In the garden....

...life and its troubles are forgotten.  There is no stress, no pain, no suffering.  There is only the smell of earth and mulch, the hum of bees, the joy of dirt and harvest.  The horses come 'round when I'm there, curious as to what has attracted my attention to their 'neglect.'  And by neglect, they mean that they haven't had delivery of fresh watermelon rind yet and that is wholly unacceptable.

I've grown flowers for as long as I can remember; they are easy.  Vegetables...this is new.  I am not the only one who cares to eat them, and they are fussy.  I am grateful for the pack-o-nine hounds that keep the deer at bay, limiting their forays into the pasture to the region just beyond the riparian zone by the creek.  An abundance of marigolds - literally one planted between every vegetable plant, has kept the insects to a minimum.

The herbs...oh...the smell.  It's not enough for me to snip them for meals.  I need to break a bit each morning and inhale their scent.

We're starting the second planting of french beans, cilantro, and dill.  The tomatoes are coming on nicely but not yet ready.  I have a recipe saved from Garden & Gun magazine (how great is that title? It's one of my favorites and as Southern as it gets...) for fried green tomatoes that I am dying to try.

My friend Deborah of MacCarthy farms (check out her page on Facebook; her gardens are almost as beautiful as she is - inside and out - and her knowledge base is insane) gave me plant starts of Ronde de Nice squash (the round one in the back of the photo), zucchini, a variety of basils, tomatoes, melons, cukes.  Essentially the only thing I managed on my own was asparagus, dill, some basil, sage, and a second round of tomato starts after learning the hard way what NOT to do...).  I purchased peppers and they floundered.  I transplanted them to containers after reading that they like rich well-drained soil, and am waiting to see....

Anyway!  The harvest has begun.  David sliced zucchini julienne style tonight, and pan-seared in Irish butter with minced fresh garlic and red pepper.  Served with grilled steaks and sautéed mushrooms, it was divine.

I'll pack the cukes with some imitation crab meat and a splash of teriyaki sauce for lunch tomorrow, and it will be a treat as I have a big cabin turning around.  It will be my first 'turn-around' clean since I've taken over some of the housekeeping duties.  We'll see how that goes..but lunch will be good!

I miss riding, spare time, swimming in the pond after walking the dogs, yoga class....but I am grateful for fledgling birds, Birdette and Fiona, the hounds, chances to love on Faith Elizabeth and how much she loves watermelon.

You don't get a guarantee at birth; there is no 'sure thing.'  There's just life.  Surrendering to that is the first step to peace.  I'm still searching...

Namaste.

Waning days of Spring...

We're in the last two weeks of spring, and the nights are still cool and free of humidity, while the days grow steadily warmer.  Last night's thunderstorms provided much needed steady rain for the garden.

For reasons unknown to this newbie veggie gardener, two of my tomato plants have taken a turn for the worse, but the remainder grow on, with small green fruit on the vine.  It's so exciting to watch things grow as a result of your tender ministrations.  We now have little cukes, zucchini and squash, and flowers on the bean plants.  The herbs are doing very well.

I've been doing double duty as co-owner/President/chief of all things "back of house" and "cabin cleaner" for 10 days now.  I won't say it's easy doing two jobs, but it's rewarding.  I so enjoy leaving a cabin, looking back, smelling the smell of Pine-Sol on freshly mopped floors and...well..."clean," and knowing I've done a good job for the guest coming in.  It's tangible.  It makes what we do real to me. After all, we don't produce, make, or create anything...we sell space.  I understand that it is far more than that - there are memories, memorials, weddings, proposals, family time, etc., but to have something that I can look back on that is immediate and the direct result of my actions?  It feels good.

Tonight, after a long day for David on the mountain and a semi-long day for me at the farm, we eked out a bit of time to transplant 4 hostas and a hydrangea.  Sunday I transplanted 30 tomato seedlings that were ready to go into the ground, except I had no ground to put them into!  Don from Buds and Butterflies to the rescue!  He lent me 5 gallon pots enough to grow all my babies to adulthood.  Don used to be at Nelson's Ace Hardware Garden Center in Blairsville, but is now on his own and his operation is fabulous.  They have so many wonderful native plants, and they continue growing and stocking all summer long, which many nurseries do not.  I highly recommend them.

Abbie Rose has chewed off the bottom of cast #4, which I've repaired, twice now, with duct tape.  She has some swelling in her paw and is going in on Thursday when I take Hank, Loser, Max and Bobbers in for their annual exams.  Two hands, five dogs.  No worries.  I've got this.

Our farm is now a Certified Wildlife Habitat with the National Wildlife Federation, which basically means we get a cool sign to put out front, and are committed to conservation of habitat for a variety of animals.   We already do this, including maintaining a riparian zone between the pasture and the creek, and we have all of the wildlife areas already on the property that they suggest except a cave!  (And to be honest, we don't know that we don't have that since we haven't fully explored the property, but it's pretty doubtful!)  Seriously, though, the sheer number of bird species that inhabit the land here, in addition to fox, deer, turkey, bear, coyotes, rabbits, and many, many others made it a logical and easy decision.  Did I mention the cool sign? ;)

Tomorrow will be a long day, but I'm not dwelling on that.  I'm listening to the horses snorting outside my bedroom window, enjoying the cool breeze, the songs of the tree frogs, crickets and toads and the company of my family.  I'm in the moment, which is how it should be....