watching peas grow

I am not usually a "morning" person. Without the jolt of an alarm clock, my inner clock feels best going off around 8am or so. Today, I was up at 6am although I slept terribly. I had a weird weekend and still felt yucky yesterday and hoped for a great, long night of deep sleep (there was a bee sting involved on Saturday which altered my universe for awhile......) but didn't get it.

But, I'm up and in the chair already. Coffee is brewing, teeth are brushed, the Word files are ready to be opened. My boyfriend won't be home from work til around 9pm and I've scheduled no other events today and don't want to spend any money (I try this experiment often, the not spending anything thing. I love when it's a success). So, I'm hunkered down in The Buff and will try to make the most of Diss writing and other assorted odds and ends around my house.

When I searched for a house here a year ago, I had to adjust to the Buffalo housing market and how different it is from, well, the rest of the country. There has been no housing "bubble," so to say because this is not a highly desired part of the country to move to. In fact, people keep moving out mostly to the south (the Carolinas, Florida, Atlanta). So, I paid much less for a bigger house here in Buffalo than either of the two houses in I had in Denver (that was bigger, actually, but needed A LOT of work) or Madison. Which is good.

The Buff house needed a lot of TLC. I could sense its potential compared to the price, however, and the backyard was pretty much an open template of possibilities for me to explore. So, I started a garden. To be honest, I hardly ate veggies growing up. Meat n' potatoes kind of thing. Now I eat them all and like to experiment mixing different elements together. Salads are my favorite meal.

I have two pumpkin plants with plenty of space for their future take over of the land, seven tomato plants, one strawberry plant, five beans, two red bell peppers, one cucumber, one Anaheim pepper, one cayenne pepper, one cilantro plant and one pea plant. It's not huge, but I like the variety and have already picked enough beans for a salad and some peppers. I've already got big plans for next year since all seems to be going well so far.

When I need a break from the chair and time to think about whatever passage I'm trying to write through, I go out and watch my garden. The fascinating plant is the pea plant. I've got five pods on it now, and it's little tendrils reach out throughout the day for some support. I've stuck four sticks in the ground and for each part of the plant that's exploring, it easily finds it's best stick and wraps that wispy (but no doubt strong) slender green finger around it. And, sometimes this occurs in under an hour! Amazing!

There must be some kind of "In Judy's Garden" playlist I can put together in light of all of this creativity/activity. "Four Sticks" by Zeppelin, "Beans n' Cornbread" by whomever that is, "Wicked Garden" by STP, "Garden" by Pearl Jam, "The Great Pumpkin" from The Peanuts, something by Weather Report, "Let It Grow" by Eric Clapton, something from a Robert Plant solo record, Soundgarden......hmmmmmmm. This might be fun. Other suggestions welcome!

I'm goin' out to check the peas. I need something for breakfast after all!!