Midsummer's Day

 

 

Sheree and Kevin Wagner

 

It was a beautiful Midsummer Day here in Bismarck, capped off by a lovely evening wedding at The Post pioneer village south of Mandan. My best co-worker buddy and her long-time boyfriend were together nine years and engaged since Thanksgiving 2012. Not wanting to get married in a year with "13" in it, she chose June of 2014.

 

Believe me, she had planned this wedding thoroughly. There wasn't one detail she could have possibly missed. But there's always one thing you can't count on with North Dakota weddings like hers and mine - the weather. My own wedding day 40 years ago this month dawned windy, cloudy and cool, but cleared up and warmed up by 5:00 p.m.

 

It's days like these that make me glad that I live in North Dakota. The first feelings came to me as I crossed the Missouri from Bismarck to Mandan. Many boats were on the river, their occupants enjoying a fine evening on the water after a hot day. It made me wish I was on one of the speeding motorboats with spray in my face, or just tooling along on a pontoon, but no, I was on my way to a wedding.

 

Having driven mere blocks south of the Stage Stop Saloon corner in Mandan, then past the hill where I used to live, I was out in the countryside in mere minutes. The crops are all coming along nicely row up on row in the fields along the highway. Even virgin prairie was lush and green due to the recent rains, and the sweet clover was in bloom. There is nothing better than the scent of sweet clover wafting along the air on a summer's eve. The meadowlarks and bobolinks were singing their hearts out, and the wild roses were in bloom.

 

Behind the wedding arbor, the lowering sun sent shafts of light through a band of evergreens. A light breeze was just enough to waft any insects away. The bride, her maid of honor and her bridesmaids, which included her 12-year old daughter and 16-year-old stepdaughter, were all beautiful and perfectly simple with their wildflower bouquets. All the groomsmen, including Kevin's 19-year old son, were the picture of casual in their blue jeans, leather vests, and ivory western shirts.

 

We retired indoors for the reception, but another co-worker and I, the only other person I knew besides the bride and groom, left quite soon after the luncheon and toasts. I wanted to be outdoors again. I knew that most of the group would retire outside to the grounds again, and there was to be a bonfire and much partying into the night, but I don't drink and drive, so I headed home again in the still bright evening.

 

When I got to back to Bismarck I made a mad decision and stopped to buy a 4-pack of Seagram's Escapes Strawberry Daiquiris. I took my drink and sat outside on the deck. It was as peaceful in my backyard as it had been out on the prairie, but with different birdsong. Even though I was very tired, I was determined to stay out until it got dark. Since the sun set last night at 9:41 p.m., it was after 10:00 when I went in. I'd had a whopping two bottles of the flavored malt beverage. I poured myself into bed, thinking that was party enough for this gal on Midsummer's Day.

STAYCATION

 

 

As of 5:00 Friday, I have been on vacation. It's a vacation of the very best kind - a staycation.  I have nine days in a row to work on garden projects. Yesterday got off to a great start with the placement of 25 pavers in my "Celtic Courtyard". Last year my niece's fiancé, Marcus, installed the white lattice screen, moved my fountain and laid the brown pavers so I could place my Lutyen's bench. The other four brown pavers were placed here and there in the courtyard, along with the round "Tudor Rose" stepping stones.

When the "torrential" rains came last fall, the mud splashed up everywhere, and I knew I needed to have way more pavers and way less dirt. I only "guesstimated" the amount of pavers I would need, so Marcus will be picking up nine more to complete the checkerboard. He moved the four brown pavers so the old ones are all together. I thought the new ones were the same color, but I think they will work. All of the Tudor rose circles will be placed next to the walkway, and I'll be squaring off the courtyard at the far right end.

The few plants that are coming up by the bench and the fountain are day lilies. Someday I will have all of the dirt areas filled up with plants. This is a shady area, canopied by my huge elm tree. To the left is a grapevine fence that is only starting to green up. It fills in very lushly by the middle of the summer.

