A Good Thing From My Garden

My garden looks pathetic right now.  I have okra, one eggplant (but lots of buds), some pumpkin vines coming out, basil, rosemary, and a couple of carrots (holdovers from the spring).  The hot weather hasn't helped, though I have been watering every day.

This watermelon split.  I managed to rescue it before the bugs got to it.  It's sweet and juicy.  I have two other watermelons that seem to be doing fine. I just have to keep watering!

My rose bushes look terrible.  I hope the winter helps them.  I'll have to do some serious pruning in February.

I love gardening, but not when Mother Nature doesn't provide the necessary moisture!  I hope next summer is better to my gardens.  I plan to enrich the soil before I plant my winter crops!  And I'll water all winter if I need to!

Generosity of Spirit

I received an email the other day from someone I haven't heard from in about two years.  The last time she contacted me, it was to tell me that she was deleting her Facebook page and her email addresses and that I shouldn't take it personally.  She has a serious bone disease that makes many everyday tasks difficult for her, and, at the time, her husband had been laid off.  She was deleting her accounts and cutting off contact because, she wrote, they had received some nasty emails from people (ignorant people, I believe) who thought my friend and her husband were freeloaders and slackers.

Well, I couldn't understand, at the time, why I had to be included with that group, since I had always been supportive of her situation, but I couldn't fault her, exactly, for wanting to withdraw from the fray.

A few days ago, I was included in a mass mailing from this person, asking me to donate to enable her to receive a helping dog.  The email explained the costs of training the dog, and it urged me to give what I could to make her life easier.

I think (hope?) I've always been something of a generous person.  I don't generally keep score--you did this for me, so I will do that for you.  I don't keep track of who paid last at the restaurant, and I'm always ready to chip in or pick up the tab, whatever I need to do.  I try to be a friend in every sense.  If someone needs to bitch, I'm there to listen.  If I can help, I will.

I'm sitting here, beating myself up, because I resent that email.  I resent that, now that this person needs monetary help, she's re-established contact with me, when she hasn't emailed me in two years.  Did she ask me how I was doing?  No.  Did she apologize for cutting me out? No.  The email seemed to suggest that I was one of her best friends, someone who would be willing to support her endeavor.

Should I be? I don't mind helping people, but I get a bit cross when they only contact me when they need something--mostly money--especially when they could care less about me, or my circumstances.

I guess I need to read Thomas Merton, or Rilke, or someone who can chip away at that hard part of my heart.  I should be more generous, shouldn't I?  I should not think of the past, especially when a small gift of money could make a difference.  I need to meditate on this and examine myself seriously to find out why this one email has twisted me around so much.

Mother's Day!

My kids live in Austin, so the most I received today was a phone call from my son and a YouTube video of "Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard--my daughter posted that on my FB profile!  And, yes, I did try.  Both of my children turned out pretty darn good, but I won't take all the credit for that.

I went to visit my mama today, and I brought her two home-grown cabbages.  Here they are with those carrots from the last post:

And here is a picture of a coreopsis; I can't believe the way this thing exploded, growthwise.  I have to tie it up when I mow!

The flower seeds I planted are coming up; I'm keeping an eye on the bean, okra, carrot, and onion seeds, as well as the garlic.  I just need to keep watering.

I noticed, as I came over the bridge into Coushatta today, that the Red River is waaaaay up.  We might be in for some flooding here.

I hope everyone had/has a happy Mother's Day!

A Day in the Garden

I finished all of my "schoolwork" by 1pm, so I treated myself to a gardening session.  I have a small garden surrounding an odd piece of fencing.  This year, I resolved to turn it into a cottage garden, hopefully full of flowers, if the seeds I planted come up.

