Tag Archives: gardening

The Color Is Purple

Posted on May 4, 2025 | 2 comments

I had a fellow artist remark not long ago about how I use purple in my paintings. He did not approve. Hummm? It may not be his choice but it is mine. I happen to see purple…of various shades. Pale, reddish, bluish, dark, light, vibrant.

The wisteria bloomed for the first time this year. Well, it was caught by a late freeze last year. Such a beautiful flowering vine, but somewhat unpredictable. Invasive in trees and on buildings.

Not quite purple but a delicate reddish violet. These redbud trees are an understory tree native to this part of the Midwest. The delicate flowers appear along the stems and branches of the tree early in spring. It makes lovely heart-shaped leaves. Later, it retreats into anonymity among the understory trees for the rest of the year. These redbuds trees were free seedlings given out by the state.

I love these delicate Virginia Bluebells. The flower buds appear pink and then turn the most delicate shade of sky blue trumpets when they open up. These are so easy to grow. I’ve transplanted them everywhere and have given away many starts. The most amazing thing is, that after they bloom, they disappear completely until next year.

Spring seems to be a time of purple, to me. Delicate flowers in bloom, field and woods. Some pale, some vibrant. The soft haze of purple over the budding trees. The deep purple of stormy skies rolling in late in the afternoon.

Another patch of irises, this time light purple. And a healthy vine of poison ivy growing up the tree in the background.

Purple is said to be a royal color. The highest. But I find it to be calming, delicate. It appears everywhere if I look for it. It does not have to be loud or garish. It can be soothing and comforting.

This sprig of purple lilac scents the entire kitchen. Just outside, grows the full bush.

I love the overpowering perfume of the lilacs. I bring them into the house and then my eyes almost water at their presence. But the beautiful lilacs are only around for a few weeks a year, heralds of spring.

The violets of many colors. Deep purple, light purple, violet, variegated, even creamy white. Many consider them weeds but I don’t see how. Such beautiful little flowers.

The deer find this blue phlox a tasty treat. But when found in the woods, they make a lovely carpet of bluish purple.

Viper’s Bugloss and Jacob’s Ladder. I never planted these flowers but they just pop up where they may in the middle spring.

The Jacob’s Ladder and Viper’s Bugloss that only appear this time of year. Near the front porch or just about anywhere. I love these surprises. They’re aren’t planned but I allow them to pop up wherever they may.

I have several patches of irises around the property. Some deep bluish purple, some lighter. Then there are the multi-colored ones, and the striking white ones. The scent of the irises invite one to get up close and inhale deeply. There is no other flower perfume quite like it.

So what my artist friend thought to be a slight snub or negative comment did not affect me that way. I’m not quite sure how to interpret it. As an insult? Well, no. I guess he just doesn’t like the color purple. And that’s okay.

I do.

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Posted in country living

Tagged gardening, kit miracle, purple, spring flowers

Spring preview, good and bad

Posted on March 16, 2025 | 1 comment

We have had an absolutely gorgeous sneak peek of spring out here on the farm. I can’t express how welcome this has been after a very harsh winter. Dozens (hundreds) of robins have appeared in the yard and fields already. Some have already begun to check out nesting spots.

Crocuses mysteriously appeared in the most unusual places thanks to grandchildren.

What has really been fun this week has been the early spring preview. With sunshine and warm temps, Spring has been bulldozing through the countryside. The trees are budding out and the beautiful spring greens are abundant. I really love the surprise of the bulbs that I let the grandchildren plant. Here’s a bag of crocus bulbs. Go plant them! They come up in the most unusual places. And, of course, the naturalized daffodils are nodding their golden heads everywhere.

Naturalized daffodils always make my heart sing this time of year.

Unfortunately, with the extreme warm temperatures, up to 80 this week!, the weather has become very unstable. A big front blew in late Friday and into the night. This often leads to storms and other disturbances, including straight line winds and tornados.

Watching the live weather report before dawn today. Serious weather with some tornados spotted.

My Saturday began at 4:15 a.m. when my son called me to let me know that there was a tornado warning in the area. (I can’t hear the sirens from my house and didn’t have the weather radio turned on.) I stumbled downstairs, threw on some clothes, and sorted some things for a dash to the cellar, if needed. As I began to wake up, I turned on a regional TV station which has great weather coverage. And then thought of more things that I ought to drag downstairs with me, just in case. Then I chastised myself for not having my go-bag ready. It will definitely be updated this week. I have even posted about this before.

This cute little tree frog wanted in, or at least was seeking shelter.

