Oak Tree

As I take my daily walks I'm trying to be more, well... "present." Deepak Chopra, a pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, says its important.  The bottom line is...it's all about spiritual wellness.  For a good part of my life I haven't been "present." I was either worrying about something that's already happened or wondering about the something that might happen in the future.  So, I've been taking my camera along for my walks and I snapped a few "present" shots of one of our oak trees as it began to leaf out this spring.  I wondered just HOW the leaves developed so I took a few progression shots.  They're such magnificent trees, some of them probably over a hundred years old.  Yet, every year with the advent of spring, they renew the cycle of life by shooting out thousands of leaves and acorns.  I love my oak trees...

...now, back to my walk!

Peonies and Beer?

When the local garden center had their end of season sale last year, we purchased two very sad looking peony plants.  The price was so good we couldn't pass them up.  Our hope was that one of them might survive.  To our surprise, they both came up this spring and each plant had 5 or 6 huge, pink flowers. I love peonies but I don't love the ants that come with them.  So, after a bit of research I decided to try submerging the entire cutting in water for 20 minutes to see if I could get rid of the ants.  I needed something heavy to weight down the cuttings and, well, Mr. A's beer  bottles fit the bill. Apparently commercial growers harvest the peonies when the buds are soft like marshmallows to avoid the ant problem.  Ill remember that next year!