Amaryllis Exotica?
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Hearing Voices
Are you talking too loudly to hear the voices of others?
Are you yelling so that others quit talking to you and around you?
Are your own opinions monopolizing your airwaves and brainwaves?
Be still. Be silent. Listen.
You will hear millions of voices.
Their words may be a different language , a different dialect or with a different accent.
Some are whispering, some are pleading and some are crying.
They may be different from yours. You may not understand them.
Still listen.
They are your brothers and sisters.
They matter, too.
It’s not all about you.
FLOWER
Following the Sun
Sunflowers follow the sun with their faces.
Keeping their flowers tilted up makes their faces brighter and warmer.
A bright, cozy flower attracts more bees and encourages them to stay longer.
More lingering means more pollination.
More pollen makes more seeds,
Which is the whole point of a flower.
The energy from the sun so far away,
in the form of light and heat,
helps both the bees and the flowers
in getting and giving pollen.
The sun gives life.
FLOWER
My Friend the Fairy
My friend is a fairy, but she doesn’t know it.
She collects fairy dolls
and fairy statues
and fairy art.
She reads books about fairies.
She has a fairy garden in the woods beside her farm.
There are fairy houses,
fairy towns,
fairy tea sets,
and fairy shoes.
She points out where the fairies have been.
Under this fern, up this tree, upon this vine.
She says she believes in them, which I think was funny… coming from a fairy.
All her friends have an awareness of her fairiness.
Her cat knows purrfectly well that she’s a fairy.
Her dogs are charmed, I’m sure.
She raises chickens in a carousel castle.
I bet they lay golden eggs.
Her flowers and herbs grow like Madgic.
She is surrounded by magic everywhere, but doesn’t realize that it all comes from her.
How can she not know that she has wings?
FLOWER, friend of a fairy.
An Afternoon Among Fairies
I spent a lovely afternoon with one of my favorite people on Earth today.
My next post will be about her. This one is about her fairies.
Although it is January, we spent much of our visit outside.
She has a fairy garden in her woods, you see.
It is both beautiful and magical.
My friend is like sunshine. Her fairies/faeries and garden are enchanting.
I hope you enjoy seeing her tiny friends.
This one is my favorite, due to the bunny.
FLOWER and Fairies.
My Hope is Green
I had to take myself outside today.
I was feeling too much like a human. (No offense.)
I have been reading about politics and watching the television.
I don’t understand people. (No offense.)
I don’t believe I am human. I think a mistake was made.
I had to get outside on this dark, wet day to find some hope.
I found it.
I came back in with muddy shoes, pants, hands and camera.(Sorry Honey.)
My hope comes from the ground,
Not from my family, friends, books or the television.(I love you but…No offense.)
My hope is green.
I had to see that things were still growing and pushing up out of the earth.
Even in cold. Even in darkness.
If a little plant can do it, so can I.
FLOWER
A Dish In a Bowl of Fish
I have to bring my Shubunkins in for the winter.
They live in a small pond that I made years ago as “Maiden Stone Garden Art” concrete artist.
It is too small to leave water in it during a freeze. Plants nor fish would survive.
The three Shubunkins come into the foyer to greet guests with noises and splashing.
It has been difficult to keep this bowl looking good and keep the water clean .
After much experimentation, I have found a way to keep the water clearer.
First, I use a turkey baster to gobble up the debris from the bottom.
This removes concentrated detritus without stirring up the water.
I purchased a foam filter and placed it in a dish, weighted down by rocks.
Now, I can lift out the dish full of waste while mixing less into the remaining water.
Always clean and dry used equipment. Also label it. No one wants to eat a turkey basted with your fish bowl sucker-upper.
Fish waste is like manna to microbes.
Now, I can actually see my little friends.
FLOWER and her fish.
Seeds in Sand
I am ashamed to admit that I usually don’t mix my small seeds with sand.
It can be seen on my hand how this mix would better space the seeds.
Poppy seeds are also tiny and tend to blow while sown.
This leads to over-crowding and the need to thin seedlings.
Sometimes I wait too late to thin, which disrupts the roots of the plants left.
Last week I mixed my poppy seeds with sand before sowing them.
I liked that I could see where I had sown the seeds.
Hopefully, this year’s poppies will be less crowded than last year’s crop.
If I have given you my red, double “Bill Troutman” poppy seeds; you need to sow them soon. They are early risers.
FLOWER
The Real McCoy
In America, we use this saying “the real McCoy” to mean the real thing. This means that whatever is being described is the genuine article; not an imitation or fake.
This saying has several possible origins including an oil-drip can, rum during prohibition or the famous feuding families, the Hatfields and McCoys.
I am using it here with McCoy pottery, which was made in Ohio from roughly 1929 to 1967. The company started alone, consolidated as ACPC, split apart and then regrouped again.
The marks McCoy and USA on the bottom mean it was made after about 1933.
These two pieces are from my dear maternal grandmother and maternal great grandmother who were both from Ohio.
The Turtle Sprinkler sat on a table in a corner window with my great grandmother’s African Violets.
The planter held some of my grandmother’s favorite plants. I wanted to photograph this before planting one of her plants back into it.
McCoy is a highly collected form of pottery, but don’t rush to e-bay just yet.
The Turtle sells for about $45 and the planter for only $20.
These two are worth way more to me in memories than money.
FLOWER
