Brocoli greens, baby kale, lettuces, scallions, and the occasional radish thrown in for good measure; That is what I am taking out of the garden right now.  While I am surely reminded every Wednesday afternoon when picking up my CSA share what an amateur I am, my garden still looks big and full and lively to me.  This is what I dreamed of those early days in May when we tilled the land and charted out our agenda.  And if all goes well our baskets will be filling with more produce in the near future.  I decided I had enough of hilling potatoes, I am just far too big and tired and hot and clumsy for all that shoveling, and am going to pile it with some hay sometime this week.  But otherwise things are looking up!

The perennial beds are stunning these days too.  Overgrown and out of control though they are, there is proof in their abundance with the constant supply of color in every corner of our house.  But thanks to those same visitors mentioned above, I have a very, very good feeling there will lots of welcomed assitance and guidance in the arrangement of said beds over the next few days.  I am starting the drying process of what I can gather up.  Yarrow and bee balm and whatever else weaves its way out of this jungle is being strung and dried.  I need to clear a spot in the basement that will keep them crisp and colorful until the job is done. I’d like to savor some of this beauty in the stark days of winter.

It is a breezy, beautiful day.  I am so excited for it!  We have some of our favorite visitors arriving this afternoon, and my dear, dear friend is welcoming her sweet baby into this world this morning…  It will be odd to be pregnant without her!  With my knitting hands in full force, an eerily clean house, and the sunshine on my cheeks nothing can get in my way.  Today will be grand.