Grandma's Roses

I unboxed and washed my Grandma's tea set.   Washing the last piece, the teapot, I realized I was washing them in her old dish pan, too.  This immediately took me back to many hot Kansas summer days standing at her kitchen sink using the same dish pan.  And sitting out under the big shade tree for the afternoon.  She's been gone for 23 years.    

Here is the rest of the tea set.  It has moved on to the hands of a family I hope will have many tea parties to remember.

Recent Adventures

I'm back in Washington after two plus weeks. And I've returned with possible new garden assistants! My Mom, her three pets and I just drove the 1,800+ miles from Kansas to Washington. Her household stuff for her apartment won't arrive until later this week.

I suggested some garden work until then, but she isn't convinced it is warm enough outside (I'm happy about that after enduring days of near 100 degrees while we packed & loaded stuff in KS).

A Rose of Sharon from KS. The mimosa trees were blooming too, but the wind didn't let me take a clear photo.

The cats settled in to travel very well (& I think they appreciated air conditioning). The dog likes car trips. The car developed had a few mechanical issues, but the Park City UT Ford shop took care of us.

DH planted my broccoli, lettuce, pumpkin and squash seedlings while I was gone. The beans, peas and tomatoes really grew also. I hope to get out there, and around to visit your garden blogs, sometime this week.

On to the Inside Garden

This is the orchid DH sister gave us in Oct. 2005. Every year, about this time, it blooms (& for a long time). I've divided it once and now both pots need divided again. I always thought orchids where finicky but this one seems quite content! Maybe it is simply who it came from. See more of Sis' special gifts in earlier posts: the Moose, the Angel and the Potholders.

It sits in our magic kitchen window. That's my grandmother's pig shaped cutting board behind it. We have spent a lot of time at this window watching those hummingbirds during these frozen days.

...And just in case we never thaw, I'm growing my own coffee trees.

Race 4 Ty

This post is in support of Jennifer and her inspiration, Ty, as she prepares for the Ironman triathlon competition in Hawaii in October (above, Jennifer, Ty & his mom, Karen). Ty is 11 years old and lives every moment to the fullest! He also has Niemann-Pick Disease, a rare neurological disease.

Please visit Race 4 Ty to read more. Whether it is visits to the site, awareness of the disease, or fund donations, your support will make a difference to Ty and other young people living with this rare disease. Jennifer explains more about NPD here in her post Niemann-Pick Disease Awareness Month.

Her goal is to create an awareness of this disease by raising $10,000 for the National Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation to put toward funding a post-doctoral fellowship researching Niemann-Pick type C disease.

When I first moved to the northwest, I received a call from my dear great-aunt. She wanted me to contact her granddaughter who also lived in the area. That's when I first met Karen, Gene and their young son (at that time) Tim. Before long, Ty joined the family, too. Ahhh, the plays and quiddich games we've attended with this family! (I'll look for pictures to post from the one quiddich game we survived.)

Adventures and movie making where right up young Ty's alley. As a grade-schooler, though, a series of health issues eventually lead to the NPD diagnosis. The family adventures continue, but also a tireless quest for NPD research, supportive resources for families and doctors and a cure. And thus, an inspiration to be found in Ty, his family and the supporting community far and near.

Thank you, Jennifer, and all who read this, for furthering Ty's education and research mission.

Paula

It's in the mail!

The "Advanced Uncorrected Proof" version of DH's Dad's autobiography is in the mail to DH's siblings (and one to you, too, Dad)! "Auto"biography really, as he recorded most of it while on car trips. Printed double-sided on 3-hole punched paper, it's notebook ready. See this post from last Jan. And this post with a garden bit from the stories.

You're next, Mom, so get ready for those questions from the pesky publisher! (...but maybe after the seed order is written.)

And for anyone who would like to start writing your own to share with your family, I'm happy to share sources of questions and short story subjects to help you get started.

Christmas Garden III

Sweet Return for Santa! This is the nice pace during the 12 days of Christmas, now underway. With time to sit back and smooch. Doesn't this bench look like DH's bench ? (Ahhh, and remember the summer view from the bench?)

One little part of Grandma's salt and pepper shaker collection, here. I loved looking at all of the little treasures she had behind the glass doors built in a little niche in her house. Not that they stayed behind the doors. We would take them out, hold them, move them around. At least the doors kept them less dusty and out of harms way during the daily activities of life.

Christmas Garden II

Well, now I have failed fudge. I just realized I left out the vanilla, and it also doesn't have quite the right consistency. I've made this recipe before, but not on this stove top. Either too much or too little heat or cooking time. Or does the vanilla help smooth it out?

So I'm back to posting another Christmas Memory Garden photo. I started to call it Santa Garden yesterday, but I don't really have many Santas. Now, however, I'm seeing that my childhood memories are full of Santas. These Santa mugs are from my parent's collection, probably originally from the 1950's. We had a set of windows with large wooden dividers. The mugs sat in those windows every Christmas. It is a wonder they didn't get broken. I remember playing with them when I got a chance. "L's" cheeks are a little frost bitten, rather than just rosy. I've not found a backup/replacement, though.

