August 4, 2014 by Born To Organize

Vintage Postage: A Daughter’s Love Letter and a Blogging Giveaway

Dad’s easel hangs in my crafting area with special photos

Today’s post is a bit of a departure from my gardening antics. It’s a love letter, a giveaway and a way to celebrate my dad. He died in early August, 1969 at the age of 54. I was nine.

This year, things are different. I’ve worked many hours with a caring and knowledgeable therapist, reaching in to the dark corners of my confusing childhood. My willingness to do the hard work finally paid off. I’ve been able to integrate the vulnerable girl I was into a strong, caring adult. Through Fran’s guidance, I’ve arrived at a happier place.

Will you celebrate with me?

Eric Milner

Eric Milner Landscape Design

My father, Eric, had lots of hobbies. Outdoors, he gardened, spending hours working with his hands to shape our beautiful, Ontario garden. He dug a small brook along the garden path to collect water and snow. The garden brimmed with flowers and in the summer, garden vegetables and fruits. I tasted my first cherry tomato from his garden. My sister Sharon and I would race around pinching the snapdragons. Dad taught me why bees are important and why you should never hurt one. Mom gave me a pair of spoons so I could dig in the dirt under the kitchen window while dad played in the garden nearby. There are many cherished memories of our home in Canada.

During the winter months, dad worked on his indoor hobbies. He built a wooden model of the Golden Hind. He painted, collected coins, made home-made movies with his Super 8 and he collected stamps from around the world.

Dad in India

Born in Oldham, England, dad studied horticulture and design. He lived in Darjeeling, India for many years where he worked on a tea plantation. He was a captain in the army, and worked as a translator. After the war, disillusioned with life back in England, he moved to Ontario, Canada. There he met our mother on a blind date. According to Mum, she didn’t want to go. Her friend convinced her that my dad was a good dancer so she went. They married a year later.

Mom and Dad get married

My parents moved to California in the fall of 1966. By Christmas, 1968 dad had lung cancer. He died the following year.

My tall, slender dad loved teasing us. He would exclaim loudly at something outside the window, then when you turned back your dessert was gone. We fell for it every time. He came home from work hiding small gifts behind his back and my sister and I would get to choose which hand. He saved extra postage stamps to encourage our own collections. He loved animals and children, art and photography, and most of all he loved us. And of course, he loved gardening.

Vintage Postage Give-away

My dad collected stamps from his travels and through buy and trade. Packets of stamps arrived in the mail, ready for soaking and mounting in his Burgundy-covered New Age Stamp Album. May years after his death, Mum sold a few of his stamp albums and gave each of us the money toward college. She saved the rest of his albums and they came to me after she died. I’ve leafed through them from time to time, amazed at his vast collection. My oldest son took one of his albums for show and tell in grade school. Recently I sent some of his stamps to a dear and trusted friend and realized the joy in releasing them to someone special. My sister plans to make cards for her friends with the album in her care.

Here is where you come in. My dad would get a kick out of the idea of mailing these stamps around the world again. The album pages have come free of their binding. They’re ready to go. If you look for a ‘sign’ you can find one anywhere, so for me, this is a sign to mail the stamps to you, and quickly before the post office goes broke. I once viewed his albums as a life and a hobby interrupted. Now I see them as a gift to be shared, and as a way to celebrate his kindness, generosity, curiosity and care. Will you please take part?

Sample Pages

The stamp issue dates are mid-1937 to mid-1938.

Please make your requests using the contact form. Click here. This keeps the requests private and allows you to provide your complete name and address for mailing.

On the form, please request your first, second and third country of choice. Include your full name and mailing address. That’s it. Please make your request by August 31, 2014. If I still have pages after that date, I will let you know. Click on the list of postage stamp countries to see what’s available:

List of postage stamp countries

Pages of postage stamps 1937 – 1938

What can you do with a bunch of old postage stamps?

Use them to make mixed-media art
Make a birthday card for someone special
Laminate them in strips and use them for bookmarks
Add them to a scrapbook page
Give them to a child and make up a story to go with them
Celebrate history
Take part in this gardening nirvana blogging adventure.

Pinterest curates some great pieces of art using postage.

Please let me know what you think in the comments, and then send your request via the contact form. I would love it if you joined in the fun?

July 31, 2014 by Born To Organize

Art and Serendipity

My word of the year is serendipity,

the act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for it.

So joyous is this word in both sound and deed, that I may choose it again for next year.

