The Fairies and Breakfast with Feathered Friends

Have you seen this book?
It is a delight!
Written/drawn/published first in 1923, it combines poetry about flowers and trees with drawing of fairies.
The author/artist Cicely Mary Barker was a fragile epileptic English child, born in the late 1800's. She was too frail to attend school, so she studied art at home.
Her art was first published when she was sixteen years old, and she went on to have several books published after that. This particular book is a compilation of all her "Fairies" books.

I love that she had such an eye for flowers and plants, and that Kew garden allowed her to come and draw their flowers in bloom. The fairy faces are based on the children enrolled in her sister's nursery school, and it is wonderful to see such sweet faces and know they are the faces of real children.

Barker was a Christian, and when asked about the fairies, she was careful to say that she had never seen a fairy, that fairies were just pretend.

I find the poems and drawing are helping me remember the names of some of the flowers and trees in Salt Lake City that are new to me.



The Ash Tree Fairy poem taught me something new about the tree that shades our garden: the seed pods that we are eyeing with considerable concern, imagining seeds flying everywhere come autumn are called not clusters but rather the more charming "keys."

Today we had the Ash tree and its keys against a blue blue morning sky.

With smooth gray bark on the newer growth...yes, the poem describe the tree nicely.

This morning as we ate breakfast in the kitchen pop out window, I felt like I was breakfasting in a tree house!

We shared our time with two Downy woodpeckers, a chickadee, mourning doves, robins and various sparrow dining at the feeder a few feet from our window.

The Stafford "Herbs and Spices" china that I chose as a teenage complimented the fragrant peonies from our neigbors perfectly.
(The window view is to the west. )

With a look to the east across the deck. I usually sit facing east and to the mountains, while B. prefers (or perhaps defers to my preference...) to look west, to the other mountain range and beautiful sunsets.

Oh how I wish I could just linger at the breakfast table watching birds and flowers growing all day long!

(PS: Good news-Mama Robin is on her nest. Papa Robin did a flyover on me this morning when I went outside. I thought only nesting mockingbirds were aggressive. Maybe I need to go to get some nice fat worms as a peace offering to the nesting couple...and figure out how they would like their worms served.)

First Day of Summer Garden Tour

Ah is it summer at last?

Yesterday the sky was lead gray; winds whipped the trees and this morning the mountain had a sheen of snow dust again. Yet the day before my arms were reddened as I labored to trim back the scrub oak branches that had begun to obscure my deck top mountain view.

An activity today I have come to rue...but more about that later...

I'm beginning our first day of summer garden tour from up on the deck, with a picture above of the nest that I discovered yesterday as the winds blew the oak leaves askew. This morning the nest was easy to photograph, yet empty of life. The robins have been frequent visitors to our garden, and I guess I must have missed their chick rearing days.

Heading down to the garden we'll see the shade garden growing beneath the towering sequoia tree. I'm collecting all the variations of columbine for that flower bed...the coral and yellow Columbine....

The lavender and cream....

And the yellow and cream.

Yesterday we were gifted with a naturalized Colorado mountain Coumbine a deep blue-purple flowering plant from a neighbor.

Yes...we are living in a neighborhood that swaps plants!

I'm loving it!

Even more exciting...the same neighbor is taking out an original stacked sandstone planter to make room for more of her wildflowers and has sold the two tons of stones to us at a very reasonable price (compared to at the stone yard...where you actually can't get the same style quarry work stone anyway.)

Our current garden planters that are now a mix of broken concrete or rotted wood will soon be re-made with the neighbor's bounty.

Isn't that cool?

And wouldn't it have been just horrid to imagine the stones just being hauled away to the dump?

(shudder!)

Since foxglove takes two years to bloom from seed we have purchased plants already in bloom and will seed heavily this autumn. Currently we are reading aloud a book called "A Place to Call Home" by Deborah Smith, and it has a lovely legend about foxgloves and fairies, foxes and chicken farms. Plus there is a beautiful love story nestled into the foxglove covered mountainside, which has made us both become quite smittened by the freckled blooms.

Bright moss, both Scotch and Irish, is filling in spaces between garden steps and stones.

