another yard sign

I love creeping phlox right about now

My 'Impeach' sign is a tad worn from the winter and needs replacing. I love the way Tony's baby blue Forget-Me-Nevers sow themselves around so artfully.

These pink 'Angelique' tulips seem to fade after a couple of years as you can see, and I know professional gardeners dig and toss. Maybe I'll just plant some more nearby when the time comes.

This hyacinth looks very nice with the bluish phlox but for more contrast maybe next fall I'll look for a deeper purple.

Al Gore Interview and Derrick Jensen Interview

I ran across these two interviews today - Al Gore was on Terry Gross' Fresh Air on national public radio. His new book, Assault on Reason is out in paperback now. Listen here.


And then a link to this interview was in my mailbox:

Read It and Riot
by Linnea Due
http://www.ecologycenter.org/terrain/article.php?id=13631

Due interviews a modern day prophet, Derrick Jensen on the publication of his latest book, a graphic novel As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial.
Here's just a sample - go read the entire interview on the above link to ecologycenter dot org:

Jensen: "I had a long talk at the airport with a man about Al Gore. An Inconvenient Truth is great as an introduction but it's exclusionary. This is one step, but we need to do another 3,000 steps very soon.
There's this great book called The Nazi Doctors, questioning how people who took the Hippocratic oath could work at the death camps. Most actually cared about individuals in the death camps and did what they could to save them, but they didn't question the existence of the camps themselves.
We do what we can to save this or that creature, but we don't question the superstructure that's causing the problems in the first place.
I used to work at Pelican Bay. I was fully aware that I was participating in the greatest gulag on the planet, but on the other hand, the only thing keeping the inmates sane was my class. So we need it all—reform and revolution. That's the only thing that will save the planet.

"The solutions I've heard are so interesting because they're insane. They don't take physical reality as a given, but instead the given is that we must save present-day society.
We need to get back in the real world. The real world is being murdered before our eyes, like a video game that we can't back up. I sometimes wake up and think, this can't be happening. People can't really just lose the ice caps. Let's pretend you were talking to a seven-year-old: So, burning oil and coal and natural gas is causing global warming. What do you think we should do to stop global warming? Any reasonable seven-year-old can answer that question.
Here's carbon offsets: My house stinks because I keep shitting in the middle of the living room floor. I don't like it. So maybe I can pay someone to shit in his living room instead.

"I heard a radio show about the world-saving machine that can convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. The guy who runs Virgin airlines is going to give millions to develop this technology. We have it already. They're called trees.

"We need to think about what we want. I want to live in a world that has wild salmon. So the first question is what you want, and the second is what do you need for that to happen. The salmon need industrial logging to stop and the dams to be removed. And they need for industrial fishing to stop. They need industrial agriculture to stop creating giant dead zones, and they need global warming to stop, and they need the ocean not to be murdered.
Polar bears need ice and seals. Then they'll be happy.
The problem is that there's this awfully convenient worldview that presumes that you can consume a planet while you live on it. That's why we took it out of the context of corporations and jobs and put it into the context of aliens eating the planet (in his book). These problems are not cognitively challenging. They're not amenable to rational solutions."

What is it about graphic novels these days? Howard Zinn has a good'un out too. Do Americans need pictures to hold their attention?
Call me naive, but here's one small step for mankind, a suggestion in the form of garden art:

Green Thumb Sunday - thyme for a visit from a garden friend

I almost stepped on this little visitor, half hidden in a patch of wooly thyme. His friend was uncovered when I hacked back the remains of the sweet autumn clematis, but I didn't take her photo, as she was stuck on the house siding along with an ugly mess of old leaves. Don't use pesticides, so you can have more garden visitors.
Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

NGJL - a commercial break

America 2012

Why are volunteer gardeners always exhausted in the spring?

Not gardening ... no, Meetings and Classes and Committees and Events...

Now that the Genesee County Herb Society's 2008 Spring Herb Symposium is history, I should give a few impressions. I'd first like to report that we did make money to support our projects, and we did successfully fulfill our stated mission of educating the public about herbs. The comments on the evaluations and other feedback have been very gratifying. I was too busy to get many photos, but I have a few.



