Author: Flower Roberts

Fall and Frost Chores

| Flower Roberts

As the air gets brisk here on the mountain,
I feel the need to get home.
My family sends me photos of leggy plants and late blooms.


There are deadlines to be kept. One is for fall and the other for frost.
I have kept garden journals for decades. The entries are by months.
All I have to do is flip to the Octobers of the past to see what needs to be done.

Blue Ginger

Both fall and frost must be taken care next week. My family will help me. I appreciate their support. I have given away dozens of plants. I will continue to down-size my collection, until it is a size that I can manage and move by myself.

There will be a flurry of cleaning and preening all plants the must go into my workshop. It will take on the look of a crowded jungle until spring. Plants will cover every surface and hang from the rafters.

I do not clean my gardens outside until March. The mess is a haven for insects and wildlife over the cold months. I may add extra mulch around some tender favorites. I will need help for this, too.

I am still wobbly and in pain. Hopefully that will end. My left hip will be replaced on October 24. This hip was damaged by a fall on August 4, 2024.  My whole left side was jarred and jammed just two weeks before my unsuccessful surgery on my right hip on August 24, 2024.

I have been in constant pain for 18 months. I  have thought about this quite a bit. Mostly I think of my precious Daddy who had rheumatoid arthritis for decades and kept moving. I also catch myself hobbling like his mom who had arthritis and wore shoes that were too small and too pointy.

I also think of the miles I ran on roads and sidewalks before there were properly cushioned running shoes.  I still have a habit of carrying heavy loads, because I do not like asking for help. I remember all the times I waved off men in parking lots who offered to help me load 60 and 90 pound bags of portland cement and masonry mix into my vehicle. I worked like a man with the joints and muscles of a woman.

Now, I need help doing many mundane tasks. I do not like this helplessness. My hope is that I will be strong again in the spring. I will be more cautious with my repaired and healing body from now on.

Next week, I will need help with these fall and frost chores. Seasons do not wait for us to be ready. They come when they come.

Not sooner, not later.

Are you ready?

FLOW going slow…for now.

Four Legs of a Zebra

| Flower Roberts

This story is not finished yet. The legs are still disconnected and some stripes are missing. 

That is about to change this week.


The dismantled zebra spent over forty years gathering dust in my Daddy’s shop. When we sold our homeplace on Enwood, we moved the zebra to the mountains.

I hired the neighbor’s children to help me take the zebra outside and brush it off and hose it down.

We carried it back in the basement for me wipe it down and dry it off. Then I carefully rubbed it down with special oil.

My neighbor helped me load the zebra into my car.  I drove it to a special place for rehabilitation. I pondered its sentimental value against the rehabers’ cost estimate. How much is an old zebra worth these days?

I stood by my car looking at those old legs wondering what to do. I thought of its long journey; from Piqua, Ohio to Lenoir, North Carolina then to Charlotte and finally to this place in the mountains.

I had to trust my ancestors who bought the zebra and kept the zebra and dismantled the zebra and moved the zebra. I had to trust my father, the woodworker, who stored the zebra in his shop for decades. Who was I to determine its value?

They will start work on it this week, stripping it down and repairing it. Then we will go examine it and choose the color of  its new coat.

Something about this gives me peace. That I have done my part in this arduous journey and now, at last, the zebra will be whole again.

Maybe that’s all any of us are supposed to do…Our part. Not the beginning, not the ending…just a leg of the journey.

I will share the results when this story ends. For now, we will trust the zebras handlers to do their part and bring the zebra back to life.

FLOW

Color on the Rocks

| Flower Roberts

I am a fan of plants that spread. They soften lines in the garden. I like the look of spilling over rock borders and walls.

This ice plant is growing nicely in its spot along the rock border. I like that it stays low and compact. This one is neater than some I have grown in the past.

Ice plant ‘ Orange Sunset Orange Glow’


This color combo really pops. The yellow center with petals which trsnsition from orange to pink lives up to its name ‘ Orange Sunset Orange Glow.’

Ice plant between stones and sedums


Its tag claims hardiness to -30°F. This is also deer resistant. If it survives several seasons I will be thrilled.



FLOWER on the mountain

On the Book Trail

| Flower Roberts

I read books about things that interest me. Those books refer to other books on the subject that the author used to write their book. I look up those books and read those, too.
I call this ” following the book trail.” That is how I have found some of my favorite books. I have been following the book trail lately as I wait for my next hip surgery.
This book, Every Living Thing by Jason Roberts, is about the lives of two naturalist in the 1700’s who attempted to classify all living things.

I have read about them and even taught about them many times, but I never really knew their stories until now. This book starts at the early lives of Carl Linnaeus and Gorges-Louis Leclerc (de Buffon) and details their development into the important researchers they became.

Their stories involve the struggles of obtaining an education and a proper place in society and science. These two men followed very different paths to get to their goal. Both stories are amazing!

If you love biology, you will enjoy this book on how our present classification system came into existence.

FLOWER  (sitting still and silently reading about science)

Another Survivor of Neglect

| Flower Roberts

I got two of these ‘Daybreak Coreopsis. I placed them as bookends of this small flowerbed.

This area has been neglected all summer. I am grateful that “Lil’ Bang” has thrived through my neglect.

Lil’ Bang Daybreak Coreopsis

It is a perennial so I hope it will survive the cold here on the mountain.

The tag claims hardiness to -20°F. We shall see.


FLOWER

That Little Lantana

| Flower Roberts

This Lantana is a ball of color. I love that its buds, new blooms and mature flowers look like a bouquet.

Hot Blooded Red Lantana

The red could not be redder. No wonder it is named ‘Hot Blooded’ red. It is an annual. I will remember this winner when I look for plants in the spring.

Really red!


I am in Zone 5. I have been learning a new landscape. I picked this plant for its deer resistance.

I save all plant tags to help me find the best performers again.



FLOWER

Memories in the Light

| Flower Roberts

On my deck there are two artifacts together that are highlighted by the sunshine in the mornings. They are sort of like a shrine. The windchime is there to remind me of my cousin, Mark B.. The gazing ball is for remembering my Daddy who loved all things blue.

Memories in evening shade.

It has taken years to remember these two people without the sorrow that comes with loss. My world shifted and I carried on with the emptiness. Then once the pain faded, it has been like they are part of me and my surroundings. There seems to be a new kind of presence in their absence.

Two gazing balls? One is present, one is made with light.


I look at these two forms and see how the glass refracts the sun and metal blocks the sun to make a shadow.

Two windchimes? Only one is truly present. The other is made by an absence of light.


That’s how I feel about what is left. The object’s presence works with light to make the colors and shadows for the perception of second presence. There must be light for this to happen.

One ball, one chime, no light

It’s the light that makes this possible. My love for them and their lives made the missing and memories possible. I still perceive things differently because of my love for them. My reality has been changed. So in a way something of them is still here, because I still love them.

FLOWER

I wrote this for a dear friend and his two sons. Their dear Lisa is suffering no more, but her light is still here, because their love for her is still here.

Keys

| Flower Roberts

I know it makes no sense that I have kept these keys.
We never figured out what most of these were for.

Mystery keys


Some are for cars long gone, some are for houses sold and offices left.
There are even dog tags from past pets.


Daddy had a reason for keeping these.
Maybe one day, something will need unlocking and I will bring out the box and open a lock that needed opening.


I know it makes no sense to keep these keys, but I cannot get rid of them just yet.

FLOWER