Lupines

I spent 20+ hours in the car in the last week driving to and from Indiana. We saw lots of late spring/early summer plants along the roadside! I have to admit it is much prettier than all the grass they used to mow.

In Wisconsin, we saw tons of lupines - mostly purple - along the road. In Indiana, we saw a type of plant that the rangers couldn't identify.... so we tried, and we think we got it, although now I can't for the life of me remember what it was! Hopefully SDMoose will see this and respond...

As for my own gardens (since we are supposed to blog about gardens as well as books...), the lupines here were startling when we got home. I planted these last year, and this year they are gorgeous!! I doubt they'll be this nice again, so I thought I'd post a picture for posterity.

The lupines are on the edge of my expanded rain garden. This year, I planted swamp milkweed, turtlehead, monkeyflower, prairie smoke grass, side oats grama and a couple more. Most of this I found at the Friends School Plant Sale in May. I will post more pics as these plants establish themselves...

1980s Help!

M is doing research for a summer school class called "Spinning Through the Decades." She has decided to interview me about the 80s. So, fellow Carls of the 80s, help me out!! Movies, music, tv shows, fads, popular pastimes, fashions, famous people, events.... Any favorites come to mind? I've got quite a bit, but could use your help!!

Judy Blume is 70!?

And she looks pretty darn good, too! But it was surprising to learn she was 70 and has preteen grandchildren. The story was in this weekend's Strib, link may show up here:
http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/19368739.html?location_refer=$sectionName. I'm never sure about my linking abilities. Also neat to see she's beginning another four book series to reach yet another generation of kids.

I don't believe Margaret would be "nearly 40". In my own mind, if I were to guess her age, I'd put her a few years older than us, rather than younger, mostly because of certain markers in her book, namely sanitary belts. They were available, I believe, in the mid to late 70's, but certainly a thing of the past for my age group as far as usage. I also read somewhere that Are You There God... was updated at some point...S. was never interested in her books, so I never reread that one. I did have a lot of fun rediscovering the Fudge books with J, after Double Fudge debuted.