A Meme for Friday

Ponderosa Pinings tagged me for this meme.

INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:

1) BlondeMomBlog

2) It's A Schmitty Life

3) Life is short, buy the shoes

4) Ponderosa Pinings

5) Gathering Around the Table

Then tag five more people. I am going to pass on that today, but feel free to pick it up. Just drop me a comment if you participate.

Answer the following questions:

What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was designing the first gardens after just living in my house for a year. I was also dating JEJ and we were making plans for marriage, which happened that August.

What were you doing one year ago?

Spending the week-end camping at Canyon Creek.

Five snacks you enjoy:

popcorn, almonds, granola bars, dark chocolate, melon

Five songs that you know all the lyrics:

Summer Breeze, American Pie, Benny and the Jets, Say a Little Prayer, American, the Beautiful

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

write full-time, landscape the hillside, give to charity, fix our fence, put in a sprinkler system

Five bad habits:

obsessing over trivial things, procrastinating, not being active enough, snacking, doubting myself

Five things you like doing:

writing, gardening, conversations around the table with family, arranging bouquets, recipe collecting

Five things you would never wear again:

big shoulder pad jackets, tube top, halter top, permed, bleached unhealthy hair, polyester pantsuits

Five favorite toys:

digital camera, laptop, Phase Ten card game, Yahoo games, tent trailer

Thursday Poetry: Rivers

This week I decided to give Poetry Thursday a whirl. You can find the site here. The topic this week is rivers.

Our Rivers: Washington State

In Washington state
our rivers flow out of the mountains,
connect to guide travelers,
merge with the ocean,
and thunder to the Great Columbia.

Coastal Indians paddled the Nisqually, Nooksack, Quinault,
Northern bands camped on the Kettle, Colville, Sanpoil, Okanogan.
Explorers relied on the Spokane,Yakima, and Palouse,
Missionaries journeyed close to the Touchet, Tucannon, and Walla Walla.

Locals love the sound of Methow, Pend Oreille, Puyallup,
Wynoochee, Chehalis, Skykomish, and Elwha.
But when it comes to trying to spell them-
My favorites are Green, Snake, Lewis, and Rock.

Finally, Roses!

Before I moved to my present house I never grew roses. I thought they were complicated, high maintenance flowers. I also believed I would have to use sprays and other toxic things. Now I have studied roses and realized there are a few key things to consider. One is the location of where they grow in your garden. They need lots of sun! Another is the type of roses to purchase for your zone.Winterizing them is another crucial part of their growing success. These are roses which are hardy and get lots of early sun which is why we are seeing blooms so early. The one at the top and above is a William Baffin. It is a climbing shrub rose which comes from Canada and is well-known for being winter hardy, disease resistant, and a repeat bloomer. Those are the words I like to read about a rose. The second rose is a Betty Prior which is a florabunda with the same characteristics. Other favorite hardy shrub and florabunda roses I recommend are John Cabot, Nearly Wild, and Lemon Zest. My mom has been happy with the hardy Fairy Rose and is trying the Rainbow Knock-Out rose this year.
a close-up of the Betty Prior blossoms

Famous

Here is another favorite poem that didn't make my April poetry post collection.

Famous
The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,

which knew it would inherit the earth

before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds

watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom

is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,

more famous than the dress shoe,

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men

who smile while crossing streets,

sticky children in grocery lines,

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous the way a pulley is famous,

or a buttonhole,

not because it did anything spectacular,

but because it never forgot what it could do.

- Naomi Shihab Nye

Little Ann Living Up to Her Name

a quiet morning before the action started

When I bought my springer spaniel she came from registered parents Steptoe's Dante and Ms. Pauleen of Bishop Hollow. I had never had a registered dog so I decided this puppy needed a famous or dignified name to match her parents. I brainstormed place names, girl names, dogs I remembered from books, and went to baby names online. At that same time JEJ was reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. The dogs in that book are hounds, but I remembered how Little Ann was a strong female dog character in that book. Even though my puppy was a spaniel the name had been decided. Her registered name became Little Ann of Bloomfield Farm. We just call her Annie.
This week-end Where the Red Fern Grows came up again. My niece Z2 was visiting and had the novel in a lit book to read over the week-end. It led to conversations about the power of that book with children, when we first had it read aloud to us, or when we sat down and read it to outselves. Mom inquired if students of mine still read it. Raymond Pert had never read it again after fifth grade and wondered if it would be as emotional now. " It was for me," I explained to him, remembering sitting down one afternoon to read that classic one more time and not being able to put it down. I also had kleenex ready as I cried through the end of the book.

