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Autumn blew in today, blustering great whirls and swoops of redgold leaves every which way.

Time to harvest the ‘maters:

…and make salsa:

Holy Jalapenos, Batman! Yum.

The neighborhood cats(who happen to be the size of teenage raccoons) tend to believe that my freshly dug garden beds are purrfect litter boxes.

I can’t have the dastardly buggers digging up my babies, so Sam and Sophie(who happened to be in town delivering her paintings for our show) set off on a top secret KPBS mission.

In order to lull suspicions, we lazed about at the beach amidst the loverly daisies.

But once we got home, we got down to serious bizness and set about protecting the garden,

with a heavy duty array of Kitty Prickle Butt Sticks. More pics here.

Pee, if you dare, cats!

I shoveled three tons of kid-packed topsoil today.

Finally, the Clearwater parking lot is no longer buried under a giant mound of earth. As I was exhaustedly hefting the last few barrows of dirt, a small girl in a pretty white pinafore came up and hollered at me, face all squinched up to project the loudest condemnation possible: ‘You’re the meanest person in the whole world!’

She no happy at the loss of the mountain they’d been playing on all year. I told her that was pretty rough considering I was the one who brought them all that joyous dirt in the first place.

Perhaps the wisdom of this sunk in(or more likely, her attention span is no larger than she is), because she was soon happily questioning me about the plants I’m going to plant.

Matt the bus driver unwittingly saved my battered self esteem by strolling by not long after and comparing me to Milarepa. Not to mention offering to sweep the parking lot the next day, ‘cuz I’d already ‘done the work of twelve men’.

Ah, appreciation. Does wonders for the weary.

Now if the little heathens would just stay off the nice, freshly fluffed soil ’til I get a chance to plant it…

Fat chance.

Sam and I made this mandala of stones to celebrate earth day tonight in the beautiful little rock and glass sculpture park that graces our humble ‘burb.

Then we ate lots of yummy desserts.

And threw some tasty bits in the blackberry brambles behind the park, as an offering to Momma Earth. I’m sure the rats and squirrels will be happy to serve as her priestly mouthpieces and accept the sacred morsels of baklava, macaroon and lemon bar.

Thank you, Earth. I love you so, your strong roots and beautiful rocks, your swift streams and luscious waterfalls, for your soft green moss and rich dark soil. For sand and clay and snow to play with, to frolic in, to sculpt. For plants and gardens, fruit trees and wild beasts. My eternal gratitude for sustaining and nourishing us foolish humans, even as we proliferate and perpetrate past all sense or justice or even sanity.

Thank you for being there every time I fall, exhausted, heart-broken, depleted and lost, into your leafy lap and every time I leap, excited and coursing with energy and life, bouncing with joy, dancing and sparkling with creativity, renewal and purpose.

May I serve you as you have me. May these hands, this heart, mind, body and soul nurture, protect, encourage, delight, celebrate and sustain you.

So mote it be.

I’m one tired, dirty puppy tonight.

My sweet friend Cara(professional ’scaper) is generously helping me landscape the front beds at my son’s school. The dumptruck plopped down 6 tons of soil this afternoon and we shoveled and shoveled and shoveled and hauled and hauled and hauled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow up to the cement wall, where it took both of us to heft the thing up over the edge and dump. It wouldn’t have been quite so much work if the silly ass bed wasn’t brimfull of hard-packed ‘beauty’ bark, for some misbegotten reason deposited on top of plastic, laid on top of a nasty mixture of clay, rocks and concrete chunks-I guess they really didn’t want ANYTHING to grow in the bed, including the poor, pathetic, half-dead boxwoods we had to dig out. So, first we filled the upper bed with soil, then started excavating the beauty bark from the lower bed and breaking the rocklike chunks into spreadable mulch for the upper.

We got about halfway through the mountain when it got dark on us… Sigh. Another 3 tons to schlump tomorrow.

But it’s gonna be purty when ’tis done!

Potato harvest time!

Photo by Sam.

Autumn has it’s benefits.

Mmmmm…

I can’t wait for the first Thai Pink Egg ‘mater to ripen. They’re so pretty! I like my stripey green zebra guys-just et the first one to go orange and green. My favorite so far are the gigantic Black Krim-they’re so meaty it’s like a meal all by itself, all you need is a little salt.

Mmmmmm…….

My tomatoes have just gotten high enough to tie up to the lovely cedar arch trellis we made from a storm-fallen branch.

My one-boy army, Sam, sawed the little branches off.

The glorious Lisabee dug holes and pounded two-by-fours.

And now, my tomatoes are happily luxuriating, extending their lush green vines up, up and over, little green ‘maters dangling, slowly ripening in the yummy sunshine.

Aaaaah… Garden, my love.

See the evolution of lawn into garden here.

Once again, to usher in a whole new garden.

Harrrumph, that last 7 inches of lawn was grrrrravelly! Now, to compost and fluff the bed all nice for my new babies.

Woohooo! Tilth plant sale this weekend!

I was weeding yesterday when I realised that my garlic needed to be harvested pronto! Since I just happened to be recieving a blessed new massage trade from my new friend Sophia, and my mom was babysitting and Sophia’s husband Nathan and daughter M’khela were s’posed to drop by later on, we all harvested together and turned it into a garlic celebration dinner!

Nathan just happens to be an excellent photographer, so I couldn’t resist a little shameless rolling about in my harvest.

Ahhh… Garlic. That should keep the vampires away…

Oh shoot-that might keep the vampires away!