Gone round the bend

Well it has happened. Happened in our heads anyway.

The locals keep gently (and of course slowly) telling us...

"You know. Winter is not quite over yet. Hay?"

Phooey.
What do we care about local lore, weather charts,
Doppler radars, and years of experience!

Heck, after all, the snow and that weird permafrost stuff is still melting quickly in the yard, and the sun is out. Based on that alone in our minds the long winter is over. It must be all this sunshine, this balmy 48.. um.. 42 degree weather, or maybe it is just this time of year...

Whatever it is, we have gone quite mad.
Mad as March Hares... Mad as Hatters.
Mad I tell ya Mad!

David took the plow off the truck, we set up the chop saw table on the patio downstairs to finally finish up the trim work inside the house, we asked some friends to pick up a huge bag of grass seed for us on their last trip into town. I dug out the my yard work tools, and we are talking gardens.

Well, we are talking... but I am dreaming.

As my ideas get bigger and bigger and David keeps reminding me we do not have a big enough well for the water we would need to support the type of gardens I keep imagining. He says we would have to get a pump and draw it directly out of the lake for the plans I have!

Phooey.
What do I care for wells, and pumps, and lake water.
My thoughts are with lush, green, sunny, bursting, verdant, dripping, blooming gardens!

Dreams are simply not enough. The other morning I even got online with High Mowing Organic Seeds to make sure and get my seed order in before all the seeds were gone!

What?

You never know... there might be a run on the French Breakfast Radishes.


Forget that I will not even be able to put things in the ground until June...
that does not matter!

As David and I have been talking about gardens AND golf courses quite a bit lately, I have come to the conclusion that gardening is a lot like golfing in that once you have the bug you are hooked.

Like novice golfers, we novice gardeners think our skills are much better than they really are... we get all dressed up in the appropriate gear... buy all kinds of silly accessories we are sure will help...

and we are so proud of our little scraggly accomplishments.

Well... that last guy's accomplishments aren't so scraggly....

Anyway.... No one can dampen our spirits!

If bad weather rolls around... a bad growing season... a few bad rounds... lightning...
Well, just you never mind...

We just hang up our trowels and clubs when the season is over, and dream until we can try again the next year. Golfers and gardeners are gluttons for punishment. But it does not really matter. Either activity gets us outside, enjoying ourselves hopefully somewhere green, and we are striving to learn and master that which can never be mastered... even by Tiger.

This year for my garden I am thinking of trying the permaculture, food not lawn, vegetables as annual kinda thing. Our water IS limited, the hose length is limited, and so is the season. So to best take advantage of that I think I will be interspersing my veggies with my flowers.

Anyway.. it is sure fun planning it all. I doubt it will look anything like that photo
but it is fun to dream.

LATE BREAKING UPDATE:
I wrote this post yesterday... the first day of spring... the Vernal Equinox...
You see I was planning on finalizing it today.
This morning I woke up to 3 inches of snow covering everything that was once brown. Sigh.

Mad I tell ya.

Tricky Turkeys and Hobbits

So, I was on my way to work the other day and thought I would take some snaps for you.

Remember if you want to see the picture bigger just point the cursor on the picture, click on your right mouse and open in a new tab or window and then close it when you are done. OR just click on the picture and then hit the back button when you want to come back to the post.

Anyway... just imagine me driving along, waiving my camera out the window... kinda like that fellow I mentioned in a previous post, just stopping my car in the middle of the road to get a picture. It is not so odd!

At least I can take pictures without undoing my pants....
most of the time.

JUST KIDDING!

Somewhere in town there is probably a yooper with a blog writing about what an odd character this new California girl is. Hmm.. I kinda doubt it.

A yooper by the way is what they call folks from the Upper Peninsula... it is kinda like Okie, or Arkie, or Hillbilly, or redneck just from Upper Michigan.

This is the road right before Kennedy's cabins, Mom and Dad may recognize it. On the right side, I should have taken a picture, up closer to Khris and Brenda's house there is a den dug out of the dirt on the right side of the road. It was not a fox den, way too big and someone told me it was a badger den. adgers apparently take over dens they find as they migrate through an area.

I suppose badgers can take over what they want...

From Wikipedia:

"Badgers are capable of fighting off much larger animals such as wolves, coyotes, and bears. Badgers can run or gallop at up to 25-30 km per hour for short periods of time."

I am not positive, but I bet I can not gallop at 25 - 30 kms per hour
so I guess I will have to leave them alone.

