Peony Memories
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on May 18, 2012 in Blogging, Home/Garden | 0 comments
“Back Home Again in Indiana” always evokes childhood memories of my all-time favorite of flowers – the Peony (Paeonia suffruticosa), pronounced by my family members and myself when I was growing up as though it were spelled “piney.” Native to Asia, southern Europe and western North America, the beautiful and fragrant perennial actually has two correct spellings –...
MEET ME IN POLK: Mom Has Lots To Choose ...
Posted by Marialice Quinn on May 11, 2012 in Arts, Education, Entertainment, Environment, From the Publisher, Home/Garden | 0 comments
Let’s all look forward to good weather this weekend because Mom deserves to mingle with artists from around the country on Lake Morton during the 41st Annual MIDFLORIDA Mayfaire by-the-Lake Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday night you can hear some great jazz sounds at the performance of “All That Jazz.” This free Tuesday Music Club event features...
From Coffee to Worms, Dirt Days Are Fun
Posted by Friends of the Parks/Glenda Mink on May 10, 2012 in Education, Environment, Home/Garden, Organization | 0 comments
By Glenda Mink
Youngsters were joined by their adult partners and other volunteers who helped weed and clean out the beds and trim back other plants as part of a spring cleaning project at Polk County’s Christina Park, site of the popular “It Matters What You Grow” Dirt Day No. 2, that was held April 28.
Members of the Florida Geocaching Association (who...
It Felt Good
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on May 4, 2012 in Blogging, Charity/Volunteer, Environment, Government, Home/Garden | 0 comments
One small patch of the once beautiful wild coffee needed a good shot of iron to restore yellowing leaves to the same lush and shiny evergreen displayed by the remainder that provided stem cuttings for youngsters who participated in our popular “It Matters What You Grow” Dirt Day plant propagation workshop held last Saturday at Christina Park. Kids ages 6 to 12 and their adult...
Over-Ripe Bananas
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Apr 27, 2012 in Blogging, Home/Garden | 0 comments
I often wonder if Wonderful Wally purposely buys more bananas than the two of us can eat in a week in hopes that Nana will bake some Banana Nut Bread using the last of the bunch which have become too soft and unappealing to be used for anything else.
Nana’s favorite recipe is one from Recipes and Reminiscences of New Orleans, a cookbook purchased in 1972 when I visited the French...
Native Salvia is Prolific
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Apr 20, 2012 in Blogging, Home/Garden | 0 comments
It is pretty, very easy (almost too easy) to grow and butterflies love it. It is also known to attract hummingbirds, although Nana has yet to see one. That would be the ultimate!
Scarlet salvia (Salvia coccinea), also known as scarlet sage is native to Florida and other parts of the southeastern United States. The “Lady in Red” cultivar is the most common, although there are...
Backyard Discovery
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Apr 13, 2012 in Blogging, Environment, Home/Garden | 0 comments
On his website (http://www.polkcountybirds.com/) local birding expert Chuck Geanangel notes that “wrens will build nests almost anywhere.” Usually low to the ground and no more than eye level, the Carolina Wren builds multiple domed nests and sometimes will raise three broods in a season. Like the House Wren, they build dummy nests to perhaps give the female a choice of...
Diverted by Cuttings
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Apr 6, 2012 in Blogging, Home/Garden | 0 comments
Nana calls it multi-tasking. Wonderful Wally calls it an inability to stay focused. And it drives him crazy.
This past weekend was the perfect example of what might very well be the primary difference between Nana and Wonderful Wally, if not broader based to embrace all men and women. A corner chat with two of my women friends at a party last Saturday evening suggests a common...
Nana’s Red-Shouldered Hawk and Eas...
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Mar 30, 2012 in Blogging, Environment, Home/Garden | 0 comments
Nana shared one birding excursion out to Circle B with Wonderful Wally very early in March to check on the status of nesting Sandhill Cranes. I didn’t download the photos from my camera until two days ago.
