IN Carmel

So today I'm thinking seasons of the Garden.  There's not a spring summer fall and winter season.  So here are my seasons of the garden year.  There is the beginning to think of what the garden will look like.  That starts any month of the year.  There is the season of discovering what got through the winter and ready to push up to discover spring.  There is the oops,,, didn't make it season and then filling in those spaces.  There is the season of identifying what annuals to plant knowing they should be the all summer and fall bloomers.  There is the season of all things are going well but wondering where the rain is.  The weeding season is ongoing.  Then there is the season coming right now I call standing on one's head season.  It's clipping where it's needed and starting the big season of at least a month or more of cleaning up the garden.  I promised a picture of a huge vase of flowers.  Here it is.  And then the...

 It's beginning to feel like summer is almost gone.  Kids are back in school.  The Garden is showing signs of quitting and this morning I filled a big blue garbage can with stuff that didn't belong in the garden anymore.  It was all the tired plants that said I did my best and now I'm done.  When this time of the year comes I try to fill two big blue cans at the road for the garbage truck each week..  That's the goal which will clear the garden eventually leading to the end of this year with space ready for next year.  Slow and steady just as the turtle gets the clean-up job finished.   So sad but it's just another passing the torch to another year.  This fall brings something different.  We had bad hail damage with one of the summer storms.  That means that a new roof is coming along with new siding which was damaged and new spouting and shutters.   So what that means is that all of the blooming perennials that are a...

 The first day of the week, a great place to start.  Today I decided that it would be a Sunday go-to meetin' day.  So I did.  Doug elected to stay home still recuperating.    Our time at church is usually at least two hours long with choir practice added to the morning's activities.  For years we arrived at church even earlier around 7 am using that time preparing hospitality pastries and coffee.    But today.was something different arriving at church at 10:50 with a  short walk to my favorite pew on the south side of the church.  The music was wonderful.  I just can't live without music.  The preaching continued with another biblical character the focus for the morning.  The afternoon was spent watching powerful Ida hurrican stories.  Eric stopped in with an ice cream container of butter pecan sugar-free treat ordered by my Novi Mi. friend Marcia.  What a  girl!   Noah was part of the deliver...

 I hope this is the last hot Saturday.  That's my biggest hope and all the others are not that important today.  Now maybe that will change but not today.  I started the day with a trip to church.  Yes.  It's Bread and Bowl day and our Sat. crew is alive and well and strong in numbers.  So there was lots of talk among other things.  We had a strong number of folks stop by and the food was gone by 11:30.  I think we need to figure out how to provide more carry-out boxes.  The rest of the day included making a meatloaf and freezing it to eat later in the coming week.  I still must admit that eating is still a problem.  Food is not very appetizing although ice cream is not in that food group.  Yes did you know there is a large food group called bad tasting.  What makes me laugh is thinking about feeding our babies their first cereal when more came back out than went in.  Eventually, they got it and that should be my...

 Another week is almost over.  It seems they come faster and faster. So this morning it was about 2 hrs on the patio with coffee watching many many birds flying through the garden.  It would appear that they liked the cooler morning just as much as I did.  And the morning was filled with my I IPhone watching Christian Li playing his violin and hear the Four Seasons among other selections as the morning because alive.  I just felt like I couldn't get enough music to start the day so I just took it all in for a couple of hours.  I guess one could say it was my meditation hours of the day.    I did move out to the garden with my trusty shovel and little rake and clippers.  I managed to clean up dying or dead plants making the garden look a little more tended with all the dead gone.  The plan is to plant lettuce seeds soon.  That is if the rain comes again.  The ground is so hard that digging more than two inches deep was nye impos...

 Yes, today was just a bit different.  I decided to work at Bread and Bowl, our North Church outreach to the community.  For many years the Thursday crew and I worked alongside but a need came for a move to Sat.  So I was back among friends getting carry-out sacks ready for the 11 to 12 o'clock time under the portico.    So arriving at 9 and staying until 12 filled the morning. Our 48 sacks of carryout were well received.  Then it was home for a bit with a trip to I U North again with Doug for his six-month's visit with Dr. Greenspan including his monthly B 12 shot.  Now my hope is that there are no more doctor visits in between the one posted for 3 weeks.  That one is with Dr. Moore who did my surgery that led to a cancer-free head.  A Pet scan is included for that morning of work which should say that the cancer is truly gone.  I feel that is the case now but the scan can confirm that as well.   Doug always carries ...

 There was rain this morning.  I measured 1/2 inch.  I'll still say not enough but some for sure.  The bed by the downspout got a bit more and this afternoon I worked in that bed.  It is filled with lantana, my favorite southern flower that doesn't mind a little absence of rain.  But in that bed also are ornamental strawberries that have beautiful pink flowers in the spring.  Humm...not a great plant to have when weeds are invading and they have.  So the assignment this afternoon was to get rid of the weeds meaning also strawberries.  It's just too complicated to eliminate one and not the other.   The plan is to add a whole bunch of crocus to the group that is already there.  It's such a treat to see those little treasures in the spring.  That's the plan and the place is ready for planting later in the fall.   The other bulb I am ordering is daffodils.  They are a favorite and the deer will leave them alone....