We're not in Kansas Anymore!

Whoo-wee!  How the weather can turn on a dime this time of year.

This morning as I left for work it was a mild sunny almost springtime sort of morning.

The temps reached a high of 71 according to the weather report.

By noontime the sky was a funny dark color and there were tornado warnings.

The sky opened up and we had what you might call a tropical rainfall.

Granny would have called it a gully washer.  She would look outside at the sky and fret that there was, "going to come a gully washer".  I never understood what exactly that meant as a kid. Other than it was going to rain.

 

I recall during one gully washer lightning struck one of our favorite trees out back.  I don't know what wariety of tree it was.  All I remember is that it had to be 10 stories high if it was an inch and Ivy rambled up the trunk.  I remember the deafening clap when it was struck.  I remember Granny trying to calm the nerves of  a little girl who was terrified at the commotion.  And I remember Granny mourning its' loss.  I guess that's where I get it from.  At an early age I learned that plants are important and  people work hard to make those flowers look good and, "For Pete's sake, stay out of my rosebed!".    I hear ya'.

 

And so before I forget: about that Chrysler Imperial.  As I know it, it is a gorgeous velvety deep red rose.  Granny gifted one of her friends with a Chrysler Imperial rose.  At some later point she called her friend and somewhere in the midst of their chat asked, "How is that Chrysler Imperial that I gave you?"    There came an awkward silence.  Her friend replied, "Minnie, you never gave me a car."     Granny always laughed when telling that story.

 

 

G's cellphone died today.  ACK!  I love Bill the Cat and his ACK!.  What a classic. But back to the matter at hand, remember back in the day when cellphones were not an accessory?   Holy schnikeys you had to wait til you got home or to a payphone to call somebody.  And nobody called you while you were tootling down the highway or sitting at the Bob's Big Boy having dinner.  Hmmm   and I lived to tell.  A-mazin', ain't it? Sometimes being unplugged has its' advantages.  You can actually hear yourself think.  I think that scares some folks, though.  Lawd, I feel like Lucy in Peanuts with her, "The Doctor is In" sign.

 

Ah well.  I hear the windchimes outside.  Including the big black cowbell chime.  That means it it REALLY windy.  Another day draws to a close. I'm one day closer to retiring.  And the choir said: YEE-HAW!!

At the end of the day...

...I have to shake my head.  Sometimes nature throws me a curve ball.

Some years ago MIL gifted us with a red Dogwood sapling and, later, a Redbud sapling.
The Dogwood sat in its' pot for a time on our deck.  Buster, the squirrel, would come occasionally and roll in the soil that was in the pot.  I would watch him from the window and chuckle about Buster and his antics.  When I finally got around to planting the Dogwood, I found Buster had left me a present.  He had buried one of his treasured acorns in the pot. 

I worked at keeping the Dogwood watered and fretted when it looked wilty.  I can remember stnading on the hill where we planted the sapling,  filling the Tree Gator hoping that the tree would get enough water.

When Mom brought us the Redbud sapling from her yard I was delighted.  I loved its' heart shaped leaves and beautiful red/puprle blooms in the springtime. 

The trees are only now coming into their own.  They have had enough time in the yard to develop and begin to really shine in the landscape.   Well, I should they WERE coming into their own.  I walked down the hill this afternoon with prunings from the Butterfly Bush.  Um.  Where are the trees?  I went inside to ask G. if he knew what was going on.  My inital thought was that maybe he had accidentally cut them down not knowing that they were the Dogwood and Redbud.  Or had one of the kids who use the walkway in our side yard chopped them down as a prank?  G. and I walked down the hill to where the trees used to stand.  Upon close inspection it was clear:  the beavers had made their way up the hill from the creek and hewn down the only trees we had personally planted in the yard.

 Beavers!!!  They are ugly little rodents.  One confronted me on the back patio some years ago.  Thankfully, I was indoors looking out the sliding glass door at it.  UG-LY!  I mean scary ugly.  I will never forget it staring me down with those beady little eyes.  And that ugly whiskered face.   And now they have devoured our trees.    Live and learn.   Three feet of hardware cloth around their trunks would have saved them.

At least the houseplants were less of a shock.  The pleasant surprise of my Apple Blossom Amaryllis blooming was wonderful!  We had traveled out of town recently and I was expecting that it would bloom while we were away.  Instead, it waited to put on its' show now that we are home.  YAY!   

I have to include my a ( I think ) adorable little "finds".  They are with my houseplants because I can't bear to leave them outdoors to get beaten up by the elements.  Blue Boy and Big Red.  Who would not love those faces, I ask you!??  I love Dollar General for my little garden tcatchkes, gew gaws, kitschy goodies, whatever you might care to call them.


