The New Blue Bottle Bush

...is actually a tree. The one we made last year had issues--it kept bending and the bottles were falling off. So we regrouped this Spring, Larry climbed the tree, and voila!

The blue balls are from '60's candle holders that were in a $2 box of junk at the auction. I love them hanging on the tree.

I think it's perfect, and there is plenty of room for more bottles. This time we corked them and hung them with wire. I need a few small corks for some small bottles that are not on the tree yet.

The brownie seems to like his new neighbor pretty well.

Look closely at this photo. You may need to click on it to make it large. Do you see a face in there? Kinda creepy--I think we've caught our first evil spirit!

Jaime's Blog

If you have a few minutes, do visit my daughter-in-law Jaime's blog.

Her recent posts about a fishing trip to an abandoned brickmaking town called Hammond are just fascinating--great photos of old buildings, rocks and the river. There's plenty of history there too.

And then there is that sexy tractor...

And recipes for making homemade seasonings, too.

You really do need to pay her a visit!

Springtime, No Time

In the garden this past weekend. The last tulips were fading fast in the heat, but the poppies and spirea are coming on strong behind them and will be in bloom soon.

Every year it's the same dilemma. Spring arrives and all the gardening is waiting to happen. Plants need to be transplanted. Weeds need to be pulled. Wildflowers and woodlands beckon. House repairs need to be done. We decide what animals to raise this year and start that project. Inside the house, the need to clean is obvious.

Storytelling calls come in. I want to write and write and write, inspired by the beauty of the season. Family visits. We visit family. Workshops are offered. Festivals begin.

At the same time, work--my way-from-home job--takes more and more time. Last fall, some of you might remember, I quit. But I was persuaded to stay and then the economy sank into the toilet. So maybe it was a good thing to stay. Money for storytellers and the arts in general is drying up, as usual the first cost-cutting in a tight-money time.

Early morning in downtown Charleston, WV. So pretty before the morning traffic! I was in at 6:30am on this day for a special project.

Now it's Spring and going to work is more difficult than ever. I need to stay late every evening and I feel guilty when I take time off (although that doesn't stop me!). Weekends for the next month are booked solid; since I thought I was going to be free, I didn't mind booking weekends because I thought I was going to have weekdays off anyway. Now I'm facing May and not a single clear weekend ahead.

Having Larry at home full-time is great, and probably the only way I'm going to maintain my sanity. He takes care of gardens, cleans, takes care of animals, watches after my greenhouse. He makes my breakfast, packs my lunch, brews my coffee for the road and makes my morning tea. I try not to look around too much as I head out the door so that I don't see all the things I'd rather be doing.

For the next several years I will be going through this same Spring ritual, I suppose. Last year my problems with my knee gave me the unexpected luxury of a month off--a month! I. Loved. It. Even with a painful knee I got a lot done, and I also did a lot of just sitting and looking as anyone who read my blog last year can tell. It was bliss, punctuated with pain, but worth it.

I've contemplated "twisting" my knee again. Think anyone would notice the coincidence? But I know I could not do it--I'm just not that good a liar except when I'm telling stories. I'd feel guilty, knowing that back at work someone was carrying a lot of my load while I played hooky. So it's not an option.

Instead, I'll be juggling what I love to do with what I must do each day. I will continue to be thankful that so far we can still afford for Larry to stay home (even if he does occasionally weedwhack something he shouldn't!). And I will try to remember to be grateful that I have a good job with good people to work with. Complaining about a job these days is heresy, isn't it?

Now, if there were just some way to be in two places at once...surely with all the technological advances someone could manage to invent that.

Meantime, while I wait for that invention, I'll keep reminding myself that I am indeed a lucky woman. I have a healthy family, lots of love, laughter and friends in my life, can pay my bills and I live in the place I love. I should be satisfied with that. And I am. But I am counting down the days to when my time is my own to spend as I wish. What riches that would be!

