Monday

It's a Monday out there and my window is open so I can hear the birds singing as I doze in and out. It's funny, I can often hear how a day is going to be before I can see it. Wind, rain, calm, sunny: they all have a sort of sound or mix of sounds, have you ever noticed? I don't always, but I like it when I do.

I love going to my window and opening the blind to look out over the yard and see if I listened well. Then I think about the yard for a minute. Is it time to get rid of the trampoline? My kids rarely use it any more, but there are still little ones around who like it, so maybe we'll keep it. Has the cilantro come up? The black-eyed susans sure are. And the stella d'oro lilies I planted last year are doing very well. I think they will bloom.

Its tempting to dream of filling the yard with more garden but can I really take care of it? I don't know. There are too many other things I like to do every day, and a garden ties me to the house. I've rethought my garden plans for this year because I'm going to be gone for nearly 5 weeks between June and July. So, this year I think it will be tomatoes and eggplants and that's about it. Maybe some beans.

I did buy some new perrenials at the wonderful nursery that sets up shop at the entrance to the Sheep and Wool festival every year. I didn't even go look around at the wool shops because it was Sara's prom that day and I wanted to be home to watch her get her hair done and be ready for the photos. So I spent my planned budget on plants and a cute little dress I found at a favorite shop.

Anyway, I bought coral bells, one with these amazing caramel-colored leaves. I mean caramel. Not a hint of green. I saw them last year at Brookside Gardens and have been dreaming of them ever since. They looked like sparkling copper jewelry shimmering in the shady edges of the garden. I also found a coral bells with deep burgundy leaves and think they will be beautiful together in the woodland garden I'm trying to build in the back corner. I added to that another hellebore and some larkspur, a rosemary plant for the herb garden

Ironically, I had planned to be outdoors most of the day today. A walk. Some planting, some planning, some moving around of plants. Naturally, before I even take one step, allergies have overtaken me. Ugh. The back of my throat has closed up and hurts and my eyes are just weeping all the time. So it goes. Zyrtek and some herbal tea will get me through the day. And if it all gets to be too much outdoors, there's are new episodes of both Sherlock and Doc Martin to settle me down with some knitting.

It's a promising start to a regular day. In a crazy world, that is not such a bad thing.