least brought under control this year (last year it was the Zebrina Mallow ... it's always something!). Anyway, once that's gone, we're going to put a 'Carmencita' Red Castor and the cannas in that spot as a specimen showcase ... hopefully this scheme will actually happen!

Poor Hanna ... she had to spend the day inside with me when it was sunny and nice outside, but by the time I was able to quit for the day, a line of thunderstorms was moving in quickly, which not only thwarted my plans to get a few Delphiniums planted, but also dashed her hopes of getting out for a walkie today! We had some thundershowers for several hours tonight, nothing serious, which was welcome, even if they came at an inopportune time....

We continue to congratulate ourselves for picking out such a great new toy for Hanna ... she absolutely loves this Monster Mouth! Even when it's not loaded with treats (as it is in this shot), she loves playing with it and having us toss it around. One nice feature about it is that it has a very irregular and unpredictable bounce to it, so if we deliberately bounce it off a wall, she has to really scramble and watch to retrieve it. The Kongs do that as well, but this one has really captured her attention at the moment and one of these days we'll finally get a shot of her head on walking around with it in her mouth with the teeth showing (it's hilarious!), but so far we haven't been able to capture this yet. You'll know it when we do....

Garden Helper Hanna

2009-05-11T00:11:00.000-05:00

As usual, our weekend gardening aspirations often fall short of what we plan, due to circumstances, but Sunday was a pretty good day nonetheless, especially for Hanna. Though she had to spend a couple of hours in her crate while we took Fernymoss' Mom and Dad out for lunch, she had her Monster Mouth to keep her busy (treats included of course) and she was patiently waiting for us when we got back. Since I wasn't feeling well most of this weekend, and my arthritis was really keeping me down for the most part, I was of very limited use (I did a little clean up and removed some old fencing no longer needed). Fernymoss and Hanna, however, got a lot done in the back garden and back yard ... after Fernymoss got the grass mowed, he and Hanna worked on weeding and breaking up the soil in the back veggie garden, getting it ready to be tilled. We discovered that Hanna finds this a quite entertaining game and does her best to kill those dastardly weeds ... Fernymoss was breaking up the ground, pulling dandelions and other stuff and then tossing it into what was to become a pile headed to the compost ... well, Hanna decided it was her job to jump up, catch them and shake the remaining life out of these nasty weeds! I took quite a few short videos of her in action and we decided that the following one was the best for posting, though some of the others have their hilarious moments as well. This one, however, best demonstrates her basic weed killing routine, so take a look!

Hanna Helps With the Weeding
(Click on image to play)

If it looked like she was having fun playing the "weed the garden" game, you can take it on our word that she was having an absolute ball! It was a little challenging getting all her high flying jumps in the frame, but this should give a good idea of what a little jumper she is ... we've noticed lately how "buff" she's been getting since we've had her, just check out those defined thighs ... she was a very muscular and solid dog when we got her, but all the walkies and exercise she's been getting since it's been warmer are really starting to show visible results! We're really pleased, because we want to do our best to keep her from getting overweight, which could have very serious health consequences for such a little frame. We have discussed an ideal weight with Dr. B and we all concluded that as long as she stays at or below 20 pounds, she should be fine (she weighs just under 18 pounds now). As tempting as it is to shower her with treats, we limit them to after dinner snacks and in moderation, and so far our strategy seems to be working out fine....

I call this shot "Garden Sentry"

I'm sure you've noticed that we keep her on a long lead (20 ft) out in the back ... we have a very solid tie out stake in the middle of the yard that gives her a great 360 degree access of all of the parts of the yard where we'd like her to play and run, without being able to get into the veggie, peony or herb beds. Neither of us is a fan of tying dogs out (especially when left alone!), but this is really for her own good ... for now. Until we get the fence repaired (which, thanks to some donated fencing from one of our neighbors who took a section of theirs down, should be soon), we just can't trust her not to escape.

As anyone who has ever had a Terrier (or Terrier Mix) can testify, they are very intense little dogs, especially when young, and they often don't think before charging after a rabbit, squirrel or some other critter, so really, this is for her protection. Fortunately she only goes on the lead when out with us (we do not leave her alone this way) and doesn't seem to mind at all, though she still does get a bit tangled up on occasion. And she respects the boundaries enforced by the lead, so it's working out pretty well so far ... we're looking forward to the day when we can turn her loose and really let her run laps but it may be a while. Since we live at the intersection of an often pretty busy street and we don't know how many "street smarts" she has, it's just better to restrict a little of her off leash time for now until we're sure she won't try to either 1) jump the fence (which she probably could do) or 2) climb out or otherwise sneak away ... so for now, we'll use the lead.

"Testing the Scented Air"

As soon as we get the majority of the garden in, we have several projects planned to improve the back yard, one of which is to get Hanna some agility activities set up, including hoop jumping. We're pretty confident we can let her off the lead to practice, as it will involve (at least at first) treats and close supervision and interaction, and Hanna loves the interaction part when it involves playing! We also plan on modifying a few areas, such as the rock ring around the spruce where we have the birdbath. Nothing of any value will grow under that spruce, and we have tried, unsuccessfully (e.g. miserable failures) to plant strawberries, cyclamens, Lupines and other flowers there and everything either dies or is overrun with weeds.

So I hatched this plan a while back ... we are going to clear all the crap out, put down landscaping cloth and fill in the area with pond rocks (we found some reasonably priced bags of those last weekend and they're quite attractive). That way at least we can keep the weeds down and provide a place to place potted shade loving plants (I have Caladiums ordered and on their way) for the summer months. But again, that's going to have to wait until the major planting is done, since it's a less time sensitive plan. The other ugly area we have is an old metal shed that we inherited with the place ... in a perfectly well financed world, we'd just rip the ugly thing out and put in something better, but with finances the way they are, that's a luxury we just can't afford right now. And we need the storage space for pots, the mower and tiller, which are just impractical to store inside ... So the tactic (again another scheme of mine) this year is to obscure it with green! Along with the recently received Tree Peony, we got a bag of 5 giant Elephant Ear bulbs ... we already planted one in a big pot out in the front boulder bed and the rest of them are going into large pots that we are going to line up along the line of the shed that's seen from the street. Since the Elephant Ears get about 6 ft tall, they should do a good job of covering up the ugliest parts, and along the base of the shed where they will go, we're also going to put down landscaping cloth and pond rocks to prettify it a bit. Of course, when that starts to happen, I'll keep folks posted here.

"Daddy did you call me?"

I took the last three shots while we were taking a break in the lawn chairs, and this last one was the result of me calling Hanna over for a visit ... I just love getting to see her run, and miraculously (thanks to the motion compensation setting on the camera) this one actually captured her pretty clearly in motion (even with a high degree of zoom). As you may have noticed in the previous two shots, Hanna has a great profile in form ... I often marvel that if dog show standards were sometimes applied to mixed breeds, one could come up with some really nice examples of confirmation. I can clearly see the Corgi shoulders, chest and length in Hanna, nicely balanced with the general lines and markings of a Jack Russell Terrier. For us, at least, she is the best of both breeds, all packed into a wonderful little bundle of joy and energy. Add in her incredible curiosity and natural intelligence, and we think we've found the ideal pup to follow in her illustrious predecessors' pawsteps.

Ok, enough proud daddy puppy blathering ... I'll return to the regularly scheduled flower blogging in the next post, I promise! There's a lot going on and more to come as the summer months approach and Hanna will be along for the ride, helping out as she can ... Fernymoss did tell me that she scared up a baby bunny on Friday afternoon, but it got away ... lucky for now, but put on notice to take up residence elsewhere!

Finally, a President With a Sense of Humor!

2009-05-10T00:40:00.003-05:00

I didn't actually watch the coverage of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, instead, I watched a very entertaining and quirky film called In Bruges (starring Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell). I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but had read good reviews of this film, so when I saw it recently on the sale table for $3.99 I snapped it up, then promptly forgot I bought it ... until tonight, when I was clearing up some of the DVD clutter and rediscovered it. Since Fernymoss was closing tonight (and I knew he had little to no interest in this one), I sat down with my dinner and popped it in. And I was very pleasantly surprised that this film --ostensibly about two hit men hiding out in Bruges after a job gone sour in England -- turned out to be so humorous and full of enjoyable plot twists throughout. Yes, there's a fair amount of pretty bloody violence (they are hit men after all) and coarse language, but there are also some pretty funny scenes in it, some almost worthy of classic Monty Python sketches.

I won't even try to summarize its plot, because this is one of those "little" films that is best experienced "cold" to fully appreciate its quirky charms. And if you are a fan of Colin Farrell, it's a must see (I have to admit that I find him quite hot) to see him successfully tackle a role that demands that he not only be callous and cold, yet incredibly funny at other moments, while still conveying an underlying sense of humanity. That's an odd mix to have to pull off, but I think he did a great job ... and the supporting cast is equally adept at turning this bloody tale into a satisfying mix of drama and comedy. So, if you can get past the basic thematic elements (hit men, violence), it's well worth a look. Obviously this is not one of the classics for the ages, but it is very well directed and does have a tightly written script with a lot of truly witty contemporary social commentary (not particularly kind to Americans, I might add). I'd give it 3.5 Hibiscus Blooms out of a possible 5.0!

On to the real subject of this post, our President's speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night. As I mentioned, I didn't watch it in real time because I figured I'd catch the highlights later on MSNBC or online ... and happily, these two videos (the entire segment Obama did) were promptly posted on YouTube, so if you're interested in seeing how he did, you've got them right in front of you now! Just click on the image below for Part I.

Isn't it great to have a President with a smart sense of humor? After the last eight years of a bumbling wannabe tyrant who mangled the English language on a daily basis, it's just so refreshing to see a President who can not only express himself intelligently, wittily and demonstrate a self-deprecating sense of humor. Not to mention, some of his best zingers are well worth quoting (note the comments about Rush Limbaugh, Darth Cheney, Michael Steele and John Boehner). For Part II, click on the image below.

Fernymoss and I just about fell out of our chairs laughing at the Boehner quip, and it has to be seen to be believed. I'm sure there are a lot of Rethuglicans foaming at the mouth out there tonight because of Obama's mockery of them. One could (theoretically) I suppose debate the propriety of such a political skewering, but in my estimation, after having been demonized for the past eight years by bloviating Rethuglican gasbags, my response is basically: get over it. Payback is a bi$ch, eh? If you can't take a joke, you're seriously in need of an attitude adjustment (but we already knew that didn't we?). In case you're interested in a bit of Wanda Sykes' follow up to Obama, you can catch an excerpt here.

Ok, on to what you're really here for: the vicarious, gratuitous puppy pics! So, without further delay, here are some shots that Fernymoss took just a while ago of Hanna attacking her new favorite toy, the Monster Mouth, filled with treats. She loves this new toy that we got her for her birthday last weekend ... it has little chambers inside where you can hide small treats ... and since Hanna loves solving puzzles, this one didn't take her long to crack, but she still gets a real kick out of working it for all it's worth. And the rubber is so tough she can't crack it, something we've come to realize is an essential feature of any toy we give her....

What are you looking at? I'm workin here!

I just know I can get that last bit out if I work a bit harder at it....

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! We're taking Fernymoss' Mom out to lunch today, then have some garden tasks ahead of us for the afternoon (clean up and more planting!) so it looks to be a busy day shaping up for us, and best of all for Hanna, she'll get to spend much of the day outside with us supervising, her favorite job! Aside from catching and shaking (to death) the dandelions and other weeds we dig out of the gardens!

Sunny Friday Bloomfest

2009-05-09T00:35:00.012-05:00

Fernymoss had all the luck today ... since he had the day off and I didn't (what else is new?) he got a lot done in the garden and I didn't! By the time I was able to quit for the day, a storm front was moving through and brought us some brief, but torrential downpours (and yes, the intersection flooded briefly), so I wasn't able to get out for very long. He got several of our new perennials in the ground: namely, the Purple Campanula, the new red Columbine, and most exciting of all -- our new Tree Peony, 'Rimpoh' and one of the Elephant Ears (Colocasia) which just arrived this afternoon! The Tree Peony plant we received looked pretty healthy and of really good stock ... with a nice thick woody trunk and several shoots already beginning to grow off the central trunk. We have great hopes for this new plant already ... as I mentioned in a previous post, it went in the back yard in the peony bed we have at the northeast corner of the fence. I'll keep you all posted on its progress as it develops....

Thanks to Fernymoss, we have some really fantastic stuff he was able to shoot while it was still sunny, in the low 70's and dry. I'll be doing more detailed posts on most of these flowers soon, but here's another preview post of some things going on in the Boulder Bed out front....

We have two established stands of this 'Species' Tulip, 'Little Beauty,' which as I mentioned in my previous post on 'Persian Pearl' is a much later blooming variety. Now, you might be wondering if these are two different varieties, well honestly, I don't know what happened that produced those orange ones! I originally got these as a bag of freebies from Park's back in 2005 when I got a bunch of tulip bulbs from them, including 'Persian Pearl.' Some kind soul there must have figured that if I liked 'Persian Pearl,' I'd like these as well, so they threw in a bag of 10 bulbs! Like their cousins, these Little Beauties have naturalized quite nicely in the ensuing four years ... the odd thing is, the first two or three years they all came up looking the same, and then in 2007, these Orange Mutants showed up along with them, blooming at exactly the same time. We're quite fine with that, as they are very attractive as well and provide a nice contrast to the others and give even more diversity to this little area of the Boulder Bed by our front steps. We definitely plan on adding more of these in the fall, because they are small, quick and easy to plant and are excellent naturalizers. I've done some shopping research on them and right now it appears that McClure-Zimmerman Bulbs (of WI) has the widest variety and best prices I've found so far. So, if you're tempted, check there first!

And yes, we have a lovely bumper crop of dandelions in the yard and garden right now! They get dug from the Boulder Bed, but we let them go in the yard, because they are really beneficial to the soil (especially if you need clay broken up, which fortunately we don't), so we let them go in the grass and parking. Besides ... without resorting to nasty herbicides, we're never going to eradicate them anyway, and we're not willing to go that far ... and honestly, aren't they a pretty reminder it's really Spring for real?

Here's a teaser close up shot of more to come about 'Little Beauty,' and Fernymoss got some absolutely spectacular shots of these in their full glory (because, alas, like 'Persian Pearl' they only last about a week at the most and these just opened on Thursday, so they're currently in their prime). I'll have a full post with more information on these very soon, so stay tuned....
I mentioned in an earlier post that I had found a pot of two hardy primroses at a nursery last weekend and snapped it up, mainly because it had one of the elusive blue blooms (the other is red). I planted these same day I got them and they look as if they had never moved and appear happy already in the Primrose Bed, so I have great hopes that they will enjoy the company of the others and multiply as successfully over the next few years....

Finally, just look at this Pansy on fire! A few weeks ago we picked up about 12 Pansies and got them out while it was still pretty cool, and now they're starting to come into their own. Of course, once it gets hot, they'll fade away quickly (but not before putting on seed, I hope!), but as early spring annuals go, Pansies are a great thing to have in the garden because they give you color when everything else is just waking up, and can thrive even with the occasional frost risk that we have through about mid May. We've taken a few risks with a some annuals, but think what we have actually planted so far could survive any frost (Pansies, Snapdragons). Hopefully we're past that threat now, but May in Iowa can sometimes bring unpleasant surprises, so that's why we're holding off on getting the tomatoes and other veggies in the ground just yet. That will happen soon, once we get the rest of the annuals and perennials we've gotten in the ground. As always, at this time of the year, we feel that manic-panic impulse to scramble to get things in as fast as we can ... we vow every year not to put ourselves in this position, but inevitably do anyway ... I'm sure we're not alone!

MOVIE NOTE: Tonight TCM had two of the early (Connery) James Bond films on and though I recorded them both, we actually watched Thunderball in real time. I hadn't seen this one in quite a few years and had forgotten how much fun it was to experience the best of the series again, and wow, Sean was at his hottest in this one, even if he was the ever womanizing, scheming almost scoundrel Bond. Though the intrigue may feel a bit dated at this point, it's easy to see how these early Bonds established a paradigm that would be shamelessly copied in (often inferior) action films of successive years (and decades). According to IMDB, TCM is showing it again on Saturday, May 9, at 4:00 pm (EST), so if you read this in time and get TCM you can catch this again if you're an early Bond fan!

FINAL MOVIE NOTE: If you are interested in seeing Dinner at Eight, which I reviewed recently, TCM is showing it again on May 14 at 5:00 a.m., so set your DVR accordingly and you will be richly entertained by this outstanding ensemble cast!

Spring Woodland Garden Views

2009-05-07T00:07:00.003-05:00

How about a little change of pace from the regular parade of bulbular delights? It's not that I don't have more nice shots of the remaining bulbs blooming (I do!) ... I just am short on time for this post due to a very busy day today at work, so I've gotta do a quickie here, and since Hanna didn't do anything cute today, I don't even have a new puppy pic. Ok, I dissemble (as one certain presidential doofus once said: And that means to lie!) ... she did plenty of cute things, I was just busy and didn't get pictures!

Anyway, I thought I'd choose some of these shots Fernymoss took of the Woodland Garden in his last session, so here goes. Obviously the Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) is going great guns and getting huge already, and before it's done growing it will likely reach 3-4 feet tall as it usually does. This particular specimen was one of the very first plants that went into the Woodland Garden back in 1999, so it is quite well established. I don't think we could divide it even if we wanted to because its base has gotten so woody that it would probably take a saw to do it, and that would probably kill the plant. Never mind though, this one seems to produce enough little seedlings every year that we always seem to have a few to pass along to other gardeners (my sister won't even take any more because I've given her so many!).

Let's go a bit wider here to get a little more context ... this is a peek into the "inner" part of the Woodland Garden not visible from the sidewalk, a "secret garden," if you will. The obvious plants here are the Bleeding Heart and the Hollies, but if you look carefully, there are three other plants that you'll find in this view: the emerging Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum), Ligularia 'The Rocket' (Ligularia spicata) and Ligularia 'Desdemona' (Ligularia dentata). Regular readers already know that we are huge fans of Ligularia, and for anyone with a shady or woodland garden both these varieties are absolute necessities. Though they bloom entirely differently ... 'Spicata' has a large bloom stalk that towers above the plant (thus the name Rocket) whereas Desdemona's flowers are held close to the top of the plant and will fool you into thinking they're Black Eyed Susans from a distance. Before we knew what this plant was (years ago) we'd see it in gardens and wonder just what it was because it just seemed that flowers like that shouldn't be blooming in shade! Then we found out ... and have been huge fans ever since. We currently have two of them and if we see another nice plant for sale this year, it will be coming home to join its relatives somewhere in this rapidly getting crowded area of the garden....

Finally, here's one of the many emerging Ostrich Plume Ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris) that are beginning to become a bit "thuggy" in this part of the garden. Actually we don't mind, because we want them in other areas around Casa IVG, so when they start encroaching on something we consider more valuable, we just dig them up and move them. With a little babying (extra watering), they quickly dig in and thrive in their new homes, as long as they are in shady places. We plan on moving a bunch of these to the front of the house along the porch foundation this year, because nothing but weeds will grow there, and the few we've already planted there are doing nicely, so these classic ferns make a great plant along foundations where you might need to cover up unsightly areas. We also have them along the Woodland Garden foundation where they blend nicely with Lily of the Valley (which are almost ready to bloom now, just a bit later than it does in France as I noted on May 1).

The weather outlook for this weekend so far is looking good ... mid 60's and only minimal chances of rain, so we'll need to get busy and get all those plants we got last weekend into the ground or pots before we make any more purchases! Though Fernymoss doesn't have Saturday off, he does have Friday (alas, not me!) off and is going to get at least the new Hellebore and Trillium in in the Woodland Garden. Looks like a busy planting weekend shaping up here, so I'll make sure we have the camera handy to document what we've gotten done.

Last weekend I ordered a bunch of plants from Van Bourgondien, (my favorite bulb supplier), since they had sent a "double your money" sale catalogue that made some things on our wish list actually affordable. So ... I ordered some fancy Caladiums, a couple of fancy Cannas, some giant Elephant Ears to plant in pots, but the most exciting is: we're finally getting a Tree Peony! We've had our eye on Rimpoh for a couple of years now and this sale finally convinced me to shake loose and order one! We've wanted a tree peony for years, but usually they are priced so high that we have to pass them by, but not this time ... we're going to put it just inside the northeast corner of the fence in the back yard with the other new peonies we planted last year, which are already up and starting to put on tiny buds. This is the corner of the yard by the sidewalk so preferred by Pepa and Rolly (for watching the world go by), and where we are going to inter their ashes later this spring or summer. We were discussing this Saturday night and realized what a great tribute it is having the Peonies, especially the Tree Peony, nearby them ... since the Peony is traditioinally a symbol of immortality in Asia, it's only fitting that they will have their final resting place among the Peonies. Sunday we saw some irregular blocks of Obsidian for sale at a reasonable price, so we think if we can find some pieces we like, we are going to get them as headstones to sink into the ground as markers. Fernymoss will use his Dremel to polish them up a bit, so if we find just the right shapes, that's how we'll commemorate these two very special dogs who brought so much happiness to our lives for so many years....

Blooming Wednesday Potpourri

2009-05-06T00:06:00.003-05:00

What a lovely spring day today: partly cloudy, highs in the low 70's ... and I sure wished I hadn't been cooped up in the house working! But I at least was able to get out for a little while after work (and before dinner time) to make the discovery rounds with Fernymoss. Though we didn't get anything in the ground just yet, we both were able to get some shots of the current show and made a few surprising discoveries in the process.

So let's peek inside the Mother Ship below and get going on the tour....

Alas, the tulips are starting to wind down, and all it's going to take is a hard rain or a really windy day and their precious petals will be sent sailing off in the breeze ... but for the moment, they are still looking pretty stunning nonetheless. Fernymoss was having a lot of fun shooting these types of shots of blooms that were lowering the front door of the Mother Ship to reveal the mysterious forms within. This particular bloom is one of our Darwins that have made somewhat of a comeback this year. Even though we lost over 100 of these in that awful late extended freeze in 2007, we're still convinced that these hybrids are the best tulips who truly qualify as perennials. With their 18" stems (no kidding!) and brilliant colors, the Darwins are by far your best value in tulips if you want them to stick around for a good long time.....

