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<\/p>\nGardens, food and Mother’s Day.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I finally finished wading through the intimidating job of culling the 696 photos I took recently of a male Yellow-rumped Warbler preening after his bath. But when I finished I had no leftover oomph to process any of them so today I’m cleaning up a loose end, celebrating a favorite family recipe and, on Mother’s Day, recognizing one of the many positive influences my dear ol’ mom had on me.<\/p>\n
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Last fall I mailed amaranth seeds to a whole slew of blog followers and personal friends who had requested them. The seeds are tiny, almost microscopic, so the seedlings are tiny too and they’re very easy to miss. As a result, some folks never see them and end up tilling them under while weeding in their gardens.<\/p>\n
But even though they’re tiny, they’re easy to recognize by color because they’re a distinctive red (tinged with purple in the right light). Yesterday I took this photo of some of my volunteer amaranth seedlings. In my garden they come up in mats wherever the seeds fell last fall and I simply “weed” most of them out, leaving the ones I want to grow to maturity. This photo was taken more than a week after they sprouted so they’re much larger than they are when they first emerge. The penny is for scale.<\/p>\n
So, if you ordered amaranth seeds and planted them, this is what to look for about a week after they sprout. It’s kinda hard to believe that such tiny seeds produce…<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/garden-and-amaranth-b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"garden-and-amaranth-b-ron-dudley\\"")
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such huge plants. Most of my amaranth plants get 9-11′ tall and a few of them as tall as 13′.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/amaranth.jpg\" "\\"amaranth")
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Birds love their seeds in situ, especially the various finch species. And hummingbirds in particular use my amaranth for cover in-between their frequent visits to my feeder. You know that the bird photographer in me is going to take advantage of a situation like that.<\/p>\n
And speaking of gardens,<\/p>\n
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this is a photo of my rhubarb, also taken yesterday. I bought these two plants almost 40 years ago when I lived in Sugarhouse and transplanted them to my garden in Murray when I moved here about 30 years ago. They produce far more rhubarb than we can eat but yesterday I made an attempt to make a dent in it by harvesting a bunch and…<\/p>\n
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making rhubarb cobbler, using a favorite family recipe I got from my younger sister Sheila many years ago. When baked to perfection, which this cobbler was, it’s crispy, tart and sweet at the same time. With a little extra “crispy” thrown in for good measure. I love crispy cobbler.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/rhubarb-cobbler-2.jpg\" "\\"rhubarb-cobbler-2\\"")
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Warm, with ice cream on top, it’s to die for. It truly is.<\/p>\n
OK, on to Mother’s Day.<\/p>\n
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This is my mom, Lorna Prince Dudley, on her graduation from nursing school in Calgary, Alberta – I believe in 1944. She was the epitome of the perfect mother, even though the two of us were often butting heads with each other during my teenage years. Folks, including my dad, said the two of us were too much alike, so we were often at loggerheads. Here’s a prime example.<\/p>\n
Mom was a practicing Mormon and she attempted to raise me that way too. Folks who know me can imagine how that<\/em> turned out. During my later high school years when I was beginning to try to decide what to do with my life, Mom just took it for granted that I was going to college. I was far less convinced, in part because I just coasted through high school without ever really learning how to study. In the end she convinced me that college was the best route for me but that just brought up another huge<\/em> point of contention.<\/p>\n Back then (1965), if at least one of your parents was a Mormon in good standing, you could go to Brigham Young University for free so Mom said (assumed) that’s where I was going. But I knew enough about BYU, and myself, to know that that just wasn’t going to happen – not a chance in hell. I wanted to go to either MSU in Bozeman or the U of M in Missoula. So for two years we battled about it. She wanted me to go to BYU for two reasons – it was free and, most importantly, it would keep me away from all of my party-boy high school friends who were going to one of the Montana universities.<\/p>\n In the end, after many epic battles, we compromised. I ended up going to Utah State University in Logan, far away from my high school friends in MT and over 100 miles from BYU (which was barely far enough for me).<\/p>\n As I eventually matured? I realized how huge my mom’s influence was on me, in a positive way. If not for her high expectations of me I’d never have gone to college so I wouldn’t have become a teacher, which for me was the perfect profession. And she was absolutely right – if I’d gone to one of the MT universities with my partying friends I’d have flunked out before my freshman year was over. I’m convinced of that.<\/p>\n So thanks, Mom. And Happy Mother’s Day.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gardens, food and Mother’s Day. (7 photos)<\/p>\n