Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

garden

Have Butterfly Garden Dreams?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                  (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

The birds are singing, tulips are blooming and I’m back on allergy meds; it must be Spring! Walked into my bedroom Sunday and heard a noise like a cross between a mini-jackhammer and a tiny steel drum band. Yup, the woodpecker is back and still in love with my gutter. The sounds of the season.

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Plant arrangement outside my sister’s house to celebrate Spring. Finally!

 

Last Tuesday when I was playing wood nymph outside instead of writing a blog post, I made a momentous decision about my backyard garden. Okay, garden is a bit overrated, it’s an assortment of garden pots. But it is my garden. Since I water it and don’t eat the limited produce and herbs, I’m giving serious thought to replacing it with a butterfly garden.

Not only can I help out the butterflies, but I can extend the Fairy Rock Garden closer to the patio. Given the amount of Fairy Rock Garden booty I’ve picked up over the long, damp, wet, gray winter, I’m need to annex some lots anyway.

The idea occurred to me surfing the web when I came upon a native plants nursery in West Linn, Oregon when looking for huckleberry plants. Not that I’m going to plant those, but I LOVE huckleberries. The nursery had a web page about butterfly garden plants. It looks like an amazing place to take my camera. Road trip!

What better neighbor for a Fairy Rock Garden than a butterfly garden? When I took Mom over to my favorite trail in Camp Sherman last May, a butterfly even landed on me. Think that is a big hint.

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Butterflies chowing down on plants by the river in June 2012 at Camp Sherman.

 

I’ve always loved butterflies, so this will be an adventure.  Everyone knows fairies ride butterflies for transportation, so I need to set up their transit hub. Stay tuned for updates on the butterfly garden transformation.

Got garden plans?  Got room for plants to feed butterflies? Dig in!

California Dreaming?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                    (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

It’s raining. Again. It’s official, this is the wettest February on record in Oregon. Since before the pioneers. This time of year we should be looking forward to Spring break, posies popping out of the ground and humming vintage Beach Boys songs.

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This plaque set next to the squad of bunnies in the store. Beach trips! 

 

Instead I took a couple pictures of the first pink saxafrasia blooms yesterday and they blurred. Not enough light. It was 2 p.m. in the afternoon! But there are some soggy buds on the trees and the brave daffodils are trying to rise into the air once again. I need to get them life vests.

Of course, it’s pouring in California too. Good news for them, their drought is over. Bad news, Mother Nature is still pouring on the water. Just to be sure I guess. Maybe she’s been chatting with Smokey Bear. (I call him Smokey the Bear but it appears he’s changed his name. Hard to keep up.)

Since I prefer to live in denial these days, I am going to assume the sun will come out again and we will have a fabulous Spring. Plans for planting my garden pots, more development in the Fairy Rock Garden and wearing less than four layers of clothes fill my mind. Naked painted toes! Shorts! No parkas! I get excited so easily.

We can do this. We can plan for sun. Warm breezes. Farmer’s markets. It will happen. Raspberries. Visiting alpacas. Fresh pears. Gliding back and forth in the lawn swing on a warm summer’s eve smelling neighbor’s BBQ and hearing the birdies sing.

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Farmer’s Market bounty. Everything comes back to food…..

 

In the meantime I guess we can take a hint from Spec Ops Cat and spend some time like he did yesterday. Find a cushy bed and a fuzzy blanket. Proceed to tunnel, twist and turn into a cat burrito. Cats are so smart.

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Yes, Spec Ops Cat is inside that lump. Cats rule! 

 

Wake me when it’s Spring!

Big Bark, Fairies And Spring?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                         (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Last Saturday at my fiction critique group, my author buddy Cindy Hiday surprised me with a gift. When I unwrapped the item, it was a humongo piece of bark. Score! She felt it might be perfect for the Fairy Rock Garden. It fell off firewood she and her Air Force veteran hubby were unloading.

