I saw the surgeon 3 days ago and he told me that I no longer have restrictions on the direction my hip joint goes.
My first thought: "I can reach into the garden and pull out weeds!"
And, oh mama, does it ever need my attention.
So I will scootch along on my plastic kitchen stool, dragging my crutches and weed bucket and tools and phone and anything else I need to drag if it means I can be out there. And I'm gonna gather all those gooseberries and make something yummy out of them!
My garden veggies are largely a bust. It would seem the soil needs some amending before next spring.
But those flowers! They are making my dream of always having fresh flowers in the house come true!
I'm so nervous that a hawk will swoop in and grab her up. But she loves the garden! And I can't really blame her, can I?
This is the year that I don't have to pull 90% of my carrot seedlings out. It breaks my heart every time. Poor little future carrots will never reach carrothood.
It's been a very hard week.
Our sweet Phoebe passed away last Tuesday and it broke our hearts.
She brought our days delight and joy and her loss left us all grieving. Especially AJ.
As a mom, I feel that call to fix and repair what is broken. But this isn't fixable.
It's surviving and grieving and walking through the days and talking about the stages of grief, finding ways to distract ourselves and looking for comfort in the pets of our friends.
Today the sun came out for the first time in weeks and I found myself seeking something in the dirt.
I never know what I will find, but it always comes with a wash of peace.
I pulled the old growth out, clipping back the dry asparagus reeds.
I began to dig up the old basil plants and then I noticed all the dry seeds along the stems.
The plant is gone, it won't come back in the spring...but it carried new life all the way through the winter months.
I looked around and suddenly noticed survivors in almost every bed.
I gathered up the basil seeds, marigolds and sweet peas and put them in some freshly turned soil.
I'll be watching for signs of life in the coming weeks as we wait for our hearts to heal.
The garden is winding down.
But the dahlias and the mums are in all their glory!
The monarchs are loving the last few Tithonia blossoms. They grew to over 8 feet tall!
Our last swallowtails are hatching.
And the sweet potato crop is ready for harvest.
Until spring, my dear ones!
It might not seem like it, but I am gardening.
I'm doing some different tomatoes. My personal favorite is the "Mortgage Lifter" variety.
HUGE!
Besides that, I'm really trying to get some perennials started. I'd love to have a good portion of the garden come up on it's own every year. Then I can just fill in with the veggies I want.
I've got some dahlias. In fact I order lots of different bulbs from Tulip World and not a single one turned out to be what I ordered. But these orange dahlias are gorgeous. A happy accident!