Here's a quick shot I took of the overall "ensemble" going on in the Primrose bed by the front steps ... I plan on doing an entire post on these beauties soon, but I need to be able to take the time to get close ups, but for now, I wanted to give a sense of just how this grouping works together. The Blue (and red) one you see at the lower left is the pot I got last weekend and planted on Sunday, and so far they look quite happy in their new home. To the right, just by the yellow ones is the plant I got for Valentine's day. It had to spend a little too long in the house on the windowsill, but now that it's in the ground near its cousins, I'm hopeful that it will stake out its place and join the party ... it's a crap shoot as to whether this will be perennial or not (quite often the primroses sold as potted plants aren't), but at least it has a fighting chance. It will get pampered throughout the season, as will all of these, my much prized Primulas.

And here's the newest member of our Hellebore family, Ivory Prince, that we just got last weekend. Though this is not his permanent home, I just wanted to get a shot of him to show off because he's currently got a lot of blooms going on. Talk about instant gratification ... though we have been patiently nursing some very small plants we got in 2005 over the past four years (and they are blooming now ... more on them later), we both feel that $22 was more than a fair price for this plant, given what most nurseries charge for much smaller plants (usually in the $8-9 range). Plus, we already know what the blooms will look like! Gail commented the other day that she has this variety and she really likes it, so we have confirmation from a good source that this was indeed a wise buy. We're excited to see how this new addition will make his home in the Woodland Garden....

An update on what I posted as a "mystery plant" last week ... long term readers here immediately knew what this was, so I might as well lift the veil of "secrecy" and reveal that this is indeed Dracunculs vulgaris, aka: Dragon Arum, and affectionately known as "Mr. Stinky" around Casa IVG. This was an enormous bulb we originally planted in 2005, and in 2006 it came up, leafed out but didn't bloom ... but then in 2007, it rewarded us with its first bloom. (If you'd like to see the evolving history of this plant, click on the "Dracunculus vulgaris" label below the post to see all previous entries. Then you'll see what this will become in another month or so.) Last year it bloomed again, but also put up five little offshoots at its base, so we're hoping for multiple blooms this year ... but today Fernymoss discovered that this year we have eight offshoots coming up and leafing out right now. Wow, just wow! When we planted this, we weren't even sure it would be reliably hardy here, but it sure seems to be happy where we have it planted in the Woodland Garden not far from the peonies. It's ironic that we chose to plant the stinkiest plant in our garden so close to the flowers with the best fragrance ... we'll just call it a happy coincidence.

For those of you who need your daily puppy pic fix, here's Hanna this afternoon, working her Kong for all it's worth. During the day when I'm working, she hangs out with me in my office either snoozing on the futon couch or looking out the window at the world, and is very patient with my schedule. Of course I give her regular attention and loving, but she really seems to realize that I'm working and behaves herself quite well. But when early afternoon comes, she needs to head out for a potty break, and when we return she expects her Kong! So I usually stuff it with a bit of peanut butter and a few small treats to keep her busy for a while ... Here she's trying to extract that last little bit of peanut butter from the Kong, after getting the crunchy treats out first. She has a really cool way of using her front paws literally as hands to grip the Kong, and that was what I was trying to capture, but once the camera is fired up, she gets "shy" about showing off what she can do. At least this shot shows a little bit of what she can do to grip things with her front paws ... what a constantly amazing little girl she has turned out to be! We think she's going to grow up to be "scary smart" due to her already huge vocabulary of words she recognizes! She definitely has mastered every corner of the house so far and knows where everything is (especially the food and treats), so she clearly has established the reign of Princess Hanna, whether we like it or not! And we're thrilled, of course.....

The Spring Bloom Bonanza Continues ....

2009-05-05T00:05:00.001-05:00

Monday was a mild, but mostly cloudy day and due to a bad headache I developed during the afternoon, I just didn't have the oomph to get out and try to get some more photos of the current bulb bonanza happening out front, so just a few more shots from Fernymoss' session from April 30 to show off.

Things are growing at an amazing pace here these days, and there's something new to discover practically every day out in the Boulder Beds and the Woodland Garden. Our plan this week is to plant a few things every day after work since we got so much new plant material last weekend. My aim today (if the weather cooperates, since rain is again in the forecast) is to put in a few of the (eight!) new Delphinium varieties I just got ... 3 Blue Elf, 3 Blue Butterfly and 2 Summer Night. I've decided to add a couple to my existing stand of Blue Elf to bring that up to a total of 5, then create two other stands elsewhere with the rest and mix them all up for variety. Since they're all various hues of blue, they should look great together. I'm also going to throw a bunch of Larkspur seed in with them, just to see if I can get some of that going again (though the last time I got Larkspur going great guns, the were rabbits ate them all).

The Primroses (Primula polyanthus) are really happy and blooming right now, so I hope I can get some pictures of them today, but here's a preview Fernymoss provided from last Thursday. I love the gradations of color in this red and yellow one, especially the red "stripe" down the center of the petals. I found another pot of Primroses over the weekend that I planted on Sunday, along with that yellow one I got for Valentine's day, so I think our approximate total of plants is now somwhere around 20-22 in this bed! And to think, I started this grouping with five tiny plants back in 2005 ... they have multiplied rapidly (to my delight) in just four years and I hope they continue to prosper! I've waxed rhapsodically here before about my love of Primroses, so I'll spare you that, but to me, these charming little spring bloomers just personify the quintessential cottage garden plant with their cheeful, colorful faces peeking up from their compact bushy plants. My hope is that these will eventually take over much of this little bed over time....

This is one of our remaining Jan De Bos Hyacinths currently in bloom ... somwhere along the line we have lost two of these, which is regrettable, because I really like this hot pink bordering on fuscha color (though it's classified as "red"), and of course, its fragrance is, like all hyacinths, absolutely lovely. This one is doing well where it is (next to one of the purple Peter Stuyvesants) and has put up two blooms again this year, so I think it must be planning on sticking around for the long haul. So much the better!

Now let's venture into Trillium territory, where things are really revving up quickly! We'll have more shots of these probably later this week, but for now, let's take a look at how quickly these emerge, practically blooming from the ground ... two weeks ago, there were no signs of these in the Woodland Garden, and all of a sudden last week, there they were! When we first found these several years ago (I think it was in 2006), they were identified only as "Trillium, Wildflower." Apparently these are often misidentified even in better nurseries, so my best guess is that these are Trillium luteum, due to their pale yellow flowers. No matter what they are, we love them and they seem to like where we have planted them ... we started with three plants originally and now they have increased to at least five, though I wouldn't be surprised to discover yet another lurking in this stand once we get the dead fern growth cleared out soon. I'll keep you posted ... and this weekend, we found another small plant where we got the new Hellebore, so there will be at least six going into this growing season and the next.

Here's a bit closer view of three Trilliums who have clumped together ... though we love the unique blooms, I think the foliage is almost as stunning as the flowers, and ours stick around throughout the summer even if the blooms do fall off eventually. They're great Woodland Garden plants and make excellent companions for our Jack in the Pulpit, ferns and Toad Lilies we have nearby because they blend right in and give us at least a small impression of a little woodland stand in the middle of the city, which is what we have been trying to achieve....

I think Fernymoss did an outstanding job with this macro close up of a bloom just opening (enlarge to see all the deail) ...just look at those stamens! This is clearly a moment captured in time, because by now I'm sure this flower has opened fully, so thanks to Fernymoss, we have a glimpse into the gradual unfurling of these petals, revealing the intimate inner bits of this lovely bloom....

Puppy pic overload time again ... this is a fairly typical pose for Hanna when she takes up her spot on the couch. Nothing amazing, but just another of her acknowledge my cuteness! poses that we're privileged to enjoy multiple times daily. She just generates smiles by her very being (and this is not limited to us, as Fernymoss sees total strangers break into big smiles when they see her on walkies). We're lucky dogs (as we remind ourselves often) and so is she! Her match with us was just meant to be, as we believe more and more over time....

Hanna's Big Weekend Out

2009-05-04T00:04:00.002-05:00

We were finally treated with a weekend without rain (the first in 5 weeks!), warm temperatures (it was in the low 70's today with abundant sun) and generally great gardening conditions, so we tried to take our best advantage of them. Saturday we took Hanna on an excursion to her favorite store, Petco, because they had her food on sale at a significant savings and we had a coupon almost to expiration, so we wanted to economize as much as possible, considering we were getting her some Frontline (for fleas and ticks), which is no small expenditure at $60 for 3 months! Of course we couldn't resist taking her through the toy aisle (I'm not sure if it's more fun for her or us!) and got her a couple new toys as belated birthday presents (more on those later).

Then we made a stop on the way home at a more upscale specialty nursery (e.g. on the pricey side) where we made some real finds and I dropped a significant amount of cash ... Our big find was a new hybrid Hellebore called 'Ivory Prince,' that is the biggest Hellebore I've ever seen, so we had to have it. Unlike all the other Hellebores we have, which are of the Royal Heritage strain, this one has blooms that face up, not down, so no wet belly position to photograph them! This one is currently blooming, and though the flowers now look pale green, apparently they start out white then progress to this color. (Click the link above to get a description.)

I meant to get pictures of it today but we were so busy outdoors cleaning up (finally) that I didn't get a chance but I'll have a shot soon. Basically, it's already about 14" tall, very bushy and dense, so I didn't feel too bad about dropping $22 on just that one plant, because it's so well established. It will be going in probably late tomorrow afternoon, to join the other Hellebores in the Woodland Garden.

We also found another small Trillium plant, a couple of deep red oriental poppies I had to grab and a pot of Primroses ... the odd lot that had two together, both red and blue, so that had to come home with us as well.

Once we got home, we set about digging the innumerable dandelions and other trees (Maples) and weeds out of the front boulder bed and planting the 54+ snapdragons that came home with Fernymoss on Friday night. So there's a lot of instant color that just occurred this weekend ... and I vow to get some pictures Monday after work, since I didn't get around to it on Sunday. There was just too much going on this weekend....

Sunday we combined a grocery run with a visit to our usual garden center where we picked up some more annuals, perennials, herbs and a few veggies. I found a treasure trove of the bushier Delphiniums: Blue Elf, Blue Butterfly, and Summer Night ... the most heat and dry tolerant of the lot. I used to grow the upright, stalky type Delphiniums, but they never seemed to last more than a couple of years so I realized that in our conditions, they are more like expensive annuals, so I've given up. But these newer bushy varieties (which are more like Larkspurs and often classified as Delphinium ambigua) and perform a lot better for us in our hot, dry and humid summers. The three varieties I got today promise some interesting hues of blue, so you'll be seeing them here as they progress this season.

We also got a bunch of petunias, marigolds, red salvias, a new columbine (red!) and some new sage plants, some jalapeños and a new heirloom variety, Tennessee Cheese. We held off on getting any tomatoes yet, as we were just cleaning up their area today and it hasn't been tilled yet, so they can wait a week or so until we have the space ready for them. It seems that the garden centers we've visited so far aren't fully stocked up yet, so for the usual annuals we're buying now and waiting on the other things we want to plant.... So far we're trying to stick to our new rule: plant all the stuff we have before we make any more plant runs! Seems to be working for the moment, at least!

Now, back to Hanna ... here's a short (18 seconds) video I took of her this afternoon while we were taking a break from backyard clean up. She was exceptionally good (even on the tie out lead) all day outside (she has a pretty wide 360 coverage of the yard) and didn't even bark at other dogs going by today. This weekend is the first time she's had to really spend hours on end outside exploring her backyard. When she first arrived in January, it was merely the shoveled out paths for "business" purposes, and up until now she hasn't been able to spend extended periods out back. But she was loving it today and spent a lot of time just sniffing things out (as you can see in the video).

Sunday was a sniff-tastic day in the backyard, perfect for exploring!

Ok, last night we were trying again to force cuteness and failing miserably. What we wanted to get was a head on shot of Hanna with her new toy the Monster Mouth, that we got for her yesterday at Petco. Basically, it's a tough rubber toy (the only thing that's almost indestructible for Hanna) that has a couple of compartments in it where you can stash small treats. At first this one took her a lot longer than it did the Kong to figure out, but by Sunday night she seemed to have it pretty much figured out, but she still enjoys chewing on it and playing toss and retrieve with it.

Here she is gazing across the table at her Monster Mouth, wishing I'd fill it up with treats again.....

Here's the Monster Mouth (it's a pretty funny looking 'Little Shop of Horrors' type toy) that she's now decided is less important than giving Fernymoss a big, wet sloppy one! She's such a sweetie, always full of puppy love to share....

And all the activity and fresh air today has worn her out ... all the while I've been writing this post, she's been conked out on the futon couch, curled up and snoozing away .... we definitely brought her on board at just the right time, because she's perfectly at home here now and considers herself in charge! All in less than 4 months so far ... she's definitely an amazing and very special little girl we're so fortunate to have in our lives!

Thanks again, Pepa, for the permission and approval to adopt! We'll never forget you, and cherish your memory....

I Just Love An Embarrassment of Riches!

2009-05-02T01:17:00.009-05:00

As I noted yesterday, it seems like such a relief that May is finally here and we can banish (most) thoughts of snow (and hard freezes) and concentrate on enjoying the rewards of Spring ...the bulbs are outdoing themselves so far this year and I feel like I can hardly keep up with them at this point, thus the "potpourri" format once again. Though I prefer the single focus on plants in most of my posts, that will come soon, because there are certain plants I definitely want to highlight, but for now, let's just enjoy the many colors now on display at Casa IVG.

Great weather in the high 60's is forecast for today (and no rain for a change!!!) and we plan to get a lot more of the clean up done and get some things in the ground, notably the entire flat of Snapdragons that Fernymoss brought home today after work! We also have a trip to Petco planned for Hanna (her favorite store!) and either today or Sunday we're going to hit our favorite garden center for more plants ... Tonight we vowed that we won't make any major purchases of plants without having gotten the previous ones in the ground first, so that means that we have to get 2 Serrano Pepper plants, some 'ginormous' Italian parsley and that flat of Snapdragons in the ground before we go bringing more things home with us ... we'll see how that works out!

So let's take today's tour ... these are some more of the many Grape Hyacinths we have planted around in the front boulder bed ... this little stand has multiplied nicely since they were planted several years ago (quite late as they were forgotten in the fall and I stuck these in the ground in December!). Though Grape Hyacinths aren't really Hyacinths at all, you can see two real ones in the background, the variety 'Peter Stuyvesant,' which is probably my favorite of all of them, and of course it has that lovely Hyacinth fragrance that perfumes the area, something we don't get from many of the spring bulbs. If you enlarge this photo, you can see the now withered remains of a few of the Species Tulip 'Persian Pearl' in the background as well. That's my only minor gripe with them, they only last a bit over a week, but they're so pretty while they do last!

Let's round the corner and enter the Woodland Garden area where the Daffodils are gradually winding down and take a look at some more Hyacinths ... this is another 'Peter Stuyvesant' along with the other variety we have planted, 'Jan de Bos.' For some reason a couple of the latter have disappeared this year (alas) unless they're just going to be up really late, but anyway, I really like the color of 'Jan' with its almost fuschia shade (though it's typically considered red). I love the combination of these bold colors with the Daffodils, but then, I've been known to appreciate rather "loud" colors once or twice in my life....

We were hopeful that our Darwin Tulips would finally recover somewhat after the disastrous last two springs that had late very cold spells after they had come up ... and though they're nowhere near as numerous as they once were (in 2006 there were about 300+ planted out front), at least they are making a comeback. This is one of the masses we have in the corner Boulder Bed and if you look closely you'll see a few Grape Hyacinths have survived as well (we lost a lot of those in 2007 and 2008 as well), so we'll just keep hoping for future improvement in these areas. I'll have more of these soon, once we can get some shots of them when they are actually open during the day (hopefully this weekend).
Here we have some newcomers to the Boulder Beds ... these are Fritillaria uva-vulpis, (aka, 'Fox's Grape') that were just planted last fall. Though they look similar to the Fritillaria michailovskii we have planted elsewhere, they are much taller (apparently they can reach over 12 inches at maturity) and the colors are a bit more muted, they do share the same sort of lampshade shaped blooms, and instead of single blooming, these little foxes of the garden often bear two or more flowers per stalk.

According to most sources I've read, Uva-vulpis also tends to naturalize much more readily than Michailovskii, so we are looking forward to seeing many more of these in future years. When they first emerge they look pretty insubstantial, much like a long blade of grass, but these have quickly matured over the last two weeks and are just now popping into bloom in various places, so you can probably expect to see (and hear more about) them again soon....

From the better late than never department ... we now have three Hellebores in bloom, two for the first time! Finally, our patience is paying off, and these tiny plants we put in way back in 2005 are starting to bloom for us. Since they were sold as a mix, I really have no idea what varieties they are, other than they belong to the "Royal Heritage" strains (which doesn't really tell one much). We're just happy to see them blooming! Though the plants have done pretty well over the past few years, only one has deigned to bloom for us until this year so this represents a bit of a milestone for this particular area of the Woodland Garden. And, as any garden blogger with Hellebores knows, they're not particularly easy flowers to get good shots of without literally getting down on the ground and looking up. Though they're beautiful flowers, they don't make it easy for us to appreciate that beauty, so hats off to Fernymoss for getting down and doing some "wet belly photography" to bring these to this humble blog....

Ok, I'll admit that this shot makes me feel a bit voyeuristic because my first impression was that I was invading the private space of this Hellebore bloom ... for some reason (maybe because I'm so immersed in iconic film imagery?) this reminded me of that famous picture of Marilyn Monroe with her skirt being blown upwards by a subway grate. Maybe I just have a dirty mind (heh, like I try to go looking up women's skirts!), this shot just seemed so overtly sexual that I had to include it in this post. Not that this is a prurient blog at all, but let's just remind ourselves that the whole reason that flowers bloom in the first place is to reproduce themselves, so we have to give them some (ahem) license in what they do! I do think that this is one of the more creative and stunning shots Fernymoss has gotten in a while, and hopefully we'll have even more Hellebore pictures soon....

Finally, I've gotten a few comments lately that I've been neglecting the "gratuitous puppy shots" in my posts, so we did some quick improvised "cuteness" shots tonight for this post. And just for Marnie, who remarked recently that she thought Hanna looked like such a calm dog when I had said that she was so often in motion that she was challenging to capture in still shots ... here she is running across the living room after having retrieved her favorite Kong. Though Hanna definitely knows when to be mellow (amazing for such a young pup), her usual mode is in motion and jumping and running. We love her all the more for that, and especially when she knows that it's inappropriate behavior and calms down. Once again, we thank our lucky stars that she chose to come and live with us and brighten our lives after our recent losses of Pepa and Rolly....

Make of this shot what you will ... though Hanna still doesn't spend all that much time on Pepa's old bed, she does take advantage of it on occasion, and here she seems to be enjoying some "loungy" time.... Hopefully, if the weather cooperates this weekend, we might be able to get some cuteness pictures of her outside this weekend, so stay tuned!

May Day Tidbits and Previews

2009-05-01T00:10:00.008-05:00

Here it is May Day, and it seemed like it would never get here! Today, all over France, people are already celebrating the arrival of Spring (as well as Labor Day) with the Fête du muguet, when practically everyone gives someone they care for a nice bouquet of Muguet des bois, aka, Lily of the Valley. We're a bit behind here in Iowa (and regular readers know what a protracted winter we had this year!), so we don't have any just yet, but I'm sure it will be arriving soon in the odd spots around the house where it has always grown since we've been here. So, I'll offer you some other pretty tidbits and encouraging previews of flowers just arrived and more to come...

Remember when I posted this shot back in March after the snow finally melted in the Primrose Bed by the front steps?

Here's how it looked on this late April day (late afternoon when there was actually a bit of sun poking through) ... what a difference a month makes when the weather finally improves! After all the rains we've been having the past several days, the Primroses have been soaking it up and revving up to burst into bloom ... these blooms have just appeared within the last two days and there are many more yet to come. And the two rogue Tulips that I swear we never planted have emerged and are strutting their stuff proudly. The Snowdrops and Crocuses in this bed have finished their show for the year and only the foliage remains at this point, but there are other things preparing to take over the show ... the variegated Solomon's Seal is up (and multiplying) as well as the 'Gilt Edge' Toad Lily, Meadow Sage, Bee Balm and Lavender ...but for the moment, the Primroses will rule the roost for the next several weeks.

This tenacious little Muscari armeniacum has persevered for many years now, having been originally planted when there was still a bit of yard along the front steps before we dug it up and created the front boulder bed (back in 2003). We lost quite a few bulbs when we filled in the area, but a few have persisted (crocus and squill) and this little guy shows up in exactly the same spot every year, peeking out from under the rocks. This year it looks like he brought along a friend to keep him (and us) company, so welcome to the garden, little fellow!

Ah, consider the gentle little native wildflower that many consider the bane of their yards and garden ... but the humble Viola papillionacea is such a pretty flower that always reliably blooms for May Day (I used to put them in the May baskets I gave out as a child). At least it does have enough admirers that it was chosen (in a rather odd manner) as the Wisconsin State Flower. We love these little beauties but have to be a bit harsh with them in the garden after they are done blooming or we would have nothing but Violets remaining if we let them have their way. We do allow some to remain (come on, no one could ever really eradicate these!), but we dig as many as we can and dispatch them to the compost or to bare areas in the back yard, where they can perform a useful function without choking out our more prized plants....

Just a couple of weeks ago, our Dicentra spectabilis (Bleeding Heart) hadn't even broken ground, but look at our original plant today! It has just lept from the Woodland Garden and sprung immediately into bloom, and our others aren't far behind, so you'll be seeing lots more of them soon.