Our speaker, Donna Frawley is a personable and knowledgeable lady, and she gave us a fine day of educational entertainment. Her first talk, our keynote presentation, was about Cooking With Herbs, and it was one of those fast paced, multi-dish shows like you see on a cooking show.

She prepared a multitude of dishes all made with herbs, and the samples were delish! Nothing says comfort food to me like a homemade minestrone soup, and Donna supplied the guests with all of the recipes so we wouldn't get lost in the rapid preparation.
After our workshops and lunch, Donna was back with Herbal Breads, again with recipes and samples. I hope no one was on a diet!



Donna was a home economist and professional baker so she had some good stories to tell while she did her demonstrations. She is on the board of the International Herb Association and she has owned a home based business, Frawley's Fine Herbary, for 25 years specializing in herbal blends and other herb related foods, and published her own cookbooks and now has a dvd.

I sat next to Donna at lunch and she told me she has been writing a column for the Midland Daily newspaper for several years, now. So I looked it up to post a link here.

The entry plant sales by His and Herbs of Montrose.


I'd write about my workshop, "Dry Herbal Seasonings - Better Than Store Bought" but I'm giving the same presentation to the Herb Society in a few months and I wouldn't want them to read it all here. My class was very enthusiastic to say the least, and we may have some prospective members show up for the May meeting!

Photos - Wild Ginger

It emerges like a green cat's furry ear.
Asarum canadense, a North American indigenous herb.


From another angle, a few days later. I'm finding seedling gingers in a twenty or so foot radius of this clump. I've read that ants and ground beetles crawl into the ground-hugging flower and pollinate it, but I've never taken the time to look for seeds.
The ants must be the seed dispersal agents as well, and we certainly do have 'enough' ants. I've been putting Twenty Mule Team Borax on my brick patio but the little Dickens keep building more anthills.
Oh well, c'est la vie. I'll just call them my little ginger farmers.

More photos

My seedling is blooming. The frost did her blossoms in as well as some of my other borderline tender perennials.



Indoors: my birthday present arrived a day late.


I get free shipping and you can too, because I returned the packing for recycling. Thanks, Bluestones.
Oh boy, what fun. Can't wait to see what I ordered!

Photos - What Is It?

I've never really sat down and figured out if these plants are Merry Bells or Wild Oats. I love the name Merry Bells, but i think they're Wild Oats. Maybe you can tell just from looking at them?
I'll get busy and look it up and let you know.



The low temperature- heavy frost 'burned' them pretty badly this year (along with the old fashioned bleeding hearts, some of the Euphorbias, and a Persicaria which didn't impress me as a tender kind of a plant). In other years the would have had some protection from the spruce that was growing over them.
I'll have to make a note to watch them for future transplant consideration.

NGJL - Action Jackson* or - another reason to grow your own

Not Gardening, but maybe you think it's important enough to act... Go to Not In My Food to Sign the petition ...

Food safety laws - a recipe for disaster!
[Comments in italics are mine]

Ever had food poisoning? You’re not alone in your misery. 76 million of us get sick each year from foodborne illness. But it’s more than intestinal distress.
At least 5,000 people die each year, often an agonizing and painful death. [How many September 11s is that?, hmmm?]
Recent headlines report deaths from tainted spinach, peanut butter and beef. Yet the FDA inspects food processing plants in the U.S. only once every five to 10 years [because of underfunding of the agency due to Reaganomics.] And despite the increase of food shipped from China and elsewhere, less than 1 percent of imports are inspected. [If you voted for politicians who promoted the "Contract On America", you should quit reading now and enjoy your day.]

The FDA also doesn’t require a label on food telling you it comes from a clone. Clones suffer numerous deformities, and most sicken and die before adulthood. We should know if our food products are cloned so we can make an informed choice.

Let’s end this recipe for disaster. Bills are being introduced now in Congress that could truly reform our weak food safety laws. And leaders are vowing to pass legislation in the coming weeks.

Email your lawmakers now! We need your voice the powerful industry lobby is already lining up to oppose significant reforms.

Here is a copy of a handy already written letter (that you can add to) that Consumers Union sent a link to yesterday in an e-mail. Go find the 'action page' and sign it!

