A New Song for Wildflower Time!

You might not think of me as a Wildflower Girl - all those old-fashioned garden plants, Banana shrubs and roses and iris aren't exactly native - but if I made a list of native plants fitted into the boundaries of our garden it would be pretty long and very colorful. Don't forget that the Carolina Jessamine, Coral Honeysuckle, Texas Mountain Laurel, Redbud trees, Creeping Phlox, many of the Salvias, all the Mistflowers, Purple Coneflowers, the Gauras, Skullcaps and even the wall of Mockoranges covered in buds are all really native wildflowers that have been lassooed and corralled in my yard.
The list of cooler-climate wildflowers that I grew in my Illinois gardens was pretty long, too, and if more of the free-draining, sun-loving natives would put up with my chunky clay and shade, my Native Plant Life-list would grow again. Sometimes it just takes the right spot or luck or maybe one dead tree coming down to make the wild flowers grow - after years of failure with Blackfoot Daisies they are thriving in the parkway strip and one bluebonnet grown from seed is blooming in the triangle bed. Time to celebrate - and time to sing!
A place we've visited over and over since we moved to Texas is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - at first just trying to get our bearings in this strange landscape,going sometimes for information, sometimes taking visitors there and sometimes for the sales of plants, shrubs and trees. (The big sale is coming up next weekend)


When Lady Bird Johnson died in July 2007 I added a verse about her love of wildflowers to a post mentioning her passing. Eventually the verses turned into a song, and finally my husband helped me turn the song into a video for YouTube with many of our favorite Wildflower photos.

Our equipment is very simple - 1 acoustic piano, 1 old lady, one cheapo mic, no vocal processing equipment and a lot of nerve.





Click to play the embedded video or watch it on our YouTube station kaefka

This song is part of a musical play-in-progress called Roots in Austin.

Garden Blogger Bloom Day, January 2010

When the amaryllis bud refused to unfold and the rain pelted down, I thought January Garden Bloom Day was a wash. But inspiration hit after I took the camera and an umbrella outside.

Just under the wire, here's my parody tribute to the great Fats Waller for May Dreams Carol and Blooming Day:





It's only 90 seconds but Philo and I fit in a lot of photos - we hope you enjoy it!

Go to Carol's blog for the January Garden Bloggers Bloom Day Roundup.

"Can I Recover Christmas?" ~ Our New Song

The unplanted bulbs and falling leaves will keep for another day!
Last year I wrote a Christmas song for Roots In Austin, using my power as the author to break up the character Caroline's romance shortly before a Christmas season began. That may not have been kind of me, but the breakup let Caroline sing a holiday song as the approach of Christmas reminded her of what's been lost rather than what she expected. The song was recently finished and I think it will work well for her lovelorn situation in the play. But undertones in the lyrics told me they had deeper meanings, for other situations. Over this long Thanksgiving weekend Philo and I added photos and turned the song into a video for our Station Kaefka on YouTube. So far the reception for our latest musical child has been very kind - thank you to all who have already watched it. To the rest of you - get out your handkerchiefs!



"Can I Recover Christmas" music & lyrics copyrighted. If the screen won't play, try this Link to YouTube.


Although "Can I Recover Christmas?" wasn't ready last year, another of our copyrighted songs was finished by the beginning of December 2007. It's a happy song about the lovely annual tradition of Spinning Under the Tree of Lights at Zilker Park in Austin. This year the tree will be lit at 6 PM on Sunday December 7th, with the rest of the Trail of Lights festival beginning on Sunday December 14th, running nightly through December 23rd. The Trail hours are 7 PM to 10 PM.
A few days ago I had a conversation with Laura Esparza from the Cultural Affairs Division of the Austin Parks Department. Laura told me that the Trail of Lights festival will be more environmentally friendly this year. The change over to LED lights is in progress and food service now emphasizes recycling. She also noted that the power for the lights comes from wind farms. I loved the tree and like having another reason to think Austin is cool! You can go to the Austin Parks Department if you'd like to find out more about Spinning under the Tree, or Walking the Trail of Lights. Now here's an encore of our Spinning Under the Tree song to get you in the mood. Either click the screen or try this link to YouTube.



The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

My Austin Entomologist

It's been a few months since I made a YouTube for y'all - and November is a month that could use a little comedy. This song fits pretty well with the others in my pipedream of a musical play, "Roots in Austin". It's a song that should be sung by a younger, hot, man-crazy blonde, but since no one else volunteered, once again you get old, not-hot Annie and a piano.
Loralynn is the name of the character who sings this song. She's a girl who starts out focused on the scientist but soon becomes interested in the science.

Conversations with Vertie inspired me to write this Bug Geek Song - and both Vert and Iris helped with photos. I hope it cheers up your November weekend.









This copyrighted song, "My Austin Entomologist ~The Bug Geek Song" was composed and performed by "Annie in Austin" and the video was made by Philo in Austin.
You can find more of our songs at YouTube Station Kaefka.