A couple of weeks ago I was fretting because I hadn't seen any signs of our Trilliums yet, but just in the past three or four days they have appeared magically and are gearing up to bloom. We originally planted three of them several years ago and last year we had five appear, so we know they are multiplying ... we've only seen five so far this year, but are hoping that more will join the party soon and start staking out their territory among the ferns in the Woodland Garden.

Fernymoss was thrilled to see these unfurling shoots today when he was out with the camera ... they're his favorite fern, the Maidenhair, and every spring we marvel at the many odd shapes they take before they fully develop into their mature fronds. Here you can see them surrounded by their neighbors, the Leatherwood ferns who have been steadily greening up in the past few weeks. Soon they will go vertical and abandon their prostrate ways of early spring and the Maidenhairs will take over the territory quickly for the rest of the summer.

Ok, for a bit of fun here, I'll leave it to you readers to guess what these emerging shoots are, although if you're familiar with the denizens of the Woodland Garden, these should be pretty easay to identify. Let me know in the comments what you think they are and we'll see who can ID these first!

For those familiar with the oddities of our garden, this last one should be really easy ... and it appears that it has successfully produced about five offshoots from last year's growth, so we are hoping for multiple blooms this year! We'll see if that happens, but this one has arrived quickly ... last weekend before the rains arrived, I was out looking for signs of this plant and found none ... so look at it now!

So happy May Day to all you fellow gardeners (and garden admirers) out there! I hope you're fêted with a lovely day to celebrate (looks to be another cloudy one here, alas) and that your gardens are springing back to life as vigorously as ours is currently doing! I've got lots more to post in the next few days, so do stop back for even more colorful flowers now taking their positions on the Spring Stage!

All photos taken on April 30, 2009. Courtesy of Fernymoss

A Must See Film: The Future of Food

2009-04-28T00:15:00.006-05:00

When I was a kid in grade school and we sang the "Iowa Tall Corn Song" every day (right after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance), I had more than one teacher who constantly drummed into our heads that Iowa was the "breadbasket" of the nation, indeed the world, not just for its corn, but for its other agricultural products as well. The object lesson was, of course, to build up our state pride to provide us with "ammunition" against those who would inevitably denigrate our humble state, since as a state we have had our share of self-esteem issues over the years, deserved or undeserved. But we played a big role in feeding this country and the rest of the world ... or so we were told, and part of me has continued to believe this even as I've grown into the cynical adult I now am.

It was our claim to that quiet nobility of purpose to produce grains and cattle that would help feed people far beyond our borders. That is, until the family farms started to fail and disappear en masse in the great 'Farm Crisis' of the 80's, when corporate agribusiness interests began (much like Wal-Mart did to small retailers) to gobble everything up and where they couldn't gobble their way in, they squeezed the small family farmer to the point of extinction.

A bit of personal history ... I grew up in a small farming community (pop. 1200), and quite frankly hated it for the first 18 years of my life and couldn't wait to graduate from High School and flee to college where I could finally be the person I knew I always was. I've prided myself (perhaps wrongly) over the years for leaving and never looking back, but deep inside me, the agricultural roots were always strong (thank you Dad), even if I didn't liberate them until I was in my 30's and began gardening in earnest, they were part of me and ultimately who I am. I willfully and deliberately "took the Iowan out of Iowa" but I never succeeded in "taking Iowa out of the Iowan," so when I grew disgusted with living in Florida and decided to make a clean break, it only seemed normal to come back to my roots here.

All that as prélude to a film I just watched on Hulu over the weekend ... I have to admit I've become a bit of a Hulu addict over the past few months, due to its incredibly rich selection of TV series and feature films, presented with limited interruptions. (I just recently devoured all 53 episodes of Arrested Development there, much to my delight.) But Hulu has a growing treasure trove of documentary films as well, and just recently added The Future of Food to their listings.

The subject of genetically modified organisms (often called GMOs) has interested me for years due to my innate fears that somehow we were opening Pandora's Agricultural Box in some regards by unleashing genetically modified crops ("Roundup Ready" seeds anyone?). There's just enough of the old hippie idealist left in me that I've always harbored a deep distrust of the huge chemical corporations like Monsanto and DuPont (who bought out the Iowa legacy mainstay Pioneer a few years back) who have now come to dominate American Agribusiness and literally enslave the struggling family farmers who still try to practice their time honored vocation.

That, in a nutshell, is what this film is all about: How, from time immemorial farmers used classical agricultural practices centered around preserving the genetic heritage of plants from generation to generation, with careful selection over the years made to improve varieties of crops naturally without artificial manipulation. Then something rather frightening occurred in (roughly) the 1970's when the technology developed that would allow scientists in the labs to splice genetic code (thanks, Watson and Crick) into plants (and animals) to make them resistant --and even some cases, toxic-- to insects and diseases.

The Future of Food is another classic case of "follow the money," where these courageous filmmakers have done precisely that and brought to light the ugly underbelly of contemporary agribusiness. From highlighting the saga of a North Dakota farmer sued for patent infringement by Monsanto because "Roundup Ready" soybeans strayed (quite naturally on the wind) into his fields contaminating his crops, to traditional Mexican farmers who are striving against all odds to preserve their corn's genetic heritage from contamination by American seeds, this film documents (quite clinically and calmly) all these disturbing developments caused by GMOs now entrenched in our National (and International) food chain.

This is an important film and really deserves to be seen by a much wider audience. The fact that Hulu makes it available online for free (you don't even need to register for an account to watch this film) is truly a service to the public, and you should take advantage of it, no matter what your take is on the whole issue of genetically modified food and whether we deserve greater transparency about how the foods we buy to eat are produced. It's quite sobering and often scary in its revelations about just how much we don't know about what we are consuming on a daily basis and how these choices may ultimately affect us. Is it worth spending 1 hour and 28 minutes of your time to watch? Definitely. That's about how much time I spent writing this post, so when you have the time to spare, click the link (image) and educate yourselves on this crucial issue. It may change the way you think about your everyday choices when you go to the grocery store....

This film was produced by Catherine Lynn Butler and written by Deborah Koons Garcia (yes, she was Jerry's third wife), two very engaged and aware filmmakers to whom we owe our gratitude for bringing this documentary to fruition.

Here's Hulu's description of the film:

"The Future Of Food offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade."

I'll step down from the soapbox now and leave it up to you. And, if you've read this far, thanks again for indulging me in one of my occasional tirades. I just thought that this was too important not to write about, especially for those who are inclined to gardening in the first place....

Flowers and puppy pictures will resume soon. I promise!

Of Eyeglasses and Orchids

2009-04-27T00:27:00.004-05:00

A while back, I noted that I had just gotten a new pair of glasses after a long wait. What I didn't mention was that they were a "loaner" pair from the store due to all the problems they had successfully filling my prescription. The whole saga was long and drawn out, involving a lot of waiting, frustration and false starts ... when the "loaner" pair finally came in, they were not up to their quality control in terms of how they were fitted to the frames (optically they were fine) due to the thickness of the lenses. In short, I ended up needing to get a slightly larger frame style to accommodate the lenses correctly, but in order to help me out, they gave me the "loaner" pair to wear until the permanent ones came back from the lab. Yesterday I got a call from the wonderful woman who has helped me through this whole lengthy ordeal, letting me know the "real" ones were finally in and I could stop by today to pick them up and get them fitted.

So, on yet another rainy and stormy Sunday afternoon, we headed out today to get my new specs. While I was waiting for my representative to finish up with another customer, both Fernymoss and I had noticed all sorts of people walking by in the mall with really pretty flowers. Of course when you get two gardeners out on a rainy day and they see flowers parading by, there will have to be an investigation. So, while I waited, Fernymoss took off in the mall to seek out where these flowers were coming from ... what he discovered was that an orchid society was having a flower show and sale off in another part of the mall. While I got my new glasses fitted and took care of the last of this epic transaction, he was off slavering over orchids, unbeknownst to me!

I was waiting outside the store, having no idea where he was off to and wasn't about to go wandering off to find him (I know better than to do that now), I grabbed a nearby seat and kept an eye out, until I saw him coming my way with a box with a lot of something purple in it, two new orchids. Quite a few years ago we had a relatively successful try at growing orchids for about two years before we got sloppy and they died (a Dendrobium and a Phalanopsis). This time, however, we vow to do much better with them, because these two specimens are just drop dead gorgeous ones!

This one is an Oncidium (I'll be researching this one) and has about 10 blooms going right now, and with any luck they should last at least another month or so. Both of us have always been bowled over by the diversity of color and "design" of orchids and this one really struck his fancy chord hard, so it was soon Casa IVG bound....

Here's a slightly wider shot of the bloom stalk revealing even more flowers ...Fernymoss didn't get a whole plant shot that he was happy with, so these will have to do for now, but he's going to keep experimenting with shooting these new beauties.

This one is a Paphiopedilum (I'll have to look it up) or "Lady's Slipper Orchid," unfortunately not one of those native to Iowa, but it will make a lovely house plant. Apparently this one on puts on one flower at a time about every six months, but wow, no wonder, when it's as complex as this bloom is! (As always, click through to the large version.)

Here's a wider shot of the whole Paphiopedilum plant and the base of the Oncidium next to it ... they both appear to be incredibly healthy plants, so we'll be giving them extra pampering and give them a place of honor in the north windows of the dining room (where we have a plant ledge). I'll probably have some more photos as Fernymoss experiments with shooting them in different light (these had to be flash due to the lack of light on a late rainy afternoon), so stay tuned!

Puppy cuteness overload time again! Stop and sniff the flowers ...

After the eyeglass and orchid extravaganza, I needed to pick up a few things at the grocery store, where one of my weaknesses took over as I gazed around in the floral department, landing on a couple of different bouquets of one of my favorite flowers, Alstroemeria (aka: "Peruvian Lilies"). Since they were reasonably priced and last an incredibly long time in the house (over 3 weeks usually for us!), I sprang for those in a heartbeat. So we decided, since we were getting flower pictures tonight, to give Hanna a chance to check them out ... and since she loves to sniff absolutely everything, these were no exception! We'll get some better shots of these, because they are truly gorgeous ... all my favorite fiery colors rolled into two bouquets ... what more could one ask for, but MORE???!

Totally unrelated to gardening in any way, but still very relevant to this blog:

I was surprised to see this headline on my USA Today module on Yahoo tonight, but very pleasantly surprised. Check it out:

In Iowa, a historic day for gay couples.

No plans here just yet, but nice to know that finally, plans can be made!!

Weekend Cinema: Dinner at Eight (1933)

2009-04-24T23:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't done a Weekend Cinema post in quite a while, but I'm inspired to do so after watching Dinner At Eight again tonight, not because I don't have the flowers to post (I do!), but because it's such a great example of that elusive Depression-Era genre, the big ensemble social tragicomedy. (Think Grand Hotel, its most immediate predecessor and winner of the 1932 Best Picture Academy Award.)

They just don't make them like this anymore (well, at least since Robert Altman died, and maybe Paul-Thomas Anderson will one day fill those shoes) ... and this one has become one of our favorites, especially because it was such a fun role for Jean Harlow, our favorite of all the sultry early 30's divas. So, whenever it shows up on Turner Classic Movies (TCM), I have to record it and watch it again, and after tonight, I think I'm going to leave it on the DVR for a while, because I want to go back a few more times to savor its multi-layered cinematic pleasures. This film has a lot to say about American society during the Great Depression, although it is firmly couched in the then emerging screwball comedy genre ... which is perhaps an unfair label to pin on this film because it is so much more than just a 30's genre film. If you've never seen this gem, keep an eye out for it (for reasons I'll explain below), but for now, take a look at the original trailer (it's about 3 minutes long).

Original Trailer (1933) -- Click image to play

It's obvious that MGM clearly thought they had the sure-fire successor to Grand Hotel here, given this kind of treatment in the trailer (don't even try to count the superlatives!), but I'd argue that ultimately it is a much better film, at least in terms of how it depicts its contemporary society in the first years of the Great Depression. In many respects, it's a classical comedy of manners with many of its "stock" characters: We have the once rich business family on the verge of bankruptcy, a couple of penniless has been actors, (one of whom still carries on delusionally), a hopelessly philandering physician, a frustrated socialite hostess and a brash, coarse and colorful couple of Nouveaux riches. All the elements are clearly in place for an epic culture clash during a high society dinner honoring some foreign socialites who never show up, thus throwing the whole elaborately constructed party into chaos.

Yes, it was certainly an "all star cast" of its time, with Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow, two Barrymores, Wallace Beery and perhaps the most recognizable voice of any actress of her time, Billie Burke, the future Glinda, the Good Witch of the North from The Wizard of Oz. Though much of the film is devoted to the exposition of the characters' backstories leading up to the climactic dinner, that's where the true interest and richness of the comedy emerges with its subtly delivered barbs and wry social commentary ... as we learn more about each of these characters, we gradually realize that they are all (in today's term) losers for one reason or another, cast adrift in an uncertain economic time where they are struggling to survive.

Inevitable comparisons with our own contemporary economic situation come to mind ... we have a long established family businessman on the verge of being bought out in a stock sale manipulation, two past their prime actors bereft of their previous celebrity (and wealth), and most of all, a predatory business shark (who in today's terms would be a venture capitalist or M&A specialist). What keeps this film's serio-comic depictions relevant is the fact that we all clearly recognize these types, and whether or not we find them particularly engaging or sympathetic characters, we find them entirely believable. And that's what gives this film great resonance for our own times, some 76 years later, as we face an equally uncertain economic future.

I think there are still important lessons here that we can learn: unbridled greed and avarice are not good things, overly affected pretension is a waste of time and effort, humility and staying true to one's own self are much more important concepts, whether we realize it or not, and perhaps most saliently, self-reliance is crucial to survival. There are definitely winners and losers here (and one ends in a suicide), there are survivors as well as those who will eventually adapt to their circumstances and perhaps emerge as better persons. For me, part of this film's brilliance is in its non-judgmental attitude toward all of the characters ... it's left up to the viewer to make these decisions, just as it is in "real life." And that's what makes great comedies of manners (think back as far as Moliere) speak to us across the divide of time: recognition and perhaps identification as useful social correctives.

Lest I make this film appear way too serious in its intent, there are a multitude of comic moments throughout, and if one pays particular attention to the clever script, there are many "zingers" sprinkled throughout its albeit madcap preparations for the big "dinner at eight." All the fun is getting there, as we learn these lessons along the way, all the while we are prompted to think about our own personal situations in the particular moment in which we live. These may be characters frozen in time from 1933, but they still speak to us in our times and have a lot of important things to say.

This final clip contains what may well be one of the all time great one-liners delivered on the screen (in this instance by the inimitable Marie Dressler) with the joyful participation by Jean Harlow. Its ironies are rich and still speak to us today as clearly as they did way back in 1933, during the first term of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Make of that comment as you will....

Click on image to play video.

Pup Pose du Jour

2009-04-23T23:27:00.005-05:00

In case anyone has been wondering what Hanna does during the day when I am working in my office, here are a couple of typical shots (at least on days when I can have the window open) of how she satisfies her insatiable natural curiosity....

Usually, in the morning after she's been out and had her breakfast, she nests down in the blanket on the old futon couch I have in here and snoozes off and on, occasionally getting up to see what's going on outside the window....

Later in the afternoon (usually around 3:00-3:30 or so) she stakes out a position at the window, watching some skateboard kids play in the intersection (yes, they really do that!) on their way home from school. So far, she's not impressed with noisy skateboards, and often barks at them until I call her off ... then she grumbles and mutters at me for scolding her about the barking. Then she begins bringing me her toys (spiny bone, Kongs, etc.) to play for a while ... I take little breaks to play tug of war with the bone, toss the Kongs around a bit and then go back to work ... she then settles down and waits patiently until I can quit for the day and she gets her dinner. It's remarkable how patient she is about me being stuck in a chair working all day long as she watches ... I really think she's become aware that this is Daddy working and does her best to be a good girl ... which of course she is! Every day we marvel at how easy she has fit in and thank Pepa for sending her our way ... we know made the right decision at just the right time!

Pearls of Minimal Price

2009-04-22T23:22:00.005-05:00

What a difference a Spring day makes in April in Iowa! Yesterday we had mild temperatures in the low 60's and a fair amount of cloud cover most of the day, but today we had plentiful sunshine and a high of 75F, one of those days that gives office bound folks the itch to get outside and enjoy the long awaited warmth.... Fortunately the nice weather lasted until I was done working so Hanna and I could get out for a little bit late this afternoon (around 6:00) to take in the fresh air.... And though tonight's featured flower Tulipa humilis v. 'Persian Pearl' had closed up shop for the day, fortunately Fernymoss had the closing shift today, so he got some sunny shots for us this morning before he left for work, so direct any accolades his way for the photos!

We've been eagerly anticipating these blooms for a couple of weeks now since the foliage first emerged in the boulder bed out by the front steps of our house, and now we're fully enjoying their (albeit brief) spectacular show, which serves as a prélude to the blooms of our larger tulips. These tiny tulips tiptoe into the garden to dazzle us every year, and since I first planted these in 2005, they have been gradually naturalizing into a nice colony among the hyacinths we also have planted in this area. That's one thing I really appreciate about Tulipa humilis ...unlike its larger cousins, if happy, it will naturalize for you and provide even more color each successive year. We have two clumps of these that came from an original planting of 10 bulbs, and they have easily doubled over the past four years, even during times when our Darwins perished in late spring cold snaps (think 2007). They're hardy over a wide range of North America (from Zones 3-8), even though they are native to the rocky slopes of Central Asia. Fortunately for us, we don't have to travel far to procure them for our gardens, and though 'Persian Pearl' is a bit harder to find than other varieties, a quick internet search will turn up at least several nurseries who offer them. (I originally got these from Park Seed, but curiously, they aren't on their website anymore ... maybe in the fall, when they concentrate more on bulbs?)

This shot was taken late afternoon on April 21, by an excited Fernymoss who was looking for them to pop this morning, and pop they did!

Every grouping of flowers always starts with a single bloom, and this lovely example shows just how much Persian Pearl loves basking in the morning sun .... their rich hues of magenta-pink just positively pop when offset by the brilliant yellow centers of these blooms ... and if you enlarge the photo (always click through for a larger version!), you can even see the shadows of the stamens against the center, it was that sunny this morning.

As I mentioned earlier, they like company, and I suspect that these two "twins" represent an older bulb that has produced another, smaller offset that is just blooming for the first time this year. These dwarf or "wild tulips" are sometimes referred to as "crocus tulips" and it's easy to see how they got that nickname, since they seem to naturalize much like crocus do, with smaller progeny appearing very close to the parent bulb....

Here we can see a slightly larger "family" has emerged to join the larger party forming around the Hyacinth (Peter Stuyvesant ... more on him in a later post) nearby. Their bright hues provide a beautiful contrast to the deeper shades of violet-purple of the Hyacinths (see the first shot in this post) and are just what I was aiming for when I originally planted these here. It may have just been a "color hunch" at the time, but it has worked out well over the ensuing years....

This spot is apparently the focal point of the party, at least at this point in time! This is where I concentrated the bulk of the bulbs when I first planted them and used the rest a bit further afar to punctuate the Hyacinths. These are bulbs you definitely want to plant in groups so they don't get lonely ... that's the essential lesson we learned early on with planting tulips: planting one or two here and there just doesn't do them justice --they need the company of their relatives to really shine! (The same "rule" seems to apply to many of the other spring bulbs such as crocus and daffodils.) So if you decide to add these (reasonably priced) jewels to your garden, keep in mind that they do best when surrounded by their peers....

This view features the largest concentration of these beauties near one of the foundation boulders of the bed at the edge of the sidewalk where our steps begin, so they're on full display to anyone passing by. And that's something to keep in consideration should you decide to plant 'Persian Pearl' (or any of its cousins) ... they really deserve a position where they will be seen, and relegating them to a position further back in the perennial border really does them, yourself (and potential admirers of your flowers) a huge disservice. With a flower this small (they max out at about 6 inches tops), they positively demand prime eyeball real estate to perform at their best.

To my mind, these are indeed Pearls of Great Beauty at a Minimal Price (American Meadows is currently offering them at $6.73 for a bag of 15) ... and what's even nicer, they only need to be planted about 4-6" deep (unlike the 6-8" their larger cousins demand), so like crocus and other smaller bulbs, you could potentially plant a good number easily in a small amount of time. If you liked what you saw here, consider adding some Tulipa humilis varieties to your garden this coming Fall!

We'll be seeing the other variety we have planted here a bit later (they're not as early), so stay tuned for the début of 'Little Beauty!'

And speaking of little beauties ...here's the puppy fix of the day (taken on 21 April) ... lil Princess Hanna relaxing after a long walk (25 min + !) last night.....

I call this one "Full Stretch Mode"

"I'm trying hard to stay awake, but the snoozies are hitting me right now!"

Happy Birthday Hanna!

2009-04-20T00:20:00.005-05:00

Animated image courtesy of Bull Creek Jack Russells

Today is a special day for Hanna and both of us ... she'll be celebrating her very first birthday! (And her 3+ month tenure as the reigning pup of the house!) On the (albeit) sketchy vet records we got from her Foster Mom (which date from 10/20/08), their best estimate of her age at that time was 6 months, so counting back, that means she was probably born around April 20, 2008 ... so lacking a more precise (or verifiable) date, we decided to adopt that as her "official" birthday. So today, we're going to make her day all about her as much as possible ... when Fernymoss gets home from work, he'll take her on a nice, long walkie and when she gets back, she'll have a special dinner to celebrate ... no cake, of course, but I did stock up on the treats today and we'll likely spoil her rotten tomorrow night and stuff the Kong at least once (if not twice) and give her (even) more cuddles and love than we usually do, so she knows that something special is going on....

Sunday night I realized we hadn't taken any recent "cuteness" pictures of her so I commissioned Fernymoss to come up with something I could post ... We decided to see what we could get by giving her one of her favorite (non-meaty) treats to play with ... a couple of ice cubes! These three shots are the best we could come up with (Hanna didn't seem to want to do "cute on command" tonight!) ... Here she is getting ready to pounce again on the ice cube.

