Native Plants Added to Our Yard

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This is our third summer in our house. Last summer, I added some native plants to the yard and am pleased with how well they have done. The only one I have lost is a beautyberry that was planted last fall and didn’t survive the winter.

The fragrant sumac has new stems coming up and male flowers on the tips of the older branches. I like that the leaves start out with a lot of red and then turn a darker green. I intentionally planted it near the edge of the flowerbed and hope that it will eventually be stems that come up on the grassy side of the edging. There are some other plants around it that are already spilling over, and it would be good to gradually enlarge the bed area, reduce the grass.

The most successful plants in the wildflower area are black eyed susans and cone flowers. There are others…but they are not as robust. I will take some of the seeds from these two to plant elsewhere in the yard.

The grayhead coneflower bloomed in the garden I made where the stump of the old pine tree was cut down last year. It got top heavy and fell over and is now about done with its blooming. Next year I will stake it to help it stay upright.

The same happened with the hairy mountain mint. I think this one will bloom soon.

The showy goldenrod has been growing almost overwhelmed with pokeweed. Now that I have pulled the pokeweed, the plant will get more sun – and, hopefully, bloom this fall.

Early last spring I thought the American spikenard had died over the winter…but then rediscovered it! And now it is starting to bloom. It is still a very small tree but seems to like where it is planted and I can see it from my office window.

There are two redbuds that have come up in my yard, and I am letting them stay where they are. They are native (the parent tree is probably the one growing near the neighborhood ponds) and I like their heart shaped leaves. All the other trees in the back yard are evergreens (pines and hollies) so these two deciduous trees will be good additions.

Hurray for native plants!

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2024

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4th of July. The holiday was full of the poignancy of the First Americans Museum and the Oklahoma City National Memorial (site of the Murrah Building bombing)…and then fireworks observed from our hotel window. It is probably going to be one of the most memorable 4th of July celebrations for me.

 A neighborhood walk before the rain. There is always something to notice on a walk around our neighborhood…I celebrate our robins and dandelion puffs and magnolias in bloom…relatively common things that brighten my day.

A protein drink that already has lactase enzyme in it. I was pleasantly surprised that the protein drink that I can find easily at the truck stops along the way to Dallas includes lactase so that I don’t have to remember to take a Lactaid….and it tastes good. Celebrating!

 Philbrook Museum and Gardens.Celebrating finding a ‘favorite place’ in Tulsa.

 Planting orange daylilies. I ordered 25 daylily roots and planted them around the two maples in my front yard. I am celebrating that maybe I can reproduce the ruff I had around my oak tree in Maryland.

 A robin’s egg. Celebrating finding an eggshell…and realizing – from the color – that it was a robin’s egg.

Springfield Botanical Gardens daylilies and pollinator gardens. Celebrating one of my favorite places in Springfield. There is always something worth seeing there.

Out to lunch with my daughter. My daughter and I are exploring locally owned restaurants for brunch or lunch. All of them have been good experiences….celebrating my daughter and the food.

Friends of the Library. Celebrating my first volunteer gigs in Missouri. I got some additional training this month so I can do more tasks. I enjoy the work and the other volunteers.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Yard Work – July 2024

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The only yard work I do on a weekly basis is mow the grassy area; it is a good way for me to achieve my ‘intensity minutes’ of exercise for the week! I do some weed eating every other week. Everything else is more ad hoc…and as needed.

I ordered 25 orange daylily roots and got them planted around the base of our two red maples in the front yard. The ruff of these plants around my oak in Maryland looked good and made it easier to mow around the base of the tree without being too close to the trunk. The daylilies are better than mulch to keep the grass from growing too close to the tree trunks!

The Virginia creeper has covered the stones in the raised bed in front. I pull down any that tries to climb the brick and try to keep weeds from growing in the area (like poke weed). I do need to trim the boxwood (and remove the Virginia creeper growing into it.  

I have rounded most of the corners created by the fence by planting lambs ear…and I let low growing poke weed grow there too.

I mowed part of the area I didn’t mow in May back in June and left the thick clippings to mulch in place; much of the grass has died there and violets from the flower bed are spilling into the yard. The larger leafed plant near the metal iris is a spikenard which is in the same area. About a foot of grass has been eliminated along this section of the flower bed. Over time I will use this strategy to reduce the grassy area of our yard.

A plant came up in a bare ‘hole’ in the turf in my back yard and I have been carefully mowing around it. It appears to be a small white aster and has been blooming for more than 4 weeks. I’ll eventually mow it, but it was a fun experiment to see what kind of plant it was.

I noticed a tall something in the flowerbed on the yard side of the stairs from our deck. It is a young redbud! I’ve decided to keep it…will trim the bush that is on one side of it and the ornamental grass that is on the other side.

My spider mum metal sculpture was visible from my office window when I first stuck it in the ground…but the branches of the pine are growing and getting lower around it. I have borrowed a pole saw from my daughter and will trim the lowest ones (it is impossible to get close enough to the trunk without using a pole saw!).

I am pleased with the progress I am making on the yard. My goals are to make it easier to maintain…more native plants…less grass…all while staying within the ‘rules’ of the neighborhood HOA.

Then and Now - Ironing

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Back in the 1960s, ironing was a skill my mother taught us. Many of our clothes needed to be ironed because they were made of natural fabrics like cotton. We sprinkled clothes in bags and then ironed them after the moisture was fully absorbed; the clothes were damp but not wet. The irons did not have a water reservoir to make them into ‘steam’ irons. Even if they did, the amount of ironing was enough that the steam would not have lasted for the whole time. My father bought a mangle iron for the laundry room in our newly built house in 1963 which my mother used for flat items like napkins and table clothes…disappointed that it was not easily used for clothes.  

