Tag Archives: Garden

Embracing Change: Seasonal Reflections in Florida

14 Apr

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Time. Where does it go?

In January I wrote about the hard freeze in Florida. The usual vibrant landscape was shriveled and brown.

To our new Florida residents, the landscape could be depressing, but to veteran Floridians, we know spring would bring new beautiful growth to most plants.

January

March

January Dead Shrubbery

March New Growth

Subdivision Landscape

These plants aren’t coming back

DEAD AMARYLLIS AND TREE

The amaryllis looked dreadful and the browning continued for weeks. Then one day in late March the bulbs put out new green leaves. The plants are family heirlooms, brought to Florida when my parents moved to Florida in the 1950s. I had been feeling sad that they might be gone forever.( I forgot to take a picture of the new growth.)

Moving forward- Valentines Day

We aren’t big on the trappings of Valentines celebrations. Crowded restaurants, kind of ruin the romance vibe. Two years ago Culver’s restaurant opened in our town. They specialize in ice cream with the Flavor of the Day rotating through out the month. If the restaurant doesn’t sell out of the flavor of the day, they pack it into pint containers and place them in a glass front freezer for sale.

Thus was born our Valentine’s day tradition. We include our daughter in the fun. Each of us chooses a flavor of a pint of ice cream. Then we share them among us. It may seem weird, but for us it is fun.

March-Spring Craft Fair

Our town has a spring and fall craft fair. This is the third year our daughter has participated. My husband has taken up carving walking sticks.and this year he joined our daughter to sell them.

The event is held at a large park on the Indian river. The day was absolutely gorgeous, a cool morning breeze and blue skies. As I walked the grounds, checking out the wares, I marveled at the beauty we were blessed with.

April Fool’s Day

Launch day for Artemis 2. To be honest, we thought choosing to launch on April Fool’s Day was not a wise choice. We were wrong.

As the count down marched toward 5 minutes and counting, several neighbors walked outside to watch as I did, from our front yards. It was a flawless day and a flawless launch. My husband, recuperating from surgery said the launch rocked the windows. There’s nothing like the rumble that penetrates the body.

And now comes May

The next two weeks of April with be busy with visits from Physical and Occupational therapies, working to get my husband strong enough to return the our beloved North Carolina mountains. Our cameras show the greening up of the dormant plants, my peonies are coming up and I can’t wait to see them.

I would like to say that I will be blogging more regularly once we are back in the mountains, but the days fly by so darn fast! We installed a bird camera over Christmas, maybe I will share pictures of our feathered visitors.

These are from January.

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Unexpected Visitors: Mice

5 Jun

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

I planned to post a blog last week, but became caught up in dealing with one and maybe more unpleasant visitors…mice. And they were hanging out in my walk in closet.

We had these unwanted visitors in the past but thought that we had foamed any possible entry.

Needless to say I was horrified when I opened my closet door and found what looked like shelled peanuts on the floor. I slammed the closet door, yelling for my husband.

I thought it was peanuts because I keep extra non perishable items in a heavy duty storage tote in my closet. Turns out it wasn’t peanuts but a package of dried beans. The horrid creature had chewed a hole in the storage tote and feasted on the beans. I still can’t wrap my mind about something so small chewing that hole.

I wonder if the beans gave them gas.

As we cleaned up the mess we checked the whole closet, pulling out everything. It was exhausting. Along with the mess we discovered that the wretch had damaged two sweaters, one that was my mothers and a favorite one of mine. My husband said the vermin was trying to nest.

That idea sent me into “the vapors’ or it would have if I were a Victorian lady.

We also cleared out two other closets. Thankfully there were no signs in them.

We put out traps and sticky pads and captured two of them. We haven’t seen any new activity for several days, but I still search my closet several times a day.

I am so over the mice. Any tips for mice destruction appreciated.

On a more pleasant note, I am enjoying the changes in the landscape.

In winter, our yard is stark and open, with bare trees silhouettes against the sky. Their leafless branches reveal the road and neighboring houses in full view.

Come summer, the trees transform, their branches heavy with lush, green foliage that weaves a a verdant curtain and closes off the outside world. It shrouds the yard in privacy, the road and houses vanish from sight.

Time to get the lawn mower going!

May is my favorite month in the mountains, that is when the peonies bloom. They are my favorite flower.

