La Traviata IN THE SYDNEY HARBOUR

Several weeks ago at the Palace Theater located five minutes from our house, I had the privilege of watching La Traviata performed on a large floating stage IN the Sydney Harbour in real time via the marvel of cyberspace.  Unbelievable performance! Even if you are not an opera lover, you may enjoy the hyperlink above. 

This performance held special significance for me because we have been fortunate to have traveled to Australia twice.  Once I cried in the Sydney Opera House after a performance -- can not remember what we heard that evening but it was symphonic.   I did not want to leave.  An attendant asked us if anything was wrong and suggested Ed and I return in the morning when the gift shop is open so he he could buy me a beautiful pin of the Opera House.  I treasure the pin.  

The Brilliance of October Red

Globe Amaranth, 'strawberry fields'

And an everlasting -- pick and no need for water.  Because the nurseries do not sell this plant, I grow it from seed under the lights.

The old fashioned Snapdragon --keep pinching the blooms for continual color

A show stopper, Pineapple Sage only blooms in the Fall.  The plant stands about 5 feet tall. 

Giant Amaranth -- One comes up yearly with original seeds probably stuck to one of my shoe soles from when I worked the Trail Garden with of the Herb Guild of McLean County many years back.

Red Snapdragon, Daylily leaves, Spicy Globe Basil

Lea Thau, Kickstarter Campaign -- SHE MADE IT!

Lea Thau. Peabody Award producer is right up there with Ira Glass.   

Tonight Lea Thau through Kickstarter, raised $20,000.00 enough to begin Season 2.  For 10 years, Lea was the executive director of The Moth, a public radio program that features people telling true stories that happened to themselves in front of an audience and without notes.  I never delete the stories in my Itunes library because they are  enlightening, some are funny, some are sad, some are unbelievable,

Lhakpa Tsering: Man on Fire

This is one of my favorite stories written by Peabody Award winning producer Lea Thau -- Lhakpa Tsering Man on Fire.  It is about a 9 year old boy who walked from Tibet to Inda and made a life for himself beating all odds.   

When Lea traveled to India with her 9 month old son to try to mend her broken heart when her fiance left her, she worked with Lhakpa  and took down his story.  

  
At the beginning,  Lea mentions her Kickstarter campaign -- happily Lea has already reached her goal. 

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.