in which there is good news and bad news

The good news first, I suppose.
It will be evident to all that things look different around here. I updated the look of my blog!! I just love the background I found and the photo (which is not mine, but found in a Google search and shamelessly stolen). Feel free to tell me if you like the change. I probably won't pay any attention to naysayers, though. heh. :)

Tragedy has struck the veggie patch at the demo garden. 2 weeks ago it was discovered that the artichoke had an enemy. When I planted it it had four large, beautiful, silver-green leaves. It's such a dramatic plant! I was really looking forward to watching it thrive. I returned the next week to find only two leaves on the plant. Well, there had been some windy weather so I thought maybe that was the culprit and it still looked healthy, so I figured it would be fine. Not so. The next time I went to tend the patch, the other two leaves had been torn off!! And the kicker was that the culprit had not even had the decency to eat the leaves he mangled! He just left them lying there next to the plant to taunt me. Curse his hide! Audrey and Dianne and the rest of the gardeners examined the carnage and gathered other clues:

1. little holes dug here and there in the bed
2. peanut shells found near the scene of the crime
3. one of the present gahtering stated that the local squirrel population had been observed burying their stash in the garden last fall

We came to the conclusion that the guilty party must have been a squirrel. Why a squirrel would want to bother my artichoke is completely beyond me! I guess I just don't think of them as being garden pests. Bunnies, maybe - I deal with bunnies at my garden at home - but I haven't ever seen bunnies at the demo garden. Also, I would think a bunny would have, like I said before, the good decency to eat at least part of the leaf instead of being so wasteful.

The poor 'choke was well and truly shorn, but not completely beyond hope. Small new leaves were present that would quickly replace those that were lost if given half a chance. So we came up with a plan to foil further destructive attacks from our unthrify assailant. A protective cage was constructed out of wooden stakes and plastic caging held together with twine. Not beautiful, but functional. For 2 weeks there was no further damage. I stopped worrying about the artichoke and bent my efforts to eliminating slugs from the cabbages. The cage was doing it's job and the plant was thriving.

Or so I thought. Until today.

Today I went to water and found ... nothing. Nothing!! There was a hole chewed through the netting on one side of the cage and the artichoke was no more. Chewed down to a dirty nub. Gone.

So this evening we mourn the loss of a beloved vegetable. Cut down before he had a chance to really live. His passing leaves a gaping hole in our hearts matched only by the hole in the northeast corner of the vegetable patch. He will be sorely missed.

Fin.

in which war is waged

Gosh it's been a busy week! Lets see if I can remember it all...

Most of this week has been spent at work. Blegh! Normally I love going to work, but since the weather has warmed up I have gotten really very sick with garden fever. I pine all day at work looking out the window at the sunshine and thinking of all the things I could be doing. Wondering if my little baby pea plants are needing water or if the cursed slugs have been continuing their feast of cabbage and broccoli.
I work a really lousy shift for gardening. 10 hours, either 10:30-9:00 or 9:30-8:00. This is killing me because it is too dark to do anything when I get home and, no matter how good my intentions are I am just not an early bird. I putter around with my best friend Joe for quite awhile in the mornings before I am actually awake enough to be useful and by then it is time to shower and get ready for work.
But I did have a couple of days off to be productive in. Friday was the last frost date, so Saturday my bush beans went in the ground. The peas, onions, and carrots are showing their little green faces and the lettuce I started in peat pots went into their wheelbarrow. This is a new strategy for this year. The thought process behind it is that I will be able to keep the lettuces out of the direct sun during the heat of the day, thus staying a little sweeter. It may be silly, but they look so cute in their little red home! And it frees up space in the main garden for extra rows of other things.
The other Very Important Thing I got done this week was declaring war on the hornets and wasps. I swear there are more of them at my house than any where else! And where do they like to hang out? On my deck. They buzz around and crawl over everything until you are afraid to even go out the back door. Well I have finally had enough! I refuse to concede territory to the little devils. I want to be able to enjoy my back yard thank you very much. So on Monday morning, while it was still cold and drippying from the thunderstorm on Sunday night, I launched an all out chemical attack. I took out 7 nests, 2 on the Southeast corner of the house, 2 in the grill (knew to look there because I found one there last year when I went to use it for the first time), and the great big one in the bathroom window frame - the one they watch me from every time I go out to water the garden. I also sprayed a bunch of the knot-holes and cracks in the siding where I've seen them crawling in and out. I haven't been home to see if this has been a successful battle, but I can't imagine it didn't help a bit. I need to have Henry crawl under the porch and look for nests there as well, but not until there's another cool morning.
I am really looking forward to next week when I have 12 days off to get all my spring cleaning and yardwork done.

Happier Thoughts

"Happier thoughts lead to essentially a happier biochemistry
and a happier, healthier body.
Negative thoughts and stress have been shown
to seriously degrade the body and the functioning of the brain,
because it's our thoughts and emotions that are continuously
reassembling, reoganising, re-creating our body."
Dr. John Hagelin (a teacher featured in "The Secret")


This was written by someone (I don't recognise the handwriting) on the whiteboard in our break-room this week.

It's a very thought provoking quote, actually. It begs several questions:

Happier thoughts? Happier than what? Where do these happier thoughts come from? How do I get them? Especially when I am going through hell. My life is falling to pieces around me and there is no hope that it will get better anytime soon, if ever. I want happier thoughts. I want health and peace. Where do I go to get it? Do I fake it? I smile hard enough so I won't cry. I create the illusion of peace and happiness to the outside observer, willing it to seep through to the chaos beneath. That only creates more stress in my life!

I know the answer, of course. This Joy (happinessthat lasts and is independant of my situation) and Peace I am looking for is only found in one Person: Jesus Christ.

The Psalms are full of this truth about God. A few of my favorite examples are:

Psalm 16:8-11
I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Psalm 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah

The New Testament also. Manytimes God is refered to as the God of Peace. Paul sandwiches his letters with Grace and Peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. In Philippians he tells us that God's peace transcends all understanding and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Peace that is beyond your comprehension. Peace that is a safeguard against fear and worry. Peace even when the "mountains" in your life are crumbling and falling. Peace and Joy.

I have it. Do you?