Missed Communication

We're fighting back against the deer this year. Almost every vegetable garden will have an electric fence. We have...let's see...5 gardens. So far three have electric around them. One will be left without because I think what we're planting there--pumpkins, winter squash, Indian corn--might not be so attractive to deer. We'll see.

But there are times when our planning goes awry.

"Yes, fence in the little garden," I said. "I've planted strawberries in there and you remember what happened to the patch we planted last year. The deer ate the new leaves as soon as they popped up and the poor plants never had a chance. And I've got broccoli in there too."

We were okay so far. I showed him the garden; he agreed to fence the whole thing.

That's where we got off track. I went to work. He got to work on the fence.

When I came home, I saw this.

"Ack! Why did you cut down the iris? They're not in the vegetable garden!"

"You said fence the whole thing! That's what I did!" He was justifiably indignant. He thought he'd done an excellent job. By gollies, nothing was gonna get those flowers!

Well, of course I see these beds as separate gardens. Flower bed, vegetable bed. But they adjoin, so to someone not of my mind, they're the same garden.

Sigh. The iris were too close to the sidewalk anyway. But they were this close to blooming. I planned to pull out the bed this fall and replant somewhere else. But they were this close to blooming!

If you should stop by for a visit this summer, be a little careful when you come up the walk. It may be a lot more stimulating than you bargained for.

A Special Visitor

We came home from the feed store one Sunday afternoon to find a strange gentleman perched on our porch steps.

He looked as if he'd stepped right out of a fairy tale. Perhaps even from the book Broonies, Silkies and Fairies by Duncan Williamson. He wore a peaked red cap, a green shirt and brown trousers, and he carried a long wood walking stick.

I must say that he did not even attempt to explain himself. Instead he heighed off to one of my flower beds and he has remained there ever since.

He does occasionally change his location, I've found. Today, for example he decided to lean against the birdhouse pole and watch me weed.


I hope he stays a long time, and I will do my best not to irritate this little fellow who is obviously a brownie (or broonie or brounie, take your pick). The best way to aggravate him is to offer him new clothes. Since his outfit seems to be stuck fast to his back, I think there's no danger of that.

Brownies are good to have around--they will do your work for you, clean and cook and weed and hoe. But they are touchy too, and it's easy to offend their sensibilities. And once you make a brownie mad, look out! He will forever be playing tricks on you--if he stays around, that is. He may just up and leave, and there you will be with all your work to do by yourself.

If you need to know more about how to care for a household brownie, here are some places to look:

Wikipedia has an interesting article with links to more information.

Orkneyjar offers the tale of the Broonie the King o' Trowland. This short story offers a good insight into the beliefs surrounding brownies.

The poem "The Brownie o Blednoch" tells the story of Aiken Drum. I like to sing the song about Aiken Drum with children, using felt pieces shaped like fruit and other foods to create Aiken Drum's face. The linked version of the song is not quite the same as the one I sing, but you will get the idea of how it goes. You can hear a version on YouTube too.

As for my brownie, I am very glad he came to stay. There is certainly enough work for him to do around here! I just wonder where I'll find him next time I'm in the garden.

Dogs, Guitars, Art and More Babies

It was a perfect morning to be in town. The county art show, which had been on hiatus for some years, was on the courthouse lawn, the Red Hat Ladies were in town, grandchildren and their parents were visiting, and the sun was shining. Here are a few photos from this morning:

Benson gets visited by the Red Hat Ladies. He is such a funny dog--even with all the windows down, he would not jump out of Jennifer's Jeep. But he liked the ladies visiting!

And he liked resting on the courthouse lawn with Kate. The breeze was soft and cool early in the day and as Jon said, it would have been easy to stay under the trees and people watch all day.

The art show was an interesting mixture of mediums (media?). This giant pipe attracted a lot of attention:

A new music store in town drew Jon, Kate and Cassidy. Cassidy and Jon tried out the electric guitar, and Jon bought a drum set for Kate's band.

More babies: Back at home, the wren eggs in the basket by the front door had hatched. The little ones have big mouths and can certainly raise a ruckus if they think their mother and father aren't being attentive enough.

