Oh, My, It Has Been a While!

Well, I couldn't even click all the appropriate headers (what's up, Typepad?), so "Personal Growth" will have to cover it.  My sermon's completed and I have a few moments to fill you in on the week and a half since I've made an appearance here!

Some of my absence I'll blame on simple post-vacation, re-entry adjustment.  I did feel a bit disoriented for that first week after vacation, and had a pile of mail to sort, both at home and at work.  And there's the garden, of course -- a garden burgeoning with the abundance of harvest season.  I've frozen nearly a gallon of tomatoes (all in quart-size bags), and over two gallons of sweet corn.  I haven't even made any of my exquisitely intense, cooked-for-hours spaghetti sauce yet, but I'm due for a batch!  The tomatoes are dropping from the vines before I can get to them, and the watermelon are all ripening at once.  This is a poor, drought-stricken garden that has had no watering from me most of the summer, and it keeps cranking out the produce.  Last night I had the best batch of green beans I've ever eaten.  Overcooked with onion and a bit of meat, in the southern style, of course.  Now the late-summer raspberries are setting up, and I finally have bell peppers set on the plant (they always grow slowly and poorly for me).  I've been pretty busy cooking, eating, giving away, and otherwise using up all this beautiful garden produce (as well as what I was given and bought at the farmer's market).

At the aforementioned farmer's market, I met a horticulturist who is consulting with me on scaling down my yard.  I already have a plan for eliminating most of one bed in the front.  She has given me some great ideas, and will come and work alongside me, too.  I've also had a parishioner (the one who built the patio for me) who has been clearing one of the double border beds at the side of the house -- it looks amazingly empty, but it is clear for new things, and for the regeneration of some of the things I want there (like the perennial geraniums).  I'm thinking of a lattice at the back where the dead arborvitae are coming out, where I can train the raspberries in espalier fashion.  Or at least in some controlled-chaos fashion, since I'm far from compulsive, and espalier requires fairly intense attention.  So that's another project.

I'm also refurbishing my home study.  I've moved out all my work-related books (maybe 20 boxes' worth?) to my office at work.  I bought some shelving and brackets (had the strips already mounted on the wall), and now my big bookcase from the Yale Div dumpster is full of my personal books -- the ones that make my heart smile.  There is even a handful that I've decided to part with.  I've painted one wall of the study with a soft yellow that I thought would be sort of "light lemon-custard yellow," but which actually looks more like "eggshell" to me.  But it was free, left here by my predecessor, so I can't complain.  I enjoyed seeing the dusty rose of this room (which looks more like "dirty rose" every year -- it doesn't seem to wear very well) disappear under a fresh, light coat of paint (actually three fresh coats -- 1 of primer and 2 of paint -- I'll reverse that next time, to cover it!).  I have a plan to stick my computer and bill-paying materials off in a corner that is set apart by my very long 4-drawer file cabinet (also a Yale dumpster find), which I will cover with a coat (or many coats) of glossy yellow paint.  I've figured out a way to do it so the only thing I need is one of those tall, skinny computer desks -- everything else can be moved from other parts of the house.  It's a slow process.  I'm not really one to go at things full-speed ahead (otherwise I come to a standstill in the middle), and I still have 3 boxes of books by the front door, waiting transport to my church office (I already took 3 today).  It's a big project, but it feels like a labor of self-love.  I want a study where the unpleasant stuff and the computer are off in a corner, and the rest of the room is devoted to art and writing and things that make me feel alive.  And I think I'm doing it in such a way that I can leave it half-done and still be happy with what I've got.

I've also made myself a concrete, week-by-week plan to finish my studies for spiritual direction by January, as scheduled.  I have 11 books and 4 papers to complete, but it breaks down to 25-30 pages of reading a day (with four weeks completely off!), as well as the papers (Hello?  Can you guess that I like to write?).  So it's reasonable and do-able, and I'll be so happy to be all done in January, so I can get on with the work of planning my sabbatical for next fall!  Thanks to my coach, Will, for the help with this structure.

So, no pictures today.  I haven't taken any since my last entry.  But imagine the sound of my dog's tail thumping on the carpet as I look at her, and she hopes for her last walk of the night.  Imagine that thumping tail sound.  Good night, now.

Comments

[Fran aka Redondowriter]

Yes, I can definitely hear the tail thumping. I'm at my son's home in Pt. Angeles and Elowa the malamute-mix thumps when I acknowledge her.

Ann, I'd say that the tag for Personal Growth is perfect for this entry about the sacredness of your land and how your home and yard brings you so much pleasure.

I have missed you, so I'm glad you are back.

[Kay Dennison]

You've been a very busy girl! Life sure can intrude on blogging, can't it? But busy is good -- especially with the good things you've been doing. I wish I was busier but that's not part of the plan for me right now I guess. Glad to see you back here -- it's always interesting to catch up with you!

[Diane]

you sound busy!