It's Not "Fried Green Tomatoes" The Movie – It's The Hosta

My favorite movie of all time is "Fried Green Tomatoes," the story of a friendship between two women who were several decades apart in age. When I discovered there was a hosta called "Fried Green Tomatoes," I just had to have it because my friendship with Scooty Maguire reminded me so much of the friendship illustrated in the movie.

Hosta "Fried Green Tomatoes." Image source
daylilyandhostagardens.com

Ten years or so and a lifetime ago, I wrote a little story called "A Walk In The Hostas With Scooty Maguire" as a tribute to my friend. Rather than repeating the whole story, I'll refer you to the online publication, which you can see here.  This month hosta plants seem to be upfront in my consciousness for two reasons. One, the weather has been perfect to divide and move them to new locations in my gardens. Two, the lens I referred to in the link above was selected to appear all this week on the front page of Squidoo.com.

My late mom, Norma Frasier, with Scooty Maguire...
a very treasured memory.

There's just something about being picked for the front page that gives you an incredible feeling of pride and accomplishment. I've had more fun answering all the comments that have been left on the lens by visitors. My week-long feature ended yesterday. This morning, I was surprised to learn that another of my lenses, "Plant Trading 101," is being featured for this week! I'd never been on the front page, and now two weeks in a row! Holy cats, this is exciting!

 I've been writing daily now since I got home from my first hip surgery in March, 2011. It was the one thing besides crocheting that I could physically "do" for the long weeks of recovering I had ahead. Squidoo is a place where you can write single topic lenses (web pages) and publish them for free. It's also a community where you can get feedback from other writers/readers, win prizes, and achieve higher levels with certain accomplishments.

Most of my lenses have been individual crochet designs that I've been making free to the world. Quite a few are current/recent designs. I've also done a surprising amount of lenses on things like gardening, the Schnauzers, even my favorite recipes. It's taught me a lot about myself. Somehow, this method of writing and publishing just motivates me tremendously, and that has inspired my crochet design. When I was asked to write a weekly craft column for Squidoo's SoCrafty online magazine, I jumped at the chance! While I write for free, it gives me priceless exposure of my work to the world. I've only been doing this for a couple of months, but it has made me feel so much better about myself!

My "Busy Beehive" design was the subject of one of my
recent crochet columns in SoCrafty Magazine.

Being disabled, it's easy to not feel included in the "real" world because you don't have a "real" job.  You lose all those things like appraisals, deadlines, projects to do, feedback on your work, etc. Having all these things is a piece I have been missing. I love it and will do it as long as I'm able! Besides, it's so motivating having a new project to work on every week.  You should've seen me at JoAnn the last week of April, picking out all my materials for the weekly projects for May. I had so much fun!

I'm so happy with my gardens' progress this Spring! Yesterday I was out picking early cherries from my little tree already! It's a miracle they survived the late freezes we had, but survive they did. I got them all pitted last night and put up in the freezer. When I have enough, I'll start making yummy cherry things. And since we treated the tree last fall and winter, there should be no wormy visitors to ruin my pie this year!

This time last year, my friend Heidi helped me pick and pit cherries all
afternoon, only to discover a couple days later they were full of worms! 

I've made several additions to my "Out My Window" garden, moved a lot of plants in there from other beds and picked up a few new ones. The smartest thing I did was to add a bird feeder and a little bird bath.  I have baby black squirrels, a bunny, several kinds of birds, and even a hummingbird visiting my garden every day. Since I spend a lot of time at my desk by that window looking out, I'm always fascinated when I see some little critter out there having a snack or a drink. It tickles me:)

Well, that's about all the chatter I can muster today. I spent some time outside working in the gardens and my back is screaming at me to lie down. Obey it I must, or I will pay...