National Poetry Month #21

The Christmas Cactus

All during the Christmas rush

I waited for the thing to come alive.

Eyed it while I gift wrapped scarves,

By New Year's

I vowed to be happy

living with just stems.

Then one day in February-

the worst month of the year,

making up in misery what it lacks in length-

the blooms shot out,

three ragged cirise bells that rang

their tardy Hallelujahs on the sill.

Late bloomers,

like the girls that shine

and shine at long last

at the spring dance

from their corner of the gym.

-Liz Rosenberg

I love the idea of calling a Christmas Cactus a late bloomer. Ours has been no bloomer, late bloomer, and surprise bloomer. Ours has been renamed the Thanksgiving Cactus, Valentine Cactus, and St. Patrick's Cactus. They are beautiful plants, but have a calendar all their own.

Gardening Wisdom 101

The flowering plum blossoms greeted us this morning.

I rely on experienced gardeners to pass on their wisdom when it comes to gardening tips. Some questions are easy to look up, but often times it is more enjoyable to gather around the table and hear the time-tested advice from them. Here is my first Gardening Wisdom 101 list:

If you have rodents, they generally won't touch daffodil bulbs.

If your roses get powdery mildew spray them with a solution of 3 tablespoons of baking soda to a gallon of water.

Cut banana peels into pieces and bury them around rose bushes just below the surface of the soil. The calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potash, and silica derived from the peels will do wonders for the flowers.

If you want butterflies plant butterfly bush,lantana, salvia, zinnias, cosmos, and lavender. Host plants such as red and white clover, lupines and violets provide a place for adults to lay eggs.

To create a scented garden you want to plant alyssum, daylily, hyacinth, lemon balm, lavender, lilac, mignonette, rose, and sweet pea.

Aphids hate the smell of mint so catmint and other plants in the mint family repel them. If you don't want mint spreading all over get mint leaves, spread them around the garden or prepare mint tea and water your plants with it.

Always rotate crops in your vegetable garden. The nightshade family- tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes should not be in the same place more often then once every four years (now that is hard for me to do... at least try every other year).

Azaleas love acidic soil, so give them an occasional cocktail of two tablespoons white vinegar and a quart of water.

A layer of rinsed coffee grounds help geraniums thrive.

I hope there is a tip here you can use. Happy Gardening!

My Third Spring Bouquet from the Garden

"Friends are the flowers in the garden of life." M. Engelbreit

National Poetry Month, Poem #20

Mending

A giant hand inside my chest
Stretches out and takes
My heart within its might grasp
And squeezes till it breaks.

A gentle hand inside my chest,
With mending tape and glue,
Patches up my heart until
It’s almost good as new.

I ought to know by now that
Broken hearts will heal again.
But while I wait for glue and tape,
The pain!
The pain!
The pain!

-Judith Viorst

Sour Cream-Banana Bars: From the Recipe Box

This is a great recipe to take for treats somewhere or just enjoy at home. It is easy to make and travels well. Sometimes at our house we refer to these bars as the "meltdown bars". One time I made a pan to take for church coffee hour. My mom was visiting and I was trying to decide whether to leave them in the pan and try to serve them or take them all out and put them on a pretty plate, but try to figure out how to cover them without ruining the frosting. The whole process caused me to have a major meltdown fifteen minutes before church. Mom, being the Mom she is, calmly took the serving utensil and asked me to move away while she got them on the plate. When you think of all the major issues we live with in this world on a day-to-day basis, doesn't it amaze you that Inland Empire Girl could melt down over Sour Cream-Banana Bars? My husband just smiled and shook his head that day before church. My mom got them on the plate beautifully and covered the bars with plastic wrap. I managed to pull myself together and accept the complements when church members raved about these bars. This is a great recipe and meltdowns are not always included in the making and baking!

Sour Cream-Banana Bars

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas ( about 3 large)

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Browned Butter Frosting (see below)

Heat oven to 375. Grease and flour jelly roll pan. 15 1/2 x 10 1/x 1inch. Mix sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs in large mixer bowl on low speed, scraping bowl often 1 minute. Beat in bananas and vanilla on low speed 30 seconds. Beat in flour, salt and baking soda on medium speed, scraping bowl often 1 minute. Stir in nuts. Spread dough in pan. Bake until light brown, 20-25 minutes. Cool; frost with frosting below. Cut into bars. 4 dozen cookies

Browned Butter Frosting

Heat 1/4 cup butter over medium heat until delicate brown; remove from heat. Mix in 2 cups powdered sugar. Beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla and 3 tablespoons milk until smooth and of spreading consistency.

National Poetry Month #19

When We Were Poets

Language wasn’t ashamed of us.

We lived like our poems,

nailed words into a chair

if we dreamed of a chair.

We listened to the rain and remembered

speech is a gift each time.

We put it all on the line, every poem

necessary as a button.

We knew our purpose. We stood like elms:

didn’t plaster our names everywhere,

we unpeeled ourselves to write

epithalamia for heaven marrying earth

in a million meadows. Life was big enough!

We could wait out the winter

for real plums.
- Shelby Allen