MONSIEUR POINSETT by Eve Drewlowe

Gift of Eve Van Ek (Drewlowe)
Courtesy of the University of Iowa Museum of Art

New Forms: The Avant-Garde Meets the American Scene, 1934-1949, Selections from the University of Iowa Museum of Art, edited by Kathleen A. Edwards

Snow Bridge

We laid her on the driftwood pack

and watched its uneven break
sawing against the horizon.

How did you protect her?
The willows woven into the basket were budding.

(I pictured her feet against the ambulance doors
each time they stopped.

I ran through the yard, to wean the hounds
from their mother.)

As we climbed the mountain pass
we lost our switches in the snow,

and the gently arcing trail of a hare,
copied in the pattern of the lace.

We were walking through the snow
to clean the hobbles

which were bent, as if to run.
She left

a needle, glinting from the cross-stitch:
a silo for the grain;

bare fields
in the cross-stitch, winter scene;

and these are
the stitches left by a golden larch

Ascension Theory, by Christopher Bolin

High-Top Shoes

I had to wear a pr of high top shoes one Winter. Oh how I didn't want too but some one gave them to us. They came nearer fitting me than anyone so I wore them. No one else wore them at School.

Others Had It Worse: Sour Dock, Moonshine, & Hard Times in Davis County, Iowa, by Vetra Melrose Padget Covert and Chris D. Baker

Iowa Farm in Winter

Iowa Farm in Your Pocket: A Beginner's Guide, by Kirk Murray

December 8, 1909—excerpt from BACHELOR BESS

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909-1919, contains the letters Bess wrote home to her family after she staked a homesteading claim in Fort Pierre, South Dakota.

December 8, 1909 / Fort Pierre, South Dakota
To: Mrs. M. M. Corey

"You folks think you know something about cold weather but you dont. I had got used to having my hair, eyebrows and eyewinkers covered with frost and ice till I looked like Santa Clause when I got to school but Sun. night beat that all hollow. I went to bed with the covers over my head and just a little air hole over my right eye and when I woke up in the night I found when I put up my hand to turn down the covers that my hair and the blanket were covered with hoar frost. . . ."

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909-1919, edited by Philip L. Gerber

February Gardening Tip

Considering how windy this winter has been, we thought it was only appropriate to give you some pointers on how to protect your plants from wind.

Contrary to popular belief, tin cans protect seedlings only from winds. They do not protect from cold. For cold protection for seedlings planted early, remove the lid and cut off the bottom of a plastic milk jug and place over the plant. Remove in mid-May.

—Barbara Rusk, Ames Garden Club

Gardening in Iowa and Surrounding Areas, by Veronica Lorson Fowler with the Federated Garden Clubs of Iowa

Elegant Strawberry Pie recipe

Happy Valentine's Day! If you haven't eaten yourself into a sugar coma yet, here's a dessert recipe for a night with your loved one.

Elegant Strawberry Pie
4 cups whole strawberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup strawberry gelatin
1 pie crust, baked

Mix cornstarch, sugar, and water. Heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Add gelatin. Cool until lukewarm. Gently stir in berries and chill until set.

Gardening the Amana Way, by Lawrence L. Rettig