November Article for the Cameron Chronicle

 

Hello Friends,

I want to share my article that I wrote for the November issue of the Cameron Chronicle, "The Little Paper With Personality."

In my November article I share Christmas Ideas for the Gardener.

 ♥

 

Christmas Ideas for the Gardener

By Carla TePaske of Cameron, WI ~ The Little Garden That Could

The Christmas season is just a calendar page away. If you have a gardener in your life, here are a few fun Christmas gift ideas.

Flower bulbs make great Christmas gifts for friends and family and will lighten up dreary winter days with their colorful blooms and lovely scents. Choose amaryllis bulbs for striking flowers and hyacinths or narcissi for wonderful fragrance.

Books make great gifts for the gardener as well. Floret Farm's
Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein is a fantastic gift for your flower loving gardener.

For the vegetable gardener you can not go wrong with The Old Farmer's Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook by Old Farmer’s Almanac.

For your die-hard gardener, The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year, No Matter Where You Live by Niki Jabbour. Even in winter’s coldest months you can harvest fresh, delicious produce. Drawing on insights gained from years of growing vegetables in Nova Scotia, Niki Jabbour shares her simple techniques for gardening throughout the year. Learn how to select the best varieties for each season, the art of succession planting, and how to build inexpensive structures to protect your crops from the elements. No matter where you live, you’ll soon enjoy a thriving vegetable garden year-round.

A fun garden book for children, We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines. After reading, children will learn:

Trying something new isn't always easy, but the hardest work often yields the greatest reward. The basic steps and process of starting a garden. The importance of patience and how it is possible to learn from your mistakes.

If you have someone special in your life that used to garden, but no longer can, a perfect gift would be a flower subscription. The Little Garden That Could provides this special service. A flower subscription from The Little Garden That Could is a bouquet of fresh-cut locally grown flowers. The delivery area is a 30 mile radius from Cameron, Wisconsin.

As you prepare for the holidays, do not forget to harvest some of your garden to create festive wreaths or arrangements. Use seed heads, rose hips, berries, hydrangeas and anything else you can forage.

Gratitude

 

That busy time of the season is upon us. At times the Christmas season feels rather like a marathon.. in getting all the decorations up, the holiday baking done, mailing out Christmas cards, gifts purchased and wrapped.

This season, I am going to reflect on wonderful memories. I plan to be gentle with myself and not fret about doing it all. I will be thankful for spring, summer, autumn and winter. I will be thankful for family and friends. 

Thankful Living is Thanks Giving

 ♥

Carla 

Joy List Monday

 

Joy List Monday

♥  a weekly ritual  ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 ♥ hot earl grey tea

 ♥ november sunshine

 ♥ marmalade on an english muffin

 ♥ seeing both of my boys this past week

 ♥ planning and preparing the baking of  holiday cookies and treats

 ♥

This past week was a week of worry for me. I was given  a recent reminder ~ worry forces us to focus on the wrong things!

We worry about the unknown and uncertain events of tomorrow. When we focus on the wrong things, we miss the main thing that life is all about.

 

Joy List Monday

 

Joy List Monday

 ♥ a weekly ritual ♥ 

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 ♥ a gift of sea shells from a friend

A dear friend of mine spends the summer in Wisconsin and the rest of the year at her Florida home.. she gifted me something she can pick up for free and means so much to me... I love sea shells and it looks like Penelope does too.

 ♥ sourdough bread

 ♥ cozy evenings sitting next to the fireplace looking at photos of English gardens

♥ the full moon

♥ friends

 

On the Road Friday ~ Kinstone ~ Part 1

 

The August/September issue of Our Wisconsin magazine featured Kinstone ~ a modern megalithic wonder.

Our son Sam had visited Kinstone last summer. The feature in Our Wisconsin reminded me that I wanted to visit.

Below I am sharing a few photos I took from the magazine article. 

I am sharing where Fountain City is located in Wisconsin. I live about two hours Northeast.

 

Our adventure started out early in the morning October, 15th. We wanted to arrive early to Kinstone and drive the River Road back home.

I will now share some of the photos we took on our explore of Kinstone. 

What does the name Kinstone mean?

From the Kinstone FAQ's

Kinstone is a concatenation of KIN and STONE. KIN means family, it represents all relationships - between people, plants, animals, stone, water, wind, fire, earth, sky - all of it. STONE means - well, it means stone! This is a place of RELATIONSHIP punctuated by STONE that reminds us we are interwoven with everything. All is one.

