A Garden Catechism

 I stopped at the St. Cloud Bookshop on Monday to pick up a Bible for my brother. I came home with a few other items besides. It is a dangerous store for me to walk into. 

The first of the items I picked up was A Garden Catechism by  Margaret Rose Realy, Obl OSB (Our Sunday Visitor, 2022) I had seen this book advertised early last year, and had it on my Amazon wish list. I did the Amazon sneak peek, but still could not decide if it was worth the money. But buying it from the Bookshop gave me just one more incentive to purchase: I would be supporting a local business! So I took a look at the illustrations and sprang for it. I am glad I did. It fills in cracks left by the other books I have in my collection on Mary Gardens and flower names. As an example, Realy's book goes into detail about how the columbine, one of my favorite flowers, is named after the dove. The illustration shows an early cultivar which clearly resembles a dove in the way the blossoms are clustered with one petal like a wing gathering the others into itself. So beautiful. That is quite different than just reading on a list that columbine are "Jesus' shoes". I do not see them as shoes, unless one is talking about a very medieval style. I paged through most of the book late at night because it was so interesting. I am hoping to use the book in combination with my other sources to write little snippets for the bulletin when spring and summer come once again. I am not sure it will change the plants I use in my gardens at home and at church because there is no disputing taste. Red will never become a favorite color. Nor will cyclamen become a favorite flower. But I may tweak things here and there and use some of  her design tips.   

Another purchase was a book about St. Cloud by Susan Peek. The author's name did not ring a bell. Nor did the cover design. However, when I looked at other titles by the author I recognized one on Count Baldwin and the crusades from my homeschooling days. St. Cloud will be my Christmas break reading.  

Yet another purchase (Told ya it is a dangerous place for me!) was Fr. Daniel Lord's book on St. Nicholas, The Man Who Was Really Santa Claus, reprinted by Refuge of Sinners Press. I finished that last night, and will mail it off to my brother tomorrow. I can't say I was really impressed, or that it left me with a feeling of devotion to St. Nicholas. Too much of the book was editorial comment on how people liked moral mystery plays and debate about whether we should tell children about Santa Claus or not. I did like his brief history of the celebration of Christmas in Europe as opposed to how it is celebrated in the United States, and the differences in celebrating between Catholics and Protestants. That knowledge is important.

I finished up most of my Christmas shopping yesterday. I am so glad that I was able to do it at Fleet Farm instead of at Walmart. That way I did not have to support Walmart's satanic merchandise or liberal politics. They score very poorly on 2nd Vote, which is quite too bad since they should be a store for the poor and families.  

Books, Books and More Books

 My car is in the shop today, so it is a good time to blog. 

As usual, I pursue my quest to find more books which my granddaughters just might like to pick up and read. When I saw that Tan had The Chestertons and the Golden Key (Nancy Carpentier Brown, 2016) on their $5 book list, I had to get it. The story begins with an eleven year old girl's invitation to the Chestertons after her siblings see them at a hotel in their town. Woven into the story are a pair of roller skates and a missing piano key. I did not like the book at first because I thought it a bit far fetched, first, that such a young girl would recognize Chesterton, and second, that she would venture to write him a fan letter and invite him to lunch. But at the end of the book I found that the story was based on real events. Oh, how mature and well educated that young lady was at a time that we think was so repressive to women! Compare that to now, when kids of the same age cannot drag their eyes off of their computer screens. The truth behind the fiction put an entire new light on the story. The book does have a very attractive, colorful cover. The black and white drawings throughout the book are also very well done with beautiful details. Leaded window pains reminded me of my grandparent's house in Montana, and on one of the pages I saw a drawing of my beloved "teddy bear" bed frame. I got a laugh out of  GK's demonstration on handling writer's block through the use of a  sword and throw pillows. Can't say I'll try it, but it was funny.

After I finished that book I decided that I would order another of Brown's books, The Woman Who was Chesterton (American Chesterton Society, 2015).  Frances Chesterton sounded like a virtuous, kind, faithful Christian woman. Also interesting to see references to my old homeschool friend Charlotte Mason in the book in connection with the Parents National Education Union, of which Frances Chesterton was a member. That is such a cool historical connection. At a time when I can barely stand reading or listening to the news, the mainstream media because of all of it's propaganda, and LifeSiteNews because it is too depressing, this book was a refreshing read. I needed that. 

Now I am into something far more serious, but also riveting: The Sexual State by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse (Tan Books, 2018). This was also a Tan $5 book purchase. But I know Dr. J. from the Ruth Institute, and it seemed a good follow-up to Leila Miller's Primal Loss. I felt the need to hear something of the harm that has come through the Sexual Revolution to counteract all of the societal messages promoting divorce, abortion and contraception. Even the Church seems to turn a blind eye to the harm that comes to children through divorce. The focus has been on the need for annulments before re-marriage, which is fine and good. But in the process no one is talking about whether it is really such a good idea for a second marriage even if it can be a sacramental one. I see these books as sort of reparational reading after my own daughter's first divorce. I can't help but think that had I read these books first, I would have given her different advice and acted differently myself. It will be hard for me when my granddaughter is old enough to start asking questions.