Make sure my food is safe pass real FDA reforms now
Dear [Decision Maker],
I am concerned about the growing number of recalls of all kinds of tainted foods. Stories about dangerous beef, chili, spinach, peanut butter, and many other products have been making headlines for far too long. We need strong food safety reform now, so that we can have faith again that the food we buy for ourselves and our families won't make us sick, or worse.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for the safety of much of the food we eat both food imported from countries like China, as well as food produced here in the U.S. But the FDA is failing to protect consumers, and needs more money and authority to get the job done.
Both the House and the Senate are considering fixes to our broken food safety system. I urge you to make sure that the fixes are as strong as possible. Any food safety legislation that Congress passes should contain the following provisions:

-- More Inspections of Food Imports: The 1 percent of food that is currently inspected by FDA is not enough. Any legislation must increase significantly the percentage of imported food that is inspected by the agency.
-- Mandatory Certification and Inspection, Once a Year, of All Food Production Facilities: Right now, FDA does not inspect food facilities often enough sometimes it's as little as once every 10 years. All food facilities (both domestic and foreign ones) should be required and not merely given the option to obtain FDA certification of their facilities. The certification should include random inspections and testing.

-- Consumer Choice Through Labeling of New and Controversial Food Technologies: We want labeling of genetically engineered food, food from cloned animals, and nanotech ingredients in food, so that we can make informed choices about what we purchase for ourselves and our families.

-- The Names of Stores, Restaurants, Schools, and Other Places Selling Recalled Food: We are often at a loss when we hear about product recalls, because there is currently no federal requirement to publicize the names of grocery stores, restaurants, and schools that might be selling or using recalled food. Consumers would be better able to respond to food recalls, and to protect themselves, if this retailer information was disclosed in the event of every recall.

The time for strong food safety reform is now. Mealtime should not be a game of chance. Please enact strong food safety legislation by this summer that includes the protections outlined above. Thank you.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]

Too Wordy, More Photos

Jeffersonia diphylla, commonly called Twinleaf. Truly ephemeral, I have to get a photo quickly before the petals fall.

Meet My Guest Blogger, Pat

Last year my family joined Pat Whetham's organic vegetable CSA* farm, here in Genesee County, Michigan. Just to give it a try see how we liked it. The food was fresh and healthy, organically and locally grown. It was a good year. And luckily, our half share was plentiful: we had more than we could use.
And, just maybe because of all of the green leafy veggies, my cholesterol level this year was better than last year's reading. All good, all good.
(*Consumer Supported Agriculture)

Farming is a real life gamble, when you think of it. We get a taste of that when we buy a share in a CSA farm and then wait to see what happens with the weather and insects and whatever else Mother Nature has in mind for us. Like with stock, 'the market doesn't always go up'. This uncertainty is what the farm family has to deal with every year for their livelihood.
It gives us a clearer idea about the precariousness of the climate change that we are beginning to experience as well.

Anyhow, this year I like to think we were first in line to re-subscribe.

We shareholders receive occasional e-mails concerning relevant topics from our CSA farmer, Pat, and upon reading the latest one, I had 'the light bulb' turn on over my head:
Ask Pat to be a guest blogger!
In other words, ask her permission to post her emails and help spread her words of wisdom and experience! So I turn this space over today to Pat.

From Whetham Organic Farm - "The Way We Live Now"

In the interests of further educating everyone I know:

[Linked] to this is a very interesting article by Michael Pollan, author of The Ominivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. ... I really want you to read it and think.

Pollan is good at making us think (at least in my opinion) and his work has helped fuel the 'eat local' movement across America by describing the production of industrial food in great detail. In this article he is very definitely equating our food choices with our environmental or carbon footprints. And it's about time. I've been trying to do that for 20 years, but no one would pay attention - including the environmentalists.

By the end of the [linked] article Pollan finally is saying Grow your own food. It's the best choice for the whole entire world and everybody in it. I agree and say also that garden needs to be organic, not chemical (because chemical gardening -and farming- uses more resources as well as being unhealthy for you and the planet).

Can you believe that many 'gardeners' never grow anything edible? Those people need to be encouraged to put some fruits and vegetables among those ornamentals!

Pollan talks about viral social change - that phenomenon where ideas spread like a computer virus. Let's help this particular virus along. Start praising all the gardeners you know for growing their own food.

