Small Town Summer Concerts

Each Wednesday evening, in the summer, there is a concert in the Pioneer Park Pavilion in Florence. Local people of all ages show up with drinks, picnics, chairs, dogs, etc. to enjoy the music and visit. The Senior Citizen organization even barbeques and sells hot dogs, hamburgers and popcorn at very low prices.

Tonight a local old fashioned country gospel group, The Coffee Family, provided a rousing selection of bluegrass, and other styles of gospel music to a happy crowd, in spite of wind and spitting rain (the rain never got to the serious stage but we did get some wind blown spatters where we were sitting in our own camp chairs under the pavilion).

Jim and Star Coffee, their son, Mark, and daughter, Grace play many instruments, including guitars, bass, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and tambourine, as well as singing. They even wrote some of the pieces that they belted out. They used a microphone and amplifier, but had powerfull voices that could probably be heard without assistance. They travel to concerts around the country and you can often see their motor home parked next to their home on Eight Mile Creek where it flows out of the Pikes Peak Massif, north of Florence, on it's way to the Arkansas River.

Joe and I so enjoyed their music, and it was also fun to see all of the expressive faces of our neighbors; a great place to people watch. While the adults sat and listened (and some did needlework), the little ones tended to run, crawl, climb and ride bikes all over the park.

I wish I could provide some of the Coffee's music for your enjoyment, but at least her are some photos I took. Excuse the fuzziness, my little Canon Elph doesn't seem to take very clear digital zoom photos any more, and my tremor is getting worse. I seem to do better with the Canon Power Shot Pro, but it is too big to carry in my pocket, and I am still figuring out how to use it.

These concerts are one of the benefits of living in this small town; we have lots of community events throughout the year, based on history/antiques, art, music and holidays. Little did we guess, when we moved here 21 years ago, how this community was going to develop into such a great place to live and/or visit.

Garden Mysteries

When a backyard birdwatcher sees this on the patio what does it tell her?

That the brilliant Bullock's Oriole has been drinking at the Hummingbird feeder again. Since his bill is so much bigger than the Hummingbirds bill, he pulls off the little yellow mesh pieces from the feeder and drops them on the ground. As of this evening only 2 remain on the feeder and I haven't been able to find the other 2. In past years he just dumped them beneath the feeder but this year I found one way out in the middle of the back driveway and the other on the sidewalk in front of the back sliding door. Maybe he has figured out that if he doesn't take them far away, I will just pick them up, clean them, and reinstall them in the feeder. Mrs. Oriole also eats at the feeder, but I haven't seen her as often this year. When the young birds fledge she brings them to the hummingbird feeder also.

So far, Mr. Oriole has refused to pose for me, I hear him and hurry to see him on the feeder, but all I get to see is the feeder swinging back and forth. When I do see him, he is too far for me to get a good photo, so I borrowed this one from the website for Birds of Washington State. Photo by Jerry Rome.

According to an article in the Pueblo paper earlier this week, we are having a much larger migration of Ladybugs in the area than usual, probably because the weather has allowed for more aphids (Ladybugs' favorite food) than usual. I knew I had seen quite a few in garden, but was really amazed when I sat down beneath the blooming Catalpa tree and looked up at the under side of the large leaves. There were red Ladybugs everywhere. I've never seen that many in one place before. The red really popped against the green leaves. So, of course, I had to run (walk really, I am not able to run any more) to the house for my camera.

Now my mystery is: In the past I have used a product, recommended by my nursery, that is watered into the ground under the trees and shrubs infested with aphids, it goes up into the sap and kills the aphids when they suck the sap. If I use this now will it also kill the Ladybugs when they eat the aphids? I know that insecticidal soap will kill the Ladybugs as well as the Aphids. I only want to get rid of the aphids, not the Ladybugs.

Years ago, before I realized that this tree was so attractive to aphids, they caused the leaves to shrivel up and turn yellow and fall off, which was a real mess, not to mention all the sticky stuff they exude dripping, and the ants crawling all over the tree (the ants "farm" the aphids so they can eat the sweet sticky stuff.)

