surprise on counter
wet searching for sustenance
on loan from garden
by Angie Quantrell
Happy Hump Day Haiku Challenge! I’d love to read your haiku about garden visitors. Just post in the comments. 🙂
Tag Archives: garden
The Mud Recipe
“Dark chocolate looks like poop.”
So said Donavyn after I gave him some acai chocolate treats. “It looks like mud. Not dirt, but mud and water.”
“How do you make mud?” I asked.
“You take some dirt and mix some water.”
Ever the teacher of different genres of literature, “So what’s the recipe for mud?”
Compliments of a 5-year-old, here is Donavyn’s recipe for mud.
How to Make Mud
Step 1: Get some dirt.
Step 2: Add some water.
Step 3: Mix it up. Now you have mud.
Everyone needs this recipe. Go outside. Play in the mud.
Marvelous Monday Moonflowers
Thanks to seeds from a friend (Hi, friend!), magic unfolded in my night garden last night!
Moonflower seeds. I will admit I was accepting defeat at the beginning of the growth cycle. Never have I seen a plant grow SO SLLOOWWWW. Chances of actual blooms appeared nonexistent. Then came the heat. The smoke. The long summer days.
And poof! Cigar-shaped flower pods grew amidst the large leaves. BTW, the stems are out-of-this-world interesting to look at and touch. Once the flowers began to poke from the covering, they transformed into green taquitos.
Then came lavender-edged swirls.
which burst open into extravagant balloons!
Old-fashioned rose fragrance, glow-in-the-dark coloring, large, inviting. I wanted to stay awake all night to see which nocturnal pollinators took the bait and visited the deep blossoms.
Marvelous Monday indeed. What wonderful flowers inspire you? Do you know of any other night flowers? I hear moonflowers are perennials plus they offer abundant seeds. Moonflowers, anyone?
Happy Hump Day ~ Haiku Challenge
How does Hump Day come around so quickly? The older I get, the faster time flies! Here is my Happy Hump Day Haiku Challenge. I’d love to read yours!
weed?
opportunistic,
sink roots deep ever you land;
weed, no! flower.
Bloom where you are planted.
Grandmother Thorn – Picture Book & KID KANDY
GRANDMOTHER THORN
By Katey Howes
Art by Rebecca Hahn
(Ripple Grove Press, 2017)
Grandmother Thorn gives new meaning to the words OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). She maintains her gardens with an iron will, daring anything to be out of place, grow where it’s not supposed to, or become mussed by irresponsible footprints.
Only one friend, Ojiisan, the man with a dragging foot and droopy shoulder, was allowed to make tracks in her perfectly groomed gravel paths. For they were best friends and enjoyed hot tea, conversation, and tasty sweets.
All was well until one day Ojiisan tasted gorgeous red berries and urged the salesperson to take some to Grandmother Thorn (but DO NOT walk on the path).
As you can imagine, he did not listen and disaster befell the merchant, the garden, and the welfare of Grandmother Thorn.
Or did it?
This beautiful picture book shares the story of letting go and allowing some things to be. And not all weeds are what they appear.
I love this book, both for the story and the tapestry-like illustrations.
KID KANDY:
Berry Hunt
1. Read GRANDMOTHER THORN. Memorize all the details you can of the weed and its fruit.
2. Does anyone in your family go grocery shopping or visit a farmer’s market? It’s time to go with that person. Go shopping.
3. Search the produce section. Can you find the fruit found in GRANDMOTHER THORN? Maybe your adult shopper will buy some!
4. Perhaps you live in an area where this type of fruit grows. Look around your neighborhood and see if you find the vines. If you time it right, you might even be able to pick some of those tasty fruits!
Love, Laughter, and Life 