For some reason, here she seems a bit perplexed ... again, one of those moments when we wish we could read what she was thinking at that particular instant....

And here's the inevitable "chomp!" as she's done playing with the ice cube and gets serious about devouring it. I know it's a kind of paltry advance on a birthday treat, but hey, we were trying to force cuteness, and this seemed the quickest way. We just need to be more consistent about having the camera handy downstairs to capture the more spontaneous moments we see every day....

Sunday marked the two week waiting period after the end of her course of medicine for the Giardia parasite she was positive for on her last fecal exam, so we had to collect another sample to take in for analysis. With any luck, I won't hear from the vet's clinic on Tuesday, which means she's clear of the parasite and we can stay away from the vet's until Fall when she gets her rabies vaccine renewed. We really like Dr. B, but the fewer visits we can make out there, the better! She's now totally current on all her vaccinations and has a 6 month supply of her heartworm preventative and we'll be starting the Frontline (flea and tick preventative) as soon as we can get back to Petco and they actually have the one appropriate for her size in stock (last time they were out of the <20 pound formulation).

We also had them scan her microchip today just to make sure it was reporting the correct number (and yay! it did!), because her Foster Mom called me last week to tell me that the clinic where she has her rescue dogs microchipped had contacted her saying that some of them apparently weren't scanning correctly and she wanted us to check, just to make sure that Hanna was registered correctly. So that was a relief ... so if ever she should get lost, she'll be registered with the microchip service, as well as the city (via her license) so she won't ever end up in a pound or a shelter again. It seems like these past 3 months since she came to live with us have just flown by and we feel like she has been with us much longer because she has adapted so well to her new environment. We were just talking last night about how easy the transition has been for all of us ... none of the typical "Marley style" puppy trauma and drama (except for those two "acting out" episodes that happened while I was gone) one usually expects with a new pup. For a little girl who is just hitting the one year old mark, she's remarkably well adjusted and mature and seems to love her new life here with us ... she knows the routines now and is so quick to learn (and loves) new things. We're really looking forward to the summer months when we can be outside with her more and work on some of those agility activities we're planning for her (and get video of that!).....

Once again, we can only consider ourselves truly fortunate that she came into our lives when she did, because she has brought nothing but joy and energy to help fill the void left by the departures of Pepa and Rolly. Of course, I remain convinced that they and my previous dog Coco had their paws in the whole adoption ... if there's such a thing as doggie Guardian Angels, they are certainly watching over her and helping her chart a great and very happy path....

In my previous post, I had mentioned that on Friday I had started to get some shots of the gardens after work, but didn't get very far before Fernymoss got home from work ... so here's a couple of pictures of just how floriferous the Daffodils have become over the past few days ... after taking what seemed forever, they now seem to be popping all at once! The Tulips and Hyacinths aren't too far behind, and I've been seeing some Tulip buds setting on, and the Species Tulips (the dwarf varieties) should be blooming in just a few days, so you can expect to see those beauties soon!

This time of the year is what makes the whole effort of planting bulbs worth it ... seeing our old friends return in force to spread their color around the garden areas ... of course, like any of the flowers we have, it's fleeting, but these are the times to savor as the real gardening season gets going in earnest. On Saturday, we saw that our favorite garden center (located at a local grocery store where we shop) had opened up with their first stock of the season. They don't have a whole lot yet, but they did have some exquisite Pansies and organic peppers and herbs, so we picked up some Serrano peppers (which are hard to find around here for some odd reason) and a new "giant" variety of Italian Flat Leaf Parsley (the only kind to plant) that we're going to get planted very soon. Given the pathetic performance of our peppers the last few years, I think I'm just going to plant these in large pots this year and see what happens. The Parsley will go in the ground in the herb bed next to the patch I got started from seed last year. Pretty soon it will be time to plant the Cilantro and Basil, once we're more confident that there will be no further frosts (never a sure thing here in Zone 5a until well into May).

Yes, FARfetched, things are really revving up here around Urban Oasis, so there's going to be plenty more to report on in the coming months.....

Sunny Friday Bulbular Delights

2009-04-17T23:59:00.009-05:00

Finally, Friday arrived ... with abundant sunshine and a balmy high of 72F, perfect for bringing more Spring bulbs forth to join the colorful parade around Casa IVG, and here I was, stuck inside working furiously at finishing a report for work. Hanna and I were both antsy to get outside to enjoy some of the first truly warm weather we've had (except that anomaly of the first day of Spring), yet trapped inside (albeit with heat off and windows open!) until 6:00 p.m.....

Just as we eventually managed to get out to survey the progress of the bulbular show (I was walking Hanna on my tour around the gardens), Fernymoss came home from work and interrupted my attempts to get some shots of what's currently blooming ... but never worry, tonight I'm pleased to present some of his work from late yesterday afternoon, when he got home earlier, so any comments on the photos are all for Fernymoss.

Alas, the Crocuses are starting to wind down for the season now, ceding the stage to the Daffodils, imminent Tulips, Hyacinths and others yet to arrive (Wood Hyacinths, Camassia, Alliums, Fritillarias). Though it's a bittersweet transition for me, I take comfort in the fact that many of last year's planting are still coming up here and there, especially in the Woodland Garden, so their time is not yet over, though their most dramatic plantings in the front are quickly fading to clumps of foliage.

This shot is, of course, another planting of 'Pickwick' (Giant Crocus), and if you look closely (click through, as always, to the larger version), you'll see that we're not the only Crocus admirers in the garden ... you can spot small leaf hoppers and flies on the flowers here, and down at the bottom left, it appears that someone has been munching on the blooms, probably a rabbit. Whoever it was, at least they didn't devour the entire stand of flowers!

This shot is yet another planting of 'Pickwick' ... as I promised in an earlier post, we have a lot of these charmers planted in various spots around the front Boulder Bed and in random spots in the Woodland Garden. In the background you can see a rather tardive yellow Snow Crocus coming up, undoubtedly another of last Fall's planting. I can only imagine how this spot will look in a few years when both varieties have had a chance to colonize a bit ... it should be quite impressive!

This is another one of the "new" plantings from last Fall ... and I really like the pairing we got here, with the delicately purple veined white trying to compete with the flashier 'Pickwick,' by no means failing in the attempt, but providing a subtle, yet complementary contrast with its showier cousin. Again, I'll be delighted to see how they increase over time, amplifying this pleasing effect!

And now, for something totally different! These are, of course, perhaps our favorite early Spring blue flower, Scilla siberica, which has been gradually colonizing areas of the parking at the front of our property. This year, it has definitely increased its coverage of the area, but has yet to achieve the true "drifts" that we see in others' yards around the city ... but it's steadily getting there! It's often difficult to get a "head on" shot of this flower, but the rear ends are equally lovely ... and note the luscious purple stems leading up to these exquisite blue flowers....

Here's another view of our growing "Squill Colony" in the parking by the sidewalk....

And this shot is of the "surprise" colony emerging by one of our (sadly diminished) plantings of Tulips in the corner Boulder Bed ... I think this was Fernymoss' handiwork from a couple of years ago when he was "Squilly Seeding" the bulblets produced from those planted elsewhere, but no matter where their origin, they're certainly welcome here! And curiously, we have yet to see the Grape Hyacinths (Muscari armeniaca) coming up here ... there are a lot planted around the Tulips, but we have yet to see any signs from them so far ... more winter casualties? We'll see what happens....

And finally, here's a Daffodil bud that just screams out "Feed Me!" for some reason ... it's one of the many we have planted in a sunnier area of the Woodland Garden and they're rapidly advancing into bloom by the hour, it would seem. When I went out today, there were at least 20-30 in full bloom, so they're just beginning to announce to the world that Spring has truly arrived! I'm glad to see them providing such a big splash of color, and just hope that this year no one decides to "poach" them ... We never cut them to bring inside because we feel they should complete their cycle as Nature intended, and think that in a small way we are helping the neighborhood celebrate Spring with us. Maybe when we have them in the hundreds (if I live that long!), we'll use them as cut flowers, but until then, they're part of the gardenscape!

Here Comes the Sun ...

2009-04-15T23:30:00.006-05:00

The sun finally made a welcome return to Casa IVG today, along with a high of 65 (!), and proceeded to bring about a few minor miracles in the garden, among which was the opening of our first two Daffodils (at long last)! I can't decide whether I get more excited about seeing the first crocus or daffodils or tulips (okay, I'll fess up, the crocuses rule my world), but somehow for me Daffodils signal the true arrival of Spring and the promise of all the flowers to come over the growing season....

These are the first two blooms of many yet to come ... years ago I planted some of our first Daffodils in a "tree ring bed" in the parking of the northeast corner of our lot and though they've been faithful bloomers for us (though once they did skip a year) ever since. Until this year, that is. Where there used to be about 25-30 bulbs, there are now only two remaining. Now, whether this is due to "natural" causes or something more nefarious, I have no idea. I've mentioned in previous posts (from last year) that there was a huge Daffodil die-off in Des Moines last year, though ours appeared to be spared, so perhaps this year it was our turn to take our lumps. Fortunately the 150 or so naturalizing daffodils we planted in 2005 in the Woodland Garden are thriving and multiplying and currently budding out, so you'll be seeing those soon. In any case, these first two are the "Dutch Masters" variety I planted back in 2000 (yes, they were Martha Stewart bulbs, lol) and I think they're one of the prettiest varieties ... real classics of their kind.

Let's move in for a closer look, shall we? I took these shots in the late afternoon sun, and I love capturing the glow and shadows this particular lighting gives these blooms....

I also revisited the Chionodoxa today, hoping to get a better shot that would capture a more accurate blue hue ... well, this is definitely an improvement over the one from Sunday, but still doesn't quite render the correct shade (they should be a bit darker). I guess I'm going to have to pull out the manual and read up on setting things manually as FARfetched so helpfully suggested in the comments of my previous post. (Thanks, FAR! You're a pal!) I'll keep at it until I get a shot I'm happy with, or else resort to some tinkering with the image with my photo editor. (Of course, my preference is to get the most "natural" shots I can.) One thing I neglected to say about this particular bulb is that it also comes in shades of pink and white, for those so inclined to those colors ... we're fans of anything blue in the garden, so we only planted the blue variety ... so stay tuned for many more shades of blue to come....

This lonely white crocus appears to be one of our Van Bourgondien Snow Crocus Mix that was planted last fall, because I don't recall seeing it in this particular spot before this year, but am happy to welcome it to the party! You can see the remnants of some Snow Crocus 'Dorothy' petals at its base, but apparently Fernymoss just popped one white into this particular planting. I guess that's a sign of things to come, because as the yellow crocuses are the first to appear, they also are the first to depart the scene ... farewell, my fiery lovelies, I'll be glad to welcome you back again next Spring and make sure to bring lots of your friends and relatives along with you!

As you can see, we still have a lot of raking and clean up to do in the Woodland Garden, but weekend weather just hasn't permitted much work the past few weeks (cold, rainy and even snow) and since Saturday is supposed to be rainy (again!), we may not get to this area until Sunday at the earliest. Still, this hasn't impeded the emergence of one of our favorite Columbines, the 'Alpine Blue.' There are a couple of others still to show themselves, but I'm sure once we get the leaves cleared out, they'll show up (I suspect they're still lurking underneath). In a way, it's probably just as well we didn't get to this area back on that great sunny weekend a while back, because we have had several cold snaps since then, but those now seem less likely as April slithers to a close....

Here's another 'Pickwick' crocus planted last fall ... now I'm beginning to see what Fernymoss did that day I was sick and couldn't help plant them ... I'm seeing the lone one or two crocus popping up in all sorts of odd spots around the place! Though I would have preferred planting at least 3-4 at a time, I'm sure that given a few years, we'll have some nice little colonies developing, so I just need to temper my impatient Leo ways and be patient until that happens....

While I was out taking these shots, I left Hanna on the porch so she could at least see what I was doing and keep tabs on the neighborhood goings on while I was occupied. The next two shots were impulse photos I took as I opened the porch door to go back inside ... there was such an adorable puppy waiting for me that I just had to give her her due. I've found that since Hanna is such an energetic dog who moves all the time, the best way to capture her is to put the camera in continuous shooting mode and just snap away ... so here are two of the results.

Why can't I go out and run around out front with you Daddy? I'll be good!

That was not the answer I wanted to hear! Remember, I'll be one year old on April 20! I think I'm a big enough girl!

Cloudy Spring Potpourri

2009-04-13T23:39:00.001-05:00

We've definitely been pretty sun starved the past several days and yesterday (Easter) and today were no exceptions ... but still, I had to try to get out for a little while yesterday, as the temperature dropped and the winds whipped up, just to try my hand at getting a few shots of what was valiantly blooming. Some of the Giant Crocus are now done and gone, thanks in no small part to the gusty winds ... but others are rising to the occasion to replace them, as are our other early spring bloomers, such as this Chionodoxa forbessi ('Glory of the Snow') that I showed a glimpse of in my previous Crocus post from last week.

It may be the 'Glory of the Snow,' but for the amateur flower photographer, it might as well be nicknamed Le désespoir des photographes ('Photographer's Despair') because of its stubborn refusal to be captured accurately (color wise) by the camera in most situations! As I mentioned in my previous post, for some reason I have a terrible time getting the right shade of true blue from this gorgeous little ephemeral that graces the front boulder bed every spring. Of course, yesterday was insufferably cloudy and it was late afternoon before we got home and I could get out with the camera, but still ... to my eye, it was its usual glorious blue! So I said what the heck, these won't be the best photos I'll get, but I need to get things chronicled one way or another, so here's one of the shots I got of the several colonies we have established out in the front boulder bed. As you can see, it looks a little bleached out and more lavender than blue, but this was in natural light with no flash (which would have made them look even worse!) ... so go figure. I'll try again later this week when the sun is supposed to return at least briefly and maybe I'll inadvertently discover the holy grail....

I'll just mention one more time that this is a great early spring bulb -- gorgeous, inexpensive, very hardy (Zones 3-6), and a great naturalizer that multiplies very quickly. (These were planted in clumps of 5-6 back in 2005 and at this point have almost tripled in number.) If you don't have this little beauty in your garden currently, you'd do well to consider a few mass plantings with your spring bulbs ... they're small, about the size of snow crocus, don't have to go down too deep and you can plant a good number in a short amount of time. I've been thinking about getting 50-60 more of these in the Fall and doing a couple of big plantings with assorted crocuses, since finding a real blue in crocus is a challenge ... think how lovely a 2-3 foot space filled with all of these would be ... a real spirit booster after a long winter!

Here we have another one of our very favorite early spring ephemerals, Scilla siberica 'Spring Beauty,' commonly known as Siberian Squill. It's another of the truly blue spring bulbs you can plant, with lots of great features: it's incredibly hardy (Zones 3-9), it naturalizes freely over time (though not as fast as we would like) and is just a joy to behold for the brief time it is on the stage. This particular clump was not intentionally planted here amongst the tulips ... well, I mean we didn't purchase these bulbs and put them there deliberately, though I suspect that Fernymoss had a hand in this particular planting. (I think he plucked some mature bulblets from other plants and tossed them over here a few years ago ... à la Fernymoss Squilly Bulb.) You see, Scilla siberica has a great naturalizing strategy ... after the blooms have faded, they turn into litlle "bulblets" that eventually weigh down the stem and fall to the ground and work their way into the soil (well, usually we give them a bit of an assist by digging a little hole for them) where they can advance out from the parent plant.and come up the following year. That's how you sometimes see, in fortunate gardeners' yards and gardens, huge drifts of blue appear when they bloom. That's what we have been aspiring to since we first planted them, and at present, we do have a pretty good colony going out in the front parking. Right now, they are just starting to bloom, but I'll feature them soon when they are a bit more prominent ... but we've had to be patient, because the soil in the parking is very poor and hard, so I think it has slowed them down a bit. They're an outstanding spring bulb to introduce to your garden if you don't already have some planted ... we also have over 100 of their larger cousins Hyacinthoides hispanica (formerly known as Scilla Hispanica or 'Spanish Bluebells') planted around the garden and they are starting to come up in droves right now, though they probably won't bloom until early May. I spotted some substantial clumps coming up yesterday and was thrilled to see that they have yet again multiplied their numbers over those we had last year, so you'll be seeing those when they burst into bloom....

Finally, here's another planting of Crocus 'Pickwick' (which I've featured previously), which though obviously not happy with yesterday's weather, was hanging in there despite the cold and wind. I think this clump was planted about 2-3 years ago, due to its placement and the number that have come up this year ... we're seeing more and more of the crocus on the northern exposures blooming now (where it stays colder and less sunny than elsewhere in the front), so the season's show is far from over at this point! Consider this post just a snapshot from some very cloudy days, looking forward to more sunshine that will bring the rest of our spring friends into bloom ... I guess we're just having to be ultra patient this year, given Winter's stubborness about leaving. Patience is just one of those traits that the gardener has to cultivate, otherwise we just set ourselves up for infinite frustrations!

And speaking of patience on another front ... I finally (after a 1 month+ wait) got my new glasses late last week (first pair in 10 years) and I'm having to really be patient adjusting to them. I had to get bifocals (my first pair since 2nd grade) again and though it's great to see clearly at distances again, the up close work has been challenging so far, but give me a few weeks to adjust and I hope I'll be back to as good as I can be (with my complicated prescription). I know one thing: it's going to be less of a crap shoot when I take pictures now! I'm looking forward to that....

Much Ado About Teabagging

2009-04-10T00:10:00.004-05:00

WARNING AND DISCLAIMER: Though there is no nudity shown in these video clips, the subject material may skirt the boundaries of some people's conceptions of "polite company" and is a bit on the risqué side. However, if you're a fan of the clever use of double entendre, you'll likely find the following video segment from tonight's Rachel Maddow Show positively hilarious. We saw it in real time and we both laughed so hard that I was in tears by the end....

If you're not familiar with Rachel Maddow or her nightly news and commentary show on MSNBC, let me tell you, she's probably the smartest and funniest woman you'll ever see commenting on current events and politics. We watch her program religiously (she follows my other media idol, Keith Olbermann every weeknight on MSNBC) and tonight, she just totally broadsided her audience with this segment called "Insanitea." Watch it and let her explain about the current Wingnut obsession being promoted by such esteemed arbiters of political thinking as FAUX NEWS, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and others of their ilk. If you've never heard the term "teabagging" before, don't despair, because although Rachel never explains what she's really talking about, I'll do it for you after the segment. (Click on the image to play the video.)

Honestly, I don't know how Rachel managed to keep from totally cracking up while she did this piece, and her guest Ana Marie Cox did an excellent job of providing wry and knowing counterpoint to the whole segment. I couldn't have restrained my laughter had I been doing this commentary, so kudos to both these smart and sassy women!

Of course, Rachel's whole point here is to expose the sheer insanity of the "teabagging" and "going Galt" mini-movements sweeping the ultra-fringey "conservative" movement, and her basic argument is (as it often is when she comments on such matters) that they just have no idea what they're talking about. And doing this commentary tonight is a perfect example of how much fun it can be to shoot proverbial fish in a barrel. Ever since I read about these "Teabag Parties" and FAUX, Beck and Malkin's encouraging their followers to "Teabag Obama" or "Teabag the Democrats Before They Teabag You," I've chuckled many times thinking: Do they have any clue what they're saying and promoting? Thank you, Rachel, for bringing this to a wider audience and delighting your fans. In fact, when I decided to write this post tonight, I immediately tried to go to MSNBC to see if they had the video posted. It appears that they are being totally slammed (or having some other kind of outage) and I couldn't get the site to load. So I Googled "Rachel Maddow Teabagging," got a lot of returns that had the video posted, but none of them would load either. Finally, out of desperation, I tried YouTube, and voilà, someone had the whole segment posted already. (Thank you, heathr456!)

So ... what's the big joke all about? "Teabagging" is a slang term for a certain sexual practice. Without going into detail, here's what Wikipedia has to say about "Teabagging." Go read it (it's brief) ... now aren't you glad that I didn't explain that in less clinical terms on the pages of this (usually) g-rated blog? I have to admit, I had never heard the term before I saw John Water's 1998 film Pecker, in which there's a brief scene depicting the practice (rather tastefully for Waters), which I was also lucky enough to find on YouTube (click image below for video if you dare). A bit of context before we proceed ... the main character, Pecker (so named because he "pecks at his food") is just an ordinary young Baltimore man who obsessively photographs everything around him and hurtles to sudden fame with his photography, inadvertently becoming the darling of the New York artsy-fartsy crowd. In this scene, he ventures out to a gay bar where his sister works so he can photograph some of the underground Baltimore bar night life.... (The "Teabagging" begins at about the 1:23 point in the clip.)

So there you have it. This is what those of us in the know interpret as "Teabagging." Like Rachel, I wonder how long it's going to take the ultra-fringe "Teabagger" proponents to figure this one out. Personally, I find this irony so rich and delicious that I hope they never do. That just gives the rest of us more time to enjoy their antics in these admittedly depressing times. It all reminds me of that old saying: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and prove it.

The Crocus Parade Continues ...

2009-04-08T00:08:00.004-05:00

Today we finally had some sun again, which pretty much finished off the rest of the snow lingering from Sunday's "storm," so the crocus were able to show their faces again to the world after spending two days closed up and shivering. The temperatures have also begun to moderate slowly and with any luck, we'll be seeing the upper 50s by the end of the week, with partly sunny days in store. That's a Spring I can start to believe in, but it's still too chilly at night to begin putting anything into the ground (other than early planted seeds).

My goal for this weekend is to get at least one afternoon spent cleaning up the back yard because it's a mess! If you recall, after the tree came crashing down last October, the weather turned cold very quickly and there's still a lot of branches and stuff that need to be picked up and disposed of, and then there's the matter of getting the tree taken out. Fernymoss finally got a lead on a reasonably priced tree service, so we'd like to get that taken care of before too much longer, not only to get rid of the unsightly mess, but also to ensure a sunnier back yard this summer. I can see my tax refund disappearing already ... but it has to be done soon!

