Museum Day Free

Well, the kids are back to school and the newspaper is offering some fun ideas.  In this week's Parade magazine  is an opportunity to get free museum tickets for Saturday, September 29th at a local museum.  Download tickets at www.smithsonian.com/museumday.   

This summer we had some new plant adventures in the woods.  I discovered this Jack in the Pulpit growing wild among the ferns.  I never did see it bloom.  Well, now I know where it is, so maybe next summer.  We also discovered poison sumac, and perhaps a little of poison ivy.  We were diligently clearing the buckthon in our local woods.  We've had poison ivy before but this was much worse.  I think I've identified which plants are poison sumac.  Right now the plant is quite easy to identify because it has white berries.

Weeds, invasive plants and gardening

Well, I'm learning.  I planted variegated bishop's weed thinking it would be the solution to my weeding problems.  And it is in some places.  What I didn't realize, what how invasive it would be and that I shouldn't put it in areas where I want other things to grow.  So, now I'm removing it and hoping to revamp by garden.  I've been a little rained out this week.  I've also been tackling the spreading lilacs.  I knew buckthorn was a problem but this year, burdock seems to be a problem too.  So hopefully, after all the weed pulling, I'll be able to do some planting. Ironically, I transplanted some Lily of the Valley a couple of years ago and I just found out they're on the invasive list also.  I might be sorry; we'll see.   And hopefully the deer will leave some of my hostas and tiger lilies alone!

The Artist a new oldy

In a film class I am teaching, we have watched Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush and Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.  This new movie has elements of both of those and was a delight to watch after studying those two films.