I particularly remember ironing two gingham shorts/top sets during a summer in the mid-60s. I eventually got pretty good at getting all the wrinkles smoothed away.

By the later 1960s, the amount of ironing had dropped dramatically with most clothes being permanent press cotton or synthetic fabric.

Now the only things I iron are cotton bandanas! I iron them straight from the washer – which spins so much water out that they are dry by the time I iron them. I use a new-looking iron that I found when my sisters and I were cleaning out my parents’ house and an ironing board that I got when I married over 50 years ago (the cover has been replaced once).

Ironing is one of those historical life-skills that might not be important now!

Previous Then and Now posts

Our Missouri Neighborhood – July 2024

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There is always something to see in walks around the ponds in our neighborhood…bits of nature thriving even in an area dominated my manicured yards: a dandelion puff (hurray for some deep rooted plants in the turf), a fat robin (there must be plenty of worms here), clover in bloom (making nitrogen available to other plants), and magnolia flowers (the bee had just flown away).

There are always turtles in the pond. One on the bank looked like he was waving at me!

I stop at the bridge to look at the sheet of water flowing into the first pond – runoff from rain or sprinkler systems running too long. I look for ripples and collections of debris to photograph. The feather caught my attention first….then the leaves and green clippings…a background of algae.

The large redbud near the pond was damaged by a storm a year ago. There is new growth from the large branch that had to be removed. I like the way the new leaves start out reddish…turn a light green…they will get even deeper green as they age.

Most of the fish I see in the ponds are small and gray or brown…but there is at least one monster koi (about 2 feet). Hopefully if someone catches it, they will not return it to the pond!

Finally – a fresh feather on the path that had been sprinkled by a neighbor’s automatic sprinkler system!

Bed bug?

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During the last year of my career (more than 10 years ago), one of my colleagues missed some meetings and I found out from him later about his trauma with bed bugs. Based on the timing of his symptoms developing, he’d picked them up in a hotel near Dulles Airport on one of his frequent business trips to the area…not realized that he had them until his home was contaminated too and he had terrible bed bug bites particularly on his face. He was overwhelmed by what happened; it had a significant impact on his life for about 6 months.

Even so, I didn’t change anything about the way I traveled. Something happened on my last trip to Dallas that is changing my strategy.

I was sitting on the small hotel-room couch in the evening and noticed a small bug crawling across my t-shirt. I crushed it and wiped it onto a paper towel; it left a bloody streak. My first assumption was flea or tick. Then I thought it might be an adult bed bug although at the time I thought it was too big to be a bed bug. I still went to check the seams of the mattress…and discovered that there was a mattress cover than looked very tightly woven. The bedding was the usual white and I didn’t see anything on the bed that looked suspicious. I looked at the crushed bug, but it was too mutilated for identification.

On the way home, I began to realize that I had to assume that it could have been an adult bedbug (and where there are adults…there are likely eggs and nymphs); my husband did some research while I drove home. When I got home:

  • Almost everything stayed in the car.

  • I took a shower/shampoo immediately and the clothes I took off were put into a plastic bag and put back in my car.

  • I stayed mostly in the downstairs apartment area for 2 days/nights (laundering linens in hot water and dryer after the 1st night).

  • After the 1st night, I put the pillows I’d used into my car and parked it in the driveway; the day was hot and sunny. The thermometer in the car indicated that the interior was above 130 degrees for 6 hours.

I still don’t know if I was exposed to bedbugs or not. I haven’t developed any symptoms of bites and it’s been 8 days. Sometimes it takes time for the symptoms to appear.

The experience has me making some changes to how I travel:

  • Pack a small collection vial. If I see a small bug – I will put it in the vial rather than crushing it so I can ID it.

  • Carry my luggage into the hotel rather than rolling it. Put it on a hard surface rather than carpeted for the duration.

  • Put dirty clothes in a sealed plastic bag.

  • Shower thoroughly when I first get home and put dirty clothes in a sealed plastic bag

  • In the summer – leave fabric items (sealed plastic bags, hats, purse, shoes, etc.) in the car and park it outside after the trip; make sure the temperature is above 120 degrees for several hours.

  • In the winter – put fabric items in the freezer (downstairs apartment) for several days

  • Buy and install mattress covers that prevent bed bugs from accessing the mattress.

Some websites I found helpful:

https://www.thespruce.com/handle-bed-bug-infestation-laundry-2146304

https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/bedbugs-infestation

Our Missouri Yard – July 2024

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The wildest part of my yard is the wildflower garden I planted last summer.

In front of the wildflowers are some pumpkin vines, lambs ear, and fragrant sumac. Behind the wildflowers there is a rose bush that has died back to the roots during both winters we’ve lived in the house but has come back each year to form a low bush…blooming small red roses.

That area is always a good place to do some macro photography with my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I’ve noticed that the native plants tend to harbor more insects although most of them are quite small. We’re missing the big butterflies in our yard too.

When I mow the grass, I stop to photograph anything I find of interest…like the shell of a robin’s egg (was it taken by predator or did the young hatched and the parent clear the nest?) and a plant that grows reliably by our mailbox.

There are frequently mushrooms that come up on the area where a tree was cut down (and the stump ground up) before we moved to the house. This month there were at least 2 different kinds.

One of our pine trees is not old enough to produce cones…but the other one is prolific and I wince when I run over a cone with the lawn mower (they probably cause the blade to get dull faster). The cones look good with green needles – or grass – around them!

