Recent Reviews for Cynthia be_the_star_you_are@yahoo.com
The Gift of Magic (Short Story) - 12/20/2016 7:05:28 AM
Your parents certainly were creative. But to you as a young child it certainly seemed to be magical.
Ron
Scary Starry Night (Article) - 12/6/2019 10:00:22 AM
A wonderful, very detailed, article on how to keep your home safe. Unfortunately, you listed some of the most desirable trees and plants that Californians love to have. Unfortunately, too, there seems to be a growing tendency toward drought and storms with higher winds like the Santa Anas, creating the firestorms that we saw this year that respected few fire breaks and jumped even broad freeways with ease. We had those conditions in Texas a few years ago, 2011, that burned 2% of the state (Rhode Island and Delaware combined). Unless we can control what is happening to climate, it will get much worse.
In 1980, I built a cedar sided (with highly flammable Styrofoam insulation directly under) rustic home on a large, completely wooded lot 8 miles west of Atlanta on Bear Mountain. I left the underbrush under the trees and a very small space, with no lawn, around the house. At that time, the area was heavily wooded. But since then, many more homes have come in and cleared out most of the trees, creating expensive lawns to maintain. I moved away in 1981 for a job here in Houston. I rented the house until 2001 when I sold it. Looking recently on Google maps, the house looks good, although it looks like the underbrush under the trees has been cleared out. Over the years I thought about fire, but the area around Atlanta, while wooded with mostly loblolly pine, doesn't seem to have much of a fire problem.
On the other hand, two years ago after my brother spent a decade building a fabulous log home in the northeastern mountains of Arizona, when a forest fire came through, his house, closest to the edge of a valley, completely burned after he and his wife evacuated. Others didn't and saved their homes. Only three homes in the community of maybe 20, burned. They have since relocated to the lake country of northern Wisconsin. The place they bought is between two lakes and unlikely to be reached by a forest fire.
Ron
Alice's Wonderland (Article) - 9/25/2016 6:04:23 AM
Some wonderful memories and a great primer on the eclectic art of gardening. I certainly would love to see your mother's fabulous garden.
You made me recall the gardens of my youth. My brother and I worked hard to keep them weed free and they were bountiful. But I never liked it when my mother mixed the meager early vegetables into a creamed vegetable concoction. Now, when I think of those peas, string beans, cut carrots and corn all mixed together, I crave it.
My partner has taken up gardening in my miniature suburban yard with a passion. The flowers have been incredible. And to have fresh salad made with cherry tomatoes and cucumber every day from the garden from June until November is a real treat. Everyone marvels at her growing ability.
The only thing I object to is using city water to irrigate our plants in our flood/drought prone area. It is costly and wasteful to use drinking water to water outdoors. We need to get a cistern like in the old days both to save water for drinking and lower the cost.
I had a house in Atlanta that I built in the woods and had no garden or lawn. Nature is the best landscaper. From 1982 to about 1987, I planted flowers and maintained them until I could no more at this place. I'm sure glad my partner has taken over magically.
Ron
In My Sister's Country Garden (Article) - 5/21/2016 9:21:20 AM
Your people are people after my own heart. I'm sorry to hear that your sister, someone who really cared about her natural world, is now lost to us as an example.
Your playground tips are both compact and thorough… Bravo!
Ron
Cultivate a Wildflower Meadow (Article) - 4/6/2016 7:38:47 AM
Thanks so much Ron! Like you, I adore wildflowers. Grew up with them all over our ranch and farm. They are nature's gifts to us. Enjoy your garden. Blessings, Cynthia
Cultivate a Wildflower Meadow (Article) - 4/6/2016 4:23:19 AM
What a wonderful article on growing wildflowers. I've always loved wildflowers, remembering the trillium that carpeted the Wisconsin forests in the spring and the daisies, black-eyed Susans and other wildflowers that covered any open field all summer long. Later, finding wild azalea in the Georgian woods and now, in Texas, going to see the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush, as well as finding every vacant lot here in Houston filled with 7 foot tall sunflowers.
Thanks to Lady Bird Johnson, planes seed most Texas highways with beautiful wildflowers largely in the spring before the heat and drought of summer and their beauty. One time, returning from a cop trip to Austin in the 1980s. When we came to Interstate 10, we came upon a brilliant dark red field of wildflowers that I've never seen since, but that vision still haunts me every time I go wildflower viewing.
I always let my yard grow wild in spring so that many wildflowers there can bloom and reseed before the St. Augustine takes over. The last two summers beautiful phlox has popped up in a bed of exotic Vietnamese mint that thrives in the shade between my house and garage.
Ron
