Sowing the Seeds

I hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend and paused for a moment or two to give thanks to those who have given their lives for our freedoms, and to those who are continuing to serve here and overseas.

We spent it outside preparing our garden, and then planting on Monday, which really felt more like Sunday for me. I'm all screwed up this week, but that's nothing new! LOL!

Since the weather was spectacular (70's, slight breeze, some thin wispy clouds above and mostly sunshine), it was a crime to spend it in the house for any reason. We accomplished a lot in the last few days and are paying for it now. As my Aunt Naomi said, "Damn this getting old hurts!" Amen to that.

The vegetable garden isn't very big, but big enough for us. I have eight (8) Roma Tomato plants, four (4) Jalapeno pepper plants, some Dill, Thyme, Cilantro and Rosemary planted and soon to be added, some Okra. Most people here in the Northern Territories haven't a clue what Okra is or how on Earth you cook or why you would in the first place.

Okra is mainly a Southern plant, but it does grow up here, and my Mom chops it up and puts it in a batter of flour and cornmeal and something else and fries it. Some people fry it in bacon grease like my Aunt Treva. It's an acquired taste to be sure, but it's just something fresh and different.

We also planted most of the flower garden, but ran out of plants so there is a round, bare spot that needs to be filled in with something. I'm going to do that next week when the flowers go on sale and have Cannon help me plant them.

As I pondered what we accomplished in the last few days, I couldn't help but think of the symbolism of sowing the seeds and planting in the hopes of a good harvest. All around us the seedlings are starting to shoot up and all the insects and birds are taking advantage of the bounty while they can. I've seen honey bees, butterflies, cardinals, blue jays, humming birds (I'll be putting a couple of feeders up for them on my new double Shepard's hook QH gave me for my birthday), and we even rescued a baby bunny rabbit from an over excited Black Lab named Zack, owned by my landlord, Mike.

So, now the task is to weed, water and feed my precious little plants and hope they all make it and we have an abundant harvest this fall.

I'll also be seeding the market for more writing work. I still have my contest going until July 1st, so go to my business blog http://www.crawfordwritingservices.blogspot.com/ and enter your manuscript with the $10 entry fee! You can't win if you don't enter, so plant your seed today!

In the meantime, I'm also going to pray for rain. Or, I'll speed things along by washing my car! LOL!

Have a great week!