Kaseys Korner

I'm moving to a new zone!!!

and that's not all ~ I don't even have to pack a box!  I received an e-mail newsletter yesterday (from one of my favorite local nurseries) that said due to global climate change, gardening zones are being reconfigured.  There will be no more "a's" and "b's" and my current zone 5 is being changed to zone 6.  Well, what do you know?  I already push the envelope with zones and have successfully wintered over many plants supposedly not hardy here but I thought it was just a micro-climate situation?  One of those plants is Texas Betony (Stachys coccinea):

I've posted this photo before but it serves to illustrate my point ~ it's only considered hardy to zone 7.  That said, I've definitely had luck (depending on the severity of the winter) keeping it over to the following year.  I'm wondering now what other plants I can try?  What about you?  Have you heard this news?  Is your zone also changing? and what do you think of the news? 

dissecting a daffodil

Remember when we had to do that in 7th grade science class, but to frogs??  I wasn't very good at it ~ the whole process made me feel a little nauseous, but I'm kind of squeamish about stuff like that. Today I'd say I felt that way because a perfectly good frog was killed just so we could experiment with it.  Not my thought process at the time and I have no idea if middle schoolers still even do this in basic biology classes?  Dissecting a bulb tho, is an entirely different matter.  For some curious reason, I've been wanting to see what the inside of a bulb looks like but never wanted to "waste" one.  Curiosity got the best of me yesterday.  You know it's bad when I cut open a daffodil from this bag:

Yep, a beautiful 'Pink Blend' bulb was sacrificed.  Egads.  What was I thinking?  I think I found the "guts" to waste a bulb this year because I'm so far behind on planting.  Experimenting with one bulb means one less bulb to get in the ground.  An insurmountable task this year. Oh well, it's done now.  From the outside, bulbs always remind me of onions.  Anyone else think that?

Must be the thin, papery "skin?"  So would the inside look like an onion too?  And would we be able to see the beginnings of a bud?

Looks like an onion to me.  and no bud to speak of.  What possessed me to ruin a perfectly good daffodil bulb?  Sometimes ideas get the better of me.  I should have known, "if it resembles an onion, and acts like an onion, it's going to look like an onion!"  Not that anyone was losing sleep over it but I'm glad that question has officially been put to rest....

squash as a dessert????

Say what?   "I think she wrote that wrong."  No, I did not.  I was just as surprised when I saw it listed as a main ingredient but, being the daring cook I am, (LOL) I threw caution out the window and gave it a try anyway.  After all, 'tis the season for all things squash, right?  It doesn't hurt that butternut squash is one of our favorites.  Turns out, it makes a fantastic dessert!  Who knew?

I found the recipe for Butternut Apple Crisp in Taste of Homes "Fall Baking" book.  I happened to have squash in my pantry, it was an overcast, cold day, (although a far cry from this ~ what we had last week):

I'm happy to say most of that white stuff is now history.  Whew.  Back to the squash and the perfect day for baking.  The only thing I was missing was vanilla ice cream but that's okay ~ it was 100% delicious without it. Here's the recipe if you'd care to try it out yourself:

1 Butternut squash, 3 medium tart apples, 1/4 cup corn syrup, 2 Tbsps lemon juice, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1 Tbsp cornstarch, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp salt. 

Peel and seed the apples & squash.  Cut into thin slices.  Coat the slices with the lemon juice & corn syrup.  Stir in remaining ingredients then turn into a 13" X 9" baking dish.  Cover & bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  While it's baking, mix together the oat topping:

Oat Topping:  1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour, 1/2 cup Quick Cooking Oats, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar & 6 Tbsps Cold Butter.  Cut the butter into the 1st three ingredients ~ blah, blah, blah ~ you all know how to do it.

Sprinkle topping over squash mixture, return to oven (uncovered) and bake 25 minutes more.  (or until it's bubbly & topping is brown ~ squash should also be tender). 