I still have a few areas of the yard that I have not mowed this year. In one area – violets have escaped from the flower bed and spilled out into the unmowed area. I mowed some of no-mow May area and the clippings are slowing/stopping grass from growing there and the violets are moving there too! I am getting other ideas on how to extend the flowerbeds in a way that results in less need to use the weed-eater…and overall less lawn….that remains compliant with the Home Owners Association of our neighborhood.

Then and Now – Strategies for Reducing Food Costs

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Many of the strategies for minimizing food costs my mother applied in the 1960s are still applicable today. The goal is to get the best nutritional value for your expenditure….and waste nothing.

  • Minimize out-to-eat meals. It always costs more to eat in a restaurant – even a fast-food place. In the 1960s there were not as many options as we have now; takeout and delivery of prepared food was not as common. My mother made our hamburgers at home; I didn’t have a ‘fast food’ version until I was a teenager. I remember getting grilled cheese sandwiches and a cherry limeade at the drug store…but not frequently. We took picnics when we made road trips to see our grandparents. I eat out more now than I did for most of my growing up years…although not as much as I did during my career. One way to reduce the bill at a restaurant it to drink water with your meal. Another is to eat half your meal…have the rest for another meal (i.e. spread the cost to 2 meals rather than 1). I try to avoid the poor nutrition options that seem dominate many fast-food chain menus.

  • Plan meals in advance. My mother wrote out her menus for a week or two at a time; I remember them on legal sized paper posted on the refrigerator. I don’t write menus now, but I do know what I have ingredients to make. I usually give my husband a choice for our big meal of the day each morning since he is harder to please than I am.  The focus is on nutrition – enough protein and other nutrients – and avoiding high sugar/fat, ultra-processed foods.

  • Have ‘backup’ meals in the pantry or freezer. My mother always had a well-stocked panty – canned goods (soups, vegetables, fruits, and meats (chicken, tuna, salmon)), nuts, potatoes, onions, peanut butter, bread. These days we eat fewer canned vegetables/fruits – skew toward frozen versions which I can buy in larger packages than fresh since they will last long enough for us to eat the whole package. My mother bought larger packages of raw meat and froze the part that she wasn’t using immediately. I still do that.

  • Scrutinize protein sources and amount. Meats are an expensive item. My mother was a fan of eggs as a protein source; eggs are easy to prepare and they are the least expensive source of protein that we all liked – and not just for breakfast; she didn’t serve them daily…but it was close. I don’t eat eggs as often now (and I have added frittatas and quiche to the way I prepare them), but they are still a relatively low cost source of protein. We generally only have meat once a day and utilize other lower cost sources to add up our daily protein requirement for example, peanut butter, milk, eggs, mushrooms, beans, nuts, bread (not the ultra-processed variety), protein drink/powder.

  • Go to the grocery store with a list…and only buy what is on the list. You want to buy what you need when you shop, avoid another trip to the store for something that was forgotten. In addition to the expense, the spur-of-the-moment purchases are often not healthy choices. It was a special occasion when my mother bought chips or popsicles or oreos or soft drinks or chocolate bars….and I shop the same way now. The strategy is to avoid all ultra-processed foods most of the time.  They may seem inexpensive…but they often have no nutritional value; from your body’s standpoint they are a hinderance rather than a benefit.

  • Leftovers. My mother always used leftovers (i.e. no food waste); they were usually small amounts so we would have a ‘cafeteria day’ and clean out the refrigerator. Sometimes she would combine or add new ingredients to achieve the nutritional value needed for a meal. We do the same now. Nothing goes bad in our refrigerator!

There is a new way I reduce my grocery bill now that didn’t exist in the 1960s: I shop for myself…don’t pay extra for someone else to do shopping or deliver it. I did during the height of COVID-19, but that was a special situation.

Previous Then and Now posts

Green Heron in the Neighborhood

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The forecast said the day was going to be very hot and humid…so I was out taking my daily walk at 7 AM. As I neared the first pond – a bird flew out of the shallows and land at the other end of the pond. I managed to use the zoom on my camera to see what it was: a green heron. It was standing up tall making it a little easier to spot. It is surprising how well their coloring blends into the environment.

They are occasional visitors to our neighborhood ponds. There is not enough habitat here for them to be residents. This time the bird was looking for breakfast. It stalked down through the grass to the edge of the pond – eventually sitting   at the edge of the water. The morning light was excellent for photography.

A grackle flew down nearby for a drink.

I was walking slowly closer to the heron…although across the pond from its location. The grackle startled it enough for it to move along the bank and then up into the grass again….before it flew away.

Then and Now – Pattern of Days

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During my growing up years in the 1960s, my days were largely determined by school – at least during the school year. Now, there is nothing equivalent to that structure. The lack of externally caused structure now is somewhat like the summer days when school was not in session - when I had more self-determination of how I would spend my time.

I have always been a morning person although I get up earlier now  than I did in the 1960s (5ish rather than 6ish). By the mid-60s I chose to shower in the morning rather than take a bath at night. I was the one that got the paper from the front porch and read the parts I wanted before anyone else. My family had breakfast together and it was never the same two days in a row. These days I still shower in the morning and browse through news feeds in my office on two screens while I have a light ‘1st breakfast’ – something with caffeine and some supplements. By 8ish I am ready for something more substantial. Right now, peanut butter on toast is the dominant ‘2nd breakfast.’

