June 30

Rick and I went to Olbrich Gardens to try out my new camera.  The old camera (lovely as it is) only had 5x close up.  The new one has 40x.  (Thank you, Anne, for finding this very cool camera for me!)  Plus the panoramic feature is just so much fun....  Mary

June 29

My grandparents used to have hollyhocks growing along the fence at the back of their big yard.  At family cookouts, my cousin Michele and I would make dancing ladies out of olives and cocktail picks with hollyhocks as their big full skirts.

Today I got a new camera.  Anne helped set it up to get me started, but I did figure some things out for myself.  I was able to stop the beeping every time you did anything.  The flash doesn't fire every single time now.  And I took my first panoramic shot.  Very cool for a total amateur like myself....  Mary

June 28

Even lettuce makes a beautiful garden display and it's edible, too....  Mary

June 27

At our old house, we had butterfly bush in the backyard in three different colors.  In the townhouse we don't have a place to plant any.  So we go to Allen and Olbrich gardens and enjoy the butterfly bush there in the commons.  Not only are the flowers glorious and glowing, the scent is like lemony lilacs.  Just heaven....  Mary

June 26

Our lovely daughter, Anne, is 30 years old today.  It was wonderfully fun getting to raise the two girls, but it's even more fun knowing them as adults and having them for friends.  Anne is such a competent, wise, funny, and kind human being, it awes me.  Birthday Johnny Jump Ups for you, sweet Anne....  Mary

June 25

Our rose bush is exploding with blossoms.  And there are still five to more to open....  Mary

June 24

One of many native prairie plants here in Wisconsin is the purple coneflower (Echinacea).  When we were kids, no one paid much attention to native plants.  Most people thought they were just weeds that grew along the highway.  Thankfully we've come to appreciate their beauty and their hardiness through our winters, arriving back each spring in a blaze of glory....  Mary

June 23

My favorite Whole Earth Catalog era t-shirt said, "Libraries will get us through times of no money better than money will get us through times of no libraries."  That was certainly true of our early child rearing days when our public libraries got us through times of very, very little money.  Don't get me wrong I don't want to pay more taxes than I have to, but libraries and schools are things I'm happy to pay for. 

This is the garden next to our local library.  It is planted and tended by volunteers who keep it looking wonderful all year round, even in mid-winter when it's buried in snow....  Mary

I'm coming back in my next life as a house cat.

June 22

A perfectly lovely summer sky....  Mary

June 21

Our rose bush, which usually gets one maybe two flowers a summer, has its second blossom of the year and there are nine more buds on it.  What a glorious thing....  Mary

June 20

Happy Solstice!  It's the longest day (light) of the year.  This time of year the most decadent thing I can imagine is going to bed while it's still light out.  If I can still hear kids outside playing, it's sheer heaven.  I'm working really fast here so I can go to bed in just moment....  Mary

PS:  Isn't Butter Pixie just about the best name for a lily ever, in the whole world?

June 19

Someone once said that if you ever wonder about the existence of God, just look at how many kinds of white flowers alone there are in the world.  Such variety, such abundance.  And these are just ordinary, every day garden plants available at any garden center....  Mary

Snapdragons and Hydrangea

June 18

We actually have the air conditioning on, something we rarely do, but it's just too darn hot and will be for a couple more days.  I am not complaining though.  We have air conditioning as does my office and the bus for the ride home.  It's just almost-summer in Wisconsin.

Yarrow is not only a wonderful plant with it's dense flower clusters and frondy leaves, but the name - yarrow - is just so cool sounding.  Even the letters typed out are lovely.  The Latin name is Achillea milliefolium.  Achilles was supposed to be the first one to use yarrow as a cure for sword wounds, hence the name.  But I'll bet he learned that from some wise woman steeped in herbal lore....  Mary

June 17

Happy Father's Day to my partner, Rick, the best father in the whole, wide world!  We went to Allen Centennial Garden this evening.  There were so many lovely things blooming including these green edged petunias.  Unusual and fabulous....  Mary

June 16

Things are so lush and green.  Our rose bush, which usually gets one or two blooms each summer, has nine buds on it right now.   The daylight will continue to grow for another five days, then we'll hit the summer solstice with the shortest night of the year.

This time of year it's hard to remember that there's ever snow and cold and darkness.  And come the winter solstice it's almost impossible to remember all this light and green....  Mary

June 15

Of the many, many delightful places at Olbrich Gardens one of my favorites is the water wall in the Rose Garden.  There are benches at either end where you can sit and listen to the sound of water falling.  And if you're lucky the scent of roses will waft over to you on the breeze....  Mary

June 14

We had a thesis defense and a visit from a chair candidate today.  It's possible I went up and down stains about 50 times in our old building: setting up the seminar room, making coffee, getting the candidate from one meeting to another.  I'm going to bed the instant I'm done posting....  Mary

Medical Sciences Center, UW-Madison

June 13

The chicory flowers are in bloom with their amazing shades of blue.  And the fireflies have returned to our backyard.  It doesn't bet much better than this....  Mary

Chicory

June 12

Since we live in a townhouse, our gardening is confined to a small flower bed and pots, all in more or less shaded areas.  Some morning sun and a touch of afternoon, but mostly just shade.  It's almost cheating to use impatiens because they grow so well under all the overhanging trees.  Impatiens and hosta, the perfect shade plants.  So it's pots and shade and verticality....  Mary

June 11

I've been reading Augusten Burroughs' new book, This is How.  Toward the end of the book, he talks about what a completely ordinary and totally extraordinary miracle it is that any of us were actually born on this rock hurtling through space and spinning around a fiery star.  As I walked to and waited for the bus after work, it made me think about what miracles the leaves on the trees are, in all their variation, complexity, and luscious greenness....  Mary

June 10

One of the loveliest spots in the entirely lovely Olbrich Gardens is the hosta garden.  It is green and shaded and quiet with benches to just sit and be among the plants....  Mary

June 9

We managed to not turn the A/C on today despite the temperature.  Don't think we'll be able to do that tomorrow.  The house has to be closed up all winter, so I just hate to close the windows in the warm weather unless it really gets unbearable....  Mary