Green and Growing Things…

Green and Growing Things…

I am in full-on ostrich mode.

This week, though I am clear on the other side of the country from Boston and have never been a fan of Texas politics (hey, I’m a California girl!), has been very hard on my spirit – and I would *never* wish such hell as those two places and the people who live there have gone through this week. It’s been hard on the spirit of everyone I know, for that matter. The news (such as it is) has been unrelenting.

So without further ado, let me share what I harvested from my garden yesterday with you.

Artichokes, a small green pepper, strawberries, green onions, and spinach, all fresh from the garden.

This made an excellent salad, and leftover spinach went into my morning green machine drink (which helps keep my spirits up). The onion smelled sharp and the spinach was so thick, deep green, and crisp. Packaged spinach pales in comparison.

The garden in March, 2013

This picture leaves out five or six of the new beds that Tom and the boys put in this year, off to the left. Most of those beds have tomatoes and zucchini in them. And the firepit (a repurposed dryer drum) is where we sit and drink wine and Tom plays guitar as the sun sets.

In the garden, there are birds and bugs, bees and butterflies and beauty everywhere I look. It is a place where I can take out frustrations as I weed, where I can sink my hands into soil that we’ve amended with our own mulch pile, where I can feel the sun on my back and the wind in my face. Where I can plant, to add a bit of beauty to the world that seems in desperate need of beauty.

I’m supposed to go to work, I’m supposed to go see a friend in her play tonight, I’m supposed to…so many things. All I want to do is be an ostrich for a day and stay in my garden (with my booted foot and all) and think on simple things. Beautiful things.

Shaun Rosenberg says that watching the news is bad for you, and he’s not the only one. Here’s another post  at Disrupting the Rabblement on why watching the news is bad. James DelCamp Junior ALSO has a post on the news = bad. Google it yourself – you won’t run out of sites, trust me. It’s all over the place.

So I shall load  up my car with music, and I shall ignore newsfeeds about the outside world. If I need to get caught up, it won’t take long. In the meantime, my bloodpressure and my anxiety level will go down about a million points or whatever by not focusing on all the bad.

You shall find me, metaphorically at any rate, in my garden, looking at the flowers that wintered over just beautifully.

My “hit of happy”.

And if I’m not in my garden, I’m cuddling the biggest cat I’ve ever seen. Zaphod is a polydactyl and he prefers to sleep draped across my chest. If the husband is home, he likes sleeping across Tom’s throat. But he purrs and he licks and he head butts me, and I love him to bits.

Zaphod, weighing in on our receipt filing system.

Here’s hoping your weekend is better than your week has been; here’s hoping next week will be a better one for our country.

~oOo~

Be good to one another. Spend your love rashly instead of hoarding it, for by spreading it around, more will come back to you. Till the next time, hugs!

My Winter Garden

My Winter Garden

This is the first year I’ve planted a true winter garden – I mean, planting in November and December is not something I usually do. But the bug bit, and the beds had been dug in with soil from the mulch pit. The weather was beautiful and showery, so I planted.

Some early lettuces got eaten. Broccoli is holding up well. The cherry tomatoes that hubby has nurtured and trimmed back are still providing us with yummy fruit, though the skin is thicker than in the summer.

Cherry Tomatoes in December!

We worked in the garden on the 29th, and worked hard. Planted onion sets and cabbage and lettuce. Pulled out the insidious morning glory. Weeded. Ooohed and aaahed over the bell peppers, which are still flourishing.

Maui onions. They barely had roots to them – had to plant them in bunches. Will thin later.

Bell Peppers planted in April or May, 2012

Rescued lime trees from opportunistic plants. Spent hours (or so it seemed) in the chilly sunshine as a family, working to make the yard even more gardentastic.

When we woke up the next morning, it looked like it had snowed over night. Whaaa??? Not something that I’m used to in So Cal. We’d been hit with a HARD frost. Not just frosted car windows and rooftops and bare patches on the front yard; oh no. This hit us right in the Maui onions. The Sequoia strawberries. The – gasp! – year-round basil! Even the pansies were flattened by frost. My heart almost stopped.

My onion bed – frosted!

Frosted strawberries!

The parsley has a smattering of frost, too…

After the sun came out fully and warmed everything up, the garden looked – to this San Diego girl – happy. The rose bushes gleamed, their foliage dark and shiny. Even the pansies seemed to relish the cold, waving their bright little heads and standing up straight and tall. Only the basil had black spots that needed cutting away. The onions survived, as did the strawberries and the lettuce (which totally shocked me) and the cabbage and the broccoli.

Today we bought more onions (red onions, this time). Two types of lettuce. More broccoli, and cauliflower. The hubs even bought a tomato plant, though I told him it was far too early to plant tomatoes.

Red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, two types of onions, and an Early Girl tomato in a Red Flyer wagon.

Two new beds. Hubby says they’re for tomatoes. We shall see!

There have been ups and downs, but so far? I’m loving the drama of my winter garden.

I love hearing from you! Do you garden (when you can)? What is your favorite vegetable or fruit to grow? I’m always looking for something new to plant!

~ Until the next time, cheers – and remember to drink responsibly! ~

Demon Soul, Blood Dreams and Demon Hunt are all available for the Kindle! Have you fallen into the Caine Brothers’ world yet?