Of gardening shows, sunny decks, books, and family

Monday was Labor Day and a holiday that I had off from work. I slept until I woke up naturally and, happily, woke up at just the right time to watch two gardening shows on PBS before walking my dog. The first show was The Victory Garden.

I like any gardening show, but what I like best is when someone tours a garden with a gardener, and they basically look at plants while the gardener says things like, "And here I planted abc because its foliage makes such a nice contrast to xyz behind it. And here is plantus latinus namus, commonly known as plant name, which has outstanding color/fragrance/hardiness, etc." And the person touring says, "Beautiful. I love that. Oh, and look at this!"

And then came the one that I think I like best of all, and that is P. Allen Smith's Garden Home. Mr. Smith is a soft-spoken Southerner who shows some room of the house he's designing, then some part of the garden, then maybe some animals on the farm, a visit to a farmer or a botanical garden, a recipe involving fruit or produce, and a way to pot plants or arrange flowers.

Then I sat out on my beautiful deck for a while and enjoyed the morning sunshine.

In the afternoon, we had a delightful backyard barbecue with the family.

It was lovely.

Then I worked four days.

Today was Saturday, and I woke up in time to watch P. Allen Smith. Then I sat out on my wonderful deck to enjoy coffee, pop tarts, a book,



and the morning sun.

Then I (and the dog) went to Muddy Waters to get coffee for my parents and myself, and then over to their new place.

I spent a few hours visiting with them, the dog making himself quite comfortable,

then back home again, and for lunch had a tuna fish and cheese sandwich while reading Ivanhoe,



and then, not much else.

In the afternoon, the weather was a bit warmer than I am comfortable with. And that's about all there is to say.