Soon

 

Soon it will be Mother's Day

Maybe a dozen (or more) roses will be your gift.

                          

Why not enjoy them for years to come 

by making an old fashioned Moist Potpourri.

Loved by Gertrude Jekyll: 

"The dry is much the easier and quicker to make, 

but is neither so sweet nor so enduring".



So, don't waste those lovely petals.  

Making moist Potpourri is very easy, 

it is the oldest way of making Potpourri. 

You will need partially dried rose petals and coarse, non-iodized salt.

Layer rose petals and salt in a non-porous container.

Ratio of 3 to1, petals to salt.

Keep adding rose petals as they are available. 

Keep in dark place, tightly closed.  

As you add more petals and salt over time, 

stir with a wooden spoon. 

 This is my moist potpourri, more than 30 years old.

Still has the most divine and mysterious perfume. 

I know, it's not very pretty.

It is meant to be hidden in a special, perforated container.

You may want to add the following: Lavender Flowers, 

Rose Geranium Leaves, Essential Oils, Lemon Peel, Orange Peel. 

Your moist potpourri is ready to use in about 6 months.

Have a lovely week my dear Friends.

Gina

It's supposed to look like this

 But it doesn't.

They are still sleeping

No flowers for the house. 

Even too cold for pansies.

Not even a Hellebore in sight.

When are they going to show their faces?

There is only this and 

it is very cold. 

Enjoy your flowers, 

mine will come soon.

Gina 

Ghost Town

 Eureka was once a bustling Utah Mining Town.

(dedicated to  my European friends)

Old Mining Headstock just outside of Eureka

From our house there are two ways to get to Eureka.

We can head for Tooele (Too-i-la) by the Great Salt Lake

or we can head west and take the back roads.

Where you will not see another car for hours and hours.

Where you will see sage brush and tumble weeds

 caught along the fence line.

And after three hours you will finally reach Eureka, 

a Modern Day Ghost Town where a sign painted on a brick wall proclaims  "A NEW PAIR FREE if they RIP"

Where you will find the preserved cabin once belonging to 

Porter Rockwell who became the bodyguard of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church.

Joseph Smith advised  Porter Rockwell 

 'cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade will harm you'.

Eureka was one of the quietest mining towns in the West.

In 1910 it was the 9th largest city in Utah, population 3,500.

Today, less than 200 people live in Eureka.

Of course, it has a saloon, I mean bar, 

and possibly, even dancing girls.

And a company store.  (Would love to see the old sign underneath)

Unnoticed, old and new, live side by side, harmoniously.

A glass facade but not a roof to protect the interior.

Why the glass wall? 

Is someone living behind those curtains? 

Didn't see a soul.

Who walked up these stairs?

We call these  abandoned homes "Fixer Uppers."  

 Are you up for the challenge?

Going home, not even a contrail to keep us company.

Take care, be safe. 

Gina 

Partial Repost

Forgotten

 

Only a very short walk from my house

an old farmstead has lost its owner.

Only a few months ago cattle were fed from this big haystack.

A bachelor farmer lived here.

Look at the size of that saw blade.

He said he didn't need a wife 

"because he had a woman  (that's me) 

running through his fields every day". 

Will someone take over this farm? 

Probably not.  Farming is hard and has few rewards. 

This fertilizer spreader shows how many years it has been dragged through the fields...

it has picked up bailing twine that will never come off.  

And the water tank will never be moved to a pasture.  

 The Danes knew how to build fine cabins.  Cabins which have stood straight and proud for more than a hundred years. 

This one probably built by the same family. 

The granary is still full of barley.

It takes a lot of equipment to run a farm. 

There is order in a forgotten corner.

He will not leave his owner's house.  

I have known  him since he was a puppy, now he barks at me.  

Not to worry, a neighbor is taking care of him.  His brother has already moved over. 

Have a great weekend dear Friends, 

Gina 

Partial Repost

The ugly duckling

The ugly duckling, 

Treasured by a little boy.

Internet

A car pulled up. Not so unusual. We have people coming down our lane all  the time. They usually ask silly questions.

A little boy was sitting in the back seat. Tears streaming down his small face. He was clutching a tiny yellow duckling to his chest.

You see, we have a very large pond behind our house.

The little duckling followed me everywhere. I named him "Ittybitty".

After spending a few days and nights in a warm box in our kitchen we decided that it was time to introduce him to the pond. We made a small enclosure of wire fencing, under a tree and partly in the pond. He knew immediately that this was the place where he should have been all along.

A long way away, clear across the pond, Tilly, our resident goose, was watching our every move. Tilly is bossy. She likes to pick up ducks and toss them away from the feeding trough. She bosses wild geese. She chases dogs and cats.

She was churning the water to get to the tiny creature. I picked up a stick, just in case. Tilly swam to the wire fence, lifted it and claimed Ittybitty. From then on, the two were inseparable.

A few weeks later, the little boy came by to see his friend. He called and called for it. That was the last time the small boy came to see his duckling. It didn't know him anymore.

Ittybitty turned out to be a big and fat Peking Duck. She abandoned Tilly and took up with three beautiful Greenheads (Mallard Ducks). The Greenhead boys, always two on her left and one on her right, accompany Ittybitty to wherever he wants to go.

Have a great weekend, 

Gina 

It's a small world afteral

 

And full of Surprises

This is Mathilde (Tilly for short) our resident Goose

This is Mathilde's look.  Always on the alert.   

 Mathilde has ruled our pond for more than sixteen years

You might recall the story I told you when Tilly lost her friend Leopold.  She would not eat or drink for days, standing by the greenhouse and hoping that her own reflection in the glass was Leopold and that sooner or later he would come out.

Mathilde could not be consoled, which is strange because when Leopold was still alive Mathilde took every opportunity flirting with every goose that showed up on our pond.  Wild geese, who visited, where told where they could swim and where they could rest under the big elm tree.

source: Snow College

Not long ago I was teaching a "Historic Tiles Painting Workshop" in a remote Forest Service Camp.  The camp had been purchased by our local College and all forest cabins had been beautifully restored.  Among my group of students was a grandmother (not just any grandmother, but the Professor of Music, graduate of the Julliard School of Music, New York),  her two grown daughters and an eleven year old, charming little girl, her granddaughter. 

Because Tilly was grieving so for her Leopold we decided to find her a few pals.  She loved them all but decided that one beautiful, all white little goose, was her favorite and soon they became an item.  This little goose is very special.  Whenever we sat outside she would join us, turning her head this way and that, listening to our conversation.

What makes this little goose so special is that she was hand raised by an eleven year old girl. 

Yes, the same charming and talented little  girl who took my painting workshop.  She had named her little goose Violet. 

When we looked for Tillie's companions we found them at a distant farm.  At the time we only met one family member.   The little girl was too sad to come out of the house because she had hand raised Violet from the day she hatched out of her egg... 

"because she was sickly". 

What a small world after all!  

Violet has found a good home and a good partner.  They have raised many a group of sweet goslings.  

It is Mathilde who is the Father of our little goslings.  

He is the most considerate mate and the most loving caretaker you will ever meet.

TILLY IS A BOY GOOSE 

This we didn't know for almost sixteen years. 

Gina 

partial repost