Encourage others to try it. That's one of the reasons I started an organic gardening class this year - to encourage others, to show them how it's done if they don't know, to spread the word as Pollan is trying to do.

For those of you who can't grow your own, CSA is a good choice, particularly a really local CSA where you can see your food being grown, maybe help out a little, and gain some understanding of the whole process of gardening and farming and the ways it can help or hurt the world.

I have a few more "viral" ideas coming along in my mind. Expect to hear about them soon.

Pat

NGJL "Hope"

"Hope" by George Fredrick Watts

A bumper sticker on the car in front of me on Hill Road got to me yesterday, while on my way to the Home Street garden to do a neighborhood walk to invite the community to an informational meeting on urban community gardening. It was a quote from Mother Theresa of Calcutta (who we've lately learned also had a jaundiced view of religious institutions) that read: "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."

Most probably the owner of that bumper was anti-choice in the Snowflake Debate, but I think Sister Theresa was talking about our many daily choices. Are you on the Recession Diet yet? Are you warehousing food? Are you planting a Victory Garden in your backyard? Or are you clearing the rice shelf at Sam's "Club"?
Did the Presidents of Peru and Ecuador telling the United Nations that 'growing food grain for fuel was making the choice to starve people in the third world' affect you as you drove your SUV to the mall?
Did you write or call your congressional representatives about the Farm Bill for Agribusiness, or the Taxpayer Subsidies for Corporate Oil?

What do you think when you read something like this that arrived in my e-mailbox today in my biweekly update from OCA:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"We should not hide the word hunger in our discussions of this problem just because we cannot hide the reality of hunger among our citizens."
- Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, speaking about the USDA's annual report on hunger in the U.S. For the first time in the agency's history, the USDA avoided the term "hunger" in its report and used a new euphemism in its place. The phrase "suffering from food insecurity" is how the USDA now refers to the nation's 35 million hungry.Learn more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_3390.cfm

I don't spend much time listening to sermons, and readers who know me know my position on organized religions. But this old sermon (posted below) that I ran across while Googling 'Audacity + Hope' got to me. Another of those coincidental discoveries on this path I'm on.

I think, beyond the message of the sermon itself, which blow me away with its truth telling, that this sermon reveals a story that our corporate owned mass media missed, perhaps deliberately. I've heard the wealthy media pundits derisively playing with the words 'Hope' and 'Change'. Are they bitter, stupid, or just plain bad people?

Next time you hear someone deride Hope, Know them for who they are.

Here it is:

"Several years ago while I was in Richmond, the Lord allowed me to be in that city during the week of the annual convocation at Virginia Union University School of Theology. There I heard the preaching and teaching of Reverend Frederick G. Sampson of Detroit, Michigan. In one of his lectures, Dr. Sampson spoke of a painting I remembered studying in humanities courses back in the late '50s. In Dr. Sampson's powerful description of the picture, he spoke of it being a study in contradictions, because the title and the details on the canvas seem to be in direct opposition.

"The painting's title is "Hope." It shows a woman sitting on top of the world, playing a harp. What more enviable position could one ever hope to achieve than being on top of the world with everyone dancing to your music?

"As you look closer, the illusion of power gives way to the reality of pain. The world on which this woman sits, our world, is torn by war, destroyed by hate, decimated by despair, and devastated by distrust. The world on which she sits seems on the brink of destruction.

"Famine ravages millions of inhabitants in one hemisphere, while feasting and gluttony are enjoyed by inhabitants of another hemisphere. This world is a ticking time bomb, with apartheid in one hemisphere and apathy in the other. Scientists tell us there are enough nuclear warheads to wipe out all forms of life except cockroaches. That is the world on which the woman sits in Watt's painting.

"Our world cares more about bombs for the enemy than about bread for the hungry. This world is still more concerned about the color of skin than it is about the content of character—a world more finicky about what's on the outside of your head than about the quality of your education or what's inside your head. That is the world on which this woman sits.

"You and I think of being on top of the world as being in heaven. When you look at the woman in Watt's painting, you discover this woman is in hell. She is wearing rags. Her tattered clothes look as if the woman herself has come through Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Her head is bandaged, and blood seeps through the bandages. Scars and cuts are visible on her face, her arms, and her legs.

