June lull

So here we are in the third week of June already. *sigh* I love June. It's that delicious spot right between spring and high summer. My blood has finally and thoroughly warmed up and I believe in my heart that the nice weather will stay and snow flurries won't be flying tomorrow. I still have months of fabulous summer to go. I have the promise of tomatoes and fresh beans and corn on the cob, with its buttery salty juice running down my hands. Bugs have not infested yet, drought hasn't hit. I'm still enchanted by my garden.

Like most gardeners, I visit my vegetable patch every day. I'm sure the neighbors (and my family, for that matter) think I'm bats, hearing me talk to my plants. "Hello Dahlings!" (Some days they're even treated to chatter in an English accent, they seem to like that one.) And some days it's simply an impatient, "Grow, dammit." I know, I know, just reserve me the corner room at Shady Pines...I'll check in any day now.

I've just come off two months of breakneck garden work. Ever have a project that you wanted so much you could taste it and it took a long time to complete and when the end was in sight you bolted for the finish line? (Gosh, I sound like a little kid telling a giant run-on sentence story.) That was me with my greenhouse and new garden bed around it. Now, I'm enjoying the fruits of my (our) labor.

Proper (and virtually all) credit is paid to my awesome husband and other muscled males in my household. He has worked skillfully and diligently on this project for over a year and has built something truly beautiful. A few weeks ago we were hanging some hooks and putting the finishing touches inside the greenhouse. He was working from outside on the frame of the double diamond paned windows. I had just pounded a nail from which to hang my broom near the door. I turned around and was struck by the beauty of the walls holding all my tools and everything where I need it. Tears sprung from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.

Poking his head in the window, Hunky Man asked, "What's the matter? Smack your thumb with the hammer?"

I responded, "No ... it's just so ... beautiful!" *sup*sup*sup*

"It's all about love, baby. Just consider it payback for 22 years of good cooking."

(He's got a point there, he has been very well fed for a couple of decades. ;-)

I have dreamed of a picturesque, but more importantly, highly functional greenhouse/garden shed for years and years. I have discovered about myself that if my tools aren't near and easy to find I won't use them as much as I need to. (Read: I'll weed tomorrow...)

I also have a high need to be organized. My soul is completely disrupted when I'm surrounded by chaos. It clutters all the pathways of my creativity. I feel like it's finally free in my greenhouse. My garden creativity is now completely unfettered. I didn't know it would feel quite this good.