Fireworks & Flowers

Honestly, where does the time go? Now, with most of the planting and garden work done, it's time to get ready to practice some summertime chill. These days that has to take place at night because it's so frigging hot and humid during the day.

It felt strange going to the city fireworks again, although the crowd was only half the usual size. Somehow, our little town always manages to put on a good show.

 

The Skeleton Crew likes to indulge in a few modest sparkly things. Our neighbors make their own very loud and extremely impressive fireworks which is very unfortunate for everyone else and their pets on the block. They started shooting them off before Memorial Day and, if last year is anything to go by, they will keep it up until well into 2022. February, if the Packers make the playoffs.  

Still, the city wins when it comes to blowing things up. Some fireworks are named after flowers, like peony, chrysanthemum and dahlia and I have no idea which one this is. All the photos that came up in my search looked the same but had different names, ha!

If everyone was vaccinated, we would really have something to celebrate!

Now that Summer is in full swing, all I can think about is how much I miss Spring, ha! It's the best time in my garden - not too hot, the bugs aren't overly pesky and all of my favorite plants and shrubs are flowering like crazy. It never lasts long enough but it always puts on a great show.

This year was different. After No Mow May there was a lot of encouragement by environmentalists to keep it up for another month. So in June, I gave the bees the benefit of the doubt and left things in the hands of Mother Nature, once again. What harm could it do, besides driving me crazy? 

Let's just say she got overly ambitious and in a few short days everything was two feet tall. Then all those weeds started to flower and kept on going for the rest of the month! It quickly crossed the line from cottage garden to overgrown abandonment.

Daisies, crab grass and all sort of tall weeds came up everywhere, luckily they were no match for the peonies. So when July finally arrived, it was clearly time for No Mow to go! Who knows if it made any difference to the bees but I HOPE THEY'RE  HAPPY!  

 

 Honestly, it wasn't that bad and it's not like there's a nice lawn underneath it all. It is clover, dandelions, Creeping Charlie, plantain and violets mixed in with some actual grass, nobody's ideal turf but it stays green in the heat and especially during a drought. In any case, a path got trampled down to the raised beds and HM ended up with a daisy or two between his toes. His feet are already pretty ugly but combined with a farmer-tan, they sort of looked like the sandworms from Beetlejuice.

Which, as it turned out, was the perfect movie for a summer evening. How would we find ways to entertain ourselves if we didn't have an overgrown garden for inspiration? If Hallmark is observing Christmas in July, we can celebrate Halloween all year long. Spookiness knows no season! 

Thanks for stopping by! How is your summer going?

Summering

Happy Summer! Hope everyone is staying as cool as possible during this heat wave.

Here's a little reminder that Halloween is only 123 days away!

We never want to wish the summer away even if we do have to spend most of it in the AC! It's always a good plan to embrace the present whether it feels like the frozen arctic or a steamy jungle.

Burt has decided to begin his summer by diving into a book that combines two of his favorite pastimes, apart from eating and napping, that is. Unfortunately, he usually falls asleep after a few pages no matter how good the book is. 

So it looks like it's up to Spenser and Kibitz to act as the mixologists and make some use out of all that recently acquired knowledge.

Ivy looks like she could use a break from her "summer pastime" too.

Not a bad way to spend a summer afternoon. Who knew Spenser and Kibitz could be so proficient? What sort of cocktail they finally came up with is anyone's guess but it's probably a mix of rum and fruit juice with a garnish of fruit flies and candle wax. 

Meanwhile, His Madness and I were beginning the summer with a trip over the Memorial Day weekend. Thanks to everyone being fully vaccinated, we could finally to get together with our son Andy and his wife Kristin - whom we haven't seen in person since Christmas of 2019. Considering how packed the airports were, lots of other people were off to visit family and friends, too. There were lots of stern announcements about the penalties for starting a fight with the crew and luckily our flights were peaceful. Although one pilot did sound a little like a dad on a road trip, he all but threaten to turn the plane around and head back to the airport if the passengers didn't behave.  

Naturally, Mother Nature had her own plans and they weren't particularly sunny, ha! 

 

Oh well, a little wind and rain mixed with a couple of frosty nights never hurt anyone.

