Highland BLOOMS: postage stamp garden

My friend Sarah and her husband Howard in a moment of weakness agreed to open their delightful hidden garden behind their Craftsman bungalow for the Highland BLOOMS tour--this despite Sarah being co-chair of the event!  Sarah collected items for the Red Tag Sale table. She baked over 530 Neiman Marcus cookies that were served at another garden's lemonade and cookie stand.  Sarah also assumed responsibility for finding, rooting, digging, potting, keeping alive all the passalong plants given away at her house during the tour, so people could participate in the gardener's tradition of passing along bits of their well-loved gardens. Once an older Highland gentleman advised me never to say thank you when someone gives you a plant--if you do, it will die. You can say, "I appreciate it," or "I'll think of you every time I see this plant in my garden."

I knew people would love sharing the beauty and personality of Sarah and Howard's garden.  Basking in the glow of another highly successful "Highland Experience, " I think they are happy they made the sacrifice of time, effort and money to enhance their already near-perfect outdoor living space for "company."

Tour goers arrive at this classic Craftsman bungalow to see the lush, hidden garden
 in rear of home.

Tour patrons peruse the tables of passalong plants in the drive-way

Then select the perfect plant from the passalong table.

The Red Tag Table of Vintage Garden-Related Items

What a delight to wander through the small garden rooms.

Tour goers leaving with their wares.

Hidden corner of the garden

Even Howard's & Sarah's dogs got into the spirit of the day.

We now leave our postage stamp garden tour with a view of the outdoor dining area where I hope Sarah and Howard are kicking back with a big pitcher of her famous Sangria toasting themselves!

Highland BLOOMS: Swiss Chard & Other Veggie Tales

With seven unique outdoor environments featured at our first Highland BLOOMS event, it's hard to know which one to explore next.  I think we will take a ramble about an organic vegetable garden located on the front lawn of one of our neighborhood homes.  And no, it doesn't bother me at all that people in our neighborhood have vegetables growing in their front yards.  Highland is an area with many tall trees and, therefore, much shade.  You have to hunt for a bit of sunny ground. 

Moreover, with the growing disconnect between us and the food we put in our mouths, I applaud anyone's efforts to grow their own food.  I love the Slow Food Movement, the community garden coalitions and local Farmers' Markets even though I don't always practice what I preach and eat my share of overly processed foods.

Tour goers arrive to take a guided tour of this front yard "Victory Garden"

Chalk footsteps welcome tour goers to this garden.

Plantings along either side of the wrought iron fence

I adore Swiss Chard, hint, hint....

In true Southern fashion, a parasol is an essential accessory on a hot day. 

And a fashion-forward young helper

Everyone received a chart of the garden to show what the home owner has planted.  She and her husband are growing 80-plus different vegetables here. 

While this makes the Early Head Start garden look a bit skimpy by comparison, I am also proud of our efforts and hope we might plant a seed, literally and figuratively, that will inspire others to attempt to grow some of their own food.

One section of Early Head Start garden.

Early Head Start student studies bean he planted!

Highland BLOOMS

Over 600 visitors and volunteers flocked to our city's Fairfield and Highland Historic Districts to view the variety of outdoor living spaces and amazing front yard "Victory Garden" on display during yesterday's Highland BLOOMS event.  As I've mentioned previously, we also had live music, refreshments, free passalong plants, a red tag sale of garden-related items, and arts and crafts --plus, a tour of the home that was formerly a fire station.  (Photos of this home can be seen in the previous post, Perks of Being President.)

I promised I would share some photographs from yesterday, so here they are.  My husband took the pictures as I was too busy selling tickets, coordinating volunteers and putting out fires (don't you just love it when 8 volunteers you were counting on cancel the morning of an event, but that's another story!)  The event was a huge success and though the committee members are tired, we are pumped up at the same time.

