September 5, 2017 – A treasure from 3/29/1990

        Cleaning today getting ready for a neighborhood yard sale I ran up on a few files from my Creative Writing Class from Isothermal College. 

            We had to keep a daily journal and write something every day.  Oh, I laughed, I cried, and I shook my head at how bad some of it was and was stunned at how poignant some of it was. These journals were collected every few weeks, read by the instructor, and returned.

            I have decided to share a journal entry with you with changing one thing – adding a title.

Young love

        If no one else noticed in creative writing class, I did – Katie and Brad were holding hands.  Sweet.  When their eyes lock, I blush knowing the electricity running between them and their blood pulsing wildly in their veins.  I haven’t forgotten how love felt at that age. 

Back then, my heart felt as if a warm hand were squeezing it.  My throat choked on the words.  My hands tingled and a simple brushing kiss paralyzed my lips, cheek, and jaw like Novocain, [The Novocain effect of a stolen kiss.]

I could feel a touch or squeeze for minutes.  Nothing was fleeting, everything was real and vivid and alive and earth shattering.  I never needed sleep, or food, or sustenance of any kind, only the warm look of my lover to sustain me.

I remember thinking with dizziness – ‘Oh this is love. I want to drown in it, what a pleasant way to die.”  I also had doubts about it lasting, and often quoted to myself: “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

I know a friend on her second marriage that has never been in love.  She’s never felt the chemistry of breaker A mixing with beaker B giving a spontaneous explosion.  I feel sorry for her. But, I can see Brad and Katie know it. 

I’d love to see Brad write a poem about how it feels . . . if he could sort it out . . . perhaps it’s too intense for him to tune in and write about it now.

Ahh, sweet lovers in springtime, is there anything more charming.

September 4, 2017 – This is your last issue - Subscription notice

        It never fails.   I toss pending magazine subscription notices into the ‘circular file’ as the current issue often disheartens me.  Half the year I open the glossy gardening magazines and simply yawn at what I see.  I find more articles on exotics, cactus, and xeriscaping than I will ever be interested in.  I ask myself, “Why am I continuing to fork out money for a subscription to this magazine?”  Then, after a once through flipping the glossy, picture-filled pages, I sigh and toss the offending magazine into the shredding basket.

        Just yesterday, I tossed the renewal notice away for the third time and now this months’ issue arrives and there are three – yes – three “on-point” articles in this issue and it is my last issue.

1.  The publisher profiles Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’ which catches my attention because it has a purple tinge to the leaves and the flowers are a long tubular shape that I am certain my hummingbirds will love.  That piques my interest and I will have to research it more.

2.  There is an easy to grow Shallots article, which includes what type of soil amendments I should use.  I am planting both garlic and shallots this fall.    The soil amendment list is timely and extremely useful. I will scrounge around in my shed to see what I have to fit the nutrient requirements listed.

3.  Another article, about being a Show-off and preparing your garden for your very first garden tour makes me stop, prop my feet up, and read the article thoroughly. Yes, I am a personal garden show-off and give private tours to anyone who visits.  Just this morning I was opening windows to let in the cool morning air and I stopped to admire my various vistas. For instance, the view of the front walk from the master bedroom with the Stachys looking gorgeous bordering the tall blue ageratums.    From another window, the huge pot of “extreme” orange impatients turned out to be a perfect counterpoint in the deep shade and few visitors actually get to see it. Yes, an extremely useful article – even if I am not going to show my gardens to the public - I can present my gardens better to the casual visitors that come to my gardens.   The article confirmed what my Daddy used to say. “Just pull every weed and edge your garden.”   Yet, it pointed out the intrusive watering cans and hoses that I take for granted but are disconcerting to visitors.

Now, I cannot see myself dropping this garden magazine subscription when I have gotten two top-notch issues this year. 

I think the magazine executives actually plan it that way – Don’t you? They prime you with your last issue being exceptional thereby enticing you to renew at the last minute.

Maybe I do not need to “weed” out my garden magazine subscriptions. Maybe I need to re-think how I look at them by considering the not so helpful issues are like ‘self-sowing volunteer plants’ that I should pass along to new gardening friends.

Blog Index - August 2017

August 15, 2017	Fairy Ring
August 21, 2017	Writer’s prompt for August:  Missed Connection

August 21, 2007 - Writer's prompt for August

Our writing prompt for our group this month was:

Missed Connections or misconnections

Below is my meager attempt.

Misconnections are a daily occurrence in my life.

