Remember Our Veterans

Photo by Ian Britton

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Remember to honor our veterans today.

To all that are reading this who are currently serving or who have served in the military, you have my heartfelt thanks.

In the United States, Veterans Day is celebrated on November 11th, honoring all military veterans. It is also celebrated as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other parts of the world, marking the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice which ended World War I at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. From 1919 - 1954 this day was known as Armistice Day in the United States, however in 1954 Congress passed an act changing Armistice to Veterans, in order to honor all veterans, not just World War I veterans. Information from Wikipedia.

Garden Bloggers Muse Day - October 2008

Gathering Leaves
by Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?


Unlike Frost, I have a definite use for the seemingly hundreds of thousands of leaves that will start to cover the ground this month. As an aside, have you ever tried to estimate how many leaves are on a tree, I do it every year because there are so many, I want to know how many! Back to my multitudes of leaves. We will rake them up, using a tarp or plastic garbage can to help transport them, and then dump them into the garden to be tilled in and allowed to work their magic on that soil. Sometimes we use the shredder to help them on their decomposing way but not always. I guess it depends on how much time we have to deal with them. I know a lot of people don't enjoy raking leaves, but it doesn't bother me.

Happy Muse Day! Head to Sweet Home and Garden Chicago for more muses.

Queen Autumn

I posted this on my other blog but thought I would share it here as well.

Queen Autumn

Autumn robes the trees
In fiery reds and golds
Signaling her reign

Today is the first day of my favorite season - Autumn. My favorite because the weather (at least where I live) is, in my opinion, the best at this time of year- nice warm days, cool nights, low humidity. It's also the time of year we usually go on vacation and so the memories of those past trips always come rushing back when the days start to get shorter. And since my daughter was born in the fall last year, there is a new reason for me to enjoy it.

Not to mention that the changing of the leaves is one of nature's most beautiful annual events. I could drive around leaf watching for days. Of course instead of driving, hiking is really the preferable mode of transport. To follow where the peak fall colors are, visit Dave at The Home Garden. He is coordinating a tracking of the timing of the peak colors.

Enjoy the fall days and the changing of the leaves. These days are fleeting and it won't be long now when the reds and golds are replaced with white and ice.

A Day to Remember

Photo courtesy of www.freefoto.com

It doesn't seem like it's been seven years, but it has been. Please take a moment today, Patriot's Day, to remember the victims and heroes of 9/11. They are forever in our hearts.

The Names
September 6, 2002
by poet laureate of the United States Billy Collins

Yesterday, I lay awake in the palm of the night.
A soft rain stole in, unhelped by any breeze,
And when I saw the silver glaze on the windows,
I started with A, with Ackerman, as it happened,
Then Baxter and Calabro,
Davis and Eberling, names falling into place
As droplets fell through the dark.
Names printed on the ceiling of the night.
Names slipping around a watery bend.
Twenty-six willows on the banks of a stream.
In the morning, I walked out barefoot
Among thousands of flowers
Heavy with dew like the eyes of tears,
And each had a name --
Fiori inscribed on a yellow petal
Then Gonzalez and Han, Ishikawa and Jenkins.
Names written in the air
And stitched into the cloth of the day.
A name under a photograph taped to a mailbox.
Monogram on a torn shirt,
I see you spelled out on storefront windows
And on the bright unfurled awnings of this city.
I say the syllables as I turn a corner --
Kelly and Lee,
Medina, Nardella, and O'Connor.
When I peer into the woods,
I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden
As in a puzzle concocted for children.
Parker and Quigley in the twigs of an ash,
Rizzo, Schubert, Torres, and Upton,
Secrets in the boughs of an ancient maple.
Names written in the pale sky.
Names rising in the updraft amid buildings.
Names silent in stone
Or cried out behind a door.
Names blown over the earth and out to sea.
In the evening -- weakening light, the last swallows.
A boy on a lake lifts his oars.
A woman by a window puts a match to a candle,
And the names are outlined on the rose clouds --
Vanacore and Wallace,
(let X stand, if it can, for the ones unfound)
Then Young and Ziminsky, the final jolt of Z.
Names etched on the head of a pin.
One name spanning a bridge, another undergoing a tunnel.
A blue name needled into the skin.
Names of citizens, workers, mothers and fathers,
The bright-eyed daughter, the quick son.
Alphabet of names in a green field.
Names in the small tracks of birds.
Names lifted from a hat
Or balanced on the tip of the tongue.
Names wheeled into the dim warehouse of memory.
So many names, there is barely room on the walls of the heart.

