March 2012 - In like a lion, then became T Rex - how will the month end? (Part 1)

 I know from keeping a garden journal that every year starts out the same.  That week or so in February that gets into the sixties scrambles the mind and make even the most pragmatic gardener think they can plant a few seeds. And then you spend the next two months in agony protecting them.  Let me explain.

Broccoli Raab sprouting

The first peas breaking through

Week 2 - 60% of all the seeds have sprouted - It was raining a lot at this point, but since they were under winter row cover, they were not getting too wet, and even with the temps dipping down below 40 at night, they were still doing OK.  Notice my now 1-yr old pyrethrum to the right - the flowers of this plant of the chrysanthemum family are what is used for organic pest control.  They overwintered well and are coming alive under the canopy of my cold frame.

Ready to transplant - 4 varieties of peas, two different kinds of swiss chard and spinach...

From the far left, my speckled troutback romaine, more spinach, magentaspreen, and then my broccoil raab.  I knew that I needed to plant at least one bed right away - and between rain showers, got the bed ready.

I had already removed all the rest of the carrots from last fall, and now just added some new soil mix - the soil had compacted some, and I needed to top off the bed.  Had to be careful on the one end, as that is where I stuck the rest of the garlic I had leftover last fall.  You can see it starting to come up.

These are really ready for transplanting - roots are coming out the ends.  I love using these peat pots - I just plant them pot and all, and the peat adds a little extra to the soil mix.

First pea box planted - peas, romaine, chard, and spinach, and fall garlic.  I watered lightly, sprinkled with sluggo, and also put copper tape around the edges.  I knew the adhesive wouldn't hold long in our damp weather, so tapped in some copper tacks every so often around the box.  Hopefully the sluggo will destroy any slugs in the raised bed, and copper tape will keep any more from getting in.  Will let you know how that goes. 

Then I covered up the bed using the existing tubing where it was set - I didn't worry too much about making the tubing higher, as it would take at least a week or two and some warmer weather before the peas were climbing up the netting and I needed to make adjustments.

And then before I could get the next pea box planted, winter returned with a vengance.

Torrential rain.  Numbing cold.  And wind.  One day we had 60 mile an hour winds.  I didn't worry about the row cover on my peas and seedlings, strawberries and garlic, because we have had wind that strong before and they were ok.  But last year I must have had more clips on, because when I came home from work, all the covers were blown off.  And it had been raining all day, and it was 39 degrees out.

I rushed out and covered everything up quickly.  And added extra clips.  Stupid me, I didn't think to check the seedling trays to see if there was too much water in them.  So the peat pots sat in about an inch and a half of water for several days before the weather cleared enough for me to get to them.  I think what saved the seedlings was the pellets I put in the soil mix to absorb excess water, and the heat cable.  I didn't know if they would be ok or not, but it was too cold and wet for me to do more.

Finally the second weekend of March, it cleared for a couple of hours and I was able to go out and plant the next box of peas.  That was when I discovered that the seedlings had been sitting in all that water.  It did affect a few of the seedlings - but not the peas or Broccoli Raab.  I ended up having about 6 hours between rain storms to get everything planted and row cover on, and to do a few other chores around the garden.

I planted the broccoil raab in front of the peas - and because they will get tall, I did the row cover a bit differently. That seemingly blank space in from of the spinach is where I planted radishes.  Just to see if I could this early.  This was the bed that the cucumbers were in last year, so the tubing to support the row cover goes up to the top of the 2 x 4 frame that supports the netting.  So I started the row cover at the back, and brought it down over the front, so it is a lot taller inside and allows me to let tall plants grow without having to adjust the row cover or tubing.  This was a great decision on my part - it is what saved me the next week from total disaster.

The back of the 2nd pea bed.  I will be redoing this a bit to allow me to uncover it during the day.  will explain in another posting in more detail.

March 2012 - The Garden Update

A friend at work asked me to tell him what to plant in the garden, and when.  I didn't have a quick answer for him because a lot depends on your infrastructure ( what I have been harping about for almost a year), and your climate.  In this case, he lives in Vancouver, WA, so his climate, elevation, etc. are different than mine.