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What a beautiful bark piece. It’s drying out in the front foyer, watched over by garden bunny. This may become a fairy diorama… 

 

Cindy’s husband joked if she needed any bark. “Yes, for Kim,” she replied. He’s learned just to go with it when these events happen and my name comes up. Very smart man.

Another writer in our group puzzled by the bark present wanted me to explain my Fairy Rock Garden. Most Fairy Gardens are little scenes in the garden with plants and mini-furniture and houses in pots or tucked under trees.

In my case, I decided to make a Fairy Rock Garden so I don’t have to deal with the plants either. I have the start of an entire development; more rocks, less plants to water. My fascination with Fairy Gardens started while attending Camp Fire summer day camp at Camp Nadaka.

We split nut shells to make fairy bowls and put them on top of tiny wood tables we made in the forest. That’s all it took for my imagination to take flight. Also explains why “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is my favorite Shakespeare play; fairies rule.

On the way home from our fiction critique group, I stopped at Joann Fabrics to pick up some bead craft containers. When I walked in the door, this is what I saw to my right.

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Flipping Fairy Garden gear everywhere! On sale too!

 

I almost screamed. Fairy Garden booty as far as the eye could see. I immediately began taking photos. The thirty percent off tags were very tempting, but I only bought two things. Think I was so overwhelmed with joy I couldn’t shop. Hard to believe, but true.

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You can get apple houses.

 

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Or stone and moss houses.

 

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Or lawn swings and camp fires and Welcome doors.

 

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Or a chicken coop. They even have rabbit hutches.

 

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I had to buy the Fairies Welcome sign on the left. Then I purchased a little round wood table with cookies on a platter and a pink tea pot. Priceless.

 

If you want to get some Bloom Room Littles, then Joann Fabrics is the place to go. But not before I get back to clear out some fairy garden stock. I have coupons for Thursday. Good thing I’ve got a Subaru Forester for hauling.

Got Fairy Garden furniture and accessories? Let’s all get ready to play in the dirt!

 

P.S. Checked online and the Camp Fire Organization sold the former Camp Nadaka in 1995 to the city of Gresham, Oregon. It is now the Nadaka Nature Park, 10-acres of natural area and a 2-acre neighborhood park on the former Nelson property.

Check out these clean-up and construction pictures which just happen to show some big fairy houses. Told ya!     http://friendsofnadaka.org/photos/

Got Fun Snow Pics?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                            (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

For the three people in the lower 48 states who don’t have snow at the moment, I wanted to send along some photos to get you in the holiday mood. For the rest of us who’ve about had it with the ice/sleet/freezing rain/snow debacles, maybe these will give you a smile.

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This little hedgehog guy was a gift from a friend and graces one of the impatien pots in the backyard. Thought I’d rounded all the critters up and put them in the garage, but I missed this cutie. He appeared out of the melting snow. Got to love that smile!

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Always on the job, farmer bunny is still hard at work trying to remove snow when he’s not pushing around posies during the summer. He’s got quite a good crop of snow in this picture. Bun also insists on wearing his overalls without a coat, even in this cold weather. Iron Bun!

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Ever alert, the gnome guard at the Fairy Rock Garden stayed at his post and kept up surveillance during the storms. He must have gotten wind of the mouse family who invaded the garage and isn’t taking any chances. Even though the fairies have not yet moved into these cottages, they are still under construction, he is on the job keeping their future homes safe.

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Of course the only things left behind by these invaders were their tiny footsteps. Or claw prints to be exact. They all seemed to be right around the pile of bird feed put out before the storms started. Not sure I can get an ID on these perps, but bet they have feathers.

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This little guy doesn’t have any snow on his feet, but I bet he’s the lookout for the bigger gang. He found time to bask in the short sun spot, like I’ve done when it shows up.

If you’re up to your keister in snow and sick of it, try taking some fun snow pics or at least coming up with new swear words. I tried both yesterday while I was scraping ice off the front sidewalk. The ice won!

Wishing you all happy holidays, warm homes, holiday cookies, eggnog and may all your tv and tech devices stay on!