For the reception party we leveled the stepping stones and plugged both kinds of moss between, and have been quite pleased at how fast the plugs are growing. And also by the fact that the moss has tiny white flowers as well!

The Columbine seen at the foot of the sequoia and the stone steps leading down to the flower bed and the "vineyard" growing on the hurricane fencing above the seasonal stream.

Looking up the steps to a small bench holding some of B.'s baby Japanese maple collection.

Looking up the steps and to the right is a small stone patio area just outside what we call the sun room; it is the room we used for our bedroom while upstairs was under heavy remodeling.

Hart is not happy that I have not invited him out for a meander! He likes the sun room because it has his big cat tree, and it is just the place to take a long leisurely snooze out of the way of workers or busy Blondie lady...(that would be me, btw. I always disturb his naps because he always disturbs mine!)

Looking up from that patio area: The downstairs small window is the bathroom room, the large window is the hat room. Upstairs the glass block window with the "letter box" in the middle is the bathroom window with an operable window inserted in the middle. It is an original feature of the house that I insisted on saving. People (except Laura who for some reason doesn't like glass blocks) rave about the design. I'm not sure such a window with a letter box window can be done with anymore...more's the pity!

Looking south out and up from the patio: The mountain, and a bird on the wire. Wish I could catch Larry the Cable Squirrel in one of his rambles across the line. We think the squirrels have a dray up in the sequoia now...we'll keep you posted on that development!

It was pure serendipity that an enormous swallow tail decided to feed on the pink roses just as I walked down the lawn to see what was blooming in that flower bed.

Gorgeous!

Down by the sun flower bed is a silvery mica covered step. The garden has an interesting variety of stones. Later I will post about our trip to a stone yard where I came to realize just how varied our stone collection was.

Down below the sun flower bed is the path along the fence and the grapevines.

We are considering putting a small stone bench down here as it is a lovely place to listen to the stream and feel quite at one with nature.

The purple flowers at the far end of the path are from the catnip plant.

Lots of sedium is growing as well, which will provide abundant autumnal color later on.

The grapevines are flowering nicely...

The creek bed...now with rocks since the neighbor's ancient retaining wall gave way during the deluge last Saturday. We are sorry for the neighbors, but all of the downstream neighbohood is enjoying the burble water sounds tremendously.

This tendency to rain hard on Saturday is getting to everyone here.

We are constantly being told that this much rain is very unusual, and last night the television had flash flood warnings. Mudslides are taking out areas south of us, and worries of wild fires later in the summer due to abundant plant growth are being discussed regularly.

The lower lot, as we call it, is the south east corning of the property. Right now it is covered with wild pink rose and scrub oak, and the stream has overflowed on it several times.

Looking back across the lawn, you can see how big the sequoia base is in comparison to the lawn chair. The tree is estimated at 80 feet tall, and no estimation has been made of it age. It has to be old though, real old, don't you think?

Below the sequoia by the sunlit fence we have planted two tomato bushes. We hope they will thrive...and if not, Jeff's tomato gardening is always has an abundance we can count on as a back up.

Under the deck is where we have the hot tub, and I had the clever idea of covering the area under the steps with the old "hippie bead" curtains that originally were in one of the bedrooms in the house.

Good recycling, no?

Peace, man. Dig it!

At the base of the deck stairs and next to the concrete pad under the deck is destined for renovation. Currently a muddy patch that refuses to grow grass, it will soon be covered in gravel and sandstone slabs will make stepping stones and a rather Japanese looking garden for Bernie's bonsai collection.

I can't wait, as it is now there is a constant parade of muddy footprints up the steps and onto the deck. The mud seems un-removable...even after pounding rains hit the mud sticks to the deck anyway. Yuck!

A view down to the lower lot. We have drug pruned branches down there for now; soon there will be dumpsters made available to the neighborhood for yard clean up materials.

I'm lobbying for a chipper purchase or rental...seems a waste to not turn the clippings into mulch. Especially since there is an equally big pile of branches on both sides of the house, and the neighbors have similar amounts.

Chipping party, anyone?

A developing bonsai forest at the foot of the deck stairs.

