| I was awakened early this morning by a dream of too many kittens. It was really annoying, especially when I started thinking about the peas needing to be picked and the enormous amount of laundry that I need to do today because I messed around shopping yesterday. | ||
| So I got up and picked peas. It was truly gorgeous outside this morning at six. I don’t know why I don’t become an early riser by nature. Once I am up, I find the freshness and quietness so invigorating, but ohh, the getting up. That is the thing. | ||
| I have planted peas for 10 years now. (One year I did soybeans instead, which was fun. But they weren’t peas.) Every year I think that they aren’t worth the bother, and why did I use up so much garden space on such a small yield? It may have something to do with the feeling that I will never walk upright again after stooping and picking for about 200 feet. | ||
| Then the next spring rolls around and I go buy my Early Frosty seeds and try again. A friend of ours says one of his favorite bedtime snacks is canned peas, eaten straight out of the tin. Yuck. Somebody should introduce him to the poetry that is fresh peas, little orbs of spring and summer that burst as you chew them. I suppose that is why I plant them. And I did get about 28 pints off one pound of seed, so I guess the return isn’t too bad. | ||
| The plants are looking sorry and spent, some of which is due to the little guys who pick peas by pulling on the pods until something gives, either the pods or the roots. I will be happy to clear out the whole patch and roll up the fences until next year. | ||
| In other news, the lady cats have all given birth. That first litter that we thought was only one? Well, the boys took up a board on the porch and found six more. Then White Nose had five, all but one pretty calicoes. And Callie is skinny, but we don’t know where her babies are. The sign is out by the road, Free Kittens, but the markered words keep washing off when it rains. Still, the kittens are adorable and my girls play with them every day, like all day long. They would love to share with your little girls and boys. 😉 | ||
| The lady cats look a little sorry and spent, too. I was thinking, this thing of fruitfulness is sort of hard on all mothers, apparently. As far as I can tell, only the human species is obsessed with looking like nothing ever happened after they have babies. | ||
| You know the phrase “spending your life…” That would seem to imply giving up something you have, even something you value, for something that you consider to be better. How very sad if I spend my life on vanity, what in the end will only be vexation of spirit. | ||
| So… today I plan to invest in my little girls’ closets, and in my laundry room, as well as in my weedy garden. I plan to do this with not one or three or four helpers, but five. So help me, Lord! They are the real reason for all this endless homemaking. I want them to face life with memories of a mother who cheerfully spent her life for them. I bet they won’t even notice if she starts looking a little ragged at the edges. 🙂 |
Of Peas and Other Fruitful Things
Published
wocket in my pocket 
I apologize for the appearance of this post. WordPress and I don’t agree this morning. Three times it has swallowed my post, and then when I try to reclaim it from the saved drafts folder, it looks like this. I edit, publish, and unbelievably, it still looks like this. So I am leaving it.