Daddy and the Deutzia Bush

Each year when the Deutzia bush flowers I think of Daddy. Not because it was a favorite of his. No, mother is the plant expert in our family. The reason the Deutzia shrub makes me think of him is because he called all plants Deutzia. Because he could never remember the names of all the plants mother grew,  he just called all of them Deutzia.

You had to know my dad to find this funny. He had a quirky sense of humor, a dry and wry wit, a sense of fun that always made us laugh. A turn of a word, the misuse of a word or phrase – he always looked for the humor in situations.

He didn’t always intend to be funny, but oftentimes he was anyway. For instance, when we were having our house built in 1993 he was around the construction site almost every day. One day I received a call from him at my office – unusual because he never called me at work. It was a day the interior painting was being done and he was calling to say the painters had made a big mistake on the dining room. “I know you’d never want a room in your house painted that awful color.” I asked him if it was green. “Yes, green, but the most awful green you would ever see; a dark green that looks black.” Well, I was sure the painters had not made a mistake and I tried to explain that to him. “Well, if that’s what you want but it’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen!”

The green dining room walls

He could do good imitations of people – both famous and people round about us. He could always make us laugh and I miss him so much. He died in 2006 at the age of 89, at home, which was his wish. He had been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease several years previous.  

Daddy, left, born in 1917, with his brother Roy.

Daddy, at right, with brother James, left, and sister Millinea

High school photo, about 1937

Late 1930s or early 1940s

1950s, with mother. Check that tie!

Daddy making me laugh by trying out my fashion wig! Mother is too engrossed in her needlework to take notice! Sometime in the late '60s.

On his 80th birthday in 1997.

65th wedding anniversary, 2005



He passed away May 20, 2006, on their 66th wedding anniversary.

He enjoyed life, was totally devoted to his wife and daughters and is missed very much.

Raisin Cake

I made Pop's raisin cake yesterday and was pleased with the results. Perhaps mine didn't rise quite as high as his, but that likely is attributable to a "light hand" in mixing, which comes from his baking expertise. Nevertheless, it was quite pretty and I'm happy to pass along the recipe, at the request of Beryl. Do visit her blog; she's a very interesting lady and I learn tons of new things from her!

If you decide to try the recipe, please let me know your results and if you liked the cake. I find it very similar in texture to a pound cake and if you like raisins you should like it. I can never leave a recipe alone, and am wondering if I should do half nuts and half raisins the next time I bake it. I love nuts in everything! Almonds, walnuts or pecans should work here. I will let you know if I try that and how it turns out.

I'm not providing the conversion of grams to cups below. That information is easily to be found on the Internet and as I mentioned, I measured my ingredients in grams on my handy-dandy metric scale. I did have to look up the milk proportion and found that 125 ml. milk equals about 1/2 cup.

On to the cake:

Rodonkuchen (Raisin Cake)

200 grams butter

200 grams sugar

1 package vanilla sugar

4 eggs
500 grams flour
4 teaspoons baking power
125 ml. milk
300 grams raisins (half golden raisins; half black raisins)

(Note: I did not have vanilla sugar so I substituted 2T sugar plus 1 t. vanilla)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10- or 12-cup Bundt pan, or an angel food cake pan.

Pour boiling water over raisins and let stand at least 30 minutes. Drain before using.

Measure flour and baking powder and stir until mixed.

Cream butter until light; add sugars and blend well. Add eggs one at a time and beat until light. (If using liquid vanilla, add at this point). Fold in flour and stir until well blended. Turn into cake pan. Bake 50-60 minutes. Cool on rack in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool completely.

What is your favorite cake?

Sorry, But I Couldn't Resist...

I know I posted on the kittens yesterday, but I have better pictures today and just couldn't keep from using them here tonight. I may seemed obsessed with these kitties, and after all I am a DOG person. But this happens to be the first time I've had kittens born around me. So, you get the idea. And I do love all animals. I just have to be careful that my two beautiful dogs don't get too jealous. Fortunately, they don't know yet the kittens exist. Not sure how we'll work all that out. As they say, one day at the time.

