Strong stuff

Burns Night is inescapable at this time of year. From the ethical, locally sourced produce at Earthy to the mass market of major supermarket chains, haggis is all around.

I was interested to read a report on the BBC website that authentic haggis is a banned foodstuff in the USA. The problem is one of its ingredients - lungs. So when I was doing the supermarket shop today I did a quick ingredient check and sure enough, lungs are the first-named item.

I was amused by the usual nanny-state instruction, 'Ensure product is pip[ing hot before serving].' I liked to think that it might say instead 'Ensure product is piped in before serving.'





Oh dear, I am such a bad blogger at the moment. I have several excuses, one of which I'll show you shortly.

I'll Remember A.P. R. I. L.

Antique Rose Emporium
When my friend Diane Goode first proposed that we make a trip to the Antique Rose Emporium the year was 1999 and I still lived in Illinois. Diane was the relocator assigned to help our family move to Texas and as we drove around looking at houses, our shared love of gardening helped us bond. It took us 11 years to get there but the Antique Rose Emporium was ours last week! I cut a few roses from my no-name tall pink climber and brought them along in hopes the experts could ID it for me.An overcast day and 70°F was perfect for driving nearly 100 miles to stroll the grounds near Brenham, Texas. We stayed for hours...
...reveling in the beautiful setting, inhaling the rose-scented air and enjoying the fabulously lovely wedding area, as our red wagons gradually filled with must-have plants from red columbines to bedding geraniums to Batface Cuphea to Foxgloves to 'John Fanick' phlox.
You can't go to the Rose Emporium and come home without a rose! Diane bought a hybrid musk rose called 'Penelope' and I could not resist the creamy white 'Climbing Iceberg' . It was late afternoon when we left and headed to Brenham for lunch and pie. What a wonderful day!
Pink-splosion was promised by 'Belinda's Dream' and she's delivered! This rose came with many recommendations when I planted it in the dry spring of .., never guessing that the drought would go on for another year and a half. 'Belinda's Dream' made a few flowers now and then but was not that exciting. But since the drought broke last fall, she's become established- acting like the plain secretary in an old movie- taking off her glasses, shaking out her tresses and revealing that she's a beauty, after all.
Reyna De Los Coyolles We took the southerly route back from the rose emporium, veering toward Bastrop, with our destination a place Diane had found on Highway 21 in Cedar Creek. I think that "Reyna De Los Coyolles" might mean "Queen of the Cannas", but if anyone knows for sure please tell everyone in a comment.
This is a fascinating & unusual nursery spread out over several acres. There are displays of beautiful pots and quirky decorations:You will see fields of growing plants in bloom:

There are perennials, daylilies and bulbs with the names of plants seldom written on labels but kept in order inside the nurserywoman Heidi's head. If the exact botanical name is important to you, you may have to do some research after you get home, but the variety of plants is stunning! Some things are already growing in containers - some will be dug for you once you choose them. Diane was thrilled to find a plant she remembers from her childhood growing at this nursery - she's been seeking a Cashmere Bouquet Flower for years.
Choosing a Louisiana Iris had me in a tizzy - how could I have just one color when I wanted them all?
But my garden is small and a decision had to be made - blue? Butter yellow?I've wanted a pale yellow iris for some time so this pale yellow Louisiana iris was the winner:Heidi also had gladiolus and Pineapple lilies - had to try one of those....and yay! there was a row of turtle stepping stones in the same design as one bought for our patio a few years ago. We wanted two but could never find another until now.

I'm still regretting that I did NOT buy one of the white & green amaryllis. Guess we'll just have to go back!
Iris siberica-
My blue violet passalong made it through last summer in good shape but there were fewer flowers than last year -

Every single one was beautiful.

Late start for the Divas of the Dirt in .. - our first project usually takes place in February, but this year we weren't able to garden together until April!
Please check out the Divas of the Dirt Blog where we make a front yard vegetable garden, redo the shade beds and have some wonderful food at Sophia's house.
Happy A P R I L!

Old soap

Earlier this spring, I attended a gardening convention held at Landmark Park in Dothan, Alabama. The old Martin Drug Store was moved there from Enterprise, and reopened four years ago. An operating pharmacy from 1898 to 1983, it's now part museum and part ice cream parlor.

You might guess which display I gravitated towards: the historical soap! None of it's for sale, alas. More of these than I'd realized are still made today: Cashmere Bouquet, Octagon, Grandpa's Pine Tar Soap, Palmer's Skin Success Soap. I'm not sure what happened to the others... soaps with charming names like Sterne's Carbolic Soap, Drexel's Wonder Soap, Flotilla Floating Bath Soap, and Packer's Charm Soap.