What is left of the red Dogwood.

 The remains of the day for the Redbud.

 Home of the malicious delinquent rodents.

Big Red

 Blue Boy

One of my sweet smellin' Paperwhites

Apple Blossom up close.

Jack and the  Beanstalk  Potato Vine

                                                                                                                                                                     

It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood!!

It is that exhilarating, yet confusing, time of year.  I looked at the thermometer this morning and it was 36 degrees.  I started on watering the houseplants and dustmopping the kitchen.  I stepped outside to shake off the mop and it was glorious!   The temperature had jumped to nearly 50 degrees and it is still climbing.  Time to get outdoors!

While watering the houseplants I found that my Apple Blossom Amaryllis has burst into bloom. It is the most beautiful salmon color.  My potato vine is jumping up like Jack and the Beanstalk. The Paperwhites are still in full bloom, too.  I love their fragrance!  I know their scent is divisive, you either love it or hate it.  I'm a Paperwhite lover and I always have a pot to help me through the wintertime.

Looking over the flowerbed out front I found that the Daffodils are pressing themselves up and out of the earth.  There is one small clump of Queen Anne's Lace that has greened up.  I have several clumps of Bachelor's Buttons that have survived the winter.  AMAZING! little plants.  Last season was the first time I had grown them.  A neighbor, Pat, approached me while I was cleaning out the front flowerbed and gifted me with Bachelor's Buttons seeds.  I sprinkled them in the flowerbed and they took off.  I am so looking forward to their little blue blooms this spring.  The Ditch Lilies are up!!  I so love those flowers.  They bloom only for a short time in June and I am in heaven while they do.  The blooms are there only for one day each but what beauty they offer!  They were a gift from my mother-in-law when she was moving from her house in Springfield to the house where she lives now, about a mile from us.  She also gifted me with Periwinkle, a Lilac shrub and several Peonies.  The Peonies!!   I cannot wait until it is time for them.  They smell so good!!  I have a Monsieur Jules Elie that I purchased several years ago.  I don't know what variety of the Peonies that Mom gave me.  They look the same as Monsieur, though.

I hope to get at least one of my numerous Butterfly Bushes pruned back later today.
I love springtime.   :)

Call it a Bachelor's Button or a Cornflower.  Either way it's bee-u-tee-ful!

And in the beginning...

...it was suggested that I have a welcome message for Growin' Susan.  I'm all about cleverness, or the elusive pursuit of cleverness as the case may be, and so in titling the welcome I was reminded of Sharon Stone when she guested on "Roseanne".Standing there in her pink bathrobe,curlers in her hair, she welcomes Roseanne and the Connor clan to the trailer park, "Welcome! Welcome!!"   with a dramatic wave of her hand.  I laugh every time I picture her in that role.  But this is about growin' stuff and not so much about vintage situation comedy.  Although that would be an apt descriptor for my life, overall.  

I don't think of myself so much as a gardener.  I just like growing things.  The pursuit of knowledge about anything that grows is my passion.  If I see a plant that I don't recognize, I am chasing it down like a bounty hunter.  I am looking for the name of the plant and any information I can find about it.  Most of what I know about plants is passed down from my family.  My maternal grandmother lived with us as I was growing up and that woman lived in the garden.  Specifically, she grew roses like a champ.  I learned the seasons by what was blooming in the garden.  I could identify a Chrysler Imperial rose before I knew the alphabet.  Which is not such a bad thing.  I have a treasured story about the Chrysler Imperial rose but I will save that for another time.

It is these early beginnings that have formed my love of the garden, plants, birds, the ourdoors in general.  I want to preserve my memories of grandma's gardening stories and I want to continue her traditions in the garden and the traditions of my mother.  I want to honor my father's hunger for knowledge.  Daddy taught me that I should never live ignorant, never be be numb to the facts.  If you don't know about a subject, whatever it is, and you are interested in that subject, LEARN!  Research it.  Fill your head with everything you can find on that subject and use that knowledge.  Knowledge is knowing what to do and wisdom is applyng that knowledge.  Get knowledge.  Get wisdom. And, "Use your head for something more than a hat rack!" oh, how your words are ringing in my head, Dad.  I know you are looking down on me right now nodding.

So, hopefully I can chronicle some knowledge, some folklore, some wisdom, some garden tidbits.  Who knows?  Save it all for posterity and weave it all into the tapestry that is my vintage situationally comical life.