The USDA has a new hardiness zone map out - here is the link:

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

If you live in Canada, here is your version:

http://atlas.agr.gc.ca/agmaf/index_eng.html#context=phz-zrp_en

(The Canadian site doesn't do well with Chrome as your browser, it was developed with IE and Firefox)

What should you be doing in the Garden right now?

In the Northwest, you should have at least your peas planted and possibly greens, like Swiss Chard, Spinach, etc.  That is if you have built raised beds, and have row cover.  Let me show you why this is necessary.

Three weeks ago I received the 48' heat cable I ordered from Nichols Garden Nursery ( they had a sale on them).  This bed is my largest - the one I had for tomatoes last year - so I won't need it for planting till May.  So I choose this location to be my "greenhouse" to put all my starts in.

Then I needed a good soil mix for the seed trays (I used the trays from last year, and just bought some 2" peat strips to put the seeds in). So off to my favorite nursery here in Salem; 13th Street Nursery:

You have to be looking for the Nursery, as it doesn't look like much from 13th.  The Nursery is located just south of Mission in Salem.  You have to go south on 12th if you are coming from North of Mission St, because 12th and 13th are one way streets.  Cross street is Wilbur.  If you don't live in the Salem area,  I encourage you to find and shop at any local independent nursery in your area.

Entrance to 13th Street Nursery - I love walking in here.  Especially on a rainy day when I can't do much in the garden - then I can look at all the plants that are under cover and I just get cheered up by being around all of them. 

If you do container gardening, 13th St has a huge selection of pots that seem to be always on sale!

13th Street has lots of supplies for the bonsai enthusiast - which I would do if it were not for the 4 indoor cats we have.  

13th Street has a great selection of fertilizers, organic sprays for bugs ( like Neem oil), and of course, lots of Sluggo!

13th Street carries Territorial Seeds ( which is the only off the rack seed I will buy).  They also have potato and onion starts now - but get yours soon as they sell out fast!

then there is all the fun stuff - this is where I go to get gifts for my gardening friends...
13th Street is also where I bought my kneeler last year - it flips over for a seat, and it have been great with the arthritis I have in my knees, and my fibromyalgia!

Finally, what I came to 13th Street Nursery for - My potting soil mix.  I like to use Fox Farm Ocean forest potting soil - it has earthworm castings and also goodies from the ocean, and I mix it with Miracle-gro Moisture control potting mix.

Ready to mix the two potting soils together.  The Miracle-Gro has the little beads in it that absorb moisture, and the slowly let it out if the soil needs it - so your seeds don't get soaked, but also don't dry out.

Seed Trays all ready to plant.  I also had received the heavy duty garden row cover that I had ordered from Gardners - so all I needed to do is plant my seeds.

This is one week after I planted my seeds - a mix of peas, romaine lettuce, broccoli raab, chard, spinach, and ?.  Thats right, there are two trays that are not labeled.  You see, as I was finishing this project, I was coming down with a nasty bug and wasn't feeling very well.  It was all I could do to just get everything planted, watered, the row cover on, and then go to bed.  which is where I stayed for almost a week.  good thing I chose the soil mix with the water beads in it, because a week later when I checked the seeds, they were getting dry.  The Row cover I have on is pretty thick - it lets the sun in, but traps any heat, so even though it was cold and rainy, no moisture got in.  How much difference is there between outside and inside temps?


I came home on a cloudy, cold day to test what the temp difference is.


Here is the outside temp that day:

Outside temp was 49.1 degrees - that was with a few sun breaks that day.


Here is the inside temp of the covered raised bed:

Almost 15 degrees difference!  Which is why I didn't worry last week when the temps fell and we had ice and snow for about two days.  So below is the pic I took yesterday.  The snow peas are just about ready to transplant into their permanent bed.

Seedlings almost ready to transplant!

Just before I became ill, I spent some time cleaning up the raised bed for the peas:

This is a great time to be finding slugs, caterpillars, bugs that will grow up to be diners in your garden

This was the bed where I had planted my fall carrots - and have been slowly harvesting them all winter.  This was the last of the bunch - and they were very sweet.  Put them in a vegetable soup that I lived on while ill.

One Pea bed all ready for peas.  I am going to put sluggo down tonight, and then put the copper tape that I bought around the bed to keep future slug visits from happening, and then I will be ready to transplant - sometime this week I hope!  I have also covered up all my beds with row cover to start warming up the soil. 

