Yellow Shirt (don't delete)
The yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front. It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away.
'You're not taking that old thing, are you?' Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt.. 'I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!'
'It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom. Thanks!' I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object. The yellow shirt be came a part of my college wardrobe. I loved it.
After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned.
The next year, I married. When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days. I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois . But, that shirt helped. I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 25 years earlier.
That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom. When Mom wrote to thank me for her 'real' gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely. She never mentioned it again..
The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to pick up some furniture. Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom. The shirt!
And so the pattern was set.
On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress. I don't know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp. The yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture. The walnut stains added character.
In 1975 my husband and I divorced. With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois . As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own. I wondered if I would find a job. I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort. In Ephesians, I read, 'So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up.'
I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the stained yellow shirt.. Slowly, it dawned on me. Wasn't my mother's love a piece of God's armor? My courage was renewed.
Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother. The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer.
Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet.
Something new had been added. Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words 'I BELONG TO PAT.'
Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters.
Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, 'I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER.' But I didn't stop there. I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington , VA. We enclosed an official looking letter from 'The Institute for the Destitute,' announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds.
I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the box. But, of course, she never mentioned it.
Two years later, in 1978, I remarried. The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head. It felt lumpy... I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt.. Inside a pocket was a note: 'Read John 14:27-29. I love you both, Mother.'
That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses: 'I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me.'
The shirt was Mother's final gift. She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease. Mother died the following year at age 57.
I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave. But I'm glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years. Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art. And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets.
You have 6 minutes....
There's some mighty fine advice in these words, even if you're not superstitious. This Lotus Totus has been sent To you for good luck from the Anthony Robbins organization. It has been sent around the world ten times so Far. You will receive good luck within four days of relaying this Lotus Totus.
Do not keep this message. The Lotus Totus must leave your hands in 6 MINUTES.
Otherwise you will get a very unpleasant surprise. This is true, even if you are not superstitious, agnostic, or otherwise faith impaired.
Now, here's the FUN part!
1-4 people: Your life will improve slightly.
5-9 people: Your life will improve to your liking.
9-14 people: You will have at least 5 surprises in the next 3 weeks
15 and above: Your life will improve drastically and everything you ever dreamed of will begin to take shape.
A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
new grass cool
TifGrand bermudagrass bred for shade available next year
(7/27/2009)
The University of Georgia has licensed a new variety of bermudagrass to grow well in both full sun and in shade. Called “TifGrand,” it is licensed by the University of Georgia Research Foundation to New Concept Turf and is expected to be available in 2010.
New Concept Turf, a Georgia-based company specializing in marketing new turfgrasses, has contracted Ft. Valley, GA-based The Turfgrass Group to exclusively handle licensing of TifGrand for sod production. TifGrand was licensed to a selected number of growers this summer.
TifGrand was developed by Wayne Hanna, professor of plant breeding and genetics in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
“Although TifGrand produces a beautiful turf in full sun, its major contribution will be the production of nice turf in areas with reduced light, up to 60 percent less light than is normally required for healthy bermudagrass growth,” Dr. Hanna said in a news release.
TifGrand is the first sterile triploid hybrid with improved shade tolerance. Research testing over the past 10 years demonstrates its excellent growth at 60 percent to 70 percent shade levels. It can tolerate up to 90 percent shade levels, but it will have lower density. Dr. Hanna believes it will be the most shade-tolerant turf commercially available, according to an article in Carolinas Green magazine by Chris Hartwiger of USGA Southeast Region, Green Section. Here is more from that article, used here with permission by Sam Williams:
“Due to its semi-dwarf nature, TifGrand is not overly aggressive and it will tend to stay where planted and not encroach into nearby areas. [It] has both stolons and rhizomes and another unique feature is the lack of dew on the leaves in the morning, like paspalum. It has excellent mole cricket non-preference resistance and lower nitrogen fertility requirements compared to Tifway and TifSport.