I spend the morning in my office now and there is quite a similarity to things I did in the 1960s – reading and writing and art and science and PE. The difference now is I control how much time I spend walking (PE), native plant gardening (science), Zentangle tiles (art), or volunteering…and how much a computer or a phone is part of almost every activity now. At least once a week, I mow my yard during the growing season (battery powered); there is no corollary to that in the 1960s although I remember a few times that I helped use the riding lawn mower (gas powered) to mow my parents’ yard. Another day, I shop for groceries; I always had list just as my mother did (even though mine is electronic and hers was on a piece of paper) and am generally more successful than she was at only going to the store once a week!

Lunch is the largest meal of the day for me now and it is about 1 PM; I plan the menus and do most of the cooking while my husband cleans up afterward. We often watch news or a series on television while we eat sitting in comfy chairs. In the 1960s I either ate in the school cafeteria or took a lunch from home during the school year; lunchtime happened between 11:30 to 12:30 depending on the schedule for the school. In the summer, the schedule was roughly the same at home; often we helped prepare part of the meal with my mother….and had part of the cleanup job too. We ate at a table at school and at home.

After lunch, is more of the same….both in the 1960s and now. Overall – I determine more what I do than in the 1960s. I sign up for classes I am interested in rather than keep to a curriculum like I did in the public schools of the 1960s. Some of my classes cost something rather than being free but I often benefit from discounts because of my age.

In the 1960s, the evening meal was between 5:30 and 6 PM and was the same or larger than the mid-day meal. In general, homework was completed before that. My mother limited our television viewing to an hour a day or less. The evening was family time. Now –  our evening meals are always lighter than our lunches – a smoothie being my preference for summertime evenings; it is the time of day when family phone conversations usually happen.

The pattern of days is the baseline, but a lot happens that is outside the routine of the pattern. Some are similar between the 1960s and now: road trips to visit family, seasonal events like Christmas lights, local events like fairs and festivals, and out-of-town family members visiting us. I thought I was busy in the 1960s, but when I look at what I get done now, it seems that I accomplish more!

Previous Then and Now posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 29, 2024

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The Electric Revolution of Gardening Tools is Here – Hurray! We’ve been completely transitioned to battery powered yard tools for a few years now. I wouldn’t be mowing my own yard without our electric mower. Our old gas-powered one was noisy and my throat got scratchy from the fumes. Now I think of mowing the yard as a challenging exercise rather than a negative impact on my hearing and lungs!

US Cities Ranked by Vehicle Miles Traveled – As I read the article, I wondered where Dallas/Fort Worth fit since they were not on the top 10 list. I went to the source cited in the article and found that Dallas/Fort Worth was 19th.  Other Texas cities are high too – San Antonio at 14, Houston at 18 and Austin at 22.

See Frida Kahlo in Her Element in a New York Show of Rare Photographs – There is a picture of her (and Diego) viewing a solar eclipse in 1932 (Detroit)!

The apple detectives hunting for lost varieties - Apple fanatics across the UK are now taking samples from very old apple trees in hopes of learning more about antique varieties, and perhaps making some surprising discoveries. That's because there are apples, documented in 19th-Century books like Robert Hogg and Robert Bull Graves' The Herefordshire Pomona, that have slipped through people's fingers.

In North Macedonia, an Ancient Lake Faces Modern Threats – Lake Ohrid - 19 miles long, nine miles wide and 945 feet deep, teeming with fish, snails, leeches, flatworms, phytoplankton, crustaceans, and more. Of the lake’s roughly 1,200 known native species, 212 of them are endemic, occurring nowhere else. It faces growing threats, including from overfishing, nutrient pollution, invasive species, booming tourism, unregulated building, official neglect, and perhaps the most inexorable challenge of all, global warming.

Rare White Bison Calf Born at Yellowstone National Park - Photographed on June 4, as a group of bison crossed a road with traffic stopped.

A supermarket trip may soon look different, thanks to electronic shelf labels - This month, Walmart became the latest retailer to announce it’s replacing the price stickers in its aisles with electronic shelf labels. The new labels allow employees to change prices as often as every ten seconds. They haven’t come to the Walmart near me yet…I’ll be looking for them every time I shop there.

A new way to measure aging and disease risk with the protein aggregation clock - Although there are other "clocks" to measure ageing and health, most of them are based on nucleic acids like DNA. A biological clock based on proteins could be a useful complement to these existing clocks, as proteins are among the most abundant molecules in cells and are crucial for all cellular functions. With the help of such a protein aggregation clock, scientists and doctors might move one step closer towards helping people age healthily and preventing age-related diseases.

Tiny beauty: how I make scientific art from behind the microscope – Great illustrations…worth scrolling through.

New metric for blood circulation in brain to better understand dementia - By accurately measuring how pulsatility is transmitted in the brain, researchers can better understand the underlying mechanism of brain conditions (including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia) and potentially guide development of new treatments.

Macro Photography – June 2024

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My yard is full of subjects for macro photography this time of year.

The wildflower garden is in its second season and is very lush after the spring rains…both flowers and insects abound.

The area in our front yard that once hosted a large tree (before we moved here) now has mushrooms after almost every rain. It is surprising how quickly they can develop and then degrade to black goo.

One of the daylilies I planted last under the red maple is blooming this year. Hopefully the plant will propagate to surround the trunk. There are enough buds to appreciate this year from a photographic standpoint.

I’ve let the Virginia Creeper that came up in the front flowerbed cascade over the castle rocks. Mowing the lawn contains it once it is in the grass. I like the foliage now and it will look great in the fall when it turns red.

I’ve found several eggs in the grass and always try a photograph. This one was white. The cracks in the shell around the edges and inside appealed to me. The grass offers a sense of scale.

I took pictures of two small branches blown off by an overnight storm – making a macro image of the part that interested me the most.

