The View from Our Place: Time flies...

My, has it been almost two weeks since my last post? Yikes. Well, in my defense, gardening season is upon us, and that has the potential to impact the frequency of posts. The last couple weekends have been a scramble to get gardens prepped and planted, clean up the detritus of winter and the faded flowers of spring, pruning and weeding like crazy, just trying to keep up with the explosion of growth the warmer weather brings. Not that it's been balmy here, by any stretch of the imagination, but whatever the reason, everything green, including the weeds, has bolted, so we've been absorbed in trying to regain some control of the chaos.

Here's the new backyard garden, full of tomatoes, broccoli, basil, brussels sprouts, zucchs and yellow squash, beans and corn:

We've also been doing little projects around the house, fixing things (broken wind chime), replacing things (rusty flag holder), installing things (garden rain barrel) AND I've been finalizing preparations for a long overdue trip to my childhood stomping grounds, DeQueen, Arkansas.

Spent the formative years of 4-11 there in the first and only house my folks built. The best times of recalling between my sister and me are thinking of those years in Very Rural SW Arkansas...lightning bugs, a big muddy pond to play in, a valley full of red clover in the summer...I'll be meeting up with my BFF from those halcyon days, Nita, whom I haven't seen in 33 years! Talk about marathon catching up :) whew! And I've been promised the famed Southern home cookin' I have so missed all these years.

My mom was a fabulous cook of all things baked and fried, so Southern cooking fit her to a T. With her departure from this earth went my opportunities for someone cooking up a delectable selection of the epitome of comfort food. Yeah, I could learn to cook this stuff myself, but...big reveal...I. Don't. Fry. Well, I can fry an egg, but anything involving large amounts of oil scares the bejeebers out of me. And I don't wanna mess up my purty stove top :)

So, I'll be out of blogville til mid to late next week. Will be in AR Th-Mon, and DH is going to man the fort and monitor the furballs in my absence...trust me, the level of care between his style and mine is decidedly different and will be Noticed and Frowned Upon by the Cats. Who I expect will be quite happy to see me when I get back...they were nervously observing this morning when I pulled out the suitcase...they know what THAT means!

Back in a week! Or so...

6-8-10 Quick edit with fun pix:

Cute Little Visitor who'd best stay outta my garden...