But the day was made sweeter by two things: first, I pulled up three carrots.  I've never successfully grown carrots before, so this is a big deal.  They aren't very big, but I ate one, and it was yummy.  Here are two of the carrots:

Second, I took some pictures of hummingbirds.  I have a feeder on the fence piece, and, as I was working, the hummingbirds flew all around me.  I couldn't understand why I had to replenish my feeders so often.  Today, I discovered that I have five (5) hummingbirds competing for them.  They are fearless.  I took quite a few pictures, and they ignored me.  Here's one:

All in all, a good, relaxing day.  I planted more beans, onions, and carrots!  Let's see if these sprout.  The rest of the plantings are coming along just great.

Here's another poem!

From the Bee Goddess:

Bee Balm [Melissa]

April 10, 2011

Do not fear the woman

Under the bees.  They cling

To me as mother.

Instead, come closer,

Brave the swarm

And poke your finger

Through the noise.

When you pull it back,

The honey will drip

Down your hand. 

Taste it.

Such sweetness

Will not touch your tongue

Again, unless you follow me

To where the jasmine

Twines around the oak,

To where daisy waves

To hyacinth, and all blossoms

Open to my touch.

Copyright 2011

April is National Poetry Month!

For the third year, I am participating in NaPoWriMo at Poets.org. The goal is to write a poem a day for thirty days.  I've posted three poems, so I'm on target.  Here's the poem I posted today:

My Mother’s Garden [Joan]

April 3, 2011

My sisters and I spent

last summer digging up her irises

because, she said,

she had to start the chemo, and

she wouldn’t feel like dealing with them.

Once the beds were clear,

and after her first treatment

with the saving poison, she expressed

a desire for a few flowers,

just a few.  The few flowers grew

into mulched beds and

rock borders on both sides of the porch,

Kockout roses, clematis, chrysanthemums,

a trimmed hydrangea and a pink

rose bush pruned to a topiary.

To this, we added, as the chemo

went on—monthly sessions

that left her gray and crabby—

a statue of St. Francis (solar), a toad

house (solar), and a duck rain gauge (solar).

When Christmas came, the doctors

returned her body to her,

and we bought Johnny Jump-ups;

last week, she asked for some of my

Asiatic lily bulbs—purple and white--

but declined the calla lily bulbs, saying

that, since she had given hers away,

she shouldn’t take them.  She asked for Sweet

Peas, reminding my older sister and me

that she grew those when we lived on Laurel Street.

Lately, I notice, when she’s not talking flowers

or what I should and should not eat,

she’s saying, “I remember…,” as though

she’s trying to plant those memories in me

the way I plant her flowers when she asks.

Copyright 20011

Is It Spring, Yet?

The last few days, I haven't wanted to do anything except go outside and work in my gardens.  Alas, we are also approaching midterms, which means I have many, many papers to grade.  My mom suggested I work outside on good days and save the paper grading for evenings.  A good idea, but, some days, the need to grade papers outweighs the desire to garden.

However, the positive signs of spring around here are the blooming jonquils and paperwhites; my tulips (planted in the fall) are surging up through the ground; the irises are showing signs of blooming.  In fact, most of my plants are showing signs of life.

I have many packets of flower, herb, and vegetable seeds ready to plant.  Now, if I only had the time to plant them.  Sigh!

Maybe over Mardi Gras break?  I hope so.

Hello, Spring Semester!

So I haven't updated my blog since NaNoWriMo ended in November. My bad. Too much hanging out on Facebook, I guess. Besides, very little happens that requires an update to the blog.

I guess the best thing that took place between November and now is the surprise birthday party we threw for my mom (who turned 80 in December) and my aunt (who turned 75 in November). I'll upload the pic of my family at the party as soon as I find it! I think it's on FB.

This semester feels a bit weird. I usually teach on Tu/Th, so this M/W schedule has me a bit off. I asked for this schedule so I wouldn't have to drive in extra days for all of the faculty, college, and university meetings. Most semesters, I'd end up driving in three or four days a month. With gas prices rising again, I think this will work better.

I'll try to update my blog regularly, just in case my English 226 students pop in to look at it. Let me go find that picture!

