Cottage Garden

This is a pretty view of what I am calling the cottage garden. Last summer, I got tired of the weeds growing in this small area. I dug it out and lay down plastic, sand and bricks and went to work planting. Himself and I moved plants from other parts of the yard (Japanese Iris, my Amber Wave coral belle and lilies). I planted some bienniels -- Hollyhocks and maybe the Bachelor Buttons -- are they bienniels? I bought a few new plants too. Oh, and we got a piece of my Mama's bleeding heart before her house was sold. That bleeding heart and the one I got from Wallyworld are both flourishing. Lovely, lovely plants. I love that plant. I think my Mama got her start of the bleeding heart from my sister Linda. Linda had the biggest, best Bleeding Heart I ever did see. Denny says that it is still there in his Red Wing garden and has been the mother of many more Bleeding Heart plants.

And today, even tho it is unseasonably cold and dreary and overcast and it looks like it is going to pour and there is not one bit of sunshine to lighten your heart, the garden is still pretty. And I reckon that is what a flower garden is for. To lighten a heart.

Mother's Day or "Monkies at the Zoo"

I love this photo. It is, as Erica said when she saw it, revealing personalities. Should have got all the sleepy men on the davenports in here too! My next camera will have a timer on it! And wish Traci week ends off too, soon! Thank you all! Love you all! Ma

1990

was a very good year . . .


















Those little crab apple trees behind were the monsterous things in the previous pic. Beautiful girls. Big hair . . .

(oh, I'm so sorry! Mama couldn't help it!)

19 years

I believe that come June, Himself and I will have lived here for 19 years. That is the very longest I have lived ANYWHERE! I do not belive it, even as I write about it. I lived in Peru, IA almost 2 years. I lived at the Junkyard maybe 10 years although it seems the longest of any place I have ever lived. I lived at the "green house" in Afton about 4 years, one year at Shagbark before sharing an apartment in Creston with Little Jan. Then, I married and lived in Sioux City for almost 6 years where I started my real life. In 1977, we moved to Hubbard, NE for a year when Zenith Corp shut down. As we didn't want to move to Mexico or Taiwan we bought a grocery store and a whirlwind ensued -- the farm house west of Orient, Helen Speed's house, Lobaugh's and then to the yellow house on the football field. Klinkenfus'.

Then to here, this neat ol house. The first year we were here the crabapple trees were lovely. This year, they are going to be again.

Finally

I suppose for 20 years I have been trying to get a bleeding heart started. Linda had one gigantic bleeding heart in Red Wing. Absolutely beautiful. My Mama got a start and it grew and prospered in her east flower bed. I have a piece now and it is growing too but this beaut is one I got at wally world or somewhere similiar. Last summer I worked on creating a little cottage garden out the back door and this summer, it is going to take off and be mighty fine!

Determined

This little cutie is growing and blooming in a crack in the sidewalk. Himself would ban all violets from our yard if he had his way as they will spread everywhere but I insist on a few. Violets are one of the earliest flowers to bloom in the spring. Violets grow for little girls (and boys) to pick. When I was a child, we needed violets for the May baskets as usually that and dandelions were about the only thing blooming -- and you had to have a few flowers in the May baskets. And isn't it just a cheerful little indicator of Spring?

Mutipliers

My folks called Winter Onions, Multipliers! The onion produces a seed pod on the end of the onion green. Plant them and you will have plenty of the winter onions . . . because they Multiply!!

Remember the dandilion greens?

Click here if you missed my story about my Gramma and the dandelion greens -- but I was saying in the old days before refrigerated train cars and electricity and supermarkets, people got really really hungry for greens. Well, actually, sometimes people just plain got really really hungry! Here is more evidence of how hungry people got for vegetables at the end of a very long winter:

Pioneer Onion Gravy

Chop up the tops of winter onions for one cup.

In a skillet, melt 2 Tablespons butter.

Stir in 1 Tablespoon flour.

Add 1 cup milk,

1/2 teaspoon salt and

1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Cook until boiling and thickened, stirring constantly. Add 1 cup chopped green onion tops, cook for a couple of minutes more. Serve over toast for breakfast or with mashed potatoes at dinner.

Have you ever craved vegetables so much you would eat this? Himself and I might try it for breakfast sometime.