The photo below is Basin Rock ~ a.k.a. The Giver ~ a basin shaped rock holding water; she offers the water to the land.

I will share more photos of our adventures to Kinstone in a future post.

♥

Carla

 

 

Looking Back at the Hodgepodge!

 

Happy November my friends. It is Wednesday and that means it is time for the Hodgepodge.

Joyce asks the questions.

We answer the questions.

 

 

Click here to join the fun! 

 

1. How did you name your blog and do you now wish you had thought about it maybe another five minutes before hitting publish? Would you change your blog title if it were not a huge pain in the derriere?

 My blog name, The River, was inspired by my love for rivers. I grew up next to a river. It was and still is a very special place for me. A river is ever changing.. yet the same.

No, I would not change my blog name.

 2. What bill do you least like to pay? 

During the garden season we love a nice regular rain, to water our garden and keep our rain barrels full. We collect rain water to water our garden. We have two big rain barrels. This past season we had a drought. We did have to use our village water to water our garden. Oh goodness, I did not like that bill.

 3. What is your favorite word? Okay okay, calm down. How about one of your favorite words? 

Attitude

 4. Is the glass half full or half empty? Elaborate. 

I try to stay positive. The glass is half full.

The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

 5. Were you here for that very first Hodgepodge post? If so, were your answers then similar to what they are today? Tell us what was happening in your life in November of 2010? 

I was not here for the first Hodgepodge.

I was a  busy mom to a ten and eight year old boy. I was busy helping as a teacher's aid at Growing Lights Christian Academy.

 6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Tribute to the Troops

A very special Christmas Tree that our Wisconsin Governor has in the Governor's Mansion.

Each year we participate. 

Samuel  ~ our son, active Wisconsin National Guard 

Samuel  ~ my grandpa, WW2

Marv ~ our dear friend, Korean War

 With Veteran's Day tomorrow, I take this time to say" THANK YOU!"

 

I Bring You the Garden Chat!

 

This summer I teamed up with our local Library to do a garden chat. May through September I did a presentation. For the month of May pollinators were the highlight of the presentation.

Creating a Pollinator Garden

If you love butterflies, you will want to create a pollinator garden. It is not as hard as you think. 

 That is me! The wind was so strong that evening, as you can tell by my hair.

 It was a fun evening. It was a great way to start off the Garden Chat's.

I am sharing the hand out I prepared for the event.

Butterfly Garden Essentials

To attract butterflies to your yard and garden, you need to plant both nectar and host plants. Nectar plants provide food for the adult butterflies that pass through your garden. It is important to have plants that will bloom each season, providing nectar for the butterflies.

If you want butterflies all season long, you should plant host plants. Host plants are the plants that the butterflies lay their eggs on and that the caterpillars eat.

Tips for Creating a Butterfly Garden

1. Lots of sun. Most butterfly plants need at least 6 hours of sun each day.

2. Planting in groups. It is easier for butterflies to see plants when they are planted in groups of three or more, because butterflies are nearsighted. When planting host plants, planting in groups will ensure that there is enough food for the caterpillar.

3. Shelter from the wind. Butterflies are delicate, so a little protection will help. Tall plants, trellises or fences.

4. Sunning spots. Rocks and stepping stones can be used by butterflies to warm themselves so they can fly when it is cool outside.

5. NO PESTICIDES! The most important thing to remember is that butterflies and caterpillars are insects. DO NOT USE PESTICIDE!

Black Swallowtail

Host/Larval Food Plants

Carrot, Dill, Parsley, Queen Anne’s Lace

Adult Food

Aster, Blazing Star, Chives, Phlox, Lantana, Milkweed, Zinnia

Monarch

Host/Larval Food Plants

Butterfly Weed, Common Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed

Adult Food

Aster, Blazing Star, Cosmos, Goldenrod, Lantana, Zinnia

 

Thankful Living is Thanks Giving.

 

Thankful Living is Thanks Giving.

I was recently reminded of the following..

People who know who they are, who possess a clear sense of their mission, and who understand God's plan and purpose for their lives, are people who experience genuine fulfillment. That does not mean they do not face extreme obstacles. Rather, it means they have learned to face those challenges in ways that transform obstacles into opportunities. Rather than stumbling over them, they press on through them.