We picked up a load of mulch and some woven wire fencing for the chicken yard, but the afternoon got too hot to do much outside work. It's still about 85 degrees and I am not acclimated to such heat yet. So I watered the greenhouse, tidied up the porch and worked on my ballad workshop for next weekend.

Now, to get back outside and enjoy the evening on the deck. Tomorrow we'll need an early start to beat the heat; a high of 92 --92!--is predicted. Yuck. Thursday morning it was below freezing just before dawn, and Wednesday morning we had snow flurries.

Tis confusing!

More Babies

But these babies are real turkeys--really!

At the feed store, bronze and white turkey poults mix it up.

Aunt Kate (the new Aunt Kate to baby Cadyn) carries the babies home.

In the carrier; someone is mooning us!

Mirror image?

These two are exploring their new home.
And finally settled down for the night.

Cadyn Olivia Smith

Welcome, Cadyn: 6lbs 15 oz, born at 4:47 pm today.

Mother and child, Jordan and Cadyn.

New grandfather Jonathan and his new little girl.

And Great Granny and baby.

Baby on the Way!

Great-granddaughter is on the way this morning! We expect her to be born sometime this afternoon--unless things progress a bit quicker than anticipated. Update later!

First Update: my son (the grandfather-to-be) just called to report he is drving through a blinding snowstorm near Cumberland, MD on his way here. Snow, on April 22. Now that is unusual. He was in Myrtle Beach yesterday in shorts and sunscreen.

What's in Bloom?

Sunday on the way back from town Larry and I took pictures of the wildflowers in bloom along Joe's Run. This isn't all of them, of course--there are many others, but these are what caught our eyes:


Rue Anemone is a small but brightly white flower often found growing in rocky areas and roadside banks. I just like its name. Why rue? To rue something means to regret it. And there is nothing to regret about this pristine little beauty. Although you can't see it in the photo, the center of this flower is green.

Long-spurred violets. Can you see the long spurs sticking out the back of the flowers? These are very pretty, with light blue petals and dark purple centers.
Spring beauties. I love the delicate stripes of pink radiating from the center. This flower is so small that unless you're looking for them, you'd overlook a patch of spring beauties. Once you've seen them, though, you will look for them every year. Their color varies from almost white to pink. This specimen was particularly colorful. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden says the tubers of spring beauties are edible, but I've never tried them.

White Trillium, or Trillium Grandiflorum, one of my favorite wildflowers. Along Joe's Run is this bank of trilliums:
It is breathtaking at this time of year, a mass of white and green. My photo doesn't do it justice. We take that way home every day while the trilliums are in bloom. Folklore has it that trilliums bloom about the same time the robins come back in the Spring, which is why a common name for another (usually red) member of the trillium family is wakerobin.

These next two photos were taken around April 18, 2008. I was curious as to how this Spring compared to last as far as things in bloom, etc. Here's what I found:
Black Swallowtails were in abundance on the lilacs. While the lilacs are blooming, I've seen only a few butterflies so far and no black swallowtails.

The pear tree was in bloom and the tiger swallowtails were also numerous. I loved watching this one literally tearing into the blossoms--I could hear it working and bits of the flower fell off as the butterfly dove in. I had never observed a butterfly so closely before and I was amazed at its industry.

This year the pear tree bloomed several weeks ago, not necessarily a good thing because blossom and fruit are more susceptible to frosts and freezes if they bloom early. I've seen a few tiger swallowtails, but not nearly as many as last year.

A Good Day for Gardening

Sunday was a great day to be in the garden. Rain? Well yeah, a little. But plants moved in the rain never know they've been moved, or such has been my experience.

We got up and out early. The sky was threatening gray and I knew we needed to hurry if we wanted to work the ground before we planted. Larry tilled, I planted.

By 9 a.m. I'd planted broccoli, carrots, Romaine, buttercrunch and ruby lettuce seeds and Larry had the ground ready to put out half-runner beans.

