Garden Decoration

Well, I've had to really admit to myself that I'm not great at follow through. Now we know that Aries has a bad wrap for starting and stopping things--it's the experience Aries wants. But it's hard to get anywhere if you stop things just as they get rolling. So I let half of my garden to Mike--his plot is in the shade--and now he's calling himself my serf. I tell you, having half the garden space has made it easier on me. I've been eating tomatoes like crazy and plenty of peas. I have beans and patty pan.

The other day I ran into Mike and he said you zuchinni isn't what you think. What? Well it wasn't coming up, so I replanted. You'll like it. It's patty pan. And sure enough, there's a little space ship, sort of grey green, hovering beneath the leaves.

The other day I was over there and there where two young bucks wandering through the garden. Most of the plots are fenced now, which makes mine the key dining place. You don't have to have a membership to get in and it doesn't matter if you are wearing shoes and shirt.

Blackberries are on and so are the plums and so are the yellow jackets, squashed fruit everywhere. Ate blackberries for breakfast this morning. They are getting sweet now. And tomatoes in the salad and tonight with the burritos.

My honey is home from the arctic now. He was gone for 9 weeks. It seemed terribly long to me, although I got a ton of work done. I'm working on a book about divorce, as you know, I was divorced last year. It was a grueling year, going through all the name change stuff, and all the pain. Pain with divorce is equal to pain of death, I'm sure of it.

Well, need to get on with my day. Hopefully you are all working hard and enjoying the harvests of your gardens.
Peace,
Flower

Happy Thanksgiving

Well Happy Turkey Day. Yesterday I had acupuncture and when I asked my Chineses Accupuncturist if she had a family meal on Thanksgiving, she said there is no Thanksgiving in Canada and there is no turkey in Chinese food. Ah, yes, I said, thinking about the noodles and the bean sprouts, eggs and vegetables. Very good food, with pork and chicken. But no turkey.

On Chinese New Years, she said, they eat dumplings. I said, Stuffed with pork? Yes, and boiled. I was getting hungry. And on birthdays, lots of noodles; noodles for a long life. Very interesting. And then she stuck a needle between my eyes and I went to sleep.

I don't eat dairy or wheat--so I make a rice stuffing--so to speak. I cook a rice that has mulitple grains in it--because it's pretty. Then I add sauteed celery and onion and a teaspoon of poultry seasoning. It's very good.

As for desert--I'll share my pumpkin pie invention with you. Make a cookie dough with rice flour--any sugar cookie recipe will work, but I use Fanny Farmer's Butterscotch Brownies--see Fanny Farmers Cookbook and substitute rice flour for wheat flour. And margerine for butter--if the milk in butter bothers you. Spread the dough into a pie dish (it doesn't roll). Now mix your organic canned pumpkin with coconut milk--and all the spices and sugar, etc. Pour in and bake the same way you would a pumpkin pie. It's better than the regular pie, trust me.

Okay then, love everyone and have a great day. Flower

Fingerlings

For some reason this Fingerling makes me think of Maurice Sendak and his book about the child whose father is off at sea. Can't remember the name of it now, and there are ghost children in the book that are called something like Fingerling, and her little brother is stolen by the Fingerlings and turned to ice. Anyway, this is sort of a gross word for food because a fingerling potato is shaped like a finger, a pudgy stubby finger grant you. But when roasted. they are sweet and tender—and of course more expensive. They are just potatoes. You say potato, I say potato. I'm tired today, can you tell?

Potatoes are in the nightshade family, plants that at poisonous if you eat their leaves. Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers—all nightshade. I read long ago that if you have arthritis you shouldn't eat these foods—it will make your pain worse. Some people avoid the nightshade family for just this reason. There are many reasons not to eat certain foods and not all of them apply to everyone. What I mean to say here is eating is personal. It can be mindful, which it hasn't been for me in a while. Lately I've been more frantic, as the details wind down from the divorce—I seem to be keying up. Yesterday I secured new insurance—for the condo and the car. Together they are $70 more than before, mostly because I'm in a different county, not because I'll be single soon. My advice is, if you are working out the details of your expenses, be sure to call your insurance agents first. It's not a given that your policy will remain the same. Your support payment could be calculated low.

Okay then, when you dig your potatoes, use a pitch fork, not the wiry tined one, but the thick pronged one. Dig carefully so you don't puncture the potatoes. Of course, you will puncture some. Eat those right away. Potatoes grow pretty much directly under the plant and around it perhaps one foot. Chef George at NCI said you can grow a substantial amount of fingerlings in a 5 gallon bucket, they'll just fill that thing up. I don't suppose I could plant them now and have them come up in the spring. That happens naturally—then I wouldn't have to remember whether it is Good Friday or not. That's when you plant, you know.

Okay then, happy day,

Flower

Two Birthdays and an Anniversary

In the fall, the garden dies, although some of the plants come back: rhubarb, herbs, horseradish, artichokes. And some reseed: sunflowers, lettuce, kale, tomatoes. That is if you let anything go to seed. I have had lots of kale reseed and potatoes I missed digging in the fall. And carrots come back, but they turn woody. In the fall, you can plant onions and garlic. I've heard that you can plant peas in the fall too, but have never tried that. Around here, it seems that they would rot. But I have some old seed, perhaps I'll throw it out in the garden and see what happens.

Right now the community garden is lush with sunflowers and dahlias the size of dinner plates. There are acorn squash littering one plot and beautiful corn another. And the plums are ripe, yippee—a drying opportunity.

Yesterday I picked several big boy tomatoes. And bought a bouquet from a sweet flower stand set up in front of a neighbor's house. It reminds me of the lemonade stands my sister and I used to have on Audubon Street across from Audubon Park. More my sister's project than mine. She was and still is the better entrepreneur of the two of us. Our father is an entrepreneur and it rubbed off. He has gardened on occasion and grew up in wheat country. His mother canned the prunes (Italian Plums) instead of drying them. Ooh, were they delicious.

Today is my daughter's birthday and the anniversary of my ex asking me for divorce. Need I say more? Holidays are important to me; I like to celebrate. It just so happens that all the bombs he dropped fell on holidays. That can't be by accident, as he's claimes. But now, I'm going to two parties, two lovely women celebrating birthdays. It's a beautiful sunny day, and I've moved on--that's the good part. There is power in moving on. It has to be this way—or one would go batty with grief. For finding meaning through the stages of grief see Elizabeth Kubler- Ross's book On Grief and Grieving

Yesteday my friend Brenda and I made Soul Cards to mark the this transition--turning away from divorce and focusing on the rest of my life. We also had a great meal and then went on a walk around the harbor. There a row of ragossa rose sports bright red rose hips, which I love. I ate a couple and when Brenda tried them, groaned and spat it out. Really, they are high in vitamins C and make great preserves. Try it. Delicious. And, the sunset and full moon: divine.

Okay then, off to the garden. And for all of you out there that are weeding your inner garden, love yourself to pieces. It's what the world needs more of—wasn't that a song?

Flower