Merry Mary how does your garden grow?

I'm trying a couple new things this year.

Vegetables and Herbs.

This herb garden is a small planter off my back deck. I'm experimenting with something called "square foot gardening." I made the frame, and yes, I'm aware the pine lumber won't hold up long but I'm not committed to this way of gardening long term until I see how it goes - so the pine works for me. The "soil" in the box is a mixture of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss and I didn't dig up the grass before putting it down, the planter is set on a big piece of cardboard over the grass. The box is sectioned off into 1 foot square areas for planting.

I know this whole operation sounds a little sketchy but I'm giving it a try. I've got herbs in half of the squares and spinach and lettuce in the remainder.

On the other side of the house, I've started a traditional garden. We rented a sod cutter and took the sod up from the garden area. What a amazing machine. It cuts the sod from the ground and all we had to do it pick it up and move it out. And, man, is that stuff HEAVY. Good thing I had my husband and son and their muscles doing much of the hard work here. This is where the vegetables are going.

I'm anxious to see things coming up and growing and then harvesting from my gardens.

I've been daydreaming about a grilled chicken dish that uses fresh basil. I can't wait to go out to my garden and pick some for it. Perhaps I'll throw some zucchini and yellow summer squash from my garden on the grill with the chicken and then slice up some ripe red tomatoes.
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As of tonight, the garden is tilled and planted. I really hope things grow.

Spring Flowers

Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. Song of Solomon 2:12

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Audra Foveo

The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size. ~Gertrude S. Wister

A flower's appeal is in its contradictions - so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect. ~Adabella Radici

Ruffled Feathers

I was at my brother's house on Sunday afternoon. As I got out of the car, I heard a familiar sound. Then, I spotted the source of the noise, hiding in the woods.

Do you see them?

It was kind of fun to see them on a Sunday afternoon. However, I remember a time a few years back when I was not so amused....

My husband and I parked our camper in my brother's yard the night before my sister's wedding. All of my siblings and our spouses went out the night before the wedding and we were out until the early morning hours.

At about 3:30 in the morning, my brother's rooster started crowing. I'd been in bed in the camper for a short time, just long enough to fall asleep soundly. I was not amused. At all.

This is when I first learned that roosters don't crow only in the morning.

A farmer's paper I read said, " Roosters crow all the time. The connection with the sun coming up is a misconception. They might, on occasion, crow right at dawn. But it’s just a coincidence. Roosters crow whenever they feel like it: morning, noon and night, not to mention afternoon, evening and the parts of the day that don’t have names. I think the general rule for this is that a rooster crows any time it wants to – or feels the need. "

It was an educational night.

I also learned: canvas sides on a pop-up camper are not good sound insulators; roosters don't crow just once; yelling at a rooster does nothing to stop his crowing; and my brother's yard is not the perfect camping spot when you hoot with the owls at night because you may have to crow with the rooster's in the morning.

Hello Spring

Hello Spring.


I've been desperate for you. I've missed you terribly and thought about you constantly when you were away. I'm so glad you are finally here.

Triathletes

My daughter and one of my sisters participated in a triathlon on Saturday.

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The weather was brutal. The temperature was in the low 30's and the wind blew hard all day, gusting at over 40 mph. Not optimal weather for biking and running, especially right after a swim, with wet hair. My other sister texted me and told me to dress warmly because there was snow on the ground. She said she was staying home to make a cake.

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Triathlons consist of swimming, biking and running. This was a sprint triathlon and the course was: swim 500 yards, bike 14.7 miles and run a 5K.

The swim was done in the high school pool.

After the swim, the triathletes changed into biking clothes. Typically, they wouldn't go into a locker room and dry off and change but the weather was such that they had to bundle up for the ride. The time it takes to move from one event to the other is the "transition time." This triathlon was a fundraiser for the swim club and the triathletes didn't wear timing chips so the times were very approximate. Definitely more for fun than competition for this race.

At the bike staging area, my sister and daughter set out for the ride. They said it was mostly against the wind which made it a difficult ride.

Back after a brutal ride, the running begins. The finish was at the high school track. I sat in the car to keep warm until I heard my sister's and daughter's names being called over the loudspeaker as coming in off the course.

This was the first tri of the year but it won't be their last. They have both signed up for a few more this summer. Before noon, they had earned a tee-shirt, a medal, windburned faces, and day of memories.