I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in
order.
– John Burroughs
I’d like to be out working in my gardens now, but it’s a cool, gray day under threatening skies. And, too, there is still work to be done in the office.
There are times when I drag my feet about my gardening chores. Usually that tends to happen when we are in the high heat of summer and the mosquitoes are out in force. But usually, after a good session playing in the dirt, I’m revigorated. The pleasure of gardens that are once again neat, and of a job well done always soothes my soul, and it’s worth the achy muscles.
My father visited his fruit trees and vegetable garden each evening during the growing season. I thought it odd that he wanted to see them each day, until I became a gardener, too. Now I understand that he was seeking to put away the difficulties of the day and bring peace to his mind. Most likely, he was also giving thanks for the joy of having a garden.
Some of you lead such fast paced lives that you don’t have the time to garden. I’ve been there, done that. When you find that pace to difficult to maintain, or when it fails to keep your interest, think about gardening. There’s everything to be gained: the delight of growing your own food, or the pleasure of creating a beautiful landscape that reflects your personality.
For me, summer is wasted unless I have the chance to eat a tomato warm off the vines in my own garden. Nothing tastes as good as homegrown tomatoes!
And color has a huge influence on my life. This year I plan to plant verbena along the walks and paint the landscape with a beautiful hue of purple. If scent is important to you, walk through my herb garden, brushing the plants with your finger tips. Inhale. I not only get to perfume the outdoors, I can bring the scent into my home.
Gardens soothe the soul, delight the eye, and bring order to our lives. Go plant some seeds, and if you have children, teach them how to plant seeds. You’ll both be better for it.
Dog years
I was reading through the Sunday Chicago Tribune and came a cross an article on a website to help you determine your dog’s age. For years we have been using the seven years to one human year as a rule of thumb, but this website feels there are a variety of things which need to be taken into account when trying to determine your dog’s age.
Nightmares, Part Deux
Actually, I had nightmares on Thursday night, too, but I think that was from having too much iced tea before bed. I was dreaming about being in this incredible mansion, an elegant, lovely place that didn’t have any bathrooms! I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be awake at 3:00 in the morning on a regular basis.
Friday night we went to see Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on stage. Korman opened the show with a short monologue about the problems of growing older. Of course, one of those problems is needing, but not being able, to pee. In a way, I was able to empathize with him! *G*
Conway and Korman put on a good show. They work well off each other even after all these years. We were delighted to see that Conway could still crack Korman up, and we enjoyed their banter. As you would expect, their show was a little more adult oriented without the censors, but it was clean by the standards of most performers today. They closed with “The Dentist Chair” routine that some of you may remember.
I slept through the night last night. I wonder if I might make it a streak of two tonight!?
Nightmares
I know that I dream, but I rarely remember dreaming. I used to sleep like the dead and took that quality of sleep for granted, but I’ve become a fitful sleeper in the last year or so. I’m too hot, I can’t find a comfortable position, DH and the dog are snoring antiphonally, DH has stolen all the covers, or the raccoon babies are chittering to their mother over my head. Something delays sleep. So, when I finally drop off, I hope it’s for the night, and that there aren’t any little interruptions.
The Heat!
The heat has killed off the Ice Follies Daffodils today. And the Darwin tulips are just about shot, too. It seems that each year we get a taste of summer just in time to kill off some of the spring plants.
Friday Five 4-9-04
This should give you an idea what my week has been like. Today is Wednesday and I just got to visit the Friday Five. These are the questions for the week:
1. What do you do for a living?
I am the office for my husband’s masonry corporation. I am the receptionist, the bookkeeper, the filing clerk, computer repair person, human resources specialist, the OSHA officer, legal laison, typist, and general all around dog’s body.
2. What do you like most about your job?
The freedom to work around my other obligations
3. What do you like least about your job?
Incessant repetitive paperwork.
4. When you have a bad day at work it’s usually because _____…
Some jerk in another office who doesn’t know how to do their own job has dumped their problems on me and expects an instant fix. I’m good, but I’m not perfect.
5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
I’d like to own a quilt shop or a book shop, or teach adults how to read. There are days I’d like to be a hired hand at a garden nursery, and I think it might be interesting to be a conference planner or a concierge at an elegant hotel.
Violets
The violets have started to bloom!
Part of our lot was once a horse pasture. There are trees that divide it into sections, making it almost look like it has rooms. The part that is south of the house has areas that are totally covered in violets. There’s a patch of trillium that Dear Husband has been told not to mow down, a section of trout lilies that he insists on mowing, and a stretch of May apples growing among the trees on the east edge of the property. Soon we’ll see naturalized phlox blooming there, too.
When I first started my gardens I left the violets because I didn’t have enough plants to fill the space. Then it became a contest to fill in around them. Now, I rip them out of the gardens with abandon, because I know that we have violets all over the place! Still…..it’s a special time when their deep purple, or blue or white flowers open up and cover the ground.
Recovering
WOOOOOOOOOOAHHHHHHHH!!!
Recovering
What Type of Moron Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Essay, at StupidAngryCanajun, has posted the Moron Quiz from Quizilla. How could I pass this one up? Frankly, I’m delighted to see that I’m recovering!
Imperfection
“…since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Yet they were accomplished, somehow, all the same.”
Said by Cordelia Verkosigan to her son Mark, in “Mirror Dance,” by Lois McMaster Bujold
Just a thought to ponder.
Squill
I guessed right. The patch of lovely blue bell-shaped flowers on short plants that have expanded in my grove are Siberian Squill (Scilla siberica ) . This website has pictures of squill: http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/16390/
Hopefully, I’ll have pictures of my squill for you soon, so you can see it in it’s natural habitat.