Sweet, sweet. She appeared to sleeping as the kittens were nursing

Contentment!

"What's this? A flashlight? I've never seen one of these before!"

That crib where everyone is living is pretty dirty so I took an old sheet to spread down and sit on during my visits there. I don't think anyone has entered behind this door in years and years. I hate that Sox has to bring up her litter in such an unclean place. We made her a nice, clean home for the kittens but no, she moved them so she'll just have to deal with it!

"Keeping my eyes on six babies is a challenge"


OTHER TOPICS
In the Sunroom

I love garden seeds. Sometimes I think I like buying them more than I like planting them. I have quite an accumulation this year. Will I get all them planted? Probably not, but the packages are colorful to look at!

As I was cleaning, by husband came in and did a broom trick. Cute, no? Too bad he can't make it sweep the floor!

The sunroom looks quite bare not that I've moved the large pots outside. I pot my gardenias and move them here for the winter, but outside they went a couple of weeks ago. We had a light frost last night but gardenias can take that. However, I may have lost a tomato plant or two, even though I covered them with upside down clay pots.

These are the only plants left in the sunroom. Aloe Vera, gardenias I rooted last summer, basil potted up a few weeks ago and a coffee plant at the right. The red is a little bouquet pepper plant which has died and the peppers are ready to pick and use.

And just so the dogs don't feel ignored (as if they EVER are), here's

 Valerie

And Kris

Six Little Kitties

Sox moved the kittens yesterday. I suppose she decided she didn’t like the new house after all. It was panic time when my sister discovered them missing. We could only hope she had indeed moved them; we feared the worst: dogs, coyotes, hawks.

However, they were found in a small back room of the barn – the old corn crib. I shined a light in late yesterday and confirmed they were there after Sox came out by leaping over the not-to-the-ceiling-wall when I called her.

 
Late this afternoon I went in and visited them. I hope she doesn’t move them again, as I picked each and every one up. Our cousin Henrietta convinced us today that we must start handling them while they are young or else they would become feral cats and never let usgo near them.

They are so cute and fat. Not completely standing up, but moving around nevertheless.

I’m sure Sox feels she has moved them to a more protected area (she didn’t realize there’s a door to the crib by which we humans can enter, I’m sure!)

I shot a few (bad) pictures. It was completely dark in that little room and I had to point and shoot in the dark and hope for the best. Included below are few, as promised earlier. Hope I can get better pictures soon.

Now we have to think up six cute little names for them. Cats I’ve owned in the past were named Fibber, Black Kitty, Pumpkin and Bob-Tail-Tom-Cat.

What will we do with all of them? Would be really fun to keep them, but should anyone want one we’ll be glad to send them to a good home. Soon as they are weaned we’ll have to get Sox fixed so she won’t have another litter in a few months. Of course, if we keep six kittens we’ll also have to get them fixed as well. Maybe some veterinarian will give us a quantity discount!

Do you have any name suggestions for our kittens?

A Gift: Halcyon Hosta

My sister, who also is my best friend, gave me a gift Sunday: a Halcyon Hosta plant! How special is that? She is an expert gardener, and hostas and hydrageas are her special interest. She had told me ever since I started my blog a couple of months ago that I must have a Halcyon Hosta.

What a great gift! I decided to plant it in a pot instead of the ground, as she thinks hostas do beautifully in pots. I have a few Hostas. She has hundreds! One day very soon I'm going to feature her beautiful garden in one of my posts.

Here's what I read about the plant:


'Halcyon' Hosta is an old favorite mid-sized, blue leaved hosta. It is easy to tell why, when you see the heavily ribbed thick blue leaves. Its medium size and intense blue leaf makes it a great container plant in combination with other plants or on its own. Violet flowers appear in mid- summer. This variety has excellent color and growth rate.