BUT every time I drive by I crane my neck to see down into it... but I am not about to stop and get out and walk over and take a picture... but it makes me crazy because I want to do it so bad!

It is like when a waitress brings you a plate and says be careful the plate is hot... the first damn thing you do is touch the plate. Geez.

DROP THE RING FRODO!
Leave the badger alone Rebecca!

Anyway... back to the drive to work.... just a few more views below:

Oh and the picture below is Big Red.

Big Red is just starting to turn.. the kind of maple it is goes from darker green to RED RED RED no in between. The other maples go bright greeny to yellow into orange and then red before they drop. One is a hard maple the other a soft one.. we have not figured out which is which yet they are so close a species. This picture shows Big Red only about 1/3 turned. I will post a picture when it is all red.

The other day after working all day long we decided to take the boat out. Jerry had left his at the launching area and with the wideness of his boat and the electric motor it makes for a much easier ride than our canoe. You see when we go, we all get in the boat and Delta who weighs over 90 lbs paces in the canoe... it makes for a bumpy ride!

So first a view of the house while we were walking down to the boat ramp...

Just so you know... soon those trees surrounding the house will be red too!

Here is a picture of part of the view that has been calling us from the windows of the house.

Delta absolutely loves to go out... she spotted some other folks in a boat (Kennedy's guests probably) and was wondering what they were doing out on her lake...

She stands on the bank at our place and barks when fishermen try to anchor their boats out in front of our yard. She also jumps in from the shore and from the boat and swims around... but did not this time. Thank goodness.

Cosmo likes to go but he is not nearly as active. He is not into all that swimming business. He would rather you just hold him and keep him warm while he takes in the view. Tyrant.

The rest of these were taken while in the boat.

Here is Kennedy's main boat dock:

Very pretty.

We yardsaling again the other day. We being me, Karen, Joy and Richard. About 20-30 miles away in Ewen they were having a log jamboree celebration and several people were taking advantage of the traffic and decided to have a yard sale. These one folks had an old Edison music thingy. I guess it is not technically called a Victrola because it was Edison's but he put on a wax thing and we listened while in his garage while folks picked through his ... sale items. The player looked brand new by the way, he had several music rolls, a cover for the machine, and he wanted $900 for it. :)

Then near the end of the day... Karen decided she was going play a joke on Jerry and bought a turkey decoy to put out in the yard. She wanted us fellow yard salers (Me, Richard, and Joy) to keep it a secret so she could surpise him. Here is a picture of Joy (Jerry's sister and David's aunt) bringing the turkey back to the car... the 'bird' sat by me on the way home.

The other day Mom and Dad got me a house warming gift certificate for plants from High Country Gardens. I have to admit I have been getting their catalogs now and then for awhile but was unsure about ordering. However, I saw they were mentioned in Martha Stewart Magazine and went for it. The plants arrived packaged extremely well and the soil was still damp!!!

They even sent along a planting guide and a free gift! Yeeehoooo!

One of the plants I ordered is a Red Hobbit.

Um... no.... more like this:

It is a Red Hobbit columbine and it is a baby right now ready to be planted in fall as they suggested for my zone and in the spring after the snow melts they should pop up nicely! Here is the baby now. I got three I think:


Anyway, I got a combo of reds, and oranges, whites and yellows for front yard. Poppies, yarrows, daffodils, day lilies, hostas, snowbells, aliums, etc. I had some stuff already but then ordered the special stuff from the catalog.

I think I will stick with those colors for the front as it is rather shaded. Also got some ornamental grass that will go along the drive down towards the lake. I love those!

FYI- I highly recommend the catalog and the plants arrived in great shape.

Good tip Martha! Or should I say...

It's a good thing.

Beer, Brats, Boobs, and the Bible

As I mentioned I went to Green Bay the other day for some training. While I was there I noted that Green Bay is a much smaller city that I always thought (a little over 100k people) and it seems to be currently revitalizing itself.

As I have just started traveling around, I find it so interesting in different states because of the different state cultures... California definitely has one and can even be broken down into distinct Northern and Southern California differences. During my brief stay in Wisconsin, I just started noticing a bit of a cultural clue that was especially obvious in Green Bay... they have a fondness for Beer, Brats, Boobs, and Bible. I am not sure if Wisconsin is considered bible belt country but it seemed like every other radio station had some kinda religious thing going on. I drove around a bit looking for the downtown area and wandered into Olde Town. Olde Town had several breweries and 'dancing halls'... 'gentleman clubs'... 'strip joints'... whatever you wanna call them. As I was driving I even saw a gal who fit the stereotype of a stripper walking down the street towards her car. She had on some whoppin' high heels, a mini skirt, the obligatory long blond hair (obligatory for both the Midwest and for strippers), a button down white shirt, and a fedora. I was wondering when the ZZ top music was going to start.