So wherever you are, I hope you are staying safe and taking positive steps to be safe in the disturbed spring weather.

Here are a couple of links to previous blog posts about being prepared in an emergency.

Getting by in an emergency

Preparing for an emergency

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Posted in country living, garden

Tagged country living, crocuses, daffodils, gardening, kit miracle, spring weather, tree frog

Autumn roundup 2024

Posted on November 17, 2024 | 2 comments

Fall decorations. The impatiens are still hanging on.

The fall colors have been really spectacular this season. We had the right amount of rain early on but little rain from August until recently. I was afraid that the colors would be drab and the trees would just drop their leaves. I was wrong.

I read some survey that said Southern Indiana was rated as one of the best places to see fall color. As I always like to joke, it’s like New England but without the crowds. Gently rolling hills and wooded. The farmers were able to get a jump on the harvest and most every field is cleared by now. We have had a couple of rains in the past two weeks but they only keep the dust down. And we haven’t even had a frost yet in my area so I’m still harvesting the last scraggly tomatoes and peppers. That is about to change this coming week.

Watercolor/ pen and ink sketch of the Ferdinand State Forest

Meanwhile, I’ve been able to get outdoors, go for a drive or have a lunch in the park with my husband. I did a few small sketches and one middling painting, too. Just pleasant to be outside.

My flowers have held their blooms, including the geraniums. And my lilacs and rhododendrons have even bloomed this month!

In addition to the free kids’ Picasso art class that I taught last month, we just painted our self-portraits this week. How to draw cats is next month.

Unfortunately, not all is good news. My husband had a serious injury on his tractor (just getting on it) which sent us to the emergency room. This had me scrambling for first aid supplies and trying to remember my old classes in first aid. He’ll be laid up for awhile.

And…I had my first run-in with a deer on the way home from the grocery this week. In the middle of the day! I’m posting a photo of what that coated safety glass will do when a large animal hits it. I didn’t even see it as it bounced down an embankment. Fortunately I was poking along that day but the damage to the car is not pleasant. Calls to the insurance company and locating a repair shop added to the stress. Well, no injury, fortunately. My husband and sons have hit a total of eleven deer over the years. A very common accident in these parts.

Finally, the cardinal that I posted about earlier this year is back, fighting his reflection in the windows. Doesn’t he know mating season is over? He’s looking a bit bedraggled now but he’s still persistent.

I hope you all have been able to get outside and enjoy the season. Snow is coming soon for some of us. Time to hunker down for the winter.

2 Comments

Posted in art, country living, watercolor

Tagged gardening, indiana, kit miracle

October update

Posted on October 15, 2023 | Comments Off

Still gathering produce from the garden this autumn.

Autumn is my second favorite season (spring is my favorite). I think it’s due to the brilliant colors, all those reds and oranges and yellows. The garden is winding down but I’m still extending the season. Frost was predicted last week (didn’t happen) but I covered the vegetable patch anyway. Still getting some tomatoes and peppers. They’re small but we’ll miss that fresh and juicy taste when the last one is gone. I started a new crop of lettuce and spinach. The spinach isn’t doing well but the bib lettuce is coming along. We should be eating fresh lettuce in a week or so. I know it doesn’t seem like much to most people when you can just go to the store and buy fresh lettuce, but still there’s the pleasure of picking my own.

Covering the vegetable patch to prevent frost damage.

We lost all the peaches due to a late freeze this year but we’ve had a bounty of pears. My husband has the patience to sit and process them for the freezer. Future pies and cobblers. I get the fun job of picking them with my long handled fruit picker, with the aid of my grandson who thinks it’s pretty special to dodge the fruit as it comes down. The persimmons are also ripening. I don’t particularly like persimmons but a lot of people around here do. As do the deer and other night creatures. If you don’t know, you have to have both female and male trees to pollinate them. Just a fun fact.

The Kieffer pears just do not want to give up. We don’t spray so, no, they are not perfect. But they make great pies.

The potted flowers haven’t given up yet either but they’re getting pretty straggly. I like the roses that still put out an effort and a few late blooms. And I did take a grandchild to the library to paint pumpkins.

I returned from our trip to the Smoky Mountains last month inspired to paint many of the beautiful scenes that we saw. Sunrise in the Smokies, mountain streams, just so many awesome vistas. After a few small paintings, I printed some cards and painted some holiday scenes for a local gift shop and one of my Etsy shops. Tis the season and most artists and craftspeople are busy this time of year.

Smokey Mountain Sunrise, Acrylic, 10 x 20

Mountain stream in the Smokies. Acrylic, 10 x 20.