The plant by the mailbox is full of buds. Another plant of the same type is near the house, but its buds always get eaten and there are holes in the leaves!

The two ‘hens’ that I bought last year at a farmers’ market have more and more chicks. There were only 3 chicks at the beginning of the season. I count more than 30 chicks in this image when I look at it on a bigger monitor!

I enjoy ‘filling the frame’ with magnified images from my yard!

Young Robin

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I was heading out for a quick trip to the grocery store at 6:30 AM earlier this week. Before I got in the car, I walked out of the open garage door since there seemed to be an odd leaf under the dogwood tree beside the driveway. It wasn’t a leaf!

A young robin was in the grass. It stayed very quiet and still – although it did move its head slightly to follow my location. I didn’t get very close….used the magnification available on my camera. The wings didn’t look developed enough for the bird to fly.

When I came back from my errands about an hour later, the young robin was gone. There were no feathers scattered in the area so I think the bird hopped away – hopefully to a secure place.

A quick google search revealed some posts about young robins that left the nest very early and some of them managed to survive because their parents continued to feed them and tried to show them safe places where they can hide close to the ground!

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A few days later I saw an adult robin feeding a young robin on our fence. The young bird was half the size of the adult but it could fly! I am hoping it was the birds I saw in the grass.

Picking Blueberries

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Last week’s ‘new to me’ activity was picking blueberries. I’ve picked strawberries before, but not blueberries. A quick search got me to the UPickFarmsUSA site and I quickly found a farm close to me – Ozark Mountain Orchard…followed the links to their website and Facebook page. My daughter and I made plans and then headed out the next morning while the temperature was still in the 70s. It had rained the night before, but the sun was shining and the forecast had the day warming up fast. The check-in area was well-organized with buckets lined with plastic bags and belts to attach the buckets around your waist so both hands were free to pick berries. The rows to pick were marked with turquoise noodles.

The goal was to pick berries that were ripe (i.e. blue) but not squishy. I did more one-hand picking because of that. The stems on the ripe berries were very easy to pick…so if there was a ripe clump, it was worthwhile to use two hands so none of them dislodged onto the ground rather than a hand. I didn’t make it down to the end of my row before I was hot and tired. My daughter agreed. We headed up the hill to the check-in area to weight our bags and discovered we had both picked about 4 pounds of berries!

We put our bags in an ice chest I had brought….and relaxed with some blueberry lemonade before heading home. When I got home, I immediately rinsed and froze more than half my berries to use in smoothies!

I already have plans for next season – starting earlier in the season (when we went it was probably past the mid-point of the season) and going twice to load up my freezer with blueberries even more! Maybe my sister would be interested in bringing her grandson along --- a great ‘field trip.’

Our Missouri Yard – June 2024

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I always enjoy a walk around our yard – particularly when the plants are changing so rapidly. Our two rose bushes died back almost to the roots – just as they did our first winter here – but they are blooming now. I enjoy the new reddish leaves and the buds/flowers. I keep thinking that one year I will just dig them out…but it won’t be this year.

The wildflower garden is different every time I look.

It is also the place that has the highest diversity of insects; it really proves the point that native plants are good for wildlife! I was taking a picture of one of the plants when I noticed what I thought was some kind of seed or debris….then realized there were bugs!

In the front yard, there are mushrooms again this year – where a tree was cut down and the stump ground up before we moved to the house. I photograph them before I mow! It’s another sign that our yard is doing well with our strategy of mulching grass and leaves into the yard and very little fertilizer (and no pest or weed killers).

I am including a picture of the holes I made the front flower bed….clearing rocks and cutting away landscaping fabric…to plant miniature pumpkin seeds.

I hope they come up soon. I have some in the back coming up. They did very well there last year, and I hope the ones in front will also do well. The vine was so robust with large green leaves that I thought it would look great covering some of the rocked expanse in the front flower bed….and a larger crop of miniature pumpkins would be good too.  

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 8, 2024

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Picture this: Snapping photos of our food could be good for us – A study that showed that when people take pictures of what they eat…a more accurate food record (than people’s memory) is obtained and can be analyzed to improve diet! I might try this…do a little self-analysis.

People Are Spotting Rare, Blue-Eyed Cicadas Around Illinois – Most periodic cicadas have red eyes….but this year some have blue! We aren’t hearing cicadas yet at our house even though our area of Missouri is in the range of Brood XIX.  

The people racing to build shelters outside tornado alley – It does seem like there have been more violent storms outside of the traditional tornado alley recently. Even in tornado alley – many houses are built on slab foundations (i.e. no basement) and don’t have storm shelters. My husband was the first to voice the requirement for a basement when we were looking at houses in Missouri…and we ended up buying one with the storm shelter too (in the basement and reenforced).

Relics of a Warmer Past, Some Species May Be Suited to a Hotter Future - By the end of this century, the planet is expected to be approximately as warm as it was 130,000 years ago. Species that arose during this time (like the African grass rat) would be able to withstand a hotter climate. A new model projects that there will be a 39% drop in the number of resident species in tropical lands due to excessive heat.

In a Seismic Shift, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Elevates Nature-Based Solutions – Finally! Some examples of solutions that are nature based include: Floodplains, Living shorelines, Beaches, Dunes, Wetlands, Reefs, Islands, Green roofs, Tree canopies, Rain gardens, Bioswales, Retention basins, and Permeable and pervious pavements. The upcoming rule issued by the Army Corps is expected to further institutionalize the nature-based future landscape architects have pushed for. But more advocacy will be needed to spread the benefits of designing with nature across all the communities with which the Army Corps engages.

