Come walk with me in the peak Autumn beauty of the Northwoods. To say that I love this time of year is an understatement. Most everyone can appreciate the colorful falling leaves---it reveals the 'true self' of a tree when its leaves are no longer producing chlorophyll. Their true colors are revealed, and there is something simple … [Read More...]
Peacock Feathers and a Divorce
While we’re waiting for Spring to show up (the grass is getting a little greener, and there are tiny leaves on the honeysuckle), let me tell the true tale of peacock feathers and a divorce. In our first year of marriage, we were house-sitting for friends of friends. It was a wondrous mansion of a house on acres of land in the middle of the city—I had never stayed in a house so grand! There was a barn, a carriage house, and beautiful gardens with intricate iron lawn furniture, fountains, and interesting stone statues. We cared for their three dogs and tended the gardens—duties we were familiar with and comfortable doing. In the large expanse of lawn and garden lived a number of peacocks who needed nothing from us. They grazed their way through the yard during the day with their graceful, flowing tail feathers following them like a bridal train. At night they would perch in the trees and sound the alarm if anything untoward entered their domain. One evening we drove back home to check on things at our old farmhouse. While there, we got a phone call from my Mom and Dad with the news that they were divorcing. I literally fell to the floor when I heard those words. In shock, I rode back to the mansion—my world had changed. I can’t remember if I slept that night, but I do remember getting up the next morning to do the only thing I knew how to do when things around you are collapsing—chores. I got on my hands and knees and washed the tile floor in the large kitchen, dining area, and laundry room, scrubbing the stained grout with a scrub brush until it looked white again, tears falling into and mixing with the dirty water. After hours of scrubbing, I baked a pound cake, heavy with eggs, sugar, and butter. Heavy cake for a heavy heart. While the cake was cooling on the counter and I was outside, the young Husky dog jumped up and ate a large chunk out of it. I threw the cake in the trash—tears upon tears. Chris got back from work, and we walked in the gardens, trying to process the news. I picked up peacock feathers—the female ones with subtle color and the male ones with the exquisite, jewel-toned eyes. I took them home and put them in a vase. I’ve been picking up feathers and making feather bouquets ever since.
Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
and sings the tunes without the words
and never stops at all. –Emily Dickinson
This last sapphire blue-tipped feather is one I picked up at the bridal luncheon when our oldest daughter Emily got married in the fall of 2015. It was from one of the peacocks that roamed the acreage surrounding the mansion where the luncheon celebrating love and marriage was held. Hope never stops at all.
Treasures Holding Treasures
For my high school graduation present my parents gave me a cedar chest. I had long admired the cedar wood of the chests that belonged to my Mom and Grandma, though I eschewed the idea of mine being a ‘hope chest’ to be filled with things in preparation for marriage. I did, however, like the idea of having a place for treasures. Today, my cedar chest is where I store the crazy quilt my Grandma Anna made for me when we lived so far away from her. It has lacy crocheted doilies and a needlepoint pillow made by her and passed down from my Mom. It houses three generations of wedding dresses–mine, my Mom’s, and my great-grandma Katie’s from 1918. A plaid Pendleton shirt, a wool hat, and wool needlepoint Christmas stockings for the kids. Baby blankets, embroidered pillowcases, dainty handkerchiefs, and a wedding quilt made by our sister-in-law. And the strangest thing–two mink collars that belonged to Chris’ Mom, complete with heads, feet, and tails! For centuries, cedar chests have been used to keep linens, blankets, anything wool, clothes, and even paperwork sweet-smelling and safe from insects.
The shaggy, rough bark of the Eastern Red Cedar tree has a reddish-brown color that hints at the brilliant red-purple wood that is contained inside of it. The wood is fine-grained, light, and durable. It has been used for fence posts, pencils, cedar chests, and linings for closets. The distinct, pleasing aroma of the red heartwood repels insects and moths that feed on wool.
Cutting the wood with a sharp chainsaw produces fragrant shavings. After Chris sawed cookies of the beautiful wood, I gathered the shavings.