I stopped to make pancakes and he worked ground for corn before coming inside to eat. I jarred up the ramps he'd dried--a full half-pint! I can't wait to start using them in recipes.

We ate and hurried to town to get seed--all the seeds I've bought but did I have the basics like corn and beans? Not exactly; I had Royal Burgundy and wax beans but not half-runners which I do not like. I had ornamental corn and broom corn but not stuff like Early Sunglow and Silver Queen. I am so sensible, aren't I?

We didn't just get seeds of course. A trip to the garden centers always yields more than that. We ended up with plants, potting soil, fenceposts and yet another electric fence charger, among other things. We had to stop at the grocery store too for that indispensable item, coffee. We ran into good friends in town and invited them out to dig up some plants that I needed out of my flowerbeds.

Back home, we hurried to get the seeds in the ground. It had been showering off and on all day, but the ground was still dry enough to plant. I planted celery plants and potted up flowers for the porch. Larry planted beans and corn. (Yes, we're about 3 weeks early, but it's worth a chance. Either the seeds will rot in the ground or get frosted--or we'll have super early veggies. Worth the chance in my book.) I pulled radishes for salad later.
Our friends came out and we ladies dug up plants while the guys went mushroom hunting. When they came back after a successful hunt for mollymoochers (morels) we cooked while Larry and a little friend cleaned out the chick's box and put down new bedding. We made salad from the garden--lettuce, green onions and radishes. I made rice flavored with ramps and added our eggs. Dinner was delicious--salad, morels and rice. We drank Irish Breakfast tea while the guys did dishes and talked about honeybees, mushrooms, tilling gardens and chickens.

Our friends left laden with many plants:

• Lemon balm


• Copper fennel seedlings


• Purple bergamot (also called bee balm)


• Lily of the Valley


• Oregano


• Cosmos seedlings


• Coreopsis


• Southernwood


• Sweet Annie


• Red Coneflower

And there is plenty more of each of these, a testament to the richness of this West Virginia earth.

It was a very, very good day.

The Vandalia Garden Festival

It was a beautiful day in Charleston, and the Capitol grounds looked perfect for the Garden Festival. Larry, me and our friend Andrea drove down early to be sure we got there in time for a workshop both Andrea and I wanted to attend.

Melissa Dennison's booth was an active place. Sales of salves, soaps, lavender wands and herb plants were brisk. I was one of the lucky customers! Melissa's workshop on making salves has inspired me to give it a try. I learned a lot, was reminded of much that I already knew, and finally got a look at Goldenseal, a plant I have tried to find many times. Now I know exactly what I am looking for, perhaps I'll be successful.

Melissa is one busy woman. Her herb farm in Braxton County is pretty much a one-woman operation and her depth of knowledge about herbs and herbal lore is apparent. She shared recipes and information freely, passed around many samples and probably sold out at her booth after her workshop. It was that good. If you're interested in her products or plants, here is her contact information:

Garden Treasures Fresh & Dried Herbs, Shitake Mushrooms: Melissa Dennison, HC 69, Box 30, Clem, WV 26623

Phone: 304-364-5589 E-mail:gardentreasures@hotmail.com

Larry and Andrea balance some of the bounty of the day. The plants for sale were vigorous and healthy, and we were pleased by the selections available.

Here's a close-up of some of our purchases: hardy sage (for me--I've not had good luck with sage over-wintering in recent years), lantana for me, rosemary and bluebells for both of us, purple sage for me, lavender for Andrea, golden thyme for me, and not visible: salves and soaps for both, and my lavender wand.

The tulip bed near the walkway entrance to the Capitol grounds was just stunning, with so many colors. What a sight!

I discovered that there is a WV Herb Association that hosts an annual conference and other workshops. Who knew? Although information on their website is limited, there are some contacts and events listed that might be interesting. And there will be a Fall Conference! But on the same weekend as the annual WV Book Festival. Bummer for me, since I'm obliged by my job to be at the Book Festival. But maybe some of you reading this might want to go. Contact the Herb Association for details.

