Saturday, May 16, 2009

What a day!

I wanted to share the peonies opening up with this week with a little rain and sunshine. This were some of the last pictures before my camera lens got stuck so I'll be without a camera for a while (which is really hard for me).






Enough of me being remorseful over the loss of my camera for now. Today I was able to enjoy a wonderful day with friends in D.C. We went all over the place. We went to the Smithsonian museum of American History and Natural History. I've been going to D.C. at least two times a year for about 3 years now and I'd never been to either one of them before. The museum of Natural History was my favorite museum by far. Its exhibit on rocks and minerals was absolutely delightful. I found a new favorite type of rock that I'd never known by name before. It's called Labradorite and it reminds me of the beautiful butterfly the Morpho Butterfly.

The other thing that was really fun on our trip was that even though I didn't have a digital camera with me I had two disposable cameras and let my friends take pictures of whatever they wanted. It was a blast. I am looking forward to seeing how they turned out after they're developed.

I love film!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Everyday Miracles


One of my favorite flowers in my garden are the Peonies. These are so beautiful when they bloom and they smell wonderful but my favorite part is their growing process. They start out as these little purple shoots that grow so fast you can almost watch them growing. In about two weeks time they send up these balls awaiting blooms like in the picture above. They are beautiful as well but the most amazing thing is that these plants are unable to actually open up and bloom without help. They would die if they didn't have the help of one of God's smallest creatures. Ants are the heroes here. They climb up to the top of these flowers and eat a waxy film covering the buds. They feast on it for a couple days and once it's all gone the flower is finally capable of releasing all of it's beauty to the rest of the world.

There are a million lessons we can learn from the simplicity of this fact of nature, but the one I am taking to heart today is the fact that we are not independent planets that are completely self-sufficient. We are only able to release all of the beauty inside of us with the help of others (and no I'm not talking about beauticians and cosmetic beauty). If we didn't have people to teach us what it means to be good and help others we could be very ugly creatures indeed. Most importantly if we didn't have anyone to love or love us back there would be no beauty in the world at all (at least that's what I think).

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Season of growing

Joy showing me how to dig up the dirt. She's a total pro by the way and an awesome helper.


This year is the year of the garden for me. I have been dreaming of having a big bountiful garden for years now without having the time or the space to be able to fulfill it. Not like the container garden at my first apartment or the tomato garden at my parents. No, something much bigger. While I don't know how bountiful my garden will be I do know that it will be bigger than any garden I've ever done before and have more varied plants. I also know that there will be potatoes (big and little), onions, blueberries, tomatoes (3 varieties), zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, blackberries, raspberries, black raspberries, brusslesprouts, swiss chard, carrots, peas, beans, pumpkins, corn, and cucumbers. That's the plan anyway.

I just finished clearing out the main garden plot this weekend and have already gotten started with planting and starting seeds. I thought I was going start out small and work my way up to a larger garden but my wonderful sister gave me a gift card to buy seeds and a friend of mine gave me some young shoots from their raspberry bushes. I've been truly blessed with what everyone has given me to get this started. I'm praying for a few more things but more on that once I get them.


Some seeds started and waiting to grow a little bigger before putting in the ground.



One of my beautiful potato plants.


Blueberry blooms.


My onion row.


A full view of the first bed (yes there is a second one in the works behind my house, and yes I know that I am crazy). The fence is to keep the groundhogs, skunks, and rabbits at bay.


Here is to not having to go to the grocery store to make a meal, and enjoying the fruits of your labor!