2014 is also turning into my year of art. In January I won (yes, won!) this gorgeous Butterfly Sprite. The mixed media piece, created by the generous and talented Pauline of The Contented Crafter. I smile at this carefree sprite every day, and every day she smiles back. Butterfly Sprite lives among soothing greens and flowers and texture that lifts my spirit. Art does that.

Butterfly Sprite by artist Pauline King

Also in January, I took a mixed media art class at A Work of Heart in Willow Glen and dabbled in my own little art project. I thought about Pauline the whole time.

Remarkably, I won another beautiful piece of art, a Bavarian textile knee blanket lovingly crafted by Dani of Teddy and Tottie. I guess this sort of thing happens when you choose a word like Serendipity.

Bavarian Knee Rug by Dani

I discovered another blogger via Dani and Pauline, and because you can’t make this stuff up, Fran blogs at The Road to Serendipity.

Last week my friend Whitney shared an album of photos for her upcoming art show in Gilroy, California. Whitney is a creative arts graduate of San Jose State. We met on Facebook via mutual friends. As I virtually thumbed my way through her online album, this sunflower rainbow stopped me in my lurking tracks. The piece celebrates three of my loves: old windows, brilliant colors and sunflowers. Seren-dipity-do-da!!!

Artist Whitney Pintello

I asked if it was still available, she said yes, and now it’s hanging in one of my garden seating areas.

We like to sit here in the evening to escape the heat

Window painting, front and back

Whitney creates and sells vintage window paintings at a couple of local festivals each year. From her website:

Painting old windows is Whitney’s favorite medium, and came from exploring how to reuse old architectural elements. The process involves reverse painting: starting with the details of the painting first, then the subject, then the background, all on the back of the glass. Patrons like the casual, rustic quality the paintings have and the “found art” reuse of the vintage windows.

Who knew there was magic in a carefully chosen word?

July 30, 2014 by Born To Organize

Things With Wings

Lift, gravity and thrust. It’s not the latest dance craze, but a short list of what things-with-wings need to fly.

Wouldn’t it be thrilling to have wings? I remember an episode of Gilligan’s Island years ago that always made me chuckle. In one attempt to get off the shipwrecked island, Gilligan donned wings and jumped off a cliff. He momentarily flew until the Skipper shouted “You can’t fly!” Gilligan replied, “Oh’, and only then did he drop to the ground.

I love watching things-with-wings flying in and out of my garden. They move with speed, efficiency and agility like a well-trained gymnast flying over the bars. What a thrill.

Birds

Visiting birds

I worry about the birds as our drought drags on. They’re traveling in circles, searching for food, water and seed. Reservoirs are low and plants are under a lot of stress.

I keep our bird bath topped off so that our visitors can quench their thirst. The garden takes care of the rest. It’s satisfying watching birds sip nectar from a flower or pilfer seeds from the compost bin. They sing, trill, hum and yes shriek but it’s all a reminder of our garden diversity.

According to Discovery.com

{birds} can play any number of roles in a given ecosystem, most of which fall into four main categories: provisioning, regulating, cultural enhancement and supporting services. Supporting services, for example, include tasks such as predation, pollination and seed dispersal.

All that and they’re cute, too.

Bees

Bees pollinating sunflowers, pumpkins and Salvia

Through the camera lens, I’ve witnessed the extraordinary movement of bees gathering pollen. Shiny black bodies lift in and out of the pumpkin flowers, coating themselves a golden-yellow. The buzzing sound stops when they land, and within seconds they lift off again They are all business. If another bee is in the center of the flower, the second bee backs up and continues on. What they accomplish is extraordinary and relevant to our survival.

Butterflies

Butterfly and Statice

This beauty landed in the flower bed sending me racing indoors to grab my camera. Who doesn’t love a butterfly? When my boys were young, we visited the ‘caterpillar tree’ at our local park. One particular tree would be laden with cocoons. It was a yearly treat. After a few years we stopped seeing them.

I’ve since learned that in the United States, Monarch butterflies have declined for the last twenty years. In the UK, certain species of butterflies are down by 50%. From an environmental perspective, butterflies are a bit like the canary in the coal mine. They’re extraordinarily sensitive to environmental changes around them and are apparently the most closely watched insect in the world.

I’m glad this special guest found something to eat in my garden.

Nymph: Science vs Mythology

Pumpkin beginning to turn orange

A mythological nymph is:

a minor female nature deity typically associated with a particular location or land form. Different from goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young maidens who love to dance and sing; their amorous freedom sets them apart from the restricted and chaste wives and daughters of the Greek polis. They are believed to dwell in mountains and groves, by springs and rivers, and in trees and in valleys and cool grottoes.

