Garden Sanctuary

You who walk,

Maybe with troubled thoughts,

Come, enter here and rest;

And may the sweet serenity of growing things,

And the heavenly peace

Be mirrored in Thy soul.

~ Doris M. Palmer

It's really beautiful where I live. But nothing lasts forever. And someday, very soon, I'll tell you all about it. But for now, I'm just going to say that things have a way of working themselves out. We all know that.

Until tomorrow, my friends. Have a good Tuesday.

So happy together

Why I do this to myself, I just don't know, but occasionally when I'm looking at pictures, a song comes into my head and it absolutely refuses to leave. When I'm working on a picture, the song will begin and it'll just keep rattling around in my brain. And speaking of working on a picture: I didn't do anything to these other than opening them up and thinking they looked fine to me so I gave them an ever so slight sharpen, and called it a day.

It's maddening, I tellya. I'm out in the garden looking at the corn and the corn is looking at the rows of tomatoes, and I know that someday soon they'll both ripen and somehow they'll get together, and all would be wonderful. Yes, I am crazy. Crazy for corn and tomatoes because I love them. I could eat a tomato like an apple. And corn? Don't even get me started. When I'm old and have no teeth, it's not sex I plan on missing. It's the corn on the cob. So here's what I heard in the garden today. Once again, apologies to all of you who have my affliction. You know, the song in the head thing? And it's two days in a row now. So I'm truly sorry. Really I am.

Imagine me and you, I do

I think about you day and night, it's only right

To think about the girl you love and hold her tight

So happy together

If I should call you up, invest a dime

And you say you belong to me and ease my mind

Imagine how the world could be, so very fine

So happy together

I can't see me lovin' nobody but you

For all my life

When you're with me, baby the skies'll be blue

For all my life

Me and you and you and me

No matter how they toss the dice, it has to be

The only one for me is you, and you for me

So happy together

I love this old Turtles song. And where else can you go and get vegetable love like this? It's why you keep coming back, isn't it? Maybe it's the weather that's making me crazy.

Good morning, world

We were up super early this morning and don't want to waste a minute of this absolutely sterling day. Yesterday and last night were fun visiting with with my friend, Kathy. Lynn couldn't make it after all, as she had to cover in the coffee shop she owns because her help called out sick. And Tracey had forgotten about a party she'd been invited to. We texted her while we were out sitting by the campfire laughing and sharing some wine, and told her that the mares and foals were right near us, not even bothered by the campfire, just munching on the grass.

But this morning, it was up and at 'em. Kathy is an early riser like myself and was out the door by 7 am. My husband had already left to do the grocery shopping and when he came home and got everything away and we had our breakfast, he told me he was going out to pick lettuce. My job is to clean it. It's a good thing I bought that salad spinner a couple of years ago. I think it took me 40 minutes to get the whole load done and now our refrigerator is full of spring mix and all sorts of lettuces, some of which I'll take to two of my friends who own restaurants in the area. We also give it out to my husband's co-workers.

He's a taskmaster, my husband is. He kept bringing in boxes of lettuce. I'm just glad that it's beautiful outside because it's his only day off. Wish you lived closer, so I could share some of this harvest with you!

Pansies and collard greens: perfect together

It's Saturday morning on the farm and George has gotten me up early. My husband is already at work and had just taken George for his little morning walk. But George was home now and wanted me to play. It's 6:30 AM, puppy! And so I got up.

I took these pictures a few days ago. My husband tilled our garden last weekend and planted collard greens on Wednesday evening. The pansy bud picture was taken that same evening.

The second pansy picture was taken just this morning. The sun was shining on it and I'd just gone outside (read: hobbled outside) to feed the cats and saw that the little pansy bud was blooming. So back inside to get my camera and get a picture. This all takes a long time because I am moving just a little slow. See how full my life is here?

I came back inside to put my leg up and attach my ice apparatus. See, it just keeps getting better. I had poured myself a cup of coffee, set my cell phone by my little couch and attached my ice and proceeded to try to get myself wedged into my seat and ended up grabbing the coffee cup by mistake and spilling it all over my cell phone and my camera's storage disk.

Can you guess what I cleaned first? The phone can wait. Now that the mess is cleaned up and I've made sure my cell still works, and I'm sitting here, after finally getting the disk to work, I realize that I really really need a pain pill. Darnit! I wasn't going to blog about my little problems!

My goal for today is to finally get my bandages off. And I want to actually sit outside. The weather in Maryland today is sunny and nice. So I'm planning on finding an extension cord for this ice bucket device. I'm going to accomplish this! People have offered to come over and help me, but I'm ok, really I am. My husband will be home later and of course, I have George here who brings me squeaky toys. Which I'm tossing in the living room for him.

My life is complete.

Oh, I would like to publicly thank Margie, our art teacher at school, for the sweet and thoughtful basket of cheer she sent me in the mail yesterday. Margie sent me all these cool little things to cheer me up: my favorite soaps, candles, little chocolates and a CD she'd created herself and had made a cover for and titled it "Kate's Get Well Music". Because she's an artist, Margie handmakes all her own cards and this one is beautiful. Thanks again, my friend.

And now, where's that pain pill?