Gardening

In the garden with seeds. There was also tea and reading. There may also have been mud.

Then a trip to the used bookstore, where I picked up a couple Very Small books.

Life is good.

Garden Workday

 

 Spent the day at LM working in the garden and generally feeling useful. The conversation can't be beat.

 

 

Tacos and Torches

Got to hang out and talk hydroponics, eat tacos, and enjoy the firelight. A coyote howled from an abandoned cemetery nearby. My life's GPS is set on story-finder.

The thesis draft continues to gel, and it feels like bringing something to life. I like it.

The North Carolina air has a crisp edge, but I haven't seen snow since leaving Meditation Center. Perhaps snow is something that will disappear altogether in the coming decades in the South.

I love the urban-industrial edge that my life is taking. There should be train songs to go with these tracks.

Sunshine, and the living is easy

Isn't this how *everyone* reads a book??

After weeks of relentless rain, today is beautiful.

The sun is just right, and the breeze is gentle on my skin.

I woke up and read some more of I Feel Bad About My Neck, Nora Ephron's collection of essays about being a woman, and being a woman "of a certain age." It's proving to be a delight, and I find myself talking with her as I read. Her conversational style is spot-on, and is exactly what I'm looking for in my craft, so this is an excellent choice for the summer workshop term.

Sunshine & Smiles

Then there was a bit of gardening with Friends at the Meeting House. Connecting with my community was just what I needed, even though I didn't know I needed it. I felt grounded and valuable and loved, and there was some work that got done, too.

The steam room and sauna were a blessing, as always, and by the time I was done with my shower I felt able to meet the day.

At the library, I printed the poster mock up, since my printer is being wonky, and my favorite library assistant decided that my project for tomorrow's presentation is amazing, and she can't wait to work with me when I get the job. With well wishes like that, I told her, it's practically in the bag.



The attendant at FedEx was the same one who bound my master's thesis, and she is pretty enthusiastic about the project, too. I feel supported and encouraged, in the heartiest sense of the term. I have sent the digital file off for translation into a poster, and am taking a minute to eat and rest and read some more before meeting with the president of the local NAACP to discuss the project details.

Life is very good indeed.

Thursday afternoon in the garden

The World's Smallest Bunny is under the squash leaves. We left him alone. I'm pretty certain that it's the same bunny from under the rose bush that was discovered during the Friends Garden Weekend.

Friends at Work

Building community. Nurturing nature.
Another garden day filled with great conversation, sprouting ideas, and interesting ideas to explore.

And a lovely weekend it was

The weekend was filled with fun with Vivian and control-freak measures by my ex. We all had a lovely time anyway, and everything that needed doing got done. At one point, I was on edge because of the threats and bullying from Vivian's dad, but then my partner was loving and calm and solid, and it made all the difference. We had a great time in the Village, as we promised Vivian we would. There was lunch and ice cream at Pop's one of our favorite locations, with playtime at the toy store afterward, and then a turn around the park up the street to enjoy the nice weather.

Do not ask her about the buckin' pig. Please. For my sake.

We had a garden party at church on Saturday, which is a good way to get people to show up and then hand them a rake or a trowel. We had a lot of fun working together with mulch and planting seeds and plants. There was even a bunny that got startled, and it's the smallest bunny I have ever seen in my life -- not much bigger than a dandelion. He sprang out from behind a rose bush that we were weeding and we helped him get out of the road and into the park across the street. I keep imagining his poor mother, tsking and shaking her head about that headstrong little rabbit of hers. Beatrix Potter would understand. We made snickerdoodles with some freshly ground soft winter white wheat, and they may be the best batch yet.

Friends Being Friendly

We left church and went to the gym, as I was overdue for some sauna time. It was good, and I was wiped out during lunch and cards afterwards. I'm not sure what I ate that got to me, but I was sick later that evening, and spent most of it sleeping as a recovery tool, which, miraculously, seemed to work.
Sunday morning I was weak but fine, and we went to church and then came home to rest. We explored some interesting opportunities along the way. Future reports as events warrant, but keep thinking good thoughts for us.
In the meantime, we finished Iron Fist. I'm not certain what the hoopla is about -- we liked it. It was great to see Claire again, and a perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Accidentally productive

Kind of a weird day that morphed into getting a lot one, though more incidentally than on purpose.

