Today was a day to be outside!!

After all the rain we finally had, the sky was that brilliant blue we get up here, the air scrubbed clean from all the dust, pollen and pollutants, the sun bright but the air cool... my favorite kind of weather. It was only about 70 degrees F, usually we are in the upper 80’s/low 90’s by now.



So, I packed the boys up and headed to My Favorite Garden ( see a previous blog) for a morning hike. My boys are quite troopers on the trails now and it is I who has to struggle to keep up. I know I talk a lot about hiking but it is my favorite activity and I have time now to indulge since summer is our down season in arts admin. In fact, this is the first year I am not teaching dance/creative movement in a summer program and although I do miss it ...I really don’t all that much...quite a surprise.

Anyway, back at home and after some upper body strength training, I decide to tackle, literally, the garden. I get stuck in the perennial border bed. I had intended to just putter in the garden, but once I started, there was no turning back. What a mess it was. My youngest son finally rescued me from the savage salvia with requests to pick some lavender to dry for his room. He is quite the budding herbalist and at 10 years old, had a list of about 17 medicinal herbs he wanted for his garden. We settled on 6 - horehound, lemon balm, peppermint, hyssop, thyme, and calendula, since we already have chamomile, comfrey, sage, and parsley.

My father gardened for a hobby and my grandfather gardened for a living. I grew up with acres of flowers that my father grew, all started in an old-fashioned glass-sided greenhouse. I was an adult before I knew you could really plant a seed directly in the ground and it would grow.

So I guess you could say a green thumb runs in my family. I get my B gene from my father, and I suspect his father was a B as well. Perhaps it’s the B gene that makes my thumb green.

Well...at least it rhymes.