CAN YOU FEEL IT?

August 31, 2012

Can you feel it?  It is out there.  I feel it at dusk, by the edge of our timber and in the mornings when I take our dog outside for a ‘squirt’.  (That’s what we call it, sorry).  I don’t feel it yet during the day, only at night, but it is almost here.  That change in temperature after the sun sets and when it begins to rise in the morning.  Fall is getting closer.  I think she is just down the road and around the curve.

Actually I am going to open my front door and say, “Hurry up, fall, and cool us off.  Welcome.”  This has been a rough summer for people, animals, gardens, bugs, rabbits, grass, ants, hummingbirds, and most living creatures around here.  I think I’ll get the broom and try to sweep some of summer out the back door (along with some dog hair) to make room for fall.

This week I looked at the drooping, dried up sunflowers growing around my telephone pole.  (By the way I don’t have a telephone but the pole has to remain in the yard, so I decorate it).  They looked so tired and bent.  They made my back hurt.  I grabbed the loppers Sunday morning, while still in my pj’s, after Jazz’s “squirt” and cut the stalks back.   It was time. 

It is also time for the annual “clean out the shed and make room for the lawn ornaments” celebration. Dennis was a dear and hauled his horse buggy home to make room in my shed for storing things this winter.  We do not have a horse, but he has two beautiful, hand crafted buggies, just in a case a horse drops in one day, I guess.  Now do not laugh.  Shortly after I moved to Rusty Nail Garden (it was then called “What the Heck”) we had a stampede!  Two wild horses came running from the cornfield next door, through the neighbor’s front yard, and clip clopped down the road at a furious gallop.  We soon learned the neighbor around the bend owned the horses, and they escaped for a little outing.  So, we might end up with a horse someday.  Bacon the pig dropped in a month ago! (another neighbor’s)

Where was I?  Who knows.  One story leads to another and your mother and I get confused.   You would too!  Enjoy the onset of fall.  I am!

 

A BUTTERFLY VISIT

A BUTTERFLY VISIT

August 18, 2012

 

This afternoon I was in the house, cleaning.   Dennis was in the kitchen and he summoned me, “Can you come here?”  I thought he probably needed help finding the stove again, you know how men can be sometimes………they just need a little assistance.  He surprised me.  He was in front of the stove.  He found it just fine.

He was watching a beautiful yellow and black butterfly outside the kitchen window above the sink.  (He found the sink too…..)  I’m kidding, he really is the cook in this house and he can make the best Italian beef in this world.  

He said I might want to grab the camera and take a picture of it for the blog.  Oh!  Sometimes he is way ahead of me and today was it.  I was so interested in the butterfly that I was not thinking of anything.  It danced between the plumes on the purple butterfly bush and was soon joined by a bee.  I tried to get a picture of the bee but it was shy and flew over to the hosta and crawled inside a white hosta bloom.

I thought a movie might be more fun for you to watch than just a picture of the fluttering creature.  Check this out:

              Madame Butterfly Movie

 

This was a special moment today.  The air was fresh and cool.  The birds were very chatty too.  The pond waterfall could be heard in the background.  I really have to thank D. for calling me quickly to the window today.  

We have visited the Butterfly Garden in St. Louis, MO.  It is a wonderful glass house where they fly around free.  They land on your head, your nose, and your shoulders, as you stroll in their garden.  I highly recommend a visit.  As you leave, the staff checks to make sure there are no hitchhikers on you as you go through the doors.  www.missouribotanicalgarden.org

With the common use of pesticides destroying our natural habitat, the Monarch is in danger.  They actually need four varieties of milk weed plants for their larva to feed.  I feel it is very important that we all try to do something to help nature when there is a need.  This summer, I began to create my own butterfly garden.  I have read some helpful articles in the gardening magazines as well as the internet about butterfly weigh stations.  These are small gardens planted with specific plants, in the sun, for traveling butterflies to feed and hatch.  There is an internet website dedicated to helping the monarch and it explains how to plan your own butterfly weigh station.  I hope you will visit.  It explains the plight of these beautiful creatures:  www.monarchwatch.org

 

Our yard is planted with many butterfly friendly species scattered here and there.

Our butterfly weigh station is in its infancy.  We have a coneflower, butterfly bush, and two rows of milkweed started from seed.  I have seen mature milkweed plants for sale at our local nursery.  One plant is around $15.00, so I am going to devote more time to growing the milkweed and try to be patient.  I have noticed a few wild milkweed nearby in the pasture and I let them grow this summer.  In the spring I will add a few more items to the garden.  I am definitely inspired after today.  I don’t know what variety this pretty, yellow friend is, but I am so glad I had the opportunity to watch it today.  Happy fluttering.

Rustynailgarden On The Road

On The Road
August 14, 2012

For months we have been trying to get away for a day trip.  Something always comes up and prevents us from hitting the road. Sometimes they are planned things and sometimes not.  For me, if it's above eighty degrees it's too hot to go anywhere because the car might overheat, the dogs might get thirsty, the sun might melt my house..............anything can happen.  Usually it is things like birthdays, social engagements, I'm too fat, my hair looks awful, and I'm too fat........