More of the bonsai garden. Eventually we would like to make the lower lot a tiered Japanese garden. No hurry on that thought....but fun to think about. We've promised ourselves no major overhauls of the garden for a year...we want to see what the garden does in each season first.

Back up on the deck I was HORRIFIED to see Mother Robin on her nest!

I feel terrible: I had pruned back and around that very branch just two days ago on Friday wanting to get my mountain view back. I didn't even see the nest then, then yesterday I did see the nest, and an hour before this picture the nest was empty.

Oh boy...I sure hope I haven't ruined the neighborhood for the Robin family.

Us Utah Spriggs women seem to have an unintended negative affect on nesting birds!

Another view of Mount Olympus from the deck. The small crevice of snow has been steadily melting, I am wondering if it will survive the summer or if it is an unmeltable glacial bed.

A few weeks ago I posted a similar picture when the apple trees were all pink blossoms.

Now there are tiny apples the size of large grapes!

Looking down on the sun flower bed from the deck. The bird seed feeder is to the right, just inches below the deck railing. Not too many seed eaters are stopping by right now.

Looking back to the house and the pop out window in the kitchen. The pink flowers in the vase are peonies that we've gathered that overhung the wall between our house and the neighbors up the street. The neighbors are a surgical resident wife and an airline pilot husband, their adorable nine month old daughter and thier elderly (and massive!) white boxer.

The humming bird feeder hangs less than a foot from the kitchen window. Breakfast and dinner is served up to the Broadtailed humming birds who are gradually getting used to the fact that we eat meals at the same time that they do, and they need not worry about us as they dine.

So, in re-cap: the columbines are planted in the west side of the garden, the sun flower bed is south, the patio north, and the bonsai garden is east. Just to orient you Hal!

I do promise to do a house tour soon....this weekend is the first weekend when we have done NOTHING all weekend.

I feel like I have been on a vacation.

Last night as the rain poured on, we built a wood fire downstairs, snuggled up with throw blankets and tried to watch the golf play-off that was so badly rained out.

We fell asleep...I slept from six to nine, then was back asleep at eleven.

Woke at seven am, then went back to sleep until ten.

Yup...I'm pooped!

But now it is summer!

Let the fun begin!

I'm not doing ANYMORE serious house work until CHRISTMAS!

YAHOO!

(Special Happy Father's Day greeting and thanks to you Dad, the man that taught me all I needed to know about gardening! I love you and can't wait for you to see this garden in person!)

For Mom: The Headstone of your Great Grandmother

Catheryne Faulkner Mill, whose first name I have always thought was spelled with a "K", came over to Salt Lake City in approximately 1879, as a widow with her two youngest daughters, leaving her newly married oldest daughter behind in Germany.
Later she sent for her young son, who was brought to Salt Lake by one of her brothers.

(The small square in the fore ground is Catheryne's grave)
About ten years later the oldest married daughter Elizabeth came to Salt Lake City with her husband and first three daughters.

A few years later my grandfather was born, my mom's dad.

My grandfather and his mom and dad and brothers and sisters traveled back to Germany a few times...some of the children were born American, others were born German.

The Salt Lake City Cemetery is about a mile from where I work. I was able to look up death and burial records on a Utah government website, and discovered Catheryne was buried in the old city cemetery. By taking a long break at work and and asking a few questions of the knowledgeable cemetery staff, I was soon looking in the right area of the grounds, expecting to see the older style upright headstone.

At first I was disappointed because I didn't see her name. Then I went up another row and saw a marker half buried in the lawn. An indentation in the lawn caught my eye; I swiped at it and there was the name I was looking for.

I wonder when her marker had been crafted, and by what family member. It is clearly a newer marker, as the letters are clearly cut.

Next time you visit Mom, we'll go by and maybe your cousin who lives here will come too. Perhaps she will have some answers for us about that.
And perhaps one of you might remember a story or two that you might have heard about the Great Grandmother from Germany that you never had a chance to meet, as she had been gone eleven years or so by the time you were born.

Maybe we can even do some research and find someone who is a great grandchild of hers by her youngest daughter...and maybe she or he will have a photograph of her to add to our family pictures. Seems likely, doesn't it?