I'm crazy for

. . . green onions.

Yes. I know. Weird. But the last several months I have been crazy for green onions. I want to chop them up and put them in everything. I would use them always instead of a regular onion. Remember my sad, sad story last winter when I tried to grow green things in the hotbed and the silly weather in January wanted to act like winter. It snowed. It got cold. It snowed more and the temperatures plummeted below zero so I finally pulled the plug on my little miserable ungrowing green things? Well there were green onions in there.

Now, I have little green onions coming up in the hotbed again, planted 3 weeks ago. Himself has planted green onions and regular onions in his garden. I have been eyeing the winter onions that are almost as a good as a green onion. I am ready to start digging and eating them.

I wish I could remember what my Mama called the winter onions; the "old timers" had another name for them. If I ever remember, I'm telling you all so you can help me remember for next time. Meanwhile, eat a green onion for me!

Granny, comforted

At the end of the visit, I said "Mom, we didn't even give you a chance to get a word in edge wise". Silence for just a wee bit, then, "no, but I liked listening".

When I was a child, I liked listening. At the end of a long day at Gramma Austin's or an aunt or uncle's, the kids would sprawl out on the floor or in the next room on a bed. We'd lay and listen to the adults talk. That was always a good feeling -- relaxing and listening to the grown ups talk. It was good and comforting.

Granny listened and, I think, was comforted.

Learn (at least) one new thing every day

Today I learned that there are "screen shots".
Today I learned how to insert a "screen shot" into Nana's View.

whew.

I'm beat.

That's hard work . . . learning!

hahahaha ha

Look what I can do. I still can't make nice, neat, orderly paragraphs nor indent when/where/how I want -- but I can do "screenshots". how 'bout that?

Freeze Frame

This picture of Morghan Grace and Great Granny is dated 4-15-07 -- just one year ago. Great Granny has changed a lot in the last year -- as well as Morghan.

Wait! hold everything. I want Morghan to stay 9 years old!

I want my Mama to stay 88 . . . and holding.

Hold your breath. don't turn your back.

Shhhhh . . .

Fundamentals

Great Granny couldn't string two words together on Sunday as she watched two little girls color in the Angel coloring book and flit around the room. She tried to tell them things. She tried to tell me what she had been seeing earlier in the lobby. It wasn't until we were ready to go home that the sentences were pieced together from the oldest, most basic memory bites and wrapped around our hearts . . . "I need a hug." "Give me a kiss." "Let me kiss you."

And the patient little misses obliged.

One of Nana's favorite Things: Child's Play

Under Questioning

Audri is asking Aunt Traci why Uncle Craig is playing with her duckie . . .

Willing and Able

Morghan Grace LOVES babies . . . and I know just how she feels. I was the same way. Morghan is willing to help Audrianna in any way -- changing diapers, giving her a bottle or feeding her baby food. Morghan is going to be a great babysitter in a year or two.

And Audrianna lets Morghan do . . . whatever is needed.

Egg Hunt

It took some doing, getting all the little ones together for an egg hunt so it was Saturday evening and chilly outside. We hunted eggs in the living room. I had gotten jelly beans, mainly, as they are durable. I remembered previous Easters when the eggs got hidden and rehidden. Seems the best part is looking for the eggs. So 5 little ones looked for eggs, found them and then took turns hiding them all over the house. We may find Jelly Beans 'til August . . . but they had fun hiding them and finding them. Here are Jack and Joey "looking"

. . . oh hey. That is a big ol' orb in there . . . that's not an Easter Egg!

Silly

I love Silly (silly little girls . . . and boys!)

Gramma's Recipe

The bottom pan is how they start out and the top rack is how they end up.

And this is how you eat them . . . with whipped cream and bananas. umm mmmm!

Make these Cream Puffs at least once a year -- preferably at Easter!

Cream Puffs

1/2 Cup butter (or oleo)

1 Cup sifted flour -- don't skip the sifting part this time!

1/4 tsp salt. Measure it and put it in cup with the flour.

4 eggs (or if they are jumbo, or extra large, you can just use 3 eggs)

1 Cup water

Use a heavy saucepan if you have one -- otherwise, any sauce pan quart size or larger.