Does that look yummy or what?  Also, I'm thinking if it has squash in it, it's a healthy dessert??!!!  If you disagree, don't tell me.  I'd like to fool myself into believing otherwise.  :-) 

they say, never look back

I can only believe that must be true for everything BUT gardening.  Looking back is very helpful and sometimes necessary in order to move forward, right?  With those two sentences, I've probably got you thinking I'm going to post about some big plans/changes in store for my garden.   Not true.  Disappointed???  I hope not.  I was really just "warming you all up" ~ hoping you'd humor me ~ and let me regress back a month or so??  Back to the first of October, when I loaded my Anemone (wind flower) photos onto the computer then (as you know) events transpired and I never got a chance to share them.   If you've seen your share of beautiful Anemones, and are so over them, feel free to skip ahead.  If not, I'd enjoy your company on the journey and also the "boost" from looking at my yard when things were green & warmer.  A very good thing for a cloudy Monday morning.  If I use a little imagination, I can still see them as they were ~ dancing gracefully under the Aspens:

 

They reached soaring heights this year ~ at least for my garden ~ topping out at 5 to 6 feet.  To give you an idea, the top of one of my vintage step ladders is visible at the bottom of the above photo and that ladder is 25" tall.  I think stature of this nature may be normal for anemones (??), they just don't usually reach it here at Paper Posey Cottage.  Another, not-so-great photo (from a different angle) showing my one small clump of double pink anemones:

The Aspens need to be limbed up a little if the anemones are going to continue maxing out like they did.  I also need to be more of a champion for the double pink clump else the single whites will bully it out of existence.  We can't have that, can we?  Looking back at this photo will help me mark its position.  Note to self;  pull some white next spring!  Shall we move in closer for some of my favorite shots ~ the macros??    Not so macro but a bit tighter:

I don't know why I like this photo??  Something about it appealed appeals to me.  I think it's the soft focus of the background flowers?  The one below is my absolute favorite of the bunch tho:

 

Oh for the chance at some re-do's.  I'd love to zoom in on the very center and get that green sphere magnified.  Something to look forward to for next year, right?  See, looking back is good for you!  One more photo before I go, this one of a slightly past-it's-peak double pink anemone:

There's beauty in that blossom even if it isn't "shiny & bright," don't you think?   I don't know about you but I'm happy for the backward view.  If you came along for the "ride," my anemones and I thank you.  The months ahead are great ones for indulging in this sort of activity, aren't they?  

Belated Halloween

I woke up to the sound of dripping the morning after Halloween.  That can be a good or bad thing but this time, it was most certainly a wonderful sound ~ it meant the snow had kept melting overnight!  Hooray.  Our grand total was about 20" but it's quickly disappearing now that the sun is back.  Another "hooray" for that.  The streets were even almost clear last night for the trick or treators.  We did not go out but we did have a couple adorable door-greeters to help pass out candy.  The first one was a green-haired witch:

Awwww.  He's so good at his job, I must say.  He never failed to keep an eye out for new arrivals and notify us of their presence.  I can't say he loved the hat but he honestly does like the neck piece.  He's worn it countless days, all day long, and even slept in it!

He gets "treats" for being such a good sport, wouldn't you agree?  Not quite as enthusiastic is our little spider (aka Regis the cat):

It's hard to even tell there's a cat under there, isn't it?  He refuses to lift his head when his costume is on so we never saw eyes.  I think I'm going to have to enlist a little help to get a better photo.  I'll be back to post it (when I get it) because he really is too cute to miss!  Hope you all had a fun Halloween too?  I'm happy to say everything is looking up here ~ the weather forecast and most especially my daughters health.  I think it's the first time I've ever been happy to turn the calendar over to November but this was one October we're glad to see in the rear view mirror!

A Halloween trick

definitely not a treat ~ this one compliments of Mother Nature.  The weathermen (and women) were right ~ drats.  I was hoping they'd be wrong (as often happens) but unfortunately not this time.  It started snowing almost right to the predicted minute and is still snowing as I type.  So far, we have approx 12" on the ground, (maybe more?) and it's not supposed to stop until tonight.  I took a couple pictures of the birdhouse (standing in my doorway) but haven't ventured out yet.  I'm hoping not to until it stops! 

It looks more like winter than fall, doesn't it? 

The pumpkins are toast.  We can forget about winning any carving contests this year unless we go out and purchase new ones.  Maybe we should just tuck away the Halloween decorations and pull out Christmas??!!  No, we won't go that far but I did do what I often do when it snows ~ a little papercrafting!  Usually I make cards but on occasion I'll still scrapbook like I chose to do yesterday.  I don't know what it is about creating a summer layout (on a wintry day) that makes me feel instantly better?  Maybe seeing, touching, and feeling the pictures transports me back to my favorite season?  I don't know.  I selected the swallowtail photos because we hardly saw a butterfly (of any kind) in the garden this summer.  I thought they deserved to be preserved.   The results of my creative time are below but I did want to say (before you take a peek) that I don't usually have to resort to this sort of therapy until much later in the year! I hope it's not a sign of what's ahead...

