Archive for February, 2010

One of the mistakes made this time of year is that we gardeners want to get out there and start digging, planting, pruning, you name it! While right now is a good time to prune winter plants, winter is not over! Those plants at your local garden shop are filling the shelves but it isn’t time. The rule of thumb is, wait until after Easter. I know! I know that seems like a life time from now. You saw my yard in Alabama in my pictures I posted. How my poor daffodils were struggling to raise their snow covered heads. As much as I am itching to get out there I know another freeze is out there, lurking to freezer burn my new plantings if I become impatient. And if you are living in the North Country you know you are nowhere near getting out in the yard.

What to do? Last year I wrote about forcing bulbs this time of year and that is what I did. I got a delightful present this year which was a pot, soil and two Paper White daffodils from my daughter. As I looked out my kitchen window missing the sun, missing the warmth I watch the fragile blooms open up and say, “Cheer up! Spring is on the way!”

Another great success I have every year is that my Poinsettia is still blooming and will continue to thrive. So here in the middle of winter I have two great flowering plants that are keeping my orchids company!

Oh, one more great habit gardeners succumb to this time of year is the garden catalogs. So grab your catalogs and snuggle up in a cozy chair in front of the fire and dream of your flowers, the vegetable patch, or the berries you intend on cultivating! I know how hard it is to wait until after that last frost! That is why I am the Impatient Gardener!

It has been years since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has had by attention. It wasn’t until my class in European History when my professor referenced a short story of Sherlock Holmes, “The Man with the Twisted Lip” that my attention was focused on Sherlock Holmes again. Doyle wrote the Holmes short stories and novels as a sideline, my professor tells me. And they were serialized in newspapers. As Doyle grew weary of writing about Sherlock Holmes he decided to have him killed off by falling off a cliff. The public was in shock! I was in shock! I was not done with Sherlock Holmes anymore that the public. So with much begging Doyle brought Sherlock Holmes back from the dead.

I fell in love all over again. I got all the Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett, you can get the movies on Netflix or you can go to the  Kindle store to download books on some cases of Sherlock’s. I am now and will forever be in love with Mr. Sherlock Holmes and his crime fighting attempts.

Jeremy Brett does Holmes makes a great Sherlock Holmes in his portrayal. And Edward Hardwicke does a fine job of playing Dr. John Watson. The relationship that Holmes and Watson have developed over time is a deep abiding friendship that runs through each and every story as the crime is solved.

Then I find that Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law have recently redone the Sherlock Holmes but alas! There will only be one Sherlock for me, Jeremy Brett. And only one Dr. Waston, Edward Hardwicke. I fear I am love struck with Sherlock that only Jeremy Brett can portray. I fear that I will be unfaithful if I go see Robert Downey Jr. but alas I did and came back to my favorite.

If you go see the new Sherlock Holmes please send me your review!

Us baby boomers have a lot on our minds these days. And exercise is moving out there to the forefront, right? We know that as we age it is becomes difficult to find time to exercise but London found an interesting way to help aging boomers. A park with low impact equipment designed for improvement of balance and flexibility.

The idea is to have a playground for the elderly. And while this might sound like a novel idea Exercise areas aimed at the elderly are popular in Europe and Asia so why not the UK? And why not the United States as well? What a great idea to have a playground for the elderly. Meet friends and exercise more!

It relieves the aches and pains they we get as we age. The thing is when we are young no one tells us how it is going to feel as get older. If we have parents, older relatives or friends willing to share that information great but if not we are on our own. With our culture being youth oriented it “seems” as if the elderly just well, age. But the human body does more than that, it changes and it begins to slow down and not be as flexible.

It is never too late to exercise. When boomers were young the neighborhoods and entertainment was different. You just got out there and played on the playground with all the other kids but as we got older we lost touch with the simplicity of exercise. Let’s just call it movement. For example, take a look at walking for exercise. It seems that our culture has determined that without the right shoes, the right clothes and a good pedometer we can’t walk correctly. How can that be? How long have we been living on this planet and not known how to walk? We can find ways to walk more like take the stairs at work or park further out in the parking. They recommend 10,000 steps a day but I find just moving around I get that. If I have to stop and put on the right shoes or the right outfit I will never get those steps!

So the idea of a playground for the elderly got my attention. I could see how easy that would be to just play and not call it exercise, that dreaded stuff that takes a plan to do. Playing is fun not work. And when I think of how our culture has made exercise drudgery I visualize runners all decked in out the right shoes, the right clothes, iPod earphones in their ears with a serious look of basic survival fighting elements. No laughing, no playing, no friends just isolationism driven by the need to make exercise another “work” in progress in life.

Boomers know that life is too short to do that. I like the idea of a playground, don’t you? One thing I do know now that I failed to get while I was fighting my way through life is…..you don’t get a do- over on today. This one day is here for today and never again. What you do with it, how you use it will be only today. I say let’s go to a playground, do some gentle stretching and forget about calling it exercise. Let’s call it fun!

I'm Gonna Be A Bear!

Gonna be a bear

In this life I’m a woman. In my next life, I’d like to come back as a bear. When your a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, your suppose to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.

When your a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while your sleeping and wake up to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.

If your a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. you swat away anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.