“Like most bermudagrasses, seed heads are produced during June in full sun locations, but this is the only drawback observed. Few to no seed heads are present in shady locations. TifGrand will be popular for use at shaded rough areas, shaded tees, and shaded lawns. Fairway plantings are only advised for shaded sites initially, but this may change over time. Putting green tests at 5/32-inch are underway and it seems to produce a high quality surface. [It] should do well at shaded putting green sites with up to 60 percent to 70 percent shade. No other putting green bermudagrass ever has shown shade tolerance and this development will help many courses where shade around putting greens is a major issue.
“Sod will be recommended rather than sprigs at shaded sites to ensure the [grass] establishes well. Tests using sprigs at shaded sites didn’t work as well as the sod for establishment, especially where there is tree root competition.”
With new turfgrass, UGA sees green
Here’s an excerpt from a June 5 article by Lee Shearer of the Athens Banner-Herald on the financial implications of TifGrand:
“A new Bermuda variety developed by University of Georgia turfgrass researcher Wayne Hanna could let homeowners have their shade trees and carpet of lawn, too, when it becomes available to the public in 2010.
The grass grows in shade as well as sun and has sod-growers lining up for the right to grow the new grass, said Bill Carraway, vice president of marketing for a Fort Valley company called The Turfgrass Group.
"It is so, so big," said Carraway, who is crisscrossing the country from California to South Carolina this summer, signing up sod-producers to begin growing the new grass, called TifGrand.
"This is a breakthrough," Carraway said. Sod producers are "stacked up like cordwood wanting to get license to produce."
Grasses developed in Tifton by UGA and U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers working under Hanna and his predecessor, Glenn Burton, have grown on golf courses and athletic fields around the world for decades.
"Probably the center of the universe for warm-season turf grasses is in Tifton," said Mike Garland, director of the Georgia Seed Development Commission.
Augusta National Golf Club and hundreds of other courses use UGA Tif varieties; most Southeastern Conference football teams (including Florida) play on turf grasses developed in Tifton, said Hanna, who began working in Tifton in 1971.
But the new TifGrand could penetrate a different market, and potentially add millions of dollars to the University of Georgia Research Foundation's bottom line. The foundation owns patents for inventions and discoveries by UGA scientists, and uses some of the income from licensing and royalties to promote research at UGA. Researchers also get a cut.
"This is opening a door for us," said Shelley Fincher of the UGA Research Foundation's Technology Commercialization Office.
"We're pretty excited about it. Everybody wants to have a shade tree in their back yard," Hanna said.
The grass's expected popularity could add millions of dollars to the research foundation's bottom line.
In the five fiscal years from 2004 through 2008, producers paid $3.2 million in fees for the right to grow UGA-developed turfgrasses, Fincher said, about 4 percent of the research foundation's income from royalties and licensing fees.
Hanna and his research team took years to develop the new TifGrand Bermuda grass, using traditional plant breeding techniques. The researchers began by planting 27,500 hybrid varieties in 1992, he said. In 1993, the researchers picked the best 448 candidates from those and have been weeding out the pretenders ever since, he said.
"Every few years, we'd cut the number in half," he said.
(7/27/2009)
The University of Georgia has licensed a new variety of bermudagrass to grow well in both full sun and in shade. Called “TifGrand,” it is licensed by the University of Georgia Research Foundation to New Concept Turf and is expected to be available in 2010.
New Concept Turf, a Georgia-based company specializing in marketing new turfgrasses, has contracted Ft. Valley, GA-based The Turfgrass Group to exclusively handle licensing of TifGrand for sod production. TifGrand was licensed to a selected number of growers this summer.
TifGrand was developed by Wayne Hanna, professor of plant breeding and genetics in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
“Although TifGrand produces a beautiful turf in full sun, its major contribution will be the production of nice turf in areas with reduced light, up to 60 percent less light than is normally required for healthy bermudagrass growth,” Dr. Hanna said in a news release.