One of the best and most popular of the blue hosta cultivars. An erect plant to 14" tall featuring a mound of flat, spear-shaped, heavily-textured, blue-green leaves and racemes of bell-shaped, pale lilac-blue flowers on 26" scapes. This cultivar retains blue leaf color longer than most other blue hostas. A slower growing hosta (takes several years to develop mature shape) that is a dependable and versatile perennial requiring little care. Grown primarily for its beautiful foliage which provides color, contrast and texture to the landscape. Dense foliage crowds out most garden weeds. American Hosta Society Distinguished Merit Hosta award (1987).

You can see the water clinging to the leaves. Isn't it beautiful? I might have to have an entire flower bed filled with these beauties.

And here's what a full bed of them would look like:

I like the part above that says a full bed of them would smother out weeds!

Thank you, Sissy. You are the best sister, and friend, ever. I am so sorry you are not feeling well tonight. Please be well soon!

A New Reading List

I read a book review on National Public Radio's (NPR) website and decided it’s one I must add to my reading list. The book is“Elizabeth and Her German Garden,” by Elizabeth von Arnim.

I realized after I Googled her name that she also is the author of another book, “Enchanted April,” which I haven’t read, but saw the movie. It’s a wonderful “chick flick” and now I want to read both books.

And now to NPR’s book review, presented here in its entirety:

Cowslips To Kingcups: Finding Joy In The Garden

by Lauren Groff, author of a new novel, Arcadia.

The darkest period of my life, so far, arrived the summer I was pregnant with my eldest son. The future was growing in me with all of its terrifying unpredictability, and I found myself anxious, unable to work and woefully at sea.

Books, I hoped, would help. Staring into darkness, I wanted to read about happiness; I wanted novels that were full of joy. I asked my friends for suggestions but heard in return only a drawn-out buzz of bafflement. In truth, books about joy are hard to find because happiness is nearly impossible to write about. Narrative thrives on conflict.

And so, late one sleepless night when I stumbled on Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim, I felt as if someone had thrust open a curtain and revealed a window where I had assumed only the existence of a wall.

Von Arnim lived her life among writers: The short story author Katherine Mansfield was her cousin; she employed novelists E.M. Forster and Hugh Walpole as tutors for her children, and she was the mistress of H.G. Wells. Her milieu was literary, but her first book is urgent and personal: Elizabeth and Her German Garden feels as if it rose out of von Arnim's deep internal discomfort with the way she was supposed to fit into her world.

Still, what a fizzy drink this novel is.

Framed as a series of semi-autobiographical diary entries, the book holds only the slenderest claim to novelhood in any conventional sense — it has very little plot. There are few characters: the narrator, a countess named Elizabeth on her isolated German estate, her three tiny daughters who speak a funny patois of German and English, her chauvinistic husband whom she calls "The Man of Wrath," various buffoonish servants, and some visitors whom Elizabeth gently but thoroughly satirizes.

There is also Elizabeth's great passion, the garden, which we see in its shifting seasonal abundance from cowslips and kingcups to wild strawberries and rockets and azaleas to snowy fir trees.

Under the surface, however, are the narrative's great, hidden depths: Elizabeth's disappointment in the socially circumscribed roles of women, and her husband's overt misogyny (he commends the Russian peasants who come to work in Germany for beating their wives, because it teaches the women their place in the world). But she resists what is expected of her as a countess and wife by throwing her energies into her garden. Her happiness, when it comes, arrives as an act of will. Her delight feels hard-won, and it is dearer for her struggle.

I wrote this essay from my winter garden, where my own babies whacked one another with brown sunflower stalks. I credit Elizabeth for showing me that an act of focused attention can lift a person out of a long, dark spell. And when the blues skulk near these days, I reach for my wry countess. It is impossible to resist a little glow of happiness from living, even for a few pages, in her rapturous company.

