Transcript 2009 Christmas Picture Greeting in PowerPoint

Merry Christmas
& Holiday Greetings from Kris
December 22, 2009
Williston, Ohio
Greetings from Mercy View Meadow
As cold gloomy winter settles down
over the earth, I thought you’d enjoy a
touch of summer life at Mercy View
Meadow. I first made this as birthday
greetings for the family back in
September.
Mr. Froggie is happy in the Mercy
View Meadow pond – sitting on a handy
rock. The pond was getting filled with
flowering water- mint this summer. I had
to weed out some of it. The pink and
green leaves down in the corner are from
Houttuynia cordata Chameleon, a
ground cover that is creeping around the
edge of the pond and under the bird bath.
The June visitors
The purple clematis on the back
light pole was gorgeous this June.
The white flowers are feverfew,
and actually came from
Oldemor’s (my mother’s) house in
Fremont, by way of a friend of
hers. Below is a picture of the
blossoms
See the wren house hanging on the
clothesline pole? I had wrens this year.
They sang and sang, and were in and
out of the house with nourishing bugs.
There must have been babies, but I
never saw them. I hated to disturb the
mother by peering inside with a
flashlight.
And then one day they all flew away!
A Surprise!
Late August, 2009
As I was touring the garden
with a friend, we stopped to
look at what was supposed to
be a hazelnut bush. I had
never seen any hazelnuts, but
I had seen little catkins, which
made me think that maybe it
was a birch. My friend lifted a
branch and low & behold
there was a shaggy hazelnut
husk. There weren’t many –
just 9 including some that had
fallen to the ground, but it
was promising!
Birch catkin above,
hazelnut catkin left,
hazelnuts & their
shaggy husks below
Yellow “Daisy” Time – late August
The grey-headed coneflower (left) is a native that I
planted some years ago, and seeds itself readily. The tall
coreopsis (below) is a native that volunteered in the
meadow. It is 6 or 7 feet tall. The yellow “daisy” with a
butterfly is a wingstem, with wings on its stem.
The
sunflowers
took over in
the garden
this year.
See the
compass
plant
blossoms in
the corner
>
My Giant Compass Plant
Silphium laciniatum
Compass plants are native to this area. I had
a compass plant in my meadow area, which
seeded itself over by my asparagus patch. Two
times I dug it up and transplanted it back into
the meadow area, and it still came back up in
the path by the asparagus patch! So I let it be.
Compass plants are so named because they
tend to align their foliage north and south to
present the minimum surface area to the hot
noon sunshine. The taproot of the compass
plant may grow to more than 9-14 ft. deep,
making it hardy and resistant to drought.
Maybe that is why it kept coming back!
It was too hard to get a good picture of the
whole plant. It’s 7 or 8 feet tall.
The flowers
above belong
to the plant
below with
the deeply
fingered
leaves.
The Sunflowers took over
in the veggie garden!
That’s the neighbor’s
barn roof with
missing shingles that
blew into my yard.
Last year’s sunflowers seeded themselves in the garden.
I weeded out some, but they looked so innocent, I left
others. Now some of them have stems nearly 2 inches
in diameter! They are huge, and obstructing the paths.
But the gold
finches are
enjoying them.
See the nibbled
flower petals &
seeds above and
to the left.
A Very Special Occasion – The
Queen of the Night blooms 8/4/09
That’s Spirit
looking on
The first photo was taken at 8 p.m., the next at about
10 p.m. – she really won’t bloom until it’s dark! The
ungainly plant was outside by the birdbath, and I had
been watching the progress of the bud over several
days, propped on an upturned dish pan so I could see
it. But after it bloomed I brought it inside to enjoy
the blossom until I went to bed about 1 a.m. By next
morning the blossom had collapsed.
I took the crazy ungainly plant back outside
where it had been, and low and behold it put out
three more buds! (It hasn’t bloomed that often).
But it was mid October and getting too cold. I
brought the plant into the breezeway when the
buds were plump and ready to bloom, but it was
too cold and they didn’t open. Here they are after
I brought them in the house – too late.
In the meanwhile I found
this gigantic praying
mantis (above) in the back
yard.
The Squirrel Nest
A friend said that she watched a
squirrel build her nest, chopping
off the branches, and
occasionally dropping one. A
couple years ago I saw similar
downed branches under that
same tree on the other side on the
grass, and figured it must be a
squirrel.
One day I noticed a lot of small branches had
fallen on the driveway. It didn’t look like
wind damage as they were cut off clean. I
looked up in the big maple tree, and sure
enough, there was a big squirrel nest of fresh
leaves and branches. I didn’t take the
pictures until a few days later, when the
leaves had dried and it had rained.
The Bee Bath!
Something new this year – the bees have been
visiting the bird bath regularly. Sometime there
have been 10 or 12 bees enjoying a drink – or
are they getting minerals from the algae
buildup? See them on the rock in the detail.
Early September found me in
San Diego as delegate to the
International P.E.O. convention.
This is the spectacular view
from the balcony of my 16th
floor hotel room. Lots of lovely
fresh breezes coming in the
door at night.
Here I am with the well-known
Suzy Spafford, signing the
delightful poster that she
designed for the convention. I
wasn’t familiar with her cards,
but I ran into one at home that I
had received from Caryn’s
sister!
Greetings from the pussies
Tiger blissed out
under the sunlamp
(alias chicken lamp)
that brings light and
warmth in winter.
• One of Spirit’s
favorite spots –
on top of the
water heater –
or even on top of
the bathroom
door next to it.
.
.
May the angels watch
over you this holy
season, and may the
Spirit of Peace rule in
our hearts always.
Blessings in 2010!
Kris
Glory to God in the Highest!