Continuity

A high school friend recently published a book to favorable reviews, and the same goal is on my Bucket List, and I secretly wonder if I will ever get around to it.

The white sleeves that protect and surround the trunks of tiny almonds dot the ground for miles to the North. The sticks have sprouted now and every day they are tended and watered and weeded. Giant farming equipment comes and goes, and workers till and furrow, and crops grow tall in the sun. A farmer's job seems so much more gratifying than mine.

Sometimes the work I do feels invisible, without a rhythm to it or even a beginning or end. Certainly it is nothing like the life of a farmer who can stand back at the end of the day and survey his accomplishments. Yet purposeful work begins, things are accomplished, and we advance to the next thing in my world, too.

Life now is not as idle as it was. Saturdays and Sundays are work days with a new set of clothes. Yesterday, while the Hubs was mowing and clearning, I continued working on a broad planting bed for daisies and ice plant. I kept my eyes down, for fear of distraction by the weeds in the drive or the tall grasses beyond the garage.  I dug and planted, and trickled water into the roots, and rocked back on my heels afterwards when the sprinklers ran. There are so many areas to do, big and little projects that will take vision and time, but every day something is accomplished. It will come together if we keep at it, and one day we will be astonished to see the progress here.

I can't seem to turn off thinking of new ideas. There are glorious bulbs popping up - Iris, at least 3' tall already, against a cyclone fence that is in an ugly part of the yard. Let's use up the old wood hanging around to frame in ground level planter boxes, and let them grow wild. Ideas build on what we discover.

My husband rolls his eyes at my enthusiasm. I tell him I will be learning to do some of this myself and perhaps we can work on independent projects sometimes. He mentally counts off the twenty projects ahead of that, but lets me add it to the list. In pencil.

We took off on Saturday and nosed around antique stores while waiting to meet the guy with the used composter and haul it home. Now that we're here, a day off might mean something more along the lines of a real weekend away. On it.