Meditation was cancelled, so I went back home and ended up ordering my new Mac. It should be here in a week ish.
I cleaned the counters and the downstairs half bath, then went to campus and wrote the cover letter for the Fellowship, updated my resume, chose a writing sample, applied for the fellowship, did the edits for the print version of the thesis, and wrote a bunch of emails that I had been neglecting.

On the way home, I picked up five bags of mulch and two bags of potting soil. I cleAned out the fridge and then Vivian and I went to the co-op for a couple things, but mostly because she wanted peas and hasn't had them in forever. We met some nice folks n the way out, talked a bit, then played in the courtyard before going home for dinner and several hands of crazy eights, most of which she won. She's good, I'm telling you.

Now teeth are brushed, songs sung, and we are tired indeed. Time for tuck ins for both of us.

the latest from the weed patch

This morning while i was in the garden checking on the tomatoes, the vacationing neighbor was shooting a high-powered rifle repeatedly. Now, i'm certain that he was merely working on his new sight, or perfecting his trigger, and certainly was not after the many trespassers on Deer Highway, but it really disturbed me that he was firing near the Pine Forest where the boys had recently been playing. I know we are allowed to shoot, but what are the guidelines for shooting near occupied land? Mo sent along a link to local ordinances in Virginia, and Craig is notably not on it. So i suppose a good old fashioned drop-by-to-say-hi is in our futures this evening. The tomato news is that while we don't have any ripening as yet (congrats, Mo), we have several on the vine that look quite lovely. And to think it only took 32 plants to get a few! The beans have a poor showing; after Graeme and I finished weeding the bed there are only a half-dozen plants at best. The peas aren't doing well either, and I'm wondering what we can do: do we weed and wait, do we tear it up and plant something else, do we make it the world's best cat box? I put the questions to Morris, who was most helpful and full of advice. So now it seems that we will be replanting beans and scrapping the peas, which is fine with me. The beans we planted were from last year's seed purchase, so we might need to get some more of those. I like the burgandy ones best, and some pole beans are always nice. I'd also like to get some delicata squash seeds in the ground -- they are my favorite -- but i have No Clue where to buy them (if i could find a squash, i'd buy it, eat it, and plant the seeds). Perhaps Agnew will have some. I also would like to get the pumpkin seeds in the ground for Halloween, even if we don't harvest them for actual eating. The beets from last year's seeds seems to be doing quite well, and if early shoots are any indication, we'll have beets by the bucketload. The spinach (curent season seed purchase) is duking it out with the weeds, and i'm not going to sweat that crop so much. It's a shame, since i'm big on spinach and was really looking forward to making some spinach-artichoke dip, so it looks like a trip to the market is in order. Mo says it, like the peas, are an early or late crop and that i should try again in the fall. I'm a fan of weed barrier fabric, but even so weeds would still happen. I'm not certain what the horses got into, but it has been coming up in droves in all our beds. The cow manure will be a godsend next year. We set out three new beds that we plan to plant with potatoes, so i'm betting we'll be in Agnew soon. Will pick up some seeds then, tear out the peas and keep in mind that cool crops doesn't mean "july." I have some onion seeds for planting in the fall. We also have some serious garlic going on, Russian Red and elephant varieties. We didn't get it in soon enough to harvest or anything, but will leave it in the beds over the winter for harvesting next year. With the deer being what they are (read: p.i.t.a.), i'm thinking of building a low garden wall. it's not fool proof or anything, but it can be pretty, and i'm seriously invested in the garden. It's silly in a way, but there is a lot of me in the beds. The boys and I go out every morning, and I've come to really look forward to the roses and flowers and vegetables. Since the roses and lilies were a deer buffet, the vegetables have been getting most of my attention (that, and all the weeds that seem to spring up in the beds overnight). I checked on the roses this morning, and it seems they will recover, but i doubt there will be much in the way of blooms for several weeks, if then.