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What’s Growing
monthly garden pic The following edibles are currently growing in the garden: arugula Brussels sprouts cilantro carrots dill garlic kale onions oregano spinach Swiss chard There are also some mystery greens. I had a couple packets of old seeds that I sprinkled off the side of the deck into the dirt below, and that section is full of sprouts! The crop of rudbeckia was gorgeous this summer but then was overtaken by an unknown condition. Fortunately it reseeded, and a…
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Christmas Heavy
Around Christmas every year, I feel heaviness — not from Thanksgiving feasting — but an emotional heaviness. I’d like to explain it away by the change in weather or that the seasonal glitz and magic of the holidays have dulled as the years wear on, but I can’t ever shake that there is a shadow over my heart. It’s been a heavier year than ever. There have been enormous losses and beautiful gifts of new life, and the collision of…
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Chocolate Milk and Anger
I was upstairs scrubbing my jawline with acne cleanser (thank you, mid-30s hormones and anxiety for bad skin), and I’m listening to the boys making their chocolate milk. They’ve learned to dump instant breakfast packets in a glass, pour the milk and stir. It’s their favorite drink (favorite breakfast as well) and it was a big deal that the youngest earned permission to make his own. They do it on their own most mornings. I overheard angry accusations that the…
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Thoughts on Politics
If people can be moved to deny the God-ascribed dignity and worth of fellow humans on account of politics, money, race or religion, there is no line over which they cannot be coerced to cross. If however people can love regardless of these, there are no heights which cannot be achieved. From Matthew 5: 43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those…
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Garden Monthly Pics
The fall progression is visible in the veggie garden. The rose bush was pruned back to its nubbins and the spent veggie plants were pulled. The large yellow mum grew too heavy and was cut back to the ground. Manure and cedar mulch were added to the beds. By now, we should have experienced our first frost of the season, but the weather forecaster says we could still be another week or two away this year. So it turns out…
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Fall Garden Inspiration
Frost hasn’t hit us yet, so we are enjoying some of the final blooms of the season. Yesterday I was at Lowes, where all fruiting, flowering and shade trees were on sale. I suppose they are past their visual prime, but it is the perfect time here to plant them. We’ve been building a shed in the back yard, and the site selection required that we move a blue cedar, camellia and redbud (well, cut down and left for dead).…
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