a man and his hoe

every day is a good day

  • Letting Go

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    The dancing poppy blossoms of late July are gone. What was a bed of delightful poppies is now a morgue of wilted poppy plants. It’s time to let them go. Gardening is a meditation in letting go. You want those delightful colors to stay, to tickle you again, but they move on without your permission. It’s as if you don’t matter. They will slip away no matter how hard you try and make them stay.

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    So let them go. Toss them on the compost pile and move on. Plant something new and watch it slip through your fingers too. That’s life, holding your fingers out and enjoying things as they slip through them. You can’t hold onto anything in the end, but that’s OK.

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  • Happy Greens, Happy Reds

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    Few vegetables let you know you’re alive like arugula. Some lettuces are so bland, you could fall asleep eating them. Not spicy arugula. Toss this in with your salad and your eyes will pop out with happiness when you bite into their peppery, nutty leaves.

    And if you’re needing to get fussy people to eat vegetables, serve them a plate of chioggia beets, and watch their dour faces burst out in a smile. Not only are the beets sweet and tender, the beet greens are fabulous too.

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  • One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four

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    Tomorrow is market day at Bow Little Market. It’s time to sort the potatoes. This week I’m weighing every potato and sorting them by the ounce. So if you’re coming to Bow Little Market tomorrow, you can buy just the size of potato you wish. How’s that for customer service?

  • Like Mother, Like Daughter

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    Usually chicks look nothing like their mothers. Their baby colors are usually different than their mother’s feathers. This little chick is the same shade of reddish brown as her mother. Will it grow up to look like it’s mother? Maybe, maybe not.

  • All the News That’s Fit to Print

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    It’s a busy day in paradise. There is so much going on. Where to begin? Here is a condensed version of this morning’s news:

    • A handful of blackberries were picked for breakfast
    • A dog dug furiously when he smelled a mole in the ground
    • Redwood branches welcome fresh dew on their leaves
    • A new chick hatched during the night
    • Corn blossoms fell like rice grains on a squash leaf
    • The sweet smell of corn blooms perfumes the morning air
    • Corn ears are fattening
    • The morning sunbeams are playing hide-and-go-seek behind pumpkin leaves
    • Onion bulbs are swelling in the sweet earth
    • Cabbage heads are tightening in the garden
    • Overnight, a growing cabbage head has invented fifteen new shades of green
    • Poppy buds are bursting with joy at waking up with a million beads of sparkling, diamond-like dew drops
    • A wasp is waking up after spending a night sleeping in a sunflower flowerhead
    • A happy dog soaks up love

    Don’t let the news media tell you otherwise, paradise is all around you, you can see it, you can feel it, you can smell it, you can find it, it’s everywhere.

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