The Bloomin' Garden and other Mid-Life Crisis Moments of Note

Thank you God that tax day is behind us, and we can get on with our lives.  So this week, it's a little work and then taking some time out to smell the ocean and the berries.  Lucky me that my work takes me to beautiful coastal areas where the sun shines brightly, like Fernandina Beach, FL.  Lord, I have found the place that I want to retire. Incidentally, since it is Easter weekend, there will be some obligatory praising of the Christian deity.  I don't know how many times I have been to Fernandina Beach for work and never actually went to the beach.  Well, after the 8 hour drive out the day before, I was feeling a little reluctant to get back in my car for the reciprocal drive back.  A leisurely walk on the beach picking sea shells is just the thing.  Look at the shells and smell the salt air.  Ahhhhh. 

An hour later, back in the car, motoring west on Hwy 520, it's pretty boring.  It's pretty boring for at least 4 hours.  Wait, there is a sign with a big strawberry painted on it.  Quick, u-turn and cutting across 3 lanes of traffic, it's a u-pick strawberry farm out in the middle of nowhere on the side of a highway!!  Suddenly, I am not in such a rush to get home.  I look out over the small field - maybe only 1/2 acre and walk up to the farm stand.  "Sure, here is a bucket - $1.50 a pound, pick as much as you like!"  I'm in heaven.  A quick 25 minutes later, I am $5.30 poorer, but 3.5 lbs of berries richer and smiling like a kid who has both sweet berries and dirt in my mouth.  A little dirt never hurt us when we were kids.  Just because I am an adult, there is reason to think that it will now. 

Now, that I'm back home, I can concentrate on my own berries and such in our garden.  Well, there are a lot.  The cage we built was great - until a bird got in and then couldn't get out.  Luckily, someone was around to let the poor thing back out.  Only a few berries pecked, we have our own harvest ready to be picked.  Tomato, bean (wave 1 and 2) and pepper plants are growing in the ground.  Dill and basil are everywhere.  The corn is in, and the okra went in today.  Only the eggplant seedlings are left to strengthen a little before they go into the ground. 
While we were pulling some weeds this afternoon, my sweet hubby says to me, "Are all those tomatoes??" as he points to a frame full of seedlings that aren't weeds.  And I reply, "The two with the trestles around them are the climbing vine full sized tomatoes.  The rest are some form of grape or cherry."  And he says, "Um, I thought that we were going to go easy on the tomatoes this year."  And I start to explain that there are 3 varieties of miniatures, and I couldn't just plant one of each in case they didn't seed, and . . . nevermind.  So I just say that I got a little carried away.  For additional moments on getting carried away, please reference the last blog posting and pretty much everything that I planted last year.
Final 2 carried away moments this week that I am going to attribute to a mid-life crisis.  1.)  I just registered for my first half-marathon.  Pretty ballsy for someone who hates to run.  Training to start eventually.  All I know is that since I shelled out $155 for the registration, there is no way that I am going to not do it.  2.)  In a previous life, namely, my 20s, I had crazy short, buzz cut boy hair.  And then it grew to something that resembled a porcupine that mated with Robert Smith from The Cure.  More than a decade later, I'm goin' back in time, baby.  Someone send me some giant dangle-y earrings.

Confessions and a possible mid-life crisis

If you didn't have a chance to read the last post, you didn't miss much, and I deleted it.  It was short and boring and didn't say anything really.  So, I'm trying again.
So, its April, and I think that this makes it about a year since I started this endeavor.  I can't really say that this has been a huge success, but at least, I have a way to vent without anyone smacking me about the head.  As far as gardening goes, I have plenty of seedlings hardening to put into the ground in the next week.  The first round of green beans and already in the ground, and the next wave will go in with the tomato, eggplant, and pepper seedlings.  I think I need to wait 2 more weeks for okra to go in, but I think that I am safe to put in the corn.  Dill and basil seedlings are everywhere.  The asparagus is sparse but growing.  And if ANYONE has any idea how to stop the spread of the freakin' Chinese chives, I would love to hear it.  I am going to try not to be obsessed with the garden this year, but I can tell that my search for balance will probably have to continue on a bit longer.
I've been finding, recently, that balance is no longer something that I'm really good at.  If I could find a turning point for when this started, I would have to say, maybe 2 years ago.  Perhaps it was one of the millions of moments that I've had thinking, "this is not where I thought I would be at this point in my life".  Maybe not. 
All I know is that when I find something to do, believe in, think, there ain't no stoppin' me.  I started to workout on a regular basis again about 6 months ago.  I couldn't just go to the gym and lift weights and run on the treadmill or take an aerobics class.  I had to join an outdoor boot camp, and workout intensely for 3 days a week.  And then that wasn't enough, so I had to add 1, then 2, then 3 days of running to go with it.  Thankfully, I have reigned that in a bit.  Then I decided that I needed a goal - a half marathon.  So I signed up for that.  Wait, that isn't enough, so I need to do a Warrior Dash too.  No wait, that isn't enough either so I have to run another race this weekend.
I've never been too outdoorsy, even though I work in the industry.  But in the last few months, I've been on more hikes than I had in the past 5 years.  I tried rock climbing for the first time - climbed so much I couldn't open my peanut butter jar for 3 days.  I took my son backpacking.  I dragged my 4 year old on 3 mile hikes.  I worked out at boot camp AND ran 5 miles directly afterwards.  I washed, dried, and folded 8 loads of laundry in one day.  Wait, that last one is normal.  
In the garden, I started out with wanting to do the corn and beans again, let the strawberries continue to roll, and then maybe a tomato plant or two and call it a day.  Now, nothing new is in the ground yet, and I have strawberries, asparagus, 3 kinds of cherry/grape tomatoes, 1 heirloom tomato, 2 kinds of peppers, eggplants, 2 frames of corn, a full frame of okra, dill, basil, thyme, rosemary, ever present Chinese garlic chives, and am still trying to decide if I want to do sweet potatoes again.  Huuuuuuu, big breath.
I am also obsessed with Greek yogurt, soup stock, and cheese.  Did I tell you about the time that I went out and bought beef marrow and lamb neck bones just to make stock and then had nothing planned to do with the stock??  That was intelligent.  Stupid French cook boot that I'm reading.
So, while this blog is about coaxing out the best in something, I think that I need some reigning in.  And so, I blame the whole thing on a mid-life crisis.  I look forward to old age, so that I can take it down a notch.