Cool!

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any of those in the garden. On the other hand, a biological nymph is:

the immature form of some invertebrates, particularly insects, which undergoes gradual metamorphosis (hemimetabolism) before reaching its adult stage.^[Unlike a typical larva, a nymph’s overall form already resembles that of the adult. In addition, while a nymph moults it never enters a pupal stage. Instead, the final moult results in an adult insect.

Oh-oh.

With all my due diligence, I missed a few of the squash bug eggs. The following video tells the rest of the story:

I removed the offending nymphs and even more eggs this morning, but it was impossible to get all of them. I’m going to figure out a way to create a barrier between the pumpkin and the bugs without harming the bees or the plant. Stay tuned.

Freshly hatched squash nymphs

Squash bugs overrun a pumpkin leaf

Squash bugs: off the vine and into the bucket

July 28, 2014 by Born To Organize

Mid-Summer Caretaker and the Mighty Seed

By the calendar, it’s mid-summer here in California. Our growing season is longer than most, given our mild climate and rich, agricultural soil. That said, pumpkins and sunflowers adhere to their own cycle and that cycle is coming to an end.

July growth

Fading vines as all the energy now goes to the fruit

Like many things in life, the anticipation often outranks the reward at the end. It’s the growing that brings so much pleasure. It’s also humbling to realize that much of what’s happening outside these four walls has nothing to do with me. Nature knows what she’s doing. While a bit of help from water, fertilizer and nutrient-rich soil is a must, once provided she can take it from there.

Sunflowers bowing from the weight of the seeds

A bit of water pools on the underside of a sunflower

I tend the garden anyway, battling drought conditions, air pollution, nasty bugs and the adorable menace, the western gray squirrel. I’m a caretaker more than anything else.

Squash bug hide and seek (we’re still here)

Once you’ve gardened, it’s impossible to feel the same way about the fruits and vegetables that make it to your table. Something as tiny and unassuming as a seed has all the DNA it needs to know when and where it should grow and for how long. Helpers, in the form of pollinating bees or seed-scattering birds, also play a role. I’ve gardened my entire life and I’m still in awe when a seed cracks the earth and a leafy green sprout appears.

According to Boundless Biology:

Seed plants are cultivated for their beauty and smells, as well as their importance in the development of medicines. Plants are also the foundation of human diets across the world . Many societies eat, almost exclusively, vegetarian fare and depend solely on seed plants for their nutritional needs. A few crops (rice, wheat, and potatoes) dominate the agricultural landscape. Many crops were developed during the agricultural revolution when human societies made the transition from nomadic hunter–gatherers to horticulture and agriculture. Cereals, rich in carbohydrates, provide the staple of many human diets. In addition, beans and nuts supply proteins. Fats are derived from crushed seeds, as is the case for peanut and rapeseed (canola) oils, or fruits such as olives.

We live in an amazing world.

July 25, 2014 by Born To Organize

The Plot Thickens: A Bit of Garden Humour

Here’s a little garden humour as you ease in to your weekend: My sister sent me this story a few years ago. It always makes me smile. I don’t know the origins, so I’ll extend thanks to the universe and the anonymous writer of this tongue in cheek tale. Enjoy!

Plotting Tomatoes:

An older gentleman living alone in New Jersey looked forward to planting his annual tomato garden, but it was strenuous work. The ground was simply too hard. His only son Vincent would usually help him but Vincent was in prison. The man wrote a letter to his son describing his predicament.

Dear Vincent,

It looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig it for me, like in the old days. I’m feeling a little sad. I hope you are well.

Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Papa,

Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.

Love, Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the man and left. That same day the man received another letter from his son.

Dear Papa,

Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love you, Vinnie

I hope you’re smiling, too.

July 24, 2014 by Born To Organize

Heirloom Tomatoes: My Garden Darlings

If you’ve been following along, you know that I didn’t plant a single tomato plant this year. Hard to believe, eh?

Self-seeded or Volunteer Tomatoes

Last year my friend Doug gave me several varieties of Baker Creek Heirloom tomato seeds. I planted them in my City Picker but they were slow to grow. I hedged my bets with an organic nursery plant and finished off the summer with tomatoes to spare.

This year the heirloom tomatoes self-seeded one box over. Further, a variety of tiny cherry tomatoes flourished out of the bottom of the rotating compost bin. Two additional plants showed up in the gravel walkway, a larger cherry tomato and another heirloom. What a bounty!