In Jeff's Garden

Oh was I ever jealous to learn that a California quail had nested in Jeff's flower bed while he was on his honeymoon! I saw pictures he took of the little mama on her nest...and was eagerly awaiting the news of fluffy little baby quail exploring amongst the flowers.

The big day came...Jeff watched the babies hatch, got some pictures...and then as he put it "Rachel scared them away."

She adamantly denies this...but as soon as the chicks hatched (I believe there were sixteen eggs, and a few didn't hatch and a few chicks didn't survive) Mama bird moved her little family somewhere else.

Somewhere without a big old Iraq gray cat...and people going in and out all the time. I'm sure Mama Quail was pretty dismayed to learn that the quiet garden had only been a temporary state of affairs.

There have been lots of Mr. & Mrs. Quail couples around our neighborhood this spring, and I am hoping that a least of few of them will eventually take their families for a stroll through our garden, just to modestly show off their adorable offspring.

(Jeff has a history with rescuing baby quail, you can read about it here. Recently he rescued baby ducks that had washed into a storm drain too. Yes, he is a legend in the avian world...)

In other garden views: the pods left behind from the blue Lily of Nile bloom. Nice structure!

A blue iris, with spent blooms also adding their beauty to the view.

Yellow snapdragons sorely needing childish fingers to help them bite.

White, pink and red strawberries demonstrating riping progression.

Jeff brought a large ziplock bag full of his strawberries to us the other day. They are a small variety, with abundant fruit; his two plants are providing more than enough berries for them, and are sweeter than any of the large berries being offered in the stores.

Ummm...berry season!

Last night I went to bed right after work, around 6, and slept until six this morning. Maybe I will finally stop being exhausted from all the preparation work I put into the party.

Maybe this weekend I will finally just be able to relax and enjoy being home. (Especially if it will quit raining...this has been an amazingly rainy June according to all reports. I am hoping for an equally amazing wildflower season because of it.)

One thing I really do need to do around here is read all my new appliance manuals. Especially my microwave oven, that has more options that I can understand and works as both microwave and regular oven. Frozen pasta meals remain brick hard, while frozen chicken comes out wonderfully moist and tender. Clearly I am missing some technical detail!

I am also missing a new rug. The fabulous orange rug was to arrive in 7-10 days. Yesterday I called the company we ordered from, and quizzed the person on the line.

When we ordered, we had explained that we had already spoken to the company who is the vendor for that rug and that they were TOTALLY out of the rug...and that we were interested in ordering the rug from the company in Oregon ONLY IF they actually had the rug in their OWN warehouse.

We were assured that yes indeed they did own that rug, and that it was in their own warehouse, and it would be shipped immediately.

Yesterday's conversation revealed that actually they don't have their own warehouse, that instead they order from the rug vendor (the folks who we know are totally out of the rug...forever....) and that they were sorry for the mis-information and would refund our money.

Fercryinoutloud.

What is wrong with people these days???

So we are back at square one on the rug hunt.

Except I just don't feel much like hunting right now.

In other news: Our contractor has now removed all his tools from our garage....a clear sign that at last all work is DONE!

Well, almost done. The heated tile system isn't working...he'll still have to trouble shoot that before getting paid.

Every room still has one or two little details that we personally will need to address.

Maybe someday I will have the energy to actually want to do something about those little details.

But for now...I happy with things just as they are.

The SLC wedding reception

The garden was beautiful. The deck was neatly arranged for guests to enjoy. Downstairs there were new colorful pillows on the couch.
The guests arrived...and the rain arrived...and everyone crowded into the living room and dining room instead..

More people were in the kitchen....

I guess I'm losing my blogger touch...these are the only pictures I took that came out half way good.
Pity I didn't get a picture of the Hawaiian pulled pork, Macadamian chocolate cake, fruit kabobs, Maui Onion Potato Chips, Asian Chicken, Asian salad, Brown Rice....
Or of some of the guests down in my hat room discovering what wearing a great hat is like.