Now we return to our regularly scheduled Crocus coverage, already in progress...

Note: the shots in this post are also from my most recent session on April 3, 2009.

(Be sure to click through to see the larger, more detailed versions.)

I'm a bit baffled as to exactly what variety of Giant Crocus this one is ... it definitely came from one of our Van Bourgondien mixes and I thought it might be Blue Pearl, but after looking at that one in the catalogue again, I'm not so sure. It's definitely not Pickwick (shown below) because it doesn't display the prominent purple striping that characterizes that variety. But whatever this one turns out to be, it's another reliable bloomer and has been multiplying quite happily over the past 3 years or so out in the front boulder bed, and at this point has grown into a respectable, showy clump that stands out in the bare ground of the central bed.

This is one of our small clumps of Pickwick that we have scattered around the front beds ... I suspect this is one of the more recently planted groupings because it doesn't show signs of having multiplied just yet. Though this variety doesn't seem to colonize as quickly as the other Crocus do, it's definitely one of the more dramatic cultivars with its white tipped petals striped with deep purple hiding the brilliant orange stamens. We should be seeing more of these soon, and though this shot doesn't really do it justice, it's the best I have for the moment. The only drawback I can find for this variety is that, like Jeanne d'Arc, it's really prone to lose its petals in a heavy rain or strong wind, and its bloom period is somewhat shorter than most of our other Giant and Snow Crocuses. Still, it's a very worthy crocus to have in your garden and would make a nice planting companion to others like Jeanne d'Arc and Golden Yellow. Have I sold you on the virtues of the Giant Crocuses yet?

I have no clue what variety of yellow snow crocus this is because it was in a grab bag mix I got from Park Seed several years ago ... this little clump is one of many I planted along the line of the sidewalk on the Woodland side of the house (on the north). When I planted them, I just mixed up a bunch of crocus and Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) and planted them in groups of 5 or 6 every foot or so down the sidewalk line. This year, this is one of the first ones to show up, and there are still quite a few more that should be appearing sometime soon, so consider this a sneak peek at more to come....

I was really happy to see these little guys coming up in profusion last weekend when I was out with the camera! Though at first glance one might mistake them for Squill (Scilla siberica), they are actually Chionodoxa forbessi, aka 'Glory of the Snow.' These cheery little star shaped blue flowers with white centers and yellow stamens are really a great naturalizer that can go just about anywhere you want a splash of blue among the early spring bloomers and would look good with snow crocus, because they start (at least here) blooming just about the time the snow crocus are on the way out (but while their foliage remains). I think we have about 3-4 clumps of these near the edge of the front boulder bed, where they have been happily colonizing for the last several years. I think I started with about 5 bulbs in each planting and I've definitely noticed that every year more and more return in the spring ... they're definitely a bulb you need to plant in masses, because the sight of one or two lone flowers just wouldn't do them justice ... they need to be seen in groups for the full effect! I'll also note that getting good photos of these flowers is a real challenge for some reason ... if there's not enough sun, they look muddy blue, too much sun and they end up looking bleached out. I hope I have better luck capturing them this year than I have in the past few years. You'll see soon enough....

Now these are a bit of a mystery so far, but one thing's for sure, they're something that Fernymoss planted that day last fall when I was sick, so I don't know where anything he planted is (and he can't remember what went where). My best guess is that these are either Nectaroscordum ('Sicilian Honey Garlic') or Fritillaria 'Fox's Grape.' Now that I think more about it, I think they might indeed be the Fritillarias because they are up so early and are supposed to bloom in April or May, while Nectaroscordum doesn't bloom until May or June ... so time will tell what they really are! If anyone can positively ID these just from the initial foliage, please let me know what you think it is, otherwise we'll just have to wait until they bloom....

This is a bit of a wider view of one of our mass plantings of Daffodils, Tulips, Hyacinths and Crocus we have on the Woodland side of the house (where, as you can see, we haven't gotten much cleaning up done yet!). I'm cautiously optimistic that some of the tulips we had there that didn't return last year may be back this year, because it seems that I'm seeing more there than last year. These 'Yellow Trumpet Daffodils' are a very basic version of the flower bred primarily for naturalizing, which is exactly why we bought a whole half bushel back in 2005 to plant all around the garden. We have experimented with some of the fancier varieties in the past and been disappointed that, like the fancy tulips, after several years they either disappear entirely or revert to some kind of unattractive mutant Narcissus resembling the stinky Paper Whites we made the mistake of forcing one winter. That's an experience we won't repeat again because those pestiferous things stunk up the entire house and we ended up sticking them on the porch to kill them!

Fortunately, these Daffodils come back true every year (so far) and have been multiplying nicely in the 3 years they have been blooming for us. And they even escaped the great Des Moines Daffodil holocaust that hit so many gardeners last year, who lost entire long-established beds of them for some as yet unknown reason. Our neighbors across the street used to have masses of lovely Daffodils next to their house and their bed was decimated last year and only a few still remain ... yet ours were seemingly untouched and actually thrived last year. It looks like they're gearing up for a good show again this year, so we're looking forward to their appearance soon!

And for those of you who need a puppy fix, here's Lil Miss Hanna ...
I call this shot "Inscrutable"

What dog owner hasn't wanted to peek into the mind of their dog when s/he gives them one of these kinds of looks? Of course, Terriers are notorious for their staring capacity and can stare the best of us down (Pepa was a pro at this too) ... actually this shot kind of reminded me of that old Frasier episode that had a section called "Stare Master" where Eddie got the best of Frasier, despite the latter's best efforts to out-stare Eddie. Hanna definitely has the talent, so when you combine that with her incredibly expressive face and her frequent brow wrinkling and you get truly inscrutable looks. How do you interpret this gaze? Is it Hanna concocting some devious plan? Is she merely expressing concern? What wheels are spinning inside her head at this moment? Let me know if you have any good ideas....

Pre-Easter Crocus Parade

2009-04-06T00:06:00.005-05:00

Friday was, in many respects a stellar day around Casa IVG ... what with the historic Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, to mild temperatures in the mid-50s and abundant sunshine ... and I, being the obsessive meteorology geek that I am, already knew it wouldn't last. For days, the weather service had been forecasting a cold turn and rain morphing into sleet and snow for Saturday and Sunday. Well, Saturday started out fairly sunny, but over the course of the day, conditions darkened and by evening, it began to rain ... nothing truly dramatic or stormy, but steady, light showers that persisted throughout the evening, and then sometime overnight, there was a transition to sleet and then snow. Sunday it snowed steadily all day, but with temperatures in the low 30s, much of it melted when it hit the ground and there were only light accumulations (perhaps an inch or so) on grassy or garden areas, and the sidewalks and streets remained clear. Not at all what we had been expecting from the forecast: 3-5 inches with high winds behind the snow. We did get periodic bouts of wind, but fortunately no accumulations requiring shoveling. Of course we weren't happy to see the snow return one more time, but at least it wasn't excessive and it will likely be gone before the end of the day tomorrow ... so we can live with this kind of April snow shower!

On these kinds of weekends when the weather threatens to be "iffy" we often try to plan to get all of our errands out of the way on the decent day so we can just hole up at home when the nasty stuff sets in, and this weekend was no exception. This is when I get the cooking bug to make something really tasty and satisfying because I have the time (which I never seem to have during the week). So Saturday night we had cheese ravioli and meatballs (both frozen, but tasty) and Sunday I set about putting together a real meal for dinner ... a pork roast, fresh steamed asparagus and yukon gold mashed potatoes, with cranberry orange zest quick bread for dessert. It was the perfect "cold weather again" meal for the day and we really enjoyed it, and even Hanna got some little tastes of the meat and potatoes just for being an exceptionally good girl on a day when we were sure she was suffering from a bit of cabin fever, even though she did get a brief walk (wearing her jacket of course, due to the cold). After dinner, we were three contented souls enjoying what was left of our weekend....

Friday afternoon after work, while it was still gloriously sunny, I headed out front to get some sun-soaked shots while I still could and these photos are all from that session (April 3, 2009). This first shot is in the "original" bulb bed next to the steps ... These are two of my favorite Giant Dutch varieties, Jeanne d'Arc (White) and Flower Record (Purple) ... they were part of a Giant Crocus Mix we originally got from Van Bourgondien several years ago, and we liked them so much we ordered another couple of bags last year, though many of them have yet to come up, since they are scattered about the various beds that make up our gardens. I suspect many are on the northern side which has yet to fully warm up (though there are tulips and daffodils galore breaking ground in the past week or so). So, unless they have been poached by the tree rats, we should be seeing them sometime fairly soon. We've both been noting with concern, a lot of holes around the beds and hope that we're not losing things to these voracious thugs, but then again, it may just be random digging, since I've heard many times that tree rats are so stupid that they forget where they bury the nuts so they dig everywhere ... I sure hope this is the case!

If you've never grown the "Giant Dutch" varieties of Crocus, they are just as easy as the smaller "Snow Crocus," though need to go down a bit deeper than the smaller ones ... growing conditions and situations are identical, and they look fantastic mixed in with the smaller varieties, especially when they begin to multiply. They're not as quick to colonize as the "Snow Crocuses," but gradually increase their stands year after year, so patience is the operative concept once again. They grow to about 4-5 inches tops and as long as they're not subjected to pounding rains or consistently high winds, they generally have a bloom time of maybe 2-3 weeks if you're lucky. Like all crocus, after the blooms fade, the foliage remains until the weather gets warmer and then disappears for the rest of the season, going into "snooze mode" until the following Spring.... This shot is a closer view of the Flower Record clump seen above, positively basking in the late afternoon sun and showing off the various hues of purple they exhibit ... I think the most striking feature of this variety are the brilliant orange stamens that really contrast gorgeously with the purple petals ... If you don't have any "Giant Dutch" varieties in your garden, this one is a must have in my opinion ... it's a virtually carefree and fail safe early Spring bloomer that will reward you year after year!

These little beauties look a lot like 'Tricolor,' but they're actually a different variety of Crocus sieberi called 'Firefly.' I really enjoy the subtle gradations from lavender to white, and the brilliant yellow stamens of this variety, which make it really "pop" wherever it is planted, whether it be in a formal bed or right in the middle of a lawn, providing a pleasant surprise to anyone who casts a glance in their direction. Something I don't think I've mentioned in my many musings on Crocus is that they do quite well in grass, where their foliage blends right in, but the flowers stand out, and the best thing is that they are done blooming long before the first mowing needs to take place, so they can fulfill their whole bloom cycle before they're forced into summer retirement. Again, I realize that for a lot of people the idea of planting bulbs is a daunting one (especially for tulips and daffodils and the larger bulbs), but if you enjoy the early spring rewards of these joyful crocus, there's really no excuse why one's garden should go wanting for these little jewels. They're small bulbs that don't need to go down very deep and one can plant a hundred easily in an afternoon armed only with a trowel ... dig a small plug of grass (or dirt) out of where you want them to appear, about 2-3 inches deep, pop 3, 4 or 5 bulbs in, replace the dirt or grass plug and you're done! As my culinary muse Ina Garten would say, How easy is that?

I admit I used to pooh-pooh the idea of white flowers as boring, but I've certainly changed my tune as I've matured as a gardener --don't get me wrong, I still go for the fiery colors with a passion-- there's a lot to be said for flowers that produce a pristine, clean shade of white ... and how much more pure could one get than a variety named Jeanne d'Arc? When planted in proximity to the flashier purples and yellows, they really provide a striking contrast, as you can see in the first shot of this post. At this point, I really wish I had popped some of the larger yellow ones in near these two for even more flash, but this bed is so full of bulbs that I don't dare mess with what's already there, so maybe I'll just designate a small area somewhere where there aren't crocus this year and do another planting of several colors next fall.

I call this shot "Nonchalant."

For the puppy deprived among you (how's this, Deborah?), here's another candid shot of Princess Hanna from Friday evening ... when I looked closely at this shot, I had to laugh when I realized that the image on the TV in the background is that notorious motorized bar stool that has been in the news the past week ... you know, the one the guy in Ohio was riding when he crashed it after having drunk 15 beers, then told the police he followed that up with half a bottle of whiskey? Loose lips sink ships buddy, and got this overly loquacious dude a first ... a DUI on Motorized Bar Stool citation! I hope he thinks twice the next time he considers driving this to the bar....

On the weekend cinema front, we only managed to get one "real" film in on Friday night ... the Cohen Brothers' Burn After Reading, which was a pure comedic delight which reveled in the unadulterated stupidity of a whole ensemble of bizarro world characters (CIA operatives and health club types) who fall into a convoluted plot way over their heads. Though much of the comedy is far from the "laugh out loud" type (say, as in a Will Ferrell or Sacha Baron Cohen movie), it's definitely sardonic enough to satisfy even the most jaded viewer who can tune into the Cohen brothers sensibility. My take is that it's a great light (?) hearted follow up to the more sinister No Country For Old Men, which I found to be a real stunner of a different sort. (Oh, Javier, that haircut was painful!) Though I'm no great fan of Brad Pitt under most circumstances, he was positively delightful in this role where he (as one cast member notes in the extra features) "fully embraced his inner knucklehead." George Clooney has never been sexier than he is in this film, (despite his despicable lothario-like sex addict character), and it was great to see him engage in a performance ranging from purely comedic to full blown paranoia ... at one point I was so engaged by his paranoia that I started to get nervous myself when I heard sirens going by nearby.... Another standout performance by Frances McDormand (the original "Marge Gunderson" so amply imitated by Sarah Palin) punctuates the bizarre dynamic of this film ... so much so that of all the characters we follow, she is the only one who achieves her central goal, despite all her idiotic missteps. After we watched this film, I marveled at how oddly this film was marketed ... I remember at the time thinking that it was nothing more than a "fluffy" Cohen Brothers film I might not like, but after having spent the evening going through this impossibly convoluted adventure, I felt greatly rewarded and had quite a few hearty laughs along the way. Those guys still have it in spades and this film deserves a lot more exposure than it seems to have gotten on its original release ... you could find many worse ways to spend 96 minutes of your time, so I give it a hearty recommendation.

Hanna, on the other hand, slept through most of it, so if you're taking cues from her reactions, you might as well take a nap....

Great Day in Iowa!

2009-04-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

I have never been so proud an Iowan as I was today, when I learned early this morning that the State Supreme Court had ruled (unanimously!) as unconstitutional a 1998 ban on marriages other than between "one man and one woman." I knew this was coming up on a decision sometime soon, but there were no signals that it would arrive this quickly. I'm still stunned that it really happened, but since it's been all over the media today, I have to believe it ... and just smile in astonishment. This is something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime.

What follows is some local coverage of this historic decision that must have wingnut heads exploding across the state, indeed the nation, today.... For years, I've tried to convince "coasters" and others who know little about the state that we're a lot more than the hillbilly rednecks cast adrift in the infinite midwestern 'Hinterlands' that the vile $hrub called us back in 2004, as he referred to us on a campaign stop. Maybe this will help persuade others who have never been here that Iowa really isn't the place they've created in their heads ... at least I hope so!

Here's the scoop from the Des Moines Register:

Basic fairness and constitutional equal protection were the linchpins of Friday’s historic Iowa Supreme Court ruling that overturned a 10-year-old ban on same-sex marriage and puts Iowa squarely in the center of the nation’s debate over gay rights.

The unanimous, 69-page decision maintains a church’s right to decide who can be married under its roof, but it runs counter to the expressed opinion of a majority of Iowans who believe marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman.

The landmark ruling is guaranteed to send shock waves through politics in Iowa and beyond. With no appeal as an option, opponents say their only hope to overturn Friday’s decision is an almost-certain bid to amend the state constitution. But that path, which would eventually require a public vote, would not yield results until 2012 at the earliest.

Now, this updated excerpt has changed from the more objective coverage this morning, to more conservative tonight, but do read the entire piece to get the full detail on the ruling. Still, the end result is the same ... for the moment, we have marriage equality here in Iowa. And no, wingnuts can't do a "Proposition 8" type reversal on us here because Iowa law would require this ruling to be subject to a constitutional amendment. Under the best of circumstances, that would take at least 2-3 years to get on the ballot. Procedure requires introduction and passage in both the House and Senate in two consecutive sessions before it could be put before voters on the ballot. And that's unlikely to happen any time soon, because Iowa currently has a Democratic Governor and substantial Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. (Our State Senator Matt McCoy is the only openly gay Senator in the Legislature.) Speaking of the Legislature, after the flower pause, I've quoted in its entirety the joint statement issued by our House and Senate Majority Leaders ....

Press Release of Joint Statement from Iowa Senate and House Majority leaders:

News Release
For Immediate Release: April 3, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal
House Speaker Pat Murphy

Iowa continues to be a leader in guaranteeing civil rights

This is a joint statement from Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal and Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy on today's Supreme Court decision:

"Thanks to today's decision, Iowa continues to be a leader in guaranteeing all of our citizens' equal rights.

"The court has ruled today that when two Iowans promise to share their lives together, state law will respect that commitment, regardless of whether the couple is gay or straight.

"When all is said and done, we believe the only lasting question about today's events will be why it took us so long. It is a tough question to answer because treating everyone fairly is really a matter of Iowa common sense and Iowa common decency.

"Today, the Iowa Supreme Court has reaffirmed those Iowa values by ruling that gay and lesbian Iowans have all the same rights and responsibilities of citizenship as any other Iowan.

"Iowa has always been a leader in the area of civil rights.

"In 1839, the Iowa Supreme Court rejected slavery in a decision that found that a slave named Ralph became free when he stepped on Iowa soil, 26 years before the end of the Civil War decided the issue.

"In 1868, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated "separate but equal" schools had no place in Iowa, 85 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached the same decision.

"In 1873, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled against racial discrimination in public accommodations, 91 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached the same decision.

"In 1869, Iowa became the first state in the union to admit women to the practice of law.

"In the case of recognizing loving relationships between two adults, the Iowa Supreme Court is once again taking a leadership position on civil rights.

"Today, we congratulate the thousands of Iowans who now can express their love for each other and have it recognized by our laws."

I haven't yet read the decision myself, but if you're interested, you can read the PDF here. I have to admit that it hasn't fully sunk in yet for me, but today sure felt good, and confirmed why, after many years of wandering away from my home state, I'm glad I decided to come back from exile! Interesting times ahead here, I think ....

Hanna and I had a little talk early this evening about how her two daddies were "almost" legal now --and by coincidence today, Hanna is "legal" too because we just received her official dog license-- and though she looks pensive here, I think she was taking it all in and is just fine with the status quo in this household. After all, dogs are notoriously non-judgmental creatures, and as long as it doesn't negatively affect their lives, they don't express objections. Too bad human beings aren't as open-minded all the time. Again, dogs have a lot to teach us.....

By the way, the flowers are some Alstromerias (one of my very favorites) that I bought recently to have in the house, just because I wanted some fresh blooms around inside and I fell in love with the colors ... I had to take advantage of the late afternoon sun to get a few shots to share.

I'll return to Crocus blogging very soon! I got some very nice shots today, in advance of a weekend predicted to include lots of rain, sleet and accumulations of snow on Sunday! I'll keep you posted on what actually happens, but at this point it looks like pretty much of a sure thing. Oh well, into every life a few drops of rain must fall, eh?

I'm No Luddite, but Still ...

2009-03-31T00:03:00.004-05:00

I've become quite tired of the whole "Twitter Phenomenon" apparently sweeping the nation. It seems that now every politician, celebrity, and millions of regular people are "twittering" their heads off all day long.in 140 character bursts of banality, but honestly, to what end? Mind you, I'm one of those people who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the cell phone age (and only for work purposes) ... but don't get me wrong, I'm not a Luddite, really! I was a very early adopter of most computer technology (way back in 1984) and have been amazed at how far we have come in terms of how computers can enhance and improve our daily lives. After all, I blog!

But this "Twitter Mania" is getting a little out of hand, and I view it much the same way I do the texting phenomenon -- as a supreme waste of time and effort. What's the attraction, really, of punching a tiny keyboard on a cell phone or Blackberry to send telegraphic, poorly spelled message bursts? Haven't these people ever heard of Instant Messaging Clients? I used to be a huge fan of IMing and spent many hours conversing with people from all over the world, and until I finally tired of it (or lost track of people), it was a great little technology, and still is. Hey TwitterHeads, a lot of those work on cell phones too ... so why the Twittering? As the French would say, Cela me dépasse totalement! (It's just totally beyond me!)

My entire life I've been one to avoid passing fads of all kinds, so I suppose that has something to do with it. I was a born curmudgeon and as I've gotten older, I've mellowed a lot, but still have to lash out from time to time, and coming across this amusing video from Current TV (Al Gore's channel) tonight finally made me speak up here on this subject, on my own personal creaky soapbox. (h/t to dday posting at Political Animal tonight) Take a look at this very funny cartoon (it's about 4 min long) and you can see why I decided to post it (btw, I'd be the guy in the cube on the left) ... so I wonder if this means that even the techie twenties types are starting to tire of it as well? If so, I commend them for their good sense! Anyway, click the image to watch the video....

As for my own "TwitterPhobia," I suppose I could follow my own usual advice about such things and just say ignore it all, but it's becoming increasingly harder to do that when even the regular news and politics programs I watch are featuring a "Tweet" segment (please, David Shuster, give it up! I like you dude!) and now we're seeing it pop up in such ridiculous venues as a "Twitter Interview" with John McCain ... come on! Not that I really expect anything approaching legitimate substance from the likes of him, but the whole concept is beyond weird ... it's just plain absurd.

Then there's the whole issue of the identity of the "Twitterers" ... Keith Olbermann did a piece last week on Countdown where he revealed that someone is impersonating him on Twitter and has several thousand followers (or whatever they're called). Who's to say whose "Tweets" you are really reading? Are John McCain's really posted by some staffer? (I think that might be a good bet, given that last fall he didn't know how to "Google.") Are you really privy to Paris Hilton's intimate (vacuous) thoughts? In many ways, it's an outgrowth of Instant Messaging, only more truncated ... that "HotChickDoubleD21" at the other end could well be a middle-aged, cross-dressing fat dude for all you know, so it's all a leap of possibly misguided faith after all. Caveat emptor.

