Geriatric Gardening

Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning I woke up fairly early and half-asleep wandered out on the deck to look over my garden. (I had watered the night before and I was trying to determine if I needed to water again before getting ready for church.)

Suddenly I noticed two blooms coming from the other side of the deck where nothing, “nada” had taken place all summer. Anne had given me some moon flower sprouts in a planter and some more moon flower seeds to plant in a small pot for the other side. (which I did and have had three moon flower blooms to date)

There were two blooms and I rubbed my eyes….they looked blue…I had never seen a blue moon flower….perhaps it was a hybrid…. my imagination was racing ahead of my senses (happens to me all the time.) I would be famous for my Blue Moon flowers….and quoted in  a gardening magazine as exclaiming when I first saw them “Look what I just discovered…. moon flower blooms as rare as a blue moon, itself.”

The “correct” Latin derivative of this amazing discovery would be: Daingeanazureuslunaflos. ( Dingle blue moon flower)

I ran back inside to get my Iphone to take a photo for “history” and as I was zooming in… my semi-conscious senses jumped back into the action and I realized immediately….“These aren’t moon flowers….they are morning glories.”

Suddenly a summer-long mystery was solved. Anne had asked me several times, while visiting my garden this summer, if I had any other color-shaded morning glories besides purple and I told her no. She said she had bought a variety pack with different exotic colors and she couldn’t figure out what happened to them?

When I texted the picture to her yesterday morning she knew what happened. She had planted them in the planter she mistakenly gave me….thinking they were moon flowers. Poor Anne….Hurrah for me…the color takes your breath away!

To make it up to her I invited her over for french cuisine for Sunday lunch….Yes you heard me right….the Boo cooked Saturday night….a complete french meal.

But before I tell you how that “once in a blue moon” incident occurred… Anne told me that she and her neighbor Shirley/fellow bike rider agreed on some rules for “Geriatric Gardening.‘

It all started while trekking along each morning on their 11-mile bike ride.Every day they would see different flowering blooms….plants, bushes, and trees. They would ask each other what it was…the name. And most of the time both were clueless. So in frustration they made a pact that each one had to take time to pick out 12 blooming plants and learn their name to tell the other.

Anne admitted that most of the time it worked…but there were still those mornings when the fuzzy brain neurons just wouldn’t bring it to the front of the memory box. So they have had to learn to laugh and just chalk it up to the “geriatrics” in their gardening endeavors.

“Geriatric gardening” teaches us that we need friends to help us keep names of plants straight….Anne has Shirley and I send Doodle pictures from my garden and ask her to identify them for me. The older we get, the more we depend on old friends. Getting older isn’t fun alone….with friends, it is hilarious!

My french cuisine began with this book. I had just finished another book by the same author and enjoyed it so much I checked to see what else she had written.

When I saw the title and realized that the story took place in Provence I knew I had to read it to bring back wonderful memories of the summer of 2005 spent there.

It is my favorite summer read. As much as I have enjoyed several other novels for different reasons…this one just pulled me in from the start and never let go. It brought back so many memories of Provence that I had forgotten.

*Let me re-state that last remark….this book is my favorite fiction I have read so far this summer. (Don’t want the ghost of Alexander Hamilton showing up for a duel!)

You can’t have a story set in France without the ‘state of cooking’ taking a heady role in the plot. This was true of the novel. And at the end of it the author took time to write down some old Provence culinary dishes used in the story.

My mouth was watering Saturday afternoon by the time I finished the novel. I wrote down all the ingredients for the Provence Cream Chicken entre with pearly onions, and sauteed russet potatoes cooked in olive oil and truffle oil with fresh parlsy topping off the dish (truffle oil is expensive but worth every penny.)

I added grilled asparagus and rolls to the meal….viola…Boo Cooked! (Anne marked the calendar August 7, 2016-served!

I loaned Anne the novel and double-dared her to try another Provence recipe when she finished…inviting me, of course, for the test taste.

Actually she surprised me with the most delicious peach cobbler-perfect ending ….as Ernest Hemingway would describe it…..”A Moveable Feast”….it moved happily right to our stomachs.

So until tomorrow…Anne found the two cutest Winnie the Pooh expressions to say thank you for the meal! Love them both Anne!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

• Cindy Ashley sent me this picture of a mural with my two favorite colored flowers painted on a fence….she told me that way I could have orange/yellow flowers all year. The message and photo went to Messenger which I didn’t have (at the time she sent it) ….so I never saw it until today. But this is a great way to help “geriatric gardening”.….just paint the flowers on your fence….no weeding, or watering….just enjoying. Now you only have one name to remember….brilliant! Thanks Cindy…..oh Mandy!!!!!!