INVESTING IN THE NEW vs. SUBSIDIZING IN

THE OLD. Where should our taxes & tax rate discounts be directed? Are you having a say in the decision or enabling the corruption? If you REALLY cared about the US's future and the America of your grandchildren then where our government investment goes SHOULD REALLY MATTER!

Open that bottle

News too depressing...looking for some good news? So am I, so join folks all over the world this Saturday for Open That Bottle Night!

Who knew, I could have been celebrating for the last ten years but was clueless. Are you like me with a bottle or two secured away just waiting for an occasion? Or just hoping someone will stop by and give you a reason to uncork one or more. I tend to hang on to wine waiting for the right moment but somehow when cooking a nice dinner the wine sometimes gets overlooked when your cooking for a bourbon guy.

Open that bottle night was conceived by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, husband and wife wine critics who jointly penned a column in the WSJ

called "Tastings" until 2009. They encouraged their readers to open a symbolically significant bottle and write about the experience.

Sounds like the perfect preparation for Oscar weekend, so I will be rooting around since the other half always reminds me of my accumulated stash and find the right bottle to enjoy this Saturday. What will I be toasting to...surviving grocery shopping, or maybe surviving the snow predicted to fall, or just because I have a bottle to share. It may not be outstanding but then when is a glass of wine satisfying. I might take a page from the Oscars and enjoy the following movie

toasts:

“May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.”

Dragnet (1987) – Pep Streebeck (Tom Hanks)

“Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with."
Mahogany (1975) – Brian (Billy Dee Williams)

“When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
When Harry Met Sally (1989) – Harry Burns (Billy Crystal)

“I'd like to propose a toast to all the special 'f' words - to friends, family, fate, forgiveness, and forever.”
My First Mister (2001) – Jennifer (Leelee Sobieski)

“This kind of certainty comes but once in a lifetime.”
The Bridges of Madison County (1995) – Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood)

"Young lovers seek perfection. Old lovers learn the art of sewing shreds together and of seeing beauty in a multiplicity of patches."
How to Make an American Quilt (1995) - Finn Dodd (Winona Ryder)

“May those who love us, love us. And those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts. And if He cannot turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles, so that we may know them by their limping.”
Keeping the Faith (2000) – Paulie Chopra (Brian George)

“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more.”

The Notebook (2004) – Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling)

“It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”
A League of Their Own (1992) - Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks)

“That's the beauty of the world, there's always something to put your life into.”
A Prairie Home Companion (2006) – Axeman (Tommy Lee Jones)

"Na zdrowie,"

MEMORIAL DAY 2010

I can't remember our garden being this far developed this early in the season. By my reconning the garden blooming and growth cycle is about one month ahead of schedule. It's also the lushest its ever been, though most likely that's the result of ten years of gardening, trial and error, negligence, survival of the fittest, stumbling across the plants that fit our 'local' environment and maintenance style.

SPRING GARDEN 2010

SPRING CAME VERY EARLY. WHAT I WOULD CALL LATE SPRING (THE NICER WEATHER PART OF SPRING) STARTED NEARLY 1 1/2 MONTHS EARLY. WE HAVE HAD NICE, WARMER AND DRY WEATHER SINCE THE MIDDLE OF MARCH - NEVER REMEMBER IT STARTING THIS EARLY. IS THIS A SIGN OF A CLIMATE/WEATHER SHIFT?
THIS YEAR I WAS ABLE TO GET A GOOD JUMP ON CLEANING-UP AND PREPING THE GARDEN - A GOOD ONE MONTH EARLY, AND VERY WELCOME SINCE I COULDN'T DO MUCH IN THE GARDEN THE LAST THREE YEARS AND IT TOOK ON A TOTAL ALL-NATURAL CHAOS LOOK. NOT THE LOOK WE WERE HOPING TO ACHIEVE. WE WANTED THE MORE FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZED CHAOS LOOK . BUT MORE ON THAT LATER - NOW JUST ENJOY SOME PICTURES FROM MARCH/APRIL 2010 FROM OUR GARDEN.

SPRING IS HERE, ONLY ITS EARLY APRIL . . .

WE'VE BEEN HAVING SPRING FOR NEARLY TWO WEEKS. IT'S INCREDIBLE !

I LOVE THE FALL TIME OF YEAR

I probably like the fall season the most, but let me clarify. Fall, to me, is actually three distinct segments - early fall (or what I would refer to as summer mild), high fall (that picture perfect period when the trees are in their full color mode, the days are warm and sunny, evenings cool and the imagination is stirred by the greatest of fall events - the Saturday afternoon college football game), and finally ending fall (when the leaves are nearly all down, its cool and damp and the daylight is gone by 6:30). I don't especially like the later - its the sign that winter is bearing down. By that's the cycle here in the USA midwest and in the northeast, where i'm originally from.
As a gardener, fall generally means a few added chores - putting away the patio furniture, cleaning out the flower beds, and assisting the garden in preparing for the long winter nap, and finishing up those summer projects that somehow never got finished.
Best of all, as the ending fall ascends upon us I'm reminded that spring and next summer will soon be with us again bringing a return of nature's delights and sights and a garden of dreams.

More Prairie Wildflowers

MORE PRAIRIE WILDFLOWERS:

Brown-Eyed Susans

Showy Goldenrod

Monarda / Wild Bergamot

Smooth Blue Aster

Common Iron weed

If you've never seen the prairie in bloom you are missing one of life's greatest panoramas. A real feast for the eyes. The fall bloom lasts several weeks and different plants make their appearance from mid-August through mid-September. While the natural occurring prairie has all but disappeared many smaller habitats have been restored. Go visit a restored prairie near you - you'll appreciate the beauty and splendor that nature has to offer.