Melt butter in 1 cup of boiling water.

Add the flour and salt all at once.

Stir vigorously. Don't quit now! Keep on medium heat and stir a little longer.

Cook and stir until the mixture forms a ball that doesn't separate.

It doesn't have to stay all of a piece but should mainly follow your spoon around the pan.

Remove from heat and cool slightly. Just go throw the egg shells in the garden, wipe the counter top and put the flour sifter away. It doesn't have to cool very long.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each egg until the pastry is smooth.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet, 3 inches apart.

With a little practice, you'll know how heaping to make the Puffs and will end up with all 12 on one cookie sheet.

I think the secret to a big Puff is be gentle. Just dip a heaping tablespoon and gently coax it onto the cookie sheet. Don't add to it or take any dough away -- don't adjust the size! Just live with it! Practice making them all one size.

Make sure the oven has preheated, then . . . Bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes.

Turn the oven down to 325 and bake another 20 or so.

Don't bang the oven door shut and don't do the Highland Fling in the kitchen for this next hour. After that you can clog whenever you want.

When nicely browned all over, take them out of the oven. Some recipes say to split the cream puffs now to let them dry but Gramma didn't and I won't either.

So split one when you can't wait any longer or when you have the cream whipped. Fill with vanilla pudding or whipped cream or whipped cream with sliced bananas. Himself says they are good just stuffed with a little jelly but I am pretty sure I want mine with whipped cream and bananas.

And if you knew my mother-in-law, you won't make these lovely creations without thinking of a lovely lady.

This has to rest 10 minutes

I made wheat bread again this weekend. Its flavor is less bold than last week's recipe but may be more palatable to Himself. However, after making this week's recipe, I found another recipe that one person claimed was the "Holy Grail" of whole wheat bread. I have one more recipe to try . . .

Marlboro Man

Marlboro Man; that was what hit my brain when I looked out today and saw Himself in silhouette. There he stood. Antsy. Waiting for spring, warm weather, gardening.


There are strange things going on in this photo -- but they are NOT supernatural ????? I took it through the two panes of glass in the patio door.


PS: yes, I am sure that "Marlboro Man" came to mind so quickly due to reading "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman" every day (who really isn't . . . a Pioneer Woman but she is very entertaining anyway).

And then there were Four.

Kristy, Erica, Craig and Johanna

Photo by Ma

I think Granny was slowing down and couldn't get all four of you in a picture!

Then there was four!

Johanna Rae

Photo by Granny

Then there were three

Kristy, Erica and Craig

Photo by Granny

Then there were three

Craig Dale

Photo by Granny

Then there were two

Kristy and 3 day old Erica

Photo by Granny

Then there were two

Erica Jo

Photo by Granny

First there was one

Kristy Noel

Photo by Granny.

Granny's school art

To think this piece of paper is 75 years old, or almost. I can't even begin to guess what grade Granny would have been in when she made it but there is her name at the bottom, Janice C. I think it was probably elemetary school, don't you? So this fine piece of art was made somewhere around 1930, give or take a few years. Granny was born February 8, 1920. You can remember 1920 if you know I was born in 1950 when Granny was 30! :)

To think that Granny's mother, my Granny Coe, protected this school project and then Granny kept it safe (how?!?!) from nine children for 50+ years. That knocks my socks off!

I love the daffadils. I love having it for a little while. I will take it back when we sort the rest of Granny's life.

A Year in Review Too

This is an after-dinner wrestling romp. Men! They love this stuff!

A Year in Review

This was last Easter dinner day. The picture is dated April 15 and I don't remember if we had Easter Dinner on Easter Sunday or a week early or a week late but whenever it was, it was a whole month later than this Easter. I saw an article somewhere that said this Easter is the the 2nd earliest it can ever be.

These girls had a good time, tho, didn't they?

Old Fashioned Day

I aimed to make wheat bread today. I had the wheat flour on hand as I've been wanting to make some. Then I happened upon a muffin recipe someone had sent me in a recipe exchange that called for wheat flour. So I made these "no white flour/no sugar" muffins.

I used Gramma Hof's old bowl and her mother's hand-shaped wooden spoon and mixed the batter up by hand. The bowl might have been Gramma Sychra's before it was Gramma Hof's. I'm not sure.