I own a deaf husband who often says, “You didn’t tell me.” From my point of view he also has selective hearing.  Currently he has a 50/50 mix of selective hearing and deafness.  Let me give you a prime example.

My retired husband does the majority of the grocery shopping,  When he retired he became my “housewife”.  Trust me, every gal should have one.

Last Thursday he went going grocery shopping.

I said, “I need Ricotta cheese and mozzarella cheese to make homemade manicotti.”  

I actually have his attention for a change.  He looks at me; a good sign.  I continue to explain with one flat hand raise above another to demonstrate the size of the ricotta cheese container.

“I need one of the small Ricotta cheese containers.  I think its 1 pound or 12 ounces.” Not the big one.  I prefer whole milk if you can find it.”

He nods – another good sign.

I continue saying, “I need a one pound package of Mozzarella cheese and I like those large pasta sea shells.  You know the big ones. . . I like those the best.  If you can’t find those, then get a box of lasagna noodles.  But, shake the box to make certain they aren’t broken.  Keep shaking boxes until you find one that isn’t broken up.”

He nods absently.  I think I have lost his attention.

I call out to him, “You wrote it down? Mozzarella Cheese, Ricotta cheese and pasta sea shells?”

He tosses me that look I know all too familiar, saying, “I don’t need to write it down.”

He leaves and I start the laundry and think about last week when I asked for FETA cheese – a whole chunk not the crumbled kind.   I sent him to Ingles where I know they have it.

On that occasion he returned empty handed from both Wal Mart and Ingles and said, “They don’t have Feta cheese.”

Inwardly I sighed knowing full well Ingles has it in the expensive cheese department as well as the less expensive dairy isle.

Unknown to him I went to Ingles the next day and got two packages of the Feta Cheese as I use it to garnish my Summer Squash sauté. Both packages are still on the refrigerator door.

Later as I fold laundry he brings in the groceries announcing proudly, “I got what you wanted.”

Unpacking I find a 2 pound tub of Ricotta cheese – the big one and lasagna noodles, not shells.  I shake them – they are not broken.  That works. The final item out of the bag IS a chunk of FETA cheese which was not the brand that Ingles carries, so I guess he actually found it at Wal Mart.  It doesn’t do me any good.  To make Manicotti I need Mozzarella cheese.

Looks like I’ll have to get Mozzarella cheese tomorrow.

August 15, 2017 – Fairy ring

        I was out running errands today and out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of an unmistakable Fairy ring.  I was watching for traffic from the left and the right in an attempt to leave the Ingles grocery store parking lot safely.

        What a delight – big huge white mushrooms on lush green grass.   Made me smile and remember the first time I had seen this phenomenon.  I don’t remember seeing any when I was a child in New England, but when I moved to the south I saw my first exquisite example on a lawn in front of one of buildings in the Milliken Office complex in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

I was a Kelly Girl at the time working for Milliken while a large chunk of their staff was in a “war room” trying to kill the NAFTA bill that went into effect in 1989.  I stopped dead in my tracks – I know everyone hates that idiom – but I can say, it is one of the few times that I was so surprised and delighted that I stopped to admire a complete circle of huge lush mushrooms in a fine stand of lawn.  I simply was not expecting it at the beautifully manicured campus I was rushing to that morning.

I had heard of fairy rings in passing and possibly saw a picture of one in a gardening magazine in years’ past, but that morning it made me smile and made me stop and look for a glimpse of one of those elusive dancing fairies or sprites. During the time I was at Milliken – a several week stay – the lawn was mowed and the fairy ring would disappear and then return.  That is what surprised me the most – destroyed by lawn mowers and then it came back.

The next fairy ring I noticed was a double one on the lawn of the Alexander Town Hall the next summer and it was perfection.  I talked my husband into taking me back after dinner that evening so that I could stand on the tail gate of his pickup truck to get a bird's eye view and picture of it.  It was an impressive double fairy ring and he admired it as much as I did.  I didn’t get a very good picture  - low battery in the 35mm camera at the time.  [I can’t always be fabulous at everything I attempt, though I will blame that failure on batteries.]

The town of Alexander was annexed in 1999 into Forest City, North Carolina, and I haven’t seen those fairy rings for a long time.

But, as many people say – bad things come in threes – as well as good things come in threes.  I saw the one up at Ingles signage, then another at a 4-way stop sign near the old white house near the Forest City Golf Course, and then a third one just south of the cross roads of Hudlow Road and Smith Grove/Lincoln Street.

