Let it SNOW

This morning we woke to a blanket of white snow. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

"November comes

And November goes,

With the last red berries

And the first white snows.

With night coming early,

And dawn coming late,

And ice in the bucket

And frost by the gate.

The fires burn

And the kettles sing,

And earth sinks to rest

Until next spring."

- Clyde Watson

Catnapping 2some!

My boys taking a cat nap. Doesn't take much for either one of them to slip into this nap mode. I am so jealous, I wish I could take a cat nap like this.

FYI---"Catnapping" refers to the cats ability to become fully alert from a daytime doze, or from a cat feigning sleep to deceive its prey into moving so that the cat can continue the chase. These guys don't look like they are deceiving anyone.

Corpse Plant Blooms at MPM

Milwaukeeans already know the Big Gig. Now get ready for the Big Stink.
The city is about to get a snoot-full of its very own, very rare, very huge and very smelly "corpse flower," which is about to bloom at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
This titan arum blossoms only once every six years, and it has its tubers set on nothing less than becoming the biggest flower in the world. And if it does, Wisconsinites will be holding their noses all the way to Sheboygan.
The museum's corpse flower, which has never bloomed before, has its roots in Sumatra, and only about 140 of the plants are known to exist in the world, according to Neil Luebke, curator of botany at the museum and the stinky plant's guardian.
The museum's plant is the offspring of bloomin' celebrities. One of them is none other than Big Bucky, the 8-foot-tall floral super-stud that drew more than 20,000 sinus-challenged visitors when it flowered in Madison in 2005.
The titan arum's olive-size seeds were planted in 2002, products of a long-distance love-match between Big Bucky and Mr. Magnificent, an equally odiferous bloom from Florida. Luebke found the seedling a home in the museum's Butterfly Gardens, where the humidity and 80-degree temperatures suited the fussy plant just right.
Luebke gave the plant a special mixture of vitamins and water, patted it each day and, yes, talked to it. "But I'm not telling what I said to it, other than I encouraged it to grow."
And grow it did, at a rate of about an inch an hour in the last few days; it now stands at about 6 feet tall. Museum officials hope this beauty will grow to a height of about 10 feet, which would make it the biggest flower in the world. Titan arums are so rare that in their native rain forests, they must send out a signal to fellow plants in order to fertilize each other. They do this by raising a stench that travels for miles.
The foul nature of the odor has been described as everything from rotting poop to "rotting flesh, roadkill," Luebke says. If you like the smell of a dead mouse forgotten in a trap for a week, you'll love the corpse plant.

No one knows for sure exactly when the plant will bloom, But its stardom will be short-lived. It will stink for only about six hours, and then it will say hosta la vista, collapsing after a mere two days.

By Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel

Neil Luebke is the curator of botany at the Milwaukee Museum and the namesake of Neilson, the museum's corpse flower. The flower's 7-foot spadix collapsed on Saturday, but the flower rallied to bloom on Monday.

I actually visited the MP Museum twice to see this flower. Once with hubby (Mike) and daughter (Amy) We got some great pictures of it, but no smell. Yes, that is Amy, looking like she is going to take a great big lick of the flower. It's just something she does at museums, I don't know why, I just capture the kodak moment. She takes after her fahter.

A close up picture of the bloom. The picture on the right is what it looks like if it is a plant and not a bloom.

The flower opened up on Monday, I took my Mom, sister and Amy on Tuesday to see it. We didn't get to see it open, but we did get to smell some of the odor that still lingered in the air. I am sure it will be the largest bloom I will ever see, open or no, it was something to see.

Voted For Change!!!

Don't forget to VOTE today

Fall Clean Up

All my hard work waiting to go the dump to become next years compost.

"There comes a time when it cannot be put off any longer. The radio warns of a killing frost coming in the night, and you must say good-by to the garden. You dread it, as you dread saying good-by to any good friend; but the garden waits with its last gifts, and you must go with a bushel basket or big buckets to receive them."- Rachel Peden

Spooky Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. Indian summer at it's best, no coats needed. Our neighborhood has a very good turn out each year. This is one of my favorite holidays. I got my fog machine out to add a spooky look to my Halloween display. I was sitting outside on the pouch handing candy out when all of a sudden our block was invaded by a lot of very loud crows. The lady a few houses down had placed a scarecrow outside that had a crow attached to it that made noise. I guess it was a mating call. She was going to turn it off, I told her NO, this way we don't need sounds effects. Spooky sites and sounds filled our whole block!

Feeding Time

The fish are really growing, and are no longer scared when you stand by the pond during feeding time.

Garden Re-do

I have been fighting a ground cover in one of my flower beds and decided I would save the plants I wanted and kill everything else. It proved harder then expected. Way into the season I knew I would never get it planted this year. So with winter approaching, I decided to till it up one more time and tuck my saved plants into the dirt still in the pots and cover them with leaves. I am hoping I will not lose to many plants. Then in the spring I will till it up again and make sure that the ground cover is gone once and for all.

Time to divide!

I really need to divide these hostas next year. I don't like when they are touching each other. Anyone need some hostas?

View of the back door area

I got this table from my sister. Her son made it in school and she was moving and didn't have room for it. I said I would take it for my garden. It is made out of medal. I called my nephew to made sure he didn't want it either, he said I could have it. I am hoping the middle grate section will rust for added interest. It made a nice display for plants and my leaf casting my hubby and I made.

Flower Bed and Pond

A collection of year long pics of the pond and flower bed around it.
(Click on picture to view larger version)
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Planters

First Harvest!

Ok, its really not a HARVEST per say...but they are my FIRST tomatoes of the season and that is pure simple pleasure for a gardener.

What do you do when a tomato goes on strike?
You picket.

4th of July tradition.

This my first attempt to try to capture the beauty of the 4th of July tradition. Not at all like shooting a flower. I can't wait till next year to improve on this new obsession.

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower