Got The Garden Planted

I was really hoping not to plant a garden this year but Durwood made puppy dog eyes and I caved.  (I confess that I like fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes too.)  So I put Stein's Garden Center on my errand list yesterday.  I bought a bale of straw for mulch over the weed barrier I already had and 4 tomato plants: Early Girl, Celebrity, Sweet 100, and Boxcar Willie.  Yes, I bought an heirloom tomato plant named Boxcar Willie.  How could I not?  That one was a no-brainer because when I was expecting DD, someone asked the just-over-2-year-old DS what he wanted to name his new brother or sister and he said, "Boxcar Willie Baby." (there was a commercial on at that time flogging his all-time hits records, his and Slim Whitman's.  Slim yodeled.  [yee-haw!]  RECORDS, so you know how long ago that was)  Durwood likes something "vine-y" to climb the fence at the back of the garden so this year I chose a spaghetti squash plant but then on my way out I went by a cart of kid's plants and there was one called Gordy the Gourd for growing birdhouses.  I had to buy it and it says on the tag that you can try to tame its vines on a trellis or fence but it'll still go everywhere.  I envision being out there in August with a machete beating it back from the patio doors.  

(I have to confess that I opened a separate window to find a link to Boxcar Willie & Slim Whitman singing and now I can't stop. help me! [damn you, YouTube *shakes tiny fist*])

I'm happy to see that the honeysuckle's finally blooming.  More hummingbirds come when it's in bloom.  I was talking to our neighbor this morning while I trimmed a shrub at the corner of the house and noticed a hummingbird fluttering right behind him at one of his blooming shrubs.  I am so fascinated by hummingbirds, they just don't look real to me, they're so tiny and fast, they look like toys.

I got a bunch knitted on my Rapid City Scarf last night.  It's a real revelation that your knitting gets longer if you knit on it.  It doesn't get any longer at all if it just sits in your knitting basket.  That's the god's truth.  I've proved it over and over.  Try it yourself and see if you don't have the same result.

June 6--Russell Byers, Horses.  Rae didn't like horses.  Horses were too big, they bit and kicked, and they pooped huge, stinky apples that had to be shoveled away.  She had to admit that they were pretty with their long legs and flowing manes.  She liked horses in movies and stories, she liked going to the races, and she liked carriage and wagon rides.  She liked the idea of horses, she just didn't like them close up.  Draft horses were too big and race horses were too skittish.  Ed loved horses, loved their personalities, loves how they smelled and how they ran.  He loved everything about horses--and he loved Rae.  She thought she might come to love Ed, especially if he would give up his fascination with horses.

Hey, I just noticed that when the river outside my motel room here isn't frozen solid there are boats going up and down it.  Imagine that.  And I cleaned out my head from all the country and yodeling with The Vespers.  Whew.
--Barbara