I. Illusion of Power vs. Reality of Pain

"A closer look reveals all the harp strings but one are broken or ripped out. Even the instrument has been damaged by what she has been through, and she is the classic example of quiet despair. Yet the artist dares to entitle the painting 'Hope'. The illusion of power — sitting on top of the world — gives way to the reality of pain.

"And isn't it that way with many of us? We give the illusion of being in an enviable position on top of the world. Look closer, and our lives reveal the reality of pain too deep for the tongue to tell. For the woman in the painting, what looks like being in heaven is actually an existence in a quiet hell.

"I've been a pastor for seventeen years. I've seen too many of these cases not to know what I'm talking about. I've seen married couples where the husband has a girlfriend in addition to his wife. It's something nobody talks about. The wife smiles and pretends not to hear the whispers and the gossip. She has the legal papers but knows he would rather try to buy Fort Knox than divorce her. That's a living hell.

"I've seen married couples where the wife had discovered that somebody else cares for her as a person and not just as cook, maid jitney service, and call girl all wrapped into one. But there's the scandal: What would folks say? What about the children? That's a living hell.

"I've seen divorcees whose dreams have been blown to bits, families broken up beyond repair, and lives somehow slipping through their fingers. They've lost control. That's a living hell.

"I've seen college students who give the illusion of being on top of the world — designer clothes, all the sex that they want, all the cocaine or marijuana or drugs, all the trappings of having it all together on the outside — but empty and shallow and hurting and lonely and afraid on the inside. Many times what looks good on the outside — the illusion of being in power, of sitting on top of the world—with a closer look is actually existence in a quiet hell.

"That is exactly where Hannah is in 1 Samuel 1 :1-18. Hannah is top dog in this three-way relationship between herself, Elkanah, and Peninnah. Her husband loves Hannah more than he loves his other wife and their children. Elkanah tells Hannah he loves her. A lot of husbands don't do that. He shows Hannah that he loves her, and many husbands never get around to doing that. In fact, it is his attention and devotion to Hannah that causes Peninnah to be so angry and to stay on Hannah's case constantly. Jealous! Jealousy will get hold of you, and you can't let it go because it won't let you go. Peninnah stayed on Hannah, like we say, "as white on rice." She constantly picked at Hannah, making her cry, taking her appetite away.

"At first glance Hannah's position seems enviable. She had all the rights and none of the responsibilities—no diapers to change, no beds to sit beside at night, no noses to wipe, nothing else to wipe either, no babies draining you of your milk and demanding feeding. Hannah was top dog. No baby portions to fix at meal times. Her man loved her; everybody knew he loved her. He loved her more than anything or anybody. That's why Peninnah hated her so much.

"Now, except for the second-wife bit, which was legal back then, Hannah was sitting on top of the world, until you look closer. When you look closer, what looked like being in heaven was actually existing in a quiet hell.

"Hannah had the pain of a bitter woman to contend with, for verse 7 says that nonstop, Peninnah stayed with her. Hannah suffered the pain of living with a bitter woman. And she suffered another pain—the pain of a barren womb. You will remember the story of the widow in 2 Kings 4 who had no child. The story of a woman with no children was a story of deep pathos and despair in biblical days.

"Do you remember the story of Sarah and what she did in Genesis 16 because of her barren womb—before the three heavenly visitors stopped by their tent? Do you remember the story of Elizabeth and her husband in Luke I? Back in Bible days, the story of a woman with a barren womb was a story of deep pathos. And Hannah was afflicted with the pain of a bitter woman on the one hand and the pain of a barren womb on the other.

"Hannah's world was flawed, flaky. Her garments of respectability were tattered and torn, and her heart was bruised and bleeding from the constant attacks of a jealous woman. The scars and scratches on her psyche are almost visible as you look at this passage, where she cries, refusing to eat anything. Just like the woman in Watt's painting, what looks like being in heaven is actually existence in a quiet hell.

"Now I want to share briefly with you about Hannah—the lady and the Lord. While I do so, I want you to be thinking about where you live and your own particular pain predicament. Think about it for a moment.

