Found Mandala


I spent a delightful couple of hours in the garden with the birds this morning before heading up to teach at Willow Street. I weeded and dead-headed and watered. The birds and I both ate grapes right off the vine. Every year since this vine started to fruit, birds that are not here the rest of the year have appeared for the few weeks the grapes are ripening. I imagine that there is a bird listserve where some bird posts that Goodman’s grapes are ready. Come and get them. Neither my presence nor the cats on the screened porch deters them. The grapes are too delicious for them to allow their natural caution to interfere with immediate access.
Me, I know that I am a spoiled, middle-class urban gardener. If my survival depended on getting the whole harvest (as opposed to a large handful of grapes daily for three or four weeks), I would be fending off the birds instead of enjoying their presence. The squirrels and the tomatoes–that’s another matter altogether.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Went out into the backyard despite (or perhaps because of) the freezing rain. The greens had a thin coating of ice, but were still bright. Picked big handfuls of mixed asian greens, arugula, and chard. The ice cracked off as I picked them. Later in the morning, I will saute the greens with tofu for a nice brunch. I have dough rising for pizza for the neighborhood solstice open house. I think about making crackers.
Tomorrow, some of the greens growing will be frozen food. I’ll make an italian bean and greens soup with those leaves. When it gets back up to 50F, which it is supposed to do within the 15-day forecast, there will be new growth. The chard just might make it all the way through the winter. The arugula — it’s less likely.