Thursday, April 9, 2009

Foam Flower



Went down to the vegetable garden around midday to water the newly emerging beets, radishes, and sugar snap peas.  It was quiet. The sun felt warm on my back, the water felt cold dribbling down my hand as I pressed the hose opening to make a wide spray. Occasionally the spray blew back onto me and made me shiver.  The seeds have just sprouted so from a distance it felt rather like I was watering bare soil.  

I don't know a thing about beets except that I like to eat them pickled, but when we ordered these from Clemson I pictured Peter Rabbit sneaking into Farmer MacGregor's garden to pull up a beet.  That would be fun to do, I thought.  Now I look down at the hundreds of beet seedlings and think about all those big fat beets.... what in the world are we going to do with that many beets?  It's probably wishful thinking to imagine them all making it, or if they do make it, to imagine they will be big and healthy, but we'll see.  It will be fun to come up with recipes and ways to cook a new vegetable. 

Once the watering was finished, it wasn't long before a bright, fresh Zebra Swallowtail fluttered up and over the picket fence and landed on the wet earth.  He sipped here and there and checked out the row of herbs, then fluttered on out again.  It's always nice to have a visitor in the garden.

In the afternoon I sat on the path to my studio to draw Foam Flowers that are blooming now, and Sweet Woodruff stems that are just coming back to life after a winter under fallen leaves. I left Daisy in the house, but Radu was my quiet and calm companion. He seemed to enjoy just being with me on the path's sun warmed pine needles.  

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