Dreams of May for Muse Day

This post, "Dreams of May", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

On the first of each month, Sweet Home & Garden Chicago's Carolyn hosts Gardenblogger's Muse Day. The word Muse may refer to the classic Muses, such as Thalia the Muse of Comedy, but the word may also mean simply "a source of inspiration". Sometimes the Muse comes not in flowing robes but wearing a green shirt and jeans; sometimes she speaks not Greek but in a Hoosier twang.

Last May, Carol told us that the Indianapolis 500 is blacked out in Indianapolis, so she gardens while listening to the radio, adding that when the crowd sings "Back Home in Indiana" at the opening ceremony: Right then, that moment, will signal the beginning of summer for me. Carol's words inspired me to write new lyrics to this song.





MAY DREAMS IN INDIANA

It's not quite Muse Day yet, but tomorrow Philo will take me to the airport for a flight to Chicago on family business. I hope to borrow my sister's computer so my hoes won't miss the party on May 3rd.
Will the lilacs be in bloom? I do hope my dreams of lilacs in May will come true!

This post, "Dreams of May", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

Salvia, Salvia, Save Me (from the deer)

This post, "Salvia, Salvia, Save Me (from the deer)", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

A year ago I sang farewell to an Arizona Ash tree on YouTube ~ today's song is a musical tribute to the beautiful, deer-resistant flowers in the genus Salvia.

Welcome to Annie's virtual piano bar ~ find a cozy table and spend two minutes in Austin, the Live-Music Capital of the World. We tried to make it sound live by using a simple mic connected to the built-in recorder on a laptop.

Philo and I had five years to learn about gardening with deer at our last Austin house. I wrote "Salvia, Salvia, Save Me (from the deer)" while we still lived there - it's part of an unfinished musical play called Roots in Austin. This plea came straight from the heart!

Our present garden doesn't seem to need deer-resistant plants so our Salvias don't have to work for us - they can just be beautiful.

This post, "Salvia, Salvia, Save Me (from the deer)", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

Spinning Under the Christmas Tree

This post, "Spinning Under the Christmas Tree", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

April was nine months ago - that's how long it's been since I posted one of our YouTube music videos. That one was "Greened House" - a song parody of "Greensleeves" - this one is an original holiday song from my copyrighted collection of more than a dozen songs, many connected to gardening in Austin, which fit together to tell a story.

In my long-in-progress pipe dream of a musical play the songs are sung by different characters and there should be many different voices. Until I can figure out how to persuade some of you to come over to my house to sing or play musical instruments you just get Annie, a piano, and some guitar riffs from a friend.

This simple little Christmas song has been in the works for awhile - an ode to an Austin holiday tradition that started over 40 years ago, when the Zilker Park tree was first constructed, using a replica of one of our famous Moontowers as the center pole for a huge tree of lights. People soon figured out that looking up while spinning under the lights was a lot of fun.



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Spinning, Spinning, Spinning Underneath the Christmas Tree

The Zilker Tree has a separate tree lighting ceremony early in December, but once the Trail of Lights begins a week later [this year it started on the 10th], it's part of that festival.

No one shows a movie now without outtakes... this photo of a Funnel Cake did not make the Director's cut, but was delicious.

The enormous fire pit didn't make the video either! It would have been decorative but not functional for most of the past week, with record high temperatures up to 80 degrees F. We're not experiencing the dangerous ice and winter weather that has the Midwest in its grip, but even our comparatively warm forty-degree evenings make a fire welcome at the end of the trail.

This post, "Spinning Under the Christmas Tree", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

Petals and Parody

Spring has been eluding so many of you, but it's already arrived in my Austin garden. White Mockorange and purple Iris filled the last post – here’s another purple flower for April Garden Bloggers Bloom Day –

In March 2001, a Clematis labeled “Comtesse de Bouchaud” came with two vines in one container. Both vines lived - one is the white clematis at the base of the Lady Banks Rose. The other one is this reddish-purple clematis near the back door. Neither of them look one bit like the lilac-pink “Comtesse de Bouchaud”! Now on to some coral colors -

In spring 2006 I planted my motley collection of Christmas amaryllis in the ground. Some lived, and three amaryllis flowers are opening in this partially shaded raised bed. A previous owner planted the unnamed, day-glow rose.

Two tall, once-blooming roses were already here, too. The roses are pretty, but the foliage is usually a mess. I occasionally feed and water them, pull off the worst leaves a couple of times a year and otherwise ignore them.

Another legacy! This big pink climbing rose also blooms once a year, with huge fragrant flowers that lean down to make me notice them whenever I go out the gate. They have an old-fashioned, real rose smell.

This spring a few of the dropped seeds from last year's plant of Nemophila menziesii AKA Baby Blue Eyes sprouted, and four of them bloomed. The flowers are small, barely visible from 3-feet away. Maybe one day I’ll have them established like the colony growing at Zanthan Gardens, or in the wooded areas of Zilker Park.


Mazus reptans, a low, spring-blooming groundcover plant, grows next to the Baby Blue Eyes.

