Grow and Buy Locally

I am endeavoring to stick to my plan to raise edible food and buy what I can't grow. That adds up to everything (minus two tomatoes, two zucchini squash and a lot of lettuce and cilantro).

My garden is coming along and today I discovered three or four tiny Roma tomatoes on a plant. I have melons traveling up a fence and ginormous zucchini and yellow squash plants. Onions and carrots are coming along. My fallback plan is to shop at the roadside veggie stands and fill in from the grocery store. I located a great farm stand near our house so I go there first to see what is available, then go to the grocery store. Yesterday I found lovely tomatoes, peppers, fresh parsley, blackberries and cucumbers. Cukes were 75 cents each vs. 99 cents at Giant. I bought two boxes of tomatoes, one red and one yellow. I paid $7.00, but would have paid over 10.00 at Giant. Today I made Tabbouleh salad with the tomatoes, cucumbers, onions from another day, and fresh chopped mint and parsley. It is ever so much better than what I make from the box. I want to encourage my faithful readers to cook from scratch because it is gratifying and tastes better. My veggies looked so beautiful in the basket that I had to share. Here is a picture of my bought locally goodies.

I have also always loved daisies and am happy to report that I now have my own patch - another gift from the house. I have planted Black-eyed Susans and also have yellow Shasta daisies in the bed near the deck. Will share those at a later date. Hope you are encouraged to cook and eat well and watch birds and flowers.

Is being profound a necessity or an indulgence?

I'm giving some thought to writing and its purpose. Its purpose can be to share information, to put thoughts into words for review and reflection or to lay a foundation for further thinking. I think I do a lot of writing to share information about myself and how I live. I hesitate to put in too much identifying information but find that some is necessary to eliminate confusion and misunderstanding. Some writing is for documenting events either in depth or simply to note that they occurred. I think a great deal of my writing that is not just news-sharing falls into the review and reflection category.

Some writing that does not appear here ends up in other peoples mailboxes. I read a book by John Lescroart called Betrayal. I didn't like some of his foundational material about the treatment his main character received at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where I used to work. He wrote some very unflattering words about conditions there, and some very misleading words about the capacity and capabilities of the hospital. I decided to write to him to tell him how I felt about those characterizations but also my understanding about the nature of writing for effect. I haven't received a return message, and may never - but, he opened this can of worms and I have decided that he needs to recognize the efforts of staff there in some meaningful way. He earns money from selling those books and some of it needs to go back to the source of his information - or at least the use of WRAMC as a source. I think I wrote to institute guilt, and maybe a little embarrassment. He is a performer as well and has a record label called CrowArt. Maybe he will go sing. I don't think a book signing would go over all that well. I just want him to not forget what he has learned about Traumatic Brain Injury and PTSD, especially from Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). In some way I felt that he was exploiting the damage they do to make a good story. It was a pretty good story but fell just a little short of doing what was needed in my opinion. Of course I told him that in my message.

So, writing in this context was for beating my own drum. I'm writing about this now to review and reflect on my actions. Question: Do I wish I hadn't written to him? Definitely NO. I am pleased that I did so because it helped to put to rest my feelings about a small part of what he wrote and remember the book as something that was otherwise a well-crafted and enjoyable read.

Catching Up With Myself

Today is Friday and I finally have a day off. It has been a very busy month, this month of June. No one I know got married but two very significant events occurred. One was the high school graduation of Emily Rose, the eldest daughter of my niece Brenda. There was a large gathering of relatives at their home - with grandparents from California, great-aunt and uncle, aunts, uncles and cousins. In the midst of it all the father of Brenda, Terri and Lori died in Colorado. So the gathering had its ups and downs. I guess I am blogging about this simply to make it a moment in time. Brenda had produced a booklet called "The Wilson Girls" with pictures of the three with their father. When I looked at it I became very emotional (mostly inside) but with a few outside tears. This was a man I had known as a child. I guess we were all children to tell the truth. He became a parent, as did my sister, and three lovely children were produced. Then he left. The events over the years of their rearing and experiences could fill many pages, and they do fill many hours of story telling. Their story cannot be that different from that of many other families and as I think about that I feel almost overwhelmed at the thought that there are so many stories in the world. I think all of them are worth telling - but who would ever have time to read all the stories if they were written. I guess that is why they stay in families - to be told over and over again as families get together for graduations and funerals.

People are remarkable in their accomplishments and our family is no different. I think the children in the family will go on to achieve and not achieve, each to their own abilities. As the family continues to spread, like a pebble falling in a pond, there will be many stories. I hope I get to hear the good ones. The bad ones make me feel sad. I, personally, try to find the greatness in everyone and try to find the reasons why everyone cannot be the first, the greatest, the most talented, the richest. Most of them are OK just like they are. I think that is enough reflection for today. I am taking a break.