So what should you be doing now?  It all depends on what you are set up to do.  If you go to Nichols Garden Nursery site, there is a list for what they think you should be doing in March; it is under garden resources (Click on March Garden Tips):

https://www.nicholsgardennursery.com/store/cmspage.php?page_id=garden_resources

As for me, today I try to finish that darn fence, so I can plant the blueberries, put copper tape around raised beds, and mow some of the grass down between the raised beds.  It is supposed to be sunny and 60 today, but so far it looks gray and chilly.  which is why I am sitting here at 10:45 updating my blog instead of being outside.  I did finish the posts yesterday - yeah me!

Happy Gardening!

Robin

The 2012 Garden - Gearing up

I have so much to tell everyone, but have been so busy there hasn't been much time to blog.

I wanted to get this out today though - have you purchased your seeds yet?  If you buy open pollinated (OP), organic seeds, the supply is limited because of crop failures last year.

Who I buy from:

Nichols Garden Seeds (see link on the left).  Order your potatoes now!  And they have some great prices on heat cable if like me you are going to cheat.  this year I am going to put heat cable in one of my raised beds, put the row cover on and start my seeds in that environment.  Like having a mini greenhouse.  Will have pictures as soon as supplies arrive and I get everything set up.

Uprising Seeds
http://uprisingorganics.com/vegetables/lettuce-lactuca-sativus-/romaine/flashy-trouts-back-heirloom-/prod_27.html

Flashy Trouts Back Romaine

I love this seed supplier.  they have seed growers throughout the NW that supply them; they are listed right in the front of your catalog, so you know where your seeds are coming from.  If you click on the link above, it will take you to one of the new varieties of romaine that I am trying out this year.  Just placed my order and can't wait till everything comes. But supplies are limited; some of the seeds I wanted were already sold out!

Fortex French Filet beans

Beaujolais Spinach

So get your seeds ordered - NOW!

Our big project last weekend was removing the boxwood hedge:

This hedge is 5 feet wide and takes up a lot of growing room

My son-in-law Jeremy and his Uncle Doug - what great guys!

A Truck, a chain, a sunny day...

Hedge all gone

Temporary fence up

We are supposed to have a week of sunny weather, so I need to get my fence in, blueberries planted, grapes and berries pruned, several new raised beds built, before we get the 3 months of rain we usually get after this "false spring".  Will post info as I can!

Robin

Necessity the Mother of Invention

With winter approaching fast, I needed a inexpensive solution to two major outdoor issues:

• How to keep our outdoor cat warm throughout the winter

• How to store all the squash from our volunteer plants 

Eva doesn't do well in the house with the other cats - she was a stray for too long.  Her advanced age, (over 13 the vet estimates) demands a warm place to get out of the rain.  So when the rains started, we put a cushion for her on the bottom shelf of my hardware storage, covered it with a tarp and threw up a passageway for her to get into it.

Not a very elegant solution

 And how was I going to keep all that lovely butternut and acorn squash from freezing?  I really didn't want to spend the time cooking it, mashing it up and freezing it - I still had pumpkin in the freezer from last year.  And sometimes you just want a stuffed acorn squash, or roasted butternut.  But I didn't have the time or money to build a root cellar. 

Cat house, root cellar - how to combine the two?

So, I came up with the cat cellar!

First, I gathered up four cedar 2 x 4's that I had left over from building raised beds, and marked where the shelves would go.

Next I put on the shelf supports, offsetting them so that I didn't have two by fours sticking out of the frame the uprights made.  Hope that makes sense.

Eva in front of her future winter home.  I had all this lovely foam insulation laying around from an earlier upgrade inside the house - figured this would be a good way to insulate my cat cellar.

The first shelves in.  The plan was to put the food on the ground floor, and then provide a entrance for Eva that would be out of the weather.

First section done - Eva's hangout.  I figured I had better get some light into the bed area, since there will be days too cold and wet for her to hang outside, but she is still going to want to see out.  I had a piece of plexiglass (I never throw something away if I think i can use it again), that was almost the same size as the door - glued it to the plywood, then put weatherstripping around it and put on a 1 x 2 frame, which is what I used to attach the hinges too.  I still need to put in some caulking between the wood and the window on the outside.  There is a little barrel lock for us to be able to open up the door and check on her - and this is where the kids decided to put her food also - to keep other animals away from it.