The entrance to one of the cottage gardens on tour

The homeowner of this home fell 15' through the roof of his greenhouse onto his back and head the night before the tour, was rushed to the hospital, examined, found to have no permanent injuries, sent home on pain meds and insisted the show must go on!  Now that's an avid gardener!  The large garden space, shown in the following photographs, was once was an adjudicated lot but our city passed an ordinance several years ago that neighbors living next to an empty adjudicated lot can purchase it for $1.00 if they can prove to the authorities that they have maintained the lot for so many years.  Thus, these homeowners now own a large green space next to their house.

The gazebo

Different "rooms" of the homeowners' back yard are depicted in photos

The infamous greenhouse tucked into a corner of the yard

Because of the shade in this garden, it is difficult to do it justice in photographs.  All the gardens looked lovely in person.  Join me back here tomorrow for more photos of outdoor living spaces in our historic neighborhood!

Elegy for Eddie, by Jacqueline Winspear

I have been so busy preparing for today's Highland BLOOMS garden tour that there has been no writing time.  Today our neighborhood association gave over 500 people the opportunity to enjoy some outdoor living spaces in our funky, historic neighborhood, but also to experience other  benefits that our neighborhood has to offer--taste treats from area restaurants, cool jazz from two local bands, an old-fashioned lemonade and cookie stand, a red tag sale of vintage garden-related items, free passalong plants, plus a sampling of arts and crafts from local vendors.  The committee worked so hard on this project and it has paid off with a lot of positive buzz about our unique neighborhood. 

Things remain in a bit of an upheaval at my paying job--not to be confused with the hours spent on neighborhood issues.  I'm finding it has been hard to stay grounded (despite all the focus on gardens!)  So, when I inadvertently became the owner of a copy of Jacqueline Winspear's latest Maisie Dobbs' mystery, Elegy for Eddie, I was delighted.  A great excuse for some escapist reading. 

I read the book last weekend, but have been unable to post about it.  The book focuses on the death of a gentle soul named Eddie who was born in a stable and grew up around horses while his mother worked cleaning the stalls.  Although Eddie was slow in his cognitive development, he has a natural rapport with horses.  One day he is killed in an "accident" in a paper mill and Maisie is asked to discover who killed him--his friends refuse to believe his death is accidental. 

This mystery is in many ways a gentler story than Winspear's earlier novels, which often focus more on the damaged soldiers who returned from WW I.  It is understandable that Winspear has taken up the cause of the European soldiers returning from World War I and the horrors of that war.  Her grandfather’s lungs were badly damaged by gas at the Battle of the Somme and even in his latter years, he was still picking shrapnel out of his legs.  There isn't as much suspense in this novel, but there's more introspection.

When I read on Winspear's website (http://www.jacquelinewinspear.com/newsletter-2-12.html)   that this book is based on a true story that her father told her, I found it even more poignant.  The back drop of this mystery is another pending World War, and Winspear weaves this scenario into the plot in a manner not totally satisfactory to me, but I still enjoyed reading the book.

I love the fact that Winspear's horse served as the model for the cover of Elegy for Eddie.  Winspear, a keen horsewoman born in Kent, England, is pictured below riding her horse.

I find it interesting that Winspear also writes on the topic of international education.  As a former academic myself, I was fascinated by anthropology of education in graduate school before I drifted into the study of reading and literacy and then moved into early childhood special education and finally into early childhood education for at-risk children.  Unfortunately, life is just too short to pursue all the areas of study that interest me.

Tomorrow I plan to post some of the great photos my husband took of our Highland BLOOMS garden tour so everyone can see some of the awesome outdoor spaces featured. 

Working and Playing

Working for a living and volunteering in the neighborhood has kept me busy lately, with job-related evening meetings and sitting in front of computer at night to line up volunteers for our upcoming Highland BLOOMS garden tour of seven neighborhood gardens.  This is no ordinary garden tour--we have jazz bands at two large garden sites; an old fashioned lemonade stand with homemade cookies and lemonade served from the gazebo in one lovely shade garden; artist vendors selling their wares; a raffle of a lovely water feature that I truly covet; a red tag sale of vintage garden items; a tasting table of local treats; cold drinks at most locations; free passalong plants to first 200 patrons--all included in the basic admission fare for the tour.  Wow!  No wonder all the committee members are on overload.

