My sister and I were digging-in the edging at Grandpa B’s tombstone, and I joked “Yeah, we better keep the weeds out or Grandpa will be out here hoeing, himself.”

“Good, it’ll give him something to do,” she said.

Later, I took the key from where it hangs on the wall inside the door of Grandma’s house, and went out to Grandpa’s shop to see if there was anything among his collection of old tools and such that could be used to plant flowers in. That shop is so Grandpa that I just want to sit down out there and breathe him in. And when I knelt in a flowerbed, mixing up a planterful of soil for Grandma, I missed him. He should be here, I felt; it’s not right that he isn’t.

*****

When I got up this morning at 8:30, I poured my coffee and came to the desk to read my email, as is my habit. On the keyboard was a quickly scribbled note from Farmboy:

“I’ll be home at noon to work in garden after dinner.”

It is 10 o’clock now, and he came into the house 15 minutes ago after pushing the clickety-clack lawnmower around the lawn for a while. He talked and
I didn’t say anything, just listened and fried an egg, toasted two slices of raisin-rye bread to go with it.

“See you later,” he said, and left again.

Here I am, hoping the egg in my belly will vanquish the neck thing that has been making me feel crappy since before getting out of bed this morning. Otherwise it’s in with a pill and down for a nap before anything else, before it gets worse.

*********

Barney and I spent several hours yesterday digging-in a new flower bed on the east side of the house, where it will be seen as one approaches the door from the driveway. After the edging and peat moss were in, I transplanted flowers into it: delphiniums, snapdragons, marigolds and gazania. And one basil plant to discourage flies from coming to the door.

Originally I didn’t plan to make a flower bed there, because Farmboy intends to build an attached garage one day. I figured, why put in the time and effort, only to have to redo it when he constructs his addition? But then I realized there will probably never be a garage there and if there is it won’t be for a number of years, so why not use the spot now? At least I won’t have to struggle with tree roots there, and my, what beautiful, deep, black soil I have to work with as opposed to the clay we had in our yard in Alberta. It bodes well.

xoxo
etc
Kate