title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Heirlooms-Harangues-Hoorahs

Today's high temperature was: 87
Today's humidity was: 61%
Hard rain from 3:30 to 5:00
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Who said heirlooms were only "things" passed down through generations?

I have heirloom flower plants!



The parent plant of this Peony, was planted on The Farm by my Great Grand Mother-Sophia- in 1910.
My sister still has the original, my daughter Pam has one and I have one.

My Mother got a clump of these from her Mother, in 1950.  Lemon Lily--because of the color and they smell like Lemons.  My Mother brought over a small clump of these, in 1959, and planted them at my new home.  I now have them in my garden here, my sister has them in hers.  One summer day in 1976, a lady, driving by, stopped at my house (when I lived on the farm) and asked if she could have a piece.  I dug up a nice clump for her.  I have no idea who she was or where these lilies are now growing.

I call this plant my Mama Iris.  My Mother ordered the peach colored hybrid corm from Breck's and planted it in the fall of 1968.  Two years later, the fall after she died, I dug a corm from this plant and put it in my garden down at the farm where I lived.  The children from this plant now are growing in my garden, Karen's garden, Jen's garden, Pam's garden and my sisters.

Whenever I moved, I needed to take a part of something from my "home" and plant it.  I also have 3 rocks from The Farm, the farm where I was born and the farm where Pammie now lives.  I need something from my "roots" to anchor me to my new home.

The children from these flowers were planted and still live (I think), in Clio (1988), Mt. Morris (1989), Otisville (1990), Lennon (1991), Saginaw (1992-2003), and here.  They also have been planted by my girls and sister in: Binghamton, New York (Susan), Whitmore Lake (Karen), Hartland (Jen) and Pam's farm and my son Mark, still has the original Iris, as he lives on the farm where my Mother planted it.  He loves that he still has something from his Grandma.

I have also given pieces of them to others and have no idea where they are.

I look at these and think, "We are born, live and die, but these plants, if cared for, just keep on forever!"
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This morning, I walked up to Pearl's.  We were standing outside looking at her garden--she threw me a hint that we didn't have it all weeded.  I reached over, in back, to pull up a wild carrot weed.

"Oh!  Don't pull that out!  That's Queen Anne's Lace."

"It's Wild Carrot.  It's a weed and will spread like crazy."

"It is NOT a weed!  It's called Queen Anne's Lace."

"One in the same.  Wild carrot...Queen Anne's Lace.  Same plant."

She turned to look at me, put her hands on her hips.  "Is this going to be our plant argument for THIS summer?"

I put my finger up and said, "Nope.  Don't argue with me on this one...I know this for sure."

"I took a class from a Master Gardener and I ought to know what I'm talking about!"

"Yeah."

"What do you mean.. yeah?"

"No argument!  I will go home and Google it and bring you back the results."

"I don't care what the Internet says. This is Queen Anne's Lace."

"I never said it wasn't.  It is also Wild Carrot--they are both the same.  Dig it up and you will find a carrot underground.  I had to dig these dang things out of the fence rows for my Dad.  I hate them!"

"We used to put them in little jars of colored water and the blossom would take on that color."

"Yes--we did too.  Wild carrot."

She took a swing at my arm and almost fell over.  I steadied her and said, "Hold on Honey Bunny...just calm down."

We both had a good laugh.  She said, "Well, you go look on your Internet, but...I'll bet you a dollar, I'm right."

"Get your money ready," I said as I strolled on home


Queen Anne's Lace



Wild Carrot
.

Queen Anne’s lace earned its common name from a legend that tells of Queen Anne of England (1665-1714) pricking her finger and a drop of blood landed on white lace she was sewing. Belonging to the carrot family, Queen Anne’s lace is a biennial that is also known as wild carrot.

So--I printed this out, walked it back up to her house, handed it to her to read and held out my hand (waiting for my dollar).  She read it and handed it to Merle to read.  He looked at the pictures and said, "Oh, Wild Carrot."

"Pearl is a townie--she calls it Queen Anne's Lace.  I am a farm kid.  I call it Wild Carrot."