Now, for something lighter. I have dome some card stamping recently. My biggest need is sympathy cards, always. I did two designs which I really liked, based on a card which I saw on Split Coast Stampers. I also made a few graduation cards which I really liked. I have enough stamping stuff to last for ages, but I want to try using an ink blending tool when I can get my hands on one. Stampin' Up has a new Sale-a-bration coming up in August, so I will wait until then. 

My flower beds are looking good. It is time to pull out all of the johnny jump-ups which have gone to seed and I have just a few more iris to cut back. But the day lilies are just starting to bloom, and the lamb's ears and mallow are both blooming, and the light green foliage and white blossoms are beautiful. I am hankering after more dwarf iris for next year. I got some free mint seed at The Plant Place in St. Cloud, and that should be close to sprouting. But I also discovered that some of the mint I had put in a couple of years ago is still growing. It is not abundant by any means, but it is still alive. The mint which we had at Bald Eagle was very aggressive, so I wonder why I am having such a hard time getting it to thrive here. The zinnias which I started from seed from gift seed are blooming already in the Mary Garden at St. John Cantius. Once they were planted in the garden they really took off. 

I believe the gophers are gone, but we continue the battle with chipmunks. Cute as they are, they are becoming a nuisance. They ripped some insulation out of the walls in the garage, and dug a hole in my bag of potting soil. I am sure that we have one running around inside the walls of our house, since I have heard it at night. The drywall in our garage has a few access holes in it, and we have found holes in the slat wall and in the concrete near the garage door. 

Winter Storm Watch

My brother Peter and his wife gave me a North Carolina cookbook several years ago. It contained a recipe for oatmeal cake which was titled "Hurricane Watch Cake". I am thinking that I might need to bake it this evening for our storm watch. The recipe is probably a Betty Crocker original, since it is the same oatmeal cake that Mom made for us when we were young. Good, no matter the origin.

It has been quite the fall in a number of ways. I had put off doing shrub pruning in the Mary Garden at St. John Cantius. Not the first time that I have waited until mid or late November, but with the predicted snow storm, I knew that I had to get cracking last Friday. I was able to prune one potentilla and most of one spirea in just an hour, but I still had several to go. Yesterday I did the remaining three potentilla and a massive trimming of the old fashioned roses surrounding the statue. I knew the biggest challenge would be getting the cuttings home. I cut and bent everything to get it into bags. By putting one bag into the car instead of the trunk, and by bundling and bending the last set of branches, I managed to cram it all in. I finished clean-up just as it was getting to ark to work. The rest of the spirea can wait until spring.

In the midst of pruning, I found a plastic Easter egg. It just so happens that I was responsible for that egg's being there. About 15 years ago, we had a homeschool Easter party at St. John Cantius. I had stuffed the eggs, and asked the youth group to hide them for the younger kids. Finding the egg gave me a much needed laugh. I have to admit that anyone seeing me kneeling on the ground in the middle of the flower bed laughing to myself probably thought I was loony, but that laugh was a blessing at a time of great stress.

I finished two Laura Childs tea shop mysteries, and enjoyed them both. Clean, and easy to read. I copied quite a few recipes out of them. I have already tested two. They are both keepers. Prior to that I had read a Miss Seeton by Heron Carvic, which I did not like at all. The dialog style drove me nuts. It was much too busy.

I am making some inroads into my UFO's. I finished a sun dress for Maja, which she has insisted on wearing a few times already. I am over half way done with my wool turkey candle mat, which I had purchased at a quilt show three or four years ago. It was supposed to have been a gift, but I decided the the person for whom it was intended did not really need it, and may not appreciate it. The lycra knit in the beautiful fall pallet which I had had pegged for myself was not large enough for the desired dresses. One piece is now cut out for a dress for Maja. The other will also be used for her. I do a few rows on my shawl here and there, but still have more than half of the last skein of yarn left.

I have started playing my clarinet again. It will take some time to remember all of the notes that I have lost, but I want to be ready for when the grandchildren join band so that we can play together. Tom Strang, our former band instructor, has invited me to play with the current homeschool band. I think I will do that.   

June First

I was digging through the trash to find a plant tag from the church flowers, and found the ornamental grass tag for my pot at home. It is Blue Mohawk, juncus inflexus. The name does do justice, since the spikes stick straight up.

I went nursery-hopping the other day looking for replacement plants for the Mary Garden at St. John Cantius. The original plan  was to find some poppies to go with the two small plants which are already there. I was not successful in finding reds, so I decided to go with the pink Veronica which I found in sufficient quantity at Woods Farmer Seed and Nursery.  I went to plant them and noticed that Benjamin bunny had topped off one of my new oriental lilies. Time to add some used cat litter to the beds to see if it will be an effective deterrent.  

