Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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When my writing career started more than 30 years ago, I spent months establishing a freelance career. After long days of teaching and coaching, I stayed up late at night, crafting query letters and sending them via snail mail, hoping to get a bite from local publications ... or a big break with a national news outlet. It seems amazing, considering it was in the dark ages - er, I mean pre-internet times. It was hard work, but I was determined to form partnerships with trusted publications and...
It's 55 degrees this September morning and I'm greeting the day with a cup of hot cocoa. I'm a cocoa fan rather than a cup of hot coffee. Despite the cool temperature I have my kitchen window open as I peer outside at the flower garden. Crickets can be heard singing a serenade which I hope is their goodby song. Of course their song also means goodbye to the bright, warm summer days. The plants are transitioning into fall as some of them have lost their growing vigor. Yet others seem to blend in...
Did you realize that there are flowers that evoke different emotions? Looking out my kitchen window, I usually smile as I look at my flower bed. When walking in the garden, I smile too, unless a weed catches my eye. Early in the mornings is my time to clip a bouquet to bring inside and keep that flowery smile going throughout the day. Currently, I have a bouquet in a vase with the printed verse, "Friend You Make Me Smile. "I have clipped and placed in it what I think of as the happiest of...
Looking out my kitchen window, it's bloom time in the garden and I want it to continue all year round. The only way to do that in Nebraska is by getting out the camera. It also means being patient as you sit in the garden on your favorite bench. You have to wait for when there isn't a breeze, when the sun goes under a cloud and then, move and move fast to get that perfect picture of that gorgeous bloom. Snapping those photos is a challenge as who doesn't want the perfect photo? I head to the...
BEV WIELER I’m watching the water sprinkler go back and forth out my kitchen window. Outside the birds are enjoying the light mist of water in the garden. They sing what I call their happy song. Oh this is living the dream for me. I’m retired and sitting on my patio enjoying the warm weather and looking over the flower garden. The peonies and iris had a long bloom season and are loosing their color while lily flower pods show color as I wait for their blooms to burst open. Annuals continue to gr...
BEV WIELER April showers have brought May flowers and I can hardly wait for blooms that fill out the rest of May and lead us into June and summer in the garden. There was a little set back recently with frost warnings for the morning of May 11. While the spring planting of impatients, geraniums and a variety of petunias has been underway in my rural West Point garden, Mother Nature sent a reminder to put the brakes on. It was full speed on the eve of May 10 as boxes, empty flower pots and...
BEV WIELER It’s April and I’ve walked through my garden checking if bushes are leafing out and watching as each day more color appears on tulips buds. Tiny grape hyacinth flowers seem a much darker purple this year and I’ve clipped a huge bunch of them to place in little glasses placed around the house. My yard isn’t the only place spring is appearing. Garden centers are bulging with plants and the color is eye boggling. The best laid flower garden plans are trashed the minute you step into th...
I heard it, then what followed was the rain. We are in the first part of March and I feel it was a spring thunderstorm as I was hearing thunder. Before I woke for the day, I just knew I would be able to look out my kitchen window and see green grass and robins. Spring isn’t quite here yet, but as I stepped outside that morning, I could smell the damp earth calling to me. Despite the thunder and rain, it’s early enough in March that there are still memories looming in my mind of a ground hog pre...
A blanket of snow covers the view out my kitchen window and inside the numbers on the outdoor thermometer are frighteningly low. On my kitchen counter, a willow branch is covered with soft puffs of pussy willows. Roots have sprouted and the willow twig is ready to plant. Brrr, planting during the cold snap sure wasn’t on my mind these days. What a long blast of cold we were dealt this month. The only good part of it was that the moisture from the snow should help when plants shoot up this s...
I’m enjoying the now view of my flower garden out my kitchen window. If you are wondering what could be worth looking at out there, I’ll try to describe it. Despite being covered with white fluffy snow, I see swags of greenery and pots filled with clippings of evergreens. The red bows still add a pop of color to the scene. The snow is deep enough that the decor will probably stay through February. There is bird bath with open water, where birds perch and dip their beaks in for a drink. Clo...
My house has a deep nutty aroma wafting from the kitchen. It’s pine cones in the oven. I’m getting ready for the holidays and that includes baking pine cones. I don’t have a family recipe for them. I use them for decorations. I was lucky to find three varieties of pine cones in my backyard to collect. After a good dunk in water to help clean them, they are placed on aluminum foil covered baking sheets and popped into the oven at 275 degrees for about two hours. Now the house smells wonderful! Th...
The final annuals have been pulled and perennials that still stand in the garden are drained of color as November is here. There does remain one spot of color as I look out my kitchen window. The flowering kale or ornamental cabbage is still in a fairly good form even after the recent ice storm. The medium green outer leaves surround the rich purple center that has evolved as the plant continues to share color. Flowering kale blooms are actually just the colored leaves or are known as rosettes....