Is this what communication has come down to in this brave new world of 2009? Besides the dumbing down and ruding up of people caused by cell phones over the last decade, we've gone one step further and completely reduced meaningful communication to "Tweets?" Twittering is for the birds -- literally. And should you ever hear any twittering on this blog, it will be that of the birds!

Disclaimer and an advance apology to a good blogging buddy:
I spent many years of my life mastering several languages and have the advanced degrees to prove it, so this is part of my resistance to technologies that I think "dumb down" language usage. During the numerous years I taught at the university level, I was appalled at how little regard students had for correct usage and spelling, considering it an unnecessary "nicety" of expressing themselves. Obviously, I disagreed and tried my best to convince them that how they expressed themselves in writing was indeed a demonstration of their intelligence, and with the advent of spell checkers (imperfect as they are) there was no excuse for misspelling basic words. As you might imagine, this led to much frustration, and ended up being one of the reasons I left the teaching profession, as much as I loved it. Rather than become bitter and totally disillusioned, I bailed ... for better or worse. (Well, yes, there were other reasons too, but this would have gotten to me eventually.) So there, sorry about the rant, but this little cartoon gave me hope that others out there feel similarly, so you can blame Super News for this post!

And now for the apology ... my good buddy FARFetched has had a Twitter feed on his blog for over a year or so now, and by no means do I direct any of this criticism his way, because obviously he finds some value in it, and after all, he's much more of an early adopter than I am, something I admire greatly in him. Maybe he can convince me that I'm just being grumpy about this subject....

More Snow (Crocus)!

2009-03-30T00:30:00.003-05:00

Despite the fantastic weather we had last weekend, last week turned back chilly and cloudy again and since I last posted, it has been pretty dreary ... lots of clouds, temperatures back into 30s and 40s for highs and below freezing at night ... not a surprise, really, but still, it was discouraging after such a brilliant spring début a mere week ago! Fortunately, the sun returned Sunday and even after all the chilly nights, the snow crocus are still winding up steadily for their big show. Though we now have several different varieties in bloom out back and in the front gardens, I decided to feature Crocus sieberi 'Tricolor' in this post, just to give a better up-close look and sense of just how nicely these little troopers multiply over time. The clump in this first shot is one of several that have sprung up in the back garden (previously featured in long shot), and when they were originally planted I probably only put 1-2 bulbs in per hole, but in the past 4 years they have started to spread into small colonies, of which there are now probably about four scattered around the area. I'm not quite sure how crocus manage to move around, but they have definitely gone beyond the original area where they were planted, much to our delight.

Here's a smaller clump of 'Tricolor' that has appeared a bit removed from the one in the previous shot, however this one has a visitor! To be honest, I'd rather it have been a bee, but even flies count as insect subjects in our photography ... I'm not quite sure what attracts flies to crocus, but Fernymoss did remark that it does seem that they often can be seen visiting many of the same flowers as the bees do, and if you look really closely at this photo (click through for larger versions on all of these shots), you can see that his legs and antennae have a lot of pollen clinging to them. So even if they're not one of my favorite insects, they apparently do fulfill a few useful functions around the garden aside from providing food for the various spiders and other predators....

I guess one of the reasons I really like photographing crocus is for the many rich hues of colors you can get depending on how much sun you have to work with at a given time ... on a bright sunny day, the degrees of intensity you can get just by varying the angle of the shot can really be surprising at times. I'm always really pleased when I can get positively "sun drenched" shots that illuminate the blooms in all of their varied hues and 'Tricolor' certainly provides an excellent subject for just such shots. We have another purple variety called 'Ruby Giant' that I'm eagerly awaiting because of the intensity of its purple, paired with its pristine white center and brilliant yellow stamens ... you'll see it here when it finally starts blooming!

Here's yet another new colony out back among the Monarda (see the purplish leaves on the ground surrounding these blooms) ... I really liked how the sun caught the brilliant yellow of the stamens and the high contrast they create along with the gradations of purple in the petals ... truly, this is why I wish crocus had a longer bloom time than they do as spring ephemerals, but that's perhaps one of the reasons gardeners prize crocus so highly ... they provide such an incredibly rich variety of colors and 'wow' to the early spring garden that we might not appreciate them as much if they were to be in bloom for several months. Indeed, this is a case where absence truly does make the heart grow fonder, because once they are gone for the year, we know that it will be a long long wait before we see them again....

Ok, at the risk of burning out my audience on this particular crocus, I'm including this shot for its inadvertent catch of an insect caught in mid-flight ... s/he should be pretty easy to spot if you enlarge the photo, and if you look carefully you can even see the shadow of a leg on the flower petal below. I just love when we get fortuitous intruders in certain shots, because it seems that most times when we focus on the insects themselves they never seem to want to cooperate and pose nicely for the camera, so catching one on the wing is an event indeed!

There were other crocus blooming today that I'll be featuring soon in additional posts, so there's more to look forward to this week from Casa IVG, and though the forecast for this week is little different from last week's (chilly and cloudy) I'll be on the lookout for more splashes of color popping up around the gardens. Today's photos are courtesy of Fernymoss (my arthritis has been keeping me from getting "down and dirty" with the flowers of late, thanks to the damp and cold) so any accolades should be directed his way!

Hanna update:
We passed the 2 months mark on March 18, and Princess Hanna has definitely decided this is her home! She's even been hanging out a bit in her crate (of her own volition, I might add) off and on, so we're pleased to see her doing that because the day will come soon that we will have to leave her alone sometimes, but we still take her everywhere with us as long as we aren't gone from the car for too long and the weather isn't too nasty. She went back to the vet's on Friday for her last bordetella vaccine and to contribute her fecal sample (oh joy!), which I found out on Saturday came back positive for Giardia (a pretty common intestinal parasite in dogs), so Sunday we went back to get her one week course of medication to rid her of those nasties. The weird thing is, she is completely asymptomatic for the infection (as are many dogs I found out doing research) but is a carrier, so Dr. B recommended a course of Panacur just to make sure she gets rid of the little buggers. After that's done and she re-tests negative, I'm hoping she'll manage to stay out of the vet's office till fall when she gets her rabies vaccine renewed ... I'm sure she'll be relieved too, because she's not very fond of having her temperature taken (though she cooperates just fine) and always has a very surprised look on her face when Dr. B inserts the thermometer! Easy for me to say, eh?

After her vet visit, we did something we haven't done in a while, which is to peruse the sale tables in Blockbuster for movies we've missed and since they were having one of their big sales, we picked up several titles we've been wanting to add to the collection. So, Friday night we settled in, made popcorn, and proceeded to watch a double feature of Iron Man followed by Woody Allen's latest, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, both of which we really enjoyed despite their incredibly different "genres." Though I won't attempt to give full blown reviews of either, I will say that Robert Downey, Jr. was perfect in the role and I have a hard time imagining how anyone else could have brought the depth to that kind of role that he was able to achieve. I'm really glad to see he's got his act back together and is doing brilliant work again (I also thought he was very good in Zodiac). Now if I can just work up my nerve to see Tropic Thunder ... I've been told he was quite good in that one as well but I have to admit I have Ben Stiller issues, and I generally avoid his films.

I also picked up Burn After Reading, In Bruges and W, which I have been informed I will be watching by myself because Fernymoss can't bear the idea of seeing a whole film about $hrub. There's just enough of a trainwreck loving ambulance chasing rubber-necker in me that I just have to see it. I'll let you know what I think when I get around to it ... But the real find that I spotted and was considering buying before Fernymoss snapped it up was Marjane Satrapi's 2007 (Academy Award nominated) animated feature about growing up during the Iranian Islamic Revolution, Persepolis, which I do intend to review fully soon. It's too bad that it lost out to a snooty culinary rat that year, because it's a truly remarkable film, animated or not! So, sometime soon when I've had a chance to more fully digest it (and perhaps view it again to soak more of it up), I'll be posting a review. Needless to say, I highly recommend this film, and if you're lucky as we were, you might just be able to pick it up on a sale table for $3.99! It is worth every penny and then some!

Rainy Day Discoveries ...

2009-03-24T00:24:00.000-05:00

Spring is a season full of surprises and discoveries in the garden, whether they be pleasant or less so ... but today was filled with excellent ones! As I took Hanna out when I was done working today, I glanced back at the area I've been featuring in the last few posts, and to my astonishment, I saw little masses of purple! After she was done with her end of business, we both strolled back to the corner bed to see what was going on ... lo and behold, there were several small clumps of Specie crocus 'Tricolor' just blooming away where just a day ago there were none! Apparently I had forgotten that I had planted these back there in 2005 (though Fernymoss assures me that I did) because I wasn't expecting any more crocus to be showing up there ... and, as a really pleasant bonus, I discovered yet another blue Iris reticulata in bloom! Maybe we're not such failures with these after all! Now I'm encouraged to buy more of these in the fall and try a bunch in various other places in the garden ... so perhaps my earlier discouragement was unfounded after all....

Here's a closer shot of these little charmers blooming bravely into the late afternoon on a rainy and overcast day ... unlike the yellow crocus who close up shop the minute the sun wanes, these little guys were still showing off for me, even if the light wasn't optimum for capturing their true colors ... but never fear, we have plenty of these out front as well, so you'll be seeing them in sunnier conditions sometime soon! Note the prolific Monarda (Bee Balm) surrounding these beauties ... fortunately they'll be at rest before the Monarda shoots up and shades them out completely from the sun....

We're still in the savage back corner here (we need another couple of nice days like last weekend to get this cleaned up!) where I discovered some more of our original bulb plantings from way back in 2000. At that time, we were aiming for the "natural surprise" effect of Tulips and Daffodils in apparently random spots ... silly us, that was before we discovered the real benefit of planting these bulbs in masses for a more dramatic effect! We've changed out ways and now are firm believers in group plantings of Tulips, Daffodils, Crocus and Muscari, and as the Spring progresses, we hope some of the Tulip masses will make a comeback ... it remains to be seen, but all my lamenting about the Iris reticulata seemed to do the trick, so I'm going to keep our Tulip expectations low and hope for the best!

I'm sure Gail at Clay and Limestone will immediately recognize these emerging perennials ... it's Phlox paniculata (I'm not sure what variety because this was a gifted plant from another gardener), which we've really come to appreciate over the past couple of years as it has aggressively come to dominate the back corner bed ... last year it was so prolific that it crowded out a few things we may have lost (including a couple of hibiscus), so this spring we plan on digging up quite a few of these to move to the back fence line, where we hope our neighbor won't object too much ... they're so pretty (even if they are pink!), such long bloomers and are so fragrant that we think she'll be fine with having these lining her driveway. We have great ambitions for this back bed this year, after neglecting it the past two or three years ... we want to thin out the Monarda, Phlox and Coneflowers, move our Oriental Poppies from this area and get more Hollyhocks going back here again. This will also give our Black-Eyed Susans a bit more breathing room to spread as well, so wish us well on this project! It's going to involve a lot of digging and moving plants, and some will probably go to new homes too, if there's interest in adopting some of our more enthusiastic growers....

Well, these look mighty dead don't they? Actually there's great potential for beauty hiding in these pods! For anyone who grows this plant -- Baptisia australis aka: 'False Indigo' -- these will be easy to ID, and for the uninitiated, we can't recommend this amazing perennial highly enough! They're incredibly hardy from Zones 3-9 and though they take a couple of years to get established enough to bloom, they're very carefree from that point on. Aside from their striking long stalks of blue sweet pea like flowers, they have lovely grey-green foliage that remains attractive throughout the season (we often use it as filler in bouquets) and produce these pods in late summer and fall. I've read that some people dry the pod stalks for use indoors in the winter, but honestly, unless you do something like spray paint them, or prefer black pods, we've never seen much use for them as "everlastings." We just let the seeds fall where they may, and when we find volunteers in the spring, we find them new homes to inhabit ... they are truly striking and quite dramatic when they bloom in late May or early June and every year someone inevitably stops us to inquire just what they are. We don't see a lot of these around town and wonder why, because they are such an easy plant to grow ... they just require a hard pruning in the spring (they only bloom on new wood) before the new shoots emerge ... which, by the way, look like huge stalks of asparagus! If you're not familiar with Baptisia, you owe it to yourself to get acquainted and find one a nice sunny spot in the garden. We're going to move a second year seedling to the front this spring as soon as it emerges so we can have another spectacular display out in the boulder bed....

I know, I know, these guys look pretty bedraggled don't they? But imagine you just spent the entire winter buried under nearly 5 feet of snow, covered with leaves and only got to see the light of day just recently and you might not be looking so chipper either! These are my prized Primula polyanthus, the ones I was waxing rhapsodically about last week ... though they don't look real happy just yet, look closer and you'll see there's a ton of new growth happening at the center of each clump. All they need now is some sunshine, milder weather and about another month to grow and they'll be blooming in all their wonderful jewel toned colors ... I can't wait, but guess I'll have to after all! Remarkably, these Primula tend to stay pretty green throughout the winter, even if they do look like wilted spinach. I'd venture to guess that for those of you in milder climes where the winters aren't as harsh, they would probably be evergreen throughout the winter. Their main enemy is too dry of a planting position, and I tend to pamper these during the hotter months and water them nearly every day if we're not getting regular rains. They're worth the extra effort for the show they put on every spring and sometimes even fall (when it doesn't get cold too soon).

Finally, we've come full circle from the far back corner to the front of the boulder bed where we discovered these delightful additions I planted back in 2005 ... look at the enlarged version and see if you can spot what I'm talking about ... these are Tulipa humilis v. 'Persian Pearl,' one of the many varieties of "wild" or Species Tulips. They're one of two varieties we have planted and I look forward to seeing them every year ... they're tiny dwarf tulips with every bit of the attraction of their larger cousins and make excellent additions to rock gardens or the front of a border where you want to show off something unusual and colorful ... so be patient and when they bloom you'll see them again in their full glory!

After our wonderful sunny and warm weekend, we're now heading into several rainy and gloomy days (in fact there's a thundershower going on as I write this) where it's forecast to be much cooler, with a few nights down into the lowest 30s, so that's bound to slow down the arrival of some of the other bulbs (such as those in the Woodland Garden), but unless we sustain long periods of sub-freezing weather (such as we did in 2007, which caused the great die off of many tulips and other bulbs), what's up so far should fare pretty well. At least I hope so ... one never knows with these wacky winters we've been having the past few years ... there was another huge tulip and daffodil die off again last year, though our Daffodils were spared and we had a good show ... and it seems the tulips are making somewhat of a comeback, so we're keeping all appendages crossed at this point! Of course, the chronicle will continue, so keep stopping back to see what's going on....

More Greening Up ....

2009-03-23T00:23:00.003-05:00

It was another lovely Spring day here today, though not as warm and a bit windy, but still a far cry from our recent frigid weather! We took Hanna and ran a few errands early today, then came back to do some more clean up out front before the rainy weather predicted for the next few days moves in ... we got the rest of the dead stuff cleared yesterday bagged up for city compost and filled up the last of our bags (we're up to 8 so far!). It's amazing how fast things are progressing now ... I found a few tulips had come up literally overnight in a couple of spots, and crocus just uncovered yesterday were blooming today! Unfortunately we were both so busy that we didn't have the camera with us, so didn't get any new shots ... so these photos are from my session after work from last Thursday (3-19-09). The first shot is one of our 'Blue Princess' Hollies (Ilex meserveae), which of course is one of our few evergreen plants (unless you count the messy Blue Spruce in the back yard) ... you'll notice there are no remaining berries on it ... either the birds or other critters cleaned it out over the winter, which is just fine by us, since we have little use for them other than as Christmas decorations....

This is one of our Leatherwood Ferns in the Woodland Garden ... it's greening up nicely, but still remains prostrate which is normal until the weather warms up a bit more when it will go upright. It's the first of our many ferns to come back to life after a long winter and is a truly tough plant deserving of its tough guy name. As you can see, its companions the Maidenhair Ferns are still looking pretty crispy and won't spring back for a while ... even though they are such a delicate looking fern, they are really hardy and good multipliers in the Woodland Garden where they form a great fairy canopy every year. Our next clean up project is to get around to this side of the house and clear out the dead material ... we did get the Ostrich Plume Ferns cleared out today, but ran out of compost bags and decided to call it a day before moving on further. Since this garden is slower to wake up, we don't feel such a sense of urgency to get it cleaned up as we do in the front boulder bed....

As you can see in this shot, our little heirloom Sedum sarmentosum is already up and proliferating in the front beds and by June it will likely be in full bloom. As I chronicled last year, this used to be a plant we tried to eradicate (it was here when we got here), we finally made our peace with it and cherish it now ... it's one of those little sedums you can just yank, toss somewhere else (such as rock crevices) where it will quickly establish itself and return each year, and since we have lots of rock crevices, it comes in handy as a filler plant that will grow where others won't ... so, it's gone from being considered a pest to a valued member of the garden. Funny how things like that happen....

Now, just in case anyone was feeling puppy deprived in the last post, here are a couple of shots of Hanna playing with one of her favorite toys, her red Kong. Usually we stuff it with a few pieces of her food, some of the "Kong Stuffing" (peanut butter flavor), a little biscuit and any other treats we can pack into it. Being the quick puzzle solver she is, Hanna usually only needs about 10-15 minutes to get everything out, but then she loves to have us toss this Kong and make it bounce for her, something she never seems to tire of doing, unless, of course, it happens to land in Pepa's old bowl, which for some reason terrifies her....

Recently we have discovered a few little odd "issues" she has about things, and one of them is Pepa's bowl ... when Lacey was visiting we needed a bowl to feed her, so I was using Pepa's old bowl (which has only ever been used as a dog bowl) which we left out after she left. A week or so ago, we were tossing the Kong around for her (it has a crazy pinball type bounce to it) and it landed in the bowl. Hanna would not under any circumstances retrieve the Kong from the bowl. So Fernymoss tried sliding it across the floor to her, but the closer it got, the more terrified she got and ended up barking at it and running away from it. And now, she won't even go near this bowl, no matter what. She won't even retrieve a toy that is just close, but not in, the bowl ... we don't know whether she realizes it was someone else's bowl or if Pepa is haunting it and intimidating her, but I guess if we want her to leave something alone, we know where to put it!

Today we discovered another "issue." The garden rake! Our rake is so old that the wooden handle always gives us splinters when we use it, so Fernymoss decided to wrap it with duct tape to protect our hands and brought it into the dining room ... as he was wrapping it, Hanna was in the living room and saw the rake end moving a bit as he wrapped ... at first she had a freaked out look about it and the more it moved, the more perturbed she became, until she started barking at it and eventually ran away after Fernymoss shook it at her a couple of times just to see what her reaction would be. The longer we have Hanna, the more we realize just what a little individual she is as she reveals her idiosyncrasies! This one made us laugh a lot that she would be freaked out by a common garden implement, so now we know to tread lightly with the rakes around her ... who knew a simple rake could be so terrifying to a puppy?

But the thing with the bowl mystifies us still ... maybe she senses Pepa's presence too strongly by it (after all it was Pepa's exclusive bowl for her entire life ... I bought it at Target for her right after I got her and it has only been used as her food bowl all these years) ... but whatever the reason, it truly spooks her! If this means that Pepa is still around here constantly, that makes me feel relieved she's still with us in some form. But I'd hope that Hanna would feel more gratitude toward her (maybe she will in time) because without that dream I had with Pepa in it where she gave us permission to adopt Hanna, she very well might not have ended up living with us. But then again, maybe she's just teaching her that it's not nice to poach from another dog's bowl? Whatever the reason, it's really odd that she would develop bowl and rake phobias! Just another one of those moments I wish I could read her thoughts to find out what she's thinking! But I just haven't developed that super dog power yet....

Spring, Glorious Spring!

2009-03-21T23:59:00.001-05:00

Bright Crocus and Tulips ... Spring, Glorious Spring ... It Finally Got Here!

The weather today gave us a wonderful official re-introduction to our long awaited friend Spring! We had a very busy day, starting bright and early by going to get our taxes prepared ... happy, happy, joy, joy! Actually, it wasn't that painful (both of us are getting refunds) and it's virtually done, all but for the signing and payment ... at least one less banal worry during the time we want to get kicking in the gardens. Of course Princess Hanna accompanied us on a couple of errands for groceries, so she was enjoying the going fast machine ... but our main accomplishment was getting almost all of the front boulder bed, sidewalk and the front gardens cleared out, cleaned out and raked. Some fantastic news to report: we were both seeing quite a few Tulips coming up, and to our memory more than last year, so we are cautiously optimistic they may be making a comeback..... Though we haven't yet found any bulbs coming up in the Woodland Garden, that's not surprising because it always stays coolest there and they usually arrive later than those planted further in front or the parking.

Today's photos were taken by Fernymoss ... You'll notice I changed the header photo again ... it now displays a Crocus that is actually blooming at this time ... The same variety you see in these first shots is called Specie crocus 'Dorothy' and was planted way back in 2005 when we really worked ourselves and planted hundreds of bulbs we had ordered, the same year we planted the 200 Tulips, 100 Spanish Squill and a bunch of Daffodils, Hyacinths, Alliums and Crocus. Many of the bulbs planted that year are now starting to spread nicely, especially these 'Dorothy' planted in the back with the snowdrops. We'll be seeing more of the progress of the rest of that year's class over the coming weeks and are looking forward to the show, given the number of bulbs coming up we uncovered or discovered today, which is only the start!

Golden chalices filled with sunshine ... that's what this shot evokes for me. A view you can only get if you're willing to get down, up close and personal with your crocus ... it's essential, I think, if only because their yearly visit is so brief, indeed ephemeral. Yet, they're such a deceptively complex flower when examined up close. To me, the outstanding features of this Crocus, aside from the brilliant gold accentuated by sunshine, are its hardiness (zones 3-9) and those dramatic stripes on the outside of the petals. And the nice bonus is that this Crocus naturalizes readily, and quite rapidly. As you'll see in the following shots, it has spread quite nicely in this part of the back corner bed.

