Olive!!!!

Olive Louise

 has arrived 

and 

she is

 wonderful!!!!

Love ya'll,

Sheen

I've a sweetheart I love, so dearly—
      She's all that is lovely and fair!—
      Her eyes are as blue as the bluebells
      Though, as yet, she hasn't much hair.
Her mouth is like a tiny rose bud,
      Just asking for kisses from me;
      And her sweet smiles are always ready
      To break forth for each one to see.
Oh, my little, innocent sweetheart
      Is the fairest flower that I know!
      I'm sure that she's loved by the Angels;
      They'll guard her where'er she may go.

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham,

 "My Sweetheart" (1940s)

Grandparents

I am going to take some time off to practice being a grandparent!! I probably won't be able to resist posting a picture of Olive, but James and I are going to be spending our time rocking, burping, and adoring our new granddaughter. Until then, I leave you with these this story about my parents in their role as grandparents.

My nephew, Thomas, loved pecans when he was a little boy. Not having a pecan tree, my parents would by sacks of uncracked pecans to sprinkle around the yard every time Thomas came to stay with them. He spent many a happy hour picking up pecans, shelling, and eating them with his grandparents. Thank goodness he didn't go into forestry where he would have embarrassed himself when he identified the leaves of a river birch as a pecan tree!

 

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. 

~Alex Haley

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Sunday Schoolism Plus #11: Happy Easter

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

                                                                                                                  Isaiah 54:10

In The Greenhouse

 I've been working out in the greenhouse. You might remember my disastrous foray into seed propagation last year. I had the whole operation set up in my kitchen. What a mess! The seeds germinated, but without the proper light; well, let's just say it went down hill from there.

This year with a combination of winter sowing outside and new grow-lights inside the hothouse, I have had much better results. Most of all it has been so much fun!!! A Master Gardener, chicken- raising friend and I were recently talking and we decided that there is just something wonderful about caring for little things like chicks and seedlings.

These seeds were winter sown outside in this spinach container from the grocery store. Once they put on their first set of true leaves, I transplanted them into bigger pots.

These coleus seeds were started in the greenhouse.

Zinnias and hollyhocks in the greenhouse.

Things are moving right along.

Moving into the garden today...
Late freeze stay away!!!!

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. 

~Lewis Grizzard 

Tulips

I am really enjoying this beautiful spring weather as I know you are.  I know that all of my gardening friends are out in their yards happily puttering around.  

 My front flower beds did well this year. I added hyacinths to the regular mix of pansies and tulips. The hyacinth bulbs were thrown into the refrigerator with the tulips bulbs back in October.

You can sort of make out the hyacinths in the front. They are multi -colored and smelled divine.

The tulips are blooming here, but the hyacinths were beaten down by the 20 inches of rain.

 Now the whole point of this post is to say that although there are beautiful bulbs to order from wonderful bulb catalogs and I am sure there are superior varieties that would take your breath away, I am always perfectly happy with the bulbs I buy at Fred's or Walmart.

Love Ya'll, 

Shelli

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. 

~Confucius

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.

 ~Robert Louis Stevenson

I’m just a simple guy, I live from day to day. A ray of sunshine melts my frown and blows my blues away. 

~Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Bonham,

 "Out On The Tiles" (Led Zeppelin)

Wreaths With Friends

Recently, my sister, Carole, and her dearest friend, Kelly, came to Turkey Creek Garden to spend the night. We fed the chickens, sat around the fire pit drinking homemade muscadine wine, and tackled a project. We are just project women - dog hair and potato peelings women. It's in our blood.

You may remember the picture above from the Northwest Louisiana Master Gardener's Seminar. Those cute little "zinnias" are made from pine cones that have been cut in half and painted with simple craft paints. My friend, Kit Hanley, took this idea and made an adorable wreath with it.

 Kit has a great decorating style and I love everything she does. When Carole and Kelly said they were coming to visit, I knew exactly what our craft should be - a Kit Hanley pine cone wreath!

I gathered and cut the pine cones before the girls arrived. Using my big, long handled pruners made cutting the pine cones in half very easy. We painted the pine cones Friday night after supper.  We gave them two coats. Setting them in egg cartons made them much easier to paint.

 Notice that we painted the bottoms of some cones and the open, cut side of others.

They dried over night. The next morning, they got a coat of high gloss, clear shellac. Then we used moss, dried flowers, and bird nests purchased at Hobby Lobby to complete our wreaths.

We worked outside in the garden because this part of the project was MESSY!! In the end ours weren't as cute as Kit's, but we were still proud of our accomplishment!

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend. 

~Plautus

It is a good thing to be rich, and it is a good thing to be strong, but it is a better thing to be loved of many friends. 

~Euripides

A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad. 

~Arnold H. Glasgow

Sunday Schoolism Plus #10: They Are New Every Morning

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness!
                                                                                       Lamentations 3: 22-23

Happy Accidents

You may be tired of posts about art, but I hope you'll hang in there for just one more!