For Christmas presents this year, I made sachets filled with cedar shavings to put in clothes drawers or boxes. I cross-stitched initials on the open weaved Aida cloth, sewed a backing fabric right side to right side, turned them right-side out, filled them with the sweet-smelling shavings, then hand-stitched the opening.
Red cedars are tough, drought-resistant evergreens that provide cover and food for birds and animals. They are not the most attractive tree, yet they play an important role in the ecosystem. And inside the shaggy-barked tree, the wood is beautiful, aromatic, lightweight and durable. Crafted into a chest, it has protected treasures of every sort for generations of families.
We are all treasures holding treasures. We each play an important, unique role in our families, workplaces, and communities. Creativity, compassion, emotional intelligence, leadership, and humor are just some of the many treasures we bring to the Life around us.
Pearl Buttons from the River
A convergence of occurrences led me to writing about pearl buttons. First was the date February 2–Groundhog’s Day to most, but to the Brakes, it is also the wedding anniversary of Chris’ parents. They were married in Chicago in 1944, he in his Army uniform and she in a stylish suit. Doug and Ruth both grew up in Cassville, Wisconsin, a tiny little town nestled between the tree-covered bluffs and the mighty Mississippi River in southwestern Wisconsin. The second occurrence was the fact that it was February in Minnesota, and my outdoor nature ‘opportunities’ were a little bit harder to find. And third, as I was finally putting away Christmas decorations, I came across something that Chris’ Mom had made.
On one of our Brake family reunions at Eagles Roost Resort in Cassville, we took The Pride of Cassville Car Ferry up the Mississippi to the town of Guttenberg, Iowa. The ferry has been running the river since 1833–the oldest operating ferry service in the state of Wisconsin. It connects The Great River Road and the Iowa Great River Road, two National Scenic Byways. We rode the ferry as walk-on passengers for a $2 fare one way. When we disembarked in Guttenberg, we saw an old limestone building beside the River. It was once a button factory. There were huge piles of discarded freshwater mussel shells in the sand between the stone building and the River that had been used to make pearl buttons. So the kids and I collected shells.
Empire Buttonworks opened in 1909–one of four button factories in Guttenberg. The Mississippi River provided a seemingly endless supply of freshwater mussels that were gathered by the clammers using dragging hooks. Mussels were boiled and pried open to remove the meat, then the shells were soaked before cutting buttons from the iridescent layers. Grinding and polishing followed, then the buttons were sewn on to a card. Millions of pearl buttons were made in this one factory during its fifty years of business, and this was just one factory of many along the Mississippi River.
I gave some of my collected shells away to other people, and some I arranged in a hurricane glass with a candle that reminded me of the River.
Long before I became a Brake, Ruth and her kids had collected Guttenberg button shells also. She and Chris took a pie pan, some sand, the shells, and plaster of paris out to the backyard to make a plaque. It was displayed in their living room for many years, reminding them of their River home in Wisconsin. It was passed on to us after they died.
Bringing Nature indoors keeps us connected to the Earth, and in the case of the button shells, connected to a long history of family. An even longer history emerges from the shell button industry–an idea, the abundance of natural resources, work for many people, depletion of those resources, a new idea (buttons from plastic), and so it goes….
I treasure the simple plaque that Chris and his Mom made. I treasure the memories of that ferry-boat ride to Guttenberg with the Brake family and collecting button shells with my kids. I keep the shell with the five holes on the windowsill above the kitchen sink along with a rock carved with Love. It represents our family of five and the prevailing emotion that I tried to bring to all our days together. Perhaps this will be part of a convergence of occurrences that leads someone else to a treasured pearl.
Making an Evergreen Wreath
The evergreen wreath is a prominent decoration for the Christmas season. It has been used symbolically for centuries in all parts of the world. The circular shape represents eternity–no beginning and no end. Evergreens, which battle the forces of winter and remain green, symbolize growth and everlasting life.
