For Christmas, HH gave me a macro lens for my Nikon D40X camera.  I have been playing around with it since with mixed results.  He bought it so I could take extreme bug closeups.  I often write articles about insects:  the good, the bad and the ugly, and many publications want photos with the articles. I'd zoomed in with my other camera lens, but when you must get so close to the insect to almost touch it, well . . . it flies away, or may even sting you.  Insects are cranky that way. While at the GWA Symposium in Portland last fall, I went to a great session by David Perry and Mark Turner.  They shared shots they took during the convention with their small point and shoot cameras and explained how they did it.  The pictures were amazing, and the photographers humble, but I suspect talent and expertise...

This week, the garden writing community was abuzz with news:  Meredith Publishing Company laid off 250 of  its employees, and ceased publication of Country Home Magazine. Another magazine, The Growing Edge is also shutting its doors.  This follows closely on the heels of the end of Cottage Living and House and Garden. I don't know about you, but as a reader, I'm worried about print media:  the newspapers, magazines and books I read when I'm not participating in the blogosphere.  Although, I admit I now subscribe to fewer publications, it's not only due to time constraints.  Some of them just don't interest me anymore. As a freelance writer, if I had to depend on writing for my bread and butter, I'd be wringing my hands.  However, thus far, I'm still able to write, without worry of personal famine. Partly due to HH, I still subscribe to our local newspaper, The...

What better mid-winter garden news could we Oklahomans get?  Mike Shoup of the Antique Rose Emporium is coming to speak in Tulsa and Oklahoma City as part of the Oklahoma Horticulture Society's Annual Winter Lecture Series.  Every year, in February, the OHS, along with their partners in Tulsa, bring a big name garden personality to Oklahoma.  I just want to say thank you. Again, thank you. The rest of the world has its Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie obsession.  We, gardeners, have our own celebrities.  In the world of heirloom roses, Mike Shoup would probably rather be known as an expert.   He's rustled roses with the best of our Texas friends, and he and the other rosarians helped save many of the old garden roses which survived in the harsh climates of Texas and Oklahoma, but were in danger from development and suburban sprawl. When I moved to rural Oklahoma...

Today, it's cloudy and cold with little hope for sunshine.  The Christmas tree is nearly down and packed away, and the red dirt kids returned to school.  I took a hot tea break at my kitchen table and watched the birds having their morning snack. My winter favorites are the acrobatic Cardinals.  All throughout the Christmas season, I kept seeing Cardinals on everything in sight.   On ornaments, sweaters, note cards, and china plates, the Cardinals, embroidered, painted and sequeined, gazed contentedly from various surfaces. The real deal looks a bit watchful and perturbed.  Who can blame her?  It's cold, and she's trying to eat. Although I enjoyed seeing their copied forms, the real ones visiting the feeders on the back deck cheered my post-holiday heart. A few facts courtesy of National Geographic's website. Cardinals live an average of fifteen years. They are about the size of a teacup.  No wonder...