I don't usually blog about personal stuff but it has been an extremely emotional week and what has happened is so much a part of me that I feel like I have to say something. If I don't this blog will be pointless because it wont really reflect who I am.

I found out last week that my cousin is very ill. It was a terrible shock. She is young, vibrant, and beautiful, and one of the most active people I know. And now she is ill. I was in a state of shock at first, but now I think I have moved through that to deep sadness and grief. I don't know what to with what I am feeling because I have never felt this way before, and it is hard. However, I keep thinking that however hard it is for me right now, it is a million times harder for her. This is what I have been thinking about a lot over the past week.

One bright spot that lifted the way I have been feeling was last Saturday when Kendra and Emily were so very honored to be flower girls at my dear friend Bo's wedding.

It was truly a beautiful wedding, full of love, and friendship, and happiness for new beginnings. I was so happy to be there and to share this, and so proud that my girls were a part of it all. Thank you Bo!

Almost Finished

At the weekend I commandeered Robert's help to get the sand box dug out completely. It was a task that has been hanging over me for months and I am glad it is done.


It will increase the area I have to plant veggies by a good few feet once I have filled it with more top soil. You can see my new City of Phoenix Trash can/ compost box as well. I have two now, and I need them because I always have a lot of stuff to compost and nowhere to put it.


Eventually the white fence will be moved forward to prevent the dogs from getting into the whole area. I am glad that it is almost done, and I am excited to have more veggie growing space.

On another note, I was listening to Barbara Kingsolver on NPR yesterday morning. She was saying that living in Appalachia among all the moisture and greenness, she feels secure in the fact that there are always things growing around her. This completely sums up how I feel, and may be why I can never quite relax living in an area where all of our water is borrowed. It was a real AHA moment for me!

Garlic

Yesterday I planted the garlic that has been sitting on my counter top for weeks. I ordered it from Ronniger Potato Farm and I am sure that it is very glad to finally be planted in the earth.

I have never grown garlic before so I will be interested to see how it turns out. I am growing two kinds, Red Toch, and Silver White both of which are said to do well in warmer climates.

I also planted onion seeds yesterday, and I currently have swiss chard, (my everlasting favorite), spinach, carrots, leeks, and beet seedlings that are growing well.

I also have mature pepper and chili plants that are beginning to produce, and pumpkins, tomatillos, cucumbers, and zucchinis. I am getting a handful of cucumbers and zucchinis each day now which is great because I was beginning to think that I wouldn't get more than a handful of each this fall.

Enough?

I have not produced enough of the bountiful harvest that I was hoping for yet this fall. Perhaps there will be more?


On the other hand I was cleaning out the big freezer in readiness for our grass fed beef, and I discovered that I certainly do have enough pesto stored in there to last us for a while.

There really is always enough of something.

Let's walk to school!

I was interested to hear recently about National Walk to School Day, which was celebrated on October 7, 2009. It was an event to promote "safe walking and bicycling throughout the year", and consisted of events held all around the country encouraging kids to walk, or bike to school.

Today we started our own "walk to school" event which will I hope continue every day as long as this wonderful cool weather holds out. It is only about a mile and a half to Kendra's school, and most of it can be walked via fairly quiet streets so it is a perfect opportunity for us to get some exercise, while reducing our carbon emissions by a very small amount each day.

We are actually walking Kendra home from school each day because Emmie's school is still too far to walk to unfortunately so I will still need to drive her there each morning.

The girls were very excited. It was a little odd to me that something as simple as walking home from school could be such an exciting event for them, but then I am sure that it is a novelty for them to be walking anywhere within this suburban sprawl in which we reside. This is the perfect opportunity to start changing all that.

Now to get my bike back in bicycling order!

Slither

I have spent the past two days tidying up the front and backyard. Today as I was moving everything on the back patio to sweep it I found this, nestled between the edge of the patio and the house, just outside the back door.


Of course it is a snake skin, and perfect too, completely intact which leads me to believe that it is fairly fresh, and that the snake that shed it did so quite recently.

About two years ago I was outside at dusk, and I came across a snake slithering across the grass. It was very scared, but I still managed to run inside, get the camera, and get a poor quality photo which I can't find now of course. It was enough though for me to make a provisional identification of a Common Kingsnake which is found throughout Maricopa County, is non venomous, and can grow to be five feet in length. I have not seen it since, however hard I have looked, and I assumed that it was just passing through. Now though I am not quite so sure.

I have no idea where a snake would be living in our yard because the dogs are always running around, and Tex is of course constantly digging for anything that moves.

I think this is the same type of snake as the one I saw because you can see a vague outline of stripes on the skin, like the black and white ones on the Common Kingsnake.

Here are more shots, very poor quality I am afraid, but they give an idea of how long it is at about 28 inches.



Look at the end of the tail and how beautiful it is.


As always, I am happy to think that it has a home here, and that it found the side of our patio to be a quiet and relaxing place for it to shed it's skin. I am also happy that it is most likely a non venomous snake that shed it.

Selected

I was pleasantly surprised to hear recently that a photo of mine from my Flickr account had been shortlisted for inclusion in the ninth edition of the Schmap Phoenix Guide in the Desert Botanical Garden section. I didn't even know that things like this could happen from having a Flickr account.

Today I heard that my picture has been included to join many other beautiful ones of our ever photogenic Desert Botanical Garden.

I feel a little bit proud because it is a picture I love, and is actually the banner picture from this blog.