A Garden for a Daughter

If I had the back and muscles for it, and the time and the money, I'd design a flower garden for all our daughters and locate them all around our 5 acres, with a pretty name marker and a place to rest in each. Papa G brought three daughters and I brought along another three to this marriage about a decade ago.

By age, from oldest to youngest, they are;

Rhiannon
Felicity
Charlotte
Cordelia
Melissa
Alexandra

They sound like garden names! I considered what kind of garden would represent each unique style and personality, and even found some pictures that fit.

So, for those who know these young women, I invite you to try to match the garden with the girl. Anyone else can just make happy guesses!

1.



2.



3.



4.



5.



6.



I'll let you go first. What name would you give each garden?

You Know You're in Piedmont When...2nd Installment

Today in Piedmont America it's a snow day.



I spent yesterday morning in a meeting and then the whole afternoon releasing children to parents in the middle of an ice storm. Actually, my staff is awesome, so they did most of the releasing. We've got a good system down by now, so it's chaos, but very carefully controlled chaos. I was the last one standing, except for Mr. Fred by 4:15 when the last chil'en was picked up. Then I slipped and slid my way home along with most of the rest of the state.

The home fireplace/heater has been burning for about 48 hours now, so the wood pile is diminishing, but at least the propane heater hasn't run much. The wood was free, thanks to a friend. I LIKE free heat! Free's great.

So, to pass the time, here are a couple more items for
You Know You're in Piedmont When...

1. Wildcat WakeUp includes a visit from Hanz und Franz


2. Mrs. Sniffapickle reads to first graders.



3. Dogs are rescued from under buses. I guess that happens everywhere, but the other day Debbie and I watched a tiny dog stop a bus and a long line of traffic in front of the school while it played amongst the tires. All the drivers waited patiently until someone opened the door of his pickup and reached down to scoop up the pooch and carry it off. (We were out the door, on the way to see if we could help!)My friend Renee told me about a time when they found their precious family dog run over on Piedmont road. She stood in the road and stopped traffic to keep it from getting hit again. The guys in the pickup trucks she stopped got out to see what the problem was. She said, "That's my dog. Those are my kids. Help me out here!" So the guys not only picked up the dog, but took it home and helped her bury it. At least that's how I remember the story. Renee, you can correct the story for me!

4. Debbie's husband, Ron, came to school yesterday afternoon, when his company closed down early during the ice storm, and he spent over an hour starting cars and defrosters and scraping ice for teachers (and me!) so that we wouldn't have to slide around out in the cold to do it ourselves. When I (finally) was ready to leave, my old mom-mobile was defrosted and driveable. What a blessing Ronnie!

Papa G. took extra stuff to work today in case the roads get too bad and he has to stay in town.

For now, we're snug, warm, and still have power. Keep your fingers crossed!

Grow Your Own Shirt

John Travolta would have been proud.



I started on the right side of my closet rack the other day, working left and had to bypass about ten items before I found a shirt made completely of natural fibers; cotton of course. Somehow I thought I had left wearing all man made fibers back with leisure suits and shiny Quiana knit shirts and dresses!




Yep, that's me, on a college choir tour in Europe. Nice polyester dresses! They traveled well.



There's a lot of polyester in this room. Check out the pale pink poly suits! The "Living Expressions" sang together weekly at Youth for Christ rallies in 1978. Yes, that's me and my sister on the bottom row. We had some choreography you would be envious of, I'm sure of it. Sorry you missed it.

Back to my 2009 closet...

I was checking my labels because I had been reading about "the International Year of Natural Fibres", as designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The FAO plans for 2009 to be a year of celebration and education about producers and marketers of natural fibers.

So, if you want to grow your own shirt, here are some possibilities:

Plant fibers:
abaca, coir, cotton, flax, hemp,jute, ramie, sisal

Animal fibers:
alpaca, angora, camel, cashmere, mohair, silk, wool

Yeah. I didn't know what some of these were either. Which one comes from coconuts? (coir) Which one is an energy saving replacement for glass fibres in automobiles? (abaca) And I always suspected that the best camel fibre can be found on the two-humped Bactrian camels of Inner Mongolia and Mongolia, but now I know for sure.

Nope. No spandex on the list. I must say, I like a little spandex in the mix. I've grown to appreciate spandex in my middle age, or just my middle in general.

When is a fibre natural? The FAO web site says, "The International Year of Natural Fibres celebrates fibres produced by plants and animals. It does not include modern man-made artificial and synthetic fibres such as rayon, nylon, acrylic and polyester." As a side note, we are informed that tree fibres are not included in this year's celebration since they will be covered in the "International Year of Forests" in 2011. I was WONDERING about tree fibres.




