Perhaps I've Been Slothful

I bought some plants months ago and they've taken residence on my porch ever since.....and not in the fashion I would prefer.  Somehow, I did manage to keep them alive, well, mostly.  I was cleaning my porch of yesterday and decided I might as well plant them as just throw them out.  They can die in a pot as well as in a heap somewhere.  Wouldn't you know it, it hasn't even been 24 hours and I think some of them have actually grown a little.  Just think, if I would have only planted them when I got them.

Hmm, now the harder question, what else have I been slothful with?  This morning I was sitting on my porch reading Romans 12:9-21, which includes the verse, "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in the Spirit, serve the Lord."  It was a beautiful morning to sit on the porch.

Poetry and Tomatoes

So I haven't posted much in the last several months, but my garden has been growing.  It has been neglected as usual, but I don't think quite as much as some past years, weeds still grow, and things aren't always harvested as quickly as I would like, but in general I have been to my garden fairly regularly and been harvesting things fairly well.  Tonight I picked some kale, yellow beans, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and one red tomato - more to come soon hopefully.  But in reflection I wrote a special little something for my own soul.  Hopefully it is not too boring.  And so you know, it is only written in phrases to reflect what I was reading and thinking, it makes no claims of poetry, it is merely reflection.

Poetry and Tomatoes 

An odd combination.

but this evening found me reading poetry

lines written by a friend

giving me pleasure and sadness all together

and so - with melancholy 

I sat down to weed

My garden told of much neglect

for here I go and there I run

so little time for here and now

just as the poem said it 

“Life was in a rush, now

there is no hurry - only time”

so as the garden filled with weeds

where was I?

what else went unseen, untouched, undone,

unsaid, unthought, unvisited

here I sit in my garden pulling at the weeds,

picking at the harvest, 

thoughts going beyond the rush

beyond the unseen, untouched, undone

to the unthought, unsaid, unvisited

and yet again to the undone

Yet there it hangs

that one tomato

the one that has left the green behind

and changed to red

not just any red tomato

but a cherished one

one from my special plant 

the one put there for purpose of remembrance 

my Anna Russian

and so those words of poetry drive me to hope

hope to look for beauty

hope to bring someone joy and smiles

hope to leave a mark worth following

poetry 

and 

the red tomato.

an excerpt from Anna Drags-Stick-Behind-Her 

“Perhaps one will leave a mark

less transient than I, 

a silver thread

for someone else to follow - 

or perhaps just a bit of beauty

to decorate the world

before it melts away

or it is erased by the tide.”

Spring is Coming!!!!

I must say God has blessed me with many good friends. This morning I got myself in a bit of a predicament when I neglected to pay attention to the dimensions of an item I was bidding on at an auction. My only defense is that I have been listening to the birds sing the last week or two, and have enjoyed a few very nice spring like days intermixed in between the cold days, and the typical freeze/thaw rotation of this time of year.  I have been thinking I should start some seeds and It didn't look as big in the picture on the screen, or at least I didn't think about it, and though the dimensions were listed on the screen, all I was thinking was "oh that's cool". So I bid on a little greenhouse made out of old windows and then bid some more and in the end my bidding was successful and I was excited to claim my prize and take it home.  Yeah….after I had paid and went to look at it where it was sitting outside, I realized it wasn't going to fit in my car, not even with the sunroof open open. (For anyone who remembers when I won a patio table and chairs in a raffle last year, I seem to have had this kind of predicament before, but that time I actually managed to get it home in my car, although slightly cold with some windows and the sunroof open). It did not come apart and measured 49 inches high, 32 inches wide, and 58 inches long, there was no way it would fit.  But I had a number of friends willing to help me out, even if it didn't work out to help me today, thank you much for your willingness. I have to say thank you to Lucy, who I walked passed just as I had decided I would wait till later in the afternoon or tomorrow to get it transported and on a whim said, you didn't happen to drive a truck did you, and alas her husband had, so thank you Jeff.  It was actually kind of funny, as I know Jeff, but basically only as Lucy's husband and my elementary school friend, Julie's father, and when i asked him about his truck he didn't know who I was.  When he dropped it off at my house, he said "Now I know who you are, you have been friends of my daughter for years, when you came up and asked about if I had a truck, I knew I knew you but I couldn't place you."  I also have to say thank you to my neighbor Joe who was willing to come out even though it wouldn't fit in his Acadia, he even offered to get a truck from the shop, good old P. Graham Dunn.  And Todd, for being willing to bring a trailer later in the afternoon/evening to help me out, even though your wife's due date is tomorrow.  And Steve for calling me back to see how you could help out even though you were in Tennessee.  And Marv and Glenda for offering before we realized just how big it was and realized it wouldn't fit in your van.    And yeah, even Mitch though he didn't know about the whole dilemma, but was volunteered by Glenda and Ron as being willing even though you had already left the auction to run some errands.  And of course my mother, who offered to help before remembering that they had already lent that vehicle away for the weekend.  So thank to you to my many friends, and others who I sure would have also been willing, I now have this little greenhouse on my front porch and trying to figure out where it will eventually go (my mother said if I couldn't figure it out, she would keep it at her place).

But for today, I am dreaming of gardening and wondering how soon I can start some seeds and if it is safer to put them in this greenhouse.