After viewing the Jackson Pollock exhibit recently, we had about thirty minutes before we had to leave the museum for our lunch reservation. We asked the docent how he recommended we spend our last few minutes, and he sent us upstairs to the Reves collection piquing our interest by telling us that some of the items in the collection originally belonged to Coco Chanel. We zipped upstairs and wandered through the exhibit. Then, totally by accident, we walked into a tiny, little room that contained the art of Winston Churchill!! 

I had listened to an biography about Winston Churchill on my way to Mobile last summer. I am a huge fan of his and adore some of his many witty quotes, but I had no idea that he was an artist. Ron Cynewulf  Robbins, in his article entitled Churchill As Artist - Half Passion, Half Philosophy, writes:

"Churchill was forty before he discovered the pleasures of painting. The compositional challenge of depicting a landscape gave the heroic rebel in him temporary repose. He possessed the heightened perception of the genuine artist to whom no scene is commonplace. Over a period of forty-eight years his creativity yielded more than 500 pictures. His art quickly became half passion, half philosophy. He enjoyed holding forth in speech and print on the aesthetic rewards for amateur devotees. To him it was the greatest of hobbies. He had found his other world—a respite from crowding events and pulsating politics."

It was such a happy accident to stumble on some of his paintings as well as other personal memorabilia! 

Winston Churchill's oil paints.

Cigars, walking cane, telegrams

Thank goodness for life's happy accidents!!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Churchill quotes:

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Death In The Family

Well, we start this week off with some bad news from Turkey Creek Garden .........

Reba, one of our sweet hens has died.  She was always the first one to come jump in my lap. I think this was because she was also the one who always found a way out of the chicken yard. The minute she got out, she would realize she wanted back in!  She would squawk and squawk until I came out to the garden to see what was going on. Then she'd come running up to me, and sort of squat down so I would pick her up and return her to her sisters. 

Here she is, the Buff Orpington.

I think she became egg bound. She had "laying issues" in the past and although I did everything I could read for egg bound chickens, I could not save her. A trip to the coop didn't seem the same for a few days, but I think the three remaining girls and I have slowly gotten over it.

We'll miss you Reba!!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Let life be as beautiful as summer flowers
And death as beautiful as autumn leaves.
~Rabindranath Tagore

Sunday Schoolisms Plus #9: Pride

Once there was a woman who had promised to bake a cake for her church's annual bake sale fundraiser. She had left the baking of the cake until the very morning of the sale and so was in a hurry.  She combined ingredients, put the cake in the oven, and rushed to shower and get ready for the day.

She returned to the kitchen and peeked in the oven window to check on the cake. It was perfect!!

But when she removed the cake from the oven, the middle caved in deeper than the Grand Canyon!! Oh, no! What was she to do! She was one of the best bakers in the church. Everyone would expect her to have a beautiful cake at the sale! Desperate times call for desperate measures! 

She carefully carved out the sunken middle and replaced it with a roll of toilet tissue. Then she quickly iced the cake, sealing in her secret.

 On her way to the church, she called her daughter and left a message, " Hey honey, I know you're taking your cake to the bake sale this morning. Listen,as soon as the sale starts I need you to buy my cake. It's the tall one with white icing and sugared pansies. This is very important!!! No matter what else happens, BUY MY CAKE!!!! I'll explain everything later. Bye."

Later in the day, the woman received a text from her daughter, "Sorry Mom, cake already bought."

Oh, Lord, what could she do? She had no idea who had bought her cake. Maybe no one would remember which cake was hers. Well, best just go on about her business as if nothing was amiss.

The next morning, the woman headed off to bible study at a friend's house. After an especially inspiring study, the hostess prepared  to serve cake and coffee. She walked out with a beautiful, tall cake with white icing and sugared pansies. 

"What a beautiful cake", the ladies exclaimed! "Thank you," said the hostess, "I baked it myself."

"There's a sermon about pride in there."

                                                                                     Jerry Hilbun

                                                                                     Former Pastor Trinity United Methodist Church 

My Jackson Pollock

I recently talked about our trip to the Jackson Pollock exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. 

I love to go somewhere on a trip and then keep a memory of that trip out in the house where I can see it for a while. It's like bringing a tiny piece of the bigger world into our sweet little world here at TCG. Then, each time I pass by that memento, it whispers to me, "remember when we.......".  

Sometimes, that memory comes in the form of a painting and since Jackson Pollocks sell for millions of dollars, I had to make my own. 

Step 1: Ask your sweet husband to get you a large canvas(30' x 40') from Hobby Lobby when he is in Monroe. Apply two coats of  ordinary craft paint. Apply one final coat of craft paint mixed with a glazing medium.

Mask off a portion of the canvas with painter's tape.

Cover the outside border with butcher paper.

Place the canvas on the floor. Pollock said he became part of the painting when he put it on the floor because he could approach it from every side, rather than look at it on an easel.  Then just pour paint. I used a wide mouthed plastic cup. I preferred the Pollock pieces that had wider ribbons of color, so I was trying for that effect.  

Keep applying different colors always standing at a different place around  the canvas. I also used containers with smaller apertures to apply the paint, but all I ever did was just pour! If you want some splatter marks when you pour, hold your container way up high.

Let your work dry for a couple of days before removing the tape. I used a razor blade to lay on top of the paint next to the tape ensuring a clean removal of the tape.