Greetings, SAM readers. For the past two weeks, I have shared a breakdown of the differences between news articles and editorial items, after SAM began a partnership with Trusting News, a project of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and American Press Institute. We worked to devise strategies that promote responsible and ethical journalism. One goal I established, through the project, is to provide a breakdown of what makes a news article, an editorial and a column. This week, I will address...
There’s a rustle as I walk through the flower garden. It’s autumn and leaves are scattered on the ground. Moving indoors and looking out the kitchen window, the color in the flower garden has changed as the weather slowly creeps into cooler days and nights. It’s the kind of weather that makes a person want to cuddle up in a favorite sweatshirt and stoke a fire in the backyard fire pit. I’ve resisted the urge for the wood in the fire pit due to the extreme dry conditions and low dew point in the...
With the recent rain, I’m able to look out my kitchen window and still enjoy color in the flower garden. Just a few weeks ago I was ready to pull flowers out and hope for the best for wintering over perennials. It’s surprising what almost two inches of rain can do. All summer I dumped water on the beds. It takes rain to really make the color pop in the landscape. I realize we aren’t out of the woods yet. It will take a lot more moisture to bring up our water table. Plants need deep watering. Tha...
The landscape is changing outside my kitchen window. The greens have started to take on a different tone. Many flowers are reaching maturity. In the vegetable garden, red tomatoes fill the line of tomato plants and potato plants are drying down. It's only August and I'm not ready to give up summer. Nor am I ready to write out Welcome Fall on chalkboards or wood door swags. Summer, please hang on. I welcome the cool evenings and mornings, but just maybe they were a bit premature. I've looked...
I know the old saying: April showers bring May flowers. I also know we need showers month after month, but I don't like being held in the house by rain showers. It's May and I want to play outside. I do want the rains but have never figured out the happy medium, as to when it is to rain when needed, so I can be outside. If it rains at night, it's muddy during the day. Hmm, what to do? I suppose those rainy days are the times to look out the kitchen window while I dig into indoor chores. Or, I...
Garden fairies are so fun if you have a little one with you in the garden. As I look out to an early spring garden, there isn't much color other than sprouts of green iris. The garden fairies haven't been to work yet. I like to share with young garden visitors the tales of garden fairies. We even have a tree with a door and windows for the fairies. My story is that garden fairies give the blooming flowers their color early in the morning. Now wouldn't that be something to see out the kitchen...
The sun is shining as Nebraskans wake up. With a break from cold temperatures, a walk outside lends a view of tulips pushing their way through the soil. I am so ready for spring, although I know that Mother Nature can fling back her head and dump cold and snow on us. I'm not scared of what will unfold. Spring is coming and the tulips and sedum popping out of their winter blankets are a sure sign that we will be able to step outside soon and feel the warmth on our faces. Until then, I plan on...
February 2020 is on the calendar as I look out my kitchen window. There are still red bows and swags of red berries decorating the flower garden. Moving from Christmas to February, we are ready for Valentine's Day. February is one of my favorite months with dashes of pink and red spread around my house and yard and hearts tucked in where I can. As I watched the Super Bowl ad for Google, romance was definitely in the air in the Feb. 2 ad, along with precious memories. During the ad, an elderly...
Looking out the kitchen window as the new year erupts into an expected cold January, a striking red cardinal has stopped at the bird bath. Flashes of blue can be seen as a flock of bluejays dart around the feeders grabbing at morsels of feed. The color reminds me that now is the time to study how to make sure I have color in the plants in the garden this summer. As the winter temperatures force me to indoor time, I need to study up on care for my flower garden. Using the correct fertilizers can...
Looking out the kitchen window, the landscape has changed the past couple of weeks. Snow caps the trees and decor, making a wonderful winter photo. Out our window, green swags with red berries and bows on the garden fence are also frosted with snow. Even at night, we have a view out the kitchen window with lights glowing on the swags. Christmas shopping is near completed at our home. If you are still searching for a gift for a gardener, I have a few suggestions. They include subscriptions to...
The fall temperatures have turned cold and the skies are often gray as I look out my kitchen window. Bright bluejays and dark eyed juncos add activity to what is otherwise a dull landscape. I hope, now that November is here, you have your gardens and house tucked in for colder temperatures. That is usually a fulfilling but labor-intensive job, at least it is at our house. When the job is done, l realize that the emptiness of the flower garden is like cleaning a slate to redesign next year's...
Looking out my kitchen window I see orange. The orange is moving and it is kittens as mama cat has brought her kittens to the garden to drink out of the bird bath. The kittens play and climb on the orange pumpkins placed among the flower plants. It's pumpkin time out my kitchen window and while I don't welcome cats to my garden, these are adorable. They travel under the peony bushes crouching as they sneak from one area to another waiting to pounce on a sibling kitten. It isn't long before they...
I love sitting outside looking over my garden and am usually wearing a smile. I do have complaints in life and probably the biggest is not enough gardening programs on television or printed articles sharing Nebraska flower gardens. I'm Bev Wieler and my husband and I are nestled in the countryside of rural Nebraska, sharing the hobby of gardening. No matter what season it is we have found ways to splash color in the flower bed situated out our back door and luckily for us, outside our kitchen...