Fountain being raffled off (photo by Sarah as fountain
now appears temporarily at home in her garden)

Yesterday another group of neighborhood volunteers and I picked up any litter in the vicinity of our tour gardens, then we hit other litter challenged areas.  Unfortunately, in this central city neighborhood, we have people with no eyes to see and appreciate the beauty around them and these few trash our historic neighborhood.  It's heartbreaking, but you can't let it bring you down. 

I love early morning trash clean-ups, I know that's weird to say, but there are few folks out early on Saturday morning.  It's quiet and peaceful.  Though we stick to sidewalks mainly in our litter removal efforts (and what we can reach with our grabbers), I see and hear the birds that I'm too busy or insulated in my car or house to notice on normal mornings, I notice tiny flowers that I would ordinarily fail to note or appreciate, and the unusual cool mornings we've had this week have been heavenly--yesterday was no exception. 

On one major thoroughfare, I found the most delicate tiny violets growing in the shade of a concrete wall next to the sidewalk.  I noticed the hearty, vividly colored flowers  shown here when I stopped to clean a parking lot near some popular eateries.  I have grown to love the discovery of unexpected beauty in the midst of sometimes harsh surroundings.



Tiny flowers growing in concrete next to litter of parking lot

After the trash clean-up, I connected with friends for a group birthday lunch and general happy get-together.  We have been trying to meet, literally, for months to celebrate some February birthdays and an April one.  One friend had out-of-town guests she wanted us to meet, so finally we gathered for lunch at Lilah's, a local cafe and bakery, to celebrate all of the above--birthdays and an appreciation of new and old friends.


Artist hanging her pictures for art show in Lilah's,
which the restaurant periodically does (though none was
featured yesterday)



My friend Beth with her childhood friends who were visiting.




Since I was one of the February birthday gals, I had to show you one gift I received from my friend, Kathy--a garden shed to display in my exercise/mud room until I am ready to share it with the birds.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day and a beautiful week.

Thinking about Herbs

I'm sitting here eating a piece of rosemary bread with honey, thinking about herbs.  I didn't make this bread, just baked it, but lately I have been contemplating cooking with herbs, all because of the third book I've read as part of my Foodies Read 2 Challenge.  Susan Wittig Albert's An Unthymely Death is one of those books that I've had sitting on my shelf for awhile.  I had read a little bit of it but laid it aside and forgot about it. As I gathered books from my library for the Foodie Reading Challenge, I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to complete it.

Albert, as mystery lovers will recognize, is the author of 21 mysteries featuring China Bayles, a former criminal defense attorney and current proprietor of a herb shop, Thyme and Seasons, and a tearoom, Thyme for Tea, that she owns with her best friend Ruby Wilcox who also features prominently in the herb series mysteries.  Albert has other mystery series, too, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter and the more recent garden club mystery series.  She writes a series with her husband under the pseudonym, Robin Paige; and she has written 60 Youth Adult Books, in addition to several nonfiction books.

A former English professor, Albert is, to state the obvious, a multi-talented and prolific author. 

An Unthymely Death fits in with the China Bayles series.  It is a collection of short mystery stories featuring China and Ruby, interspersed with numerous sidebar facts about herbs, herbal recipes and craft ideas featuring herbs.  For example, there is a mini history of mustard, a listing of herbs for a tea garden, as well as herbs of the Bible, instructions on how to make a tussie mussie, and scores of recipes.  Albert is also the honorary President for 2012-2014 of the Herb Society of America.  To read more about herbs and the herb society, Click Here.   She also has an excellent website with lots of links and information about herbs on it.  Wittig's About Thyme website gives recipes and a lot of fascinating facts about herbs.  To view this website and find more herbal recipes, Click Here.