A week ago, I took the pencil and wrote on the calendar, "Galena".  So all week we made plans and got pumped up.  We lined up a dog sitter, read the Galena, Illinois web site, checked the directions of a couple other places to travel and with that momentum building we got out of town.

Saturday had to be the most beautiful day we have had all summer.  Perfect!  Everyone else must have thought the same thing and they all met us in Galena.  It was very busy with shoppers, husbands following shoppers, and kids following husbands following shoppers.  There were a few dogs too.
Like these cuties.  The husband was off to the left side. 

Well, I do not enjoy shopping myself, but I did become very interested in the flowers along the street and in front of the shops.  Every block had displays of urns and beautiful arrangements.  Like these in front of the winery entrance.  We had to try the wine.

Some pots had beautiful trailing flowers.

          
    Some were high.

                   
                             Some were low.

Some were odd but friendly.  Doesn't this guy look happy?  He makes me smile.

Peace man.

If you can find a pen, choose a Saturday on "your" calendar, to take a nice drive along the river to Galena, Illinois.   Don't forget to take a carriage ride from our friend Chris and his black Percheron, King.  You can take an apple along for King.  Take one for Chris too :)  Giddy up!

HANGING AROUND

HANGING AROUND ON A HOT SUMMER DAY

August 8, 2012

Sometimes it is nice to do absolutely nothing.  Dennis tells me I should do more of that.
I love to sit and do nothing, and I can do it very well.  However, there is usually fence to repair, mowing and weeding, feeding, pruning, and watering to be done.  That does not leave me much time to sit and relax. So I thought I'd share some pictures of the rest of my animal family relaxing.  They do it well.   In fact they are professionals.  Don't try this at home without supervision, you might not ever get up!  Like this little guy; he rested too long and he petrified.

.

 

Jessie sprawled out on the pond deck listening to the waterfall. 

Calgon take me away.

 

Jamie, watching Jessie sprawl................

                                               Daisy Mae and Cupid napping on the bed.

                                    Jamie again.............showing off her pretty spots on her tummy.

 

Jazz loves a good snooze in the air conditioning.

Shhhhh..................see you later.

BLUE POTTERY

BLUE POTTERY

August 06, 2012

A couple of years ago, on one of our day trips to our favorite garden nursery, we noticed their finer pottery on sale.  There were pots of every color and some very unusual shapes and sizes.  We fell in love with the royal blue and decided that day to begin to incorporate a blue accent theme to our front yard.  Our first pot was purchased at their end of the season 10% off sale.  Once home, we did not get to display it that fall, because it was October and the weather could turn wintery any day.  So it had to sit, covered, until spring.  That was a long wait and  I’m not very patient.  We chose a special place the next spring, for our blue pot, beside our new front steps.  Perfect!  Our house is light blue and this looked great.  

Some weekends we drive around the new home developments in Peoria and nearby towns and see how others decorate their yards and entrances.  One evening, as we followed the curves of the road on Grand View Drive, we noticed ‘blue pots’.  Not just two or three, more like thirteen!  The homeowner had artfully placed them in unlikely places as well as flanking the garage and front entrance.  They had done this just for us, I’m sure!  It was exactly what we were trying to do with our home but we just didn’t know it yet……. the bell went off in my head.  All the way home we talked (ok, I talked) about where we could put them in our yard and what shapes and groupings would give the most impact.

I’m rather frugal when it comes to buying things and I’m always looking for a deal.  I searched the local home centers but did not find pots to compare to the ones they sell at Hornbaker Gardens in Princeton, Illinois.  I have come to accept that there are times when it does not pay to be cheap.  If I have to buy one at a time for next ten years, I will.  Of course I do have a birthday every year and I might get one for a gift.  I hope!

Until this dreadful summer, I wanted the blue pots because they were pretty.  But, I learned a lesson this year, with many days near 100 degrees. I learned why clay pottery is so much better than the plastic pottery from Home stores.

The past two weeks, all the beautiful potted flowers in my small plastic pots began to dry out daily.  I would water them immediately after I got home from work, and sometimes before I left at 6:00 a.m.  The pots just could not hold the moisture and also were too small, I suppose, to keep the roots cool in this heat. My last effort to save the flowers in pots was to place them in the shade, but it did not help. There was one exception, the blue pot.  It has a 23 inch diameter and is 27 inches deep.  The petunias, and sweet potato vine are cascading to the ground, blooming like crazy, in the sun!  In my opinion, it has to be the pottery that has saved these flowers from burning up this summer.  This has convinced me there is a reason for nice pottery and it’s not simply aesthetics. 

 

This happens to be a broken pot someone gave me in pieces.  I planted the pot on its side and the petunias spill out into the garden.  Never throw away a good broken pot!

 

If you find yourself on a Sunday drive looking at beautiful lawns, I hope you come across a home or two using pottery in inventive groupings and colors.  If you come to the blue house with the royal blue pots, come on in.  I’d love to show you our latest addition.  Currently, I have my eye on a pot shaped like the foot of the jolly blue giant – size 22 double E wide, at least!  Hm, what does one plant in a foot?