  

Not to make this post all about drinking but Massachusetts had just lifted their covid restrictions that weekend so most places were still operating at a limited capacity or simply closed. Fortunately, there were plenty of restaurants and craft breweries to keep us entertained and HM even got to indulge his curiosity about Whole Foods at three different locations! Kristin found this beer, dedicated to the memory of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at a different grocery store and it was great! Bone Up Brewing should make it part of their permanent line. 

This is Grayson, the newest member of the family. He's part beagle, part everything else, and an absolute force of nature. They adopted him through a rescue program and he has lots of friends in the neighborhood.

I couldn't do a blog post without some flowers! Their neighborhood was in full bloom with loads of spectacular rhododendrons. They aren't hardy where I live and I was consumed with envy. 

It also seems like I can't do a blog post without some sort of cooking event, either. Andy wanted a lefse making lesson and it seemed weird to be making it in the spring, even though it felt like winter! I'm barely competent at it myself, but we muddled through. 

Flying home, I looked out the window and noticed these clouds that looked just like icebergs on Lake Michigan. It was unseasonably chilly but not that bad, ha! Of course a couple of days later it was unbearably hot and humid. It's been a crazy summer so far and we're only getting started.  

As I was finishing up this post I realized it was seven years ago today that I started this blog so my mom could see what was going on in my garden (and let me know what I was doing wrong!) She was never into social media but had moved into an assisted living apartment where there were lots of wonderful volunteers, armed with iPads, who helped us stay in touch. Not sure whether to call it a birthday or an anniversary but as long as there's cake, does it really matter? How about a Pina Colada, too!

Stay cool and thanks for stopping by! 

A Chilly No Mow May

In the early hours of Thursday morning we hopefully experienced the last of the freezing temperatures (in our area) until next fall. A local weather reporter even promised that it is now okay to get out and plant stuff! Poor Stewart will most likely miss snoozing under the pansies that we have been dragging in from the front porch every night for the last two weeks.

It's been a very cold spring here and yet the daffodils have been amazing. Who knew they could survive in snow and icy temperatures for weeks and still look great? 

Even though it's been freezing, we've been stocking up ever since the greenhouses opened.

The skeleton crew is overjoyed to finally be able to get out and do some planting.

 

With proper supervision, naturally.

Last month, our city council approved a resolution to observe No Mow May. It essentially suspends the city ordinance requiring homeowners to maintain their lawns in order to give bees and other pollinators a better chance at surviving. I find it ridiculous that it's perfectly fine to walk into a restaurant with a loaded gun but if you let your grass grow taller than 8" you can be fined up to $500.

We opted to keep our front yard mowed because it's small and one of our next door neighbors is a total ass. I'm all for helping the bees and the other invertebrates save the planet, and have always kept an organic, pesticide and herbicide free lawn and garden. Still, over the last five years I've noticed a definite decline in not only the number of bees and butterflies but the diversity of the insects frequently captured in my photos. 

So it was a no-brainer to jump on the No Mow bandwagon, seriously, how bad could it get? Ha! As is often the case with change, especially those that benefit the environment, it came with a price. Hopefully, the insect population will multiply at the same rate as the weeds! 

The plants surrounding these trilliums are considered to be weeds, even those cute little wood violets. Normally, I would pull out everything but the violets. This year, because I've noticed that the bumble bees really love the Creeping Charlie flowers, that particularly noxious pest gets to stay. Is it really so terrible to look at? That's a personal preference but the sprinkling of pink crabapple petals helps.

Another unforeseen consequence of not mowing is the large number of ferns popping up everywhere. They seem to be nearly as numerous as the dandelions. 

It will probably be quite a few years before there's a significant increase in the diversity and numbers of pollinators. I'm nervous about the weeds winning but if that's all it takes, I can live with it. Besides, it's not all bad, Kibitz found catnip amid the chaos! Who knows what else might sprout up?

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

A Vernal, Slightly Goth, Half-O-Ween with Warts

Happy Half-O-Ween! I just discovered this holiday and am totally clueless about exactly when it's supposed to take place, like it matters, ha! So here we are, celebrating Halloween six months early and making things up as we go. The Skeleton Crew is very excited about re-inventing the spooky season for springtime and are looking forward to making it a tradition - even though it's always Halloween here!