"Dr. Sampson said he wanted to quarrel with the artist for having the gall to name that painting Hope when all he could see in the picture was hell — a quiet desperation.

"But then Dr. Sampson said he noticed that he had been looking only at the horizontal dimensions and relationships and how this woman was hooked up with that world on which she sat. He had failed to take into account her vertical relationships. He had not looked above her head. And when he looked over her head, he found some small notes of music moving joyfully and playfully toward heaven."

II. The Audacity to Hope

Then, Dr. Sampson began to understand why the artist titled the painting "Hope." In spite of being in a world torn by war, in spite of being on a world destroyed by hate and decimated by distrust, in spite of being on a world where famine and greed are uneasy bed partners, in spite of being on a world where apartheid and apathy feed the fires of racism and hatred, in spite of being on a world where nuclear nightmare draws closer with each second, in spite of being on a ticking time bomb, with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music and praise God. The vertical dimension balanced out what was going on in the horizontal dimension.
And that is what the audacity to hope will do for you.

"The apostle Paul said the same thing. "You have troubles? Glory in your trouble. We glory in tribulation." That's the horizontal dimension. We glory in tribulation because, he says, "Tribulation works patience. And patience works experience. And experience works hope. (That's the vertical dimension.) And hope makes us not ashamed." The vertical dimension balances out what is going on in the horizontal dimension. That is the real story here in the first chapter of 1 Samuel. Not the condition of Hannah's body, but the condition of Hannah's soul — her vertical dimension. She had the audacity to keep on hoping and praying when there was no visible sign on the horizontal level that what she was praying for, hoping for, and waiting for would ever be answered in the affirmative.

"What Hannah wanted most out of life had been denied to her. Think about that. Yet in spite of that, she kept on hoping. The gloating of Peninnah did not make her bitter. She kept on hoping. When the family made its pilgrimage to the sanctuary at Shiloh, she renewed her petition there, pouring out her heart to God. She may have been barren, but that's a horizontal dimension. She was fertile in her spirit, her vertical dimension. She prayed and she prayed and she prayed and she kept on praying year after year. With no answer, she kept on praying. She prayed so fervently in this passage that Eli thought she had to be drunk. There was no visible sign on the horizontal level to indicate to Hannah that her praying would ever be answered. Yet, she kept on praying.

"And Paul said something about that, too. No visible sign? He says, "Hope is what saves us, for we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he have hope for it? But if we hope for that which we see not (no visible sign), then do we with patience wait for it."

"That's almost an echo of what the prophet Isaiah said: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." The vertical dimension balances out what is going on in the horizontal dimension.

"There may not be any visible sign of a change in your individual situation, whatever your private hell is. But that's just the horizontal level. Keep the vertical level intact, like Hannah. You may, like the African slaves, be able to sing, "Over my head I hear music in the air. Over my head I hear music in the air. Over my head I hear music in the air. There must be a God somewhere."

"Keep the vertical dimension intact like Hannah. Have the audacity to hope for that child of yours. Have the audacity to hope for that home of yours. Have the audacity to hope for that church of yours. Whatever it is you've been praying for, keep on praying, and you may find, like my grandmother sings, "There's a bright side somewhere; there is a bright side somewhere. Don't you rest until you find it, for there is a bright side somewhere."

III. Persistence of Hope

"The real lesson Hannah gives us from this chapter — the most important word God would have us hear — is how to hope when the love of God is not plainly evident. It's easy to hope when there are evidences all around of how good God is. But to have the audacity to hope when that love is not evident — you don't know where that somewhere is that my grandmother sang about, or if there will ever be that brighter day — that is a true test of a Hannah-type faith. To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope — make music and praise God on and with whatever it is you've got left, even though you can't see what God is going to do — that's the real word God will have us hear from this passage and from Watt's painting.

"There's a true-life illustration that demonstrates the principles portrayed so powerfully in this periscope. And I close with it. My mom and my dad used to sing a song that I've not been able to find in any of the published hymnals. It's an old song out of the black religious tradition called "Thank you, Jesus." It's a very simple song. Some of you have heard it. It's simply goes, "Thank you Jesus. I thank you Jesus. I thank you Jesus. I thank you Lord." To me they always sang that song at the strangest times — when the money got low, or when the food was running out. When I was getting in trouble, they would start singing that song. And I never understood it, because as a child it seemed to me they were thanking God that we didn't have any money, or thanking God that we had no food, or thanking God that I was making a fool out of myself as a kid.