And, hey, it’s fall break this week, too. Hummm….guess I’ll cajole the grandkids to help me do some chores, like cleaning out the greenhouse and the shop. Both of those tasks have been on the list all year. Maybe pick up some walnuts for replanting. I picked seven gallons of redbud seedpods which we’ll sow in the woods. If you don’t have this beautiful understory tree in your area, I truly feel sorry for you. A good excuse for a walk in the woods with the kids.

Anyway, I hope that you can get outside to enjoy the final warm days of the season wherever you live.

Traditional Arts Today in Ferdinand, Indiana

KitMiracleArt – one of my Etsy shops

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Posted in art, country living, garden

Tagged autumn in the country, contemporary impressionist, country living, fall break, fall gardening, gardening, kit miracle, pears, persimmons

August summary

Posted on September 3, 2023 | Comments Off

Afternoon visitors. They’re eating fallen fruit from the orchard.

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, maybe imagining some exotic vacation, nothing could be further from reality. Mostly just hanging around here tackling one thing after another.

Although we had a week or two of pretty hot weather, last week was marvelously cool with temps in the 70s. We also have managed to have pretty even rain – not too much, not too little. All good.

My little raised bed garden has been producing better than I thought. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant. Note to self: plant less squash next year and more beans. And I just planted a fall crop of spinach and lettuce.

Unfortunately, all this produce came at an unlucky time when our 35 year old freezer elected to die. This involved a lot of hassle with the local big box store (HD) on delivery dates. But mostly the fact that the huge truck they decided to deliver the freezer – the same one that they delivered the washing machine two months ago – suddenly couldn’t make it down our drive. Lots of unhelpful phone calls until we cancelled the order and went with the local appliance store. Spent a little more but the service was great. I like supporting local businesses, too.

The second half of this misadventure is that the freezer resides in the back of my studio. Which meant, of course. hauling out most of the paintings that have been stored back there. Might as well clean it out while I’m at it. None of this was on my schedule. Anyway, it’s all fixed up now. On to other things.

The Golden Marble (detail), acrylic, real gold and silver leaf, 30 x 24. Kit Miracle

I’ve been experimenting with more applications of gold and silver leaf to my paintings as discussed earlier. I really like this but it is so tricky to work with. This is 23K gold and sterling silver on the thinnest of metallic sheets. Even a breath of air will mess it up while applying it to the canvases. Here is a detail shot of one of the largest paintings that I’ve done using this technique. I’ll post more about it later.

And, the deer seem to be out in abundance. Although we rent our fields out, it’s sure a shame to see how much these visitors eat. The beans are high enough now that we mostly only see their heads. And they don’t seem to be skittish at all with the noises coming from the house and yard. Well, another couple of months it will be a different story when hunting season starts. Meanwhile, I love watching the twins playing in the yard just as any youngsters might do.

I hope to post a bit more regularly in the future. And I also hope that you’ve all been managing the weather – heat, drought, hurricanes. Autumn is coming and the leaves are even beginning to change. Can’t wait!

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Posted in contemporary impressionism, country living, garden

Tagged acrylic, contemporary impressionist, country living, deer, gardening, gold leaf, kit miracle

Generosity

Posted on July 30, 2023 | 3 comments

A couple of weeks ago I jokingly claimed that people around here had to keep their car doors locked in the summer to prevent good-intentioned neighbors from leaving bags of zucchini in them. Zucchini are prolific, in case you don’t know.

But a few days later, I found myself foisting off some fresh-picked tomatoes on a visiting neighbor. He wasn’t unhappy about it as he doesn’t have a garden this year, but it gave me pause. This is what gardeners do. What we love to do, i.e., share our bounty. Although our garden area is much reduced this year, I still love to share.

A few years ago, I did a painting of my grandmother who so generously shared her garden bounty, too. You never left her house empty-handed.

Generosity, 24 x 18, oil on canvas, Kit Miracle artist

The painting depicts her holding an armful of, what? Probably turnips but it could have been tomatoes or peppers or just about anything. The original photo was black and white. The dress was typical summer attire, homemade with no pattern. She just laid out an old dress on the fabric and cut around it. Something I would never be confident enough to try, but grandma worked in an underwear factory during WWII, cutting out fifty layers of long johns at a time. A simple housedress could be whipped up in no time. On her Singer peddle sewing machine. Which I now use as a bedside table. Memories.

Anyway, if someone offers you an armful of fresh garden produce this summer, take it. Even if you don’t like turnips, you’ll be perpetuating the nearly lost act of sharing what we have with fellow human beings. It’s worth reminding ourselves that caring for others reflects well on all of us eventually.