I told my husband I’d seen three fairy rings when I got home and where they were.

He said, “Yeah, I meant to tell you – I saw one just a day or so ago . . .” but he couldn’t remember where.

So, he still knows I am charmed by them and I guess he is too.  We used to have one – a partial one  - near front walk and my dear husband would mow around it because he knew I admired them.    I guess he felt they were a lucky omen.

Today, when I was researching the mycelia and fairy rings or elf rings as some call them I did run up on an interesting bit of folklore.

“One folk belief . . . claims that a house built on a fairy circle will bring prosperity to its inhabitants.”

        So, I suggest anyone looking to build a new house – look for fairy rings.

NOTES:

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/diseases/fairy-rings/lawn-mushrooms.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_ring

A fairy ring, also known as fairy circle, elf circle, elf ring^[1] or pixie ring, is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms.^[2] The rings may grow to over 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter, and they become stable over time as the fungus grows and seeks food underground. They are found mainly in forested areas, but also appear in grasslands or rangelands. Fairy rings are detectable by sporocarps in rings or arcs, as well as by a necrotic zone (dead grass), or a ring of dark green grass. Fungus mycelium is present in the ring or arc underneath.

Fairy rings are the subject of much folklore and myth worldwide—particularly in Western Europe. While they are often seen as hazardous or dangerous places, they can sometimes be linked with good fortune.

Blog Index - July 2017

July 14, 2017	I ripped the ass out of . . .
July 15, 2017	“SPLATT”
July 17, 2017	One of my favorite places – York, Maine
July 19, 2017	The branch that moved

July 19, 2017 –The branch that moved.

        As I mentioned a few days ago, snakes, snakes, every where . . . and the snake saga continues.

        Early in the cool of the morning yesterday I wandered around and picked up 15 minutes’ worth of downed limbs and large twigs to toss on the pickup load of downed limbs I’d loaded two days before.  I pick up the twigs that are too thick to dissolve during a years’ composting.  Due to the high winds with all these rains we seem to have lots of downed limbs.  Every four or five weeks I fill the pickup truck and we haul them off to the landfill and pay for the dumping.

        You would think that hauling off all these downed limbs and not creating “snake piles, i.e., brush piles” where snakes want to hunt or multiply . . . we would not see as many snakes as we have this year.

        But, this was a double snake day.  Possibly due to so much rain they are moving up from the Kudzu patch to find warm wet grass to release their skins so they can shed and get bigger and bigger to scare the wits out of me or they’ve heard that my back yard gardens are extremely beautiful this year due to the rains – who knows.

        My husband was mowing the back lawn and he made a turn on his sit down lawnmower and slowed down to reach down and pick up what he thought was a fallen limb.  Just as he stopped the mower the “limb” moved and he discovered it was his old friend – or what he thought was his old friend the snake that had gotten itself tangled up in the sweet pea netting that he later did the Good Samaritan thing by cutting it free.  Of course, in the process he also chopped all the blooming sweet peas down.  I can’t exactly praise him much about his being so good to all of God’s creatures and killing off my flowers at the same time.

        When the limb – err – snake moved, he ushered it with the lawn mower back to the kudzu property line.  But, it seems to have a run of our yard any time it pleases.

        Less than half hour later I was walking up to my “French” bench under the Bradford pears and knowing I had picked up all the downed limbs from the days of heavy rain and wind just that morning,  I pause a moment to see if what I thought was a limb was a limb, but it was another snake.  Not a black snake but an immature black rat snake coming out of adolescence into adult hood – the white patches still visible, but fading.

        I stopped dead in my tracks – good thing – I was about 4 feet away before I noticed it.  It noticed me too.  A completely different demeanor it had from our often seen black snake. I backed away after I gave it a good study.

        I turned and hailed down the husband, but, alas, it had slithered away before he could scrutinize it.

        Needless to say, I did not go to my “French” bench to jot in my journal.  I camped out in the house instead as my back was still in fright spasms.

        I put my nose back in Patrick Taylor’s book entitled The Wily O’Reilly.  OH, what a treasure.  Essay format of a few pages each of little “stories” or “events” of an Irish Doctor in a village called Ballybuckelbo, Ireland.   Amusing, delightful and a good read.

        It is the back story of the best-selling series starting with Irish Country Doctor followed by Irish Country Village, etc.,

        I found it charming.  If you are looking for an amusing summer read that takes you to another location – try one of Patrick Taylor’s books.  I think you will love it.