*****

Here is is:

Back row: Ed, Jr., Mike, John, Al, my dad, Ed; front row: Mary, Jeri, me, my mom, Joan, James (the baby), and Lydia. My sister Theresa is missing from this picture, but she hardly ever shows up at family events.

This says it all!

And with a few days to spare!

Oh, I'm such a liar...

A "few days" turned into almost two weeks. Sorry. Between grading papers and writing for NaNo, I don't always remember to blog. And, of course, I spend waaaaay too much time on Facebook.

Anyway, my current NaNo count is 38,099. I should have written that one extra word to make this 38,100. Maybe in a few minutes, I'll add a bit more.

My word count is higher than in normally would be at this point because I haven't had many papers to grade this week. Of course, the week after Thanksgiving is another story, and, then, the week after that is finals week, so I'll have quite a bit to do then. The semester will end, Christmas will come, and I will be slogging away, creating my new courses for the spring. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to teach summer school, then I'll white-knuckle it until I find out if the college has enough money in its budget to hire me for another year.

I hate this budget crisis, and I hate this short-sighted legislature and this glory-hound governor who doesn't care about the state of Louisiana, except that it's a stepping stone to something else. I only hope the greater public sees him as the joke he is (along with Sarah Palin!) and laughs him back to the swamp in defeat.

One can dream. I've lost my faith in the general electorate; I don't think it votes with its mind engaged. It's a sad commentary on America.

NaNo Update

Sorry! I've been so busy that I haven't had time to update my word count. I haven't posted a total for today yet, but last night my total was 10,324. I wrote for two hours this morning, so my total today should be good.

I'll update in the next day or so.

NaNo Update--Day One

I have written the first chapter of my NaNo novel, The Book of Hannah. Word count: 2,302.

To meet my NaNo goal of 50,000 word by Nov. 30, I need to write 1,667 words a day.

It's NaNoWriMo Time Again!

Beginning November 1, I will, once again, plunge into the madness of NaNoWriMo, or, for those of you who don't know, National Novel Writing Month.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of deranged people try to write a 50,000-word novel, from scratch, during the month of November. I have done it twice--yes, twice! It averages to about 1800 words a day, a bit more, I think, but I aim for about 2000 words a day. In a good two hour period, that's not hard at all.

What's hard is coming up with an idea. The last two years, I already had my novels plotted out in my head. This year, I'm not sure. I have an idea for a post-apocalyptic novel, but I'm afraid it would be too derivative, since I just finished reading Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. Apocalyptic, indeed. I think I'll try it anyway.

This year, I won't be pounding this out on my laptop; I'll be using my new desktop, unless we have a "write-in" at Barnes and Noble, or some other place. I say "we" because I'm not the only lunatic in this area who participates. I might be one of the few who finishes, though!

I always manage to work this around my courses. I'm well-organized, but I become hyper-organized during this time, reserving either early morning or late night hours for writing. I'm going to get those hours in, regardless of what else I have to do.

So, happy NaNo, to those of my friends who participate. To everyone else, see you Nov. 30!

Time to Update...

I don't keep up with my blogs (I have three) the way I keep up with my Facebook page. Most of the time, I don't think about my blogs until I check student blogs on Sunday. Then, I'm too busy grading to think about writing.

Today, though, I decided to stop and post. I know change is a good thing, but, as with most people, it drives me up a wall, especially when I can't "plan" for it.

That sounds odd--planning for change. But, sometimes, we can see it coming and adapt our lives and routines to accommodate it.

Several months ago--before summer, actually--I saw these signs go up on the vacant lot across the street from me--"Motel Coming Soon--Make Advanced Reservations Now," with the obligatory phone number underneath. And, while the owner/manager/builder did some preliminary work during the summer, not much happened until recently.

The town brought a backhoe on my property and proceeded to tear down the plants and flowers on the side of my property--there's a ditch on one side of my lot, and the town mayor told me the state ordered them to clean the ditch out. Of course, no one bothered to tell me this was going to happen, so I had a long, angry talk with the mayor about bringing heavy equipment on my property without telling me.