I will be moving the white arbor on the right, since it has been in the "wrong place" since my deck was built last fall and the lattice screen installed. (The deck is just to the right of the walkway.) I will also have to relocate the Dropmore honeysuckle, which has never grown well in the shade anyway.

One never realizes what will show up in a photo. Had I known, I would have removed the ugly hanging Off dispenser and moved the hose!



Here is another view of the courtyard, which also shows part of my backyard. The plants are starting to come up in my Unicorn Garden, which I showed you last summer. (Fragile Mr. Unicorn spent the winter in my bedroom for safekeeping. He will go outside today.)

I'm afraid I have lost a few of the perennials. I never did mulch last fall, first having a painful hernia and then recovering from surgery for a month. At the very far right end of the yard you will see my French bistro table and two chairs placed inside my "Welcome to The Fairy Bower" arbor under the lilac. (Personalized Arbor Plaque ordered from Plow and Hearth.)

I have a guy coming in to hydro seed this lawn, so hopefully future photos will show a lush greensward instead of dirt!

 

 

That's not the only project that was accomplished yesterday. Marcus and his cousin, Dustin, installed my new cedar arbor over the front sidewalk. Dustin proved to be somewhat of a rose expert, and cut back and trained my beautiful William Baffin climbing rose over the arbor. If you look closely at the top of the picture, you will be able to distinguish the rose foliage from the foliage of the elms across the street. Later this summer, we will tighten the strings on the climbing canes.

 

My mailman will love this change. He will no longer have to hack his way through the rose thorns to walk up my sidewalk! Dustin also trimmed back all of my rose shrubs, which will be blooming later this month, as will the William Baffin. He also trimmed the climbing Henry Kelsey rose and trained it up the left side of the arbor. Henry has never performed as well as William but I always relent and give him yet another summer to produce well.

 

 

I chose the Henry Kelsey rose because of my niece, Kelsey, and I have to give her kudos for actually working the longest yesterday. Hours before the guys even showed up, she was weeding my flower beds on both sides of the driveway, in and among the rose bushes and the flower bed to the left of my front step. I think she weeded for about five hours straight! Now my peonies and irises (currently in bud) will not have to compete with weeds when they show off their glorious blooms.

 

My three peonies are all Sarah Bernhardts:

 

 

 

 

I have a lovely unnamed lavender "heirloom" iris that a friend gave me, which is the linchpin of the driveway flower bed. I also planted some new irises last fall, and they are all growing vigorously:

This is Mariposa Autumn

 

 



Here is Gay Parasol

 



This one is Dakota Skies. I had to have

an iris with Dakota in the name!

 

 



 

This is Jurassic Park



 



 

I am so happy to have time off that does not involve surgery, infusions, bone marrow biopsies, and so forth. I am also so happy to be blessed with such great garden helpers.

 



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

 

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I was having a pretty bad week at work last week, but all that changed Thursday when I came home from work and found a gorgeous hanging fuchsia basket waiting for me. For the second year, Kristen is carrying on a Mother's Day tradition started by Dan about 30 years ago. I have to bring it in at night because of low temperatures. It is still 10 days until average last frost.

 

I find myself making countdown lists of all sorts of things. On New Year's Day, I figured out that it was 104 days until spring. That's right, I chose a particular day (Tax Day) as my target date for the weather to be warm. We are a ways past that date this year but it is still quite cool.

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I felt I had to make it past another milestone, that of the one-year anniversary of Dan's death.

 

Let's see, I mentioned the last frost countdown. It is two weeks until I take a one-week vacation. It is three weeks until I get paid so I can start buying plants. In 45 days I will turn 65 and will be eligible for Medicare. That is certainly a milestone, although I didn't sign up for Part B. In one year and 45 days I will be 66, a more significant milestone as I reach full retirement age. I won't be retiring but I will be able to work overtime and not have money taken away from me by Social Security.

 

My mom always scolded me for wishing my life away and she was right. I need to quit making countdowns and concentrate more on the "now".

