Happy Dance in the Garden

   We had over three inches of rain in an hour and a half this morning so I didn't get out to the garden until this afternoon to pick these little surprises.

When I checked them Wednesday, they were no longer than my little fingernail.  Now they are salad size!  (To the right, amaranth and basil.  Cabbage, fennel, dill, and green beans behind.)

Plenty more little cukes waiting in the wings.

By Sunday the first beans will be ready to pick.

Black Hollyhocks

I love hollyhocks.  They are very old-fashioned, often planted to "pretty up" the fence around the chicken coop or hide the trash cans. 

 

 

My sister and I, and later my daughters, made hollyhock dolls and played with them in fairy villages in the grass.

 

 

These are called "black" hollyhocks and they are a hybrid with lots more ruffles than the old-fashioned ones.  I'll have lots more colors as the summer wears on.

Makes me wish I had some granddaughters to play with.  I know what my grandsons would do with hollyhock buds.  Perfect ammunition for throwing at each other!

Early Morning Light

 

 

 

 

i thank you god for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

                                e e cummings, American poet

'Let Us Be Grateful for a Land So Fair'

 

 

You don't have to have a calendar to know today is the Fourth of July!  

My  neighbors started shooting fireworks at 4:30 a.m., loud window-rattling ones. 

 

The roadsides are bursting with wildflowers.

Red, white, and blue . . .

 

 

The house is filled with bouquets from the country roads.

 

 

  The corn is "knee high by the Fourth of July."  Farmers are pleased.

 

 

Picnics, parades, fireworks,  it's hot, it's exhausting, it's loud, it's fun! 
 I'm going to have a nap so I can stay awake for the fireworks.

I hope you enjoy this unusual rendition of "God Bless America". 

 

Meow

"Yes those are my back legs in front.  Whatchoo lookin' at?"

Valkommen Hem to Minnesota

   After a series of poor harvests in the 1850s, Swedes began to join the wave of immigrants coming to Minnesota.  Cheap travel was available on ships carrying iron ore to New York -- only $12 for a trip that took about 7 weeks. Seventy-five percent were unemployed farmers and some found homes in a fertile area of Minnesota, naming their town Vasa after the Swedish royal family.

   The town is mostly gone, but an old schoolhouse and one residence have been made into a small museum where you can imagine what life was like for these brave families.

    All items in the museum are from homes in Vasa.  They are explained with sweet handwritten tags, many in old and shaky handwriting.

Wood stoves for cooking and heating

 

 How many buckets would you have to heat on the stove to fill the tub for the family's Saturday night bath?

 

Tall, steep stairs

 

to the family bedroom.

 

Hmmm . . . I think these would have been hidden away under the bed.

Tak sa mycket for reading my blog! 

 

Prairie Storms

The skies are wide on the prairie.  As a storm rolls and roils in, you can see it coming for miles.

 

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to DANCE in the RAIN."