So, once the motel work started hot and heavy, what did I encounter? A "Bobcat" sitting in my front yard one Thursday afternoon. The town and the motel builder have two deep, huge holes dug in my front yard, exposing the sewer and water pipes. I have Bobcat tracks all over my front yard and mounds of dirt and orange markers everywhere.

I bought my house because it is in the town, yet, because the lot is about an acre, it's "country," too. Even though I live in the city, it's been quiet and peaceful. Well, until the motel building began. Now, I wake every morning to the sound of beeping and dump trucks, or hammers pounding on the roof of the motel. For a while, I awakened to the grinding of a huge crane lifting "boxes" that formed the rooms of this motel. While an interesting sight, the noise annoyed me to no end. Some days, I could hardly hear myself think.

This worries me. I don't like the idea of a motel across the street from me, but, again, no one asked me how I felt about it. I'm hoping the owner puts a huge fence around it to block the noise and the sight, but I doubt that will happen. My idyllic homestead is becoming a casualty of progress, and I don't like it.

Finding Time

I have a small white dry-erase board I keep at my desk. On Thursdays, I write every assignment coming due from my classes for the next week. This is especially important for the weekend, which, for me, goes from Friday through Monday, as that is when I have the most work to do.

When I wrote out my assignments for this "weekend," I thought, "I will never finish these by Monday." But, because I take this seriously, I knuckled down and started reading/grading assignments. Thursday, I spent most of the night trying to catch up with things students sent me that they should have sent earlier. Friday, I graded a set of freshman essays. Saturday, I read a set of Eng. 226 drafts, then graded a set of reading journals. This morning, Sunday, I posted scores for a quiz, read two sets of blogs and posted those grades, and handled assorted other assignments. I have a set of assignments for a freshman class, portfolios, and a quiz left to grade. I'll tackle the freshmen assignments in a few minutes; I'll save the portfolios and Eng. 215 quiz for tomorrow, which should leave me some time to mow the grass, and take care of household tasks.

As I complete my tasks, I give myself a break. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie; sometimes, I'll go outside and sit for a while and watch the birds. Today, I went out and set up my new composting box--I put in a bottom for it, then shovelled in the compost from the heap in my yard. That wasn't the most relaxing break, but I accomplished something, at least.

Every time I tell myself, "I don't have time," I need to look at my white board and remember how I handle tasks. I have as much time as I make, as long as I plan well.

On the Blog, Again...

I haven't written here for a while--I guess life just overran everything! Summer wasn't that busy or exciting, unless I count my first driving experience in Houston (awful) and the trip I took to Colorado (excellent). My parents' and my brother's illnesses and operations dominated the months from May to August, and that's not something I wanted to write about at the time.

It's hard for me to realize how much time has passed for me. I am reminded, though, each time I look at my parents, or send a birthday card to one of my children. My son will be 30 this year; I can't believe that. My mother will be 80; that's even harder to believe.

Of course, as they get older, so do I, but I can't grasp that, either. I don't feel my age, except on those days after I've overdone it in the yard or the house. Some days, I feel my age. Most of the time, though, I don't.

I suppose the adage, "You're only as old as you feel," is true to some extent. But, then, I think that our physical age can't be ignored. If I have "three score and ten" years, I'm staring at the short end of a life. I prefer to not think about it, though, and just live as though I have unlimited time. I'm not sure that's the smart thing to do!



On a happy note, here's a random photo to cheer us up. Coushatta after a rainstorm!

The "Secluded" Garden

My daughter came in from Austin for my birthday. While she was with me, she helped me work on a project I've been planning for two years--a "secret" garden, which isn't so secret! We managed to complete a flower bed, place an arbor and fence pieces, and plant 28 plants. Here are a couple of pics.

I'm not done, but this is a great beginning.

To Blog, or Not to Blog...