 

I am slowly chipping away at all the work and projects that need to be done around here. I had already rounded up and boxed all of Dan's books. I gave away four boxes of paperbacks to the inmates at the state penitentiary. The organizer didn't want hardcovers .... hmmm, I wonder why?

 

Yesterday I started in on weeding out my books. I didn't get too much done, but I have eight full boxes of  (mostly Dan's) hardcovers waiting to be donated to the library. My main goal yesterday was to get all books in the house off the floor. That has been accomplished. I won't say they've all been put away yet, but they are OFF THE FLOOR!

 

Earlier this year I got rid of my 30-year old water bed, dresser, armoire and night stands. Since I have few clothes and many books, I decided I would get a couple of bookcases to sit side by side in the bedroom. I chose these from Target:



 

 

 

They really look good in my blue bedroom. They are well made and were easy to assemble. In fact, they looked so good I also got two shorter bookcases to use for bedside tables, and a cool glass-front case to match. By the end of the day I should have the rest of the books put away and both my hall closets cleaned.

My niece's boyfriend and his cousin got my horror of a garage cleaned out in preparation for having my garage re-built this year. Last week during Paint Up, Clean Up, Fix Up week my yard looked like Sanford and Son's junkyard with all the stuff waiting at the curb to be picked up. The city only picks up really heavy stuff two weeks out of the year, so in addition to old wire fencing, two rickety cabinets, broken tools, moldy seed and fertilizer, etc. etc. they took away an old refrigerator and freezer. What a weight off my shoulders.

 

 

I had electricians come in and fix three lights that didn't work (bedroom, entry and porch) and install the above fixtures - one in the dining room and one in the living room. I love them (I especially wanted an umber shade and love the warm tone) but can't decide if they're too big for my smallish rooms. Maybe they're just bigger than my other fixtures and I have to get used to them. I scoured the Internet for weeks to find ones I liked at an affordable price. These are my third choice. (My first choice was $1,000 each fixture and my second choice $500 each.)

 

Just yesterday I ran across very similar fixtures - a bit smaller at five lights each and even less expensive, so I am kicking myself. However, I had to quit stalling and make a choice and now I have to quit second guessing myself. I had hated the old fixtures for 30 years. The dining room light was a 60s brass atrocity that Dan had broken all the globes on, and the living room light was a ceiling fan/light that vibrated so badly that I thought it would spin loose and decapitate someone like an airplane propeller.

 

The electrical company has also given me an estimate to install a couple of outdoor outlets so I can run my fountain and some fairy lights this summer. That is, if I can light a fire under my contractors to first fix the garage. They are the same ones I used for my house roof and deck last year but it's so hard to get them to commit to a schedule.

 

And finally (for now), I have a man coming out Monday to give me a quote for hydro seeding my backyard. I am tired of Gracie dragging in mud. I am tired of a yard that is half dirt and half weeds. 



 

 

For about a week now, I have been seeing flashes of yellow when I look out my front windows or patio door. In fact, I usually see two flashes of yellow - pairs of goldfinches. We've always had goldfinches, but never so many. A few years ago a painted bunting was sighted near the western border of the state. The biologists figured a wind blew it in. Lord knows we've had enough wind here this winter and spring to have blown birds off course. They say it's an ill wind that blows no good so if it was indeed a wind that blew in these pretty birds, it was a very good wind.

 

Speaking of birds, a few minutes ago I watched two crows chasing a squirrel around the treetops. I've never seen this happen. No matter where he scurried they went after him. They went behind some other branches so I couldn't see what happened. I hope the poor fella got away!





VIRGINIA BLUEBELL WOODS

These photos are for everyone, but especially for my English and Scottish readers (including Second Cousin Shirl in Golspie, Scotland), who have posted pictures of their English Bluebell Woods.

Taken by my sister-in-law Dana, these are Virginia Bluebell Woods. The woods are in Virginia, near where Dana and her husband live, and the flowers are indeed Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica.