If anyone knows how I can get rid of the aphids without killing the beneficial insects, I would love to hear from you.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day _ June 2009

On the 15th of each month a group of gardening bloggers post photos of what's blooming in their gardens. We manage to have blooms, even in winter, with some of us resorting to house plants when the ground outside is frozen and dead looking, but really only sleeping. Check out participating blogs at May Dreams Gardens.

Now that June is here, Toad Haven is looking quite lively and colorful; and with the long, light evenings, I am able to garden at that time when there isn't a thunderstorm. It is often too hot during the middle of the day.

The above photo is of Lavender, California Poppies, and Feverfew in the 2 years old Dooryard Garden. It was designed to be a Lavender garden with the golden poppies and white German Chamomile, but, the poppies came up and took over while the Chamomile never germinated, so last year I transplanted a couple of Feverfew plants to provide the white; I've never had the Feverfew grow so tall before. I'm now going to try seeding the Chamomile in other parts of the garden. I am quite fond of Chamomile tea, plus I love the look and fragrance of the plants.

These are Goblin Gaillardias blooming in the midst of the poppies. This is a great native plant for our hot, dry climate.

This is a prairie Globe Mallow that happily seeded itself between the Dooryard Patio paving stones and the landscape timber edging the Dooryard Garden. When we moved here there were a couple of these Sphaeralceas growing in the middle of the seldom used back alley. I loved them and wondered if I could transplant them and get them to grow in the garden. Then this surprise popped up when I was constructing the patio and garden and I couldn't force myself to pull it up, even though it was in an inconvenient place. It gets so top heavy that I have to tie it up so it doesn't sprawl all over the patio and garden and I trim it back after the first big bloom, it keeps putting up small branches during the rest of the summer.

This section of the Lilliaputian Prairie border has Stella d'Oro Daylilies, Ice Plant, Coreopsis, and Yarrow blooming. I wish the purple Veronica would bloom a little earlier here. Although I appreciate the self seeding surprises of native and some garden plants, that healthy dandelion is not appreciated and will be cut off down in the root.

The veggie garden in it's raised beds was planted late this year, due to my health challenges and the weather, but it is beginning to take shape with some transplanted plants and some seed. I am still in the process of making a new 8 foot square garden divided into 4 smaller squares ( I was greatly influence by the book "Square Foot Gardening" a number of years ago, but am not always planting as intensively as that book teaches. I hope that means I am not as compulsive as I used to be.) This new bed will be seeded with corn, pole beans and pumpkins (living succotash).

I wish this was a clearer photo of the Eggplant blossom, they are so gorgeous! I grow them as much for the blossoms as for the eggplants.

These blossoms are on one of the various tomato varieties I planted, while there is a label in the bed, I am not going to try to go out in the dark and check it. Especially since my right leg is still black, blue and purple from ankle to knee from 2 falls I've had in the garden in the last 3 weeks. Gardening while dragging around oxygen apparatus, a garden cart, and tools, gets frustrating at times, but I will not give up my gardening!

Here are bell pepper blossoms and even a small pepper.

I fell in love with Marigolds when I was a small child and still can't have a garden without them. I put them around the vegetable beds to discourage bugs; however, since they were one of the first things gobbled up by our grasshopper plague a few summers ago, I have been known to doubt that they are effective, but it's an old habit I can't give up. I love the smell of the Marigolds on my hands after I touch them, so I am a faithful deadheader.

I hope there are many lovely blossoms in your gardens of life.

Peony Fields Forever

Here is one of my favorite local sites at this time of the year. This gentleman grows the Peonies to sell to people to decorate graves on Memorial Day. It is one of the few flower fields left in the area. Before WWII there were many kinds of flowers, as well as vegetable, fruits and apple orchards in the area. It started in the 1860s with the pioneers growing food for the miners in the mountains. A dear departed friend of mine told me of working in the flower fields in the Lincoln Park area of Canon City. I was amazed when he told me that they were packed in crates and sent in refrigerated railroad cars to Chicago.