I seriously do love the color and texture of natural fibres. Who wouldn't love the exquisite colors of these silk pieces?

I guess part of the point of the year long dedication is to encourage folks like me to consider the value and sustainability of the natural fibre industry, from the standpoint of a consumer. From the standpoint of a farmer, designer, researcher, marketer, there are some pretty awesome places throwing natural fibre parties this year; Rome, Beijing, Seattle, Cairo, Mumbai, Cleveland, Frankfort, Milan, to name a few.

I sadly will not be growing any sisal, or raising any alpacas this year, but I like the idea of adding more cashmere, wool and silk to the old wardrobe!

Wanna go shopping?

Grown Men Cried

Grown men cried. Well, OK, they just kind of gagged a lot.


But not me!

I might have already mentioned that I LOVED the compost episode at the Regional Food Bank last weekend. I saw the smelly, rancid, yellow liquid poring out of the banana bags (Oh, sorry grown men) as we ripped them open to throw on the compost pile, as the perfect worm food to aid decomposition. It's all about science: decay, decomposition, worms, worm pooh, rich soil, green gardens. Yep. Good stuff.

Bruce Edwards, from the Urban Harvest program at the food bank, e-mailed me after I wrote the post on Jan. 17 with this info about the project:

"The banana’s as well as other waste vegetables are composted in an effort to keep waste out of landfills, cut down on our expenditures for trash removal and to create useful compost for our gardens here at the Food bank.

For your own information – I did not create Aquaponic growing systems. I have studied them, gone to workshops in other places and have adapted the process for our purposes here at the Food Bank. The current system can hold up to 1000 Tilapia which will grow out to 1.5 lbs in about 6 -8 Months. The water that circulates to and through the plant portion of the system can grow out any number of plants faster and more efficient than traditional gardening. Last month we harvested approx 800 heads of lettuce after 6 weeks of growing. This time we are experimenting with a variety of leafy vegetables and herbs."

He did also mention that the bananas aren't nearly as bad as the onions in mid summer! NOT that I'm trying to discourage anyone from volunteering at the food bank. It's a great place, and they have lots of INDOOR projects you can volunteer for. But, personally, I'll be out back, with the garden folk.

2008 Okie Blog Awards

The 2008 Okie Blog Awards list is up here. Some of my favorites are listed. I would've voted for them initially if I'd known we were voting. Definitely need to pay attention more. But now that I know, it's not too late! I'm gonna go have some fun reading blogs, so I can decide on my final favorites by Feb. 7. So many blogs to read. Gotta go.

And thanks to whoever nominated my wee blog in the "Best Unusual Blog" category. It was one of all both of you faithful readers, so thanks!

Inauguration Day at School

Most classes watched the inauguration today, on television or through the internet. We were a bit frustrated by the internet since we have nice big Smart Boards to see the inaugural proceedings, but the internet kept freezing. But we were able to see most of ceremony, and didn't miss the moment the new President accepted his "sacred oath", as he put it.

I checked around to see that everyone had a place and a connection who wanted to watch the ceremony, then settled in the fifth grade hall to watch the swearing in. These pictures are from my cell phone, so they're fuzzy, but I wanted to share the view from our place.



It is amazing how the transition is so beautifully choreographed from the old to the new, and how the process is accepted and respected by all. I love our country for that among many, many reasons.

Respect and thanks to the Bush family. And God's blessings for wisdom, strength and endurance, and maybe even joy for the Obama's.

Tilapia Gardening

Take a look at this picture from the greenhouses of Urban Harvest behind the Regional Food Bank in OKC.




At the far left side of the picture is a fish tank containing Talapia in a heated tank. Water flows through the tank and down the lower trough, around to the right, and back up into the tank. The herbs you see in plastic pots are suspended in holes cut into foam boards. The fish pooh water feeds the plants and circulates back around through the tank. I didn't catch if Bruce Edwards, the creative dude in charge of Urban Harvest created this system, or is experimenting with an idea from somewhere else, but Gene and I thought it was pretty cool! No home should be without one. It's a complete nutrition system. (Yes, the Talapia are for eating.)

Urban Harvest has a butterfly garden, vegetable gardens, and edible ornamental garden all on demonstration plots at the Food Bank. They also farm worms and create piles of compost for use in their gardens and for sale. Seriously! They sell lots of wormy compost. Urban Harvest also helps schools and churches, towns and organizations like YWCA create gardens of their own.

Compost as Service?

