It really doesn't take a lot...part 2

Before I went to sleep last night, I included in my prayers the hope for the gift of rain.  Our parched earth in this part of the world really needs all the moisture it can get.  My newly adopted plot of "alleyway" was going to be impossible to break up without some kind of help from Mother Nature.  In the early morning hours I heard it coming down and what a relief to go out and find that the heavens had opened up over Valley Center.


Once the sun came out in the late morning, I went back to check on the condition of the soil in the flower bed.  I knew how dismal it had looked only a few hours earlier and realized it would take more than a miracle to make it workable already today.  With shovel in hand, I gave it a quick test.  It turned over so easily and so without waiting any further, I began to spade it all up.  30 minutes later, it looked much different than the overgrown area filled with weeds that my neighbor Jean had shown me.

                                                                yesterday

                                                                         today


While I was working out there, I had the chance to meet yet another "neighbor" in the alley, only this time the "new guy" wasn't quite as friendly.  On the opposite side of the wooden fence that runs next to the flower bed, lives a dog, a big black dog.  He made it perfectly clear, from the moment our eyes met this afternoon, that he wasn't happy with me being there.  In other words, he wasn't a charter member and chairman of the neighborhood "welcome wagon".  Far from it.....but I kept on working, keeping one eye on what I was planting, one eye on the nearest gate to me, and another eye (oh wait, I only have two) well I was really watching out for what my new found friend was going to do.  Luckily for me, he surrendered after about 10 minutes and went on to look for "bigger fish to fry than Peggy Miller."   I'm not sure if we will ever be on a first-name basis.  Perhaps not.


Eight packs of zinnia seeds later, I was finished.  As I looked at the row of sticks that I used for markers, it reminded me of Hutchinson and my old home.  I swore this year that I wasn't going to plant flowers, that I was going to take a break from it.  But here I was, looking at what I had just finished and you know, I felt a little sad and yes, kind of homesick for what used to be home.  And I kind of feel a little homesick right now.....but I know that it's normal and as I've said before~If I were a city, I would feel so honored that someone might miss living in me.  Don't worry.... I'm ok.


Well, by the time I get home from Maine in the middle of June, I hope to take a photo of lots of little colorful zinnias that have popped up from that abandoned soil and given off their first blooms.   There will be many beautiful shades of color in that little plot of ground.  Every year I make a prediction as to which color will arrive first.  Guys, no question about it....it's the color purple.  You can place ALL your money on that bet :)  


Day is done~"old lefty" is very tired from all the digging.  I just noticed dirt under my fingernails...dang it's been a while since that happened.  My good friend, Dennis Ulrey, says that I have dirt in my blood and he's probably right.  The best cure for sadness, the best medicine for depression is playing in the dirt.  Sure glad that it was still in "the plan" for me this summer.  I know that I  would have missed it had it gone away.  


good night friends from Valley Center.....