Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: gardening


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Our peony adventure

I’ve been wanting to take husband’s Aunt to the peony gardens in Ann Arbor for years.  It’s the kind of place I knew she’d enjoy.  And I knew I’d enjoy sharing it with her too.

Each year it just didn’t happen.  Stuff got in the way and I usually forgot until my own peony plants were  in bloom, and by then down in Ann Arbor the show was past it’s prime or over completely.  This weekend everything came together,  and husband and I, along with husband’s aunt and uncle, drove down to see what we might find.  It was kind of spur of the moment and I wasn’t sure if we had timed it right.

It was PERFECT!

Husband’s aunt is 94 and has been through quite a spell of ill health in the past couple of months.   That made me realize that we don’t have infinite time with her, and reminded me of how much I wanted her to enjoy herself out in this beautiful pink and white garden.  Pink is her color, so this trip was extra special.

Once we arrived we found a bench in the shade and let her sit there, while the rest of us went off to explore.

Here are some of my favorites.

Aunt V. said that everyone that walked by stopped and exclaimed over a dark red peony near her.  It was breathtaking, and so unusual.


So much to see, such a beautiful place.  You just can’t help but smile.

Even now, just thinking about it I’m smiling, and I’m sure Aunt V is smiling too!

So…if you live near Ann Arbor, and you haven’t been to the peony garden over by the UM hospital…go there now!

We had a wonderful time.  Family and flowers – just perfect for a Memorial Day adventure!


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Digging the garden

Every year I have such high hopes as I dig up the vegetable garden in the spring.

Last year, after much labor getting weed cloth down I planted green beans and chard and tomatoes.  I ended up with a couple small tomatoes and a handful of green beans that had eluded the neighborhood critters and bugs.  Hardly seems worth the effort.

This morning Katie helped me dig the garden up for this year’s attempt.  She pretty much wanted to know when I’d be done so we could go play, but it was nice to have company.

“How long is this going to take anyway, Mom?”

“You’d be mistaken if you think I’m going to help.  I’m outta here!”

“But first I’ll take some time to smell the thyme!”

“I’ll wait for you out here…hey…can you help me out a bit?  I got sort of excited and got myself all tangled up.”

“Sorry to inconvenience you like that, Mom, I’ll just stand over here and chomp on some mulch…”

“What?!  You want me to just sit down and let you get your work done?  Well OK then…geeze!  All you had to do was just say something.”


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The promised wood peony photos

I know I was going to show you this beautiful plant..then I got distracted with truck stuff.  So…on a lighter note, look at this!

Wait a minute!  That’s a picture of Katie!   “So Mom, aren’t I prettier than some old flowering shrub?”  Well, yes baby you are, but this post is supposed to be about the flower!

It’s about 3 feet tall, doesn’t get cut back like standard peonies, blooms earlier and is just stunning!  This is the first year I’ve had it, I bought it with a friend last fall and wasn’t sure it would survive the snow and then this spring the nibbling of our local deer…but apparently none of that bothered it!

I am so pleased I think I’ll go buy another one!  Now…back to our regularly scheduled Sheltie…


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Settling down now

Trees 1538Yesterday was our first day of normal life in quite some time.  I’d been out of town for three weeks, home for one day and then involved in our Aunt’s medical crisis for more than two more weeks.  Yesterday we didn’t have to be anywhere, though husband did stop by the Aunt’s just to see how her first night alone in almost three weeks went.  Thankfully, she did fine and I’m sure she’s just as happy as we are to have us off her living room sofa.

Katie and I did some yard work; weeding and sniffing and such things as that.  Sometimes all we did was sit in the sun and enjoy being with each other.  I think that counts as yard work too.

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I dug up a small bed that had filled in with grass and weeds over the past couple of summers.  I’ll replant it later this spring.  It was a lot of work and reminds me that last time I dug this up I was younger and fitter.

While digging I came across these small plants, greenish red leaves and blue purple bells of flowers.  Tiny.  The smell when I crushed the leaves took me right back to my grandmother’s farm, where these lived in her lawn, particularly, as I recall, back by grandpa’s workshop.  I sat in the sun and crunched leaves and remembered playing on the farm, picking black raspberries, watching the pigs, playing with barn kittens.  It was a good place to play.  There are good memories there.

I  accidentally left a weed or two in my own garden yesterday just so I can pull them later and smell that old familiar small and relive the memories.

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Later on I got out the tiny teeter and Katie was all raring to go, walking over it, still carefully, especially at the pivot point, but without any apparent fear.  So I went and got her Dad, to show him how much more confident she is.  And guess what?  While he stood in the door watching she first refused to do the teeter at all, then CREPT up to the pivot point and laid down on it.  Well, that’s new!  And now she won’t go on it at all.

Ah Katie girl.  We’re going to school in about an hour, the first time in probably 6 or 7 weeks.  Hope you remember a little bit about heeling and staying.

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Should be interesting!


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It happened

They warned us that we’d get a frost.  I didn’t want to believe it, and almost didn’t pick all the flowers in bloom out in the garden.  After all, it was barely October, I should have a few more weeks to enjoy the garden…right?  Well, it’s a good thing I cut everything:

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…because this morning we woke up to this:

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The frost was thick on the grass and the air was thick with fog.  Katie was curious and uncertain about the frosty grass, tentatively stepping on it, sniffing.  Then she got excited about trying to eat all the frost she could.  Silly girl.

I already miss summer.

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The last garden surprise this summer

After the groundhog ate my green bean plants,  the deer ate my swiss chard and beets, and my two tomato plants didn’t grow because it was so wet and cold I totally gave up on my little vegetable garden.  Didn’t go over there to look at it, figured I’d just plow it all under later this fall.  This afternoon I was walking Katie through the yard over on that side of the house.  I noticed a last bit of summer; can you see it?

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This rose bush always blooms first in the spring, and it looks as if it’s the last one in bloom this fall.

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As I was examinging the rose bush I noticed my little weed filled vegetable garden.  And guess what I saw?

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Though the two tomato plants I planted never did anything, a couple of “volunteer”  tomatoes grew up within the structure I put out for my nonexistent green beans!  I hurried into the house to get a bag to pick the red tomatoes, as we’ll have a hard frost tonight!  And while I was there I even found two bean plants that survived.  And they each had a few delicious looking green beans!

So tonight I’m having the last bit of chard that the deer missed, a few green beans and a ripe tomato. Or two.  The sad little garden did it’s best to give me something here at the end of summer.  What a surprise!

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