I am so jealous of Dana's woods, and also of the English Bluebell Woods. I can hardly imagine seeing whole carpets of flowers. This would never happen in North Dakota. The only wildflower carpets you see are tons of dandelions dotting green lawns.

I have managed to grow a plant or two of Virginia bluebells in my garden, and a few grew wild under a tree at the station master's house in the village where I grew up. Maybe I will some day see blue bell woods - either in America or in England/Scotland.

By the way, the dog is Duke, a Wheaten Terrier. He seems to be having a fine time.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

 

Above - Virginia Bluebell Woods

 

Below - English Bluebell Woods

 

 

 

I think the botanical name for English bluebells is hyacinthoides non-scripta. If I am mistaken, please let me know. 

 

Blessed Easter/Ostara

 

 



I'm sitting here writing an Easter post when I should be preparing for hosting Easter dinner. I've had to move the celebration up to this evening, nearly 24 hours earlier than I had planned, because my nephew Mike has to work on Easter. He's a manager at Subway and you might ask, aren't the Subways closed on Easter Sunday? Well, yes they are, unless they're located in a WAL-MART!!

I've boycotted Wal-Mart for years, ever since I read "Take This Job and Shove It" by former ND Senator Byron Dorgan. First Wal-Mart destroyed small-town Main Street USA and shipped jobs overseas, now they are ruining American holidays! I remember when I was a child Sundays were closed down tight as a drum, with nary a shop open. Now I don't mind running to a Lowe's or a garden store on a fine Sunday afternoon, but what's so important to purchase on a holiday that can't wait one more day? Give me a break.

Anyway, I'm in a panic situation. Although I had Good Friday off, I was a couch potato. It was nice to laze around, but now I have to do everything today - finish the rest of my grocery shopping, clean, cook and bake. Yes, I, the famous non-baker, am baking. My friend Lila from the Indigo Blue blog posted an easy pineapple cake recipe on her Facebook that even I can follow. (Mix one 20-oz can crushed pineapple with juice and one angel food cake mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in a greased 9x13 pan.) For my niece's fiancé, the one person in my family who does not care for pineapple, I bought a cherry kuchen. This should satisfy the taste buds of a good German boy.

I'm switching up the menu a bit. I am cooking a small ham and a turkey breast, but I am not making the traditional mashed potatoes and gravy or baked corn. Instead, I am making my famous French Bistro Potatoes (sliced potatoes, Swiss cheese, heavy cream and garlic!).  My niece will make a salad. My sister, an RN,  has to work today, a grueling 12-hour shift, which is why I volunteered to host, although it is difficult to host special occasions without Dan in the kitchen.

I know I will get everything done - I always do. And when I wake up Easter Sunday morning I will be relieved to know the work is done and I can relax and enjoy the 70 degree temperatures. The one time it was over 70 degrees this spring, I was at work and a cold front blew through by the time I left for home.

I really, really miss Easters when Kristen was home. None of us liked hard-boiled eggs, so I - I mean the Easter Bunny - hid those wonderful candy eggs with the marshmallow-y inside and the hard-sugar coating. I think they might have been Brach's. I believe they have quit making them; I certainly can't find them in Bismarck.

Of course I - I mean the Easter Bunny - also brought Kristen a well-stocked Easter basket. The year our foreign exchange student Valentina  from Venezuela lived with us, the E.B. brought her one too, and she was delighted beyond measure!

My favorite Easter candy is Russell Stover Raspberry Whip Eggs. My sweet daughter sent me a box of them this week. In lieu of candy, which she no longer (or seldom) eats, I sent her an Olive Garden gift card. Who says you always have to be conventional, either in Easter food or Easter gifts?

As to Easter itself, I am ambiguous. I was raised as a Lutheran but I seem to have lost my religion along the way. Another blogging friend of mine, Mary from Moontides, calls herself a Christopagan. That seems to me to be a good description for myself. I try live my life by the teachings  of Jesus Christ, but also have pagan leanings, a nod to my Scottish, Irish, Welsh and English Celtic roots. (And though not Celtic, my Viking ancestors were certainly pagan.)

