Soldier On

It's been a while, I know. I'm sure you've all heard about the flu bug that's been going around and how many people have become ill, and some have even died. Nearly 100 here in California alone. It's scary business, this new bug. I had it briefly and killed it with lots of vitamin C, hydration, and several batches of elderberry syrup. Everyone else in the fam have had it too, and we were able to stop most everyone from getting too sick with the elderberry syrup protocol. But one of our family members wasn't so lucky dodging the winter bugs. She spent a fair bit of time in the hospital with more than one ailment, and the combination of a compromised immune system from the flu, and a couple of other bugs, she very nearly lost her life. Thanks to her very persistent mother, tragedy was averted. Needless to say, I was out of my mind with worry and got nothing but the most basic of tasks done around here. So, yes, the studio is still 'in progress'. I'm back at the point where I'm feeling I don't know where to begin. I'm desperate to work again, desperate to create, but I'm feeling a bit blocked by everything that's been going on. One day at a time, right? 

Despite this block, I've at least been able to tend the new garden. There is a new artichoke plant in the raised bed, along with popping hyacinth, baby onions, a sweet little primrose baby, and some shy tuberose. I've just started the early spring garden in an incubator, and expect some heirloom melon, romaine lettuce, and kale to sprout soon. Also put down seeds of lemon balm, lime basil, jasmine tobacco, and some mystery seeds a friend from back east sent last fall. There is also a fresh hole dug in the corner of the backyard for a boysenberry bush that I've been coddling inside. I'm also on the lookout for poppy seeds of all varieties to plant. And horseradish. I'm a bit early getting some of these going, judging by the lack of vegetable and floral plants at the nurseries I've been visiting. One of the employees of a nursery I visited yesterday told me I had spring fever because I was the first person to come out and ask for the plants I wanted, which they don't yet have. Even in this long and lustrous valley, I have yet to find any heirloom type rose plants. People just don't buy them anymore, or they do so online only. My beautiful Cecile Brunner tea rose was literally eaten alive by my daughter's dog while we were living there during the time our home was being built. How does a dog eat a three-foot tall bristly thorned plant in its entirety? 

We soldier on, yes? Definitely.