A big hello to Mary, Mindy and Tricia. Hope you're enjoying your tour through my brain. :-) I don't come close to the kind of philosophical essays that Bev writes--I don't know how she does it. I'm still in the this-is-what-I-did-all-day mode. I may have the occasional diatribe (forgive the minivan blast of a few days ago--yours are certainly fine with me ::g::) but not many.

So, back to today. It was a gorgeous sunny day but still quite chilly. I was surprised. After school, I picked up some dirt and some plants at Fred Meyer and got Joey from school and then came home to be one with the earth. It was lovely. I hand-tilled my garden boxes and added the new dirt to them. They're all ready for tomorrow's plant-a-rama. After that, I cleaned out the big planting island Ed built for me in the back yard. There were lots of dessicated leaves from the aspen trees that I neglected to clean out last fall when they fell so I cleaned them out. Then I planted alternating orange and hot pink impatiens along the front of the planter in front of the aspens. Then I planted some flaming orange begonias--I love begonias!--in the middle of the planter. In the cracks where the blocks don't come fully together, I planted lobelia bunches. I do this every year and it looks so pretty--it trails over the edge and has beautiful purple flowers all summer. But right now they're just little bunches of greens. That's ok. I cleaned and trimmed my trailing rosemary, too. It is so pretty--all in purple blooms (didn't know rosemary had pretty purple flowers, did you?) and trailing gracefully down the side of the planter. The upright rosemary at the back of the planter is full and lush and has some purple flowers, too. It's beautiful and fragrant and I love it. My strawberries are looking very robust--strong large leaves, lots of big white blossoms to turn into delicious berries. Yum! I bought more cocoa mulch so my back yard will smell like chocolate tomorrow after I spread it. That's the *best* stuff!! I highly recommend it as a mulch in your vegetable and berry garden. Slugs hate it so they don't crawl over it. Always a plus when you live in the Northwest. And it looks nice. And smells great. Get some!

After that, I taught a creative lettering class for scrapbookers at church. It was really casual and the women there had a lot of fun. I did, too. I love teaching and I love lettering and I love showing off my scrapbooks. What could be more fun?

I'm looking forward to tomorrow: Being One With The Earth, part deux. I'll be planting tomatoes, basil, sugar snap peas, Walla Walla sweet onions in the vegetable boxes. I'll be planting some California poppy seeds in my wild flower garden.

I'll need to find some time to study for my Nutrition test, too. I'm not worried about that one at all, though. Between A&P, Chemistry and all the reading I've done in my life, I feel like I know this one very well. When we get to clinical and abnormal stuff, then I'll be more worried. But the final is open book, so that shouldn't be a problem, either. This test is open notes, so I'll write myself some notes tomorrow and review my class notes. I think I'll be good to go.

I forgot to get Joey some black shoes for dance class today so I'm going to have to go find some tomorrow before I can play Garden Lady. I hope it isn't too difficult to find some. This isn't exactly black shoe season anymore. Where am I going to find some? Ack!

Tonight's West Wing was quite a surprise. I can't believe they killed off Mrs. Lanningham! She was such a fun part of the show. I'll miss her character. I love that show.

I have a headache. It's from bending over and holding my head up. That often gives me a headache. That and being in the sun. I think I need some ibuprofen for my neck and for my back--I lifted a lot of weight and worked hard with the pitchfork tilling the soil. It feels kinda good, though. Perhaps I'll go to sleep early tonight. (BTW, early means midnight. Sadly, I am still failing miserably in my attempts to be a Responsible Adult. ::sigh::)

I need to get to that ibuprofen so I'll see you all later!

--L