This is also the season of Ostara, the pagan celebration of spring and the goddess Eostre or Ostara. So in ending, I wish you a blessed Easter and/or Ostara.



MOVING ON - OR SEEDS OF A NEW BEGINNING

The wheel of the year is turning - slowly, yes, but inexorably.  I feel it in a rejuvenation in my soul, in my spirit, in my body. It was a dreadful winter, with the introduction of a nasty new word into our collective vocabularies: Polar Vortex. The cold continues to plague us beyond the normal highs and lows for this time of year.

But I find that it is not the occasional warmer weather that invigorates me, but rather the return of the light.

No longer is it dark when I drive to work or when I arrive home. In fact, it's light until about 8 p.m. in our Northern Climes. It is in the return of longer days that I feel there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel (pun intended).

There are no leaves or green grass, but the snow is gone. There are no flowers, but I can hear the crows cawing. There is no working in the garden yet, but there are those rare days when coats need not be worn.

As with every other winter I have lived through since I was an adult, I mentally hibernated through winter. Of course I functioned on the surface - working and eating, interacting with friends and relatives, cleaning my house, taking care of my dog and even doing some enjoyable activities. However, it was all conducted on the surface. Deep down below, in Persephone's world, it was still all darkness.

But this year there was also another feeling that kept me inanimate, frozen - dead even -  until the arrival of spring (meteorological spring at least). Dan passed away last March 23, just three days after the equinox. I somehow felt that I had to surpass that monumental milestone of the one-year anniversary of his death to move completely on.

This year I have gone through so much and done so many things I'd never done before. I wasn't one of those widows who could not balance her own checkbook, for god's sake, but I relied on Dan for a lot of things.

This year I fought for and won all of the benefits and payments due me and was, I think, a good steward of the insurance funds left to me. I pay my bills on time and have some savings. I had essential repairs done to the house so I can sell it for a good price if I get to that point. I prepped my car for winter and warmed it up every frigid morning. I nursed it along through its problems until it needed to be put out its misery. I purchased a new (used) car, albeit with the invaluable help of my niece and her fiancé.

In the midst of all the other turmoil, I fought hard for my jeopardized job and kept it. I attempted to have surgery, found out that I had ITP (low blood platelets), went through a lot of tests and treatment over the summer, including a bone marrow biopsy, and finally had hernia surgery at the very end of September.

I learned in January that my platelet count is normal, and though my doctor was not quite ready to declare that I am in spontaneous remission, he may do so in July.

But of all the things I endured and accomplished this past year, this is the absolute most important: I think I have finally worked through all of the anger I had toward Dan and the whole situation. More and more, my memories are not of that sick, emaciated, mean and angry man, but of the other, happy and sweet young man of our courtship, early marriage and birth of our daughter.

Time to move on toward springtime - to new garden projects, to getting a new roof on the garage, to sorting and decluttering, to cleaning and painting. In short, to sowing seeds, both literally and figuratively.    

GRACIE LOU WHO

 

 

Christmas Eve, while waiting for dinner to be ready at my sister's house, we were gathered around the table watching that Christmas classic, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."

 

Okay, I admit that this is NOT one of my favorite Christmas movies. I don't care for Jim Carrey at all, and I find Whoville quite bizarre. But I mention it because Kristen asked me - because I often call Gracie "Gracie Lou" - if I ever called her "Gracie Lou Who". I admit, I do like this name very much and henceforth she will often be called Gracie Lou Who. That's in addition to Scooby Doo, Lucy Lou and Lulu, all derived from nonsensical pet talk.

 

This past fall I got a new (thrift shop) couch. With my previous couch, Gracie was able to walk across the top of the couch. The first time my niece's boyfriend saw her do this, he exclaimed, "What is she, a mountain goat?"