3 Comments

Posted in country living, garden, portrait, Uncategorized

Tagged contemporary impressionist, gardening, kit miracle, produce, sharing

Chocolate zucchini brownies

Posted on July 9, 2023 | Comments Off

Chocolate zucchini brownie and butter pecan ice cream. Yumm!

The joke here in Indiana is that you lock your car doors in the summer so that you don’t return to find it filled with bags of zucchini from your friendly neighbors. Ha ha.

That is only partially a joke because the vegetable is so prolific and easy to grow. When it starts coming in, you will be searching for ways to use it. Well, I have several delicious ways to use zucchini and I’m going to share with you one of my favorites.

This recipe is from one of those hometown cookbooks which and was compiled by the Parishioners and Friends of Saint Sebastian Church in Belle Vernon, PA. My mother-in-law gave me this book years ago. I cherish it for all the homecooked recipies featuring recipies from the area. It joins a couple of other favorite regional cookbooks on my shelf.

I promise you that this is one of the most delicious brownie recipes (of any kind) but suggest that you don’t tell anyone that it has zucchini in it until after they’ve eaten it. The brownies are very moist and this is a sneaky way to get your kids to eat their vegetables. The zucchini has no flavor actually but adds some body, similar to coconut.

Chocolate Zucchini Brownies

½ cup butter (1 stick), softened

½ cup oil

1 ¾ cup sugar

2 whole eggs

1 tsp vanilla

¼ cup chocolate chips, chopped (or use mini chips), and I’m pretty generous with these

2 cups grated zucchini, plus ½ cup more chocolate chips

½ cup sour milk (add 1 tablespoon vinegar to ½ cup milk)

2 ½ cup sifted flour

4 Tbsp cocoa

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

½ cups chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Cream the butter, oil and sugar until it’s about the consistency of butter-cream frosting.

Add the eggs, vanilla, and sour milk. Beat until mixed well.

Mix the dry ingredients together, then gradually add to the mixture as you are beating it.

Stir in the grated zucchini, mini chocolate chips, and nuts until well mixed.

Spoon the batter into a 9 x 13 greased pan. Sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate chips.

Bake at 325 for 40 to 45 minutes.

Baking dish of chocolate zucchini brownies with mini chocolate chip topping.

These are so delicious, moist and light. You can use a box grater or food processor to grate the zucchini. I peel the vegetable but it isn’t necessary. The variety of zucchini is Grey Zucchini by Ferry-Morse which only grows about seven inches.

Smallish zucchini, about six to eight inches long. Peel and cut into strips, taking out any seeds before grating.

While I’m grating zucchini, I grate a lot more to freeze in two-cup portions, just right for these brownies.

They also make tasty fritters, zucchini pineapple bread, muffins, layered in vegetable lasagna, soups and stews. Don’t worry, you’ll find plenty of uses for this easy-to-grow veggie.

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Posted in garden, recipe

Tagged brownie, chocolate brownie, gardening, kit miracle, zucchini

Garden update, June 2023

Posted on June 24, 2023 | Comments Off

It’s been about a month since my last garden post with the raised beds. Most of the garden was planted on May 6^th.

As you can see from the photos, the growth of the plants has exploded. We’ve been eating spinach and lettuce for a few weeks now. The netting has kept the plants very clean and bug free. I think it also supplies a bit of shade, too. When I planted the seeds back in mid-April, I thought that I didn’t have a very large spot for the leafy greens, but the small space has been more than enough to supply our needs. I also discovered that it’s better to cut the greens early in the morning so they’ll stay crisp. If I cut them later in the day, they tend to get wilty.

Also, in the same raised bed I have sixteen pepper plants (hot and sweet), a large basil plant and cilantro, and some sugar pea pods. The peppers are just coming in this week and I’ve been eating the pea pods every time I pass by so I couldn’t exactly tell you how those are producing.

The second raised bed has ten tomato plants and two eggplants. The first set of tomato plants that I planted in mid April were hit heavily by a very hard frost at the end of April. I just cut off the cherry tomatoes and, surprise surprise, the plants grew back. The others I pulled out and planted some new plants. We have Sweet 100 (cherry), Fat Mama (roma-type), Park Whopper, Pink Brandywine (a German tomato which was our favorite a couple of years ago.) They all are heavy with tomatoes so I’m sure we’ll be eating them in a few weeks.

The eggplants were only hit a little by flea beetles. We don’t use any pesticides and, as before, the plants pulled out of the attack.

