Butterfly Show 2010 Japan

Update Friday June 18,2010: I had to be at work early to receive a big order, 860 units, of cacti and succulents. Fortunately the 18 wheeler delivering this product arrived before we opened.

I was also lucky Mark was working Friday as he is the only employee who can operate the fork lift. Pretty good workout and I also got sunburnt. I spent the rest of the day checking in and pricing this order on the back dock. But before this delivery I finally added my wish to the shinto wish wall. Next picture is an explanation of the wish wall.

I attached my wish (2nd row from left, top) so I'd know where it was located.

The Krohn Conservatory 15th annual Butterfly Show 2010 opens tomorrow. This first picture is this year's poster on my desk. New this year are: new entrance, 3 show changes and beetles from Japan.

This next picture shows one of the many butterfly sculptures scattered in the park. The Park Board started this last year and I think it is great.

This year Japanese lantern entrance. Next picture Japanese water garden accessory along the entrance path that goes through the tent and around the side of the building to the newly installed pergola. This year visitors will enter through the desert room.

The tea house in the show room.

The Japanese Lantern. The sign next to this explains :"The earliest lanterns came to Japan from China via Korea along with Buddhism in the 6th Century. Stone lanterns were used as votive lights at temples and shrines."

This flower is Clivia and many people inquire about it. Unfortunately it takes forever to bloom and is as far as I can tell impossible to find for re-sell in the gift shop.

One of the glass butterfly feeders made by Neusole artists that we sell in the Gift Shop for $10.00. Last year we sold 600 units. I hope we can beat that number this year.

The horticulturists and volunteers started releasing butterflies this past Thursday.

This is a picture of the showroom while in progress. The hort staff only had 2 weeks to convert from early spring show to B-fly.

The Good Wishes railing. Visitors are invited to write their good wishes or prayers on a paper, fold it twice lengthwise , place it in the box to be added to this Good Wishes Railing.

The lobby and exit from the show.

MAYC

Last night we went to Teak for dinner. Since we have had our windows open for the last couple of weeks and yesterday was a very warm day, in the 80's so we decided to take advantage of other people's a/c. We did our usual which was split an appetizer and an entree which last night was chicken satay and yellow chicken curry.

So after dinner we decided to stop by the Wine Cellar to see who was around and what is going on. The Wine Cellar is sorta everybody's living room and the source for neighborhood happenings. There are some regulars that even seem out of place if they aren't seating in the usual seats. Same is true with church. Anyhow when we walked in last night we saw a few people wearing leis. Seemed sorta festive but not terribly out of place. Then more people poured in wearing luau outfits and leis. First we saw Rob and Mindy who were trying to convince us to come to Sunday night Karaoke (fundraiser for Pilgrim). Then Chuck and Kim came in, followed by Paula and then Richard. Well soon the topic changed to Key West (where we had last seen Chuck and Kim) and then the topic of why we are not members of the Yacht Club. They were all coming from Monk's Cove next door and this month MAYC Luau event.

A little background on this neighborhood social club from their website: http://www.mtadamsyachtclub.com/.

About Us - from the beginning

When 3 guys sit around, have a drink and shoot the breeze, one never knows what may happen. Why, even a yacht club may come about! That's what happened in the winter of'01-'02 when Richard Boyd, Chuck Curran and Cliff Wahl (the three stars in the burgee) started talking about how cool it would be if Mt. Adams could have a yacht club for the few boat owners who live there. They made Chuck go out and buy a boat. Then they realized we didn't have any water or piers in Mt Adams (except for the fountain on the corner of Pavilion and St. Gregory) and that's where the slogan "Pierless in our Own Time" was conceived. So the Mt. Adams Yacht Club idea grew, was incorporated in the State of Ohio, and in June of '03, and organizational meeting was held....

Papers were almost immediately filed with The Yachting Club of America, a yacht club association. Our "home port" would be The Wine Cellar and Mike Ferguson joined immediately. Thanks to Lee Robinson, we now have a ship's bell by the front door Members supply burgees from reciprocal yachting ventures and these burgees can be seen hanging from the walls of the home port, aka, the Wine Cellar in Mt Adams.

The red, white and blue burgee, 2nd visible one from was the one John and I exchanged with the Venice Yacht Club several years ago. We were not the least bit surprised when the Venice manager said he had never heard of MAYC. No comment either about the picture of a ship over a hill on the burgee either.