I did make the wheat bread too.

The muffins have blue, black and "rasp" berries in them and were sweetened with honey.

I love Gramma's crock bowl, don't you?

While cleaning out Granny's house, this lamp came up for discussion and no one wanted it. I brought it home.

This is the lamp Gramps found to sit on his hand made, home-sawn walnut, rolltop desk. When I brought it home, it was just an old, almost rusty, cast iron lamp.

I took some copper acrylic paint and some brown acrylic and did a little creative mix on this old 1930's (1920's?) lamp. Now it brightens my days.

Gramma's comforter, in between

In between cleaning cupboards, chipping ice off the driveway (because I am determined that winter is on its way out and I am going to prove it by having an ice-free driveway) and caring for little Audri while her Mama worked today, I sewed on this old comforter some more.

When I started it, I had thought to do all the mending by hand. It was to be an exercise in darning and mending from the olden days. I wanted it to look as tho it has been mended and darned over a period of years.

Once I got started and found the fabric so fragile and worn, I gave up the idea of doing it by hand and I have sewn and patched and mended on the machine half the winter, it seems. Actually, I work on it, get discouraged and lay it aside, then work on it some more. Tomorrow, I will finish the binding. I might put on two more small patches and then, that is it!

I have two more old comforters to shore up -- and spring is a coming. Time is short.

The beautiful carving

is what makes the kitchen cabinets so hard to clean.

One Third Done, maybe

Even though my "to do" pile is still sitting there, admonishing me to get busy, I have left it this weekend in favor of cleaning the outside of my kitchen cupboards. It has probably been twice as long as I think it has -- that they have been cleaned and oiled. And I am ashamed to say how long I think it has been.

Johanna helped me scrub them down this week and today, I took the oil and rubbed and buffed and the lower cabinets are done! They look nice. And clean!

Now there are just the uppers to do . . . and the 24 little, high cupboards that make the circle at the top. They will be easier to clean (less grease and food to remove) but there are so many of them!

I have to get this Spring Cleaning done because, as you know, come Spring Missouri will be calling.

To Do

After meeting at Mary's house and going through Granny's personal items, I have expanded my already long over due and never ending "to do" list. We each went away from Mary's with our own photos and those of our children. There were also a billion papers, old letters, cards, records and anything else you might name. We were able to shred/dispose of a lot but we all took a good size box home.

However, what was left there (photos with more than one family, old sentimental family things) will take us another whole day to sort.

Meanwhile, this stack calls me one minute and irritates me the next. I will just have to take it one piece at a time.

Little Girl's Burden

Mama's Boy

It looks as though Craig had a full head of hair and I think I remember he did have more than the girls but I'm sure he rubbed it all off the back of his head and had to start all over again.

I think he had a hippy Mama!?!

New Born Son

Craig was so cute! He weighed 8 lb so he was a little chubby!
Doesn't his Dad look young in this photo?

Craig Dale's Birth Day

February 3, 1976. I was at work but had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. Kristy Noel, age 4 yr and a couple of months, and Erica Jo, a month shy of 3 years, were at Pat's, the babysitter. I was due in about 8 days so I wasn't too anxious yet about the arrival of the baby. Although, I did remember Erica's quick arrival so if I stopped to think about it, I might have breathed a little harder for a bit. On the other hand, I thought, if I would wait long enough I might have this babe at home. If this baby came any quicker than Erica Jo, I might not have time to get to the hospital. Wishful thinking!

So I went to my doctor's appointment and the doctor (Wiedemier or Youngblade, don't remember which) said you are dilated. Go to the hospital now. (He must have had notes on Erica's quick arrival!) I said "can't". I have to go home and see my Girls and get my suitcase. I want you to go now. Sorry, have to see my Girls. After a bit of a discussion, he allowed I could do those things but be at the hospital by 5:00 p.m. So, I stopped back by work and told my co-workers and called Lanny and asked him to meet me at home. Then I went to Pat's and talked to my babies and reminded them of the new brother or sister they would soon be able to see and hold. After hugs and kisses, I went on home to get my suitcase.

It was a pretty mild day for February when Lanny and I made our third trip to St. Lukes. There was no trouble getting to the hospital. Once again, it was late afternoon as we made our way down 14th Street to the middle of town and checked in at the hospital. We were ushered into the labor room where all the preliminairy checks and measurements were gotten out of the way.