I don't seriously think that's the question, but I realize I haven't done this for a while. I spend more time on Facebook than I do blogging, and, since few of my students read my blog this past spring, I just stopped posting.

I thought about it yesterday, and then, this morning, a former student asked me if I still blogged. I have gotten used to the short status updates on FB, and usually don't think about writing anything more than a few sentences long, unless I'm working on a poem or novel.



So, what's been going on? Too much to summarize here, really. Besides a truly busy spring semester, my dad's surgery, and gardening, not much else. I haven't planned anything beyond next weekend, but maybe I'll get in a few trips this summer to Houston and Austin. Maybe I'll be able to persuade my family members to take a trek back to Durango. Maybe not.


But here's what I worked on this morning--the "bottle gardens." My friends saved their beer and wine bottles for me so I could use them to edge my gardens. I think they look good.

This is the "flower garden." It has a camellia bush, black-eyed Susans, irises, wandering Jew, an Esperanza bush, some other plants my sister gave me (one of which is called a "butterfly" bush), sweet William, zinnias and sunflowers.

I call this one the "vegetable" garden, but only one side of it has vegetables--right now, cabbage, one lettuce plant, strawberries, tomatoes, squash, raspberries and blueberries, and a potato plant. I might have a few onions, but something has chewed the tops off of them.

That's what I've been doing--planting plants, seeds and bottles! And learning to use my new chainsaw and mowing the grass. Exciting, huh?

Gardening Day...

So, I've graded everything I need to grade for the moment.  I have some papers coming in tonight, but today was a "free" day.  I worked in my gardens.

I'm what you might call a "haphazard" gardener.  I'm not a big planner.  I plant what I want, and just try to fit it all in.  And, yes, I planted before Easter (gasp!), so I might have to replant, but the Farmer's Almanac said today was a good day to plant anything that bears above ground (well, I planted onions, too).

So, here are some pictures of my gardens--the one for the veggies and the herb garden.

It's hard to see the tomatoes in this picture, but I planted three today--two bush tomatoes and one that's more viney.

 

 

 

This is the Greek oregano, the lemon thyme and chives in the herb garden.  The chives have been here for two years; the other plants are new.

Those are just two pics.  I could upload more, but they would be a bit redundant!

But here's a view of the bottle border.  I need more beer bottles, which my friends are working hard to get them to me.

I'll keep you posted on how the garden does, since I planted early.

Better Late Than Never...

but my students can't use that excuse!







My last post was eons ago, the day after that surprising and wonderful snow we had. So, to balance that, I want to show you what's going on in my yard, now that spring is nudging into the landscape. I took some time today to go out and snap some picks of what's coming up and/or blooming around my house.

This first picture is of the wild violets growing at the edge of my firepit. They're some of my favorite flowers. If I could gather enough of them, I'd try to make violet jelly--if such a thing exists.





The second picture is of the camellia bush. I love camellias, but this is the only camellia plant I have. Waxy, beautiful. When the petals fall, the ground seems snow-covered.





I only have this plant because, when my neighbor resurveyed his property for sale, he moved the property line over, giving me more land. I also added a second Mayhaw tree in the resurvey--which is good, because I love to make Mayhaw jelly.



The third picture is of one of the Japonica bushes on my property. I love the word "Japonica," but you may know this plant as "Flowering Quince." It doesn't have a smell, but the flowers are just the right shade of pink/rose, and the bees love it. I have to be careful when I cut from these bushes, or I might get stung.

I also took pictures of the paperwhites, the daffodils, and some little yellow flower that resembles a paperwhite, but is smaller and smells sweeter. But I won't upload those in this post. I'll do that in the next one.


I need to ready the mower. The grass is beginning to pop out in places under the leaves. The yard seems covered in white and blue flowers--I don't want to mow yet. I want to encourage the honeybees, and they love all these flowers.


I'm enjoying these first harbingers of spring, but not the oak pollen! If I have to put up with the pollen to have all these georgeous flowers, that's a price I'm willing to pay!