When I was growing up in the Rocky Ford area, further east along the Arkansas River, there were many fields of Zinnias being grown for a local seed company. Some fields were all one color and others were in a mix of colors. I'm not sure if the seed company is still in business and farmers still growing zinnias down there. Maybe I should do a research field trip later this summer to find out.

That area is losing a lot of farms due to the irrigation water rights being sold to big cities like Colorado Springs and Aurora. It doesn't look like the same place when I drive along the old, once familiar roads, and find the former fields going back to prairie grass and the farm houses that we and our family and friends lived in are no longer there. This is one of the reasons that I am a missionary for native, low water landscaping. I resent farms being dried up so that people can have their large, water slurping blue grass lawns, that have no business growing in a desert. I love my native Blue Gramma Grass lawn, my mini prairie. It takes one fourth of the water and only needs to be mowed a few times each summer. Why don't people understand that an attractive landscape that needs less work and less water is the way to go?!!

June is Busting Out All Over!

I always sing that old song in my mind on June 1. All my life I've been a singer and sang as I did my daily tasks. Unfortunately, since being on oxygen for a few years, I am no longer able to sing, just croak. It is very disappointing, but I do keep my surround sound radio on all day, tuned to listener funded classical station KCME from Colorado Springs, and can sing along in my heart. Sometimes I just have to croak out loud from the joy of the music.

It appears that we are moving away from years of drought to a more normal climate (I hope, I hope, I hope!) for this area. I did hear that La Nina has disappeared and that could be the reason. We had about a week of upslope moisture, that we normally would have had in March; and now we are having sunny, warm mornings, and then clouds and afternoon thunderstorms. That was the weather pattern when we moved here 22 years ago, then around 2001 we started into the extreme drought pattern that has left us with hot, dry, windy weather and caused water shortages and wildfires. I am celebrating the return to the rainier weather, even though that only gives us between 12 to 14 inches of moisture in a year. It sure beats 5 to 7.

Today, between the late afternoon sprinkles and black clouds and the late night rain, I managed to transplant various types of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and marigolds into a couple of the raised vegetable garden beds. I was finishing up at 9 o'clock when it was almost completely dark. When the rain started late tonight I was so happy that I got them in when I did. I noticed that there was some new snow up on the bald top of Greenhorn Mountain, but there really doesn't seem to be any danger of freezing nights any longer. It was too dark to take any photos, but some will be forthcoming.

The second Peony plant, with lots of buds, has bloomed out in a darker rose color than the pink plant with only one flower. I am so happy that after all these years of pampering they finally bloomed. As I drove to and from Canon City today, I noticed huge, old clumps of Peonies blooming in so many yards; mostly pink and white doubles, but there were a few single blossom plants as well. The reds bloomed about 2 weeks ago and have already shattered.

Celebrations!

My "adopted" granddaughter, Amber, graduated from Florence High School on Friday night. She has been accepted by Adams State College in Alamosa and has already signed up for her classes and dorm room for next fall. We are so pleased that she has received a very good grant to make it possible to get a college eduation. This summer she is enrolled in a job training program with the Colorado Job Corps and will work as a landscaper at a local golf course. It must run in the family, since my grandson, Jason, has worked as a landscaper each summer while attending CU Boulder. He will graduate in December as the fourth generation of his family to get a degree from CU.

Amber's younger sister, Makayla, graduated from the Florence Middle School this evening, and will be a Freshman at Florence High School next fall. She appears to be a bit happy about her graduation. She is wearing a crocheted throw that I made several years ago and gave to her recently.

Here are Mandy (right) and her friend Amanda (would you believe they are both named Amanda Marie?) at the Prom earlier this month. It tickles me that girls are self confident enough, these days, to go together, when they do not have dates, and enjoy themselves. Remember that old adage, "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle."

This is grandson, Evan, (Mandy's brother) in his Kindergarden photo. He is not as studious as the glasses make him look; he is all boy!

Grandaughter, Samantha, was a seventh grader at a Salt Lake City area school. She didn't come to Denver for Memorial Day weekend, but DD Sharon says she has definitely become a teenager with all that entails. She is a very talented dancer. She is thrilled that her braces came off since this photo was taken.

