Sunday, March 13, 2016

Changing Climates in Retirement

My husband and the taro he grew in Hawaii

Bees buzzed around basil blossoms and passion fruit tendrils. Our little raised bed garden boasted chives, cherry tomatoes, lettuce and green peppers amidst rosemary and thyme. Then we retired and moved to the desert in the valley of the Rocky Mountains. I grieved for all our little plants we had left behind.It was late October and autumn leaves were scattered all around the sidewalks as trees shed their glory.

A week later, the earth and all the plants were white with fluffy snow. We had been living in Polynesia for most of our married life. My husband raised bananas and root crops popular with the islanders in a plot nearby. How would we be able to adjust to a climate with four seasons? We had been spoiled with year round moderate weather, and had concerned ourselves with bolting plants on the hottest days or fighting off occasional insects and blight.

I had cherished every afternoon weeding and nourishing our small backyard garden and then harvested lettuce, green onions, kale, cucumbers, Swiss chard and beetroot for our dinner. It was a very satisfactory way to get exercise and eat healthy. Moving to the desert meant short days and purchasing most of our food.

I was delighted to find that my daughter-in-law had sensed my grief in leaving behind our gardens. She had gotten us a beautiful orchid, aloe vera in a pot, and a small potted banana plant with a new shoot protruding from the soil.

I now find pleasure in keeping my new plants watered and watching them grow inch by inch. We have started a compost pile with the autumn leaves, rabbit manure as well as vegetable and fruit peelings. We look forward to the early spring when we can begin our new garden and educate ourselves about raising crops that are suited to our new climate.

The USA has been divided into zones according to hardiness by the USDA.

You can go here: http://www.garden.org/zipzone/index.php?img=nwusa
and check your location.

According to our zip code, our new hardiness zone is 6 B. It also gives suggestions of what you can do month to month, which is very helpful. It gives a regional report from the National Gardening Association.

We joined a gardening association and get a helpful magazine each month.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

A Graduation Celebration to Remember

They say, when you graduate from high school, you should never look back. Oops, I did!

Recently I returned to the town where I graduated from High School - Orem, Utah. Yes, I was an Orem High Tiger seems like a century ago, but not quite that long.

I thought I would drive past where I had hung out after school, and was surprised to see they were tearing down the old school, whose halls I walked down on a daily basis. Wow, did that make me feel old.

They are building a newer, better facility for the students. It did bring back memories of my glory days as an Orem Tigerette. We were the ones who cheered on the football team and did our half-time marches to the cheers of our classmates.

My Graduation Story

Not everyone has the police and their dogs chasing them on graduation night, but I did. What started out as a very innocent evening of fun turned into a nightmare. We had a large graduating class in 1969. We barely had a second in the ceremony to stand and have our name read before receiving our diplomas and singing our school song.

After attending the crowded graduation ball, a bunch of us graduates decided to hike to the big “Y” on the mountain. Having a lack of energy to complete that feat, we ended up at Canyon Elementary School where we relived our childhood climbing on the monkey bars, reeling on the merry-go-round and really enjoying our freedom from High School.

Neighbors in the vicinity were not as gleeful as we were, and they reported us for disturbing the peace! Soon sirens and a canine van drove up. Police with weapons and their dogs appeared out of their cars, and we decided to surrender rather than run and be tackled by Rover. It was about 3:00 a.m., and thus my criminal record started. Pretty much, that is the extent of it.

Our ten year reunion was held in Provo at the Elk’s Club. It was fun to see old friends and classmates. Our class president had unfortunately met an untimely death from a motorcycle accident. Seven of our classmates were reported to have died. It was interesting to watch the same old groups form. Even more apparent was the degradation that had taken place to several members of my peer group. Although the greater percentage of my classmates were Latter-Day Saints, a bar was set up and by the end of the evening; about half of them were in a drunken stupor.

Some alumnus were disgracefully dancing with their partners and sharing their horrendous life experiences without any shame. Many were divorced and looking, and others were divorced and swearing never to marry again. I felt quite fortunate to have escaped many of the calamities the others had experienced.

It was evident that although most of us had been brought up in supposedly good homes, something was definitely lacking. I believe too much stress on the material aspects of life and popularity (at whatever expense) had overshadowed the more important issues.

Nevertheless, I do have some fond memories of High School, and I am very grateful for teachers and friends I had at Orem High School.

http://hubpages.com/education/A-Graduation-Celebration-to-Remember