7 Strange Species from the Ocean’s Depths – How many of these have you heard about before? I’d heard of 6 of the 7…the one that was new to me was the Yeti Crab. I didn’t know the Greenland Shark was the same as Ommatokoita though.

Women are 14 times more likely to die in a climate disaster than men. It’s just one way climate change is gendered – And women represent 80% of people displaced by extreme weather. The reasons include women’s pre-existing social and economic disadvantage…and their responsibility for caring for other vulnerable groups, such as children or older people. The author is writing about Australia…but this probably is happening around the world too.

Giant Pandas are returning to D.C.'s National Zoo – Hurray! The new pandas are due before the end of the year and the zoo is upgrading the building and outdoor space now to be ready for their arrival.

Cool Pavements Show Promise as Part of Urban Climate Resilience Strategy – Results from a pilot project in LA that applied a solar-reflective pavement coating, to more than 700,000 square feet of neighborhood streets and another special coatings to basketball courts, parking lots, a school playground, and a colorful community mural by a local artist in July 2022. The study results were published in April 2024: reductions in ambient air temperatures by as much as 3.5°F during extreme heat events and a 25-50 percent reduction in the local census-tract urban heat island index during daytime temperature peaks. The research also indicated notable reductions of up to 10°F or more in surface temperatures following the application of solar reflective pavement coatings, which directly correlated to a reduction in air temperature and felt temperature in the community.

Riverdance at 30: how Riverdance shaped Irish dance, and reflected a multicultural Australia – The history of Irish dancing….and the impact of Riverdance. The article includes multiple videos.

2nd Anniversary in our Missouri Home

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Today is our second anniversary in our Missouri home and I am thinking about what has changed relative to the house in that time. We still have some boxes in the storage areas of the house that we haven’t unpacked – a sure indication that we probably moved some items we didn’t need.

We’ve changed more in the yard than inside the house.

I planted a wildflower garden in the back and some hens and chicks in the front.

One of the pine trees in the backyard fell over last summer and I’ve planted some irises and native plants in the area where the stump was ground up after the tree was taken away; colorful stinkhorns are coming up in the mulch too!

We hired a crew to mow the yard the first summer, but I mowed it last summer and this summer too. The depression in the area where the previous owner took out a large tree in the front yard is obvious when I mow….and when mushrooms come up in the grass.

Both my husband and I are glad the yard had a sprinkler system – even though we haven’t needed it so far this season (we got 10 inches of rain in May!). This is our first house with a sprinkler system, so we have a company to check the system in the spring and fall.

We haven’t used the community pool or walked around the ponds as much as we thought we would…but I did enjoy walking patterns on the tennis courts in the snow last winter. The amenities of the neighborhood are greater than anywhere we’ve lived previously.

As far as the inside of the house….

I like my office in the basement (with windows on three sides) as much as I thought I would. The views were nice to begin with, but we’ve added bird feeders, a bird bath, spring bulbs, and some native plants. I also like having the mini-kitchen near my office. I’ve turned off the gas to the gas fireplace and put a magnet blanket over the opening; it leaked heat (from the pilot light) into my office in the summer and let in a cold draft in the winter. I like that my office area has its own heating/cooling.

We’ve only used the basement storm shelter once….but I am glad it is there. Fortunately, the storm did no damage in our neighborhood. Our challenge in using the shelter is getting our three cats (additions since we moved to the house) into crates and down there in time!

Both my husband and I have enjoyed the large shower – just as we anticipated. We still have not used the Jacuzzi tub!

The laundry chute has eliminated the need for hampers…and eliminated the need for carrying dirty laundry. We did put baby latches on the doors to the chute since the kittens were way too interested and dexterous at opening things; we added latches on the lower cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms for the same reason.

We discovered magnets strong enough to hold a wreath for our front door (it is metal) and added a Ring doorbell since the door did not have a peephole already installed.

The 3-car garage is a wonderful upgrade from our previous 2-car versions. We enjoy the room (and have not filled it up!).

Both my husband and I agree that this is the best house we’ve owned. It’s very satisfying to realize that we’ve thought the same thing every time we have moved!

Then and Now – Food

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My mother had taken a college nutrition course in the 1950s, so my memories of meals growing up were relatively well balanced.

  • There were more canned vegetable and fruits than we eat now when we usually eat fresh or frozen…very few canned goods. I do remember frozen strawberries, spinach and broccoli in the 1960s…but they didn’t come in a plastic bag (it was a box of thin cardboard,sometimes with metal ends). Fresh fruits and vegetables were seasonal. A lot of our produce seemed to come from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (and we lived in Texas). My grandparents had vegetable gardens; I particularly remember corn on the cob, tomatoes, watermelons and cantaloupe during the summer. Still - most of our food came from the grocery store which is true today as well. Fresh fruits and vegetables were purchased whole – not cut up or pre-washed as they sometimes are today. Vegetables that were stable at room temperature like potatoes and onions were kept in a bin in the pantry --- frozen versions were not generally available.

  • Meats were mostly cooked from raw although my mother did use canned chicken, tuna, and salmon (I have canned chicken and salmon in my pantry…but I don’t like tuna). The raw chicken was more likely to be a whole chicken that my mother cooked whole or cut up and then cooked; now I buy boneless chicken breasts exclusively….and I never fry chicken; my mother didn’t fry chicken either she but she did bake chicken with crumbled Cheez-it cracker crust.  Bacon was the same although the curing might have been a bit different; it wasn’t packaged in plastic. Ham was purchased whole usually with a bone; sometimes it came in a ham shaped can without a bone. We rarely had deli meats although there were some packaged meats like hotdogs, baloney and chipped beef…which my mother served occasionally. My mother liked to buy ground chuck rather than the higher fat hamburger meat. These days I buy more chicken than lean beef and almost no pork.  My mother probably served more beef…followed by pork…and then chicken. I skew toward organic meats; even though that labeling did not exist in the 1960s, the meats were probably closer to organic since it was before CAFOs and prophylactic antibiotic use in farm animals.

