It sounded like an easy breezy show this week with John and Bowood Farm’s Ellen Barrado. Not so much of an easy week but definitely a fast week for me as I have started a new Christmas tradition, “intentionally” giving myself and my time as my gift. I have found it surprisingly more difficult than it use to be to estimate my time.
My apologies for anyone waiting on me to do this blog, I know it is late, but it is a gift as well and I do believe in the “better late than never” saying. Consider this wait time as training for whatever waiting marathons that might lie ahead this holiday.)
I have written about this wonderful plant, Ilex verticillata, and so many times that this should have taken a minimum amount of time. I thought I would just link back to previous articles, http://maryannfink.blogspot.com/2010/10/ktrs-550-inside-out-show-plant-of-week_30.html, http://www.newtownatstcharles.com/NTCourier/NTCourier_2006-11.pdf and this one I wrote for the Water Gardening Society’s newsletter, Water World, http://www.docstoc.com/docs/90600495/October-2009-WW-e-mail and post a cheery pic of a heavily berried holly in my neighborhood and be done.
Instead as I read these over myself, I found myself falling in love with this attractive native all over again! I confess I have just scanned thru the customers at Bread Co. wondering who I might be able to strike up a conversation with so I can introduce this beauty to someone right now! Euow… something is so wrong with me! (Here is one I just mentioned reading,
Unfortunately the Plants of Merit program has ended, not because these aren’t good plants but the support to fund promoting them seems to have come to an end. Hearing this news was a sad moment for me because of the effort and time that has been committed to it by so many. (A reminder that time is a gift to be appreciated all year) Enjoy the link anyway! http://www.maryannfink.com/POM-listofBloomTime.htm
My sister Joanne posted this link (and so much more you are welcomed to use and enjoy) on my website as her gift to me. My advantage was I did know it was a gift even at the time. Now I know why I was so blessed but I didn’t know how much I would treasure her gift or how it was going to change my life.
I still smile when I think of all the questions she had while she read through each and every Plant of Merit and followed the links. She was amazing at making sure everything was working right, but she was a little like me, and time slipped away from both of us as she began a list of plants she wanted to see for herself. We even critiqued the photos and she offered some suggestions about which ones needed a better picture. Side note I planted a few of her favorites in her
LINKS
John Shea, of Collier, Thompson and Shea
Garden Height’s Steffie Littlefield
Ellen Barredo, of Bowood Farms
Greenscape Gardens, Jennifer Schamber
KTRS is doing a three person round robin rotation that will address the part of KTRS’s Inside Out Show’s focus on gardening, landscaping and turf care (basically the “Out” portion of the show.)
John Shea will continue with his team of experts and industry representatives from the home building industry and hardware retail suppliers as the anchor of the Inside Out Show and as professional advisor for the balance of home owner call in questions.
All three of the new Inside Out Show’s garden hosts/ experts are wonderful writers and have featured articles published on a frequent basis in the Gateway Gardener. KTRS’s website will surely be updated with this new hosting information shortly!
My Faith Note:
I believe in the example God set for this season, of our Savior’s birth, as a time of giving of one’s self. This year my gift to family and friends is so precious to me, that I am having difficulty explaining my reasoning and its value, to my own family. I hope someday they will understand me better and know that I actually have a new and deeper sense of the Spirit of Christmas.
Until I lost my sister, I am not sure I realized how time could be so painfully short and priceless. I also am more aware that this is a difficult to package gift. It surely does not come with any warranty or guarantee of anything, either!
My time is difficult to measure for the recipient on the pleasure scale too! Apparently enjoyment is not promised! Patrick probably doesn’t enjoy every minute with Nana and as I help my dad this past week review his eating habits and find new ways to limit his salt intake, he has doubts about the current value of this gift too!
As a matter of fact, I am thinking about weighting out six pounds of water and setting them on his kitchen counter today. He has lost 6 pounds in six days. Do you think he can see sometimes a gift is not having something, like this much water weight, leaning on his failing heart valves?
There is no exchange policy either! It can’t be given back or returned and once it is gone, it is gone. I hope that as I give this most precious gift, it will be a time of thoughtful consideration at least for me of what the Gift is that I am celebrating this Christmas. Thank you dear heavenly Father, for Your Son, for His Birth, His Life, and His Death so that I have Your Eternal Gift of Salvation!
Merry Christmas to All….Re (Nana)
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