Blogging on the Powwow

What an odd week - one that started with love, admiration, and glory in Idaho, and that ended with disdain, confusion, and despair in Las Vegas. The true purpose of my travels was to attend/present at the annual conference of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children , which was being held in Las Vegas this year. I took a brief detour and visited a childhood friend and neighbor, Heather , and her family, in Idaho. It has been my sincere pleasure to reconnect with Heather through the wonders of Facebook. It was such a delight to visit Heather and her family. I study child maltreatment and other forms of family violence, so it is very important to remind myself of all of the healthy parent-child relationships that exist in the world. There's no better place for me to start than with Heather and her family. Her children are happy, healthy, thriving, and are supported through life's challenges by their parents, larger family, and community. It's a beautiful thi

I'm behind on my blogging. Tomorrow I leave for another trip and I'm only just now getting to last week's trip. It's true that I was in Philadelphia for a child abuse and neglect conference. It's also true that I presented on fatal maltreatment, heard some interesting discussions, and saw and spoke to one of the most influential members of the child welfare community, but who wants to hear about that, right? I stayed at Club Quarters, which was surprisingly rewarding. My room was a little small and difficult to use, but I loved the hotel. Outside of each elevator, there was a water filling station - complete with empty water bottles... for free!  I really liked this.  Water filling station. Those are not lights, but empty bottles for water. But, more than anything I loved the bottomless cup of M&Ms. I am an absolute chocolate nut, so it was a good thing that I only stayed for 2 nights, or I surely I would have gained 10 pounds while I was there.

What a week it has been on the Powwow! I'm not sure what makes me ever think that our gardens are not in "full bloom" until August, because our yard was nothing but color this week. It's been the kind of week where one just sits back and enjoys the views and forgets all of the hard work that went into making the garden come to fruition. Very rewarding. This week I made some new additions to the garden, but don't have pictures for them. We took a trip up to Maine to see Dorothy on Father's Day, where we visited the Biddeford Home Depot. I wanted to look at the 50% off rack. I found some lavender and something else which is tall and pink. I bought both and plopped them in the ground this week. We have a new member of the Powwow Botanical Gardens and Zoo -- a groundhog. I know that we are supposed to shoo the little guy or gal away, but boy, what a cutey! This morning we found him nibbling in the rose garden on some clover. He ripped out a mouthful, scampered

I was so happy that some readers responded positively to my first weekly blog post about our gardens. We'll see if my commitment matches the encouragement that I have received. I am pretty sure that last week I indicated that I was overwhelmed by the prospect of planting 5 laundry baskets full of dahlias each spring. So, last weekend I finished up planting 3 basket's worth and then found a happy home for the remaining bulbs. In the meantime, we made a trip to Lowe's and I bought enough plants to start a new perennial garden - pledging to come back for 50% off sales later in the summer, which indeed, I will do. We bought the new plants on Saturday afternoon and they were in the ground and mulched by 7 that evening. I really was on a mission! At some point this week, Neil called to report that he had just spotted a turtle walking around in the yard. We didn't find any evidence of a new nest, so Neil declared it a salesman and we moved on. Then, a couple of days later,

I thought that I might try a new series on my blog this summer, in which I document the excitement in our yard each week. Maybe this will not yield much excitement at all, but I thought that I would give it a try. Flower gardens at this time of year are a time of surprise, rediscovery, and work. Surprise from flowers that spring forth that one may have forgotten, rediscovering the wonders of previous years' labors, and working to clean out and plant new life. That pretty much wraps up this past week. If anyone follows my blogs, then they know that I often kill anything that we might consume . We'll see how these peas do. I'm hopeful. They are growing and climbing.  One of my colleagues gave me this lamb's ear . I finally got it into the ground this past week. We'll see how it does. Ah, the lupines are back! Very happy to see them! Moreover, they are doing what lupines are supposed to do, which is spread all over the perennial garden!  We hav