I also learned that Mountain State University in Beckley, WV offers a degree in Medicinal Botanicals, and sponsors many events open to the public. When I checked out the website this evening, I found that there is an online newsletter available too.

My new plants are safely in the ground and I will be trying some salve-making this summer. I've always had an herb garden and those who have read this blog for a while know my interest in wild foods and herbal lore. I'm excited to know about these opportunities to learn more. It's one topic that will never become old to me.

Wish me luck in my hunt for goldenseal. Surely one day I will be lucky enough to find some!

A Perfect April Evening

Tonight was a perfect Spring evening. We planned to attend a play in town, maybe go out to dinner. But the light was too perfect, the air so clear and scented with lilac, and the whippoorwills were calling for the first time this year. Who could leave all that to sit in a dark theatre or noisy restaurant? (A bad headache was a good persuader to stay home too)

So we walked around the gardens, discovered the first potatoes breaking through the ground, discussed redoing the pig pen, decided that one of the apple trees needs some major pruning, checked on the little chicks,

noted a grape arbor post that needs to be replaced, picked up odd bits the dogs have dragged in, checked the little leeks I planted Sunday, built a fire in the fire pit, poured a little wine, petted the dogs, listened to the chickens going to bed and sat outside until it got too chilly even with the fire.

By then the headache was completely gone. Isn't it amazing what relaxation and a little time outside can do for our health?

Wild Life

Spotted along Joe's Run as I was driving home the other evening:

6 deer
4 geese
1 great blue heron
1 chipmunk
3 squirrels
2 courting cardinals
1 beaver

And at the house:
2 crazy black labs
1 crazy old man

Brown Paper Lunch Bag

Every school-day morning
I packed my lunch
In a brown paper bag
Wrapping my peanut butter and jelly sandwich
With wax paper, cut by sharp serrated edges on the box
The jelly always soaked through
And left squishy purple spots
On soft white bread
An apple and two cookies—
never more, even though I asked—
filled the bottom of the bag
The sandwich was hopefully placed on top
So it would not get squashed
But it always did

I wrote my name in pencil with capital letters
So no one in the class would get my lunch
By mistake or on purpose
As if someone would even want it --
An apple and two cookies
And peanut butter-and-jelly soaked bread

Every day I opened my bag
Feeling sure that just this once
There would be some exotic thing inside—
Green grapes like Cecelia's,
Peanut butter crackers like Tommy had
Or maybe even chocolate-covered marshmallows
Like Diane carried in her shiny
Pink-and-white metal lunch box

It never happened, not in all the time
I carried my lunch in a brown paper bag
But I never stopped believing
a miracle could happen
That Sister Margaret Mary
Would sprinkle secret holy water on my lunch
And change its plain contents
Into food fit for a king
Or for the undiscovered princess
With freckles and blue eyes
In the second desk in row three

Simple Gifts

I used to hang out my laundry all the time. We didn't have a dryer. Twice I fell while carrying baskets of wet clothes--one fall produced a broken foot (try that when you're pregnant!) and the other a badly sprained ankle. When the dryer came, I quit hanging out clothes thankfully.

Funny how we go full circle sometimes. For the past year I've wanted a clothesline again. We still had the poles but they were in the wrong spot. I kept talking about it. Wouldn't it be nice to have sheets that smell of sunshine? Wouldn't it save on our electric bill? At the same time, I realized that given my limited amount of time at home in the evenings and even on weekends, hanging out laundry might actually be a luxury I could not afford as far as time was concerned.

But one day a few weeks ago, I came home to find that Larry had pulled up and re-set the poles in a new, sunny location. I was thrilled. But the weather didn't cooperate on the weekends I was home--until Sunday.

Sunday I hung out four loads. They dried in less than an hour. The clothes smell wonderful. The dryer didn't run all day (my dryer is not working right, I think, because it takes at least 90 minutes to dry one load--ugh).