April 9, 2014

Tiny Cherry Tomatoes

Mini cherry tomatoes

Since a speck of a tomato seed managed to sprout through a crack in the rotating composter, I felt compelled to let it grow. I staked the plant when it showed signs of surviving the season, and eventually it produced small, bright red fruit, just like you see in the grocery store. Of course the problem with most tomatoes from the store isn’t the appearance but the taste. These tiny tomatoes are flavorless. What a disappointment.

Cherry Tomatoes: The Sequel

More cherry tomatoes

At the back of the garden, leaning up against the house, is another volunteer. This one produced larger cherry tomatoes, also a brilliant red. They’re a bit sweeter than the tiny cherry, but again bred for appearance and not flavor.

Baker Heirloom Tomatoes

Heirloom Tomatoes

Tomato gold! These are the sweetest, juiciest and most prolific tomatoes in the garden. Honestly, there is no turning back once you’ve tasted them. What luck to have an entire crop of these delicious fruits. I sliced open several today for seed saving, but plan to do all my vegetable seed purchasing from them in the future. In case you’re interested, check out Rare Seeds Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

From there About page:

The family works extensively to supply free seeds to many of the world’s poorest countries, as well as here at home in school gardens and other educational projects. It is their goal to educate everyone about a better, safer food supply and fight gene-altered, Frankenfood and the companies that support it.

You can also follow them on Facebook.

What to do with all those tomatoes:

Vegan kabobs for the 4th of July

Made with tomatoes, onions, red peppers and vegan Field Roast ‘sausages‘.

Fresh basil and tomatoes.

Eat them straight from the bowl.

Freeze them, then turn them into salsa

Sarah the Gardener taught me that not only can you freeze tomatoes, but that the skin falls off of them when they’re thawed. Mike made several batches of tasty salsa. Here’s a similar recipe.

And of course share with anyone who’s interested.

How do you like your tomatoes?

Tomato, basil mozzarella salad

July 22, 2014 by Born To Organize

To Blog, or Not to Blog?

What a silly question!

Today, however, I’ll be blogging in pictures. I’ll spend the time I save not writing, catching up on your thoughtful comments. I read them, love them, and have the best intentions of replying to all of them. Darn that busy life, eh?

I’ll see you shortly in BlogVille. Meanwhile, here are a few pics from the garden.

It’s the birds…

Hummingbird grooming near the magnolia tree

and the bees…

California Carpenter Bee

and the flowers…

Sunflowers

and the trees.

Beautiful Magnolia (not so beautiful scale)

Female Pumpkin Flower

Cherry tomatoes, self-seeded

Pumpkin vines wrapped around potted succulents

and a thing called [gardening] love.

July 21, 2014 by Born To Organize

I Say Potato

Harvesting potatoes

Every family has their cultural staple. We grew up eating potatoes. My mom baked them, added them to her delicious stew and on the occasional Friday we had what the Brits and Canadians refer to as chips, aka French fries. Potatoes were tasty and filling and in my modest culinary repertoire, a fine addition to any meal

Potatoes remain a favorite, even though they’ve fallen from favor as a starch. Brown rice is tasty and so is couscous, but potatoes are my go-to comfort food. I love them.

Still, I didn’t set out to grow them. For me, part of the fun of gardening is watching things grow. I love the wild trail of a pumpkin, the abundant tomatoes, and a myriad of flowers. Potatoes become potatoes under ground.

I tossed a few sorry-looking potatoes into the compost bin and nature took over. Who knew? Apparently they are pretty easy to grow. The industrious Fran at The Road to Serendipity advised me to leave them in place till they flowered. The plants passed the flowering stage and started producing fruit, which, incidentally, is toxic.

I harvested the lot of them on Sunday and gave the harvest to my sister for her soup. She makes a big batch each week, then takes it for lunch. She’s a good cook with a small appetite so this will last her a week.

Small but plentiful

You can buy ‘new potatoes’ at the market, so hopefully the tiny potatoes I sent home are equally tender and tasty. Unlike tomatoes, you can’t take a big bite and know right away if they’re good.

Sharon’s Harvest

Do you have a favorite starch? Is it one you grew up with or something you discovered along the way?

What I say is that if a man really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.
—A. A. Milne, English writer (1882–1956)

July 18, 2014 by Born To Organize

Computer Woes

My trusty laptop gave up the ghost today. It’s been sending subtle and not so subtle signs for weeks. My live in tech support, who also has a day job, tried his best. It seems my hard drive may be in park for good. I’m glad that all my photos automatically back up to Google. Here’s hoping the rest of the backups are in order.

With luck, I’ll be back in business next week. Have a restful, hassle free weekend.

🌱🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌱