Weekend Life

Folks often complain about their shady landscapes. I am fortunate to live on an acre with garden areas in full sun and others in shade. If I were forced to choose between the two, I’d choose shade.

One night a few weeks ago I was standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes when Noah called from the dining room. He was doing homework.

Cradling my newborn should have brought me nothing but joy, right? Shouldn’t I have been content to marvel at the miracle of Holly’s tiny fingers wrapped tightly around mine the night we brought her home from the hospital 11 years ago? So why was I a sobbing mess? Because my firstborn, slumbering in the next room, felt a million miles away. My new preoccupation with the sweet stranger who nursed into the wee hours had distanced me almost overnight from my little Noah, my constant companion for more than 2 1/2 years. I was suffering from the second-baby-blues.

Fashionable around the time of root cellars, war bonds, and Joan Fontaine films, cosmos have seen a long overdue resurgence in popularity of late. Especially if you consider the seed packet I brought home with me today. Native to Central America, cosmos can easily be grown from seed in Illinois gardens. Since they are annual plants, they will bloom, set seed, and die all within one growing season. But fret not; these blooms from our grandmothers’ gardens bring with them an old fashioned sense of generosity – cosmos self-sow freely, and if permitted, would be pleased to provide you with consistent color year after year.

Fox Country Players is offering the Lenora Wissmiller Memorial Scholarship to high school students interested in the theater arts. Two $50 scholarships will be awarded to Fox Country Players’ Theatre Arts Academy, which takes place July 9-29 at the Community Christian Church in Yorkville.

ST. CHARLES – Today is Free Comic Book Day, and Graham Crackers Comics in St. Charles has been using a countdown clock to get customers excited about the day.

Bad things happen when I run. Bad things happen when I hurdle, too, but luckily I wasn’t the one doing the hurdling at the Eighth annual Batavia Fifth Grade All-City Track and Field Meet at Batavia High School on Wednesday afternoon.

My sunroom offers a full view of my in-town backyard. I spend a great deal of time enjoying the scenery as the seasons unfold. This past winter featured a bevy of gray squirrels, rabbits, a coyote and recently, a beautiful red fox. Birds flutter around the feeders throughout the seasons. Recently, the chipmunks have surfaced scampering about busily cleaning up after the birds.

A benefit concert honoring Dustin Villarreal is set to take place at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles tonight.

My baby has her first real baby-sitting gig lined up. Her first paying job. You know, the first that doesn’t involve harassing me until I invent chores for her to do around the house.

When my husband and I added a pond to our backyard we knew that it would attract a variety of wildlife. We watched birds splashing in the waterfall, we enjoyed feeding the fish we stocked, and we were pleased to see that frogs had found their way into our pond to take up residence. Aside from the occasional croaking, the nights were peaceful and quiet. Then the toads came along.

GENEVA – Photographer Robert Rydin moved into an empty storefront at 514 W. State St. in Geneva, hoping to gain some momentum before presenting his work during summer art festivals throughout Chicagoland. He’s in a month-by-month lease with his landlord, STC Capital Bank.

ST. CHARLES – For the seventh year in a row, a new Sculpture in the Park exhibit is opening in Mt. St. Mary Park, including works submitted by sculptors from St. Charles.

The following is a cautionary tale. A what not to do, if you will. It’s about the week last month when I did nothing but quilt.

Last weekend, I did one of my favorite things – plan a vegetable garden, and this one was for my parents. It’s a bit of role reversal since I remember planting the garden with them as a child. First, we decided what they would grow in the garden because that would determine the layout. Onions, lettuce, beets, Swiss chard, kale, peppers, kohlrabi, cabbage, summer squash, tomatoes, basil and parsley – a nice variety of seasonal vegetables.