Finding joy in plants

Raised bed garden, May 10, 2014.

Someone told me last week to find what gives me joy. (You know who you are!)

I had written about the toll that covering court cases takes on me, what a difficult time I was having dealing with it.

So my friend gave me advice that we should all follow: find the joy.

Saturday morning I mothered my fledgling garden. I pulled a few weeds, loosened up the dirt and looked over the plants. And, of course, took pictures.

Here are some photos to catch you up on my growing plants.

Carrots and broccoli.

Cucumbers. We lost some of the early plants to a freeze.

 

Cucumber plant up close.

 

Onions.

Prize Head and Romaine lettuce.

 

Lettuce up close.

What has brought YOU joy lately?

I’ve posted my second blog post on my editing website. It's called "Just Start Writing." If you’d like to check it out, go HERE.

Covering court

A caterpillars' nest in a tree near my house. A walk outside, noticing the details of nature, is a balm to me.

Until I started working for the newspaper almost five years ago, I had been a part of a court proceeding twice. Once when I was 16 and got a ticket for improper driving for hitting a mailbox during driver’s education training (Yes, embarrassing. No one was hurt, thank goodness). And once nearly 20 years ago when I was a victim of a crime.

One of my regular beats since I started with the paper has been covering the courts. I’ve covered all kinds of crime: murders, drug crimes, burglaries, robberies, assaults, and on and on.

One thing I’ve discovered is that if you want to see drama, a wide range of the human condition, sit in court for an afternoon and watch the cases that come up.

I’ve heard wailing, laughter, defiant words. I’ve heard pleas of innocence, apologies for horrific crimes, promises to live in such a way as to never have to appear in court again.

I’ve seen family members of victims and defendants bend at the waist, crying in sorrow. I’ve seen law enforcement officers stand around the victim’s family protectively as the convicted defendant leaves court.

I’ve waited in the courtroom after the hearing is over so I wouldn’t intrude on family members standing outside in the hall, consoling each other. I’ve taken the stairs instead of the elevator so I could have a moment alone. I’ve sat in my car outside the courthouse crying too hard to drive.

The last several weeks, I’ve been in court a lot, covering cases for the paper. The tragedies I witness are not my tragedies. I don’t have the pressures that the prosecutors and law enforcement officers have.

But my time in court takes its toll.

One way I’ve coped it to write about it. Of course, I write the stories about the court proceedings for the newspaper: man found guilty, judge sentences defendant to 25 years, mistrial declared.

And that writing is a way of coping because I’m taking what I’ve observed and learned, and I’ve told the story of what happened in the community. I’ve documented a piece of the community.

But I’ve also been writing on my own, typing out thoughts I’ve had about my experiences in court, what I’ve learned, what I struggle with.

I’ve been holding on to these thoughts and feelings for nearly five years. I’ve made little notes of observations in the backs of my reporter’s notebooks, but I’ve never sat down and written with purpose the things that weigh on my after a difficult hearing, that have kept me awake many nights.

That’s where I’ve been mentally and emotionally lately. I’ve taken few photographs. I’ve been visiting my blogger friends’ sites less. I’ve been contemplating the unanswerable questions more often.

I think the writing is helping. And I have to remind myself, with deep breaths, with thoughts of Larry and Chase Bird, that my life is not the courtroom or the cases that I cover. 

The second wave

The trees in our neighborhood are leafing out in various shades of green.

I’ve spent the last several days working on what I’m calling the “second wave” of my freelance editing business.

Previously, I did the legal things I needed to do to start the business, created a website, and did some assignments.

But I wasn’t satisfied. And I knew I had to do more marketing.

So I revamped my website and started a blog on the website. I plan to post once a week there.

The first blog post is up now: “Why another set of eyes can be so important to your writing.”

I’ve still got lots to do to get the word out about my services. But I’m enjoying the process. It’s both frightening and fun to be the one who makes the business decisions. I have the satisfaction of knowing that something I once feared so much is now a reality.

We really can overcome fear.

If you’d like to check out my website, you can go HERE and click on "Blog."

I liked how the sun caught the tops of the trees.

I didn’t get outside as much as I would have liked over the weekend, but I did get some photos on a walk Sunday morning. I’ve shared some of those photos in this post.

I don't know the proper name for them, but the oak trees are full of these pollen pods.

Larry blew them off the driveway Friday, but they were back on Sunday.

Our cars are covered with tree pollen. Just a sign of spring.

This week will be very busy at my newspaper job, but I’m hoping to make time every day to get outside and record some of this spring beauty. I already missed getting photos of the red bud—I don’t want to miss anything else.

What have you done lately to overcome a fear—no matter how small it seemed?

Out the window

I’m sorry I missed posting on Wednesday this week.

I’ve been having some stomach problems, and on Monday I had to work part of the day from home because I felt so bad. Late nights working and lots to do for the newspaper, plus spring allergies, have me worn out.

I was off Thursday and am also off from the newspaper today, so I have been enjoying some restful time.

One

Happy May! May is one of my favorite months, and not just because my birthday comes along. Spring seems to fully settle in during May, and the trees are showing off their new green in earnest. I feel surrounded by new life.

Chase Bird watching.

Two

Chase Bird sometimes perches on top of the sofa in the living room and looks out the large window facing the backyard. I’m sure he sees things that I don’t.

I had to sneak to get the above photo of him. I “casually” walked over to the table and got out the camera without saying anything to him. I snapped off a few before he turned to look at me, wearing an expression of, “Again? Pictures again?”

A view of the backyard. The dogwoods are in front of Larry's shop and a tool shed. The raised bed garden is on on the right.