Such a simple thing, hanging out laundry. Wooden clothespins, sunshine and a nice breeze, clothes fluttering colorfully in the yard--it was part of my life for a long time, and it is good to have it back. I find that we are slowly simplifying our life by removing some of the "conveniences" we've added over the years. First the TV left, then the dishwasher. Quiet returned in their place. Now the dryer will be silent too, at least some of the time.

We will keep the dryer because I know that there will be many times I will still need it, unlike the TV and dishwasher that are seldom missed. But one more thing is unplugged, one more tiny drop in the electric bill, and one more activity that will take me outside to enjoy the sun and air has been restored.

Simple gifts. They're the best kind.

Church in the Wildwood

From my hill I can look across the ridge to where Mount Hope Church seems to float amid the trees, a half mile or so away. Not visible in summer of course, but easy to see in early Spring and late Fall and winter.

The church has been on this ridge for many years--built, I believe, in 1914. Although it is called Church of God it's actually nondenominational. The graveyard nearby is the final home for many people I have known during my 35 years here. That is in its way a comforting thought. They never really leave because they are still here among us, and I think about them each time I pass. And around here, those who have been gone many years are still spoken of as if they just left yesterday.

Which goes back to the old story: no one is truly dead as long as one person speaks his name and remembers him.

Moochers!

Mollymoochers!

Larry decided to go into the woods Sunday afternoon in search of one of his springtime wild food favorites--mollymoochers, known to most people as morel mushrooms. I thought he was too early, but apparently he picked exactly the right day.

I'm sure there are probably more elaborate ways to prepare morels but I do them the way Larry showed me: soak them in cold salt water for at least an hour to drive out any hiding bugs. Then wash, drain, cut in half, dredge in flour and fry in hot oil. When done, the mushrooms are light, crunchy and mildly flavored. Some people think they taste like fish, hence another nickname, wild fish. To me, they are just delicious with a flavor all their own. (I do wonder how they would taste dipped in Sweet Vidalia Onion sauce, though).

A plateful of delight, and this is only half of what Larry brought home.

Where do they grow? Generally, we find them in moist, rich woodland soil and deep shade. The tops appear in early Spring, and in our area only last a few weeks before they're gone--some years we don't find any, either because we were too late, looking in the wrong place or the weather wasn't favorable so there just weren't any. The ice storm of 2003 seemed to have a negative impact on the place we usually hunt for mushrooms, because so many trees fell it changed the conditions of the forest floor from heavily shaded to only partial shade.

Tonight I've been reading about how to freeze morels--I'm optimistic! We may get enough this year to keep a few for winter use. Wouldn't that be a treat!

The Ramp Dinner

I referred recently to preparing a "ramp dinner." What is a ramp dinner?

It's a meal centered around one of West Virginia's favorite wild foods, the wild ramp (or rampion, as it is called by some). In our state, there are many civic organizations that host ramp dinners, or ramp feeds as they are often called, during April and early May. That is when the wild ramps are young, tender and at their best.

Larry's recent expeditions in the hills have produced a nice lot of ramps for our meals and freezer. Last night we invited some friends over and prepared a traditional ramp dinner just for the five of us.

What is typically served at a ramp dinner? The answer might surprise you. This is simple country food, not anything fancy, although some places do have cooking contests for ramps, and try many unusual recipes with them. But most ramp dinners stick to the tried and true. Here's a closer photo of what we fixed last night:

Starting at the top and moving clockwise:

• scrambled eggs (from our chickens--I made these without ramps, but many people mix ramps into the eggs)
• applesauce (from our cellar)
• ham
• fried red-skinned potatoes (not from the cellar, though--ours have finally gotten too sprouted out to use)
• pinto beans with ramps (cooked by Larry)
• skillet cornbread (some people put ramps in the cornbread, but I didn't) with cow butter--a gift from a neighbor.

The only thing we were missing was sassafras tea--we haven't gone out to dig any roots yet.

Today Larry is trying something new--drying ramps. I'd like to have them on hand to use in other recipes year-round, as an alternative to garlic perhaps. We'll see how this experiment turns out.