When the rain stopped we got another family picture on the deck...this time the engaged couple have become a married couple...in fact the party was held on the one year anniversary of their first date.

A good time was had by all!

And boy am I glad that the "getting the house ready" is now FINISHED!

The Devil is in the Details...

It was years ago that I first heard the expression: "The Devil is in the details."

At the time it meant that small details can de-rail the truth, and de-rail good plans.

I appreciated reading commentary that points out details that reveal important truths lurking beneath the surface of a global address by Mr. Obama.

For instance: I appreciate the commentor noting that true Christians never speak of Jesus as being currently dead.
The fact that He arose from the dead is what Christianity is all about!

Also that Christians speak of only the Bible as "Holy."

All political and academic institutions refer to the Holy Bible as simply "The Bible." Students are taught to do the same in our public schools.
They supposedly are also taught to refer to all religious writings sans the term "Holy"-and that to apply the word "Holy" indicated that the writings are sacred and true to the individual speaking.

Yes... once again I had missed a few details that definitely had the devil in them....
In case you had missed it...here is the article for your benefit:


America's first Muslim president?
By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/

During his White House years, William Jefferson Clinton — someone Judge Sonia Sotomayor might call a "white male" — was dubbed "America's first black president" by a black admirer.

Applying the standard of identity politics and pandering to a special interest that earned Mr. Clinton that distinction, Barack Hussein Obama would have to be considered America's first Muslim president.

This is not to say, necessarily, that Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim any more than Mr. Clinton actually is black. After his five months in office, and most especially after his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however, a stunning conclusion seems increasingly plausible: The man now happy to have his Islamic-rooted middle name featured prominently has engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain over Czechoslovakia at Munich.

What little we know about Mr. Obama's youth certainly suggests that he not only had a Kenyan father who was Muslim, but spent his early, formative years as one in Indonesia. As the president likes to say, "much has been made" — in this case by him and his campaign handlers — of the fact that he became a Christian as an adult in Chicago, under the now-notorious Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright.

With Mr. Obama's unbelievably ballyhooed address in Cairo Thursday to what he calls "the Muslim world" (hereafter known as "the Speech"), there is mounting evidence that the president not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself. Consider the following indicators:

Mr. Obama referred four times in his speech to "the Holy Koran." Non-Muslims — even pandering ones — generally don't use that Islamic formulation.

Mr. Obama established his firsthand knowledge of Islam (albeit without mentioning his reported upbringing in the faith) with the statement, "I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed."

Again, "revealed" is a depiction Muslims use to reflect their conviction that the Koran is the word of G-d, as dictated to Muhammad.

Then the president made a statement no believing Christian — certainly not one versed, as he professes to be, in the ways of Islam — would ever make. In the context of what he euphemistically called the "situation between Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs," Mr. Obama said he looked forward to the day "…when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace be upon them) joined in prayer."

Now, the term "peace be upon them" is invoked by Muslims as a way of blessing deceased holy men. According to Islam, that is what all three were — dead prophets. Of course, for Christians, Jesus is the living and immortal Son of G0d.

In the final analysis, it may be beside the point whether Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim. In the Speech and elsewhere, he has aligned himself with adherents to what authoritative Islam calls Shariah — notably, the dangerous global movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood — to a degree that makes Mr. Clinton's fabled affinity for blacks pale by comparison.

For example, Mr. Obama has — from literally his inaugural address onward — inflated the numbers and, in that way and others, exaggerated the contemporary and historical importance of Muslim-Americans in the United States. In the Speech, he used the Brotherhood's estimates of "nearly 7 million Muslims" in this country, at least twice the estimates from other, more reputable sources. (Who knows? By the time Mr. Obama's friends in the radical Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) perpetrate their trademark books-cooking as deputy 2010 census takers, the official count may well claim considerably more than 7 million Muslims are living here.)

Even more troubling were the commitments the president made in Cairo to promote Islam in America. For instance, he declared: "I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

(Note from Jill: Where was that found in his oath of office???? And how about negative sterotyping of conservative Christians and Jews? When is he going to take on that?)

