Merry Christmas & Holiday Greetings from Kris

December 22, 2009Williston, Ohio

Greetings from Mercy View Meadow

As cold gloomy winter settles down over the earth, I thought you’d enjoy a touch of summer life at Mercy View Meadow. I first made this as birthday greetings for the family back in September.

Mr. Froggie is happy in the Mercy View Meadow pond – sitting on a handy rock. The pond was getting filled with flowering water- mint this summer. I had to weed out some of it. The pink and green leaves down in the corner are from Houttuynia cordata Chameleon, a ground cover that is creeping around the edge of the pond and under the bird bath.

The June visitors

The purple clematis on the back light pole was gorgeous this June. The white flowers are feverfew, and actually came from Oldemor’s (my mother’s) house in Fremont, by way of a friend of hers. Below is a picture of the blossoms

See the wren house hanging on the clothesline pole? I had wrens this year. They sang and sang, and were in and out of the house with nourishing bugs. There must have been babies, but I never saw them. I hated to disturb the mother by peering inside with a flashlight.

And then one day they all flew away!

A Surprise! Late August, 2009

As I was touring the garden with a friend, we stopped to look at what was supposed to be a hazelnut bush. I had never seen any hazelnuts, but I had seen little catkins, which made me think that maybe it was a birch. My friend lifted a branch and low & behold there was a shaggy hazelnut husk. There weren’t many – just 9 including some that had fallen to the ground, but it was promising!

Birch catkin above, hazelnut catkin left, hazelnuts & their shaggy husks below

Yellow “Daisy” Time – late August The grey-headed coneflower (left) is a native that I

planted some years ago, and seeds itself readily. The tall coreopsis (below) is a native that volunteered in the meadow. It is 6 or 7 feet tall. The yellow “daisy” with a butterfly is a wingstem, with wings on its stem.

The sunflowers took over in the garden this year. See the

compass plant

blossoms in the corner

>

My Giant Compass Plant Silphium laciniatum

Compass plants are native to this area. I had a compass plant in my meadow area, which seeded itself over by my asparagus patch. Two times I dug it up and transplanted it back into the meadow area, and it still came back up in the path by the asparagus patch! So I let it be.

Compass plants are so named because they tend to align their foliage north and south to present the minimum surface area to the hot noon sunshine. The taproot of the compass plant may grow to more than 9-14 ft. deep, making it hardy and resistant to drought. Maybe that is why it kept coming back!

It was too hard to get a good picture of the whole plant. It’s 7 or 8 feet tall.

The flowers above belong to the plant below with the deeply fingered leaves.

The Sunflowers took over

in the veggie garden!

Last year’s sunflowers seeded themselves in the garden. I weeded out some, but they looked so innocent, I left others. Now some of them have stems nearly 2 inches in diameter! They are huge, and obstructing the paths.

But the gold finches are enjoying them. See the nibbled flower petals & seeds above and to the left.

That’s the neighbor’s barn roof with

missing shingles that blew into my yard.

A Very Special Occasion – The Queen of the Night blooms 8/4/09 The first photo was taken at 8 p.m., the next at about

10 p.m. – she really won’t bloom until it’s dark! The ungainly plant was outside by the birdbath, and I had been watching the progress of the bud over several days, propped on an upturned dish pan so I could see it. But after it bloomed I brought it inside to enjoy the blossom until I went to bed about 1 a.m. By next morning the blossom had collapsed.

That’s Spirit looking on

In the meanwhile I found this gigantic praying mantis (above) in the back yard.

I took the crazy ungainly plant back outside where it had been, and low and behold it put out three more buds! (It hasn’t bloomed that often). But it was mid October and getting too cold. I brought the plant into the breezeway when the buds were plump and ready to bloom, but it was too cold and they didn’t open. Here they are after I brought them in the house – too late.

The Squirrel Nest

One day I noticed a lot of small branches had fallen on the driveway. It didn’t look like wind damage as they were cut off clean. I looked up in the big maple tree, and sure enough, there was a big squirrel nest of fresh leaves and branches. I didn’t take the pictures until a few days later, when the leaves had dried and it had rained.A friend said that she watched a

squirrel build her nest, chopping off the branches, and occasionally dropping one. A couple years ago I saw similar downed branches under that same tree on the other side on the grass, and figured it must be a squirrel.

The Bee Bath!

Something new this year – the bees have been visiting the bird bath regularly. Sometime there have been 10 or 12 bees enjoying a drink – or are they getting minerals from the algae buildup? See them on the rock in the detail.

Here I am with the well-known Suzy Spafford, signing the delightful poster that she designed for the convention. I wasn’t familiar with her cards, but I ran into one at home that I had received from Caryn’s sister!

Early September found me in San Diego as delegate to the International P.E.O. convention. This is the spectacular view from the balcony of my 16th floor hotel room. Lots of lovely fresh breezes coming in the door at night.

Greetings from the pussies

Tiger blissed out under the sunlamp

(alias chicken lamp) that brings light and warmth in winter.

• One of Spirit’s favorite spots – on top of the water heater – or even on top of the bathroom door next to it.

.

. May the angels watch over you this holy

season, and may the Spirit of Peace rule in

our hearts always.

Blessings in 2010!

Kris

Glory to God in the Highest!