In those days, they put the expectant mother on a guerney and wheeled her down a story or to the cold, cold delivery room. Was the theory that germs won't grow in an ice cold room? or was it just for the convenience of the doctors and nurses, gowned to the teeth? No blanket, dressed only in hospital gown and laying on a slightly padded delivery table. Always, with me, the first rite of business was to break the water which almost always brought on the final stage of labor and in this babe's case, it was no different. Labor was hard and quick and after a short hard labor, there he was, beautiful, tow head baby boy, laying on my chest. His daddy was in the waiting room.

The nurses swaddled Baby up and took him across the room. I knew that they would circumcise him while we were still in the delivery room. Done, they again gave the babe to me to embrace but wait! the poor babe was bleeding from both ends! He had blood trickling out his mouth! What's wrong? Oh, the doctor said, I clipped his tongue. "Nothing serious." What a relief but . . . poor babe, this had been a rough day!

Daddy was in the hall and was to get a glimpse of his new son before they wheeled us off to the nursery and recovery room. Unfortunately, as he was admiring the 8 lb 3 oz bouncing boy, the nurse came by and, noticing my palor or other evidence, whipped the sheet off me and called for supplies to stauch some heavy blood flow. Himself, caught unawares, immediately turned more pale than his wife. His eyes rolled in his head and he swayed unsteadily on his feet. Fearing he was going to fall atop the gurney onto me and his new son, I interrupted the nurse tending me to tend my husband! They got him down, with his head low and maybe smelling salts, and soon he was revived and strong again.

Later, in our room, these new parents examined minutely their new son. He did sport one birth mark but it was small and faint and he'd probably outgrow it. Mama, of course, supposed he looked like this family member or that one and his father said "He looks just like Craig Dale".

So babe and Mama recovered nicely for a couple of days while mother and father debated names and wondered if we would ever decide on something other than Baby Boy Hofmeister. Finally, filling out the papers we proudly named our new son, Craig Dale Hofmeister. Craig, because it was a nicely masculine sound and Dale after his Grandpa, Lanny's dad. I hope Craig likes his name because he might have been Eric Vaughan Hofmeister!

Little sisters couldn't visit the hospital in those days and Gramps and Granny came to care for the little girls. Mama couldn't WAIT to get home to them and to introduce them to their new brother, Craig. At home, the girls fell in love with him and wanted to hold him, give him a bottle and kiss and hug him. As winter moved to spring, I would load three babies onto the stroller and walked each day for fresh air and exercise (my Dr. Spock baby care book, always near). We played in the park, went to children's hour at the neighborhood library and met and visited with neighbors. I was now, a stay at home Mom with three beautiful children and I enjoyed every minute of it!

Ground Hog Special

We really got this snow today, February 3, not yesterday
but I liked the sound of "Ground Hog Special". We were to
only get a bit of snow, maybe an inch. We got 4" at least.
It is pretty and it won't last long but what else might be served
up for Winter before Spring gets here?

There's an old saying, "Early Easter, Early Spring".
I like that saying. Easter is really early this year.

I'm Hungry!

This little fellow at Twin Lake, was singing for his dinner.

Redbuds @ Red Haw

Red Haw State Park in Lucas County, Iowa near Chariton, is beautiful when the Redbud Trees are blooming, which is usually in April. We have Redbud trees coming up in our little timber in Missouri but have not been there at the right time to see them bloom. Eventually, the little Redbuds may escape into our timber as these have done, and run rampant!

One Man's trash

turned into one Man's art.

In Galena, IL, if you ever find yourself there, this man has a large yard full of BIG home-style art.

My kind of recycling!

Home Made

I'm sorting photos this weekend.
I'm just adding favorites.
This was from our harvest in 2006.
Aren't they pretty?

Foresight and Faith

About 1963, Gramps and Granny built a new house in Afton. They had sold Austin Auto Parts and were going into the house construction business. So, first, Gramps built the "Green House", sort of a show case for what he could do. Advertisement. And of course, he needed a home for his wife and last four children!