I don't know why I did this the old fashioned way ~ scanning and stitching the two halves of the layout together instead of photographing the whole page??  I guess you get the idea either way?  Maybe I'll go back and photograph then edit this post??  Sometimes my mind doesn't work right the first time around... FIXED IT!!  Besides the photos, I really love the June calendar card ~ I added the color to it using chalks.  They were one of those supplies I bought then realized the moment I got home they were already "out of date."  The year on the 12 month set was 2008.  arrggg.  I hate when that happens.  Instead of tossing them, I decided to cover the year and use them anyway.  Cute (and true) message on the card too, don't you think?

 

While we're doing close-ups, let's take a better look at the title:

I'm going to have to keep staring at this layout all day instead of looking out the window ~ maybe it will convince me that we're still in "sweet days of summer?" 

It'll do (for now)

referring to my makeshift winter "greenhouse" which is really my bathroom.  Since I don't have a real greenhouse (still on my wish list) I have to make do with the best light in my house.  Wouldn't you know it's in the master bathroom?  We'll take what we can get, right?  The small hallway is lit up by one large, glass block, south-facing window and one smaller east facing window.  Both windows are letting in considerably more light since my new neighbors revved up their chain saw (the photo below was taken on a cloudy day and you can see how bright it is).  While that's positive for my winter assemblage of bulbs and tropicals, it's still a sore subject with me.  Enough said ~ why did I even bring it up??  For optimum storage, I place both of my 3-rung vintage step ladders side-by-side then load 'em up with amaryllis, clivias, orchids & cat grass (you have to keep the cat happy so he won't chew on everything else, right?):

There's even one tiny sprig of a 'Triloba' passion vine that I'm nursing along.  I hope it can make it indoors since it failed miserably outside.  Passion vines and I did not see eye to eye this year because 'Maypop'  crashed on me too.  Back to the amaryllis, some are new while others are being "nursed" along (because they hardly produced any leaves over the summer to feed the bulbs).  Two in the latter category are 'Sumatra' and 'Night Star.'  Do you remember them from last fall/winter??  

(Sumatra)

(Night Star)

They both have exotic spidery flowers so maybe they need a different treatment than the bulbs I'm more familiar with??  Jump right in if you know the answer ~ I'm a willing pupil.  Otherwise research is in order to learn more about their care requirements.  They were so stunning in bloom that I'd hate to lose them.  All the sleeping my daughter is doing during her recovery has allowed me to get the new amaryllis bulbs planted up & the old ones re-potted:

The four bulbs pictured above are new and will give me something to look forward to over the long winter months.  Included in one of the pots is my first ever double amaryllis!  How fun is that?  Something else exciting is the discovery of a bud on my only 'Paph' orchid.  I bought it for 50% off this spring (because it had just finished blooming) so if I can get the bud to blooming stage, it will be my first time seeing the flower.  Good thing I have everything settled in because our weatherman forecasted 10" to 20" of snow over the next two days.  Remind me again what season are we in?? 

a slow comeback

I first want to say thank you to everyone for the well wishes & messages you sent my daughter.  They are so uplifting and comforting to read.  I think it's going to be a slow road back to "normal" but after one week at home I'm feeling more confident that we'll get there.  The biggest thing seems to be exhaustion at this point.  It's been a long time since she's napped twice a day so I hover and get nothing done!  If only I'd had a crystal ball in June, I wouldn't have ordered all those bulbs.  and then there's the garden ~ it's waiting patiently for me to put it to "bed."  It will happen, just at a different pace this year.  Remember that snow photo I showed you two posts ago??  The next morning (same day my daughter was admitted to the hospital) it looked like this outside my kitchen window:

Does that look like a fall scene to you??  Well, maybe ~ because there's still green foliage on the rose bushes BUT not anymore.  We set a new record low that night ~ 16 degrees.  Whew.  Pretty frigid, right?  As you can imagine everything is brown as a result.  So many trees and shrubs never even changed color ~ they went straight to brown (from green).  I've never seen that happen before.  Also, my poor fish ~ I didn't have a chance to "winterize" the pond or get the stock tank heater installed.  All the water plants froze which makes me wonder if they'll come back next year or not??