 

Due to its curved shape, the back of this couch is a bit more difficult to navigate, but Gracie does manage to walk across it, and also to lie on its back, as you can see by this photo taken by Kristen on Tuesday.

 

Unbelievably, Gracie preferred sleeping on this perch, the dining room floor, my bed, or "her" chair, to sleeping on her brand new Christmas present, a beautiful big doggie bed with blue corduroy bottom and beige fleece top. As the old saying goes, you can lead a dog to her new bed, but you can't make her sleep on it.

 

Imagine my delight this evening when she went to her bed, sniffed it thoroughly, gingerly stepped into it, circled three time and snuggled down for a long winter's nap.

 

Merry Christmas, Gracie Lou Who.





THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

 

 

 

Especially for you, Leanne, a green-robed Father Christmas

 

Two people in the past week have commented here to wonder where I am. I think they meant, "Are you still alive?"

 

I am still here. My surgery went very well and my recovery went smoothly. My surgeon was able to do everything laparoscopically. I can now bend over and kneel down without pain and nausea. I can even sneeze without pain again!

 

My deck is built, my roof has new shingles and gutters were finally installed. These (including the surgery) were my big projects for the year and they are all accomplished. Of course, now I'm planning projects for next year, mostly for the yard.

 

This may end up being my one and only Christmas post. A few months ago I had thought about not having Christmas at all. With Dan being gone, I know it will not be the same. He loved Christmas!

Kristen had even invited me out to stay with her in Virginia, thinking we would be less sad, but I told her that it will be sad anywhere we are, and I didn't want to board Gracie.

 

I finally decided to observe the holidays in the full-blown way I always have. I decided that to not celebrate this most wonderful time of the year would not be fair to Kristen or to my sister's family.

 

I did break down and buy an artificial tree after 40 years of buying real trees with Dan. Although I miss the evergreen scent, I don't have to deal with a dried-out tree and needles everywhere. The tree is pre-lit with tiny white lights, which is good, because the bubble lights Dan and I always used - as a tribute to our 1950s childhoods - were becoming harder and harder to find, and the ones we had mostly quit bubbling.

 

I also did not want to drag out the 30 years of ornaments we had accumulated since our house fire in 1982, so I bought ornaments reflecting my love of nature - birds, butterflies and dragonflies.

 

Thing have not all been hunky dory in the past few weeks. We had an ice storm two weeks ago and I fell and sprained my hand. At least I was not one of the many, many Bismarck residents who ended up in the emergency room with broken bones.

 

I have also had terrible trouble with my car not starting in this awful cold. But finally - after many dollars spent,  with new battery, engine heater fixed, new plugs and points, it is ready to withstand those -20 mornings we've already experienced this season.

 

Even after this horrible, horrible year of 2013, life is full of blessings, the main one right now being the fact that Kristen flies in Monday morning! I am warm and fed and loved and gainfully employed, and will soon be celebrating Christmas with my family.

 

So Best Solstice, Yule and Christmas Wishes to all of you and hopes for 2014 to be the best ever.





I'M STILL HERE

 

 

 

I haven't posted since July and thought it was about time I brought you up to date.

On Friday I found out that I can finally have my hernia surgery. I was supposed to have it on May 17, but in pre-op lab tests that morning they found out that my blood platelet count was very low and canceled my surgery because I would have bled to death during the operation (platelets help with the clotting of blood.)

It has been an interesting summer as they tried to find out what was the matter with me. While I was still at the hospital, they ran some tests which revealed that I had very, very low levels of Vitamin B-12, which can affect platelet production. I began having Vitamin-B injections - daily at first, and then weekly. After a month, my doctor, who is an oncologist/hematologist, said that my Vitamin B-12 count was normal but my platelet count wasn't, so that was not the cause.

To see if my bone marrow was failing to produce platelets, I had a bone marrow biopsy, which can be very painful, but lucky me, I felt no pain from it. It took forever to get the results, but finally I found out that my bone marrow is producing tons of nice, normal, healthy platelets. This showed that I did not have cancer - no leukemia or lymphoma - which was a great relief. (I got my bill on Saturday for the biopsy - $8,000, of which insurance paid $5,000.)