"I don't care," she said.  "I like it and I am going to let it grow!"

"Fine.  Cut it and put it in your bouquets.  It is a pretty WEED!"

<stubborn Swede and stubborn German>
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This afternoon, I traveled around the lake to a Grad Party for another of Maddie's friends--another French Horn player.



Maddie and Drew last Halloween


 This is Drew when he was little.
Adorable?

 This is Drew's home
7,500+ square feet

 

 This is Drew now.  It had started to rain really hard
and we were a bit damp.


The pool outside the bottom level.

Beyond the pool is a lower lawn level with the party tent and beyond that is a sweeping lawn down to the lake.


I love this spouting turtle.
I wish I could have taken more photos of this magnificent place!  It poured for almost two hours.  Although the food was simple; Taco salad, and other Mexican foods, there was also a huge watermelon boat with fresh fruit, a double tiered cake and a Sundae Bar--it was all catered.  

The house is enormous--but, as I have noticed with a lot of the McMansions, there are a lot of rooms, but they are all smallish.  The dining room also contained a Steinway Grand Piano.  The lower level, where we all stayed, protected from the rain, had a TV on the end wall.  That dang thing was as long as the wall was wide and 8 feet in height.  


I guess you would call it a Home Theatre?
I sat and got acquainted with Drew's Mom's side of the family--the DeOrio's.  They are Italian and they are loud and brash and I had a blast chatting with them for a couple of hours.

On of the tables in this room was a lamp made from an old reel type movie projector.  I asked Drew about it and he said his Dad had made it and he had thought he and his Dad could make my French Horn into a lamp for me. 

Just then, Matt walked in (you remember, Matt took Maddie to Prom)




and came to hug me and he and Drew and I talked about the French Horn lamp I want.  A few weeks ago, Matt had offered to make it for me and Drew was going to help me.  I told them I had found an artist that works with metal sculpturing and that he was going to do it for me.  I really wanted to let these kids off the hook.  They have a busy summer and are planning for college in a few months.   

For a while, when I first got there, I just sat and looked around at this house and the others in the neighborhood.  These families of Maddie's friends are very wealthy.  These kids haven't a clue how fortunate they are to live in this kind of environment.  They take it all as quite normal--as they've lived like this all their lives.  

They are privileged and yet, they are all so very nice, polite, compassionate, intelligent, talented and very down to earth.   When I got ready to leave, it was still raining a bit and Drew helped me up the stairs to the main floor, got an umbrella out of the entryway closet and walked me to my car.  

I have never been in so many mansions in my life, as this last month, going to Grad parties.  My ancestor's were millionaires, but we never had houses like these people live in.  Our wealth was in the many acres of land my family owned.  I'm glad I got to rub elbows with these people, but...just think......

that TV they own, or that Steinway Grand--just think how long that young mother, I met at the food bank, could live on what just one of those items cost. 

5 comments:

  1. I have another name for your Queen Anne's lace and wild carrot. Down South, it is also referred to jokingly as chigger bush. It's one of my favorite weeds. In fact H stopped and picked a bouquet of them for me yesterday along the side of the road and they're in a vase on my kitchen counter now. I wouldn't go so far as to allow them in my garden, though. They will probably spread too fast. When I was a kid, we put them in ink and watched them change color.

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  2. I have a new mission, to watch Queen Anne's lace/carrot weed change colors. I have some in my nature strip along with orange lilies and hot pink somethings. I love them as much as Pearl. I've never heard them called carrot weed, though. I love those peach Iris. I have plants that have made the rounds of houses where I've lived, too, and we have the corner stones that were from the barn where Don grew up. Like you said, it grounds you.

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  3. I don't believe I've seen queen Anne's lace and/or wild carrot. Surprised though because every other dang weed is in this yard. :)

    Glad you had a good day.
    xoxo

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  4. I'll have to do a post on Queen Anne's Lace.
    Balisha

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  5. I had a beautiful white Ironstone pitcher and, when I lived on the farm, I made a bouquet with pink roses and wild carrot. It was gorgeous!!!

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