The good news is Amazon.com has several von Arnim books free for Kindle so I suppose I’ll just be greedy and get all of them. Among the titles are “The Solitary Summer,” The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight,” “Vera,” “The Pastor’s Wife,” and several others. She was a prolific writer.

And regarding “Enchanted April,”  Amazon describes it this way:

“A discrete advertisement in The Times, addressed to those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine,’ is the prelude to a revelatory month for four very different women. High above a bay on the Italian Riviera stands the medieval castle San Salvatore. Beckoned to this haven are Mrs. Wilkins, Mrs. Arbuthnot, Mrs. Fisher, and Lady Caroline Dester, each quietly craving a respite. Lulled by the gentle spirit of the Mediterranean, they gradually shed their public skins, discovering a harmony each of them has longed for but none has ever known. First published in 1922, this captivating novel is imbued with the descriptive power and lighthearted irreverence for which Elizabeth von Arnim is renowned.

The DVD cover for Enchanted April movie. It stars Alfred Molina, Joan Plowright, Miranda Richardson, Polly Walter and Josie Lawrence. 

What’s on your reading list? Have you read any good books lately whose titles you would like to share? What are your favorites?

Flowers, Food and a Walk on the Hill



A little spring bouquet

I ran out into the garden early this morning to gather a few things for a little mixed bouquet to take to Mother's for the Easter lunch table. Just a mixed vase of this and that - roses, viburnum, snowball, nandina greenery, daffodil stems, lavender and dianthus. She was much happier with this homegrown bouquet than a store-bought Easter lily.

My sister and I brought the food, as my mother is 90 years old, and unable to move about the kitchen anymore. Sissy brought the ham and potato salad, both delicous! I made a green salad with basil vinaigrette dressing:

Romaine and arugula with red, yellow & orange bell pepper, cucumber, grape tomatoes, bacon bits, dried cranberries, grated Parmesan, green onions, croutons and Basil Vinaigrette Dressing.

And here are my Easter eggs decorated with capers and parsley and celery stuffed with creamed cheese. Sprinkled over all are fresh herbs including chive blossoms.



My Easter Eggs!

French bread smothered with a mixture of butter, cheeses, mayo, garlic salt and fresh herbs:

Heat the bread sealed in foil until heated through and the cheese melts, then remove the top foil and allow the bread to brown and become crispy.

After lunch, we took a walk to the hill some distance behind the house. This property was once owned by my parents, but has since been sold. Before that, it belonged to my  grandmother and grandfather. On this hill was a little house that was lived in my my mother's oldest sister when she married at a very young age -- somewhere around 1918-1920. Her first child was born, and died there. I don't know the full story, because it was years before my mother was born and those things weren't much talked about back then. The child was buried "at the edge of the garden, where there was a tree growing" is about all I know.

A man who bought that part of the farm before my parents bought it moved the little house near his own  house, where it served as his barn.

As a young child, we walked on that hill and my mother told us the story. My sister, her friend and I played many hours at a branch at the foot of the hill, building playhouses and living imaginary lives. As children we tried to imagine where the grave was, but too many years had passed and if a rock or appropriate stone ever marked the grave it was long gone. All that remained on the hill to suggest anyone ever lived or died there was a water well, but my father filled it in for fear that children or cows would fall into it.

Covering that hill are numerous daffodils, a single variety that is not familiar to me. Over the years, we have dug them and transplanted them into our own garden. In years past, that hill has been a glory to behold when the bulbs are in full flower. Today we were disappointed. The daffodils are lying flat on the ground, as if mashed by large equipment. That likely is not the case. We think it more likely that a herd of deer or cycote are camping out there. Cows are no longer on this pasture. Who knows! But it has ruined "our" flowers.

The picture below shows a little of the "smashed" flowers.


Flowers on the hill

Beautiful and fragrant, this single narcissus grows with abandon on the hill. They must have been planted almost 100 years ago and have spread rampantly.

So this was my Easter Sunday. How was yours?