However, to defend Green Bay, this is not particular to Green Bay. When I crossed the Michigan border into Wisconsin I had to pass through a town called Spread Eagle. There is a golf course there, a couple of bars... in a row... some miscellaneous shops, and of course a nearby exotic dance club. As I drove through these areas I was desperately hitting scan on my radio over and over to try to get away from both the mild christian rock stations to the fiery... 'you are going to burn in hell for eternity if you do ____ (enter the appropriate sin here)' talk shows. It was all very interesting and by the way...

Oh I almost forgot... they are big on cheese too! I even saw a Cheese and Candy shop! I tried to get a picture of it but it was too blurry.

Just so you all know so I don't get any crazy comments about Wisconsin... from what I saw... Wisconsin is a beautiful, clean state. Green Green Green and the people were all very friendly.

Speaking of green, when I was not training I went to Green Bay's botanical gardens. I really enjoyed it, and I think when I am in different cities for an extended period I might start looking into going to more of these. There is a great one just outside of Fort Bragg, California that our family always enjoyed. When they are organized nicely and not too expensive these can be a fun relaxing detour. Some let you bring leashed dogs, others allow picnics... find out where your local one is and give it a try!

The Green Bay gardens cost $5 to enter, it was a sunny very warm day, and the gardens are organized very well. This post is going to be mostly pictures of the gardens I saw... I have to tell you that I started taking pictures before I even made it in the gate! Their parking lot and entrance had great displays! I will put little comments here and there... maybe. I also had an ulterior motive while I was there. I wanted to get more ideas for our yard and thought a similar climate botanical gardens would be just the spot. So without further ado....

Down the garden path we will go...

Check it out below... those ferny looking things in the background are not ferns.. they are rainbow swiss chard! Very edible (Like a spinach or beet green) and pretty too! They were planted in large swaths with flowers in between. This is a great idea... on a much smaller scale of course, unless you are REALLY into Rainbow Swiss Chard.

And then below look at this contrasting planting. It is petunias and an ornamental pepper! Look how dark those leaves are! It was a cool planting there was a large grouping of them interwoven to show off the contrast. One could have the same effect I bet with flowers and the darker purple basils.

I liked that grouping above because of all the different types of leaves you can see in the picture. Spiny ones, round ones, pointy ones and then there is the different colors.

These two below were part of the children's garden area. This small bridge led to a large playset. This picture unfortunately did not do it justice. The plantings were all whimsical and wild.

The second picture is a close up of the interior of a covered bridge... it was an arched bridge, actually nearly horseshoe shaped, and the wire frame itself had tendrils so in the winter when the winding plants died off it would still look natural and plant-like. Very nice.

and then in the center of the herb garden:

and then this... and I quote from the Green Bay Botanical Garden website:

Stumpf Belvedere - The Belvedere is an example of an early Grecian Gazebo. The stars, clouds, and moon cut into its roof capture the poetry of the view as much as the quote from Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Ellen Kort.

The Belvedere was so cool!
The light showed through the top and made glowing reflections on the inside of the dome.





The poem carved into the base wraps around the inside edge of the bench:

and then my favorite... the Vanderperren English Cottage Garden:

Then finally ... I left the garden, and I left training.

After 3 1/2 long days I headed home...

As quickly as I was rolling out of town, a storm was quickly rolling in. It was getting darker, and windier, and kinda wild looking. I am not quite sure what kind of storm it was because while trying to find a radio station that was not telling me how naughty I was, I only heard the end of the radio emergency beeping thing after hearing an announcer say...

"...if you are near shelter take cover" then beeep.. beeeeep... beeeeep..

and then the christians started singing and yelling again. I was like... "what?! what did that guy just say?! what was that?!" Once again I was frantically pushing the scan button to see if the emergency notice was going to be repeated on some other channel.

It wasn't.
Well, that's helpful.

You see, I am a newby to this Midwest storm thing so when I hear an emergency signal where someone is actually talking... and it is not just a test of the emergency broadcasting system... I always think about Dorothy and Toto...

I know I know... they were fortunate enough to be in Kansas. ;)
But you never know where a tornado might pop up...
they are kinda like ninjas that way.

So, I looked around real quick to make sure that storm did not have a tail growing...
(took a picture just to share)
then clicked my heels three times and wished for home.