About me...

Because this journey is intensely personal, there will be times when my posts will be about more than just rebuilding the physical aspects of my life. They may be random and sometimes I think they may not even make sense to some. But whatever I post here will be as honest as I can make it, no punches pulled, telling it like it it. I hope that I can share some insight with others who might be going through a similar transitory period in their own lives. With luck and perseverence I know I will eventually successful in my new life. I have very high hopes for all of this but then I had those when Dave was alive, too. I am naturally a pretty optomistic person, I think.

Think that the heat might finally let up a bit this week and I will be able to finally get some of these plants in the ground.  I have 50-60 heirloom tomato plants growing in pots and to tell you the truth, they look better than most of the tomatoes I have planted in the ground in the past.  Probably because I have focused so much attention on them. I do have to tell you their story and why I lavished all my ministrations on them.

When I moved here to Lincoln County, back the first week of June (that was the final move week), I had several  flats of these heirloom tomato plants that were just about ready to set out for the season.  They were about 8-10 inches tall, robust and healthty.  My friend who was helping me move and I loaded the plants in the back of her truck and covered them with a tarp (it was over the top of netting and about 6-8 inches above the plants. The covering was to keep the wind from whipping the plants too much and damaging them.

Imagine our chagrin when we got to my new location, took off the tarp and were greeted by most of the plants looking like I had sauteed them in olive oil.  It was one of those blistering hot days and the heat under the tarp had literally "cooked" my plants.  It never occurred to either one of us that the heat under that tarp would be at such a level. I would have imagined that the slight breeze that did circulate around them would have kept them cool but no such luck.

Anyway, it was a huge setback but I was determined that they would survive and so I spent the better part of a month, nursing them back from near death.  They are big, healthy and starting to bloom as I am typing this entry.

That is true of people, too, you know. Love and some serious nurturing can make a huge difference in someone's life. That is the beauty of a living, growing thing, that it can be so close to death and then come back to health and vigor with some strong belief and some tender loving care.

I treasure these lessons that I learn from growing things. They are so simple and yet so profound sometimes.

Here they are, back from the brink. To get an idea of their size, they are planted in 3 gallon pots. You can't really tell from this picture (there is something wrong with my digital camera and this is the best and only picture I got) but they are blooming. All that pink you see around them are Crape Myrtle blossoms that are falling on them because I have them setting in the shade under a huge CM in the backyard.  It is so big, you can't even see the canopy in this picture.