Yet we never joined. Our reasons were we aren't joiners, don't need another social excuse, are going to be parents soon, etc. But that changed last night when our friends filled out the form and we mailed our signed application (the commodore, his first mate and a founder) today. Does not really make sense but there you go.

RQ's Projections Update

Rumor Queen posted this projection update today. Last week China Adoption Forecast updated their forecast for our LID from 11/20/10 to 11/12/10 referral projection. CAF's rationale is China is matching on average 3.5 days / month and we have 31 days. I think we will get a referral in September and travel in November. Sooner would be fantastic. International adoption had some incredibly sad news this past week with the reports that a 7 year old boy was sent back to Russia with a one way ticket and a note by his adoptive mother. The adoptive mother lives in Tennessee and apparently close to Vanderbilt which has an IAC that could very probably have provided the support / help needed. It is heartbreaking to think how this will impact this child and future adoptions. I believe this will change adoption education requirements. The IAC courses we took were optional but we thought important and reassuring. On a completely unrelated topic the pictures below (taken with my phone this morning) are of 2 new tulips that bloomed in our garden overnight. The first one is in the patio area. The 2nd one is a lily flowering one in the perennial bed.

Working in the Garden

Today was another gorgeous April day and so even though I need to pull a lot of financial information together this afternoon, I worked in our garden instead. John and I are close to finalizing plans for the patio pavers (brick pattern). We hope to have a referral party this fall and a functional patio will be fun for this party. I adore these snowdrops little green drops on the tips. Bonus that they perennialize! Tulips are my favorite flower and I think the geometry of this one is fascinating.

Our south facing garden means we get our blooms later than usual. So we are just now getting the Easter Egg colored tulips. Many of our still have not yet bloomed.

The Viburnam smell heavenly right now.

The Azalea I planted today. The azalea Lucy's old mommy's gave us died (not surprising as it was a gift to her from a florist) so I replaced it with this one from Rahn's.

Stewartstonian azalea planted. I believe the only noticeable difference with this azalea is the darker colored leaves. The other 2 azaleas that are already established.

The Lily of the Valley look like they are spreading this year.

Plumbago (planted today), hopefully this ground cover spreads quickly, next to coral bells.

Hostas coming in on the slope down to grass area.

Jack in the Pulpit is spreading nicely.

The brunnera in bloom.

Brunnera with glass butterfly feeder. This picture does not do it justice.

Looking up at the slope from the garden section.

I planted 24 3" plants of ground cover in the perennial section today.

And in the last bed (adjacent to the fence) I weeded, added soil amendment and planted 12

3" plants of ground cover Pink Chablis

I really hope this information proves true for our garden. Particularly the CARE: easy.

Rumor Referral! 1st Monday of the month again!

Per Rumor Queen looks like CCAA (who is soon to be CCWC) has matched throught March 17, 2006! This is a nice trend that referrals are coming the 1st Monday of every month. This gives us more reason to hope for a 6 month wait! Today we went tothe Reds Opening Day (v St. Louis) with our friends Statz and Molly. It was a lot of fun even through the Reds lost. The weather was really great. Statz and Molly are 5 years away from being empty nesters and joke that we could switch houses nin 5 years to take advantage of the Wyoming school district. It was a sold out game (40+ thousand people) and of course the Reds lost. The Great American building which will be getting it's crowning tiara at the end of this month.

Hinkle garden has really never looked so lovely. These pictures do it no justice but were taken on a walk over the weekend.

Eden Park Mirror Lake.

And the Gazebo.

The power lines were removed on St Gregory street last Thursday. Huge improvement.

The Bradford Pear in bloom on Fort View outside our 2nd floor bedroom.

Another view a little closer to the window.

I love that the neighbors advertise what is happening with their flags. This one on the neighbor across the street (the bagpiper brit who is an investment banker) was up when we returned home last Saturday from Easter lunch with my family in Bloomington.

Easter Morning in our garden

This morning before church I took these pictures of our garden with my phone. Because our garden faces south our garden blooms later. The Jane Magnolia just started to pop yesterday.

The Daffodils in the perennial section and courtyard are in full bloom.

I can believe I did not notice the brunnera coming in on the slope until this morning.

Scilla is starting to perenialize.

Snowdrops.

I wonder if this is the Solomon Seal.

Tulips should bloom in a week or so.