All posts by Michele

June is a month of possibilities

I have three jobs. This was my modus operandi many years ago, about eight, and I had promised myself not to do it again. There are many pros to working full-time for one agency.

1. Stable income and benefits including earned time.

2. You belong, really belong to that organization versus feeling like an interloper.

3. You can grow within that organization and even advance.

The cons are as follows:

1. You become a slave to the organization.

2. The 9-5, five day a week schedule becomes drudgery.

3. After awhile, you feel trapped, like you might want to go somewhere else, but you can’t

imagine actually doing it. The stable income, benefits and earned time are your Siren Song.

I have three jobs, work far fewer hours per week in contrast to the one full-time job and earn the same income. I am vulnerable to lay-offs, but who cares since I am not afraid to develop job opportunities.

The vegetable garden is holding steady. We have had two weeks of rain which is not conducive to growth. Nothing has died. Beans and cucumbers sprouted. There are tiny greenĀ  leaves that look like carrots, beets and radishes in one of the raised beds. No sign of corn or potatoes. On the other hand, the flower gardens are bursting with exuberant color.

Tomatoes the size of golf balls

Tomatoes the size of golf balls

Poppies

View of the patio garden through the corral garden

View of the patio garden through the corral garden

 

FOOD POISONING

Spent the last four days recovering from food poisoning. It started on Thursday in the middle of a conference on Aging. My group went to a local restaurant for lunch and I ordered the delicious looking, low calorie, “healthy” tuna salad sandwich. That was after hearing about the 16 things you can do to insure a healthy life span. Living a long time is not the dream if you are sliding into decrepitude. I should have gone with my first choice which was the turkey, cranberry panini. One hour after eating the tuna sandwich, I started feeling ill. Eventually, my symptoms made me feel 100 hundred years old, or what I believe it will feel like when one is a hundred years old. Tired and achy all over. But it’s all relative, because today, a nineteen year old young woman told me she felt old as she was turning twenty.

The garden is blooming. Picked spinach, asparagus and rhubarb today. Plan to make strawberry-rhubarb pie and spinach salad with apple and cashews. There are tomatoes the size of golf balls. And they said it couldn’t be done! No pictures to prove the existence of said golf ball tomatoes. Next time.

The rhubarb has been in the garden for at least 20 years.

Spring Rhubarb

Spring Rhubarb

Raised Beds

Raised Beds

Roses on the Patio

Roses on the Patio

Rhubarb is a tonic with magical health qualities. Cleanses the toxins from one’s system.

Every year we add two raised beds.

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Every Day is Mother’s Day

I protest this commercialized, insincere and contrived holiday. Every day is mother’s day, or kid’s day, or father’s day or people’s day. I feel loved and appreciated every day.

Spinach that was planted nearly one month ago

Spinach that was planted nearly one month ago

It’s been a joy to work outdoors today. The weather is blissfully warm with just a tincture of breeze. I planted several kinds of seeds last month during the two week tropical splurge. The lettuce did not take and neither did most of the peas. But, the spinach endured and looks quite healthy.

Patio Garden

Patio Garden

I am so happy about the patio garden which was started over seven years ago. It is especially beautiful in the spring. The urns that sit to either side of the table are filled with grasses and strawberry plants. The bunnies help themselves to the ripening berries in June and July. The tomato seedlings that were growing in the “pigpen” are now acclimating to the outdoors. The wind stimulates sturdy stalks and the direct sunlight nurtures them at full strength.

Freshly mulched garden

I’ve been thinking about creating a garden bed on this side of the patio for years. We worked side by side for an hour and got it done. Just enough mulch and more than enough newspapers. Mulching is an excellent use of the Caledonian-Record. My friend Clara is donating her primroses in exchange for a few tomato plants.

Grape Hyacinths and daffodils in bloom.

Grape Hyacinths and daffodils in bloom.

Sometimes think about getting rid of the grass in this area and planting all flowers. I think there might be some rumbling from the husband department. Maybe not, he has been designing a beautiful garden in the corral. Soon, it will be all flower beds and paths.