 

 

Rolling Rocks In The Garden?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                  (Twitter@  WarriorTales)

Back to the rocks! This past weekend I finally got to put rocks in the Fairy Rock Garden. This might seem pretty straightforward, but in the end I needed three different types of rocks. So far.

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Bags all lined up like soldiers. That was as far as I was going to haul them. 

 

First choice was to use white rocks. Researched them at Home Depot and did not like the look. Shopped online and found a landscape company close by with rocks to be used in fish aquariums. Got a five-gallon bucket of those. They are so pretty I want to use them for jewelry.

Decided the aquarium rocks would be used to simulate a pond and then I would go with decorative river pebbles. When I bought the six bags of river pebbles, the pond pebbles looked nice too. Bought two of those bags.

There was not one place on those rock bags that said how much they weighed, but I knew it was more than thirty pounds of kitty litter. Used my Air Force Reserve flight gloves, since the nomex with leather grips really help grab plastic bags. Full of rocks. Wet rocks.

Thursday loaded the rock bags from Home Depot into Subie. Friday unloaded the rocks from Subie to the garden. Saturday I decided it was not rock moving day.

Sunday it was time. The rocks spread pretty well but I almost forgot about the aquarium rocks, but I remembered in time to make the rock pond.

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Get your freshly washed rocks! See the agate aquarium rocks for the rock pond?

 

They were drying out and looking dirty, so then I had to wash my rocks. About this time I figured I was doing play therapy and I could not have been happier. Whatever floats our boats!

Even found the piece of black obsidian Mom brought over from her yard and gave it a good scrubbing and added it to the landscape. Then I started moving things around. HGTV in the rock garden!

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Pretty rocks in my own rock garden. Fabulous.

 

Then I began finding fun rocks in the Fairy Rock Garden. Started pilfering my own pebbles. Once a rock hound, always a rock hound. Still have a bucket of aquarium rocks left too. Priceless!

Then my new Fairy Houses 2017 Calendar by Sally J. Smith arrived. The pictures are what dreams are made of and where fairies truly live. There is a Fairy Garden industry!

But now I have to order the doors for the Fairy Houses, get ready to put a roof on the stump with pine cone pieces and unleash the hot glue gun. Plus move the elves in to guard the perimeter.

It’s not easy being a Fairy Rock Garden developer, but I’m having a blast.

Whatever play therapy works for you, have fun!

 

 

 

 

Are You A Lawn Swinger?

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by Kimberly A. Cook                      (Twitter  @ WarriorTales)

Saturday was a big day in my backyard. Finally the official set up and use of the lawn swing happened. Friends used their mechanical skills to fix part of the seat the Sunday before, so all systems were go for launch.

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One of my happiest places on this planet. Got a lawn swing?

 

This was a big deal for several reasons, first being the weather was so stupid hot and wet last summer the lawn swing never made it out of the garage. The tragedy of it all. Second, this vintage lawn swing is a family heirloom and brings back so many memories. It’s built like a tank and keeps on swinging.

Third, there is nothing like taking a summer afternoon swing snooze or a morning reading nap while moving back and forth and hearing the clink of the metal bounce against the frame. A calming, quiet, soothing ritual of time passing in slow waves instead of maniac moments.

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Juliet is back in town! That girl has got to keep herself together. 

 

Other reasons to celebrate included Juliet getting herself glued together for the second time after falling apart again. Gave her a black duct tape belt this time too. Gnomeo was quite happy to see her back in the neighborhood.

Then The Fairy rose showed off some late blooms in the early morning light in the garden. Pink, roses and clusters all in one rose bush, be still my heart. Aptly named since the Fairy Rock Garden is still under construction in the vicinity.

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This is the only rose in my yard with the guts and grit to grow in the clay soil instead of in a big pot. This Fairy Rose is hard core. Plus pretty in pink.   

 

August is a time to enjoy the lazy days of summer, take a snooze on a lawn swing and slow down and sip the lemonade.

Enjoy August!