Lazy days

They happen. Even around here.

Time to Myself

Just a quick note before I dart over to the farmer's market this am. It was a rough week and I've been singing the TGIF song since three this morning. Now I'm sitting in my favorite coffee bar; the only one around town that gives me both a great cuppa and that "Seattle" feel I miss so much during the summer and "festival" season. My quad shot White Rocket is all gone now and I'm due to start the walk up to the market.  I've enjoyed my few minutes alone and kid-less courtesy of daddy daycare. These moments to myself help me to appreciate just how great it is to be a mom and a wife, even when the days are full and hectic. I wouldn't trade it for all the "alone" time in the world.  Happy Friday everyone!

Another Year in the Garden

What a slow start to summer we've had.  Yesterday it was rainy and chilly, I don't think it got above 60 degrees!  Last year I made the mistake of spending too much money too soon on my starter plants and lost my entire first "crop" to a frigid hail/wind storm in Mid-May.  It's made me rather timid about planting this year.  We were also rather neglectful of our garden last year, letting it tumble out of control and sprawl out of it's beds pell mell.  Not that I'm opposed to a garden Au Naturale.  No, I prefer to let my garden plans unfold rather, no pun intended, organically.  Planting where I find space and as I acquire plants and soil.  I feel like the plants prefer it that way.

This year's slow start has brought about some interesting discoveries.  As we dug up our "compost" heap (really just a pile of last year's dead clippings) I discovered that all the little dropped tomatoes, tomatilloes, marigolds, lettuces and several of my herbs had gone to seed and started their own wild garden near the back fence.  

Little "Bundle" of Tomato Seedlings

         Fallen Tomatillos Sheltered by a Stand of Johnny-Jump-Ups

I left these wee starts untouched, covered and protected by the dead-fall for much of the spring since it was either to wet or to cold most days to go out and tend to the garden area.  

We did push forward and put in three beds amending the soil in just two of them. 

Three Beds, Rom's Bed Front/Amended Beds Rear

 I started a tomato and jalapeño under some protective greenhouses.  These are thriving now that the weather is warmer and I'm glad I preformed this experiment this year, I will feel more comfortable doing it more extensively next year.  I transplanted all my herbs and some lettuce into the amended beds and I began to transplant some of the small seedlings that had taken root under the compost heap, tentatively at first, pulling up the whole "clump" of seedlings still attatched to their parent tomato or tomatillo.  I placed them under some jugs or pop bottles, cut to serve as greenhouses against the cold and began the process of thinning them as they got bigger.  

Found Tomato Seedling Now 6 Inches Plus

Tomatilloes from the Heap

I have been handsomely rewarded for my observations and patience.  I know have two very healthy tomatillo plants that are reaching over a foot high and beginning to bear fruit.  My little tomato plants, so tiny when I moved them from under the dead brush that I was not even sure I was picking up tomatoes except for the withered skins still attached to them, are now nearing six inches high and have true leaves, and thick healthy stalks and have withstood their first mighty windstorm. Marigolds transplanted from the same heap are  blooming bright orange and gold and tiny lettuce bundles that I feared would never survive given their withered state those first few days are now ready to pick and bring in for a crisp, fresh garden salad!

Lettuce Transplant

Elsewhere in the garden, Romilly's peas have taken over their trellis and we all share a hearty bowlful with dinner each night along side some sliced radishes, which are thriving in the mild weather (I am more than pleased with my decision to plant crops spaced out three days apart this year).  The strawberries are bearing their first sweet, red fruit and the potatoes have already blossomed promising a hearty crop this year.  

From Top Left: Romilly's Peas, Potatoes and a Nasturtium, Strawberries Ripen in the Sun

In years past I have plotted, planned and micromanaged my garden in an attempt to yield the most produce in the least amount of space and I always end up giving into my wilder instincts and letting nature take over.  This year, I plan to let nature reign from the beginning.  I have a feeling it's going to be a bountiful summer.