I did manage to get outside last week long enough to trim back the foliage and sink the pots to the bottom of the pond.  (I'm trying to be optimistic that they'll pull thru the freeze because they were expensive!)  I also cleaned out the water hyacinths and decaying oak leaves.  The heater still needs to be connected and I need to construct a screen to keep out the remaining oak leaves.  Another reason I needed that crystal ball I guess ~ maybe this wasn't the year to learn about ponds??  If I weren't so distracted, I know I'd be putting more effort into figuring out what I really need to do to keep the pond going over the winter.  Oh well.  That's a curve ball of life, isn't it?  I was also worried that I was holding up the "Gardening by Letter" project I signed up for ~ organized by Anna (flowergardengirl blog).  Our cards are usually due to her by the 20th of each month.  I missed that date but had fun making up for it one cold afternoon.  I thought you might like to see the results (hopefully that's okay to share?):

You probably remember the fall wheelbarrow arrangement??  Good thing I took pictures right after I fixed it because the only spot of color left now is the pumpkin (which is a bit mushy).  Here are a few close-ups of the card just for fun:

and one more with the cute butterfly button:

 

Some of the supplies are older (like the button) but it's fun to pull them out and breathe new life in them.  I enjoyed myself so much that day that I even created a special packet for the hollyhock seeds I'm sending along with the card:

I hope Ann likes the color pink?!

I know it did me good to get my mind off the serious situation my daughter has endured.  I also hope your fall garden has a lot more color in it then mine?  It was an abrupt end to the season for us.  Darn it.  In some ways it doesn't surprise me since we've had a strange weather year all the way around ~  why stop now, right?!!!  Here's hoping next season will be a little more "normal."

ray of sunshine

A quick update for all my friends and family (those that don't already know) and my blogging buddies as to my recent absence from the blog.  My only precious daughter (16 yrs old) came down with the H1N1 virus two weeks ago.  After three days of typical flu syndromes it seemed she was on the road to recovery and we could forget about the scare of contracting it.  Unfortunately, several days later, her fever returned and we ended up in the back of an ambulance, being transferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at our local Children's Hospital.  She spent a very long, excruciating week in critical care and I have to say I was scared to death at times that she might not pull thru.  Thank goodness, I can now tell you she is home, finishing her recovery in a familiar, comfortable environment. 

I've never been afraid of the flu before but I can say from here on out, I will have a healthy respect.  The complication of pneumonia is what really took her down.  The hospital was full to capacity while we were there, something they said doesn't generally happen until January and it was so sad to see so many very sick kids.  The Intensive Care Unit was eerily quiet despite every room occupied ~ most of the kids on ventilators.  I said a million prayers during that week and thank all of you who did too.  I am hopeful she will continue to improve each day and we won't have to go back.  The Brugmansia bloom above was waiting for me in the garage when we arrived home on Sunday.  (I put it there before we left to save it from the snow)  Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seemed symbolic ~ like a  ray of much needed sunshine....  

fall surprises

I made a few discoveries yesterday while I was on my hands & knees planting bulbs.  It taught me a lesson too.  I always think I know what's going on in my garden but crawling around at ground level definitely proved me wrong.  The first, very exciting surprise was finding a Lycoris radiata bulb in bloom!  It was actually past its peak too so it had opened a while ago:

Oh boy, oh boy.  How amazing is that?  I was mad at myself last fall for spending money on the bulbs (I recklessly placed an order after seeing photos of them in bloom on other blogs).  What I didn't realize at that time is that they are only hardy to zone 7 or 8 ~ I learned that after planting.  Basically I wrote them off as money wasted (& lectured myself to pay more attention in the future).  Because of the hardiness zones (I'm in zone 5) I hadn't even bothered to look for blooms.  We had an unusually mild winter last year which must explain how this one survived?  However it happened, it was QUITE a thrill for me to find it blooming.

A funny story ~ my neighbor happened to walk by when I was photographing them and wanted to know what I was doing.  When I said I was taking pictures of "naked ladies," he got pretty excited.  His enthusiasm cooled when I pointed out the red blooms ~ I guess they weren't exactly what he had in mind!  tee hee.  I'm hoping to get some better photos today ~ I was so excited to find them yesterday that I grabbed the camera and snapped away despite the glare of full sun. 

Something else interesting was finding a bud on one of the Primula denticulata plants (drumstick primula):

 

I planted three of these primulas earlier in the summer but never expected them to try and bloom this year.  I was looking forward to a spring display but we'll see what happens with this bud.  Low temperatures over the weekend are expected to be in the mid to lower 20's.  I don't know if it can withstand that or not?  Maybe I should cover it?

This little guy better find a sheltered spot to weather out the cold front too:

 

because look what it's doing this AM:

Yes, that's SNOW.  Can you believe it??  I keep hoping I'm having a bad dream but it's not going away.  A fall surprise I'd rather not have...