Everything's Coming Up Roses

Well, more like Irises! Our friends in England had a little girl 2 weeks ago and they named her Iris June. Could you kvetch from the cuteness?! And here is the little sweater and hat set that got sent off for her. I'm so happy with how it came out. I'm off to finish a poem for my writing class, start work on my children's lit paper on the C&Cs between Redwall and A Cricket in Times Square. I have a sweater to finish for the Grumble and Merb to make for the Bean(5 year-old). Somewhere in there I'll grab a few winks ;) Oh here is a fun writing exercise I had to do last week.
Go to www.googlism.com, type in your first or last name and see what Google has to say about you. We had to take one of the phrases or sentences that came up and write a short piece around it. This is what spilled forth - Enjoy!

Bi-Annual Hybrid-Lily Growers Newsletter – Winter-Spring 2006

Welcome fellow growers to this year’s exciting season. We have uncovered some beauties for you and, YES! All new hybrids are available as seeds or seedlings for order.

In last year’s Summer/Fall newsletter we brought you the exciting news about an Italian find that we would be exploring for the next growing season and here it is. The “Sara” lily *(photos can be found on pg. 2 and 13 of the catalog).

Sara is found in a text of Vincent Philippon written in 1521. Vincent was an Abbot at the Franciscan monastery and the very old church of San Vigilio in Bolzano, Italy. Recent archaeological digs have unearthed ancient parts of the monastery. Amongst the ruins were found old garden beds and an early greenhouse, of sorts. Within the green house student excavators found stored and still viable seed packs and the working notes of the gardener who stored them, Fr. Philippon himself.

We have successfully grown over 100 healthy adult plants from these seedlings and are thrilled to be able to offer you the chance to do the same.

Be sure to also explore and consider the rest of this year’s new offering from pages 3 through 15 of the catalog. Therein you will find a rarely seen blue lily, “Etta”, offered by our friends at Cattle Farms in Washington, the much anticipated “Divine” lily, grown from “Envy” and “Luscious” parentage, and over two dozen other new offerings.

We wish you much luck this season. As always the hot-line is open for your lily emergencies 24/7.

A prosperous season to you all!

Billy and Meredith Chiplan

Coffee in Bed

Sunday is traditionally my ONLY day to sleep in. Every other day of the week I'm either bundling the kids off to school or myself off to work. But considering that it was a holiday and we were going to spend time with ALL the family, I actually got up and went to the kitchen to get my morning cup 'o joe instead of lying abed until my husband tempted me out from under the covers with a steaming cup held just out of reach. Yep, he's a tease. Dressed us, dressed the girls, packed the bags and we were off. A morning with my Mom, Sis and her fam, and one of my Mom's longtime friends and her fam. Ahhh Mimosas. Whoever thought drinking in the morning could be so good :)
Packed up in the afternoon and headed off to my hubby's home base, all the brothers and future sister-in-laws were there with Mom and Dad. We headed up to Wahconah Falls for a great hike on a beautiful day! Great views of the reservoir and the falls were in picture perfect form.

On the way back down we did a cache (check out geocaching.com - think high tech treasure hunting), that's where the girls are pictured above, and headed back to the house for yum yums and naps :)
Rounded out the evening at my Dad and Step-Monster's place for a karaoke concert from the girls (Dad, you should just take the batteries out of that thing!), and drove home tired but happy. This was a good visit with family and we got to see just about everyone. All in all a great day.