Farmer Nyel and The Girls at Work

As I glanced out the window yesterday and saw Farmer Nyel and his girls at work in the garden, I couldn’t help but smile. It felt for all the world like things were back to normal – waaay back! There he was, planting dahlia bulbs in the newly prepared cutting garden. Not only was he moving normally but I didn’t have the overwhelming urge to call out, “Where’s your cane?” I think that’s a first for at least three years.

The girls, of course, were as usual – pecking around happily within tossing distance of a worm should Nyel just happen to be so inclined. The four of them spent all afternoon hard at it while I tried to make progress on several fronts at the computer. When I took a break to have a garden walk-about, I found surprises everywhere.

Herb Pots in the Kitchen Garden

Two of the big pots in the kitchen garden had been replanted – one with bay leaf and one with rosemary. I’m so glad! Our old Bay Laurel bush had died either from drought or neglect (ditto the rosemary) and I have missed going outside the back door to get a few leaves for my lentil soup or spaghetti sauce. The rosemary… not so much, although Nyel does an elegant roast chicken with rosemary sprigs inserted under the skin.

A Work in Progress

Out in the south garden a few new geraniums had been added to the old copper boiler that used to sit on a tree stump near the porch. As the years took their toll on that precarious resting spot, it finally became impossible to balance the boiler anymore and I had Dave remove the stump. I don’t like the look of the boiler sitting directly on the garden bed and besides that, when the Shasta daisies come along, those geraniums will be completely buried. Nyel and I spent a good part of our morning coffee hour brainstorming solutions but came to no conclusions.

All that progress almost made me itch to get out there and do a bit of digging in the dirt myself. Almost. For now, though, I am content to peek out the windows occasionally and clap and cheer at day’s end. Especially because it’s feeling back to the ‘old normal’ around here!