Much to my surprise, I had a fairly decent shot of a Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), a rather common medium-sized bird of prey that lives here in our neck of the woods...
It’s a Bird; It’s a Plane . . . Oh, It R...
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Mar 23, 2012 in Blogging, Environment, Home/Garden | 0 comments
In the early morning light, the beautiful colors of the Great Blue are blended into a warm glow of brown. Even so, I love this photo Wonderful Wally took this week at Circle B of this magnificent bird which happens to be the largest heron species in North America. Wading birds standing three and a half to four and a half feet tall, with a wingspan of five and a half to six and a...
Dirt Day Offers Home-Grown Fun For Kids
Meet Me In Polk: Lake Morton Residents I...
MCU Offers Free Tickets and Ride to Dave...
An Exciting Week
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Mar 16, 2012 in Blogging, Environment, Home/Garden | 0 comments
Nana’s exciting week began on Sunday, most weeks do, you say. I was apprehensive when I got a call from David Price, president of our Green Horizon Land Trust board of directors that afternoon and learned it was pouring down rain in Lake Wales. It’s a good 45-minute drive to Nana’s new office; it wasn’t raining in Lakeland. If it didn’t stop, would we have a poor...
From Dolls to Roller Derby, Spring Obses...
Posted by Marialice Quinn on Mar 9, 2012 in Arts, Charity/Volunteer, Entertainment, From the Publisher, Home/Garden | 0 comments
Spring Obsession, Lakeland’s premier garden event in historic Downtown Lakeland’s Munn Park, is a celebration of garden, art and music featuring local and regional nurseries, garden vendors and art for and about the garden. On Saturday, March 10, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. you can enjoy a free family day of activities while exploring the many flowers and plants for sale, attend...
Agri-Fest for Polk’s 4th Graders
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Mar 9, 2012 in Blogging, Home/Garden, Organization | 0 comments
Agri-Fest is a pretty big deal for our Polk County Master Gardeners. Every year in the spring, we host some 6,000 students and more than 300 teachers for a “horticulture” program at the Polk County Agricultural Center in Bartow. Fourth-graders are bused in from all around the County to visit eight agriculture stations in rotation, horticulture being one, where they learn...
Meet Me In Polk: There’s a Whole L...
Posted by Marialice Quinn on Mar 2, 2012 in Arts, Entertainment, From the Publisher, Home/Garden | 0 comments
Continuing through March 18 is “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,” a Theatre Winter Haven production, at the Chain of Lakes Complex.
The Lakeland Community Theatre’s production of “My Fair Lady” also continues through March 11 at the Lake Mirror Center.
Harrison School for the Arts Musical Theatre Department presents “Little Women” today through...
White Birds in Nana’s Garden
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Mar 2, 2012 in Blogging, Home/Garden | 0 comments
Magnificent and beautiful white birds were spotted low to the ground in Nana’s Garden this past weekend as I was hand-watering plants under the large oak tree. At first glance, I thought there was only one but a closer investigation with Wonderful Wally, his camera ready, revealed multiple birds with a dark blue tongue about twelve inches in length.
The white birds were...
Woody and His Cousins
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Feb 24, 2012 in Blogging, Environment, Home/Garden | 0 comments
The pileated woodpecker is probably the most readily identifiable of all woodpeckers especially to those of my generation thanks to the cartoon character named Woody, created by artist Ben Hardaway in 1940 and brought to life by the animation of Walter Lantz.
Pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) are the largest of Florida’s woodpecker family, reaching a length of 18 inches. ...
Let’s Count Those Birds!
Posted by Nana’s Home and Garden by Glenda Mink on Feb 17, 2012 in Blogging, Education, Environment, Home/Garden | 0 comments
Today begins an annual four-day event (February 17-20) referred to as the Great Backyard Bird Count, or GBBC. I can assure you Wonderful Wally will be among the thousands out there photographing, identifying and counting as many birds as he possibly can to help researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society understand how bird populations are...
From the Publisher, Marialice Quinn
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