It has been a week my friends. Hard things… so many hard things. So this LONG weekend my plan is to just be gentle with myself.
Rejoicing —
This year my poppy feels like it looks like this and while it is not quite that amazing, this morning there are 17 blooms open with at least 3 dozen more waiting in the wings! Don’t ask me about the remainder of my garden… it has been a rough winter/early spring in my yard. However, I have become a Master Weed Cultivator! HA!
Interesting —
Here in Pittsburgh, we are so blessed to have Rick Sebak… he is our Local Treasure and loves to bring to light all things Pittsburgh in the very best way. He has a new podcast, Gumbands, and I have listened to the first two episodes and I love them. They are brilliant. If you once lived in Pittsburgh – you will love them. If you ever visited Pittsburgh – you will love them. If you ever contemplated moving to Pittsburgh – you will love them. In other words, you don’t need to understand Pittsburgh or Pittsburghese to get them. He has smart conversations with fascinating people…
Fledgling —
This word has been niggling around inside me for the past couple of weeks now. I have been a diligent watercolor student for almost a year now… and yet… stepping outside the lines of the lesson strikes fear into my heart. But my latest class has been all about values… and this has me thinking about the practice of watercolor in entirely different ways! Ways that include trying my hand at paintings that are not “a lesson.” I got a new, larger sketchbook and have been doing a few pencil drawings. My next step is to do some Value Studies and begin the process of taking all that I have learned (it is is so much!!) and making it my own.
Final Friday —
It is the last Friday in May, the start of the long Memorial Day weekend. For me today, I won the battle and purchased some plants to fill a few planters. (Steve thinks buying flowers for planting is the largest waste of money on the planet.) I have some tomatoes that will go into a few containers as well. Nothing says renewal to me than having my hands in the dirt with the hope that what I am planting will grow and flourish. I need some of that renewal badly this weekend.
I hope that your long weekend provides exactly what you are in need of. See you all back here on Tuesday with my May Word update!
Sorry it has been a rough week for you Kat. My week was less than stellar (that’s a nice way of putting it). As I said on my blog, I am looking forward to being a slug all the long weekend long! Good for you getting flowers to plant – they will help make some unbearable things a bit more bearable. Have a nice, relaxing weekend.
I’ll pass that podcast along to my cousin in Squirrel Hill–thanks!
Oh, annuals… Pots! There was a time when we were on SUCH a tight budget that I wouldn’t ‘let’ myself buy annuals b/c it felt…frivolous. (Plant$ that only last a few months?! Vs. a perennial I’ll have ‘forever’?!) I’ve since come to love a few big pots of annuals, along with a few delicate ones, their pop of color and the GOBS of joy they bring me every time I look out my kitchen window or come in the back door. I also notice the gratitude I associate with annuals–that we’ve worked hard and made good decisions over the years, and we’re no longer on that prohibitive shoestring budget of our early marriage.
Funny, the memories these things jog!
I wish you a restorative long weekend. ♥
I’d love to have a chat with Steve and help him adjust his attitude about flowers for planting. Ahem.
Someday John and Steve should live together. John is all for gardening, as long as it’s vegetables. Every year I buy sunflower and marigold seeds to plant in the garden and every year I hear “There’s no room”. I love fuchsias and decided that this weekend I’m buying myself a gift of a couple of fuchsias. Here’s hoping that your flowers flourish and you feel a sense of renewal.
I am fortunate to share my life with . . . a fisherman. I let him fish. He lets me plant. It’s a win-win situation, y’know? (And I can’t WAIT to see your new sketches/paintings. And hear about your new sketchbook, too. . . ) Here’s to a restful and relaxing weekend, Kat.
Please tell Steve that flowers that make you happy are a heck of a lot cheaper than drugs, intensive therapy, or more expensive acquisitions that people get in the belief that they’ll be happier with them. I hope they bring you a lot of joy and that your time in the garden is restorative. It looks like we’re going to have a beautiful weekend, so get out there and get all the vitamin D!
(And Rick Sebak is a national treasure. He embodies everything there is to love about this city!)
Go for the flowers — they make you happy, and what could be a better purchase than that?!
I too hope the flowers bring you joy. The poppies sure are beautiful. Hands in the dirt is great therapy for what ails the world. I hope you have a good long weekend. And – how did we get to the end of May?
I will look up that podcast, thanks for the recommendation! we have been buying flowers and he’s been planting them. Our goal is to buy what the deer do not like to eat!