Merry Christmas and a Sane 2018

This is the latest edition of my Annual Stollen Contest! I think I sort of lost count of
how many cups of candied fruit I was supposed to add as this one is bursting with it!
I also blanched and peeled the almonds myself, what a job!

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and that the new year will bring us a
more peaceful year, complete with saner leaders and more generous constituents. Let
us not forget that we are all humans, no matter our color, religion or nationality.

Peace everybody, life is too short for hate.

Happy Thanksgiving Day

My new pie plate with this years 'punkin' pie!

We are wishing everyone on earth a great day tomorrow, whether you celebrate Thanksgiving or not, we are wishing for peace and a feeling of love and understanding of your fellow man for all of you.

Mother Nature has her own plans!

 Last winter we decided that the so-called "Aspen" was really a "Cottonwood" and needed to go before it started growing up inside our house, besides  in a wind storm it bashed the house.








So, one fine clear, cold day we had it and it's Aspen neighbor cut down! It was truly scary watching this totally agile, able and adorable young man climb to the very top and start cutting it back to the ground. Wish I'd taken photos but I didn't want to scare him.
He was very professional and the crew had it down, cut into fireplace lengths and the brush chipped in about two hours.

They warned me that the trees would send out suckers from their roots! Ah ha, did they ever!
We had no idea that the roots had ventured so far.

And  yesterday they disappeared! My trusty partner, who should be living in a condo in the city, did 'em in. As well as my rosa rugosas  and who knows what else. Bread and water for that guy.
But we would have had a mini forest in the planter, to say nothing of the surrounding ground level area. Those 40 suckers in the ground had reached a height of 6 feet in about three months. No water added.

Talk about a plants' need to survive. So I say to all of you who have lost trees due to the fires, the hurricanes, the flooding or any other catastrophe, just wait they will be back.

Thank goodness for little bees

We have quite a few of these little bees and they are so busy digging the pollen from the flowers. I managed to make a video of this one working away for at least a minute and now have a much greater understanding of the process by which they store the pollen to take back to the nest. We have so many types of bees in New Mexico that I'm not sure if this is a very small honey bee or a Mason bee.

The view of my garden from my favorite chair under the kitchen window. I'm pretty much surrounded by herbs and roses and daisies at his point. The yellow spikes are Straw Foxglove (Digitalis lutea) one of my all time favorite flowers. The five red pots at the far end contain tomatoes, peppers and mesclun.  I'm also trying ginger  in one of them but I think it is a no go, we'll see.
It pleases me no end to have a garden that is mostly herbs and vegetables with a few flowers thrown in for color.

With so many uses for herbs and their ability to stay green most of the year they are a real plus in an area without much natural moisture.  When I lived in the East with all the rain my gardens were more separated as to plant material.

One of these days I'll post some photos of my past gardens.

Some of my favorites

This is the shady corner of the south garden, where the new peonies thrive, the little rose bush is happy and snow-in-summer makes me very happy. As always, if you double click on the collage it should enlarge enough to see more detail.  This winter we had the trees creating the shade topped and thinned, the man who did the trimming was an artist and he left spaces for the morning sun to come though and spot light the various plants. 

Finally.......

Being the procrastinator-in-chief that I am, I apologize to Gillian for taking forever to give you all the names of some of the plants in her garden...and now here are the major stars.

1. Ilex verticulata 'Winter Red' (F) & Late Male (M)
2. Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
3. Eupatorium maculatum 'Gateway'
4. Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird'
5. Itea virginica 'Henry's Garnet'
6. Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstonne'
7&10 Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diablo'
8. Aster nova English 'Purple Dome'
9. Spiraea japonica 'Little Princess'
11 Panicum alarum 'Dewey Blue'
12 Chamaecyparis
13 Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Gold Thread'
14 Pierus mungo 'Slowmound'
15 Apple tree, old standard, variety unknown
16 Calycanthus floridus
17 Fothergilla gardenii 'Mount Airy'
18 Kerria japonica
19 Hydrangea serrata 'Tiny Tuff Stuff'
20 Stachys, pruned
21 Woolly Thyme
22 Thyme
23 Filipendula
24 Burdock, to be removed after flowering this year!
25 Iris 

Whew, Thank you Gillian for supplying us with all those names!
Fantastic garden!

Welcome Winter???

Pansies and Tarragon in the snow yesterday, only 2 inches which melted in hours.

4 inches so far today and still snowing, don't the snow cushions look inviting?

We have been having lovely warm Spring days for the past month. Tonight it is supposed to be in the 20's so there go the apples. They had grown to about 1/3 of an inch across, all are sure to freeze.  I think this is more snow than we had since December. Thank goodness for the moisture, we surely need it.

When does Summer start? I'm ready.

Goodbye, my Darling Brother

This was taken the last time I saw my wonderful, extremely funny, wonderfully warm and loving brother, Eric.

To have known him was to love him, and so many people did as he was a leader of people.
Ironic that he should die on Good Friday, but, luckily he died very quickly. God Bless.

Welcome Spring!

I love daffodils, and this is the first year that they are all performing at the same time. Apple tree has tiny leaves, the hyacinths are coming up color and the crocus are kaput!
Ah, Spring!
And next week, snow.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

This is one of the wonderful clouds that we get all the time, I call them "Flying Saucers." This one was at sundown the other day and lasted a long time over the mountains. The cloud formations here are the best I've seen anywhere I've ever lived and it makes every day an enchanted day. Do you find wonderful shapes in the clouds?  Start looking, it is a very relaxing hobby!

Have a very loved day!

Enough with the snow and cold

This is the view from my friend Gillian's upstairs window looking down on her magnificent garden!

The 30 foot labyrinth to the left was the start of her amazing plantings which include Stachys at the edge of the labyrinth and wonderfully colorful shrubs surrounding the area. She has herbs, flowering shrubs, evergreens and grasses. I have a complete plant list to share with you, it will be posted in about a week. As soon as I make a map of it.

Gillian is the most wonderful woman, she has been working in the garden for years and she shares it with whomever has the interest to view it. I am so envious but here in the  desert mountains there isn't a chance of it ever being duplicated in my lifetime. However, I'm thinking cactus and wildflowers.......

If you are interested in visiting a labyrinth in your travels you may find some (not Gillian's) listed here: https://labyrinthlocator.com/home    They have an in-depth index of places, be sure and abide by their requests for a respectful visit.