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A Tale of Zoysia Grass and Lasagna
Once upon a long, long time, like sixty years ago (before my time, of course), Rheta Potter Harp bought two plugs of hearty zoysia grass for her country yard in the boonies of Hereford. She bought them downtown and spent fifty cents on them. Back then, shopping was done all the way downtown on Howard Street. And the… Continue reading
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Who reads this blog? (or посадка гречихи)
Most of the people who read this blog are related to me. Or they are real friends. But there are others out there who stumble upon me by way of search engines. When there is nothing in my email-box and nothing new on Facebook, I entertain myself by checking out the site stats for my… Continue reading
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Bug of the day
Sometimes the best bug is a dead bug. And today Harper and I found a really cool dead bug. It was about the size of a house fly, but irredescent blue and green, and it had a really long stinger. I have never seen one of these flying around. Just as well. The stinger is… Continue reading
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Beets
Some of my most vivid childhood memories involve foods. Ok, duh. A child spends a larger percentage of his life eating than an adult. Take little Mini-Mo, for example. At two months, he has a very small repertoire of things to dream about: eating, eliminating what he eats, smiling at Mommy and Daddy, playing with his… Continue reading
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Hydrangeas and lemons
“The span between life as we intend it and life as we receive it is vast. Our true purpose is worked out in that gap.” Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God Last June the hydrangeas were in bloom for Julie and Chris’ wedding reception here at Maywood. Julie wanted a hydrangea theme for their wedding because… Continue reading
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Life’s a jungle–eat raspberries
Turn your back on things for a bit, watch a few thunderstorms roll through, and the yard becomes a jungle. Weeds sprout tall and vines creep in, around, and over everything. Multiply that by a few years and even things you planted start to take over. In the front of my house, the dark north side where… Continue reading
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Where there’s smoke…
Where there’s smoke at Maywood there may be a driver on 83 who thinks the woods are on fire. We live at the dead end of nowhere bordering an interstate. In summer we can’t even see the highway. We hear it, though– a constant whoosh that is immensely soothing to our 6 week old grandson. … Continue reading
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Is is June yet? YES!!!
Day One of summer vacation arrived with the theme song to “Rocky” ba-bum-bum-bum-bumming in my head. I awoke to Harper running into our room, “PopPop, when you are finished sleeping, will you get up and make me some sausage?” We had to get up anyway because it’s cleaning day and we had not tidied before going to bed. Up… Continue reading
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Smelling the roses…
“Life comes at you fast.” We all love those insurance commercials because we could all have our turn starring in one. Sometimes it even involves a big insurance claim, like for my daughter who recently went through labor with their first child while her husband dealt with a massive basement disaster. Other times, we get caught up… Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 