  • My mother searched for whole grain bread. It was hard to find. Roman Meal was the brand I remember the most. White Wonder bread seemed to be the most popular with everyone else. These days I buy whole grain organic bread with a short ingredient list.

  • The other foods from grain we ate included oatmeal (generally for breakfast), pasta (egg noodles and elbow macaroni were more frequently served than spaghetti), boxed cereals  (Cheerios were a favorite although my Dad really liked Sugar Frosted Flakes…which my mother frowned on), and crackers (saltines and graham crackers). My father didn’t like rice so my mother rarely served it.  I still use oatmeal occasionally but there are new grains too: quinoa and bulghur wheat. I rarely eat rice; it’s not that I don’t like it…but I just don’t like it enough to cook it. I don’t buy crackers since I don’t need the empty calories and neither does my husband.

  • The only beans my mother liked were pinto beans. I can remember her cooking a large pot of pinto beans whenever she had a ham bone…it was the last ‘meal’ made with a ham. We ate the beans with chunks of ham as a soup as soon as they finished cooking and then as leftovers with other meals. I generally my organic canned pinto beans now when we make chili.

  • Eggs and dairy were a daily part of my mother’s meal plan. She always kept whole milk on hand. She bought it in gallon cartons (not plastic coated) since there were enough of us to drink it relatively quickly. These days I drink 2% fat Lactaid milk since I have become lactose intolerant, and it comes in a plastic jug. My mother used Velveeta cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese (she cooked the macaroni…made a white sauce that melted the cheese…put both in a baking dish with wheat germ sprinkled on top to bake together before serving). I don’t eat cheese sandwiches or macaroni and cheese anymore! I do still occasionally have cottage cheese…but I take a Lactaid pill when I do. Eggs are still prepared as they were in the 1960s: hardboiled, fried or scrambled (but with spray on a non-stick pan rather than in bacon grease). I also like frittatas and quiche and other egg casseroles which we didn’t make in the 1960s.

  • We did occasionally have Koolaid or Lemonade or Hawaiian punch in the summer or a soft drink for a special occasion (making an ice cream float or when I visited my grandmother at her work). Most of the time we drank water or milk. It was a special treat to have sweet iced tea with special meals or to eat a popsicle (usually frozen in our freezer) on a hot afternoon. Ice cream was always a favorite – but not eaten daily. I drink soft drinks more often now and unsweetened tea…but milk and water are still frequent beverages. I am trying to cut back on soft drinks and any beverages with sugar (refined or artificial).

  • Nuts were used for snacks although they often required a hammer and cutting board to get the goodie out of the shell. My mother seemed to enjoy buying a bag of mixed nuts in their shells (pecans, walnuts, filberts, Brazil nuts, almonds) from the produce section during the winter holidays. Our favorites were probably pecans. Now I general buy nuts that have already been shelled. We also liked peanut butter; my mother did not approve of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but we enjoyed peanut butter and celery or peanut butter on toast with brown sugar sprinkled on top. My favorite breakfast in recent months is peanut butter toast (no sugar on top).

Food is prepared differently now too:

  • My mother’s favorite quick meals were a protein (hard boiled eggs, canned tuna, chipped beef, canned chicken) in white sauce over toast with a canned vegetable (green beans, for example) or fresh vegetable like carrot or celery sticks. For the younger children, she would cut up the toast before spooning on the white sauce concoction; as we got old enough we learned to cut it up for ourselves after the white sauce was on top. Now I tend to do stir fries for fast meals. I usually do the whole meal in one pot and serve it in a bowl rather than a plate. Gravies like white sauce are not part of the meal at all.

  • There were no microwaves in the 1960s. We made popcorn in a pan if we wanted it. I still use the same type of popcorn…but have a bowl that I use in the microwave to pop it in and I use walnut or sesame oil rather than butter.

  • Sometimes we had hot tea for breakfast or when it was cold outside (always with lots of milk). We made it with tea bags in a little pot or directly in our cups. There were no Mr. Coffee or Keurig machines! I use a Coffee Maker that has never made coffee to make pots of tea now.

  • There were Czech desserts for special meals when I was growing up; no one picked up the role to bake like that after my grandmother died because we just don’t eat that much bread and sugar anymore.  These days we rarely have dessert although when I do - I am still partial to desserts that include fruits (apple pie, apricot tarts, etc). I do enjoy a good carrot cake or red velvet cake but might buy it from a bakery; if I make it myself, I usually serve it without icing!

  • Salads are somewhat easier now. Greens can be bought pre-washed and in convenient bins…and there is a huge variety of kinds beyond iceberg and Romaine lettuce (I like arugula and spinach and ‘spring’ greens). Other ingredients can be bought already cut up now although I generally choose to buy salad ingredients that I cut myself (with the exception of carrots which are my go to snack in the afternoon). The selection of salad dressing is much greater now too although Ranch dressing seems to be too dominant; in the 1960s I remember Thousand Island and French and Vinegar/oil dressings.  I get dressings with names like creamy ginger…or make my own balsamic vinaigrette.

