enough

It's a morning of cold cereal (unusual in our house), and fruit, and, funny enough, Cold Cereal, by Adam Rex, being read to us in the kitchen. Ani and I were up early to walk to the garden, passing a young buck with a nice sprout of antlers, and a praire patch full of blazing star and iron weed. The garden. sigh. I am feeling so down about the garden. What we harvested this morning were weeds. This is our first year without a fence, and something is eating everything that decided to grow - the sunflowers, the beans, the BEETS! The cauliflower and broccoli are boycotting (again), the peppers are busy but pepperless, and the tomatoes, as usual, are stingy.

 Really, I can't blame any of them, neglected as they are. What is growing? Lots and lots of mugwort, which was not planted, and TONS - happily - of sorrel. It is the one joy of the garden, greeted with whoops by Ani, who picks it by the armful, munching happily. I thought of something my wise friend Erin has said about various skills or activities she has tried throughout her life - maybe this is not my time for gardening. I shouldn't believe the story that I am not a gardener, or that I am a failed gardener - it is just not my time right now.

 I sort of believe it. And once again I am deeply grateful for the abundance of our community - the eggs and the box of peaches waiting for me on my doorstep when we got home (early morning drop-off from a friend), and my fridge full of chard and kale and basil and cucumbers and the beautiful tomatoes on my counter from the farmer's market.

After a half an hour of weeding, Ani lying in the shade of the mulberry, as it must be already 90 degrees, we headed home with a hand full of beans and tomatoes, two sprigs of basil, a clutch of yarrow, and some lambs quarters weeded from the edge of the garden. The veggies went into my eggs and the yarrow on the table - enough for us in our world of bounty.

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Today we will read through more of A Wrinkle in Time, make some more art (I'll be able to share pictures soon when Dan's computer comes back from computer summer camp), tidy up a bit in anticipation of Dan's return from Baton Rouge, sweat about 3 gallons of water each, drink glass after glass of iced tea...and then head out for the last summer piano lesson, to the library for "bug class" and to the airport for pickup.

Did I mention summer was busy??