Road Trip!!!!!!

It is countdown week for this grad student-spring semester begins next Monday. There was so much I planned to do over winterbreak, and I had a whole month to play and explore, but the weather threw a wrench into several of my plans. Sunday I realized I had a handful of days left, so if a road trip was my pleasure, I had better get going. The weather forecast for southern Iowa and northern Missouri and Kansas looked to be favorable for Tuesday, so I put my foot down, literally...on the gas pedal, and took off for the day. I got everyone out the door to their school and work, walked the dog, checked in with the carpenter, then hit the road for Atchison, KS. I have wanted to visit Nell Hills and Garrity's, two shops I had read about in Midwest Living magazine several seasons back. Shoppers, some by the busload, come from all over the region.

Garrity's was closed (the website had not been updated!:{), but Nell Hills was open and what fun! This elegant boutique is chock-full, and I mean full!, of home accessories that are priced so they won't break the bank. It offers two floors of merchandise, a feast for the eyes. I walked through a second time and discovered some beautiful items I had missed in my first pass.

On my way back to the interstate, I passed by a rambling antiques mall and did a quick u-turn. Glad I did because I hit the jackpot. I had been looking for an old rosary to pass on to my daughter. I wanted something with some history...a few prayers already rubbed into those beads. I found a handsome black-beaded rosary made in France. I also found one made with sky-blue beads...the color of my daughters eyes.

I also gathered some awesome postcards dating back to the 1910's. A handful depict landscaping in famous parks in Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Chicago. The rest were valentine and christmas p/c's with dutch children and windmills. I could not resist - I'm dutch! ;} My last treasure was a brown transferware lid to a soup tureen. Granted, the tureen part was missing, but the lid was covered with beautiful orchids and birds. This will be hung above a window in the dining room with some of my other transferware plates...always a nice addition to the Audubon bird prints.

It was a fun day. The weather was perfect for January-38 degrees and sunny. The landscape undulated with rolling hills and was dotted with hardwood forests, farm ponds, and boggy lowlands. I cut cross-country upon leaving Atchison and found some great motoring in the MINI-smooth blacktop, lots of "twisties", steep hills and valleys, single-lane bridges...and no traffic. It was glorious!

In the Stacks

With Christmas and two birthdays in January, the proverbial bookshelf at Friley Road is overflowing. One of the things I am most proud of as a parent is my children's love of books and reading. I credit my husband with that! Don't get me wrong, I love books. My stacks are overflowing, especially with my return to grad school, but my husband, son, and daughter read like there is no tomorrow.

I have a budding photographer, so Annie Leibovitz was a given. Upon my son's return from his semester abroad in India studying sustainability and food issues, a copy of Michael Pollan's new book has found a home in his library. My husband's eclectic mix of reading material provided a feast for the kids in picking out books at the local book store for their father's birthday.

I did a little shopping myself on Amazon and found some used copies of books on my wish list: JB Jackson's landscape essays, and a favorite poetry book of Billy Collins. I am a history buff, especially Iowa's history, and now, the history of landscape architecture. This poem of Billy Collins is probably one of my favorite poems, ever...

The Lesson
In the morning when I found History
snoring heavily on the couch,
I took down his overcoat from the rack
and placed its weight over my shoulder blades.

It would protect me on the cold walk
into the village for milk and the paper
and I figured he would not mind,
not after our long conversation the night before.

How unexpected his blustering anger
when I returned covered with icicles,
the way he rummaged through the huge pockets
making sure no major battle or English queen
had fallen out and become lost in the deep snow.

-Billy Collins, Sailing Alone Around the Room, 2001

Richardson Wright's entry for January 4th in his book ANOTHER GARDENER'S BED-BOOK

This entry is hilarious. Remember this book was published in 1933!

A New Water Lily
Recently there's been heard a wailing from owners of splendid and interesting gardens that are over-run with uninvited visitors, so over-run that garden privacy has become impossible. I have been caught both in "shorts" and without them. Most of my manly anatomy is known to at least three charming garden ladies who once descended on me unheralded. When we meet at flower shows the cordiality of our greeting is still tinctured with a slight degree of embarrassment. But then, I am more fortunate than my friend, the eminent horticulturist, who was mistaken for a Water Lily.

There was a new gardener on the place and he had been given orders to move the boxes of Lily roots in the pool. The owner happened by, and somehow, he couldn't make his man understand where he wanted them placed. So he stripped to the buff and waded in. Scarcely had he reached the middle of the pool when, from out of nowhere, appeared two carloads of garden club ladies. The owner did his best to stay under, but lack of breath finally forced him to the surface. Despite frantic signals from the gardener, the pilgrims lingered by the pond side. It is even reported that one near-sighted enthusiast, peering in the direction of the owner, exclaimed, "Well, I never saw that variety before!"

Welcome to the Party!

It was on this date back in 1959 that President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the proclamation welcoming Alaska as our 49th state of the union.

XOXO To My Hubby on His 51st