Articles written by Mary Honrud
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Getting (Some) Things Done
As I once remarked to my mother-in-law, there is always, always, ALWAYS more work to be done. I also once asked the in-laws, "Why are we working? Simply to work? Or is it in order to be able to go and...
April / May Mix-Up?
Mother Nature gets confused when she heads north. Our April showers are arriving in May. (April brought us lots of winter snows. Boo! Hiss!) We are still managing to get some May flowers, though, so...
Daring To Be Optimistic
Dare I hope spring is finally really here? Am I dooming us to more icky weather by uttering the word spring? To that second question, I certainly hope not! I’m pretty sure I don’t possess the power to jinx all of northeastern Montana. If I had...
Spring Redux? Or Betrayal Again?
I watched a reel on Facebook last week by a Canadian man. He talked aboot the four seasons they enjoy: first is summer, when you can wear shorts and flip-flops. (I'm paraphrasing since I don't remembe...
Imprisoned Again
I feel like we're trapped in a Groundhog's Day movie scenario: the last couple of Wednesdays and Thursdays have dumped another six inches of never-ending winter on us. A couple of weeks ago we had...
Beyond Tardiness
Spring is still late. Mostly it's missing, perhaps playing hookie. I feel like a broken record. Seriously, more snow?? We had another 6" of cold white yuck last Thursday night. The highway was solid...
Free At Last?
Finally! We're getting some spring weather. The snow is melting. There's mud everywhere. Of course, as deep as the drifts are up here north of the middle of nowhere, we're going to be looking at and...
Sprinter
Here we are, suffering through yet another winter event even though the calendar tells us it’s spring. It’s so depressing to see more snow blowing sideways through the yard. Yesterday the highway up here was bare. Today we’re back to a total...
Hiatus
The official meaning of hiatus is "a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process." I've been on an extended hiatus from gardening. Perhaps there's a word for this extension (forced vacation? jail...
Deja Vu
Here I am, complaining about the weather again. But I feel like I'm in good company on that front: who isn't sick of winter by now? Could we please have at least a full week of no snow, sunny skies, a...
Outdoor Gardening Postponed - Again
This latest blast from Mother Nature has certainly dampened my enthusiasm for gardening out of doors. My plans to start some seeds are on hold, although they probably shouldn't be. I know onions...
Pearls Or Jewels?
A year or so ago, I gave a couple houseplants to a friend up here in the great North of the Middle of Nowhere. I didn't have names for them, so she looked them up. I'm sure she gave me the correct nam...
Battle Royale
Badger versus skunk: this really doesn't have much to do with Green Spaces. But this particular battle occurred near my garden, and concluded underneath it! The column this week is going to stink,...
Plant Addiction
Can I talk about this today? They do say half the battle of curing an addiction is admitting you have one. But you can't be cured if you don't really want to be. And I've convinced myself my case...
Spring Is Coming – Maybe?
The weather recently has actually been pretty nice, especially for February. I secretly think Mother Nature is doing her best to soften us up for the next bit of nastiness we all know is coming. But...
Home Again
Editor's Note: This column was submitted to the Glasgow Courier Jan. 29. We are back home from our hockey-watching trip to Quebec City, which is north of Maine, on the St Lawrence River. The...
Sweet Recipes
We’re off on another trip that involves our grandsons and hockey. This one, unfortunately, is not to warmer southern climes. There’s a bit of prideful boasting involved in this, since both boys were invited to compete in a tournament in Quebec Ci...
Palm Reading? Or Too Many Palms...
Last week I briefly mentioned there being so many varieties of palm trees at the Sunken Gardens. There were palm trees scattered throughout the gardens, a well as a palm grove. Many of them I'd never...
Manatees and Sunken Gardens
During our last few days enjoying Florida, we made our usual trip to see the manatees. These aquatic mammals, also called sea cows, used to be mistaken for mythical mermaids. I think those sailors...
Cold Snap and Iguanasicles
As you may have read from previous columns, we are currently enjoying some time off from the usual northeastern Montana early winter weather. That cold invasion from Canada extended even deep into sunny Florida. People joked about Canada declaring wa...
Orchidmania
We're on our annual winter trip to "sunny" Florida to have the Christmas holiday with our middle daughter and her family. So far, while we have seen the sun off and on, it hasn't been particularly...
Cooking Without Poison
I wrote so much about my growing poisonous plants, I didn't have room to include these great recipes. I'm not cooking with any of those plants. I'm not sure how much you'd have to ingest to get...
Amaryllis Grower, Maleficent Me?
This week I'm going to maybe bore you with the info I've gleaned on amaryllis plants. Aren't you excited? These bulbs are ubiquitous in the Christmas season. They are 'forced' to bloom during this...
Plantology & Cookology
Let's start this week with some of the previously threatened "too much info" on plants. I have a Flamingo Flower, also called a Flamingo Lily or Tailfeather. It's similar to a Peace Lily, but has...
Olio
You may be wondering why I titled this week's column as I did. I could have used a number of synonyms (assortment, conglomerate, hodgepodge, jumble, medley) but then I wouldn't have the built-in...