.....surprises

Yogis,
When you are a gardener, every year you find that the garden is different. You swear you do the same things each time. But then you have to remember that you are a cocreator. Nature always has the lead role and has some of her own plans.  

The hydrangea in my side yard does beautifully year in and year out, until it didn’t. My fig bush was enormous last year, producing a bounty that had me handing out figs like candy to anyone passing by. This spring not even a leaf grew on two thirds of her stalks. Yet my verbena, which I had nearly given up on, is now topped with delicate purple flowers.

Mother nature also has fun surprises up her sleeve. For example, which volunteers will she throw your way. Those plants that appear unplanned.  Last year it was a perfect white pumpkin that grew along the side of my gravel driveway and graced my counter for over six months. Another year it was a cardinal flower after mentioning that I wanted to grow them. Thank you!

This year it is a tomato plant.

Each year I used to plant tomatoes in the fenced section of my garden. I rarely got to actually eat more than a couple though once the birds and squirrels took their share. Holes from bugs on some, sides that split open. Discouraging. I switched to cherry tomatoes with a bit more success but nothing to write home about. Sort of flavorless.

Early this summer I was changing out the rotted sides of the raised bed when I spotted a few tiny tomato plants growing. Volunteers. I put one of them in the new bed. This is what it looks like now!

Every few days I go out and harvest the small juicy tomatoes. I have gotten hundreds and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down. New flowers and green tomatoes appear daily. She is now growing so wide I have to drape her branches over other plants who offer her support.

Best of all…..they are delicious.

Placed in a bowl on the counter I pop a couple in my mouth when I walk by. Awesome mixed with chopped basil and mozzarella or cucumber,  avocado and pumpkin seeds. I even have to keep an eye on Phoebe who will gobble them up If I set any down at her level.

A true gift.

Every time I snip off the small bunches, I am sure to throw a few back into the dirt. Hopeful that perhaps I will be surprised again next summer. Only mother nature knows for sure.

I love a good surprise,
SARAH

.....the couch

Yogis,
There are certain iconic pieces of furniture. All I have to do is mention them and not only the physical objects themselves, but the people, conversations, thoughts and emotions around them will immediately come to mind.

Archie Bunker’s chair never sits empty in my mind. Archie’s scowl and Edith running in, with apron on of course. The barstools in Cheers where everybody knew your name. For the Trekkies, it has to be Captain Kirk’s command chair. The staircase in the Brady house where ‘Marsha, Marsha, Marsha’ always floated down with her perfect hair. The Friends’ orange Central Perk sofa with its fringe, of which a replica can be purchased on Amazon. Or the groovy round rotating bed on which Austin Power ‘shagged.’

In my family we have one such piece of furniture. It is an ivory colored couch.

My parents first spotted it in Scranton PA in 1971, but being in the process of moving to Atlanta, purchasing it would have been quite impractical. However, they had fallen in love and found one that could be brought into their new home.

Now this is not any couch. Referred to as a shelter sofa, it sits low to the ground with its three sides going straight up. Way up. The entire thing is covered in diamond patterned velour and it is deep….. So deep, that if you sit against the back your legs stick out like Lily Tomlin when she played Edith Ann on her rocking chair in Laugh In (yet another iconic piece of furniture.) It even includes two large heavy ottomans that open for storage. It is a statement piece.

Now if you are in my extended family or friend set and have ever been to my parent’s house, you know the couch. Not only do you know it, but you sat on it, had cocktails on it, took group pictures around it and squeezed closer to the person next to you because there is always room for one more.

If you were ever a child in its vicinity you invariably climbed or somersaulted across the back, or even rode the top ledge like a horse. If you are my son, you surely slept on it more than once when there was a shortage of beds. I even held a slumber party on it. Dragging the ottomans up against it and draping a blanket across the top made the absolute best fort.

Family parties centered themselves around that couch. Champagne on Christmas Eve. Pina Coladas in the summer. Even the cocktail portion of my wedding reception happened in its presence. And to this day…..it is in good shape and quite comfortable. In its fifty-two years as part of the family it has graced four different houses and given seat to five generations.

I went up to visit my parents this week and as the exits on the NJ Turnpike clicked by, I started getting excited to be going home. Now I never lived in this house so I thought about what makes it ‘home.’ The people, of course. Yet I also found myself seeing images of the couch. Imagining us being in that room together. It has made it home regardless of which structure it sat it.

That evening a friend of my parents from Atlanta was visiting who I haven’t seen since we moved. I suggested we watch old movies made on 8mm film five decades ago. The images we saw on the screen were how we knew and remembered each other.

She, my parents and I have changed, but you know what hasn’t? The couch that was in the background throughout.

The stories that couch could tell,
SARAH

.....act 2

Yogis,
If summer were a play, August would be act 2.

June and July feel like a party! Act 1. Everything revving up for good times. Fireworks, barbecues, swim meets and festivals. The days are long and I get the joy of waking to run in the fresh daylight of early morning and then head up to bed at night while the sun still sits low in the sky. Birds are singing, nests prepared and babies testing out their new wings as they venture out to see what the world has to offer.

In the garden these months, I am busy planning, planting and tending as the flowers and vegetables send down roots and establish themselves. I watch as they begin to bud and wind their tendrils through the openings of the fence. A time of preparation and anticipation. Everything new. Everything neat. Everything growing.

Then comes my personal intermission. Our week in North Carolina always falls on the last week of July. Being away that one single week provides a perspective on change. My return coincides with July’s peak which immediately gives way to the incredible shift that August brings is as if the entire stage was cleared and a new set has been arranged as the curtain rises.

The first thing I notice when my alarm goes off at 5:14 am is I am greeted with …….dark. Ugh. And although birds begin to chirp while I am still out there, it is a much more subdued song. Their tempo has changed as parental duties begin to slip away. Foxes less visible with their young now on their own.

In fact, everything is quieter. Here in the DC area August 1^st trumpets the mass exodus to anywhere that isn’t here. Roads, swim clubs and restaurants suddenly have space. Less kids on bikes. Fewer dogs being walked. Trails empty. No lines. At times it feels eerie. I have always liked it.

My herbal teacher once told me that on August 1 the trees begin the process of letting go, and she was right. Every year on August 1 single leaves float down to dot the lawn. Unexpected breezes even hint of the autumn to come……but not yet.

Act 2.

Those buds that I left in the garden are now open. Zinnias, echinacea and black eyed susans scattered throughout the wheel offer vibrant splashes of color, while the early mints and lemon balm begin to go to seed. Hand picked bouquets are always the best. Where there were flowers when I left, two cucumbers hang heavy. Everything full and lush, yet small tinges of August yellow already peeking through.

The lightening bugs replaced by August’s nightly insect chorus which has always been my late summer sound machine. With the window open, their hum draws me into a dream world. Spider webs appear.

Where June and July are one big inhale, August invites us to breathe out. Sit back, nice cool drink in hand, and enjoy act 2.

The bees play a leading role in this act,
SARAH