How do we go about giving Halloween a vernal twist? Carving a jack-o'-lantern out of a watermelon was first on the list because I've been wanting to try it ever since I saw one at my son Andy's summer camp. It probably would've taken a jack hammer to carve a pumpkin (if we could've found one) at this time of year. By using a watermelon we got to eat the flesh! Doesn't that sound ghoulish?

It takes way less time than carving a pumpkin but we will only do one. This isn't the best time of year to leave sweet fruit sitting around, the ants don't need any extra incentive to invade our house.

Looks like peachy pink is the new orange. 

 

Next the Skeleton Crew needed to come up with the springtime equivalent of a pumpkin spice candle. A few weeks ago while placing an order with one of my fave online retailers, Witch City Wicks, I decided to give their Church candle a try. It was described as being for those who "appreciate the rich, exotic perfume of frankincense and myrrh" so I assumed it would smell like a high mass or a head shop. Turns out it was the latter but it's nice and I'll probably buy it again. While it may have been intended as a fond remembrance of the goth scene, for me it conjures up memories of spending endless hours in church! Elizabeth Taylor's Beautiful with an under note of Clorox is the scent I remember from my youth. It was good for covering up any tale-tell aroma of the barnyard soap and water may have missed.

The candle set me off on a deep dive into the church my family has been going to since just after the Civil War. This is the stained glass window that I stared at for interminable hours from my seat in the choir. It's located at the end of the transept, opposite the choir and pipe organ. Since it faces south, when there's a sunny day with lots of fast moving clouds, the light flickering behind it put on a pretty good show! It wasn't the worst thing to have to look at, it was colorful and I liked the gothic look of the arches but that creepy eye always made me feel guilty about wishing I was somewhere else! Last fall, John Derian did a pillow almost exactly like it for Target's Threshold Halloween line. Apparently, it's a common motif. 

Now His Madness and I have nothing against religion but referencing it makes us very uneasy. Let's just say we both spent endless hours of our youth wishing we were anywhere else. So I have no idea why I bought this ecclesiastical looking folding mirror but the photos of the windows brought it to mind. Obviously, it's not stained glass but it definitely has a gothic air about it.

Back at church, directly behind the choir was the good shepherd window, a much more pleasant scene so naturally I had my back to it. There's a door perpendicular to it that leads directly outside and when the church got stuffy the ushers would prop it wide open. It was tempting to make a run for it but it was a three mile walk home. That glimpse of freedom made being stuck inside even more unbearable, ha! A flight of stone stairs led down from the door and there was always a toad around the bottom step. During spring it would croak and chirp so loudly you could hear it even when the door was closed. So, what better addition to this churchy, Half-O-Ween theme than a Toad Witch?

My friend Gene, who makes many fabulous works of art created this Toad Witch for a show he had in the fall of 2019. No thanks to covid, it's been a long wait but now she's the star of the show and a great addition to our Halloween Hoard! You can see more of his witches here and Santa figures here.

As good as she looks in the quasi-ecclesiastical setting on the piano, the candles made me nervous. She's much more at home in the garden, surrounded by daffodils and of course, a few weeds. Toads have long been associated with magic, whether they were witches familiars or being cooked up for poison. Apparently they were an important ingredient in raising storms at sea that were bad enough to sink a ship. 

I wonder if she could have a little bit of "Church Lady" mixed up with her witchy personality due to her ruffled collar and tiny toad cameo? It could go deeper than that, miniature frog coffins have been discovered in Finnish churches and were thought to be intended as a counter magical device. Hmmm...  

 

   

It's safe to say this Toad Witch is totally benign and not likely to cause any harm or blow herself up (if you're curious, search for exploding toads on the internet) anytime soon. Having gathered up the necessary herbs for her potions, she went off to work a few spells on a knot of toads. Just to be on the safe side, we stayed away from the lake in case any sudden storms came up.

Back at home, she got to work conjuring up watermelon smoothies, a few snacks and a scary movies or two for some springtime screams. Bwahhahaha! 

Happy Half-O-Ween and thanks for stopping by!