seed catalogs

Is there anything more wonderful in winter than a seed catalog? It speaks of spring, which is right around the corner for you southerners (who are now buried in snow, I know). Here it's been sunny and 50 degrees. I actually snuck out on the deck a little while today and Paul asked, "Mom, is it spring?"

Our mailbox is getting stuffed with seed catalogs and it's almost time to start mapping out our garden. My favorite thing to plant besides wildflowers are peas and green beans and yellow squash. Randy likes corn. Since our garden is bigger than our house we start early and plan where to put what. I had to let gardening go last year when my writing heated up. I said goodbye to canning for the first time in many years. This morning I made biscuits and opened our last jar of wild blackberry jam which left me wishing I'd been a little more industrious last fall when they were ripe.

All quiet on the book front. I lack 15 pages from reaching the end of this edit of Red River Daughter. The word count is down from 149,000 to 136,000 or so. In a few days I'll start from the beginning and try to deflate it further as it still qualifies as a big fat historical. Somewhere in publishing land, TFD is getting a final proofreading before being put into actual book pages and then returned to me for minimal corrections. Book 3 is at the bottom of my big rag basket beside my writing chair. I really miss it. There's nothing like the creating part of a book. The rest I gladly give you!

So in the quiet I get to dream about crookneck squash and having a little garden in a sunny hollow (holler) somewhere in Berea, Kentucky. I've almost talked Randy into moving back there. Stay tuned.

I think gardening is nearer to godliness than theology. -unknown