Now that I think about it, I'll ask my mom about these. Other items I have were my grandmother's, but I think these started out with my mom.

Happy Chistmas Memory Gardening, to you! And I'm going to have another go at fudge. Maybe the peanut butter fudge this time...

Christmas Garden

During these days when it dark when I leave and dark when I come home, I turn to the garden inside of the house. Like the garden outside, the most treasured bits are those that are connected to friends and family.

This Santa has been in my Christmases for as along as I can remember. It was crocheted by my grandmother and fitted over a whisky bottle or something similar. As you can see, it is made up of separate parts. As a child, you know I loved these movable parts. How many kitties slightly tolerated a Santa hat for a few moments?

From last December postings you can see other treasures: From Sis, the angel and the reindeer.

Place Your Seed Orders

Thanks to my Dear Sis-in-Law, I have a new seed source! Many unusual and new (for 1890) varieties. And many I've never heard of before.
My pumpkins won't make it to 150 pounds, and I do expect their real value to be in the pie!
But don't these Cocoanut/Coconut Squash seem like just the thing for manageable squash meals? Every heard of them? I did a little searching and didn't find a current version of this variety.

Thanks, Sis, for sending this! It will be fun comparing varieties. Love the drawings and descriptions too. I'd post more flowers for you but without the cosmos this year, the bouquets are just not the same.

Garden of Memories

On a daily basis there is a garden inside the house I enjoy. Today, I'm remembering my Dad and his mother, my Grandmother. I'm also celebrating that I've been able to grow the garden a little more. Here is the addition to my garden:When my Grandmother died almost 20 years ago, a little before my wedding, my family sent me me home with a number if items from my Grandmother's house. This included a stainless flatware set that my husband and I still use every day. I'd never been able to confirm the manufacture or find any additional pieces, until now. All I had to go on was the "Rose USA Stainless" on the handles. As you can see in my new addition, I now know the pattern is from Sears Roebuck and Co. , which doesn't surprise me. This ceritificate is dated Dec. 25, 1958. My set is probably about the same age.
Flatware is more difficult to photograph than vegetables, but here you get the idea of the Rose pattern. I've always liked it and my set has worn very well through the years of use, although the flat knife blades are showing wear, probably brought about after we moved to a house with a dishwasher. Plus, I wanted more place settings to use.
For the past year, I've been internet searching now and then to see what might pop up. Nothing, until a few weeks ago when this set popped up on E-bay. I was amazed, to say the least.
And and other bidder too! Fortunately, they didn't know how much I wanted it and I won with a very reasonable bid.

Grandmother was a vegetable gardener and loved colorful flowers. She had a large rambling rose bush at her house. I suspect someone bought the set for her, to replace the miss-matched silverware / flatware she used everyday. She was used to "making do" with what she had so I think she kept the new set for special occasions. My Dad has also been gone for 3 years now so I don't think I'll ever know more about our set.

Just like the items I brought back from our Kansas trip, for inside and outside the house, I love the life in family pieces. A walk though the garden involves discussing the hows and whys of the plants found in it and a visit to the inside garden has its stories too. If you visit, you'll have to see this inside rose garden too.

Baker's Friends & Family

Every baking experience needs a special potholder, well, one for each hand. After taking the last of the pumpkin out of the oven last night using the darker blue potholder above, I decided to share it tonight. This collection has been given to us over the years by my sister-in-law. Yes, this is DH's sister who made the angel and the moose.

The top right one is a pieced Christmas work that provides year-round calm in the kitchen. I love the fabrics she uses. The green one is a wonderful garden of its own and should have its own picture so you can see all of it. The purple one is another year-round Christmas favorite.

Can you tell what the two round ones are from? Blue jeans! You can see where a pocket had been on the light blue one. I think these round ones were made for a fundraiser by a community group she's in. I must say every time I use them, I remark how wonderful they are. Just the right size for my hand and no corners to end up stuck in the food. The old denim has such a nice feel and they wash up very nicely. How lucky we are to have such creative and generous family!

Sunshine in a Glass

Dear Husband (DH) recently returned from visiting his Dear Parents (DP) in parts south of here...way south. He returned with a nice citrus mix from their garden. From one jumbo lemon, like the one behind the glass, and a few small ones, he made lemonade tonight. After one glass, I feel as sun-kissed as the grapefruit there in the front.

Winter Comfort

Some sun and no rain for several days motivated us to trim some brambles in one corner of the property. This area has been behind a fence. Now that the sheep are gone, we've removed some of the fence. The brambles will grow back, but if we keep the area trimmed, it may be manageable. I forgot to take photos, though.

