Creating Color During Four Seasons in the Garden:Landscaping Learnings Pt. 1

When I got serious about landscaping I made a decision to learn more about plants, flowers, and trees before I began. I read some outstanding books, I relied on information from some of my favorite magazines, and I took some local classes in landscaping. What I learned in the class about our area is you really want to plant things that provide color or texture for more than one season. I was struck by this idea as I did planning and planting in my gardens. Now, ten years later I can take pictures this time of year and be convinced that I did create color in my garden based on the information I gleaned from all my sources.Hostas provide bright color in the fall as the leaves turn yellow. Maples create different leaf colors depending on the type. This one in the backyard is a lovely mix of color right now, especially when the sun shines through the leaves.

The maple leaves out front create a lovely yellow hue.
Our red rose illustrates that summer isn't over yet, especially with two buds sitting side by side ready to bloom.
Even lilac leaves turn a distinctive color in the fall of the year. As some plants turn they are showy and add a focal point to a fall garden. Others are more subtle, but help create that mosaic of color and texture as they blend together to make autumn so glorious.

Heroes Every Day

Balto

"I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another. " Ellen Goodman American journalist (1941 - )

In my 8th grade class we are doing a unit of study centering around heroes. We had brainstormed what makes a hero, what words describe a hero, and quotes about heroes. Today when they had to sit down and compose a narrative about an act of heroism it was hard at first.

We had read about Balto and his heroism as a sled dog in Alaska last year and remembered that courageous act. They mentioned other big events like 911 and heroic acts that involved people being found by search and rescue dogs. That hadn't happened in our town with people they knew.

As we began to discuss other acts of heroism other people came to mind. One girl wrote about her mom being her hero because she went to work every day even when it was difficult because she wanted to be a stay- at-home mom. Another student remembered an aunt being a hero as she fought a difficult battle with liver disease and tried to raise her daughter while dying.

These heroes we meet in our everyday life are often the ones that touch are hearts deeper. Students were still moved by the dog that saved a family in a fire and the rescue workers in the coal mine. They did return to the heroic acts that were closer to home like their classmate returning to school and working hard after his mother ended up in a coma. He was their hero. We all remembered another classmate that returned to school the day after losing her niece to SIDS, keeping a brave smile on her face.

I look forward to our continued study of heroes and my students' observations and thoughts as we read stories, poetry, and news articles around the theme.

Seeking Comfort by the Fire

When JEJ enclosed the patio last spring he had one last project to do to make the job complete. He had gotten an old Franklin stove free a few years ago and we didn't have a place for it. We do love wood heat. We heat with wood in the house and also have a fireplace outside. Who couldn't resist another stove, especially if it was free? He got the stove set up so we could seek comfort by the fire this afternoon. As we relaxed, listened to the rain, and sat and read. Our kitten Kit decided he wanted to experience this comfort by the fire stuff. He cuddled up with Annie near the stove and decided it was the best seat in the house!

The Farewell to Summer Tour of the Gardens

As much as I love autumn, I also feel a sadness as we prepare to put the gardens to bed for winter. In recent days I have walked the gardens and recalled favorite plants with the help of digital picture collections. Realizing there are only a few more bouquets to arrange from the garden also makes me sad. Today I organized a few pictures collages... my Farewell to Summer Tour of the Gardens. The lilies were a huge success this year. I welcomed them during a hot, dry time in early August when other plants were drying up.

The raised beds produced lovely cut flowers, lots and lots of zucchini, hardy sunflowers, and tomatoes with a taste I wish I could hold on to through winter.I always love my geraniums. I felt like the variety of colors this year created bright spots around the gardens. Fortunately they have been moved to the greenhouse where they can winter over and be used for propagating more plants.The roses started out slow in the spring, but made up for it during the blooming season. How I will also miss walking through the garden in early morning smelling the roses.

Each season has its own beauty so I don't say good-bye to summer with too much sadness. When frost hits and the branches are bare a new stark beauty takes over in the garden. I will be ready again with my camera.

Pumpkin Pie Muffins: A Keeper from the Recipe Box

I dug out my pumpkin recipes today. I don't know if it was seeing that pile of pumpkins in Kellogg Saturday that inspired me. It may have also been a trip to Starbucks this morning on my way to a teacher inservice that did it. The pumpkin spice latte was a perfect way to start the day. Here is one of my favorite pumpkin recipes.