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day - August 2008

A Green Cornfield
by Christina Georgina Rossetti

The earth was green, the sky was blue:
I saw and heard one sunny morn
A skylark hang between the two,
A singing speck above the corn;

A stage below, in gay accord,
White butterflies danced on the wing,
And still the singing skylark soared,
And silent sank and soared to sing.

The cornfield stretched a tender green
To right and left beside my walks;
I knew he had a nest unseen
Somewhere among the million stalks.

And as I paused to hear his song
While swift the sunny moments slid,
Perhaps his mate sat listening long,
And listened longer than I did.


I chose this poem as a tribute to my Father who is a farmer and is still working hard growing crops like corn. I'm sure he could tell of many moments like that described in this poem.

The photo is from my parents property. You can just see the house to the right of the barn, hiding behind the trees. I took this photo in 1994 but it all looks pretty much the same today as it did then.

Thanks to Carolyn at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago for hosting Garden Bloggers' Muse Day. Be sure to stop by her site and check out all the other muses.

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day - July 2008

Gather Ye Roses

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Gather ye roses while ye may,

Old time is still a-flying;

A world where beauty fleets away

Is no world for denying.

Come lads and lasses, fall to play

Lose no more time in sighing.

The very flowers you pluck to-day

To-morrow will be dying;

And all the flowers are crying,

And all the leaves have tongues to say,--

Gather ye roses while ye may.

Many thanks to Carolyn for hosting Garden Bloggers' Muse Day. Be sure to visit her site and check out all the verse posted for this day.

I chose "Gather Ye Roses" because I think it's important to remember to enjoy the garden and life, "stop and smell the roses", so to speak. It's so easy (at least for me) to let all the tasks that need to be taken care of overshadow the beauty in front of us. May your enjoyment of the day and your life be your dominating goal and the necessary tasks that take us from day to day, secondary, but never forgotten. For all too soon it will be fall and then winter and we will pine for the blooms of summer.

Asparagus

Asparagus - A Haiku
Tender stalks of green
bring a delicate flavor
to Springtime dishes

I haven't written any poetry lately so I thought I would try my hand at it again. I hope you enjoy the results. I like Haiku because of the simplicity.

Our asparagus crop did very well this year. If I remember correctly, we started our patch three years ago. We have about nine plants in the garden and another large clump in a field above our house. This clump was there when we moved in and my husband has to make sure he doesn't mow it down. It is a rather large clump which we should probably try to move down with the rest but it's one of those low priority projects that just hasn't happened yet.

Here is a recipe for an Asparagus Frittata that was very good. I adapted it from a recipe by the California Asparagus Commission.

Asparagus Frittata with Red Bell Peppers

1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
8 eggs or 1 carton egg beaters
salt and pepper
1 cup cheese of your choice (feta, cheddar, parmesan)

Saute bell pepper in olive oil until soft, but not browned.
Add onion and asparagus and saute about 2 minutes more.
Whisk salt and pepper into beaten eggs.
Stir in cheese and sauteed vegetables.

Coat the inside of a heavy, non-stick 12-inch frying pan with olive oil. Pour the egg mixture into the pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven, covered, until eggs are just firm, about 35 minutes. Remove cover, bake until top is lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Loosen the frittata, then cover pan with a large, warmed serving platter. Flip frying pan over onto platter. Cut into wedges and serve.

This is how mine turned out. I used egg beaters from a carton. I used my cast iron skillet to saute the vegetables and to cook the frittata. We served it right from the pan, I didn't flip it to a serving platter.