I also have a beautiful reddish Peony plant but it bloomed while we were on an unexpected vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. More on that next time.

Last year’s blooms

We aren’t great at growing annuals in the clay soil here. Pots and hanging baskets fulfill my desire for lots of blooms with out the failures. This is my favorite flowering basket. It doesn’t tolerate cold so it “winters” in Florida with us. This may be its final summer here in the mountains as it has become too bulky to easily travel.

Don’t forget, if you have any tips for ousting the mice, please leave it in comments.

I’ll close this post with a picture of granddad Ollie. Our daughter and Ollie came to visit in April.

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I’m a general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2025 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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To Plant a Garden

24 May

A Life to Live

Melody Hendrix

 

garden

 

I am retired and enjoying life. My hobbies are my 5 grandchildren, son and daughter, and my loving husband. I am a photographer and extreme nature lover. I love spending time in my garden or in the wilderness connected to God my Creator.

Melody

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Keukenhof Gardens, Holland~Part 2

5 Apr

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

2

 

Last time, I wrote about the Keukenhof Gardens, in Lisse, Holland. We so thoroughly enjoyed our visits there, and want to share this beautiful place with everyone we know.

3

Here is some history about the tulips we found interesting from the Fluwell website:

“during World War 2, people ate tulip bulbs. The only reason for this was hunger. The Netherlands suffered a great famine in the winter of 1944-1945. Eating tulip bulbs is not something our ancestors did for fun, they did it because there was nothing else to eat.

 Many Dutchmen of certain age remember the famine and the tulip bulbs they ate. In our theme park Tulpenland, we have a lot of customers that share their memories with us. They sometimes still find it difficult to see tulip bulbs back, although they know that we use them only for flowers, not for food. Hunger is a deep emotion that is not easily forgotten.

 The Dutch famine was the result of the lost Battle of Arnhem (1944), when allied forces failed to liberate the northern provinces of the country. The northern provinces became isolated from the liberated parts of Europe. Food stocks ran out, as did fuel stocks. Then a harsh winter began. Thousands of Dutch citizens starved or froze to death.

 Due to the war situation, tulip growers had not planted tulip bulbs that year; so great amounts of tulip bulbs were stocked on farms throughout the country. During the famine authorities decided to use these stocks as food for the starving populations. The old, dry tulip bulbs were sold in grocery stores, and newspapers published recipes with tulips. The tulip bulbs were nutritious and relatively easy to cook, so that less fuel was needed.

 The tulip bulbs that people ate in the Second World War cannot be compared with modern day, fresh tulip bulbs. The war bulbs were old and dry and did not taste like fresh tulips. A fresh tulip bulb has a sweet, milky flavor that is actually not very bad. The tulip bulbs that were eaten during the war had a very bitter and dry taste instead.

 Eating tulip bulbs is not as bad as it sounds like, as long as you eat fresh tulips that were not sprayed. Unfortunately, such bulbs were not available during the last winter of WW2. It is important that this sad history is not forgotten. Dutch children are still raised with the words: you are not hungry, you only have appetite (Je hebt geen honger, je hebt trek). Real hunger makes you eat everything you can get, even old, dry tulip bulbs, as they were eaten during the Dutch famine.”

 

Amazing!

Just a side note here – there is a wonderful place to visit outside The Hague, called Madurodam. It is a miniature city, built to scale. It includes the normal things you would find in a city – churches, office buildings, and even Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, with working airplanes. It’s a fun thing to see during the day, but miniature lights come on at night, and it’s quite the fairyland.

14

 

The family of Old Things R New wishes each of our visitors a blessed Easter. He is risen!

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Thanks For Sitting With Me

26 Apr

An elderly neighbor has a good size garden. Each spring two or three lawn chairs are set in the shade on their vacant property heralding the beginning of planting season. Someone tills the land and stakes appear for the tomatoes. The plants always flourish; the garden is a model of tidiness and weed free. At harvest time the vegetables are picked and then the garden begins its winter rest. Seldom do I see who does the work although I often see men resting underneath the shade.

I am thinking this is similar to creating a book, painting or raising a family. We see the fruit but don’t always see the actual work and like the farmer it’s nice to have someone to rest with in the shade.

Here is a picture of my attempt at a winter garden. It was so warm in Florida I started a potato bag. Unfortunately the vines didn’t like the transition to a western North Carolina spring and all but one died. Can’t wait to plant again.

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