In the process of looking for the poppies I found toadflax, linaria purpurea. Toadflax has a history for me. I originally saw this plant at the botanical garden in St. Louis, Missouri while we were visiting Fr. Scott Daniels at St. Louis University several years ago. I thought it interesting and pretty, so wrote the plant name in my book. I could not find any information when I looked it up later, and have never seen it in a nursery. ( I bet I had typed it into the computer as two separate words.)  I was pleasantly surprised, then, to see it at the Plant Place at Cash-Wise East.. I purchased a pot to bring home. It appeared again the next day when we toured the Como Park Conservatory, much to my delight. The conservatory plants were huge in their warm habitat compared to mine, but I am still excited to be able to watch it grow.The tag does say it is zone 3 hardy.

A bit more grass sprouting around the yard. It is about the time for the seed which I purchased from Woods to make its appearance. Next year I will skip the Scott's and purchase all of my lawn seed at Woods, since their seed is not supposed to have all of the annual grass seed in the mix.

More gardening

Arthur has the week off, so I am on vacation as well. I was feeling very overwhelmed with two quilts to bind, the Mary Garden to plant, and my own garden needing weeding badly, so yesterday I spent the day outdoors. After morning mass, grocery shopping and breakfast I headed to Scenic Specialties in St. Joe to purchase flowers for myself, the Mary Garden, and my mom.

Scenic Specialties had not received any zinnias or snap dragons (although I found a tray of snap dragons hidden under a rack latter), two essentials for the Mary Garden, so I had to re-think my flowers. I went with colors that jumped out at me, orange and pink dahlias, orange-yellow marigolds, pink petunias, and a white vinca with a pink eye. I was not sure  that vincas had a Marian name, but I thought I would go with them anyway. The colors are very tropical, and beautiful. Turns out that vinca is the same as a periwinkle, which is Marian. The snapdragon colors which I saw later did not appeal to me, so I am much happier that I went with the periwinkles.

For my own pots I went with purples once again. Some of my blue petunias came up from seed in the pot, so I wanted something that would coordinate reasonably with them. I purchased three pots of African daisies for the first time. I also passed on the obligatory spike and chose an ornamental grass which the S.S. employee pointed out to me. Much more texture. I threw out the tag, so can't give the name, but the stems look like chives, and feel like the chive stems after they have flowered and become woody. They had a beautiful orange coleus which I would have loved for my shade bed, but they came only in single pots, and the price was quite prohibitive. Instead I settled for green and white coleus and red-violet impatiens.

For my mom's front yard I got the usual mix of impatiens.

All plants planted. At church I had to make several trips to the rectory to fill up my watering can, since the hose is not in place yet. I chalked it up to exercise. I should have had my pedometer on to track the steps. Of course, I forgot to bring my fertilizer in the car, so the bed at church which I so wanted to fertilize when I planted did not get done. After planting my pots at home, I dumped the rest of my potting soil in the tire and
put the coleus and impatiens in. It looks very good. I fertilized and weeded around my Endless Summer hydrangea, threw fertilizer around the rest of my perennials, and did a  bunch of weeding while digging out valerian, cat mint and daisies for my sister Janice. It was about 8:00 P.M. by the time I came in for my shower. Good timing, since my neighbor had started spraying his lawn, and the herbicide was more than I cared to breathe in. I abandoned all hanging pots this year.  I feel better for all of the work which I got done. The seedlings in the beds at church will just have to wait.

Oh, and some of my new grass seed has sprouted. Good deal. Now, to finish raking up acorns and dig up some dandelions!

After my shower I went downstairs to iron some clothes for the week. After three shirts my iron started spewing rust water. Two shirts are now  back in the laundry pile. The rust was leaking out of the  bottom of the sole plate, which means it must have rusted out somewhere on the bottom. The iron also stopped heating, just like that. The cats have not even knocked it over recently. Monday morning that means we have to go shopping for a new iron, and an alarm clock. I cannot even sew or stamp and embroidery pattern, which I had set out to do yesterday, without an iron. Of course, I do have that old cast-iron iron of Grandma's which I could use in an emergency, but not the wood stove top to heat it up with! The alarm clock will be for the spare bedroom so that if my snoring gets too loud, Husband can go sleep in there. Of course, it will also be handy for the times I have to sleep in there with Ariana.

Enough for now. Time to do my garden report for church. I have to do last year's report before I can start this year's.

Mary Garden at St. John Cantius Church, St. Cloud, Minnesota

Mary Garden, St. John Cantius Church

Looking at the garden from the sidewalk on Third Street

The cornerstone from the former school

The Mary Garden at St. John Cantius Church, St. Cloud, sits on the site of the former grade school. The church is located to the west.

Flowers in the Mary Garden are:

Alysum - Mary's flower, or cross flower
Aqilegia - Mary's shoes
Cat Nip - Mary's nettle
Daisy - Mary loves
Gailardia - Mary's face
Iris - Mary's sword of sorrow
Liatris - Mary's drops
Lilac - Ascension flower
Marigold - Mary's gold
Petunia - Our Lady's praises
Peony - Mary's rose
Potentilla - Jesus' footprints
Rose - Mary's Emblem
Rudbeckia - Golden Jerusalem
Russian Sage - Mary's shawl
Snapdragon - Infant Jesus' shoes
Spirea - St. Peter's wreath
Tulip - The Woman, or Mary's prayers
Yarrow - Our Lord's back
Zinnia - The Virgin