Two recipes I want to try:

Faerie Blossom Cookies

1/8 cup sugar

1/4 cup fresh lemon-basil leaves, packed down

1/4 cup fresh lemon balm leaves, packed down

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 cups flour

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease two baking sheets.  In a blender or food processor, process the fresh herbs with the 1/8 cup sugar and set aside.  Using your electric mixer, beat butter or margarine until creamy, gradually adding the 3/4 cup sugar.  Add egg and lemon juice and blend.  Add herb-sugar mixture, then flour, 1 cup at a time, beating to blend thoroughly.  Shape into one inch balls and place two inches apart on greased baking sheet.  Dip the bottom of a glass in sugar and flatten each ball.  Bake until golden brown, about 8-10 minutes,  Remove to wire racks to cool.  Makes about three dozen.

 

Rosemary Caper Tapenade

2 small (6 or 8 oz) jars of oil-cured black olives

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup tiny capers (nonpareil) drained

2 (2 oz) tins flat anchovy fillets, undrained

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 cloves garlic, minced fine

2 teaspoons finely minced fresh rosemary leaves or 1 teaspoon dried

Pepper to taste

Pit the olives and place in a blender or food processor.  Add olive oil and blend.  Add capers, anchovies, lemon juice, garlic, and rosemary.  Blend until smooth (or, if you prefer, still slightly grainy).  Taste and add pepper if you like.  If the spread is too thick, add additional olive oil.  Refrigerate several days for best flavor.  Serve at room temperature.  (To store, pack in a large-mouthed jar and cover with olive oil.  Cover jar tightly.)

There's only one thing standing in my way to culinary prowess with herbs--my current herb garden!

Umm, this is my current herb garden, the planter outside the back door
and it's empty--no seeds sprouted.



Foodies Read 2

I've felt like they have been giving out crazy pills at work for the past two weeks, but no one offered me any, so there I sit--the only sane person within view.  I'm thinking, "I would at least like to have had a choice." 

What helps me retain my sanity is reading and writing, as you probably know by now, and frankly lots of time spent by myself (with Ricky near-by, of course).  Exercise helps, too.  After riding my stationary bike this morning, I decided to mow the front lawn. Mowing with our lawn mower constitutes exercise, even though our yard is small.

Our Old School Lawn Mower--I love it!

I also relaxed earlier this week by doing some quick and easy reading.  While looking through the stack of books I purchased at the annual Centenary College Book Sale, I found a book that fit into my Foodies Read Book Challenge and read it in one sitting.  The Friendship Cake, by Lynne Hinton is about five women from the fictional town of Hope Springs, North Carolina who come together to develop a church cookbook.  The author Lynne Hinton is the pastor of a United Church of Christ Church, and she uses this relatively short book, the first in her Hope Springs (eternal?!) book series, as a platform to touch on universal themes,   There is diversity as one woman is African-American and must deal with latent bigotry that surfaces with teen pregnancy and mixed marriage; one of the group loves a woman though no labels are used here to depict gender diversity; and there is age diversity. 

Hinton also incorporates themes of life and death, giving and receiving, loneliness and loss--all faced and dealt with as the women bond, while reluctantly pursuing the cookbook project.  The recipes given in the book are extremely basic, but maybe they are so familiar because I'm from Virginia where recipes, such as sweet potato souffle casserole, boiled custard, banana pudding are standards.

Hinton's writing is adequate, she has some big names doing promotional blurbs for her cover, and her books have been successful.  This is the first book in a series about Hope Springs.  Readers of Judy Christie's Green series might also like this series, though I think Christie is the better writer.  For more information about Shreveport author, Judy Christie, click here.

Once Upon a Time: The Greek Myths Made Real

I finished book 3 of the Once Upon a Time challenge several days ago, but I've had little time to post about it.  The actual title of the book is Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real, published in 2005 by Nigel Spivey.  Spivey, a British academic teaching at the University of Cambridge, obviously believes in the value of a classical education and he is willing to help the reader achieve that goal.



Nigel Spivey

 Spivey divided his collection of classic Greek tales into five parts:

• An Early Childhood of the World--the story of Gaia, Mother Earth, and Ouranos, the sky; Prometheus and Pandora; Demeter and Persephone
• Heroes in the Making that recounts selected heroes' stories--Herakles, Theseus, Perseus, and Jason and the Argonauts
• War about Troy
• A Hero's Coming Home about Odysseus' wanderings and adventures
• The Stuff of Tragedy that tells of the fall of the house of Atreus.  This final section is the only one I don't recall from my own Liberal Arts Education, which admittedly did take place some time back.

