Category Archives: Coffee talk

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  Cleaning House

  Posted on January 11, 2012 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk.

  Today, while cleaning my office (which seems like a constant, never-ending job), I came across two partial boxes of my first book, The Iowa Gardener’s Travel Guide, which many of you remember being promoted first on this site when it released in December 2008.  In an effort to make a little more space in my […]

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  Onwards and upwards…

  Posted on December 31, 2011 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk, From my garden to yours....

  An overcast sky and a duet album by Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny has me in a reflective mood today.  I think it’s prudent to pause at the close of a year, on the doorstep of another, and take stock of the road traveled and the journey ahead.  I’m not the kind of person that makes […]

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• Fall on Fire

  Posted on October 17, 2011 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk, Poetry Monday.

  Yesterday, I spent the afternoon wandering the October quiet aisles of Cox’s Plant Farm near Clayton, Indiana.  I came across some lovely, handsome, and well-grown chrysanthemums, which coming from a ‘non-mum’ fan means a lot, and stole away with some ultra-cheap Crocosmia for breeding work.  Against the overcast sky, their flowers blazed.  And that’s what I love […]

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• Happy Birthday, Blog!

  Posted on September 7, 2011 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk.

  I really do have more to share with you (a LOT more to share) than just a silly happy birthday wish for an otherwise dormant blog.  But the nursery (Rainbow Iris Farm) has kept me hopping lately, especially as I’ve donned the ambitions of dividing existing collections, adding new beds, and trying to squeeze in […]

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  Cool

  Posted on August 15, 2011 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk, From my garden to yours....

  August weather in Iowa is rarely described with adjectives like ‘mild’ or ‘cool’.  But this August, we’re blessed, after suffering through three weeks of 95-degree heat.  To our friends in warmer climes still suffering, my condolences.  This last week has made for famous gardening weather.  I’m still behind on all the things I’ve promised–how typical–though […]

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• A Summer Pursuit of Plants

  Posted on July 18, 2011 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk, From afield..., plant driven.

  I’m back!  After a long absence, it’s a pleasure to return to they keyboard and share with you the inklings of tentative plans for the future and a summary of the path I’ve just traced to get to this point.  2011 will go down as a full year in my book. In the months since […]

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• First Words

  Posted on January 31, 2011 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk.

  Nary a word has left my mind, dappled across my keyboard, and onto the screen in the last month that hasn’t had something to do with my book or thesis.  At least for the next few months ahead, until spring inevitably diverts my attention to the real matters of life–flowers–I’ll be on the lam from […]

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  Poetry Monday

  Posted on December 6, 2010 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk, Poetry Monday.

  Well there you have it.  I’ve decided to post a little snippet of poetry every Monday (or at least every Monday that I think about it).  In the last two months, I’ve taken to writing a collection of poems themed on the seasons–a special passion of mine as you know.  I leaked some verse in […]

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• What Garden Writers Can Learn from a Kayak

  Posted on October 23, 2010 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk.

  Tonight, like many nights, I ambled out in the minutes before dusk for a stroll at my favorite park–a reconstructed prairie at the site of a former quarry.  My often solo traipses around the meandering trails of Ada Hayden Park turn up an awful lot of ideas–most quirky or dorky.  But tonight in those waning […]

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• Up in the Air

  Posted on September 9, 2010 by Kelly Norris in Coffee talk.

  No, I haven’t seen the movie, but as I wrote that title it prompted me to scurry over to Netflix and add it to my queue.  I loved the trailer.  It captured the thrill and rush of travel that I live for, the pace, the small conversations in nonchalant pubs and cafes in terminals countrywide. […]

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