View from the front - all that extra cedar left over from making raised beds got used up.  I did have to make some purchases for this - a sheet of plywood, and some extra pieces from Home Depots culled lumber area which were just a few dollars, the hinges and barrel bolts, but most of what was used I had stored around the yard.

A week later, I added the upper door.  the "root cellar" area is pretty well insulated with foam and weather stripping, and since there is a bit of heat from Eva, I don't think it will freeze, but there are plenty of air leaks I couldn't plug, so I think everything will store ok.  will just have to wait and see.  The top was full of butternut, but my kids have already gone through quite a bit.

Last addition - I found a heated pad at our local pet supply store made specifically for outdoor pets - it was a bit spendy, about $45, but I think worth it.  It only uses 20 watts, it goes into sleep mode, and only really comes on when there is a weight on it, which means it isn't on when Eva is not on there.  The cord is covered with a wire so she can't chew on the cord, and I plugged it into a surge suppressor just for safety.  There is no thermostat, it senses the body temp of the animal and adjusts automatically. 

Problem solved!

Meanwhile, while working on this, I am also working on cleaning up the yard and getting stalks and stuff cut up for compost.  Found a bonus by an old compost pile - borage starts from the borage I composted in late summer:

If you can harvest borage leaves when they are young and tender like this, you have a real treat!  Any older, and they get annoying bristles on the back.  Although they can still be used to make a Mediterranean green sauce.

Borage leaves taste like cucumber - have a light delicate taste - and are a great addition to sandwiches and salads.  My granddaughter ended up eating over half of my sandwich, she really liked the borage leaves.

Sometimes the garden gives us surprises that we have no control over - the volunteers that spring up from past plantings and the spilling of seed.  Don't be so quick to pull out what you think are weeds - they may end up feeding you.  Dandelion is a good example of this.  I only had three borage plants I grew this year, but so prolific are they that I will have borage starts all over my yard for years to come.  I am fine with that.  They are so high in nutritional content, that whether we eat them, the chickens do ( in the future when I get some), or they get composted, it is a win-win for my garden.  

Essential information about Borage:

Borage contains the essential fatty acid gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), typically in concentrations of 17-20%. Linolenic acid is omega-6 fatty acid that play vital role in restoration of joint health, immunity, healthy skin and mucus membranes.

Fresh Borage has high levels of vitamin C (ascorbic acid); provides 35 mcg or 60% of RDA per 100 g. Vitamin C is one of the powerful natural anti-oxidants that help remove harmful free radicals from the body. Along with other anti-oxidants, it has immune booster, wound healing and anti-viral effects.

Borage contains very high levels of vitamin A (140% of RDA) and carotene's. Both these compounds are powerful flavonoid anti-oxidants. Together, they act as protective scavengers against oxygen-derived free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) that play a role in aging and various disease processes.

Vitamin A is known to have antioxidant properties and is essential for vision. It is also required for maintaining healthy mucus membranes and skin. Consumption of natural foods rich in vitamin A and carotene's are known to help body protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.

Borage is a good source for minerals like iron (41% of RDA), calcium, potassium, manganese, copper, zinc, and magnesium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids, which helps control heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron is an important co-factor for cytochrome oxidase enzyme in the cellular metabolism. In addition, being a component of hemoglobin inside the red blood cells, it determines the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood.

The herb is one of the good sources of B-complex vitamins, particularly rich in niacin (vitamin B-3). Niacin helps lower LDL cholesterol levels in the body. In addition, it has riboflavin, thiamin, pyridoxine, and folates in adequate levels. These vitamins function as co-factors in the enzymatic metabolism inside the body.

So you see that you can easily grow all the vitamins, minerals and componets you need to stay healthy. 

Next project (in between rain storms and cold weather):  
Getting the garden tools ready for next season.

Rebar I used in the raised bed covers is rusting - actually, rebar is rusting when you buy it at the lumber yard.  My rake and hoe are also showing signs of rust.

