Emerging into Spring

Today the sun is shining, the birds are singing and we are getting ready to go on a Kirts Family Spring Trip. All my favorite things. Family,flowers,and fun.

I was talking to a new friend today and she asked me my favorite time in the garden...that is a hard one for me, but as I walked around the garden today, I knew the answer. It has got to be Spring. The emergence of green shoots, after a long dark winter gives me a high better than a glass of Chardonnay. I will be gone a week, but I will be so excited to get back and see what is coming up. How can anyone not love gardening...it is a rebirth for me every spring.

I love SPRING!!!

Applesauce..one last tribute!

One last tribute to my Dad! My father traveled and worked long hours when I was young, so any time with him was cherished. We had several large apple trees in the back yard, the job of all 6 kids was to pick up the apples and help Dad make applesauce. I loved it. So today I made an updated version.

Using the same equipment Dad and I used, I made my version of Applesauce. I loved it when Dad and I made it because we added Red Hots and lots of sugar! My job was to push the cooked apples down and around. Well, my version uses cranberries and agave nectar, I loved pushing my version down and around in the same equipment Dad and I used. My Applesauce is great....Dad would be proud.

I Remember...

Today I drove up to visit my 91 year old young MOM. We had breakfast at "Bob Evans", hung out at "Wal Mart" a while then I drove home. It was the 2 year anniversary of my Father's Memorial Service. My Father was so grand...but the thing is he loved the Spring Daffodils. In his life time he planted thousands. Dad would write in a notebook every spring when the first daffodil bloomed. Two Years ago they were blooming today, but not this year,so I picked the tallest blooms and brought them into the house and then took them up to my Mom today. They opened up tonight. We love you so much Dad.... God Bless you!

Friendship

On Valentine's Weekend, my dear Supper Club Friends came to town! We had a grand weekend which included visiting some sights on the Bourbon Trail, Lunch at Talbot's Tavern in Bardstown, and some hanging out fun!!

We also had a wonderful adventure cooking our hubbies a tasty Valentine Meal. All of us have been married over 30 years, it was a fun celebration. I had decorated with Roses and Hearts and we cooked up a storm. Marge who is a great shopper with a zest for life surpassed by few,had purchased all of us Pink Hearts for the occasion.

A week or so later, I received this Thank You Poem in the mail. It made my day. Thank you Marge for being you and being my friend for over 30 years!

The Weekend

Just the other day I was shopping
through the mall,
moving as if underwater from store to store,
from kiosk to kiosk,
when I found myself in the valentine section
where my eyes fell upon a chain with a pink plastic heart.

No gift card for any amount
could send one into this thrill-
a thrill where I darted quickly
through the bright shopping center
stretching to reach and then grabbing
the heart, a gift for my friend Becky.

I had never seen anyone use this kind of heart,
or wear this kind of heart,
but that did not keep me from thinking
over and over again and again
until I decided to buy
the pink plastic heart for my friend Becky

She gave me food and wine from her counter,
and I gave her a pink plastic heart.
She provided me with a bed to sleep upon,
a tour of the Bourbon Trail,
games to play and music to hear
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me how to cook and laugh,
and I,in turn presented her with a pink plastic heart.
Here are several meals, she said
and here are the recipes and directions.
and here is your pink plastic heart, I replied,
which I purchased all on my own.

Here is a well fed body and a smiling face,
rested, relaxed and grateful,
and 4 or 5 new recipes to live on, she said
and here, I said, is the pink plastic heart I found for you at the mall.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift---not the worn truth
that you can never repay a true friend,
but the honest admission that when Becky took
the pink plastic heart and wore it all weekend,
I was sure as a friend could be
that this useless, worthless thing I gave her
would be enough.

Joel Salatin Talk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxTfQpv8xGA

Friday evening my Husband and I attended a talk presented by the Community Farm Alliance. The presenter was Joel Salatin. His approach to Farming is amazing! I am not a farmer, but would love to attempt some chickens. Please watch the attached video! He has incredible insight...we should all be stewards of the land. Cleaning Farming ..the way nature attended.

Black Pussy Willow

As a small child my Mother and I would watch the Pussy Willow's and when the small fuzzy catkins appeared, we would pick a bunch, and I would root the limbs and play with my fuzzy friends.

Flash forward many years....Mom and I were wandering through a large nursery near where my Father was in a Nursing Home, we came upon a Black Pussy Willow. (Salix gracilistyla 'Melanostachys').

It was a must have for my garden. Now I delight every early Spring in the fuzzy catkins that appear. I always clip branches and root them to pass out to my friends. My bush is now a tree, as it is in a moist area with full sun, it has grown with vigor.

Yesterday, as I clipped the limbs, it made me smile and remember happy childhood memories.

BOGIE

BOGIE IS BACK!

Bogie is the only cat we have ever paid money for...the rest just appeared or were dropped in to our lives, anyway 15 years ago we bought Bogie for Kalee, our daughter. We were moving into an old house a "friend " of Kalee's told her the house was haunted. But I had told Kalee that cats and dogs would not go into a haunted room, so we got Bogie for security.

Kalee and Bogie have had a love/hate relationship but push forward 15 years ...Kalee's suitor came to ask her father for Kalee's hand in marriage, her father's response was only if Bogie is part of the deal. They have now been married for almost 4 years and Bogie is still a part of the picture :).

First on the block..

Ok... I just have to be the first on the block to put flowers out.... Maybe because I love Pansy's...I am a Theta and they are our flower, or maybe because my Mom and daughter were Tri Delta's and that is their flower or maybe it is the colors that open up and smile to us first thing in the Spring!

It makes me so happy!

First Blooms

Here are the first blooms from my gardens, clearly Spring is on the way.

Spring into Action !

There is a house on Main Street in Shelbyville that is my first signal that Spring is coming!!! The entire front yard of this aging white brick home erupts into a mass of purple crocus with the first burst of warm spring air. Well, today was the day! March 4th, 2010.

I love what sunshine does to everyone...people were out walking and smiling, dogs were prancing, cats dancing, birds singing and I was raking!!

My emerging daffodils are pushing hard to break through the blanket of leaves, so I must help them. Tired and sore from the labor, I will go to sleep smiling....the daffodils will soon show their yellow faces. Spring is coming.