My doctor by then was pretty sure I had ITP, idiopathic (old term)/immuno (new term)  thrombocytopenic purpura, and that my spleen was eating up my platelets. I had an ultrasound to see if my spleen was enlarged. (It isn't.)

I also had an infusion of IVIG, immunogammaglobulin. Friday, after a four-week wait, I found out this was very successful, and my platelet count went back up to normal. (My doctor says this proves I have ITP.) Therefore, I can schedule my surgery. Five to seven days before the operation, I will have another infusion to make sure my platelet count is plentiful.

Having a hernia all summer meant that I could not bend over without nausea or pain, much less plant and weed. Fortunately, I had a lot of helpers. My first helper helped me create my Unicorn Garden, pictured above. He contributed the labor; I did the design and bought the plants.

For my gardening readers, the plants in the garden are: coreopsis, yellow lilies, orange lilies, liatris, purple prairie coneflowers, rudbeckia, salvia, yarrow, red phlox, lady's mantle, lamb's ears, veronica (speedwell), delphinium, Shasta daisies, balloon flowers, bee balm and penstemon.

My niece, Kelsey, had to take three pictures before she could get a dog-free photo! Yes, that's Gracie in the garden, holding a rawhide treat in her mouth. She probably thought the Unicorn Garden would bee a great place to hide the treat, because the unicorn would certainly protect it from thieves! (The unicorn comes from Design Toscano.)

Unfortunately I had to fire my first helper, because I believe he cheated me out of hours, so I turned to Kelsey and her boyfriend, Marcus. Between them and the guy who mows my lawn, they did just a tremendous amount of work. They hauled stuff to the dump, weeded and weeded, put up lattice panels, planted, spread grass seed on the bare spots, moved a ton of pavers, cut down grapevines which threatened to take over the yard and pruned the hedge. Kudos also to my co-worker and her fiance who put together two garden benches and an arbor.

The Unicorn Garden was the first phase of my garden design to be completed. The front yard is also basically complete. I have added dragonfly garden decorations such as flags and wind chimes, and installed a sign stating that my home is named Dragonfly House. Unlike in England, American people don't name their homes, but I wanted to name mine. It may seem  pretentious but I thought, I am an Old Lady now, I can wear purple and do as I please! And I am pleased to give my house a name!

I thought of many fanciful names, including La Maison des Roses, which would certainly fit my front yard, but decided on Dragonfly House because once a year, gorgeous giant blue dragonflies hold a convention here, perching on the front walls of my gray house. Plus, dragonflies are a symbol of great luck

Partially done areas in my backyard are my Celtic Lady's Garden, named for my blog and containing Celtic symbols such as dragons, elves and a Celtic maiden statue; my Fairy Garden which is planted with daylilies and holds many fairy statutes; and my Moonlit Meadow Garden with a moongazy rabbit, fox and barn owl statues and a Forest Lady. This is temporary planted with daylilies but will hopefully be seeded with a lot of meadow flowers next spring.

I also have a "wall" of Green Men and Women plaques, and plan to install a miniature fairy garden by the larger Fairy Garden.

The end of the growing season is approaching swiftly here in North Dakota, but I will keep you posted with photos as things progress next year, and will also keep you up to date on my surgery.

IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING



I was at the clinic earlier this afternoon to see if the Vitamin B12 was helping my low blood platelet count. Now my hematologist thinks I have ITP, Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, an autoimmune disease. I was hoping to find out that the tests he had done showed I had pernicious anemia, which means my body has trouble absorbing Vitamin B12, causing the platelet level to drop. That is not the case. It looks like my spleen is destroying my platelets. I am having a blood marrow biopsy at the end of July. And of course my hernia surgery isn't going to happen for a long time, as my platelets are only up to 70,000 after Vitamin B12 injections.