Blessed Sundays...

Some days are better than others, today was one of those days... checking the garden this morning I found some hidden treasures, squash I had planted from seed back in April and already I am harvesting vegetables. Weighing everything I picked, 4 peppers, 3 very nice sized squash and a lovely pickling cucumber my labors gave me over 8 lbs of produce. Not bad for a walk around the yard enjoying the morning with my coffee...

And then off to church, what a wonderful service, music, friends... the blessings continue to add up today, enough to carry me through another week... Thank you for all God... amen...

Thoughts on plants...

I have always loved plants and gardening and the beauty of Spring, with everything renewing the view outside from the dead and brown winter scape into one of lush greenness and flowers.

This past Spring I decided this year to attempt to start all of my plants from seed. I have tried this in the past without much success, but this time I decided to get serious about it and make it work.

After all, every single plant you buy at the local store has started from seed by people who have access to green houses and controlled growing environments. Surely I am as talented as they are and have a very nice garage with space in it to set up the flats. So in February I set up a grow light in the garage and bought an assortment of seed, both veggies and flowers and flats and dirt. Carefully planting the seeds I watched and watered them on a daily basis, and soon was rewarded with little sprouts which grew and grew until they reached their limit. Unfortunately their limit seemed to be scrawny little plants and after awhile they started to die off. I still had a few though and thought it was warming enough to move them outside so they could get used to real daylight. Sadly the flowers all died off, seems missing a day of watering one time when we had gone away on an overnight trip was the reason for their demise.

I was rewarded with some very nice tomato plants that did very well, so many that some are in my garden and some are off in some of my friend's gardens.

I found I did best with flowers, just sowing them directly in the pots they were going to grow in, early in April. It takes a bit longer to get the flowers, it's not the instant gratification of buying an already blooming pot of plants or buying seedlings with flowers already in place.

But I find it much more gratifying in knowing that I started these flowers with a simple seed and some water and letting the power of this wonderful time we call Spring take care of the rest...

Thoughts on blogs...

Merriam-Webster's definition of the word Blog

Pronunciation:

\ˈblȯg, ˈ>bläg\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

short for Weblog

Date:

1999

: a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer ; also : the contents of such a site

— blog·ger noun

— blog·ging noun

This being my first blog, I thought I should at least know exactly what a blog is. Seeing the date Webster added it to their dictionary I am amazed at how far we have come. In my mind I am thinking a blog is almost like a diary, only instead of being a secret place locked up with a key, it out in the open, a place of sharing with others who might stumble upon this place of my ramblings and thoughts.

Growing up I had no thoughts of computers, cell phones, calculators and all of the other technology we now have at our fingertips. Our thoughts and reflections were kept on a sheet of paper, written with ideally an ink cartridge fountain pen which you could change the color on by changing the cartridge and loving the way the color magically slowly changed from black to green, then blue or red. That was cool technology at the time. Mail was sent with a stamp in an envelope, math was done on a sheet of scrap paper, transportation was walking or riding a bike or maybe the bus. Phone calls were made in a booth, drop a dime in the slot and connect to anyone you wanted as long as they were local and if not you talked with a live operator who asked you to drop more dimes in the slot.

So here I am now, not really all that many years later, starting my first blog 10 years after Webster declared it a real word worthy of being in their dictionary.

My desires are to make this an interesting place for myself, keeping track of my accomplishments and and goals, watching my garden grow, and if someone stumbles onto my online presence that they will feel uplifted and blessed and not discouraged...