Beans to the left. Squash and zucchini on the right.

The green beans are blossoming heavily so I expect we’ll have some beans pretty soon. And the two squash mounds are producing. We have yellow squash and grey zucchini which we’ve been eating for a week or so.

I’ve been watering about every other day depending upon the soil moisture. The ground cloth and the cardboard have been doing a great job of keeping the weeds down and the moisture up. No pesticides and a light feeding about once a week.

Today’s harvest. Went into stir-fry tonight.

So far, I’m pretty pleased with the new raised beds. So much less work after initial set up. But I’m going to miss fresh sweet corn and my cut flowers.

Stay tuned for future reports. Meanwhile, I’ll have to check out my zucchini brownies recipe.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged country living, gardening, kit miracle, pea pods, raised beds, southern indiana

May garden update

Posted on May 22, 2023 | 1 comment

We had quite a bit of rain last week but temps are creeping up and I think the rain is over for awhile.

Five varieties of tomatoes and two eggplants.

The raised bed frames that I posted last month in April are doing well for the most part. As I expected, we had a late freeze and lost some tomatoes that we planted too early. I knew that we were taking a chance but, oh, well, it’s fun to experiment.

The first set of tomatoes that we had planted were two cherry tomatoes and four Park Whoppers. They had time to get established so when the freeze hit, they were still viable below the ground cloth. I cut off the dead tops of the cherry tomatoes and pulled out the Park Whoppers although they probably could have made it, too. The cherry tomatoes came back and have made up for lost growth. We’ve added some more tomato varieties – Pink Brandywine, Celebrity, Fat Mama (a roma variety) and a couple more Park Whoppers. And two eggplants in that raised bed.

The second raised bed with peppers, peas, and a variety of vegetables.

The second raised bed has more variety. I planted spinach and two kinds of lettuce. I put some netting over it to keep the cat out of there and that is actually helping keep bugs out and provides some shade. Those greens taste as tender as butter. Then several varieties of peppers, cilantro, basil, and some climbing pea pod vines.

Row of beans and two hills of squash. The cardboard is to keep down weeds and to keep in moisture. And the wood is to keep the cardboard from blowing away until it gets really moist.

Then I had some space between the second raised bed and the asparagus patch. So it’s bush beans and two kinds of squash. I’ve added cardboard between the rows to keep down the weeds.

I’ve filled flowerpots and weeded. But there is always more to be done. Trimming bushes. Trimming back the lane. Trimming trees. It’s a never ending project but it sure racks up the mileage on my FitBit. I guess that’s a good thing.

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Posted in country living, garden

Tagged country living, gardening, kit miracle, raised beds

Spring garden progress

Posted on April 16, 2023 | 3 comments

We’ve had an absolutely gorgeous week this spring. Clear, sunny days, temps in the mid 70s. All the dogwoods, redbuds, and other spring flowers and bushes have been putting on a display. And the birds are making nests in every nook and cranny. I have been very busy outside preparing the garden.

I finished assembling the second raised bed kit. Then we prepared the ground for the beds. This is in the location of the former spring garden so the ground has been worked before. After tilling it to loosen the soil, we added peat, manure, and some topsoil. Beneath each mound, I added a layer of cardboard as I’ve heard that this keeps down the weeds. Then I shoveled on the dirt, added the raised bed frames, and leveled everything.

I couldn’t resist buying a few plants although it’s really too early here. We can expect to get a late frost as far as May 10^th. And have some years. But I went ahead and added some ground cloth and planted through them.

One raised bed will be dedicated to tomatoes and peppers. The second will have more variety with sugar peas, lettuces, spinach. Later beans, squash and whatever. I only bought a few tomatoes and herbs so far. I won’t fib and say this was easy. It was actually a lot of crawling around but now that it’s done, it looks pretty neat.

Although the tomatoes are a little closer than I would normally plant them, we’ll see if this system works better. It should be easier to maintain. I will buy some more tomatoes later this week. Still too early for peppers. And we set up the solar-powered motion detector lights which we’ve used in the past. This helps to keep some of the critters out of the vegetable patch.

Last year our garden was miserable due to a drought and other issues. But the year before we had produce in abundance. I was trying to remember which were our favorite tomatoes and remembered a posting that I made in August of 2021 where I made comparisons of the variety of tomatoes. If you’re just getting ready to plant, you may wish to check it out at this link.

Anyway, I’ve got a head start on this part of the garden but there’s plenty more to do. I don’t think a farmer’s work is ever done.

For more information about tomato varieties, check out this post. Tomatoes! Tomatoes! Tomatoes!