Conclusion: Hope is What Saves Us

"But I was only looking at the horizontal level. I did not understand nor could I see back then the vertical hookup that my mother and my father had. I did not know then that they were thanking him in advance for all they dared to hope he would do one day to their son, in their son, and through their son. That's why they prayed. That's why they hoped. That's why they kept on praying with no visible sign on the horizon. And I thank God I had praying parents, because now some thirty-five years later, when I look at what God has done in my life, I understand clearly why Hannah had the audacity to hope. Why my parents had the audacity to hope.
And that's why I say to you, hope is what saves us. Keep on hoping; keep on praying. God does hear and answer prayer.

-The full text of Jeremiah Wright's "Audacity To Hope" sermon in 1990. Maybe, hopefully, Barack Hussein Obama heard the sermon that day. He did, after all, title his book, The Audacity of Hope.

GTS: the audacity of hope - plant seeds

Shelf #1 Mine: Lemon basil, lime basil, basil 'Purple Ruffles', basil 'Mexican Spice', Thai basil 'Siam Queen', holy basil, Genovese basil, basil 'Napoletano Bolloso', basil 'Mammoth', calendula 'Flashback', calendula 'Pacific Beauty', Celosia cristata 'Red Velvet', Viola tricolor, summer savory, sweet marjoram, stevia. (Rotated outdoors: pansies and parsley, flat and curled)

Shelf #2 Herb's: tomatoes, peppers and okra.

Snow is predicted this week. My memory tells me that for thirty years of observation (except for last year), it always snows on my daffodils. A blanket or only a few flakes, but it does. But the tender annual seeds are in the soil, safely indoors, waiting and preparing themselves for Memorial Day.

Yesterday at the Genesee County Herb Symposium, our speaker, Donna Frawley said something I that just loved that I'll try to paraphrase:

We gardeners have such imagination! Just think of how we sprinkle a few basil seeds in the palm of our hand and we can already smell the pesto! Imagine, bowls of pesto from those tiny black dots.

And of course there is the classic comment by Henry Thoreau in his last book:
"Though I do not believe a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders."
Henry David Thoreau
I'm doing the happy dance today, the herb symposium is over! and it was great fun! and I think our guests liked it too. What more can you ask?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

my borrowed view

Magnolia stellata. This 40 or so year old star magnolia in my neighbor's yard has had its good years and poor years. One time years ago when the house was changing hands, the new owner came outdoors with a saw and began to clear shrubbery. I reenacted "Woodsman Spare That Tree" with tales of the fragrance and promises of a beautiful flowery show in the spring, and he just trimmed it up a bit.
The gnarled old Henry Lauder's' Walking Stick (on its own roots, not a graft) was not so lucky.

For insurance I gathered seed from the magnolia and now I have my own tree growing in a bed in front of my house. In its third year of bloom my seedling tree is not as impressive as its mother, but working on it.
I detest chain link fences, but the cedar fence that was there when we bought this house is long gone, and the neighbors in that house always have dogs so it is probably as well. I remember reading somewhere (maybe advice from one of our best garden writers, Allen Lacy?) that if you want an ugly thing such as a chain link fence to disappear, paint it black. Sounds like gardening advice from Mick Jagger.

Tidying up the Hellebores

They look like HECK before their spring haircuts, but they seem to be sturdy enough plants, and Hooray! on removing the dessicated foliage I found volunteer seedlings under the pink flowered plant. I do wish they would hold their faces up though so we could see their charming freckles.

GTS: Some Herbs Are Making Their Comeback

Motherwort: transplanted last year from Skip and Tree's yard, and Hooray! I see seedlings emerging all around it:

Lungwort: this one is a volunteer. I know, Pulmonarias have become a popular ornamental nursery plant, a favorite with hybridizers, but I like the old standby:

Lovage: can't (or should I say shouldn't) make chicken stock without some lovage:
Salad Burnet: another volunteer. In my yard burnet always makes an appearance in the gravel walks, not in the beds where I place it.

