New Life

Cowgirl's oldest found me wandering around in the flower section and then the purchasing began. Asparagus? Check! Lettuce mix? Check! Winter onions? Check! Cowgirl bought some pastries and we munched away. She also found homemade french bread, strawberry jam and tulips of extraordinary color and texture. The final prize is at the bottom of this post. It totally made my day and resulted in some mad texting. Finishing up there, we met up with Mini Mama, Yuppie Puppie Couple, Dirty Ben and his daughter at the downtown coffee shop. Hippie Tom showed up, too. After a good hour of talking and drinking way too much coffee, Hippie Tom and Dirty Ben were off and the rest of us shopped the little specialty stores downtown, ending up at Chedd's. A restaurant of pure grilled cheese bliss. Um, cheese? And me? And well, it was a wonderment.

After that, we met up with another whole SLEW of people and did the downtown sculpture walk. It's kind of a Sioux Falls thing. In all the five years I've been here, I've never "done" it. I've just admired things along the way. And as the hours went by, we dispersed in singles and couples and well? It was time for a rest. Naps were had by all. Followed by grilled steak, crab stuffed mushrooms and fresh asparagus at Cowgirl's house. The winds were about 40 miles per hour out in the country. It was a wild and wicked wind and I loved every minute of it.

Then home. Because at some point, the sun came out and it got up to 88 degrees and it wore me out! So, I did a little piddling around in the garden. Look what I found! The summer squash has sprouted!
And the peas are so, so happy.
The Daikon Radishes have this weird pair of leaves in the middle. I thought it was a weed at first, but nope. They're attached. And they all have them. I can't wait to see what happens.
The other radishes are so silky and green.
The beets are happy.
And these beans? I thought they would NEVER come up and yesterday they weren't even poking through the ground. One of them grew a fabulous four whole inches in one day!
The arugula is sparse, but strong.
The mesclun lettuce mix is dense and little. I can't WAIT to eat my own lettuce!
And the nasturtium seeds I stole from my dad are making quite a show.
And here's the prize of the day. I found LIMA BEAN SEEDS AT THE MARKET! LIMA BEANS, people! And the guy told me they needed something to grow up, so when I was out at Cowgirl's, I pillaged around in the barn and found some pieces of wood which will become some sort of trellis. I plan on dreaming about it tonight and then creating something fantabulous tomorrow.
Did I tell you how amazing my life is sometimes? Good friends. Good food. Fun things to do. A garden to ground me and a zest for life that's been missing off and on for quite a number of years. It feels glorious.