Every summer since marrying Tyler, I’ve been fortunate enough to join in the family tradition of canning. His parents, sisters and I each grow our tomatoes, but his parents have over 50 tomato plants. What this means is every weekend in August, I’m up to my elbows in tomatoes.
We tend to grow all those tomatoes in order to can them, and last weekend we started the process by doing tomato soup. I cannot entirely represent how much better homemade tomato soup is compared to the stuff you can get at Wal-Mart. You just have to taste the difference. Once you do, you’ll never want to go back to the store version.
The next project usually is Salsa. What’s wonderful about thousands of tomatoes is the amount of salsa we can have. The options are endless. So, the next time you have chips and salsa, or put a spoonful of tomato soup in your mouth, think of me. If you are brave enough, you can have a melody of flavor on your tongue.
A favorite movie of mine while growing up is entitled City Boy. The main character in this movie sings a song that I would like to pay tribute to through pictures I took in my gardens.
This Is My Father's World
Text: Maltbie D. Babcock
Music: Trad. English melody; adapt. by Franklin L. Sheppard
This is my Father's world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
his hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world,
the birds their carols raise,
the morning light, the lily white,
declare their maker's praise.
This is my Father's world:
he shines in all that's fair;
in the rustling grass I hear him pass;
he speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father's world.
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!
Tyler and I have cultivated our flower beds and also our vegetable garden.
It takes a great deal of work, but it's something that we enjoy doing. Our corn is now producing and ready to pick.
Our tomatoes are red and delicious. I've eaten many of them and I can testify that they are delicious.
The flowers add that little detail to our yard out front. I hope that in the years to come I can do more with this area and perhaps landscape it further to add another tier to the flower bed.
My hopes are that by doing this, I will make it both easier to garden and also use the look to change the front area of our house.
I was sick today, to the point that I had to take a prescription to ease away some of my symptoms. Without telling too many details, let’s just say that the medicine I took had the ability to carry me out of this world of perception and into another.
A good friend of mine lives close by. She asked if I needed help with anything. I gave her a short shopping list of vitamins and things that would naturally bring me back to health. She graciously picked them up for me and dropped them by. As she left, she noticed a red Jeep Grand Cherokee pulling up near my house. She asked if I knew anyone who drove such a machine. I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so.” She concluded that maybe they were turning around or going to a neighbor’s house.
My friend left and I went into the kitchen do get a knife to open the seals on the my vitamins. About a minute and a half later, my doorbell frantically rang. Maybe she forgot something, I told myself as I hurried across the room to it, knife still in hand, I opened the door to see, at first, no one.
But then, my screen door burst opened (it’s one of those half screen and bottom half opaque metal). A little girl charged passed me and into my house. I didn’t recognize her. I just stood there. Remember the medication I’d taken previously had played with my perception of things. There I was, at the door and little girl running around my house, asking where the kids were, the toys and everything. And I’m thinking, But I don’t have kids, in my head.
(This is a Photoshop-ed image to help you visualize this little girl in my house)
Then her mother rounds the corner, toting a toddler in arms and she gasps when she sees me. “Oh no, I have the wrong house, don’t I?”
I’m dumbfounded, but I nod. Is this real?
“And my little girl just ran into your house, sorry.”
I just shrug. I hope she doesn’t see the knife. She probably thinks I’m a criminal or druggie. The lady finally manages to convince her daughter to leave my house and I still stand there, knife tucked behind my back, like a deer in headlights.She apologized a million times, and I couldn’t say anything. I was too…disbelieving to say anything. After I closed and locked my door, I hesitated. Did that just happen? I asked myself. Were they real?
I finally sent my friend a text to tell her what happened (and to verify to myself that they were real). I mean, seriously this lady and her kid show up thinking my house is their friend’s place and she sends her kid up to ring the bell while she gets her things together.
