Five Little Monkies sitting in a tree

or wanting to sit in a tree!

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!)