It must have been 25 years ago, or so, when Fay was living on Briarwood, in the house that she and Charlie Rosen lived in. Charlie had lots of hobbies and interests, gardening among them. There was a rhubarb patch in their yard, a grape arbor, and other interesting plantings. Fay didn't think much of the grape arbor. That was one of the first changes after they got married. The grapes attracted birds and basically created a mess that Fay wasn't interested in keeping up with.
Among the plants in their yard were "money plants." These plants are so named because the seed pods contain shiny, cellophane-like disks that look like coins. When the plants dry out, you can rub the seed pods, remove the outer material, and expose the seeds and the inner "coins." Before one of Fay's visits to us, after Charlie had died, she picked a whole bunch of money plants and harvested the seeds. She brought them with her to Maryland and surprised us by planting these seeds all over our yard. I should point out that she planted these seeds before telling us about the project.
Money plants yield their seeds every other year. On the in-between years, there are purple flowers (that frankly look like weeds). On the year that the plants produce seeds, they scatter on their own so that we find a random money plant growing around our yard even now.
Last week Margie decided to pick some plants and fix them up to decorate Fay's room. See the photos above. Fay seemed interested in the story about the plants. We had some good laughs, but I'm not sure she remembers that she is the Johnny Appleseed of money plants in Columbia, MD.
Overall status: Looked good on Saturday. Not as drowsy as the week before. Staff report that she engages them and is in a pretty good mood overall.
No comments:
Post a Comment