According to the book Boiled Peanuts and Buckeyes, the people at Martin's "were notorious for not throwing anything away and keeping meticulous records. They held onto every receipt, medicine bottle and cosmetic that ever entered the store... They had the most comprehensive collection of pharmaceutical artifacts in the nation."

I can recommend the Peach ice cream!

Ice Land

Here is another wildly cool ice formation that we found on Artist's Point on Saturday. I loved the lines here and could not resist pointing my camera in their direction!

Calibrating our inner anemometers

When we were newer paddlers, our estimates of wave height and wind speed were quite unreliable. We simply didn't have enough experience to provide a frame of reference.

These days, we get a kick out of seeing how our estimates compare with hard data. Yesterday, we paddled out from the Wilson "launch ramps" (now the Mondog doggie beach) to the Montrose crib against quartering winds. Then we paddled directly into those winds back to Fullerton Avenue. We estimated that the winds were about 22 knots gusting to something like 28.

Sure enough, when we checked the data from the Harrison crib, the wind speeds at around 12:30 were 11.7 meters/second (23 knots) gusting to 13.9 meters/second (27 knots).

Because the wind was off-shore, the water was flat near the beaches. Three miles out, the waves were perhaps 2 to 3 feet.

Best of all, the sky was blue for one of the first times all month.

Daytrippin': The Kern River and Red Rock Canyon

We've been having inordinate amounts of fun despite our being "stuck" here! There's just so much to see and do! For instance, a couple of days ago, we visited the Kern River - the drive along is spectacular as we wended our way towards Lake Isabella.
We stopped a couple of times and got to go... swimming! Here it was all snowing a few days ago, and now it's bathing suit weather heheh! There were two schoolbuses full of kids who just fawned over us and we were good girls and smiled a lot while they stroked our furs. Hard work, but some doggehs gotta do it!
The Kern River's cool, cause it has about as many rocks as there is water - seemingly endless amounts! And we're amenable to both!
We had as good a time running or swimming after sticks as we had just playing with each other!
There were pretty wildflowers to smell everywhere and we spied several squirrels too -
Th'above pitchur is one of Ma's faves, what with Avalon's lips all loose and Sammie's ears all a kilter, with big ole goofy smile! Yes, we're happy girls!

Looking up the Kern
Then we headed over Walker Pass, heading east towards Mohave. As we skirted Lake Isabella and worked our way in big winds up the pass, we spied colonies of Joshua Trees. Since Dad has (still) never seen J-Tree NP, he got out to check out these ancient relatives of the lily. Then we finally got to scramble in and around some truly ginormous rocks at Red Rock Canyon State Park - check it out here!

We are trippin' and lovin' this cool place. Mom didn't let us hang on the giant rocks for too long - thar's rattlers in there... But we did use our snooters to see if we couldn't spy a desert tortoise or two.

Then Mom serenaded us with our water bottle - we'd never seen THAT before! Have a pawesome weekend! We're outta here on Monday morning yippee!

Working in the Owl Wood ...

This is seasoned wood which we prepared last year.It feeds our Rayburn which gives us lovely hot water, central heating, and fuels our cooking.

This is the newly prepared wood which we will burn next year.We spent three hours working on that lot today. I had to call a halt then because my back was really aching.(What a wimp)



George assures me that torn bay leaves in my bathwater will soon cure my backache. Apparently the Romans used to use it as a cure for aches and pains. I'll let you know.

Galaxy Forest

Last night Jessica and I got out to enjoy the supremely calm conditions that were prevalent across northeast Minnesota. The conditions were so calm that I have never seen stars reflecting so perfectly in the waters of Lake Superior as they were last night. We were treated to incredible views of the Milky Way Galaxy, which was our focus for the evening but we were also (as always) hoping to see some northern lights that were possible overnight. The aurora never happened but the extreme calm of the night air combined with stars that were literally jumping out of the sky at us made for an unforgettable experience. Tonight is a stark contrast to last night as we are experiencing some rainfall and wind. Every day is different! I love it :-)

Bloodroot

All moaning and complaining makes Rurality a dull blog, so I've tried to avoid a bunch of griping about my back problems.
Instead, here's the first Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) of the season. Only the one green leaf just beneath the rightmost petals actually belongs to the Bloodroot. And that thick dry parchment of a bent stem belongs to something else too -- the tender Bloodroot stalk is slightly visible just below it.
Although it's obviously not much of a diagnostic photo, it's still my favorite of several I took over the weekend.