Another reseeder is Salvia ‘Coral Nymph’, which hitched a ride from the last house, and has established itself in several beds. My Cape Cod weeder makes swift work of unwanted seedlings, but I leave a lot of them in place.

More coral from Stachys coccinea, Texas Betony – nicknamed ‘Stinky Sage’ by some Hill Country residents. It looks nothing like its fuzzy gray Stachys cousin Lambs Ears.

I didn’t take any photos of plants like the pansies, violas and various containers of ‘Telstar’ dianthus, since they’ve been blooming most of the winter. Summer heat will kill the pansies, and the dianthus will stop blooming and rest before starting another bloom cycle.

Posting this photo may not be too different from buying a bakery cake, sliding it onto a pan and passing it off as homemade. I just planted this golden yellow rose on Thursday! It's reputed to be heat resistant, disease resistant, scented, and was personally chosen by Julia Child herself before she died, perhaps because the flower color is close to her beloved butter.

Yellow roses have always been our special flower. When I graduated from high school, Philo gave me a dozen yellow roses. They appeared at our wedding, at anniversaries and the David Austin rose ‘Graham Thomas’ flourished in our Illinois garden. I hope ‘Julia Child’ will thrive to become 'our' yellow rose at this house.

And for the last flower - here is the tiny blossom that most of you yearn to see, wanting them even more than roses!

That concludes the PETALS portion of this post – now on to the PARODY.
As station KAEFKA, we're working on an original song for our YouTube collection right now, [the ones we've already made are in the side links] but we paused to have some fun with an old tune. Nick played the ancient folk song “Greensleeves” on resonator, I wrote some new words, and Philo added photos.
Have any of you seen articles and shows about the 'new green'? I respect people who aspire to green living - many of them have been plugging along for decades. Their valid concepts were ridiculed & ignored at first, before becoming mainstream with time. But lately, green living seems to have been co-opted by the wealthy and the fashionistas. The home-fashion press is splashed with pages of green renovations for mansions rather than normal homes. When I read that the cost of redoing a 1000 square-foot attic rec room to make it 'green', was three times the price of my house, I could weep or gnash my teeth, or I could make it into a musical joke.

You can use this link to our YouTube site - GREENED HOUSE VIDEO .

Or, if the YouTube screen shows up below you can click on the screen.

GREENED HOUSE

Arizona Ash

From the first minute we saw them in the front yard, we knew the aging Arizona Ash trees would be trouble, but we liked this house, bought it anyway, and moved here in summer 2004. By the following February I'd written a comical song called "Arizona Ash" for my Roots in Austin collection.

When the trees budded out this spring, barely a third of the biggest Ash was alive. The day of reckoning had come so last week we called Austex and got out the camera.

Arizona Ash

[Two other songs from Roots in Austin are also on YouTube, "We Are the Divas of the Dirt" and "Transplantable Rose".

Annie, Unplugged

Back in 2004, I began writing what I originally thought was poetry, musings on how it felt to be a gardener from Illinois who’d been plunked down in the heart of Texas. I soon realized that these words weren't poetry - they were lyrics. Our son Ted took the verses about missing Lilac time up North, set them to music, and copyrighted our collaboration. “Texas In May” has been a favorite when performed for friends and family, and some day it may be recorded.

Ted’s example inspired me, and soon I had more than half-a-dozen songs under copyright. Together, they tell a story – a sort of musical play. Although the situation - that transplantation from Illinois to Austin - was my own experience, in the story the leading lady is quite a different person, who comes to Austin for very different reasons.

One of the songs is called “The Transplantable Rose”, also used as the name for this blog last June. I’m no singer, but it’s my song, now on YouTube, along with the previously recorded theme for the Divas of the Dirt. Friend Nick recorded the sound, and played the acoustic guitar for “The Transplantable Rose” and Philo made the video.



Station kaefka is a joint effort by Philo & me, [reachable when you double click on the YouTube screen] and 'age 40' refers to how many years we’ve been together. At station kaefka you’ll see links to other favorite videos, including Ted playing his concertina and videos by Ted’s wife, our darling Diane Marie, who is a professional musician in the Chicago area.

When I was nine years old my ambition was to be a writer and a singer – half-a-century later the folks at Google have given me that chance. Thank you.

Read All About It

On the top of this garden blog there’s a note telling you that I write the Transplantable Rose as Annie in Austin, and the Divas of the Dirt as Glinda. Maybe some of you have looked at the Diva site already?

The women in our gardening group have had a pretty exciting experience recently – the Austin American Statesman became interested in our story, and featured us in today’s newspaper. The article in the Austin American Statesman is called Digging, Dishing and Derring-Do, written by Julie Bonnin.

To make it even more fun, another Julie, Julie Ardery from the Human Flower Project used that story as the nucleus for her post today. If you’d like to take a look, here’s the link to the Human Flower Project take on the Diva article, with links to the original Statesman article.

If you want even more Diva adventures with photos – there’s now a YouTube with our theme song on the Diva page. I'm going for a few more antacid tablets now - this has been a little stressful!

"We Are The Divas Of The Dirt"