Dear Sunday Letter friends,
Did you know that yesterday was World Naked Gardening Day? I have a friend who keeps me abreast of this holiday (pun intended). If I know her, she observed it. While I did plant dill yesterday, I did it with my clothes on. John and I also graduated from our Arkansas Master Naturalist training yesterday! Sort of funny that our graduation date aligned with World Naked Gardening Day.
Stairway to Heaven
Check out these clouds!
Just before sunset a few days ago, I took this picture from our front porch. John said they look like church pews. I think they might be a stairway to Heaven, each cloud a ladder rung or stair step.
From our front porch, we see brilliant sunsets.
There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west and my spirit is crying for leaving…
Remember when all we had to worry about was how to save enough money to buy the hottest new rock album? Then, as we gathered on the bedroom floor listening to it with our friends, we tried to figure out how to play the record backward because someone said there was a dark message imbedded in the lyrics? And we really really wanted to hear it even though the idea of it scared us a little?
I remember.
Cottage Re-do
You may recall we have a rental cottage under renovation. What began as a bathroom renovation has morphed into something larger because of old wiring, bad plumbing, blah blah blah. It’s coming along, but I sooooo want it to be finished.
Tiling should have started last this week. (Ugh.)
We vaulted the ceiling to make the tiny bathroom seem larger. The new window lets in lots of light and a glimpse of our very own bamboo forest.
Feeding My Obsession
We adopted these beauties this week. Salvia nemorosa (white salvia) and Speedwell (purple spiky flowers) now happily grow in our butterfly garden. Heuchera (Georgia Peach Coral Bells) add lots of color and also attract hummers and butterflies.
Truth: I’d rather buy plants than shoes.
Natural Ozark Beauty
Speaking of Heaven, last weekend we spent three days at the Ozark Natural Science Center near Huntsville (part of our Master Naturalist training). It was like church camp without church. Although there was no singing, I felt the urge to sing Kum Ba Ya more than once. For real.
The trails glittered with moss. And walking along, I thought about how I was merely a tiny part of the understory.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long and the forests will echo with laughter…
We saw native Jack in the Pulpit flowers and listened to Fowler’s Toads after sunset. We saw Summer Tanagers singing in the trees. I spied morel mushrooms growing near a stream bank. The next morning, they were gone.
I didn’t find Devil’s Bathtub, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one tucked away in the Ozark hills and hollers.
School Kitchen Tip
In many country places, wood is the chief fuel for cooking, especially in the summer. There should be a full supply of well-dried wood; pine or soft wood, split fine for kindling, with chips, pine cones, and any other small portions your may happen to have convenient; light trash wood for a quick fire, and oak or other hard wood, cut a little shorter for a long steady fire. One of the most helpful ways for the boys to combine home work and school credit is to see that the wood supply is perfect. (The School Kitchen Textbook, Mary J. Lincoln, 1917, Chapter XII Wood Fires)
Bye for now, Sunday Letter friends. Have a peaceful week! Go outside. Plant something.
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
[tweetthis]Today’s Sunday Letter: a stairway to heaven #sundaymorning[/tweetthis]
Musical Pairing:
Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven
Vaulted ceiling in the bathroom–love it.
I really enjoy your gardening blogs. So far this spring, I have planted 5 big boy tomato’s. 2 Jalapeño peppers, 1 purple bell pepper, 2 red bell peppers. I have seed to plant squash, okra, and watermelon. Gardening is one thing I appreciate my father teaching me.
What a wonderful way to spend the week. Your pictures were fabulous. We love to go out and wander too. You mentioned your bamboo and that reminded me of a boy named Steven. Steven lived with his grandparents who set an above ground pool out in the corner of their lot where the 4 back yards meet. Steven was certainly old enough to know better, but he loved to urinate outside. It seems to be a male thing! I know, right? I asked him not to do that many times, but he thought it was funny so I planted a bunch of bamboo. We dug a very deep trench and placed a very thick barrier there. Of course, the bamboo outfoxed us and we have spent the past week digging up and pulling up runaway bamboo. I cannot think of what to try for a new barrier, but we are going to continue the fight, though that bamboo forest may take over our part of Virginia. I wonder where Steven is now. He is either a reformed piddle puddler or in prison somewhere.
The cottage is going to be so nice for your tenants. It’s the little things but it’s not a little task you have undertaken. Nothing compares to a nice long walk in the woods. I see jack in the pulpits around here in the fall when they have bright red berries but I’ve yet to see them in the flowering stage. Lucky you! Let me know when you find the devil’s bathtub. I’ve wondered if that is real or a figment of Gracie Lee’s imagination. 🙂