"Christiansen Comments" Hinds County Gazette Febuary 3 2011

I am so much better now the sun has shined!

I puttered in the yard Friday and Saturday, actually I did more then putter, I got a pretty good bit of work done. Friday I sheared the crepe myrtles…but only lightly. Because, my friend Peggy Ann, a master gardener, called what I have done to them in the past “Crepe murder”. Following Peggy’s logic that made me a “crepe murderer“….I didn’t much like the sounds of that…. So I did not cut them back to waist high as was my usual habit ….just the very tips.



But in my defense, I was told to get crepe myrtles to bloom, I had to cut back them quite severely. And I must say this, in all of the years I have cut them back so brutally…none ever died….but come to think about it,,, they didn’t bloom profusely ether…. So to my crepe myrtles, I opted to be horticulturally kind this year.

At the bottom of the hill I have a contorted mulberry and a cedar tree…. they were becoming entangled…I thought giving a rather messy, unkempt appearance to that part of my yard…The contorted mulberry, obviously needed more room. Saturday morning, I walked to the bottom of the hill , bow saw in hand.

I stood and contemplated on the two trees… cedar was a volunteer it came up on it’s own…it grew up, to it’s present 15 foot height…with no help, and very little encouragement from me. The contorted mulberry on the other hand, has been pampered and praised, from the day it was planted…That contorted mulberry is the most exotic plant on the place….one year ago December, when one of it’s very large branches broke and fell to the ground, I shed tears..



I was ready to cut the “dime a dozen” cedar to the ground. Even though, standing between the two trees, I came to recognize, it was the mulberry encroaching on the territory of the cedar…robbing it of sun light. But, I knew, if I didn’t do something, eventually the cedar would become weak.



Because, I know how I feel….after days and days with out the sun‘s reassuring warmth and bright light….I didn’t want to….but I had to do, what I had to do. I took a deep breath and walked up to the enormous offending branch on the mulberry, and cut it off.



Love to all, call if you need me


PS
For those of you who read me both in the Gazette and on line, I hope you see, I do know how spell crepe myrtle..(It's not crape myrtle)..I am one of the world's worst spellers, so normally would not know if a word was spelled correctly or not...but  as I was writing that morning I looked it up...because I thought maybe crepe myrtle was one word....I blame the spelling error on an auto spell check program...they are built in to most word processing programs........it must have been turned on that day at the newspaper.

PS
 to my PS Crape Myrtle can be spelled ether crepe myrtle or carpe myrtle.

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette January 20 2011

Monday January 17 2011

It is drizzling rain this morning…it drizzled much of the day yesterday too. Drizzling rain is preferable to sleet and ice for sure…Lately there have not many days full sunshine…… it is grey and gloomy.



You all, just Soon as the holidays have passed and the tree is down…. I am eager for Spring to arrive…. my friends and acquaintances keep reminding me of how stifling hot and miserable Mississippi summers can be.



So of late Brain has had me contemplating the misery of sweltering summers verses the misery of gloomy winters…comparing them…. I have come to only one conclusion so far…..That being; no matter how hot it gets in June, July and August, I do not ever remember wanting to stay in the bed all day, curled up with my cats.



In the Summer I am out of bed at the crack of dawn… I may not accomplish any more on a scorching summer’s day, then I do on a bleak winter’s day. But I am up and dressed….and maybe all I end up doing is….going to the front porch, cold drink in hand , sitting down in the swing, and watching the grass grow…or helplessly watching the grass wither….but I am up and involved in the day.



Through the window behind me I see the Japanese magnolia budding…this time next month they will be blooming…. and then, perhaps, my winter melancholy will begin to slip away.



On a less whiney subject.

Lindsay Noble called last Friday after reading the Gazette and explained to me how Blue use to make her tamales…He said, Blue began her tamale making by boiling a whole hog’s head…and while the hog head was in the pot cooking, she went out to the barn, to gather up the corn husks to wrap the tamales in….. Well, I did not beg for that recipe…it sounded a bit like real work.



The tamale cooking has garnered up a good many comments…but nothing like the Ambrosia episode…you may or may not remember how out done the sweet, genteel ladies of the South became when I put gelatin in my ambrosia to tighten up the juices. Well, some of those very same ladies, when I filled a punch bowl halfway with ambrosia, (orange segments, coconuts and cherries) and poured 2 bottles of champagne over it and called it “punch”…. They had no objections or complaints to that adulterated ambrosia recipe …..there was nothing but, grins and lip smacking all around…



The sun is up, but not out….I am still in my pajamas ….the cats are asleep, in my not yet made bed.

         Call if you need me...I will be with them......

Whit my new BFF