Chris had gathered evergreen boughs before our November 10th snowstorm and made our front door arrangement in a large clay pot after the annuals were pulled from it. The weather over this past weekend had warmed above freezing, so I went to the screened-in porch to make a wreath with the left-over boughs. The snow melted and dripped, dripped, dripped from the roof. Our Black Lab circled the table while I worked, sniffing for the dog treats I placed in the middle of the materials. Garrison Keillor told and sung his stories on the radio. And all the while, the heady smell of evergreens filled my nostrils with the smell of Christmas.
I started with a circular metal base and an assortment of pine, fir, and blue spruce boughs.
I opened up the wire clips with pliers and laid pine branches of about 10 inches around the wire circle.
I added fir branches of the same size, making sure they stayed between the metal clips.
After the second layer of branches, I folded the clips over the evergreens with the pliers.
I put on my boots, hat, and coat and carried the pruners outside to gather some white pine, red cedar, and arborvitae boughs.
I added shorter (5-6 inches) branches of blue spruce, white pine, red cedar, and arborvitae to the wreath by pushing the end of the stem under a clip or securely under other branches, going in the same direction around the circle.
The day before the snowstorm, as we scrambled to put up plastic and put things away, I had cut a couple of handfuls of bluestem and prairie dropseed grasses from my prairie garden. The prairie dropseed has long, fine leaves that cascade outward, forming round tufts. They have beautiful fall color and are very pliable.
I made a ‘pony tail’ of the prairie dropseed by wrapping a twisty tie around the cut end, then braided it. At the end, I knotted it on itself to hold the braid in place.
I tied the braids onto the wreath with green tie tape, but you could use craft wire or jute string. After looping the braids into a bow, I tied it again.
I put a small branch with two cones and a sumac seedhead into the wreath to cover the tie of the grass bow. And the wreath was finished!
Evergreen wreaths symbolize the unending circle of life, and each of the greens represent a specific theme. Pine represents eternal life, and spruce gives us hope in adversity. Cedar stands for strength and healing, while juniper represents protection. The fir boughs symbolize a ‘lifting up.’ Cones and seedpods represent new life and resurrection. From a distance, a Christmas wreath is a sign of welcome and holiday cheer. In this season of gathering and giving, may you experience all things Evergreen.
Flower of Fives
A cold rain has been falling steadily for two days now. An east wind is blowing much more strongly than the east wind usually does. The temperature just crept above 40 degrees. And rain is in the forecast for the next six days. April showers bring May flowers–and I am looking forward to that. But for today, I have an indoor flower for you to see!
This plant is a Hoya carnosa or Wax plant. It has thick, waxy, dark green leaves and sends out long, bare stems that then produce leaves. The newest stem likes to grow to the fluorescent light, even though it is in the southwest window. I pull it down to the other stems, then by the next day, it is back inside the lamp shade!
A couple weeks ago I noticed a flower bud starting to grow from a thick stalk that radiated numerous thin stems. At the end of each stem was a tiny tan envelope in a perfect pentagon shape with a faint pink star coming from a pink center. As the days went by, the little five-sided envelopes turned more pink with a darker pink pentagon star in the middle. And finally over the weekend, each envelope unfolded to a delicate blush-pink velvety star with a cream and red star at the core. It has a faintly spicy fragrance, and each center star has a tiny drop of nectar clinging to it.
What an exquisite, perfect, geometric design of this flower of fives! It’s a bright star on a dreary day!
Hydrangea Beauty Indoors
I love bringing nature indoors–it keeps me connected to the natural world, no matter what time of the year. These hydrangea flowers were picked in the fall after they had dried on the shrub and have graced the wall of the bathroom for the winter. They retain the pink color, and they don’t shed.
This hydrangea is my absolute favorite north-hardy shrub. It is Quick Fire Hardy Hydrangea, one of the Proven Winners ColorChoice shrubs. It blooms early to midsummer with pure white blossoms–I think it would be an exquisite, though uncoventional addition to a bridal bouquet. The white blossoms then gradually turn pink–ours doesn’t get as bright pink as the picture on the tag, but that may be because it is in partial sun under an oak tree.
I will post pictures of Quick Fire during the rest of the year. It is such a wonderful hardy shrub with beauty and interest in each season.