All I want to do now is have a warm dinner, almost ready, and curl up with a quilt. First, here is the quilt I mentioned at the end of this recent post. Grandma G made this for me when I was quite small and I used it for a long time. It is thin and frayed in spots and I've had it tucked away with other treasures in this nice chest made for me by DH's Dad (seen also in this post of the Winter Garden runner). Grandma often tied quilts rather than quilting them. I would hunt the quilt for the strings that needed retieing, especially when I was sick or not sleepy.
The back of the quilt has fabrics I recognized from Grandma's dresses, curtains, aprons and other projects. I loved looking at the different fabrics.

I had a dress made from the red and white fabric with little hearts, used as an edging for the quilt. I think I had a dress or doll dress from the bright green fabric near the bottom right corner above. Its design is little lettuce heads!

Importance of Garden Variety

The DP's stories are in the works, as planned for January. Just haven't had as much time to spend as hoped. I do try to make some progress even if I only have an hour.

Dad's taped stories are typed, but I'm making the edits he gave me the last time he was here, as well as looking for the missed "s" or "ed" or "is" where it should be "it" that spell catcher just doesn't notice.

This is my not always so helpful assistant.


I hope he won't mind me sharing this story from the 1920s-1930s: "We always had a garden out in the backyard. The only thing that would grow in in that dumb garden was GREEN BEANS. We had to spade it, plant them, weed them, water them, pick them and snap them. Mother was never happy until she had 200 quarts of them canned and down in the fruit cellar. Then we would eat green beans all winter long. I have violently disliked green beans ever since!" Although, later we learn he continued to eat them until the last child (my husband) moved out.

So, helping the garden grow a variety of vegetables is a good idea.

A Winter Garden of Sorts

This is for Anita at My Country Cottage Garden. Every time I see her quilted & needlework creations, I think of this little table runner. So, I have taken it out to enjoy for the post holiday/pre-spring season. My Great-Grandmother H. gave it to me. It was either her Aunt or Great-Aunt that had made it a long time ago. I wonder if she made it during the winter when she couldn't garden and needed something colorful. The stitching makes me think of flowers & garden patterns.
It is made from silk, satin and velvet pieces. Scraps I'm sure, some from ties. Maybe coat and hat linings, dresses and who know what else. My G-Grandmother said the plain center was a place for the things usually found on a table. I wasn't willing to do that, so it is adding color in the living room instead.
I have another piece I'll share later in the week. The days past are also on my mind as I have some time to spend with DP's stories today.

Petunia Hibernates, Gardener Publishes

Petunia is deep in hibernation about now, I hope. She won't notice that her gardener is working on another project. Surely there will be seeds left in February I can order! Or you will help me out and send me your leftovers. What takes priority over seed ordering and garden planning?

Dear Husband's (DH) Dear Parents (DP) have each been working on sharing stories from their childhood and adult life. One wrote out pages and one made tape recordings. We've been working on getting each of their stories typed and organized into computer files. This has been a long, long term project... and we all hope to wrap it up in January (of course, their stories are still in progress, so wrap it up for now, anyway).

So, I've heard that writing down goals really helps make them happen. Sharing with others even more so. I hope you'll stick with me this month as I try to focus on this project. I also hope it makes any of you even remotely interested in writing your own stories to get started. Sure, our blogs document a lot, but what about all those years before blogs?

I have loved learning about DP's lives especially as children and young adults in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Day to day life has always fascinated me. Have you seen Carol's (May Dreams Gardens) Grandmother's diary? I also have a box of letters between by Grandparents and my Dad when he was in the Navy, and others who sent cards and letters to my Grandparents. That box is where my Christmas card sentiment and the New Year's card came from.

If you are interested but aren't sure about how to start, there are many resources and tools out there. Some are simple questions to spur ideas, some are examples of how others wrote theirs. If you want to know more, let me know. Most important, is just to start writing it down. Computer files let you go back and tie up loose ends as you need to later.

DPs have some garden related stories included too. Maybe they'll let me share a few to keep Petunia happy in case she checks up on me.

Christmas comes early (to good gardeners)

Special delivery Arizona grown and dried gourds:
Remember these bottle neck/bird house gourds growing on our pumpkin patch fence? We called DH's brother for some expert advice as we could not see how they would ever dry. Just about hopeless in the Pacific Northwest is what we all decided (see below). Brother M recognized the disappointed sound in my voice and surprised us with a nice variety of quality AZ dried gourds!

Washington grown and mostly rotting gourds, in the barn: And a few trying to dry in the house:
Thanks, Brother M! This is indeed better than my suggestion of mailing you our moldy, undrying ones.

A box on our doorstep!

And it doesn't say "Do not open until Christmas!" But just in case, Santa, note this isn't me.

Christmas Welcome

This cheery banner hangs in our entry every Christmas. It is another creation from Sis. DH has had this one longer than he's had me, I think. The garden (& other) critters are a joy to have around during these rainy, dark days.