(If you are not familiar with this classic children's book, the boy and the hounds romp the Ozarks hunting for raccoon. He enters a hunting contest with his dogs also.)

I was awakened this morning with JEJ coming in to get a flashlight. " There is an animal under the deck," he muttered as he headed for the back of the house. By the time I got out of bed and shook the cobwebs from my brain the animal had headed up a tree.
look closely to see the raccoon


Annie lived up to her name. Little Ann of Bloomfield Farm treed a raccoon. It was a young raccoon that could climb very well. Annie just sat under the tree obsessed with the raccoon. Once we got the dogs contained, the raccoon found safety.

How often do events occur like this? From naming your dog, to Where the Red Fern Grows, to Little Ann living up to her name. I love it when these connections just happen in the course of week-end. By the way, if you haven't read this book, add it to your list of must-reads. It is a classic favorite!
Shelby, our Australian Cattle Dog helped with herding the raccoon from under the deck, but then watched her sister Annie in puzzlement from a chair. She was thinking," Is this what herding is in England...just standing under a tree? In Australia we herd our animals around the corral!"

Sunday Scribblings: Simple Pleasures

Today's Sunday Scribblings prompt is simple. You can find other posts here.

What immediately came to mind when I saw the prompt was simple pleasures. I look forward to week-ends when my family is able to visit. Friday I hit the jackpot! Silver Valley Girl and two of my nieces ( yes Princess....we miss you and your dad) drove up from Kellogg and brought my mom with them. Saturday Raymond Pert arrived after spending a few days in Kellogg. I couldn't think of a better way to spend Memorial Day week-end.

All of our lives have been very busy lately. I have struggled with a terrible cold bug. My niece Z2 was also feeling under the weather when she arrived and was worn out from a full week at middle school. Raymond Pert was able to take a deserved break from student papers and teaching at LCC , Mom had been watering, planting, cooking, and organizing to get ready to come, and Silver Valley Girl just tries to keep her head above water with the the business of raising three daughters, working, writing, performing, and fund raising. I decided we needed a retreat week-end. I purposely didn't do my usual event planning making sure we had excursions, activities, and a schedule to follow. Instead I have sat back and enjoyed the simple pleasures of having many of the people I love at my home for three days. Kiki Aru did a good great job of reminding me not to forget the plan "Spoons" and JEJ was a grand garden tour guide and kept peace with the dogs, cats, and family members! The picture above is a simple pleasure. The rhubarb that had gone to seed in the evening sun just before everyone arrived. Other simple pleasures were:having our first peonies opening up to greet our visitors, serving locally roasted coffee in the morning (This is Meyer Falls Blend sold at a local organic market of the same name),and a geranium in full bloom after a winter in the greenhouse.
I love that my nieces are low maintenance and can create a makeshift bed just by rearranging furniture!


Another simple pleasure in the morning was having Silver Valley Girl make breakfast. She used her Pampered Chef (a little plug for the product) apple peeler, slicer, corer to do potatoes.
She has created this incredible potato recipe that I insisted she make while visiting. You can get the recipe here. It was one of the best breakfast potato dishes I have ever tasted. Everyone couldn't get enough of the breakfast of eggs, those Special Potatoes, lemon muffins, and melon. Actually, this may be considered more than a simple pleasure... perhaps a very complex pleasure! Here are some other simple pleasures the day created. Annie taking a rest with Z2.An evening that began with a traditional game of " Spoons" . Next we moved to a rousing game of Yahtzee which always includes chanting "Scratch My Yahtzee". Our dad used to shout that then immediately scratch him armpit. It was fun to teach my nieces the tradition. The evening was rounded out with Rice Krispie Treats and a hilarious game of Scattergories which pitted siblings, mom/grandma and nieces in a fun competition. It is a simple pleasure for me to play board games with the group. It always builds fond memories.

After all our incredble food Silver Valley Girl and I took a quiet walk at twilight to shed a few calories!

I had to end this with the picture above of the blooming Thanksgiving/Christmas/Valentine cactus. Now I guess we can call it the Memorial Day cactus... or perhaps the holiday cactus. Such a simple pleasure gathering around the table with family sharing good food, enjoying games, and gazing at this beautiful plant. I can't wait to see what Sunday will bring.