When I bought my house (October 2009), I hit some yard sales while waiting for it to close, to see if I could find some used tools and not have to buy many new.  I found a few, and one of the sellers threw this rake in for free.  I used it for two years, but now it needs some TLC.  Why not just throw it away and buy a new one?  Because this one is perfectly good if just taken care of.  All of your tools have the ability to last many years if taken care of.  So, as soon as the temp outside gets over fifty degrees, I will be using a product that neutralizes rust and creates a black paintable surface, and then coating them in a rust inhibitor paint.  A quick sanding and waxing of any wood handles, and we are ready for next spring.

Now, off to uncover my tomatoes and see if there are any ready to bring in. 

Robin

The frost is on the pumpkin...

Oct 25th - woke up to a light frost this morning, with more predicted.  Everything I care about in the garden is covered up.  Rather than flaunt the bowl of raspberries I picked when I came home this afternoon, I will show you what I did with them:

My granddaughter is one of the reasons that we don't get a lot of raspberries - they mostly go to her.  That's ok - keeps her healthy and helps her develop a love for fresh, organic choices.  (I know where the frozen stash is anyway).

She is also a big fan of dried tomato chips. between her and her Aunt Jess, they have gone through almost 100 pounds of tomatoes so far ( that is about a gallon of dried tomatoes).


Robin

The Fall Garden, part 1

Two weeks ago when the autumn rains started, I hurriedly threw on row cover on most everything I wanted to save, what with the temps dipping down into the forties.  That is the advantage of raised beds and the small home garden- you can create micro climates to extend the growing season.

The rewards are there, in the bowls of tomatoes I am still harvesting:

Plum tomatoes from the south side of the bed

To extend the life of your tomatoes, you have to go in and clean out the dead leaves, the spent branches you picked tomatoes off of.  With increased moisture in the air, and the cold weather, you want to make sure you have good air flow and limit the amount of mold that can grow.  This is before the cleanup.

Cleaning up allows you to also pick all those tomatoes that have been hiding out of site.  I also picked the rest of the sage and dried it in my food dryer ( on a low setting).  Will be using that in stuffing and sausage the rest of the winter.

The east tomato bed all cleaned up.  There was so much foliage in here that the ground was dry, even though it had been raining off and on for a week.  This way the water gets to the roots, I don't have to water, and there is good air circulation  this is not my main bed of tomatoes, so i am not covering this up.  There are not a lot of tomatoes left to ripen on these branches, and they are mostly the yellow pear.  I figure about 3-4 days of sunny weather ( which we have coming up) will ripen them. 

There about 30 pounds of tomatoes left on the vines to ripen - I'm hoping the warm weather we have over the next few days will help.  Picked about 20 pounds of paste tomatoes on Wednesday after work - which all went into the dehydrator.

The rain stopped for a bit last weekend - long enough for me to plant my garlic bed:

Last spring this is where the potatoes and broccoli grew.  But I am moving the location of those to another bed, so got this one ready for garlic.

Ready for the garlic:

This is a soft neck variety - can't remember the name because I left the tag outside - think it is a silver rose, but bought them from my favorite nursery - 13th Street Nursery here in Salem, Oregon.  Also picked up several blueberries - they were having a sale on all their perennials!

It is not supposed to rain for several days, so that give me time to finish mulching, get out the old corn stalks, cover up the silly tomato that took root in my carrot/pea bed, bring the dried herbs in from the shed, build a small storage area (root cellar) for our squash, build a winter shelter for Hitlers mistress, pick the seed beans for drying, pick the last of the grapes...  I think you get the idea.  When you are a gardener, there is a never ending list of things to do, not enough good weather to do it in, so you have to work fast in the fall to get it all done.  Hmm, should probably seal those leaks in the gutters, winterize the faucets, start raking leaves, plant the blueberries, ....

Picked the Chinese lanterns before the rains started; they are now drying in the shed.

One of today's projects - get the corn stalks and sunflowers stalks out of the ground.

Off to work..


Robin

Thoughts at the beginning of autumn

Autumn - 1974

I started college at 17 (thirty-eight years ago), and felt horribly alone.  I had chosen to move 50 miles away from where I grew up and knew no one.  I had left the small group of friends that I had painstakingly gathered about me over the years and the loneliness was unbearable.  And I found that first week at college, in the library, a book that would nourish me the rest of my life.  

