More Loving

: : my son reading in the morning in our maple tree

: : a blur of blue and black wings on Harlequin Glorybower flowers

: : a small, heirloom tomato raised from seedlings shared by a fellow teacher at the end of the school year

: : this newly bloomed, golden zinnia

Second Milkweed Pods

The milkweed we planted during Monarch season (April) is 5 feet tall. This is the second batch of exploding seed pods. No Monarch caterpillars showed up on the leaves, but maybe they will be there next year.

My First Sunflower : 2

The first full week of school is almost over. Today, I realized that I hadn't even had time to go outside to check on the sunflower. This morning, it is bent over from the rain, but I think it will re-orient itself as it dries out. Isn't she beautiful? I love the combinations of red, orange, and yellow.

Just as beautiful as this sunflower have been moments of all the teaching and learning going on around here. My daughter completed her first drawing homework for her visual arts class. She had to draw a portrait of me-- no small task. After getting over the initial hump of starting which involved its share of crying and self-doubt, she found her groove, smiled, and laughed. I think she even felt energized.

I felt energized one day this week after teaching a wordless picture book, Flotsam by David Wiesner, to 4 back-to back classes of third through sixth grade students. We talked about the interaction of words and images both in the text and in our minds. The children solved the mystery of the Melville Underwater Camera through closely looking at the marvelous illustrations in the story.

The image of one particular fifth grade student remains with me this morning. He arrived in literature connection class grumpy and withdrawn. By the end of the discussion, however, he was engaged, asking questions, and positing answers. A light-bulb turned on in his mind, and his face lit up like my sunflower.

My First Sunflower

I wish I could grow a field of these.

Summer Concentrated

From yesterday's farmer's market, we gathered fresh edamame, lady peas, peaches, figs, and golden and green zucchini. My son bought an already treasured cactus, and my daughter bought a sedum for our butterfly garden.

We made progress on summer reading. My daughter and I are reading Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli together. This book surprised me with its sophistication and treatment of some serious issues. It surprised my daughter, too, because she didn't even want to read it at the beginning of the summer. Now, it has both of us laughing and crying and thinking and talking. It is a transformative book and deserves a post of its own for my Tiger Tales library blog.

My son and I read another chapter from Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. He loves the relationship between Gregor and his two year old sister Boots. It is a page-turner that makes me want to keep reading to the end, but I'll wait to share it with my son.

Friends came over in the afternoon for a skirt sew-along. The girls sewed while the boys ran through the sewing room in various warrior costumes of power and might. We took a break from sewing and saving the universe to eat popsicles and to look at a frightened bat hiding beneath the deck umbrella.

From our own garden, we harvested basil for a double batch of pesto making. Nothing tastes more like summer to me than fresh pesto and tomatoes.

Everyone finished the day with some reading in bed. The first thing my son said to me when we got up this morning was, "I stayed up until 8:33 pm reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid!" I love that.

Changes : 2

after weeks and weeks of no rain,
a stormy and dark Tuesday morning

preparing to pupate

emerging eggplant

Memphis

One of my best friends and I met for a weekend in Memphis. Besides eating wonderful food and browsing the bookstore, we spent most of our time looking at art and gardens. We saw the Jacob Lawrence exhibition at the Brooks Museum of Art, toured the Memphis Botanic Garden, and went to the Civil War exhibition and gardens at The Dixon Gallery and Gardens. I would heartily recommend all of these venues, but if you only have time to do one thing in Memphis, go to The Dixon!

Because I am contemplating a camera upgrade, my friend Sarah loaned me her Nikon D70 to try out for the weekend. I took these photos and many more in the gardens, but these were some of my favorites. The red sunflower is from The Dixon, but the rest are from the Memphis Botanic Garden.

The butterfly was in "the butterfly garden." My friend had just remarked that she didn't see any butterflies when she suddenly saw it. At first, she wondered whether it might not be real, but when I moved in closer to take a photograph, it fluttered its wings.

The swan was in the lake of the Japanese Gardens. A Korean couple was rehearsing for their wedding ceremony to begin shortly. The bride looked like a beautiful, large flower in her bright pink and blue gown, and I hoped that the swan would glide gently over the waters behind her for the wedding.

It was a lovely weekend spent doing some of the things I love most in life: learning more about art, gardens, theater, and photography, and sharing all of this with a most wonderful, steadfast friend.Thank you, Eileen.

Perfect Summer Salad Recipe

1 cup knitting with morning tea
2 cups shopping for local veggies at the farmer's market
dash of sewing a wonky log cabin
1 cup shelling crowder peas
1/2 cup swimming at the pool
1/2 cup eating shelled peas with zucchini, fish, and rice
1 teaspoon watching creatures in the lamplight

After adding each ingredient, mix well and read a book, a newspaper, a magazine, or a blog. Do it again the next day changing up the ingredients here and there. Enjoy!

Berries and Mushrooms

We have a very large, volunteer pokeberry plant growing in our lantana and butterfly bush. I let it grow because I was amazed at how fast it grew, and it provided a contrast to the small leaves of the lantana and butterfly bush. The plant, especially the berries, are very poisonous to humans. Birds, however, are immune to the toxins, and they will enjoy eating the fruit. I remember mashing up berries as a child to make purple/red paint in the backyard, and I'm still around to tell about it! I plan to do some research about how to make a dye from the berries when they turn dark purple. I found this and this as a start.

The mushrooms were also in the grass yesterday when I was walking the yard-- probably from the little showers we had on Saturday.

I may have just put two poisonous plants together in one blog post. How's that for living dangerously on an early Tuesday morning?

Seeds and Roots

About a week ago, my daughter put a marigold flower in a water bottle in the kitchen window. When I was about to discard it because the flower had dried up, I saw that the stem had rooted. The children loved this, so they picked two new flowers and put them in a water bottle and jelly jar in the same sunny window spot to grow more roots. This time, we'll check it every day. I planted the marigold with its roots in the herb garden, and collected the seeds from it's dried up flower. The other seed pod in the first photo is a milkweed pod.

Purple : 6

This photo was taken at dusk. I had been taking photos of the purple ruffle basil from above, but the leaves always ended up blending in with the dirt. So, I got on the ground and aimed the camera up. Even though it isn't the best shot in the world, I do like how the perspective is off, and the basil looks like it could be a tree (with a little imagination) next to the chimney of the house.

This photo of the basil was taken at dawn, from the ground, too. Isn't it interesting how the colors change so much with the light? This basil looks like it could be at home in a coral reef with brightly colored fish swimming in and around its leaves.

Purple : 4

from the kitchen window. . . a butterfly bush

Miniature

little tomatoes, a little pepper, and a little Lima bean

Squash Seedling

I'm hooked on growing plants from seeds. It's official. How many times per day do I check the little red wagon in the front yard to monitor the progress of my sprouts and seedlings? Several. Every time I come and go from the house.

This is a yellow squash plant. Even if I'm planting it too late, I have marveled at its germination. The first photo shows the seed leaves. The second photo reveals the seed casing stuck in the soil. The third photo shows the tiny, white roots reaching through the bottom.

Yesterday, I spent part of my day gardening with children at Casey Elementary. We made hand-made field journals, shared some of our freshly picked blueberries, and read books about plants. I'm dreaming and planning of ways to incorporate some of these experiences into my library at St. Therese Catholic School. It's tangible. It's fun. It's relevant. It's science. It's observation. It's research. It's creative. It's passionate. Oh, the possibilities. . .