Friday, May 27, 2005, 18:51
Minor Miracles
We had a partial day of sunshine yesterday! I could hardly believe it.It is amazing to me how warm the sun feels on my skin and how good it is to see the sun shining. The sun was *actually* shining! For a while, anyway. Clouds rolled in by early afternoon, and then it started sprinkling. Later in the afternoon, very dark clouds appeared on the horizon, and then, in addition to a hard rain shower there was hail mixed in with it, too. But at least the sun was shining in the morning.
The sunshine came with a heavy price, though. Yes, it was sunny in the morning, but the wind was blowing at around 20 to 25 mph out of the west/southwest. I don't know what was blowing around, but it was *something* -- maybe mold spores or maybe some of the grass has begun to pollinate, or both. Whatever it was, every time I walked outside my eyes burned and watered and itched so badly I could hardly see. And that was in spite of two different antihistamines in my system and eye drops recommended by an allergist.
In the afternoon, I had to go to town to ship a book order -- I am doing a book signing at Simon's Specialty Cheese in Little Chute, Wisconsin (about 150 miles from here) on June 4 in honor of "June is Dairy Month"
It is cloudy again today, although with a few peeks of sunshine every now and again followed by some hard rain showers. Whatever is pollinating or producing spores is still at it. As soon as I walked out of the house this morning to go down to the barn to feed my horse, my eyes were itching and burning and watering. While I was in the barn, brushing the horse to get some of the dirt off him (he insists on rolling in the mud), another rain shower started. A fairly hard rain shower that lasted for five or ten minutes. When the rain had stopped, I went for a walk to the end of the hayfield so Charlie (our Springer Spaniel) could get in a little run.
I was halfway down the five-acre hayfield when I realized my eyes were not burning and itching and watering. It took me another few steps to figure out that the hard rain shower had rinsed the allergens out of the air. If it stays windy with no more showers, the mold spores and pollen will be right back at it again. But at least I had a brief respite for a while this morning, and at this point, I am grateful for any relief that happens to come my way. I guess it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it, the things that we consider miracles and the things for which we give thanks.
LeAnn R Ralph
P.S. Looking for a good book to read? You've come to right place!
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Thursday, May 26, 2005, 23:05
Flowers for the Cemetery (or "How I Defeated Those Pesky Bugs!")
It is Memorial Day weekend this weekend, but I have given up putting out live flowers at the cemetery on the graves of my mother and father. Not that I haven't tried. In years past, I put out potted geraniums several times because my mother loved geraniums. The rose bugs ate them and left nothing but a few stems sticking up out of the pot. I have also tried potted petunias because my mother loved petunias, too. The rose bugs ate them, as well, and left nothing but a few stems sticking up from the dirt.
Then I tried planting a lilac bush. During the summer, the rose bugs eat most of the leaves off it -- and over winter, the deer browse the branches, although to be fair, the lilac bush is hanging in there. It hasn't had any flowers on it yet for Memorial Day, but I hold out hope that someday it *might* have flowers. The lilac bush has been at the cemetery now for seven or eight years.
I don't know what the rose bugs are properly called. They are brown striped beetles that live where the soil is sandy and that are active in the month of June. I have them at my house, too, a mile away from the church, and every June, they strip my roses down to nothing if I don't dust the bushes with pesticide.
As far as I am concerned, pesticide dust defeats the purpose of having flowers. Who wants to bring cut roses into the house that are covered with white pesticide dust? And who wants pots of flowers at the cemetery that also are covered with white pesticide dust?
That's why most people who bring flowers to the cemetery at our little white country church put out silk or plastic flowers -- so the bugs won't eat them. The flowers start out looking pretty good on Memorial Day, but by the end of the summer, at the hot, dry, sandy, dusty cemetery, they look faded and tattered and worn.
My mother would *hate* the idea that bugs are eating her flowers.
My mother would also *hate* the idea of plastic or silk flowers.
Fortunately, the bugs seem to leave most of the potted greenery alone. So, I have struck upon a solution. I put out a pot of that viny, ferny-looking green stuff -- and then I add other things to the pot that the bugs can't eat -- plant stakes, to be more specific. And every year I find one or two more to put in the pot.
So far, the pot has a stained glass butterfly, a pink-and-white rabbit made of tin, a tiny blue tin wheelbarrow, a stained-glass pink flower, two stained glass flowers with a grasshopper and a dragonfly, and this year, I added a whirly gig with a butterfly on top and three pink and white flowers on the spokes. I also have two stained glass irises, and since the irises are fairly large, I have stuck those in the ground near the lilac bush.
My mother would approve. She would be gleefully delighted that the bugs cannot eat the plant stakes. Dad would approve, too, for that matter. He was a farmer, he knew how destructive bugs can be to a crop, and he would have hated to see the chewed up flowers as much as anyone else.
Come to think of it, I am rather "gleefully delighted" myself. Every time I find a new plant stake for the cemetery pot, I find myself thinking, 'Hah! The bugs won't be able to eat *this*. . .'
LeAnn R. Ralph
P.S. Looking for a good book to read? You've come to right place!
P.P.S Want to comment? Click on the comments/no comments link and scroll to the bottom of the page.