Pumpkin Pie Muffins
2 cups flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teas. baking powder
1/4 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. salt
1 teas. cinnamon
1/2 teas. ginger
1/4 teas. cloves
1/4 teas. nutmeg
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3 tablespoons molasses
1 teas. vanilla
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
3/4 cup dates ( or raisins)

Preheat oven to 400. Grease or paper a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. In another bowl, stir together pumpkin, butter, buttermilk, eggs, molasses, and vanilla until blended. Make a well in center of dry ingredients; add pumpkin mixture and stir just to combine. Stir in nuts and fruit.
Put batter in cups and bake 20-15 minutes. Remove muffin tin on rack to cool. Cool five minutes before removing muffins from cups. Store in airtight container. These also freeze well. These are very moist and a perfect treat for a Saturday morning with a friend, an after school snack, or a breakfast companion with coffee or tea. Enjoy!

Sibling Assignment #40: Moments of Everyday Life

This is the sibling assignment I gave this week. "Think of a poet that has inspired your writing, your thinking, and/or your view of the world. Use your words, the poet’s words, and images to illustrate how this poet has influenced your life." Raymond Pert's is here, Silver Valley Girl's will be here.
I focus on significant events when writing memoir. It may be a room from childhood, a garden at Grandma’s house, or a Thanksgiving dinner. Ted Kooser has changed the way I write about these memories. His poetry takes moments of everyday life and creates lyrical images using topics we can all relate to: a dying father, a cancer patient, or a farmer that lost his land. He chooses his words carefully so we are at the farmhouse, his grandmother’s kitchen, or out in a rainy morning. His words have inspired me to observe quiet moments in a poetic way. In his book The Poetry Home Repair Manual he states, “While you sit quietly scribbling into your notebook, memories and associations rise like bubbles out of the thick mud of your mind. Interesting words pop up, colorful images.” Here are some examples his words:

"It’s a kitchen. Its curtains fill
with a morning light so bright
you can’t see beyond its windows
into the afternoon. A kitchen
falling through time with its things”
A Room in the Past

”She is being helped toward the open door

that leads to the examining rooms

by two young women I take to be her sisters.

Each bends to the weight of an arm

and steps with the straight, tough bearing

of courage.”
At the Cancer Clinic

After Kooser was chosen the United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 – 2006 he began American Life in Poetry. This weekly newspaper column has allowed me to read other contemporary poets, has provided a collection to use in teaching and it has introduced readers in America a poem each week.

I began to write memoir so I could begin to understand the connections in my life and the family around me. Ted Kooser writes about those delicate connections. In announcing his appointment as Poet Laureate, Librarian of Congress James Billington said, "Ted Kooser is a major poetic voice for rural and small town America and the first Poet Laureate chosen from the Great Plains. His verse reaches beyond his native region to touch on universal themes in accessible ways." Ted Kooser helped me go back to my small town and make sense of the images, words, and stories. For that I have been inspired and grateful.

There are many poems of his that I love. The one I am sharing in this assignment is The Spiral Notebook from Delights and Shadows which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2005.

A Spiral Notebook
The bright wire rolls like a porpoise
in and out of the calm blue sea
of the cover, or perhaps like a sleeper
twisting in and out of his dreams,
for it could hold a record of dreams
if you wanted to buy it for that,
though it seems to be meant for
more serious work, with its
college-ruled lines and its cover
that states in emphatic white letters,
5 SUBJECT NOTEBOOK. It seems
a part of growing old is no longer
to have five subjects, each
demanding an equal share of attention,
set apart by brown cardboard dividers,
but instead to stand in a drugstore
and hang on to one subject
a little too long, like this notebook
you weigh in your hands, passing
your fingers over its surfaces
as if it were some kind of wonder.
Ted Kooser
"Remember that the greatest pleasures of writing are to be found in the process itself. Enjoy paying attention to the world, relish the quiet hours at your desk, delight in the headiness of writing well and the pleasure of having done something as well as you can." Ted Kooser

I am going to take his advice and focus on one subject at a time and do it as well as I can. You can learn more about Ted Kooser here. You can learn more about American Life in Poetry here.