Spivey's version of the myths has elements of a bodice ripping romance, although a disinterested tone is maintained throughout.  Spivey doesn't take himself too seriously as the purveyor of the classics, but the gods were a bawdy and vindictive group of individuals, and these stories illustrate that repeatedly. 

The Kirkus Review felt that Spivey's collection was appropriate for the young adult market who have been reared on TV and sensationalism.  Songs on Bronze probably would serve as a good introduction to the myths, but I felt they may work better as a refresher for someone like me who had to study drier versions of the tales years ago. 

I read the whole book while pedaling away on my stationary recumbent bicycle, thus, combining my physical education with my classical education in true Greek fashion.  Spivey has also written a book on the ancient Olympic games.


The small room where I ride my bike also doubles as a potting shed and is one of
my favorite rooms in the cottage (though it looks too busy in bottom photo).

View from the "bike" room--the shade dappled trellis and fountain.
It will soon look much more lush as two plants grow down
and the others grow up!

Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve

Sometimes I think it is easier to write every day rather than skip a week and try to pick up where I left off.  Last week was busy, but I've had weeks that were just as busy and  I continued to write.  I think the difference is I've been feeling overwhelmed, and instead of tackling the tasks one at a time, the dreaded inertia struck.  And I did nothing but fret.  No more, this blog is the first step out of my rut.

One thing that helped is Ricky and I took a "head-clearing" day trip this past Saturday to Saline, Louisiana, location of Briarwood, the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve.  Caroline Dormon, 1888-1971, was a botanist, horticulturist, ornithologist, historian, archeologist, preservationist, naturalist, conservationist, author and a distant cousin of my husband, Ricky.   Briarwood was the country home of Dormon's family, and Caroline grew up loving nature and the out-of-doors.  As an adult, she re-established her home at Briarwood in 1918 and began to preserve the native plants growing there and to introduce more examples of native plants on her property.

She initially taught school after graduation from college, but in 1921 she went to work for the Louisiana Forestry Division, the first woman in Louisiana to be hired in forestry and also believed to be the first woman in the United States to be employed in the field of forestry.  Dormon was instrumental in getting the U.S. Forest Service to establish the Kisatchie National Forest, the only national forest in Louisiana.  She later worked as a beautification consultant for the Louisiana Highway Department.

However, her real love was Briarwood and working with flora and fauna there.  When she died, she willed Briarwood to the public.  There is now a Foundation for the Preservation of the Caroline Dormon Nature Preserve. The nature preserve has two full-time curators, Richard and Jessie Johnson, and additional buildings have been added over the years that allow the public to experience the beauty of Briarwood, including a writer's cabin that I intend to utilize some day! 

The preserve is open during certain months for tours and has an annual picnic for supporters and other interested persons.  There are always members of Ricky's family at the picnic so we try to attend each year.  Last year's drought necessitated the Johnson's cutting back all the native azaleas that usually put on a showy display during the annual picnic.  This year the woods weren't filled with color, rather a palette of peaceful green was the theme of the day.

Walking through the woods

Caroline Dormon's Cabin

Longleaf pine called Grandpappy: oldest tree at Briarwood

Lichen on tree stump

Toadstool

At the pond

Oakleaf hydrangea blossom

Writer's Cabin

The photographer of most of the day's pictures!



I'm thankful that Caroline Dormon decided to share her home with others after her death.  A biography of Dormon's life is available--The Gift of the Wild Things, by Fran Holman, who also has collected Dorman's essays in a volume, Adventures in Wild Flowers.  In addition, Dormon herself  wrote Flowers Native to the Deep South.

Caroline Dormon noted in 1942: "I was born with something--I call it 'the gift of the wild things'--and because I am simple myself, and have a sympathetic heart, I can understand animals and simple people to an unusual degree. I see, too, so much that others miss. When I know so many lovely things, I feel greedy in keeping them all to myself."