  Now when I walk by the fireplace, I hear a faint whisper saying, "Remember how much fun we had in Dallas..."

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

We do not remember days; we remember moments. 

~Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand

Protecting Our Pollinators

The following article was written for the Ruston Daily Leader.

Spring, our favorite time of year! Gardeners all over town are working compost into flower beds, caring for seedlings, and patrolling local garden centers for new plants arriving daily. Oh happy days!!

Before we get too involved in our spring frenzy, I want to challenge you to take your gardening to another level this year – a level of stewardship. We have been gifted the wondrous circle of life called nature. As true gardeners, nature’s well being should be as important to us as its beauty.

An important component in a healthy garden is its pollinators. Pollinators are primarily the hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees that keep working in our garden long after we have gotten tired and gone inside. They tirelessly transfer pollen from bloom to bloom, plant to plant, making every vegetable we eat and every flower we adore possible. 

I asked one of our local Master Gardeners, Jean McWeeney, to recommend a few simple commitments that every gardener could incorporate into their gardening to become more pollinator friendly. Jean writes articles for garden publications, speaks at gardening events, owns The Natural Garden Coach, and blogs at Dig, Grow, Compost, Blog.  Here are the basic commitments she suggested:

1. Plant more pollinator friendly plants.

2. Plant more trees.

3. Become less reliant on pesticides and consider going organic.

4. Do your research before you buy a plant.

Now that’s not overwhelming! Most of us have pollinator friendly plants in our garden anyway, but we need to know the difference between host plants and nectar plants. Host plants are the plants that butterfly larvae feed on. Because these plants are going to become unsightly, plant them in an inconspicuous place, yet close to nectar plants. Jean uses this example, “Did you know that the gulf fritillary butterfly lays its eggs on the passion vine and its larvae subsequently eat the vine? The larvae look somewhat intimidating with their bright orange color and black spikes. And the damage they can do to a passion vine is extensive. But because both the plant and the butterfly coevolved, the passion vine will bounce back once the larvae metamorphose into butterflies."

 Host plants for butterflies include dill, parsley, fennel, hollyhock, rose mallow, snapdragons, broccoli, and cabbage. Of course milkweed is the host plant for the monarch butterfly. Nectar plants include lantana, zinnia, cosmos, coneflower, mist flower, tithonia, and globe amaranth. The Master Gardener’s Spring Plant Sale on April 23^rd will feature many pollinator friendly plants, including several types of milkweed.

Although we often concentrate our gardening efforts on flowers and shrubs, multilevel canopies (from tall shrubs, to small trees, to large trees) are beneficial to the garden environment. Jean says, “Birds rely on native trees to host caterpillars for their young and the mighty oak is a haven for caterpillars. Oak trees house over 500 different species of caterpillars, the Bradford pear almost zero. Chickadees will feed just one clutch of young some 6,000-9,000 caterpillars, so when selecting your next tree, keep our bird friends in mind.”

The toughest commitment is becoming less reliant on pesticides, but think of yourself as a link in the environmental chain, and don’t be the weak link!! Follow these simple guidelines:

1. Remove pests by hand if possible.

2. Use native predators such as ladybugs and praying mantis.

3. Try non-toxic homemade remedies.

4. Use the lowest effective application of pesticide and one that does not persist on vegetation.

5. Do not use pesticides when plants are in bloom, on a windy day, or in the morning when pollinators are active.

And finally, be informed about where you are purchasing your plants. Jean reminds us that “Neonicotinoids are systemic pesticides that are taken up by the plant to guard against pests. Current evidence suggests solitary bees and bumblebees, some of our native pollinators, are more severely affected by neonicotinoids than honeybees. Many nurseries in the U.S. use this pesticide, even on plants that are attractive to bees. So… do your research before you buy and speak to the nursery manager.” That’s another great benefit of buying plants at the Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale; you can trust that our plants have been treated responsibly.

Derry McBride of the Garden Club of America states, “A garden is only as rich and beautiful as the integral health of the system; pollinators are essential to the system – make your home their home.”

Spring!!

I guess spring is really here.

 I keep expecting winter to say, Wait, I wasn't finished!" But the weather forecast says we'll be in the 80's soon, so I guess spring is really here! 

Signs are popping up everywhere......

Ice King

Saucer Magnolia/Tulip Tree

Pansies, hyacinths, and tulips which are just about to bloom.

These daffodils (Narcissus jonquilla) are known as Little Sweeties and they are one of the most fragrant flowers I know. They also go by the name Cologne Bottle, for good reason. Mom and I rescued these last year from an old home site that was being developed into a subdivision.

Spring 2015

Osmanthus fragrans

But this year, the most anticipated flowering plant at Turkey Creek Garden

 is this fragrant 

Sweet Olive

because

our own sweet Olive is due to be born this month!!!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Little, clutching hands, so dear,
      Grasping everything that's near
      Reaching for each thing in sight,
      Baby hands, so soft and white!...
How you pull at our heart strings
      As you dance and as you sing!
      Baby, dear, to us you bring
      Comfort and eternal Spring!
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "Baby Hands" (1940s)