These Crocus and Snowdrops are clearly establishing colonies in this bed, where they were originally planted on the periphery ... they've moved inward a bit, as you'll see in successive shots. At first glance, I missed the "baby" in this shot ... further proof that the colonies are reproducing nicely. You go, Crocus!

Here's a bit wider view of two small colonies of Galanthus elwesii and 'Dorothy' not far from the parent planting but moving inward ...in the forest of Monarda and Coneflower stalks, and if you look closely at the enlarged image, you can see the Monarda 'Blue Stocking' (purple) already up and growing ... in fact, the Monarda all around Casa IVG is already up and growing, despite the recent cold weather. After all, it is a member of the mint family, and one doesn't get rid of those easily! We make major exceptions for this one, however!

This is obviously the parent planting of the Snowdrops in this area of the garden, and it sure looks like things have gotten crowded enough that some have set off to establish homes elsewhere in the area, much to our delight ... the more the merrier as far as early spring bulbs are concerned!

Let's go a bit wider in this area to get some more perspective on these plantings and colonies ... now you can see how they've moved around a bit over the years ... naturalizing is what it's all about for me when it concerns bulbs ... yes, they're a lot of work to get started, but if one is patient over the following years, that's when the reward really starts to pay off. Of course, any perennial gardener already knows this, but I think it's worth reminding ourselves about this at times, especially when it relates to early Spring bulbs!

Despite my recent laments about the spotty performance of Dwarf Iris in our gardens, three of them have managed to sneak above ground since I last visited this area with the camera on Thursday! What a great surprise to find when we ventured to the back garden today! They came up remarkably quickly (I didn't see them on Thursday!) and have bloomed apparently the last two days, testimony to their ephemeral nature, as the one that looks purple is already a spent bloom ... the blue is fresh and current. These are such incredible little flowers, but I still wonder about expending much time, money and energy into growing them, given their spotty hardiness for us so far. We'd love to have a great mass of them ... but don't want to have to be planting them every year, so again, if anyone has great success stories to share about growing these Iris, please let us know. We'd love to be able to count on seeing them every year!

All in all, it was a great first Spring day here at Casa IVG ... the front beds got cleaned up and are sprouting all sorts of plants (including dandelions!) and the big wind up to Summer is starting with our earliest bulbular friends' (imminent) appearance. By this evening, all three of us were exhausted from today's work after dinner and conked out in our respective nesting places (recliners and couch) for a good portion of the night, so no Saturday Cinema here this week. But we all had more than sufficient fresh air, sunshine, warmth and work to wear us out, and when you add in a big dinner, it's easy to see why we all conked out for a while!

I think we're all contented with the arrival of Spring and all we got done today ... but it's going to be that yearly adjustment to the season (e.g. work and fresh air makes you sleepy!) that will send us into the full swing for the next few months in terms of planting. Weather permitting, we hope to get some more clean up done tomorrow, and perhaps even some seed planting ... we'll see how it goes, since the next few days are being forecast as fairly rainy. No matter what, we had some great flowers blooming on this, the first day of Spring! Let's hope old snow has finally been sent packing!

More Bulbs Are Starting to Pop Up ...

2009-03-20T00:20:00.002-05:00

Today wasn't as warm as earlier this week, but at this point, even a sunny day with a temperature of 54 seems balmy! So I quit work at 4:30 and headed outside to survey our messy garden that's definitely starting to wake up ... even though I tied Hanna to her long lead in the backyard, she certainly seemed to enjoy the late afternoon sun while I strolled about the gardens ... except for that chattery evil tree rat that tormented her from the spruce. Actually I was amazed she didn't bark at it because it's already clear that she has no tolerance for such vermin! They better be on notice, because she's quick enough she may just nail one some day soon and that won't be a pretty sight (for the tree rat)!

Though these first few photos may look a bit like reruns, they actually have new flowers popping up in them ... this is the same area in the far back garden where the first snowdrops and crocus have appeared, but now you can see that additional clumps of both have sprung up since we last visited this area. Those crocus have definitely been moving around a bit, as have the snowdrops, so just click through to the larger version and let your eyes wander and find the splashes of gold and white ... also note the increasing numbers of Monarda (Bee Balm) starts coming up ... I think this will have to be the year that we thin this patch out! We have both the deep red and purple ('Blue Stocking') planted together out here and with all of the Phlox Paniculata (Pink) that took over back here last year, this corner is in serious need of some thinning. As for the Monarda, we'll probably just give it away to interested gardeners, and our tentative plan is to dig a lot of the Phlox and move it along to our back fenceline and hope it doesn't offend our neighbor, but we hope she wouldn't object because when it blooms, the scent around it is just delightful!

Here's a closer view of the same area, and I think I can spy some other things breaking ground here ... I hope one of them is that blue dwarf Iris! We would be two very happy gardeners to see it reappear this year, despite our doubts ... you'll be sure to see it here if it does!

Out front, the snowdrops are finally, slowly, showing up ... this is a shot of the Primrose bed by the front steps, complete with the "Round Tuit" that Shady Gardener gifted me with during her visit last summer (thanks again, Shady!). There are only about 4-5 Snowdrops in this bed, but I'd like to add more ... the ones that are here ended up getting planted because they were dug up inadvertently from other positions and I didn't want to lose them, so I put them toward the front of this bed where they are multiplying slowly.

I could see today that the Primroses are greening up and pushing up through the leaves, so this weekend, I plan to carefully rake out this bed to give them more air and sun ... I'm anxious to get a handle on just how many we have this year because last year they had practically doubled in number from the previous year and that would be a fantastic discovery to make again this year! I've been toying with the idea of ordering more from Spring Hill Nursery, which was the original source for these Primula polyanthus hybrids, which have been the only Primroses I've ever had any degree of success in growing. They're not cheap (3 for $12.99), but they're pretty foolproof as long as you pamper them a bit during the dry months and these have even been known to produce a brief flush of re-blooms in the fall as long as the hard freeze doesn't come too early. They're hardy from zones 3-8 (yes, Boran2, you could grow these!), and aside from needing a partial to shady position in moisture retentive humus rich soil and some watering during dry periods, they're very hardy and these hybrids have multiplied pretty rapidly for me. This will be their fourth year here this Spring.

I fell in love with Primroses over 30 years ago during my first trip to France in 1978, where in the spring one sees these planted in huge masses in public gardens and many people also buy them on the streets to grow in windows and balconies ... seeing a mass of these planted by the hundreds, all blooming simultaneously is truly a beautiful sight! When I made my first hike in the Pyrenees (near Andorra) that spring, I also saw them growing wild and profusely everywhere (the "Cowslip" variety) and I still have a project I did for my exchange program --a notebook of dried mountain wildflowers-- that contains a yellow primrose I collected ... along with other flowers of Le Midi such as the famed Violettes de Toulouse, the native flower from my home base at the time. Little did I expect at the time that one day I'd own a home where I'd be striving to make them happy enough to bloom for me! It may have taken me a few years, but I'm glad I finally made it....

These next two shots are the first two snowdrops to show up in our "original bulb bed" that we started 10 years ago (yes, these were Martha Stewart bulbs, lol!) and are usually the first to appear, but this year this bed was piled high with so much snow over the winter it must have really frozen things down deep because even the many crocus in this bed haven't shown themselves yet, but won't be much longer I hope, because there are some real beauties planted here! I think I'll give this a light raking this weekend as well just to get the leaves off of the ground to encourage the ground to warm up a bit quicker ... aren't these two "twins" cute together nodding in the same direction?

This one had actually "speared" a leaf on its way up from beneath the ground, and it's funny, because though I had taken a (not so great) shot of this same flower while I was out, once Fernymoss got home from work, he grabbed the camera and took a few photos as well (he took these two) and he removed the leaf! Galanthus elwesii is a determined little flower and though it may take its time to show up, when it does, it's not going to let something like a leaf keep it from doing its floriferous duty! Now, if the rest of the crocus would just get busy and spear a few leaves of their own, I'll be a happy gardener!

This is actually an inadvertent puppy picture! The real subject of this shot was supposed to be one of our Chives plants in the little herb bed behind the house, but Hanna decided to walk into the frame just as I took it. So far the chives are the only thing that have come back to life, but there are also several varieties of Sage and some Thyme planted back here ... we'll also probably have some volunteer Cilantro and Basil as well because I let some of them go to seed last summer with just that in mind. It's good to see the chives back up, not only because I like to use them in cooking, but if you've ever grown them you know how pretty the flowers can be when they bloom in the spring, just one more reason to have them in the garden! One of many....

There are other things breaking ground here now that I saw today and I'll have another post sometime this weekend showing what I've discovered ... we also plan on spending some time doing clean up (it's supposed to be in the mid-50s this weekend) in the garden, so I'm sure we'll discover a few other Spring surprises ... just one more day until the solstice! It's about time!!!

Gradually Greening Up ...

2009-03-17T00:17:00.004-05:00

The real warm up finally started happening today! We hit 72 this afternoon and I was able to open some windows to let in the fresh spring-ish air and the furnace hasn't kicked on all day ... I'm ready for lots more weather like this after this past winter! And ... *drumroll* ... I spotted the first golden crocus in bloom today!! By the time I finished work and was able to get out with my camera, unfortunately they had closed up for the day. But, in the meanwhile, those naturalized clumps of Snowdrops (Galanthus elwesii) I posted recently are doing quite well, despite the return to frigid weather right after they first started opening up ... fortunately, no harm was done by those several near zero nights we had last week. I was a little worried there for a couple of days because they didn't look happy at all in the cold, but they looked quite perky today....

Here's the same clump as above, but now you can see where the clump of golden Crocus is in relation to the Snowdrops ... unfortunately I was only able to get out about 5:30 (after work) so they had closed up for the day, but click through to the larger photo and check out the neat stripes on the petals of this particular variety ... they're quite striking. I'll try to get out sometime during the afternoon tomorrow when they're open to get some better shots ... You can also glimpse a bit of some of the other three clumps of Snowdrops behind the largest one ... they have spread out quite a bit over the years and it's a good thing they bloom so early, because in a mere month or so, they would be completely obscured by the purple and red bee balm among which they grow. In fact if you look really hard (and know what you're looking for) you can see that the Bee Balm is already starting to come up in spots. Now it's time to get out and clean out the beds so we're hoping the weather holds up through the weekend (supposed to be in the low 50s then) so we can get started on clearing out the brown out front and rake a bit so we can throw down some seed that needs to get out early....

Here's a closer shot of those crocus (click to enlarge and see the stripes!) ... if I recall correctly, these are the only crocus in this area of the garden, but I may yet be surprised ... the majority are out front in the parking, along the walk and in the main beds, where so far, there are no signs of them appearing. But this is one of the sunnier areas of the gardens and is where the bulbs always first make their appearance....

Nice patch of muddy looking dirt, eh? Look closer (enlarge to see) ... there should be Crocus coming up here (just planted last fall) but none have appeared yet, but something is stirring in the ground! If I'm not mistaken --and Fernymoss planted some larger bulbs here-- this would be one of the 5 new peonies we planted in this area last year! It seems unusually early to be seeing peonies breaking ground, but odder things have happened in the garden before. I looked for signs of other peonies in the usual places and didn't see any yet, but there's a lot of leaves and detritus to get cleaned up ... but it wouldn't surprise me to see the Bleeding Hearts are starting to come up, because they are protected by the house and usually start growing pretty early on. Now I'm starting to get excited about Spring growth ... because when it finally does get going every year, it seems like every day there's something new to discover ... I'm going to take a closer look tomorrow after work, so I may have some more news to report.

At least I've seen my first Crocus of the season and know there will be hundreds more to appear soon ... I hope that little Iris I posted yesterday reappears, but I have my doubts, so Iris, go ahead really make my day!

An-Ti-Ci-Pation!

2009-03-16T00:16:00.000-05:00

Don't get too excited just yet ... these are photos from last Spring (early and mid-April), previews of coming attractions if you will ... but I'm cautiously optimistic that the real show may start sometime this week. We have a real warm up forecast for this week, with temperatures up into the low 70s for Monday, the 60s and 50s for the rest of the week, and as long as there's ample sunshine, this should encourage our early spring bulbs to start performing. At least I hope so! Our basket of bulbs has long since faded and the couple of clumps of snowdrops we currently have just aren't enough yet! I'm more than ready to start shooting my Crocus close ups, Mr. DeMille.....

This first shot is one of our ever dwindling, but lovely, dwarf Iris ... years ago we planted about 20 of these in various spots in the garden and though they are reputed to be hardy to our zone, they have gradually disappeared over the years, much to our disappointment. They are truly a Spring Ephemeral, because when they do show up and bloom, they rarely last much more than a week before vanishing. I wonder if the two that showed up last year out back (by the snowdrop clumps featured previously) will return this year ... I hope so, but given their history at Casa IVG, that's far from a sure thing. They certainly are beautiful aren't they? We'd like to try more of them, but given their track record, we wonder whether they are worth the effort and expense ... there seem to be certain plants that just refuse to grow for us (Hardy Cyclamens for example!), but if you've been successful with these Dwarf Iris, please let us in on the secret, because we'd love to have them around in masses!

This Giant Dutch Crocus ('Pickwick') should look familiar ... it's the same variety that came planted in the bulb basket we got for Valentine's Day and I shot these as they were beginning to open last April 13. We have small groupings of this variety sprinkled about in the front garden, mixed in with other varieties ... in the coming weeks, I hope to be able to capture lots of "bouquets" to share with my readers as the Spring show really gets into gear around here. We're hoping this year will be especially colorful with all the (300) new crocus Fernymoss planted last fall, along with the other new bulbs and of course, our old reliables. We're hoping for a miraculous resurrection of our tulip stock, but that may just be wishful thinking, given how few returned last year, but where we lost over a hundred tulips, other gardeners lost masses of Daffodils and ours were unfazed, so we hope they have been busy naturalizing and will be back bigger and better than ever!

I don't recall exactly what this variety of Crocus is called, but it's one of the snow crocus mix we've planted twice (in 2005 and 2008), and for want of a better name, I just call them "Butter Crocus" because they have such a luscious buttery color to them. So far they've been excellent little naturalizers and this particular clump has grown from a single bulb planted back in 2005, so I'm anxious to see how many friends they bring back with them this year ... I have these planted in several spots with other colored Crocus and they look great in with some of the purple or tricolored ones, and as you can see here, they look lovely all by themselves as well!

Now I can definitively identify this particular Giant Dutch Crocus, it's "Jeanne d'Arc" and despite its simplicity, I think it's a really pretty flower ... the only thing I could criticize is that they seem particularly delicate and often succumb to high winds by losing their petals much more easily than the other Giant Crocus, so when they bloom, you have to really enjoy them while you can. Given the often gusty and even violent winds we get in March and April, they are often the first victims of weather events. But they are lovely additions to Crocus plantings and look especially striking mixed in with the purple and golden varieties ... again, we have these scattered here and there out front so look forward to seeing more of them as Spring progresses ... provided it arrives on time!

As I was perusing the archives preparing this post, I ran across this shot that I thought I'd throw in just for fun ... these are the initial shoots of one of our more unusual plants we have in the Woodland Garden. For regular readers, this will probably be obvious, but I'll just call it a "mystery plant" for now, in case there are any uninitiated viewers of this plant still out there. Of particular note is the multiple shoots coming up around the base of this plant, and I think we counted at least 5 that came up and leafed out last season, so we're wondering if we'll get multiple blooms from them this year, and if we do, wow that will be spectacular! If you already know what this plant is, I'm sure you're just as excited at that possibility as we are! In any case, we'll all know sometime in June, around the time the peonies bloom....

And now for the puppy portion of this post! Hanna had quite the active weekend that started with her first visit to the vet late Friday afternoon ... we had thought that she was completely up to date on her vaccinations, but found out that she needed a couple of boosters and a heartworm test, so we had those done while she got her first exam from Dr. B. Her overall exam was excellent and she's in excellent health, which was a relief to hear from Dr. B. We also had her vaccinated for bordatella ("kennel cough") as a precaution since she had suffered a bout of that while we were waiting to adopt her, and Dr. B said that smaller breeds like her were particularly susceptible to kennel cough, so she had her first dose and goes back in two weeks for the second dose, after which she'll be totally up to date. Everyone at the clinic thought she was a charming little pup and quite spirited (she was quite vocal about some of the other dogs coming and going in the office, which embarrassed us a bit!), but she cooperated quite well and made a positive impression I think....
Today Hanna got to make another trip to Petco which she thoroughly enjoyed because she got to peruse the toy aisles, and though she didn't get to pick this new one out herself, she has been really having fun with it since we got home. We've realized that we have to get the toughest rubber toys for her because otherwise she just destroys regular squeaky toys way too fast and the tough stuff is what suits her at this point where she still wants to chew on things. Fortunately, she does limit her chewing to her own toys and not other things, but we really have to pick out things that she can really abuse without too much damage. As you can see, this "spiny bone" has little pockets for hiding treats, so of course we had to try those out with her tonight ... as with her Kongs, it only took her about 15-20 miinutes to get the treats out ... she has an uncanny way of figuring out these puzzles quickly and getting to the goodies, but even after getting the treats she spent most of the evening playing with her new toy as you can see in these two shots. So she now adds this to her two Kongs and the "tickle bone" she plays with daily, along with the "invincible chain" we use to play tug of war with her, but have to take away when done because she tries to demolish it and eat it ... good for play time, but it goes up when we're done so she's not ingesting bits of rubber. This little dog has some powerful jaws!

We also got her a crate today ... regretfully, I must say, but when the few times we've had to leave her alone, she has gotten into trouble by herself, so for her own good (and ours) we got a crate to put her in when we can't take her with us or I have to be gone during the day. I have to go to work meetings a few times a month and am gone for several hours and last week when I was gone for about 3 hours, she made quite a mess of the house by spreading potting soil (from some dead plants) all over the downstairs and chewing up a cardboard box ... that was the final test for trust (she failed), so today we got a crate we have set up in the dining room and so far she seems fine with going in and out of it ... we'll see how she reacts when we have to put her in it when we can't take her with us ... hopefully when she's a bit older and wiser, we won't have to resort to this tactic. But it's clear that she's familiar with being crated before, so she may not object too much ... we'll find out! Such are puppy challenges and as easy as Hanna has been so far, we realize that we still have to work with her on establishing trust when we're gone... it all goes along with having a terrier (mix) and if I were to recount some of Pepa's early exploits, they'd far eclipse what Hanna has pulled so far ...but then, she turned out so very well, so it's just a matter of getting through the 'ornery' phase, and Hanna is doing very well so far! I'd say give her a year or so and we should be able to skip the crate ... but we'll see! In any case, she's here to stay. She's been such a great addition to the family, we couldn't see not having her around ... we just have to accommodate the puppy phases! And for anyone who has ever had a terrier, this probably sounds familiar ... Pepa was a holy terror the first year or so and Hanna has yet to equal those exploits, so we're confident she'll be fine in the long run ...after all, she was Pepa approved (in my dream) so I'm not going to worry about it!

The Snowdrops Have Finally Arrived!

2009-03-09T00:09:00.003-05:00

Some tentative signs of spring have finally arrived in our neighborhood ... at least the first snowdrops have broken the ground! Actually these clumps (in the far back garden where it's much sunnier than out front) first emerged on February 25 (the first two shots) and were promptly buried again by snow and then that torrential rain-hail event we had the day after that. But, true to their tough reputation, they persevered and are now entering into full bloom.
This first shot shows the flowers just breaking through the surface and beginning to unfold their leaves .. I first thought these might be crocus, but closer examination revealed that no, these were indeed Snowdrops. This particular clump has migrated a bit from the original planting and appears to be doing quite nicely spreading out around the area. We're glad to see them gradually forming more small drifts of flowers each spring, which is precisely what we wanted them to do over time. These were some of the very first bulbs we planted over 8 years ago and every year we're thrilled to see them arrive and bring more of their friends with them, because where Snowdrops are concerned, the more the merrier! We'd love to plant several more big masses of them, but for some reason, Snowdrops are a very pricey bulb for such a small flower ... averaging just under a dollar a piece, which seems inordinate to me, but hey I don't set the prices. Maybe one of these days we'll find a mega sale on them and we can plant them everywhere, but for now, we just have 3 areas where they grow, out back where these are, in the Primrose bed and a few in our original bulb bed by the sidewalk. Fernymoss told me today that the ones out front are just beginning to come up, so I should have photos of those soon!
Here's the more developed clump ... as you can see the flowers are just beginning to emerge from their stems ... then nasty weather hit for two days (Snow, Rain, Hail!) and I was afraid to go check on their progress (besides it was like a lake in the backyard!) until late last week.
Friday I could tell from the window that they were indeed blooming now, so after work I headed out (swamp and all) and took some pictures ... They're coming along quite nicely now! I'm glad to see them finally arrive, and given the chilly weather we're due to have this week, I think they'll stick around for a while. Snowdrop blooms can last quite a while as long as the weather doesn't turn off hot (fat chance of that here right now!), so they should be around long enough to join the crocus when they finally get going, so look forward to much more of them together.

Honestly, I'm getting really impatient for the crocus to appear! Both of us have been scouring areas of the gardens where they will come up and haven't seen a single sign of them yet ... I think it's going to take a few days of really nice, sunny weather to spur them along, but when they pop, we're looking forward to a veritable explosion of crocus!