Sam's sister, Rachel, was a fifth grader and did spend the weekend with us at my daughter, Michal Ann's, in Wheatridge (a western suburb of Denver) with her Mom and little brother, Alex. Rachel is into sports and is a definite brain; the computer game she was playing this weekend was about physics!!? and she played it while watching funnies and music on the laptop, simultaneously. She was also making origami pieces for us and keeping us laughing at her great sense of humor.

I got to visit with all 4 of my children and 2 of Joe's son's and lots of grandchildren and greatgrandchildren over the weekend. It rained a lot and so much of the time the kids had to play, very noisily, in the house. They did get out into the back garden in the intervals between rains.

Here are Miles (GGS), Rachel (GD), Evan (GS), and Kaylee (GGD) playing in the playland corner of Grandma Mike's backyard. It was wet, but they didn't care.

Alex, from Utah, plays Hungry Hippos.

Shaun (greatgrandson) wants to go downstairs where the bigger kids are playing. He doesn't understand that the steep steps are not safe for him to go down by himself.

Granddaughter Brook with Olivia, who will be our sixth greatgrandchild in September.

These are some of the other flowers blooming in our world.

Spring Bliss

At the first of the week we had three 90+ degree days with hot, dry sun and wind. Yesterday it cooled a bit to the 80s which was still a bit hot for this time of the year. However, the lady from Sun City, Arizona, who was ahead of me in the Subway line, thought it was cool compared to what she was used to. A pleasant cold front came in during the night with up slope moisture and it was only up to 60 degrees with quite a bit of rain this morning and later in the afternoon. After running like the dickens keeping the hoses running on the drying greenery in my yard, it was a relief to see the plants drinking up the natural showers. Thank goodness, the weatherman expects seasonal temperatures for the weekend and next week.


Here is what the Toad Haven Herb Garden looked like after the morning rain. Not much blooming yet, but look at all those lovely shades of green. And it smells heavenly!




When we moved here six years ago, the landscaping had not been watered or weeded for several years. I found a couple of stunted Peony plants near the back door growing in dirt the texture of concrete. I transplanted them to the front sides of the garden shed and have babied them with water and fertilizer. The plants grew bigger but never a bloom appeared. I had no idea what color they would be if or when they did bloom. This year one plant had one bud and the other had multiple buds so I've been holding my breath and crossing my fingers. This morning I was rewarded with a pink blossom from the single bud. It was worth the wait and I look forward to seeing the other buds blossoming soon.


I love Peonies, and every May Joe delivers a large bouquet of red peonies to me from an older gentleman in Canon City who grows them to sell for Memorial Day. He has a huge field of them wrapped around his Victorian bungalow, and Joe works on his flower cooler when he starts it up each spring. My Dad had wonderful red Peony plants at the house in Fowler and this August I am going to dig one up to transplant into my garden.


My quilt muse has been pretty much absent since my health challenges last Summer. It has taken me so long to regain enough strength and energy to do just the absolutely necessary housekeeping tasks and shopping, as well as looking after Mom's affairs. I am able to do a bit more gardening now and am getting it in shape with the assistance of yardman Carl. I don't know if I can manage to garden and make quilts at the same time, but I have finally been gifted with a concept for what I want to do quiltwise, and am beginning to dream and sketch some ideas that I can work on next winter, when the garden is hibernating. I am so excited about the history of this area where we live, and want to do a series of quilts about Fremont County, beginning with the Dinosaurs and working up to the present. I don't know what size they will be, yet, but they will be small enough to make it possible for me to manage them with my sewing machine, and yet, large enough to present the subject matter well. I don't enjoy working large.



I plan to encorporate my photographs of the County into the quilts. This concept has been working in my mind for several months and is finally beginning to develop. It's strange that the history series idea just took shape suddenly yesterday, and I immediately thought, "Aha, that is exactly what I can get my teeth into," and the creative energy began to flow. It is good to feel excited about a quilt idea again. Now to take my new camera off the shelf and start learning how to use it.