He vowed to ensure that women can cover their heads, including, presumably, when having their photographs taken for passports, driver's licenses or other identification purposes. He also pledged to enable Muslims to engage in zakat, their faith's requirement for tithing, even though four of the eight types of charity called for by Shariah can be associated with terrorism. Not surprisingly, a number of Islamic "charities" in this country have been convicted of providing material support for terrorism.

Particularly worrying is the realignment Mr. Obama has announced in U.S. policy toward Israel. While he pays lip service to the "unbreakable" bond between America and the Jewish state, the president has unmistakably signaled that he intends to compel the Israelis to make territorial and other strategic concessions to Palestinians to achieve the hallowed two-state solution. In doing so, he ignores the inconvenient fact that both the Brotherhood's Hamas and Abu Mazen's Fatah remain determined to achieve a one-state solution, whereby the Jews will be driven "into the sea."

Whether Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim or simply plays one in the presidency may, in the end, be irrelevant. What is alarming is that in aligning himself and his policies with those of Shariah-adherents such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the president will greatly intensify the already enormous pressure on peaceful, tolerant American Muslims to submit to such forces — and heighten expectations, here and abroad, that the rest of us will do so as well.

Something Borrowed, Something Blue

I'm "borrowing" a picture from daughter LauraRN's blog.
This ring and the month of June just go together.
June is the month when this ring was given, and given, and given again through three generations of graduates.

My mom received the ring for her sixth grade graduation.
When I graduated from sixth grade, some years later, the two side diamonds were added, because I was born in April, and diamond is my birthstone.
Ten years later I wore it as my "something blue" on my wedding day. My mom still wonders why she didn't think to wear it on her wedding day.

I only "owned" the ring for 24 years. When Laura graduated from sixth grade, the ring became hers. She still has it, after traveling for work all over America.
(She wisely left it in storage during those years.)

The oval shaped cabochon sapphire brings back so many happy memories. Next time I visit Laura, I think I will have to borrow it back for the day.
Just for old time sake.
After all...I can't possibly wear my wedding dress to her "everyone comes in their wedding gown" party without that touch of blue on my finger, now can I?

Oh yeah...my girl knows how to throw a party. It is set for August, and brides of three months and brides of 30+ years will be there in their gowns, to admire each other and play guessing games (who did have the longest train? The LOWEST cut front? The biggest bow on their butt???)

I read about a group of women who have such parties, and now their daughters are thrilled to also come to the party after they get married, just to wear their gowns too! It is all in fun...tank tops are worn under dresses that don't quite fit anymore, so the back can just be left open and pinned together with a ribbon if needed.

I mentioned the article to Laura, who mentioned it to her friends, and the next thing she knew...EVERYONE wanted to come to that kind of party too!

Modern brides often have their gowns cleaned and sealed up to await a special day in the future when some other young woman will decide to wear the dress. I personally have only known two brides who have done that...two sisters who both wore their mother's glamorous 40's style satin gown.

It is understandable that a sealed up gown should really be left in its pristine state.

On the other hand...instead of waiting to thrill an imaginary future bride, you could get your thrill now, by wearing your gown to a party with similarly attired friends.

I'm pretty sure no one will be wanting to wear my gown in the future...and Laura herself has TWO wedding gowns (one for the wedding and a matching less poofy one to wear to the reception) gowns that were purchased for the wedding that she later backed out of.

A few of the guest are no longer with their grooms...others are still happily married and at least one person will be wearing a dress that didn't actually make it to a wedding.

What ever.

In this case...it is all about the dress anyway.

If you think you'll be in San Diego in August, let me know...you are welcomed to come to the party too!

Or throw your own party. Maybe we can start a new holiday:

National Wear Your Wedding Dress Again Day.

Wouldn't that be fun? Women in white at work, in the grocery store, at parties, in court, riding subways, hanging out at the beach, working at construction sites, dancing in fields of springtime grass on their blogs (Hi Lovella!)

Whatever, wherever the mood strikes.

Maybe I'll start a petition. If you would like Congress to declare such a day, just leave a comment on this post. Once I get enough signatures, I'll send the idea along.

It certainly is not nuttier than anything else that Congress has pushed through, right?
Of course right!
Let's do it!