Spring Planting (Or Replanting?)

Once we decided to do a garden this year, the decision on what to plant was left up to me with hubby's stamp of approval. Corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, watermelons - all standard Georgia garden fare. With the ground prepared and the seeds ready we set out the rows and off to the races we went. All the squashes, beans, peas, melons, in three short hours we had seeded an area more than 1000 square feet. Happy and pleased with a job well done, we headed off for our first week of waiting.

Anxiously I watched the weather report, glad when radar showed rain heading in our general direction. The weekend took forever to come around again. Sunday morning arrived at last and I bounced in the car like a kid on the way to see Santa. Just when I could wait no more, we turned down the street, up the long winding driveway, then past the garden. I could see little green shoots beginning to poke through as we headed to the main house.

Church seemed to drag that morning, and lunch was forever. Just when I thought I would burst from anticipation, we arrived back at the farm. Changing into work clothes I race out to my little slice of heaven to find...

Turnip greens. That's right, turnip greens popping up all over my nicely plotted garden.

Imagine my surprise. Covering the entire garden, in my neat straight rows and in between, anywhere there was a spare inch of fertilized earth, were little turnip green leaves. Apparently the previous fall, for a winter garden, one of the helpers on my father-in-law's farm had planted turnips, harvested the greens but left the turnips themselves in the ground. With the warmer weather and the fertile spring rains, those little suckers just popped right out, heedless to the fact they are winter crops that cannot survive the hot Georgia summers.

So my first full Sunday as a gardener was spent identifying and pulling little turnip greens while trying to not pull up actual seedlings that were wanted. This is when I discovered what a non-outdoors man I married. He couldn't identify weeds from plants, didn't like having to pull so many wrong plants, and within 45 minutes had abandoned me completely to sit on the front porch drinking ice tea while I sweat and pulled and cursed turnips with my every fiber.

I was not amused.

Another Month Slides Into the Dust

Well, two more days and March 2010 will be history. Let's look at what has happened around the globe this month. The Democrats ramrodded a health care reform bill through Congress even though 85% of Americans don't want it, the weather went wacky all over the country dumping record amounts in the NE, and I have still not heard from any reputable publishers about CATALYST.

The first item is one of the three areas I choose not to discuss in public. The other two are religion and the Great Pumpkin. But, if the general population has not figured out we are rapidly sliding down the hill toward becoming a Socialist nation then they deserve what they get. I highly recommend reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged to anyone with a mind still capable of making independent decisions. It will give your life a direction and affirmation.

As for the weather, Mother Nature has obviously hit menopause. I would assume we are heading toward global climate change on a magnitude not seem in humanities lifetime. Does that mean we are the cause of this change? Not completely. I think these cycles of the earth are normal. God set into motion a living system, complete with chaos theory. Free will is not confined to people.

I am working on a new book. Nothing related to science fiction or fantasy, this book is in honor of my daughter and our two horses, Bella and Penny; and all the other horses who find themselves in rescue centers. If you love horses, then join the movement for responsible breeding of horses, especially Thoroughbreds. The reckless search for the next great racehorse unfortunately leads to many wonderful not so great horses have to find homes. I will never let I horse I own or care about be sent to the kill pens.

My closest friends came for dinner Sunday to catch up and provide support for my son's godmother and her daughter. Stacey lost her husband last year to ALS, and there are still some sore spots, but it was wonderful for them to come up and enjoy some fellowship with old friends. I pray for her everyday.

My husband has to have tests done tomorrow first thing for his heart. I ask everyone to pray for his protection and that nothing extreme is wrong. Updates to follow as I get them.

Oh Spring!

Today was an almost perfect spring day in the South. Sunshine, blue skies, warm and holding the teasing promise that winter has finally headed somewhere else. Alas - it was only a tease. Starting tomorrow, the return limited run of rain. But, the temperature will not be quite as stark in its previous engagements. Yah!

I love spring. It is simply the best time of the year. The rebirth and rejuvenation Mother Nature brings with the return of warmer temperatures and longer days has always excited within me the desire to create something new and fabulous. Planting flowers, pruning the bushes, cleaning out the cob webs in my house in celebration of another winter gone.

But I also try to clean out the cob webs in my mind. Too often I find myself dwelling on things in the past which need to stay in the past. My doubts and insecurities rise up and attempt to ensnare me in their clutches. With a firm hand I can send those feelings out with the wind, refusing the comfort of the old familiar.

Spring inspires within me a new desire for writing, a renewed passion for expressing myself on paper (or computer screen if you will). I have a new book idea, totally different from CATALYST. I have Book Two of CATALYST to complete the rough draft, and I have the CATALYST blog to push forward. And the continued process to find a publisher. If I get everything accomplished, this will indeed be a Spring renewal.

So, my Spring Resolutions:
1 - Write at least two hours every day. It doesn't have to be all at one sitting, but don't push it off. Too soon I would find myself finding more reasons not to write than to actually just write.

2 - Be diligent in finding a publisher. Somewhere out there is the perfect book house to me. We just have to find each other.

3 - Follow through and follow up. These seems to be the two issues I have the most problems with.

4 - Always take the time to stop and look around at the wonders of our physical world. God's world deserves our amazement and honor.

5 - Slow down! Far too often we race through our days and run right over those who need us most, our families and friends.

Yet the number one most important thing Springs brings is Baseball!!!