Bundles of Joy from our Garden

Vigilante Kindness

Something happened today while I was at the supermarket.  That thing we have all witnessed at least once in our lives.  The man in front of me in line came up short on his groceries and he had to put some things back.  I watched, somewhat stunned, as the people around me in line shuffled nervously, unsure how to handle his embarrassment   Wasn't the solution to this problem as obvious to them as it was to me?  He was looking at making up a less than five dollar deficit. When I came up next in line, I asked the cashier to put those items on my ticket and slid them down to the gentleman to put in his bags.  The cashier seemed stunned.  "Are you sure?", she asked. Was I sure? What was there to be sure about?  I wasn't donating blood or a kidney.  I wasn't signing over my life to the military or making the decision to have a second child.  I had simply added $4.87 to my grocery bill.  Of course I was sure.

Her question really had got me to thinking and I did not stop thinking as I loaded my groceries into my car or as I drove home and unloaded them.  I have been thinking all afternoon.  Am I sure?  Am I sure I'm doing everything, every day to improve the world around me that I so vehemently pronounce to anyone willing to listen needs improving?  Not really, I'm not sure at all.  So what can I do to make myself more sure.  More sure that I'm doing, well, more? Vigilante Kindness.

Everyone loves a superhero.  A masked crusader sweeping through the darkly lit, crime-laden streets bringing justice to an injust world.  With a swift kick and a stiff-BAM!POW!-right hook a vigilante hero can bring peace to the chaos, right the wrongs and maybe steal a kiss while at it.  Why not be that masked crusader every day, only without the kicking and Ka-Powing?  Injustice isn't just a snatched purse or crooks roughing up granny in the alley.  Injustice can be having to make five dollar decisions in the grocery line..  Is it within your power to right that kind of  wrong?  Well do it! Don't do it loudly, be a Vigilante of Kindness.  Look around you everywhere, every day and ask yourself if you see something you can fix.  Then do it.  Ask people "How are you?" and mean it! And when they say, "Not so good." Ask what you can do to help.

 Don't be a Vigilante of Kindness because you think it's "What Jesus Would Do".  Don't do it to secure yourself a mansion in some celestial afterlife or a better skin in the next one.  Do it because it's right.  Because every person on the planet is your neighbor and we owe it to each other.  And if you need a really good reason do it for her.  Because she deserves a to grow up in a world where superheros exist.

Ironic?

Is it irony? I'm not sure.  Next month will mark my one year "derby-versary".  A year ago in May I joined an amazing group of women on a life changing journey.  We fought some hard battles, on and off the track, and I have personally struggled to achieve my goals despite injury after injury both physical and mental.

Now one year later, is it ironic that I'm starting all over?  Here I am poised to start over with a new team, back at my pre-derby weight, and out of shape again.  I can't help but feel like I've been skating in circles.  Hmm, wait a minute...

I definitely  have some things working in my favor as I start out on my new Derbyventure.  I know how to skate now, I have all the gear I need, and I know so many wonderful women within the derby community.  But I won't lie when I say that my faith in the sport has been shaken by my interaction with some mighty sketchy people in these past 12 months.  I won't let that deter me but I feel every ache in my jaded joints as I lace up on these sunny days lately.

What I've gained, however, outweighs any of the bad things that have happened.  The friends that I have made are more than derby sisters, they are lifelong friends, fellow travelers on the crazy road of life.  I would not trade them for anything.  I have also gained a confidence in myself that I had lost in recent years.  Derby gave that to me and now no one can take it back.  And it's that confidence that pushes me ahead and to keep up the hard work I know lays ahead.  To take back the love for derby.

Geared up for Gardening

We went out and got all the supplies to start our garden.  Here's a sampling of gardens past...

"A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of it's users did that. Only the users made it mean something."

Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign

Happy Gardening!

Parenting

A recent trip into the desert yielded a big surprise for Romilly.  We found a large disused train sitting on some tracks in the sand!  The FerroEquus was resting peacefully, seemingly waiting for a few admirers on this cold, sunny, almost spring day!