Meanwhile, my nature loving Mama, ordered her a bunch of lilacs and the folks planted them all along the north edge of the yard, lining the alley. Soon, the neighbor to the west lined his yard and the neighbor, east, across the street, planted a row. This small street in Afton, IA is glorious during lilac time!

Every spring, I drive Mama by the Greenhouse while the lilacs bloom and remind her that she and Gramps planted them. We did? she says. And each spring I am thankful my Mama had the faith and the foresight to plant the lilacs.

A Rambling Town

This is downtown Champaign, I think. Champaign or Urbana. They run into each other. Last Fall, Himself and I had just breakfasted with Kristy and Tony. They got in their car and headed to work. Himself and I got in our car to head home but I said "WAIT!" I want to take a picture.

I have this photo where I periodically come across it and I like it each time I see it. I like it a lot! The pretty tree against the industrial looking wall. The iron railing. The leaves the same color as the boarded up windows. I think this photo might win a contest!

Winter bright spots

This is our yard. Two bright red cardinals in a black and white world. We had had ice the day before, the trees and plants shrouded in thick ice. This day, there were 3 pair of cardinals and 50 other birds at the backyard feeder to brighten our day. Himself keeps the feeders stocked which is the key to keeping the birds in our yard and not the neighbor's!

this photo borrowed from the internet. My hotbed is more narrow and longer and set right up against a concrete wall -- for thermal gain, I thought.

Next year, I will know I need something to heat the soil. Maybe I'll use it in the fall for one more radish crop or start in March to get a head start on peas. Forget January and February. I think organic is the way to garden and eat so I will be doing a lot more experimenting with food crops and production methods.

Pulled the Plug

My latest experiment was a hotbed against the south concrete wall of the house. Fall lingered on and winter came late so I sowed some seeds in the 30"X 48" little greenhouse, improvised with an old window and cast off lumber. With only solar heat during the day and a rug thrown over the glass at night, I babied the lettuce and radishes into January. They grew slowly but they stayed green and I kept telling myself that I learned just a bit more every day I kept them alive. Then in January it began to snow. The temperatures dropped. Artic air swooped in and sat. The January deep freeze was too much. One day this week, I went out and pulled the plug.

Comfort

It isn't even pretty but long ago when times were hard and winters long and cold, someone cut worn, heavy winter coats into strips and pieced them together into this "iron" comforter and lined it with a worn Navajo blanket. No blanket in the world is as warm as this one. With creativity and determination, our Lady of the Quilt cut and sewed dark strips into rhythm and symmetry.

The comforter warmed me as a child. As an adult, the work that went in to the quilt warms my heart and fires my imagination.

When I saved it from Mama's diminished household, the ties were breaking and the comforter thread-bare in places. Fragile. For six months it has moved around my house, room to different room, calling for the mending. Finally, tonight it is the sewing machine. Another step or two and it will be done, reinforced for another 50 years of warmth and comfort.

Video Clips

Yes! I like the video clips that I have finally learned how to put in. I will use that option more often, now, on my camera. If the clips below, look black or blank, just go ahead and double click on the start arrow. That should start the video clip. Have fun!

MORE! Rock n Roll

and one "behind the scenes" guy . . .

Rock n Roll Babies

Rock n Roll Children1

The first clip I took turned into a brawl with Morghan and Jack going all out. Seriously. On this one, they are just playing!

Maternal Instincts

At almost 88 years, Mama's memory is gone. Short term memory is almost non-existent. Long ago childhood memories are fading now too but sometimes long engrained habits come through. Saturday was one such day.

I plopped Audrianna on her lap and Great Granny relished holding, smelling and touching baby Audri. She checked her hands to see if baby was warm enough. She took the bottle to feed the little one but realized Audri was too interested in what was going on around her to eat. Mama reminded herself, Morghan Grace and me that you have to hold tight to a babe this size, they wiggle.

Mama knows these things after nine children, 24 grandchildren and 34 "greats" -- and baby Audri sensed it. She leaned back, relaxed and kicked one little leg.

Putting this segment behind

I am now clean for 4 months and I won't write about it anymore. Other people do bigger, better things. Give up bigger addictions. Climb higher mountains. Inspire more people. I will just, each month, focus on the next month's anniversary. Then, as the years go by, I will look towards the next year's anniverary.