TifGrand is the first sterile triploid hybrid with improved shade tolerance. Research testing over the past 10 years demonstrates its excellent growth at 60 percent to 70 percent shade levels. It can tolerate up to 90 percent shade levels, but it will have lower density. Dr. Hanna believes it will be the most shade-tolerant turf commercially available, according to an article in Carolinas Green magazine by Chris Hartwiger of USGA Southeast Region, Green Section. Here is more from that article, used here with permission by Sam Williams:
“Due to its semi-dwarf nature, TifGrand is not overly aggressive and it will tend to stay where planted and not encroach into nearby areas. [It] has both stolons and rhizomes and another unique feature is the lack of dew on the leaves in the morning, like paspalum. It has excellent mole cricket non-preference resistance and lower nitrogen fertility requirements compared to Tifway and TifSport.
“Like most bermudagrasses, seed heads are produced during June in full sun locations, but this is the only drawback observed. Few to no seed heads are present in shady locations. TifGrand will be popular for use at shaded rough areas, shaded tees, and shaded lawns. Fairway plantings are only advised for shaded sites initially, but this may change over time. Putting green tests at 5/32-inch are underway and it seems to produce a high quality surface. [It] should do well at shaded putting green sites with up to 60 percent to 70 percent shade. No other putting green bermudagrass ever has shown shade tolerance and this development will help many courses where shade around putting greens is a major issue.
“Sod will be recommended rather than sprigs at shaded sites to ensure the [grass] establishes well. Tests using sprigs at shaded sites didn’t work as well as the sod for establishment, especially where there is tree root competition.”
With new turfgrass, UGA sees green
Here’s an excerpt from a June 5 article by Lee Shearer of the Athens Banner-Herald on the financial implications of TifGrand:
“A new Bermuda variety developed by University of Georgia turfgrass researcher Wayne Hanna could let homeowners have their shade trees and carpet of lawn, too, when it becomes available to the public in 2010.
The grass grows in shade as well as sun and has sod-growers lining up for the right to grow the new grass, said Bill Carraway, vice president of marketing for a Fort Valley company called The Turfgrass Group.
"It is so, so big," said Carraway, who is crisscrossing the country from California to South Carolina this summer, signing up sod-producers to begin growing the new grass, called TifGrand.
"This is a breakthrough," Carraway said. Sod producers are "stacked up like cordwood wanting to get license to produce."
Grasses developed in Tifton by UGA and U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers working under Hanna and his predecessor, Glenn Burton, have grown on golf courses and athletic fields around the world for decades.
"Probably the center of the universe for warm-season turf grasses is in Tifton," said Mike Garland, director of the Georgia Seed Development Commission.
Augusta National Golf Club and hundreds of other courses use UGA Tif varieties; most Southeastern Conference football teams (including Florida) play on turf grasses developed in Tifton, said Hanna, who began working in Tifton in 1971.
But the new TifGrand could penetrate a different market, and potentially add millions of dollars to the University of Georgia Research Foundation's bottom line. The foundation owns patents for inventions and discoveries by UGA scientists, and uses some of the income from licensing and royalties to promote research at UGA. Researchers also get a cut.
"This is opening a door for us," said Shelley Fincher of the UGA Research Foundation's Technology Commercialization Office.
"We're pretty excited about it. Everybody wants to have a shade tree in their back yard," Hanna said.
The grass's expected popularity could add millions of dollars to the research foundation's bottom line.
In the five fiscal years from 2004 through 2008, producers paid $3.2 million in fees for the right to grow UGA-developed turfgrasses, Fincher said, about 4 percent of the research foundation's income from royalties and licensing fees.
Hanna and his research team took years to develop the new TifGrand Bermuda grass, using traditional plant breeding techniques. The researchers began by planting 27,500 hybrid varieties in 1992, he said. In 1993, the researchers picked the best 448 candidates from those and have been weeding out the pretenders ever since, he said.
"Every few years, we'd cut the number in half," he said.
Friday, May 28, 2010
i know it been a long time
that the great thing about being a lazy gardener you can take time off and stuff still looks great. if you do take the time to think about how your yarden look and works you can do less and get more out of it. garden should be something you enjoy if it too much work you make be doing some thing wrong. take time to look at your yard. look around not just to enjoy it but also to understand it. look at what growth well there, look at what grow wild, and look at what come to you yard. a lot of time pest and weed can teach you a lot you can learn from them about what work best. so take time to look listen and learn from your yarden.
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