Iris on Mother's Day

My mother and iris are always associated in my mind.





This is Grape Snakez ("snake eyes"). Please ignore the wheel of my neighbor's car...

For about 20 years, Mama and I shared an iris garden and a small 'business' that we made from it. The garden moved several times, as circumstance and life changes occurred. Sometimes it was in my yard, sometimes in hers.

It didn't start out to be a business. In 1987, we had some iris that were extra and we needed to find them homes. We took them to a local farmer's market in the hopes that someone might be interested in them. Mama had some photos that showed what a few of them looked like in bloom. We made tags for the rest of them with descriptions of height, color etc.

We were delighted that we sold the iris that we took that day and we realized that the ones in the photos sold very quickly, even though some of the others were really prettier iris!

That started the effort to take attractive photo's of all our iris.

It sounds easy enough, but the challenge was to have a freshly opened flower at a time of day without wind (a rare condition) and when the light was good. Then, we would take the roll of film to the one hour photo processing place, ideally in enough time to get the photos back the same day or a do-over if needed. Then we would go through the photos and see if they were 'true' colors and in focus, etc. If the iris were not shown to the best advantage, we would make a list of "re-takes", and wait for another fresh bloom, good light, etc.

The photo processing place got a bit of an education in iris, since if the prints were not the correct tone, Mama would ask them to re-do it to see if they could get it closer. Sometimes, she took a flower in with her to show them what color it should be...

My mother was a lifelong photographer and she gave me my first 35mm camera for a wedding gift. Whenever I take photos with my digital camera, I think about how much Mama would have LOVED having a digital camera! Even though she really liked slides, she would have loved being able to see how her photos looked immediately!

Our iris business grew from a way to justify spending way to much on our compelling need to buy several of the new introductions each year, to an fairly significant income supplement for us both. In later years, Ms A took over sharing some of the "heavy lifting" parts of the process when Mama couldn't do as much and financed a very nice cello with her part of the profits one summer.

Mama was known as "the iris lady" by lots of folks around town. She always had time to give advice or help someone dig and divide overgrown iris and show them how to re-plant them - "not too deep and at least a half day of sunshine".

After the market each Saturday, we would go have lunch and talk about the day. It was fun to see what we made and plan for the next weekend, but I think what Mama enjoyed the most was just visiting with folks about iris.

I never look at my iris, or any other, without thinking about Mama.

Happy Mother's Day, Mama

Rhymeland #12 - The End of Chapter one!

I have finished the blocks for Bean's quilt!


This is the twelfth block and it is Mother Goose, again.

I started with Mother Goose at the beginning, but I decided to go with different colors. At the time, I didn't intend to re-do this block. But, since the quilt motif is her namesake, I decided that she should be included.

Looking at the photo in the post, I realized that the goose is blind! I forgot to do the eye. I am glad I noticed before the quilt was put together! In this quilt, I forgot the hand on the Hickory Dickory boy and had to add it after the quilting was done!

Chapter Two will be the piecing together.

And I will be helping!

The Mister and I are planning another road adventure. This time, we are going first, to Dearest Sister's house. I will get to share her birthday with her for the first time in a very long time!

We are going to South Dakota from there to see Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument in progress (and so The Mister can add the South Dakota sticker to the back of the camper!)

After that, we go to Kansas for Lovely C's graduation from high school and a visit with Wisest Sister.

On the way home, we will have a visit with Dear Aunt and have a bit of a meet up with family and friends in Greensburg.

A new season of Greensburg on Planet Green channel began this past week, the second anniversary of the F5 tornado that destroyed all but a tiny bit of the town. It will be exciting to see the progress of rebuilding.

One week from tomorrow, the adventure begins!

Polly Pocket, I mean - Lucy Locket (and Jack)

These are blocks 10 and 11 of the Rhymeland blocks that I am making for Bean's quilt. (You can read all about why Bean is Bean, here.)

This is Lucy's story:

Lucy Locket lost her pocket,

Kitty Fisher found it.

Nothing in it, nothing in it,

But the binding 'round it.

Apparently, Lucy was careless with her things. Not a tragedy. I imagine we have all been careless with our things, at least once. Lucy's story is a mild cautionary tale.

My Aunt Ruth always referred to her handbag as a "pocket book". Now, it sounds very old fashioned, but I never really thought about it then.

Polly Pocket was the latest thing when Ms. A was at the age of plastic toys, and I am always confusing Lucy with Polly!

This is Jack. His story is a more familiar one to me:

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.

Jack jump over the Candlestick!

Familiar story, but curious. I know little boys can be rambuncious, but was he really allowed to run around, jumping all over everything, including an open flame!?! Did his father brag to his buddies that,"My jack can jump over lit candles!" and someone else said, "no, really?" "Sure, wanna see?" I am thinking that this may have been the incident that spurred passing laws requiring fire retardant sleepwear for children!

Happy Birthday!

On this day in history, my mother and father became parents!

Happy Birthday, Wisest Sister!

This is a photo of Wisest Sister and our glamorous Aunt Ann. I love this photo, because it looks like they are both having a great time. Not posed, or stiff, like so many studio portraits. (I am guessing WS was about two, or Deeply Missed Sister would probably be in the photo, as well.)

I hope you have a great day and many more birthdays ahead!

Grape Goodness!

I thought that this would be the last iris to bloom in my garden this year. I was happily surprised to see two more plants with buds coming up! Neither are labeled, but one of them is Quaker Lady, I am almost positive. The other one does not have a very distinctive bud shape, so we will see if I 'recognize' it when it blooms.


This is Grape, an old-fashioned 'flag'. The petals continue to stretch for a day or two after the flower opens and take a dog-tongue shape. Kind of ho-hum when you look at an individual bloom, but a clump with many fluttering petals is very nice. Especially when the fluttering petal give off a wonderful grape Kool-aid smell. If you don't remember what grape Kool-aid smells like, you would be instantly reminded after one whiff!

I have really been enjoying the spring flowers this year. Exploring the surrounding neighborhoods on foot have really given me a chance to observe things much more closely than I have in years past. In fact, the buds that I have noticed, have helped me maintain my motivation for my evening walks.

And that is a good thing!