Summer has ended, the garden is not a pretty picture but birds love the sunflower seeds and bees love the holy basil (tulsi) plants, which we dry out for tea. By now though, most of the birds that I listen to during spring and summer mornings have headed south. I will miss their calls and conversations.

One of my favorite things is eating sweet little cherry tomatoes while pulling up nearby weeds. So sorry it’s the end of the season for them too. From now until next summer I will be settling for “the memory of tomatoes” while buying them from the grocer. However, we froze about 30 quarts of tomatoes from our crop of Amish Paste and Homestead tomatoes to use for sauces and soups. Plus we’ll use Ellen’s recipe to make marinara sauce from those now ripening in the kitchen window.

A new experience-Yellow Dog Vomit Fungus, marching around the yard. Really yucky.

This summer was especially good for marigolds, black-eyed susans, zinnias, roses carrots, and tomatoes. They were beautiful. The doves ate all the spinach seed sprouts.

During the spring, we realized that we lost our fig tree, Eleanor, to the harshness of the winter. She’s coming back beautifully after being cut down to the ground. I really miss her figs – not being able to go to the yard and pick some for breakfast or share them with friends. “Fresh” figs from the store don’t taste the same. Since I’ve eaten the sweet purple brown figs from Eleanor, I know the “real deal” and have not been able to bring myself to settle for less. Now walnuts, acorns, and chestnuts are falling on the roof and all over the ground in numbers that we haven’t seen since being here. “The locals” tell me it means to expect another harsh winter. Will prepare protection for Eleanor this time.

This past weekend, I put in seedlings for red leaf lettuce, arugula, kale and collard greens along with maroon mums and purple pansies. A first for me was getting them in the ground on the same day I brought them home from the nursery – in the past, weeks have gone by.

Time to take the hummingbird feeder down.

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March 24—Planted carrots…

March 25—Snow again this morning. We put cloths over seedlings in the garden. It’s a white wonderland…

I began working on an image for the Penland annual auction…

March 31—Transplanted tomatoes to a bigger pot. Won’t go into the ground until May 1^st…

April 1—Watered peas, lettuce and, asparagus…

April 9—Got a delivery of two tons of river rock. Working on paintings for Penland auction. I’m mixing the colors in my mind, now I need to mix them on the palate…

April 10—I feel myself moving down into the painting…

April 14—We saw rabbits in the backyard this weekend…they eat everything.

April 19—Woke up thinking about the shooting at the synagogue by a white supremacist. Three people were killed. Everything something like that happens, it triggers my memories of my neighbor being shot by her jealous boyfriend. It reminds me that we are all wounded souls, that we have these places where we have been injured…

After living in New York city for 30 years, I am so grateful to be able to feel and see the beauty of the ground beneath my feet, to be surrounded by the birds chirping outside my window, to plant seeds, grow food, and to share a life with others.

April 30—I cut some small limbs off Eleanor, the fig tree. It looks like she didn’t make it through the winter…

May8—The bees are out in big numbers- I’m afraid of getting stung. Last year I got stung on my left thigh and it became swollen and black. The discoloration is still a reminder.

May 12—It’s hot, hot, hot! We tilled and conditioned the soil and watched the birds come down to grab the grubs… We lost the lavender during the winter.

May 19—It’s been cool over the last few days. The temperature drops into the 30s at night. Covered up the plants. The Amish paste tomato plants in the front are struggling in the coolness of the night. At first it was too hot, now it’s too cold.

June 4—Another shooting in California… this shooter wrote a manifesto about hating women.

I am glad I have the garden. For me, working in the garden is being involved in life in a different way…

June 11—Finally rain last night after two weeks of dry heat. Delivered the painting to Penland. Stopped by the toe river to put our feet in the water…

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