The title drew me in, “Journal of a Solitude”.  I was unfamiliar with May Sarton; had never read any of her poems or novels.  She published this journal in 1973, about a year before I picked it up.  I delved into it like diving into a cold lake on a hot summer day.  She was one of the first authors I knew who had the gift for laying her soul bare, exposing the loneliness, frustration, anger of being human, and I knew I was not alone.

Her words have been constant gifts to me in this struggle we call life.  When I can’t express what I feel, I pick up one of her journals, ( I also have Plant Dreaming Deep and the House by the Sea); open to the month that I am currently in, and always find something that nourishes me.  When I first started reading May, I was just a girl, but even then I found common ground with her.  An epiphany tonight – I read her entry from October 5^th:

I woke in tears this morning.  I wonder whether it is possible at nearly sixty to change oneself radically.  Can I learn to control resentment and hostility, the ambivalence, born somewhere far below the conscious level?...  There is nothing to be done but go ahead with life moment by moment and hour by hour – put out birdseed, tidy the rooms, try to create order and peace around me even if I cannot achieve it inside me….

The realization was that I am now almost as old as May was when she wrote this.  I feel gratefulness to her for putting into words those things that I still struggle with.  You would think after 40 some years I would have gone further in my journey toward – toward what?  

I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep…It is all closed in, to a kind of still and intense waiting.   Is this a key?  Keep busy with survival.  Imitate the trees.  Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain… Sit it out.  Let it pass.  Let it go.

There have been times in my life when friends have compared me to Job. Perhaps it is because of the many trials I have had to face in my life.  There is a common misconception that Job bore patiently his trials – not so – he was willing to accept whatever came his way.  What angered him was friends trying to convince him that he had done something wrong to earn these trials, this was his punishment, he should repent, admit his sin, and die.  Or something like that.  He wasn’t angry at God; he was angry at his friends.  I think he was bewildered, and the only way he knew to get through it was to sit in ashes and weep.  I can certainly understand that.  But for me, having something to do in the garden has always helped.  If it is raining too hard to work outside, I can look over seed catalogs and dream about next spring.

My frustration in my life is that there is never enough time.  And energy.  I have bits of thoughts, starts of poems, floating around in my mind that break through once in a while – but I need the time to develop them.  I need quietness and some solitude to nourish them.  That is not something that I get very often.  Working full time, taking care of my family, doing the barest chores necessary to maintain life and sanity, doesn’t leave much time to nurture the poems that try to come through.

Last fall, going in to work through the back way, the rain slicking the concrete and making the red maple leaves bright, I saw one brilliant leaf that had been ground into the concrete by the myriad of office workers heels.  That leaf called out to me, “I did not deserve this death”, and I have sought for time ever since to tell that leaves story.  But there is no quiet.  There is no true solitude.  Even when I shut myself in my room, I am not alone.  Macie senses my desire to be without her and sits and cries at my door.   

Mom, don't you love me?

 Someone once asked William Wordsworth’s servant to show him her master’s study.  She answered, “I can show you his library, but his study is out of doors”.   When I am at my lowest, even if it is the middle of the night, in a rainstorm, I find solace by going outside and letting nature envelop me.  At least until the mosquitoes start to bite.  Then I shake myself and go back inside, but am always comforted by the few moments stolen alone with nature.

So I write this for all you, for mothers and fathers who work, take care of your children, for anyone who is striving to survive in this economy, this world, trying to hold onto your house, the few things that really matter to you – those who take care of elderly parents, own their own business, who deal with physical pain that can be so draining, who fall exhausted into bed at night, wondering when your time will come.  Well, this is your time.  It may not be what you thought it would be.  You have to treat your time/energy like money in the bank.  You only have so much – make sure what you expend it on is worth it.  Pare down your life.  Say no to the things that rob you – even though they seem worthwhile endeavors.  Simplify, simplify.   Focus on those things that you are passionate about.  Keep busy with survival.  Imitate the trees.  Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain… Sit it out.  Let it pass.  Let it go.  Accept.  Be grateful.  Joy can fill you even in the midst of a time of pain.  It doesn't have to be the giddiness of youth, or even the passion of a first love.  but those moments of simple joy are so worth waiting for.

(Sally, my thoughts are with you today - and my prayers for a quick recovery)

Robin