Three

Out the window, the yard is looking so pretty. I took the photos of the dogwoods and spirea over the past weekend.

We had a bit of a stumbling block as soon as the mowing season started. The riding lawn mower wouldn’t start, and it took the repair shop about two weeks to fix it.

The push mower isn’t the best, so for a little while, a yard was looking a little raggedy.

I would love to make more of the backyard into gardening areas, partly to cut down on the parts that need mowing.

A closer look at the dogwoods silhouetted against the other trees.

Spirea in the backyard.

Four

I met my minister for coffee this morning and we had a nice talk. I haven’t been attending church—for a variety of reasons, mostly from inertia.

But he’s so good about taking time to discuss spiritual and theological questions with me and is accepting of my doubts. He also knows about my OCD and how that has affected my spiritual life.

I want to get back to church, though. It helps me to focus on what’s important to me.

Five

Last weekend I finished the latest Nevada Barr book, Destroyer Angel, featuring her character, Anna Pigeon. Anna works for the National Park Service, and most of Barr’s books take place in a national park.

The books are not formulaic, though. They’re well written, and Anna is a well-rounded character who loves animals and nature. I find that I have a lot in common with her.

Barr’s books are wonderful. She’s the only author I’ve read whose writing about frightening situations has made me scared to turn the page.

Have you read anything good lately?

Monday’s garden update and feeling a little overwhelmed

The raised bed is not really sitting at an angle. I accidently created an angle when I snapped the photo.

 

Hello, dear readers. I thought that Monday would be a good day to update you on my gardening progress since I spend most of my time with the plants over the weekend.

 

Broccoli (left) and carrots.

 

  We had a heavy rain Friday afternoon. When I went out to look at the plants on Saturday morning, I was glad to see that nothing had been totally pushed down into the dirt, though I thought the lettuce looked a little waterlogged. I hoped the sunshine we received over the weekend would help it.

Lettuce

The plants had progressed over the three weeks since I planted the seeds and the onion sets.

 

Onions, with radishes on the far side.

 

And I got a nice surprise. I thought all the cucumbers had been killed with the freeze week before last. But I have some green shoots left. I still want to replant some cucumber seeds, though, along with some other vegetables.

I admit that I felt a bit overwhelmed when I saw the growth of the plants. Suddenly, I didn’t just have seeds in the ground that I could watch slowly push up into the light. Suddenly, I had real plants to take care of.

 

Things are growing!

 

My insecurity about my lack of recent gardening experience kicked in, and I thought, what do I do now?

I thinned the radishes, and Larry wondered if I was thinning them too much. I looked at the carrots and wondered if they were too close together. I wondered what I would do if the plants started dying.

Then I reminded myself that I have resources. I have books.

There are many resources on the Internet.

And I have my mother, who was a Master Gardener years ago and could make anything grow. She has retained a vast knowledge, from her studies and from many years of gardening.

I also reminded myself that this first year is an experiment. Larry and I will learn what will grow well, what won’t, what we need to do differently.

It will be OK. Deep breath. Deep breath. Let go of the anxiety.

 

How do you cope with that feeling of being overwhelmed? And for those who garden, what gardening book or books have you found helpful?

 

 

The happy and the sad

One

  Larry discovered a bird’s nest in the window of a small outbuilding beside his shop. He hasn’t seen a bird around it, but he was careful not to touch it. I was careful, too, when I snapped this photo of it.
  Look how much work went into building the nest.

 

(c) Tina Fariss Barbour

 

Two

  Lynchburg is a small city on the James River in Central Virginia. It’s located about 20 miles north of Altavista.
  I lived and worked in Lynchburg for years. When I was a child living on a farm, when we said, “We’re going to town,” it was Lynchburg we were talking about. That’s where we did our main shopping, saw the doctor, etc.

 

Three

  Recently, out of 189 metropolitan areas in the U.S., Lynchburg was ranked number 37 in well-being.
  To celebrate, the city of Lynchburg made a video of Lynchburg people dancing to Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy.” The video is HERE. It’s a lot of fun to watch. And the song itself is such a happy one.

 

Four
  Have you ever read an obituary or heard a eulogy about someone you didn’t know and thought, Wow, I would have liked to have known that person?
  I had that experience this week. I attended a memorial service for the mother of a co-worker. She died last week of cancer at the age of 55. I had met her but didn’t know her.
  The service was a sad but still joyful celebration of a life of a woman who, by all counts, was a true blessing to others.
  I wish I’d known her.

 

Five

  This is a photo of Chase Bird “polishing” the sofa table in the living room.
  When we took in Chase as a stray over six years ago, we discovered that his front paws had been declawed. He rubs and rubs the furniture like he’s scratching it, but he’s really polishing it.
  He’s our sweet boy.

(c) Tina Fariss Barbour

Dogwoods in bloom

I hope you had a good day on Earth Day on Tuesday. As I write this, it’s at the end of Earth Day, and I’m a bit disappointed that I spent most of the day inside, helping to lay out the newspaper for the week.

But Tuesday evening, as Larry and I relaxed with a late supper in front of the television, we found a documentary on PBS that fit in well with Earth Day.

It was an American Masters show called A Fierce Green Fire, a documentary about the history of the environmental movement worldwide. It was fascinating and inspiring. If you’d like to learn more about it, click HERE.

I’m sharing photos today of the dogwoods in our backyard. I took these photos earlier this month when the blooms were a bit greener than they are now.

The dogwood tree is the state tree of Virginia, and I enjoy the blooms each spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you do anything to celebrate Earth Day?