Barok O Lee

Michelle Obama is on TV as a part of the Democratic Convention.    The First Lady, a champion for kids, teaches them to become fit by eating nutritious foods and to keep moving -- to exercise. 

Barok O Lee is one of those highly nutritious foods. 

Listening to Michele speak so eloquently about her husband brings a smile to my face.  A majestic couple.  

Addendum to this post:  One of the staff at Extension emailed me to say sending this to the MG's via the MG Google Group was inappropriate.   This is one of the unfortunate ways the MG program is changing. 
    

Thank Goodness for Old Panty Hose!

 

The Rains Came

At this time of year, the corn cobs should be visible about 1/3 of the way up the stalk but this year many stalks show no signs of actual cobs or the cobs are very small.  The soybean harvest will probably be about what it was in years past.   

The farmers make out like bandits because of federal insurance so the politicians are trying to rewrite the US Farm Bill. 
 
Then last Thursday through Sunday we received over 8" of rain, so much rain, the Lions Ear (12 ' high) and the Purple Moonflowers   keeled over.  Old panty hose came to the rescue as Ed and I tied the sorry plants to the fence. 

Ed and the Midwest Institute of Opera

Has this ever been an adventure with Ed lamenting he is in much too over his head.  His voice teacher, John Koch asked Ed if he wanted to be in an opera this summer, The Pirates of Penzance. Why not?  When John asked Ed to be the Sargent of the Police --  the same role he played when he was at Deerfield Academy in 1959, this was too much of a coincidence.  The only difference?  Ed was a young man when he played the part in 1959 and now he is not so young.   Rehearsals were for ten days, from 9 - 9 to include two weekends!  

This Midwest Institute of Opera (MIO) is only 2 years old, developed by John and his wife Tracy, a truly unique opportunity for young opera students.  Besides Pirates, MIO also did Don Giovanni.   Three of the Giovanni actors, delightful young men,  stayed with us for the entire ten days.  

The institute is much like a school with everyone in the cast paying tuition.  There was one cast for Pirates but two entirely different casts, the principals, that is, for Giovonni -- four performances of Giovanni! 

Blackberry Lilies

Years ago I learned about the Blackberry Lily when I was active in the Herb Guild of McLean County.  On occasion I would think about digging up just one of the Blackberry Lilies in the large Trail Garden the Guild worked - who would ever know.  Of course I never followed through.  

As part of a Master Gardener project, last summer while helping the children at Metcalf Lab School who belonged to an after-school gardening club, I noticed a huge bank of Blackberry Lilies.  The sponsor of the group saved me seeds and now I have them in our prairie garden as well as the patio garden.  The small blooms last only a day but there have been continuous blooms all month with more are to come.  Someone saw the leaves in our prairie garden earlier in the season and insisted they were iris because of the similarity in texture and shape.  Read on and you will learn the plant genus is iris!  

Draught in the Midwest

How scary this is.  We have not received rain since I can remember, the grass is mostly brown and scorched and even the Japanese Beetles find the weather too oppressing to chow down their usual delights.   The earth is being cooked.  Ed is watering the gardens very minimally as well as parts of the lawn.  To conserve water, however,  Ed positions the sprinkler at night and we turn it on around 3 am when one of us takes a bathroom break.  It bums me out to see people watering during the heat of the day - pure stupidity.  I should add, the prairie garden does well without moisture, quite miraculous. 

Rainbow Sighting from our Front Porch

Out here on the Central Illinois Prairie a rainbow may be seen several times during the summer.  This one is a doozie because one was able to see the entire rainbow from end to end, a rare occurrence.  And the colors were exceptionally vivid.

A 180 Degree Turn Around

The day I emailed the State Master Gardener coordinator with questions about the State Dismissal Policy with a concern about accuracy -- one of our very respected MG's called to ask if he could help us by taking our concerns to a higher level, that of the Extension Council on which he sits.  Terrific!  But this never happened because when he thought about it, he decided it was not worth his time to pursue something that was already decided.  He knew State leadership was not going to make any changes to their policy even though our suggestions make sense and would be easy to do.  


 

Foxes in Town

Our friends Jennie and Scott King captured these amazing photos from their deck the end of June. 

A Marvelous Visit - June 25 - July 5, 2012

Liesl age 3, Roslyn age 5, Signy age 7 

Daad in background, Daylily 'Big Bird'

With Vivian Wilson-Cohen's beloved Violet statue given to us when we visited her in Charleston, October, 2011.  Violet graced her parent's property in Newel, West Virginia.