Garden Stroll And More…

A couple of days ago I asked if you wanted to visit the garden with me… if you don’t want to do that you may want to go to the next blog on your reading list because I’ve been in the gardens with the camera.

Broccoli… I don’t have to worry about ‘W'.’ coming to dinner because we have grown some gorgeous and tasty broccoli this year.  Personally I could eat it just about every night, steamed with some butter… no sauce needed. 

Yeah I gotta get my boot in there for size and as you can see we have had a battle with squash bugs but this baby head of cauliflower grew into this…

When Bro, Cuz and me went to buy some plants this spring we got the broccoli, cauliflower and two kinds of cabbage, the green and the purple, at a farm store in Chandler, OK,  about 15 miles from where we lived.  I’ve been sooo excited with how they are all coming on because though I tried last summer where we lived we had rabbits that ate very well and I didn’t even get a taste.

My beautiful cauliflower looked big until I found these three squash hiding under the big squash leaves and, no, these are not the good day/bad day squash.  We were given 3 straight neck yellow squash plants and three crook neck yellow squash plants so these came on earlier than we expected. The green cabbages I planted in the back yard garden and have started forming the heads despite the chewed up leaves.

The purple cabbage I planted in the front garden along with half of the broccoli plants.  They, too, have started forming their heads and their leaves are chewed on but not quite as bad as the plants in the back garden.

I got down in the dirt to get this low down view of all the squash blossoms on one of the crooked neck squash plants.  See what I do to keep it real for all of you!

I love seeing how these bloom change into something that is so good to eat in so many ways.  But you all know how all the stages of growing just fascinate me.

OKRA!  Yes, Rick, you can tell your sweet bride that the good Lord willing and the weather is kind to us, no more hail please, there will be okra flying northwest along about August.

This row has okra and black eyed peas planted alternately.  The premise is the black eyed peas will climb along the okra stalks.  So I guess this will be my little experiment.

Since I have so much garden photos to show you and I don’t want to bore you to death I’ll close for now but I do want you to know that my cousin and I both use this old timey cultivator because we can get between the rows easily and break up the ground enough to try to keep ahead of the grass and weeds.  I will try to catch a photo or two of it actually in use.

Next post, besides more garden stuff, I’ll show you the mimosa trees in bloom and we will talk about a bad hair day…

Intrigued?

Death, Life and Broccoli…

I know that some people that don’t know my weird sense of humor would think that the title of my post is not very empathetic or appropriate but it was the only thing that popped into my head when I started to write this post. 

I got the call from baby brother this morning that my brother-in-law died early this morning.  Believe me when I say that it was a blessing.  If you have ever lost anyone to a terminal disease, while you don’t want to lose your loved one, the last thing you want is for them to linger on and have to deal with a lot of suffering.  I talked to my sis and she was very relieved that he was surrounded by love and family and while she knew that there would some rough times for her ahead,  she was so thankful and at peace with his passing because she didn’t want him to suffer.  Sue, my sister, has very strong belief in God and the faith that Bill is in a far better place and not suffering anymore uplifts her and gives her strength.

The life part of this post? Earlier in the week I had made an appointment to get a haircut today.  It has been rainy and unusually cool for this time of year in Oklahoma the last couple of days and will continue on for this week and I didn’t want to stir from my nice warm bed all cuddled up with my furbabies.  After my brother called to tell me about Bill I knew it would be useless to drift back to sleep.  I made some family calls and then it was time to drive to Norman to get my haircut.  Walter drove me and he, too, got his haircut, we ran some errands and came back home.  I was tired, hurting from the shingles, the fibro raising cain with me because of the weather and all I wanted to do to stretch out on the bed, take my meds and veg out for a while until I walked to the back door and looked out…

Needless to say I had to get my camera and go out to get some photos to share with you all.

The babies… I love having them where I can watch them.

The moms may not be right next to their babies but, believe me, they are ever vigilant.  They have their side of the fence and I have mine and all is right with the world.

Despite the hurting, both physical and emotional, these sights reminded me of the renewal of life.  That is part and parcel of this thing we call life…

The cycles.  We are born, we grow up, some of us marry and birth the babies that start the next cycle.  We continue to grow and to try to help the next generation learn the things they need to know to get them through the tough times, get them standing on their own two feet and if you are lucky, as Sue and Bill were during their 48 years of married life, they raised their four boys and Bill lived long enough see their grandchildren and celebrate their children’s joy at the birth of their children.  Their grandchildren had the chance to meet and get to know their grandfather and even the little ones will have some memories of their grandfather.  Their grandmother, my sister, along with their sons will keep his memory alive through the multitude of stories that Bill and his brothers and his one sister have lived and told over the years and, believe me, there is a boat load of them and there will be lots of laughter filling my sister’s home and heart again…

Oh, yes… the broccoli…

From the last post…

I picked it. 

And my cousin made her baked potato soup while we were gone to get our haircuts because she knew it is a comfort food for me, but tonight she added a twist to it… baked potato and broccoli soup.  It warmed not only my tummy but also soothed my heartache  for my sister and her family’s loss and reaffirmed that there is still a lot of good left in this life.  And some of it I helped to grow.