Hops: This is a prolific plant, so don't feel bad about giving it a severe cutting back. I'm thinking, from what I've seen this plant do, that if I left just a few stems, it would bear enough 'cones' for the family brewmeister, if he wanted some ... You can observe I need to do some work in the garden, cleaning up the winter debris.

My garlic planting looks good! I planted these cloves last fall.
But whew! I didn't get around to photographing half of the neat things coming up!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature Lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

I should say a few words about the Genesee County Herb Society Spring Symposium

A week from tomorrow the Genesee County Herb Society will have our biannual Herb Symposium, "Cooking with WHAT? Herbs!" We still have a few tickets left, so I'll tell you about what to expect in case you are nearby and would like to attend.

Our guest speaker will be Donna Frawley of Frawley's Fine Herbary based in Midland, Michigan, who will give two presentations and who will during the day be selling a variety of her herbal products.

Donna's keynote talk, in the morning will be "Cooking with Herbs" and her shorter afternoon presentation will be "Herbal Breads."
I've personally been to one of her presentations for the local District meeting of the Federated Garden Clubs and she does a great presentation, complete with demonstrations while she talks and yummy samples. Donna sells herbal culinary mixes has authored cookbooks and now has gone high tech with videos.

When you come in the door you'll be given your name tag and a goody bag and be directed to find a seat at one of the beautifully decorated tables in the auditorium, but before the day starts you can shop at our marketplace and preview the silent auction. We have added a plant vendor from one of the local nurseries, 'His and Herbs', this year and asked to have a good supply of culinary herbs to coordinate with the theme of our program. The GCHS is a non-profit organization and our biannual Symposium is one of our major fund-raisers to support our educational programs so we encourage you to shop til you drop.

However, if you need sustenance we have one of the best morning tea buffets, homemade sweet and savory treats provided by our membership ... so before the program begins you should take time to choose a plate of goodies and a nice cuppa tea and get settled. By the way, the centerpieces will be offered for sale in the silent auction, so choose your favorite! Take a moment too, to look around at the springtime decorations and herbal educational display.

After a few official remarks and the Keynote talk by our speaker, we will break out into your choice of one of seven workshops that our members will be teaching.

The make-and-take classes this year are:
Dried Herbal Seasonings - Better Than Store-Bought (with recipe booklet)
Herbal Tea in a Decorated Jar (with recipe booklet)
Place Cards for your Tea Table
Post-It Note Holder Made with Pressed Flowers
Holiday Table Favors - 12 designs, make 3!
Herbal Meals in a Jar
Using Herbs for Medicinal Purposes and Cosmetics

A delicious Luncheon follows, and then we will enjoy a second presentation by our guest speaker. Donna has told me she'll have a bread machine going, to add the fragrance of her herbal bread to the air while we enjoy her talk.

At the end of the day, don't leave before picking up your auction purchases, and have a safe drive home!

minor bulbs and spring ephemerals

The floral calendar shifts into second gear. I hope all my little treasures will be able to adjust to the sudden sunlight afforded by the removal of the Colorado Blue Spruce that was providing shade for them during summers past.
Scilla

Dutch Iris (Sorry for the blurrrr. The wind was blowing when I tried to take the photo.)

Puschkinia

Dutchman's Breeches

Remember - for a closer look, click on the photo.

Spring Beauty

Bloodroot

NGJL - ice cream castles in the air

I was sitting in the dentist chair yesterday watching HGTV when a commercial came on for a 'green house giveaway' which reminded the dental hygienist of a story she'd heard. A woman won a really, really big lottery and paid off all of her family's mortgages. And then she won another big one, and spent it all on herself, which led the young lady working on my teeth on a beautiful Michigan spring day to comment that winning all of that money was a scary thought.
Scary?
Not exactly the word I'd have used.

So, in the usual manner of significant things just 'turning up' on my path, this morning the video posted here was in my mailbox, waiting to be connected for y'all.
What would you do with three trillion dollars?

The Three Trillion dot org interactive website is lotsa good clean fun, and makes me wonder why we don't have the collective will as a nation to spend our fortune on good things.
Go try it out: you can even put your kid's mortgages and health insurance for your grandchildren in your 'shopping cart'...