I was planning to load boxes of food at the Regional Food Bank in OKC today with the crew from Journey Fellowship, but I ended up helping to create a giant compost pile! They asked Ryan if we would mind working outside and he, of course, agreed. "Working outside" meant spending the morning scooping and tossing rotten stuff onto huge compost piles.



According to the food bank web site, in fiscal year 2008, the Food Bank distributed 25 million pounds of food, enough to feed 63,600 Oklahomans every week.



Bruce Edwards, director of Urban Harvest at the food bank (King of Compost, in this photo) had us shoveling rotten pumpkins and opening hundreds of rotten banana bags onto his giant compost operation.





After we finished our slime part of the job, Bruce planned to add more leaves, soil and, his favorite part, more worms to the piles. Annalise and Kayla were the official worm assitants.





The Journey Fellowship leadership made us proud.





Papa G got a serious lifting workout.



I don't know about Haley and Diana, but I'm still scubbing banana slime out of my hair and nails.





The last toss of the day, from Angela and Scott.



I'll share more tomorrow on what Talapia have to do with urban gardening, and other exciting information I learned today.

Granny Sunshine Lives Here

I was staring uncomprehendingly at the rolling credits after a movie when the name "Mary Sunshine" just jumped out and grabbed me.

Wow. I want that name! Mrs. Shari Sunshine. I'm totally going to change my name! Sorry hubby. I'll make it Mrs. Shari Z. Sunshine. My grandkids will call me Granny Sunshine. Friends and family will call me Sunny as a term of endearment. I'm planning to get rid of all my black clothes and buy only yellow and orange and bright pink. Maybe an occasional sky blue for contrast. I'll buy a big white pair of sunglasses...

Yeah well. I do think I require sunshine for survival. It was sunny today, and not freakishly windy so I took my camera for a walk. Here are some of the results.



The pond was perfectly still. It required a pause to meditate.



I prefer my trees green. But in the winter, without the distracting, lovely, whispery presence of green, you can see the beautiful form of the bark and branches.






The contrast of stark branches against the setting sun is satisfying too.



At least the wheat fields are green. That makes me smile.




Thank you to my neighbors down the road for a relaxing, contemplative walk around their beautiful property in the afternoon sunshine.

Can you spell e-s-p-a-l-i-e-r-e-d?

Here's your new gardening vocab word for the day. No, this is not one of the computer generated pretend words, but it would make a great entry in the Liars Club guessing game.

ESPALIER

es·pal·ier (ĭ-spāl'yər, -yā') Pronunciation Key
n.
A tree or shrub that is trained to grow in a flat plane against a wall, often in a symmetrical pattern.
A trellis or other framework on which an espalier is grown



If you have 4 or 5 years, this could be a seriously cool gardening project. Here's a simple drawing.



There are easily understandable directions (simple even to me at 11:00 p.m. on the Friday of the longest school week on record I'm sure) at The Garden Home web site.

Now you know I'll be looking for a likely wall somewhere to espalier myself a fruit tree. I wonder if it works on ugly chain link fences?

Girl Power

A house full of family means a house full of girls around here. I have two daughters, three step daughters, two nieces I'd claim as my own, and a sweet young woman in Cali that I do claim as mine. They're beautiful and talented. Independent. Well educated. Confident. Capable. They are all finding their place in the world with sweet success. All of which I take for granted most of the time.

One of Jean's recent posts at the Oklahoma Women's Network Blog reminded me that my girls' lives are blessed beyond many girls' wildest imaginations. Take a look at The Girl Effect web site and see what I mean. Here's the introductory video from this extraordinary site.







The girl effect totally grabs my mind and my imagination! It's been kind of a continuing theme somehow this last year for me. One of my favorite reads in 2008 was Three Cups of Tea, which described an American's passion for building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan; schools where girls could participate in learning.


I've been a child sponsor for World Vision for almost 15 years. Enough time to see our small African girl grow into a woman and "graduate" from the program. Currently our family sponsors a young Ethiopian girl through World Vision. Besides their regular village projects, World Vision offers the opportunity for us to give gifts specifically to girls in need. The gift catalog includes:

$1,000 to supply 10 women with small business loans
$85 for a bicycle for a young girl (meeting basic transportation needs)
$25 to purchase two chickens
$270 for a sewing machine

All these girls that were filling my house today with fun and noise will scatter soon to continue their pursuit of school and careers. Wherever they are, my mom heart demands the simple requirements of home and health, safety, and work that helps them survive and thrive.


Check out the photos and videos on The Girl Effect. Are they our daughter too?