And yes, I'm a bit antsy about that ... I've had more than my fill of winter and all its "bugs" that have been hitting me all winter long! Last Tuesday-Thursday I was hit with yet another intestinal bug that gave me intense and very painful stomach cramps along with everyone's favorite, vomiting as well. Tuesday and Wednesday night were miserable and I could hardly sleep at all and it was Friday night before I had much solid food other than saltines and toast, but finally I was able to work my way back to some scrambled eggs. Oddly enough, at some indeterminate point on Friday afternoon, I suddenly felt all better, so apparently that particular nasty bug finally decided to exit my system. Thanks for leaving, and please don't come back will ya? It seems like I've had every single thing that has come through town this winter and have been sick off and on since Christmas, and I think I deserve a break! Anyway, I hope you helped yourself to the cheese while I whined there....
Ok, excuse me, but I still can't resist precious puppy moments ... here's Hanna from Friday night as we were watching John Waters' A Dirty Shame ... obviously this one didn't capture her interest any more than Wallace and Gromit the previous week. I guess she's just not a movie dog, though she has shown some interest in The Dog Whisperer and a few Animal Planet shows we've watched recently, mostly because they had barking dogs in them, I think. But then she had played really hard with Lacey several times Friday night and I think at the point I took this shot, they had both been played out and Hanna didn't even twitch when I took a whole series of her ... she was totally out to lunch, curled up in a ball and didn't move until we got ready to head upstairs....Actually she pulled a funny stunt last night after she got all wound up playing with Lacey (who then tired and quit playing) ... she started tearing around the room at breakneck speed, running behind all the curtains, couch and furniture multiple times before sailing across the living room toward the couch ... she made a minor miscalculation in jumping and rammed head on into the base of the couch! She paused briefly, as if saying, "I meant to do that!," then jumped up on the couch and curled up. We were both cracking up because it was such a classic cartoonish moment, one that made me think of Pee Wee Herman on his bike. It's moments like those that make us savor every silly puppy moment she gives us ... she's such a happy energetic pup who really knows how to live in the moment. I think in that respect she has a lot to teach us. It's rarely a dull moment with Hanna around!

Well, Lacey went home today and it's much quieter (and oddly more spacious) around here now. I'm sure Lacey is home now, relishing the peace and quiet without a crazy puppy pestering her to play at every instant ... she's such a patient and loving dog. I do think the two of them did bond somewhat over the week or so we had Lacey around and by last night they were even snuggling up together briefly, but the best thing was that there were no spats or too much jealousy exhibited. We're just hoping that Hanna filed away those good puppy tips Lacey had to pass on to her ... I think she will. She's a great little dog with a good start and learns so fast that we have really high hopes for her ... we just have to keep her busy and stimulated. Which reminds me, it's about time to play "find the treats" again ... it's a game we used to play with Pepa and Rolly ... very simple actually ... the dog must leave the room while we go around and plant bits of dog food in the room, out in plain sight, but odd places (windowsills, baseboards, ledges, etc.) then let Hanna back in, tell her to find the treats and she gets busy! The last time we played with her, it took her about an hour to find all the pieces (there were a lot) but she was a happy pup when she finished!

Now a few words about A Dirty Shame ...
Our Friday night dinner and a movie was purely escapist and frivolous, as only John Waters can deliver ... so this week's choice was easy ... when everything else sounds blah, delve into the Waters! I know many of you may not be familiar with John Waters, other than perhaps Hairspray, but he's been an obsession of mine for many years ... I've followed every film of his since Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs and the infamous Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble since the late 1970's. I've watched with fascination how he's morphed into more "mainstream" filmmaking over the years with films such as Polyester, Hairspray, Cry Baby and Pecker, and have generally been pretty approving of these works, even if they strayed pretty far from his original radical épater le bourgeois ("outrage the bourgeois") type trash fests. With a couple of exceptions I find somewhat questionable, Serial Mom, Cecil B. Demented, I love his entire trashy oeuvre. (Did you know William S. Burroughs gave him the moniker of "Pope of Trash?")

Now, Waters' films are not for everyone. In fact they generally aim to offend, outrage and make you laugh at the absurdity of we silly humans. No obsession is spared, no fetish or foible is spared ... Waters lays it all out for ample mockery. If all you've seen is Hairspray (hopefully the Waters non-musical version), there's a whole world behind all of that awaiting you, and it's not always pretty, but it's funny as hell.

So ... it was with slavering anticipation that I awaited the arrival of A Dirty Shame back in 2004. Alas, this film got such a pitiful release (only in big cities) that it never made it to Des Moines, or else no one would book it, I'm not sure which. That was a pity, because this is perhaps the funniest Waters film in about 30 years, and is, in many ways, a throwback to his earlier, trashier and more jubilant films. I've always wondered if he had this idea filed away somewhere from way back because it seems like such a fit for his regulars such as Divine, Edie Massey, Mink Stole and the rest of the Dreamland crew of yore ... but no matter, how he finally brought this to the screen is brilliance. Casting the likes of Tracey Ullmann (that woman can do no wrong!), Johnny Knoxville and Chris Isaak, it had to be good!

The plot, quite simply, relates the war between the "sex addicts" and the "neuters," who engage in battle in modern day Baltimore, centering around the tawdry "Pack n'Sack" convenienence store run by Ullmann and Isaak. One morning, as Sylvia Stickles (Ullmann) heads to the store, she runs out of gas, gets out of her car and is whacked on the head by a passing vehicle, which leads a to life changing moment ... at that point she becomes a sex addict who is rescued by Ray Ray (Knoxville) and introduced to a whole new life diametrically opposed to her humdrum sex negative life. What follows is a compendium of sexual perversions and fetishes as we meet the various denizens of the sex addict community, all to hilarious results. Even Waters admits he doesn't think some of these are for real, but he just had to include them for comic effect.

So if you've ever been wondering what "Yodeling in the canyon" is, or a "double decker" or what a "plate job" is, this is the film that will reveal the answers for you. I've omitted a few of the more unsavory references (well, quite a few of them!) but this should give you a flavor of what's in store. It's all in good natured Watersian fun and if you approach this film with the right attitude, it should be a lot of fun (we got our requisite bellyaches of laughs as always). Obviously, if you have kids around the house, make sure they're fast asleep unless you want to be answering uncomfortable questions for quite some time! "Daddy, why is that guy eating dirt?" "Why is that man dressed up like a baby?" "Why is that woman's crotch burning?"

Thankfully, dogs don't ask those kinds of questions.

More Bulbular Delights

2009-03-02T00:13:00.007-06:00

After all the weather excitement of the other day, this weekend ended up being pretty quiet ... we did get an inch or so of snow from that storm Friday night (much less than predicted) and it's been pretty cold still, but nothing too dramatic. Just Ole Man Winter overstaying his welcome (as if he really ever had one!) a bit too long. And March entered quietly, if cold ... so who knows what that portends for the rest of the month. I'm still battling the residual effects of the double whammy flu-then-cold I had all February and wasn't worth much (again!) this weekend. Neither one of us has really been able to shake this persistent bug we've had and quite frankly, I'm quite tired of spending what little time off I have feeling lousy! Anyway, at least I awoke today to a cheery sight downstairs ... the tulips (which have been budding the past few days) opened up to their full glory today! The Hyacinth and Squill have been open a few days now ... perfuming the room nicely ... but the tulips were a real eye opener, and though there are still two more budding, the first three are quite lovely don't you think?
Fernymoss took these shots this morning as the sun was pouring into the kitchen and was able to really capture some firepower from the tulips. They're really a great shade of red, and have yellowish interiors and though they're a bit small, probably because they've been forced, they'll look fabulous once they're established out in the front garden! As you can see, the Narcissus have done their thing and the Crocus are now just a memory, but we should get at least another week or so out of the tulips, hyacinth and remaining white squill. I gave them a light feeding a week or so ago, and as soon as they are done, we'll just let them die back naturally and water lightly until the foliage is ready to go. Then we'll find them a nice spot out front where we can plant the whole arrangement when the ground thaws (if it ever does!) later this spring and hope for the best next year.... No matter what, we've really enjoyed having them brighten the house even during this brief period ... though they were a bit pricey, they were well worth it! Oh, and the Primrose I have in the kitchen window has stopped blooming for the moment, but is doing quite well with the sun it gets there, so it should be able to hang in there until it can join its cousins out in the primrose bed by the steps....
Well, little Princess Hanna has been getting used to having a visitor around the past few days (until March 9) ... Fernymoss' parents are on a trip so we have their wonderful big girl Lacey staying with us! Lacey is a fantastic dog, just sweetness and obedience personified, and we're hoping she'll pass on plenty of "good dog tips" to Hanna while she's here. Lacey is only eight, but really graying quickly (as you can see in the photo below) and I swear that every time I see her she has gotten grayer! No matter, she is still a pretty lively dog for her age and is a joy to have around the house, and sometimes she's so quiet that it's easy to forget she's even here! We think she finds Hanna a bit of a "pawful" because she is so insistent on wanting to play with her, but when Lacey's in the mood to play, she's been really accommodating and she and Hanna have had some vigorous wrestle and snarl (all in play) sessions. But when Lacey's done, she just sits down and refuses to play anymore and that's when we have to call Hanna off. But being the good pup she is, she cooperates and calms down quickly, and then both of them usually take a nap to rest up for the next round....
Here we have the two girls posing by the table in the dining room ... I like this shot because it gives a much better idea of just how small Hanna is in comparison to other dogs ... of course Lacey weighs about 100 pounds and is one hefty girl (whereas Hanna weighs less than 20 pounds!) but Hanna could care less ... she loves playing with the big dogs. She may be small, but she's in no way intimidated by the big dogs! It will be interesting to see how she does with Lacey here for an extended visit ... she has shown a bit of mild territorial "pique" at first and of course is jealous of any attention Lacey gets (which is plenty), but we figure she'll just have to get over herself, as her place at the pinnacle of the house here is well assured. We think it's just a good step in her continuing socialization with other dogs that will pay off in the future. After all, she is still a puppy and learning every day, but thanks to her foster mom, she has a great start on becoming the really great dog she has every indication of being ... and we're learning along the way as well, so the experience is good for all of us!
Over the past 6 weeks we've had Hanna with us, we nicknamed her "Hanna the flying banana" because of the way she positively sails around the house when she's wound up ... she can go airborne in an instant and when she goes up the stairs she usually skips the last 3 and flies right into the upstairs hall. So, when I took this shot (while she was on my lap!), I immediately envisioned her sailing through the air with her ears pinned back. She's quite the jumper and several times today I saw her jump higher than Lacey ... she's a real "boing boing" cartoon type dog who can go vertical in a heartbeat, and though it's fun to watch, it's something we know we have to work with her on, because not everyone likes having a dog flying through the air at them! But for the moment we are enjoying her displays of exuberance and to her credit, she does tend to limit them to greetings and being told it's time for "walkies" so we're being indulgent for now. I'm sure that as she matures more, she'll learn when it's ok behavior (Pepa did eventually, and when she was young she was an amazing jumper too... even into her later years) and mellow out a bit.

I think we're all just getting impatient for Spring to arrive and going a bit stir crazy being inside all the time ... I know I am! We can't wait for warmer weather to arrive for real because we have some great activities planned for Hanna ... we've decided that since she likes to jump so much, we'd work with her on some basic agility activities such as jumping the hoop and perhaps going through a tunnel ... we'll have to improvise (I've priced the equipment and it's expensive!) a bit, but we don't have any intentions of having her compete, we just want to help her burn off the puppy energy and have some fun! Fernymoss has even dreamed up a way to make a course of "weave poles" for her using bamboo stakes, so we'll see what we can come up with to make the back yard an agility course for her. She's got the potential to excel at agility, so we might as well take advantage of that while she's young and in her formative days.... And as a final aside, she recently had her first encounter with a bunny in the back, and she was NOT amused. If she hadn't been on the leash, who knows what that bunny would have experienced! True to terrier/corgi form, she will not suffer rodents gladly ... which is something we're happy to see in her. After all, that's something that has bonded terriers with humans for centuries ... the instinct to go after vermin, and it's a strong instinct we shouldn't (and probably can't) discourage. At least the bunnies are on notice from now on out that even if Pepa is gone, they're not in the clear!

A final movie plug: Friday night we introduced Hanna to Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, mostly because we love that movie so much and we were curious as to what she'd think of it. Well, for Hanna it was pretty much a snooze-a-thon, but we enjoyed it as always! That film is so much fun on so many levels and every time we watch it, we get more of the the "in jokes" built into the script and background details. After all, you have to love a movie devoted to gardening and vegetables and battling bunnies ... and for me, the best smile comes from having a vegetable merchant named "Harvey's" with a giant carrot as their sign. I'm sure that kids under "a certain age" don't get the humor, but the reference to one of my favorite movies of all time always does it for me! If you haven't seen Wallace and Gromit, put it on your list and get ready for a veg-tastic time at the movies ... it's that good!

From Sunshine to Hail in One Day!

2009-02-27T00:10:00.004-06:00

I think I'm going to stop getting excited and writing posts about warmish sunny days from now on, since it seems that every time I do, we get slammed with a nasty bout of weather the next day! Actually, it's not as if the big cool down was not expected ... in fact light rain was forecast for today and we knew the warm weather would not last, but honestly! Hail in February? I've been trying to remember if we've experienced that since we've lived here, and I can't come up with a single instance where we have gotten hail this early in the year. As storm systems go, this was quite a colorful one on radar ... stretching from South Dakota across Minnesota and down into Iowa in lovely (threatening) shades ranging from blue, magenta, red, yellow and green ... for storm afficionados, there was a little bit of everything in this system! All morning it was dreary and gray, but early this afternoon the skies turned extremely dark and downright spooky (e.g. it was a dark and stormy afternoon) and right about the time I had to dial into a weekly conference call for work, the sky really opened up and let loose with all sorts of nastiness ... first loud thunder and lightning, then torrential rain and hail, all pouring down at the same time for the next 45 minutes or so. Out the window of my "office" I could tell it was hailing, but little did I suspect what was really going on down there until my call ended ... it seemed like there was a lull in the rain, so I decided to take Hanna out in between storms ... we got as far as the back door, I opened it, she looked out at the pouring rain and came right back in. She was having none of that weather! So I went to the front of the house to get a better look and from the porch steps, this is what I saw.... (click to enlarge all photos)
Regular readers will probably recall that our particular intersection is prone to flooding during heavy rains in spring and summer, but this has to be a first for February as well ... we're used to heavy snows, but flooding? Nope. But of course, as always every year, there are those fools who think they can just charge right through our flooded intersection with no problems, something they usually find out (too late) is exactly the wrong thing to do! By the time I went out, the car in the first photo had flooded out and had been abandoned, right there in the middle of the intersection ... it was removed later but still!

Over the years people have said that I "don't suffer fools gladly (or in any other fashion)" so I felt little to no sympathy for this person who thought s/he could drive right through a good three feet or more of standing water at the bottom of a hill where it flows rapidly from both the east and west sides of the road! Back in the day when we first lived here, we used to go out to help push out drivers from the intersection, but this happens so frequently in summer that we just shake our heads now and wish them luck for being so foolish.... Everyone who lives in the neighborhood knows this flooding happens during heavy rains and avoids the intersection, as do those who actually use their good judgment when driving in the area. I know that sounds really harsh, but honestly, some people just seem to refuse the watery world of evidence in front of them and think they're invincible ... so to the hubris filled go the spoils of the car's engine, interior and who knows what else.
The preceding two shots show how far the water made it up over the curb and to the base of the steps leading up to our house ... there was really no place for it to go, since the ground is still mostly frozen (and wet from melted snow) and the storm drains are so often overwhelmed that I had a view of what usually happens in June or July during heavy rains. The big difference, as you can see, is that instead of rain, this particular lake contains not snow, but hail! Yep, what Fernymoss said looked like "pond scum" when he saw these photos is the rest of the hail that had covered the street before the flooding started. And when he got home this evening, there were still quite a few piles of hail all around the place hours later, and for all I know, they're probably still there since the temperature quickly plunged down into the 20s at sunset (as if there was any real sun today).
Here's an example of how quickly the hail piled up ... this is the primrose bed next to the front steps, and as you can see, they're valiantly trying to revive themselves after being buried until just the past few days ... they're looking pretty bedraggled, but that's actually normal, and as soon as the weather moderates, they'll likely spring right back into action. At least it's the first sign of green we've seen in this particular bed! I just hope they don't get too enthusiastic too soon though because here's the most recent forecast for tomorrow:

*Sigh*

Hanna's Sunny Gallery

2009-02-26T00:26:00.004-06:00

After our recent snowy and chilly spell last week, It was very nearly an almost maybe Spring day here today! The sun was out, there was melting galore going on and the temperature made it up into the upper 50s, so can the spring bulbs be far behind? As I keep saying, we'll see because this evening it has cooled down considerably and it may only make it into the upper 30s Thursday, with a 90% chance of rain, sleet, snow or whatever happens to come along, thanks to the temperature. And with no flowers just yet, our favorite subject remains Hanna for the moment!
With the abundant sun coming in to warm and delight the houseplants, Hanna clearly decided that it was time to stop and smell the schefflera plant at the base of the stairs and take a little advantage of the sun streaming in. It's hard to believe she's only been here for a little over a month because she has totally taken possession of the house and now has her favorite lounging spots all figured out ... couch, bed, chair, futon couch, sunny stairs ... I think it's an embarrassment of riches for a pup her age (now 10 months)!
On sunny days while I'm working, she spends her time divided between the sunny spots she tracks along the stairs and up in my office. In fact we must have some really sunny-attractive spots for a dog, since Hanna haunts many of the same places Pepa and Rolly used to love on sunny days ... she may just be getting some tips from them on the best spots to lounge...
Both Fernymoss and I thought that this photo catches her in a "mysterious" moment when she'll give us one of these looks that we can't tell if it's just curiosity or if there's something even more devious going on inside her little head ... whatever the case may be, she already knows full well how to strike a pose for the camera, whether she likes it or not! (I think it's safe to say the camera is in love with her though....)
Finally, here's where Hanna spends much of the afternoon (on sunny days) while I'm at work in my office just around the corner at the top of the stairs ... she moves across the stair and landing as the sun progresses throughout the day, and generally, when it disappears she comes back into my office again and perches on the futon couch where she can look out the window across the street. That is, of course, until it's time for her late afternoon 'out' which is immediately followed by dinner and a treat, then it's back to her perch again until Fernymoss gets home and takes her out for her evening "walkies." AH ... to live a dog's life!

But maybe the fabled "dog's life" might not be all we imagine it to be, as this short film demonstrates ... it's narrated from the perspective of a dog named Speck as he reflects on his life in his seventh year with his owner in the UK. I've posted this video before, and if you've seen it, it deserves another look, whereas if you haven't, you're in for a touching and humorous treat that will make you recast your own relationship with your dog (if you have one). Take a look, and let me know what you think!

Photos taken on 25 February, 2009. Fernymoss took the first three, and I caught Hanna sunning later in the day.... Oh yeah, I've also been playing around with some of the frame effects in my photo editing program just for fun ... what do you think?

Happy Fat Tuesday -- Mardi Gras

2009-02-24T23:45:00.004-06:00

So here we are, crashing up against the elusive date of Mardi Gras again this year as usual! Today I got the idea of rounding up some spare Mardi Gras beads and dressing Hanna up for a photo in party regalia, but we couldn't find any of the ones we no doubt have around here in the house somewhere, so whether or not she realized it, she was spared from sporting any tacky bling tonight, with only this frame I added!

Back in the day, we used to make an occasion of Mardi Gras with the traditional meals and of course a King Cake, but over the years due to busy and conflicting schedules even this has fallen a bit by the wayside, though we always do like to acknowledge the beginning of Lent signaled by the grande fête, even if neither of us are practicing Catholics. For us, it's mainly been an excuse to have a few extra drinks to get us through the rest of the winter and on course for spring. Perhaps selfish motives, yes, but hey -- if thousands of people can stop for a day to party in New Orleans (and certainly much wilder than we are capable of!), so can we!

For those more deeply steeped in classic New Orleans culture, there are a lot of traditions celebrated on this day other than a King Cake and bean based meals ... one of its greatest musicians: Dr. John. If you're not familiar with Dr. John, he's been around for decades weaving his own special brand of blues and is still going strong well into his 70's now. In fact, his most recently released disc was in June, 2008 ... City that Care Forgot, which as you might guess has a Hurricane Katrina theme. It's fine work, as always, from Dr. John, so if you're of a mind to spend a little time listening to some of his new album (courtesy of NPR), you could find many less satisfying ways of spending 50 minutes than listening to Dr. John! Just click on the photo below, go to the NPR page and click on "Hear the complete show" and you'll be good to go! You'll be glad you did, even if you don't stick around here the whole time! (Just open it in a new window.)
Finally, one of the traditional mainstays of a proper Mardi Gras celebration is to have a King Cake on hand, and much like the Epiphany, 12th Night and Kings's Day celebrations held in Europe, where the person who finds the fève (traditionally a dried bean, but now usually a plastic baby representing Jesus) is crowned for a day and gets to wear a crown. Given what goes on in New Orleans these days, it has obviously morphed considerably from its historical origins, but King Cakes are tasty! They're a simple leavened bread with cinnamon flavoring with a lemon based green-purple-gold colored sugar heavy frosting ... not something you want to indulge in every day, but when Lent is knocking at the door, I'm sure it's a great farewell treat to the sober season leading up to Easter.

I did a little looking around tonight and found an easy and workable recipe (even if it's geared to toward bread makers which I loathe ... a KitchenAid will do just fine!) that you can try if you're so inclined. If you're familiar with basic bread making technique, this recipe will be a snap, even if you don't make it in time for the "big day." It is a bread that gets stale pretty fast, so if you make it, make sure to indulge in plenty of leavened delight and use it for toast the next day if it's starting to get a bit stale. Tasty stuff! Maybe if I have time this weekend, I may make one even though I'll be late!

Personal note: in case you hadn't guessed, lately I've been smashing into yet more deadlines for work projects so that has affected my abilities to post here ... still, while we're waiting for the first signs of Spring to arrive here and work continues to be busy, I'll just have to offer my apologies in advance this time! But as soon as the bulbs get blooming and other signs of life start emerging, I'll be back to posting again more regularly. Every year I hate those winter doldrums! Maybe we can turn the corner with Mardi Gras this year! Here's to hoping....