Monday

No, I am not addicted! Oh sure, some of you may wonder -- is she? Maybe hiding some of the clear indications of addiction? After all, the signs are all there. Others before her have claimed innocence only to be swallowed by the monster lurking within.

But I'm not!

Or am I?

There was no reason for me to work so hard in the flower fields today. The necessary work was done in the last four days. I could easily take a pause. Put my feet up. Read, write, learn how to use an electric bike. There would be time to water again in a week maybe, just to give that needed boost. Today, I could have let it go.

But I didn't let it go. During my morning walk...

... I did what I always do: I looked this way and that way, I noted the dryness of the earth in spots, I pulled a few weeds and saw where I could maybe pull some more. And still, like the good person who tries to kick the habit, I resisted. I went inside, fixed us some breakfast...

... And put my feet up. Ed went to water the fruit trees in the new orchard. I did not follow him. Initially.

After an hour I was done putting my feet up and I went to the new orchard and took over the hose while he tidied up some of the trees and I sprayed water over the meadow (it's so dry! but pretty!)...

... knowing all too well that a light watering job is sometimes worse than no job at all (the roots wont dig deep into the ground for a water source if you give them a superficial shower). Still, I could not leave that poor patch of grasses and flowers alone. 

And then I tried going inside again, but I thought maybe I should do just a few minutes of watering, in that neglected bed near the sheep shed, the one with the pretty Sweet William...

And that was the beginning of the end. You know what happens: "just one little dose more" turns into a whole afternoon of re-watering most of the Big Bed and the tubs, and pulling some weeds, and supporting some of the flowers that always fall by July and all the while I'm thinking -- I'm not addicted to this! If Ed was suddenly not in my life I'd leave it all tomorrow and get some kind of a small space without room for flower fields because they could never be this awesome again so why even bother?!

Still, seems pretty obsessive to me. I could have napped. Ed napped. Instead, I worked.

(these lilies always start blooming two weeks before the rest of the gang)

Toward evening, we head out to our beloved county park. The trail to the right is our favorite -- the prairie views are fantastic and it is far enough from any busy roads that you never are bothered by mechanical noise (except on the weekends when the adjacent lake fills with speed boat traffic). Today we are the only hikers. Well, except for this big guy...

The quiet allows you to hear each and every bird and unlike at the farmette, where the tree canopies prevent you from seeing the birds, here, the vast prairie offers a widescreen view of a vast expanse of grasses and yes, birds.

It's a heavenly walk! One that we can repeat a million times and still feel it to be special (except when the mosquitoes come out). 

There is much to love out there is nature. Perhaps the pull to be part of it is what drives me. In working in the fields I am that much closer to something magical and magnificent.