  • My mother sometimes prepared milkshakes (milk, ice cream, raw eggs) for breakfast with toast. She had a blender with a glass body that was heavy but did the job of making a slightly thickened drink. These days I have a Ninja Master Prep and I make ‘smoothies’ rather than milkshakes…without raw eggs. I use milk, frozen fruit (banana + another fruit), frozen veggie (like broccoli), protein powder if I am short protein for the day, and hemp seeds. It comes out the consistency of soft serve ice cream but without any refined sugar!

Overall – there are a lot of ways to eat healthy today even though there are also a lot more ultra-proccessed foods to avoid. Right now, with the exception of soft drinks, I am eating healthier than I did as a child!

Previous Then and Now posts

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2024

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May 2024 was full of little celebrations…with near perfect temperatures and some big events.

3 pink irises - Most of the irises were fading by May but there were three still in good condition in a flower bed at the side of our house which can’t be seen (by us or our neighbors) except by walking around our house. I saw them when I was mowing and cut them to bring indoors.

Bleu Monkey - The first thing we did in Hot Springs was to have lunch. We picked a great place – tasty food and a huge drink (that my daughter did not finish)…but what made it celebratory was the interaction with the other patrons!

Garvan Woodland Gardens – My daughter and I both celebrated our experience at Garvan Woodland Gardens (via golf cart and on foot). I’m sure we’ll go again…maybe experience it in every season over the next few years.

Whirlpool bath at Buckstaff Bathhouse in Hot Springs – The Buckstaff Bathhouse is a way to celebrate history and the great feel hot springs.

Large birdbath – I moved a large glass birdbath from Maryland but didn’t set it up last year because I didn’t think the old stand was stable enough in our environment. I bought a new stand at Branson’s Butterfly Palace last fall and celebrated how great it looks set up near our bird feeders…and that I’ve seen birds coming to get a drink.

Mowing the whole yard in one day – Usually I mow my yard over 2 days…so I celebrate when I can do it one. It helped that May was cool…I probably won’t attempt it when the temperatures are higher.

A new family member - One of my nieces had a baby girl….always a celebratory event.

New glasses - I celebrated new plastic frames (rather than wire rims with pads as the bridge) that feel better on my narrow nose bridge.

Salmon salad – Salad made with canned salmon and celery (and other veggies) with chipotle mayonnaise (or other spicy dressing) has become one of my favorite lunches. I celebrated rediscovering a staple (canned salmon) that my mother always had in her pantry.

Aurora from our deck – My husband and I both celebrated that we managed to see and photograph the aurora from the deck of our house! It was very special.

Then and Now – Houses

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My parents house during the early 1960s was three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The bath associated with the master bedroom was very small with a shower stall rather than a bathtub. I always used the other one and so did my parents. My mother had a combination washer and dryer in a space along the hallway which my Dad had to enlarge slightly to help it fit. The kitchen had a window over the sink and a tabletop that folded up from the opposite wall which also had shelves that was the pantry. There was no built-in dishwasher, but my parents bought one that rolled over to the attach to the sink when it ran.

The house had wood floors; I can remember my mother cleaning and waxing them. The living room and what was intended as a dining room were separated by an accordion curtain that hung from the ceiling and had a track on the floor. We used the dining room as a continuation of the living room where we could play. Those two rooms were carpeted a few years before my parents built a new house in the mid-1960s.

The new house had a lot more room in every area (4 bedrooms, 3 baths) but was still one floor on a slab foundation – the most common type of construction in that area of Texas. The new house had tile in the foyer, vinyl in the high traffic areas, and carpeting in the bedrooms. I remember going with my mother to the store to pick the knobs for the builder to use in the bathroom that would be between the two bedrooms used by me and my sisters. My parents had built-ins made in all the bedrooms so that we didn’t need furniture for our clothes. My bedroom with my sister had the built-ins the closet; the furniture in the room included twin beds with bookcase type headboards, desks with chairs (without rollers), and a credenza with sliding doors. Everything was new! The two-car garage (with one door) had an enclosed storage area on one side. The roof was cedar shake.

My house today is about 1,000 more square feet and has a walkout basement and a 3-car garage. There has been heightened awareness of the radon issue since the 1980s and our house had remediation installed as we were moving in a few years ago. Our house has a storm room even though the risk of tornadoes was higher where we lived in the 1960s than it is now (and slab foundation houses don’t offer as much protection as ones with a basement).

Cedar shake shingles are no longer popular (too much of a fire risk) although I did notice some houses that still had them were on the market when we were looking for our current house; I would never buy a house with that kind of roof unless I planned to immediately replace it with another, less volatile type of shingle.

My house has all electric appliances in the kitchen unlike the gas stove tops and ovens that dominated in the 1960s.

I have vinyl flooring in the kitchens (I have two in my house), wood-like vinyl plank in the living and dining and hallways. The rest is carpeted. That is similar enough to what my mother had in her house although the carpet color is neutral in my house; my mother chose a pink/red carpeting for me and my sisters bedrooms and gold for the other rooms!

My mother did not like blinds (she had bad experiences with Venetian blinds of the 1950s)…so all the rooms had custom made lined drapery. Today all our windows have blinds for privacy and the drapery is more to add color and shape.

The large den and kitchen area of my parents’ house had dark paneling. There is no paneling at all in my house now. One similarity that surprises me a little – my mother had the kitchen in the center of the house with lower walls on two sides that looked to the breakfast area and den; in my current house, the kitchen is also in the middle of the house, has low walls that look out to the den and dining room (that we use as our piano room)…and is continuous with the breakfast area. Her kitchen did not have an island; mine does.

As I am thinking through this aspect of then and now, I am realizing that my mother’s house of the mid-1960s was probably her favorite house…and the one I am living in now is my favorite. She was in her early 30s and I am in my 70s!

Previous Then and Now posts