Life is brimming these days you guys, with activity and love, with work and play, with little time to sit down for reading and writing. As this coming week progresses, I hope to share with you guys both photos and stories, but for now… while a pot of water boils for some midday pasta… a quick run down:

• Josh, our couch surfer, visited. He brought this little dog Ben. We made him work and play outdated video games and then we all watched funny crash clips and I made some saltine toffee with chocolate.
• The okra, tomatoes, soy beans, squash, flowers, sweet corn, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, and herbs are all growing like bananas. But there are no bananas growing. But I am considering some grape vines.
• My two beautiful daughters and their adorable stepbrother spent a day at the farm last week. We made smoothies, played with the animals, and talked. We talked so much. They are growing and changing faster than ever but still remaining the same. My heart is full.
• We’ve been watching lots of excellent NBA basketball, allowing our Thunder fever to build to a rolling boil. They playoffs have been hot from the beginning, and the fun continues tonight with another game against the Lakers here in OKC. 
• We’ve been doing lots of gardening, cleaning, rearranging, crafting, and decorating all over this crazy place. It has been a blast and worth every second.
• Handsome has lit and tended a few blazing bonfires this week. I love the lingering fragrance out there the next morning.
• The past week has borne us some ridiculous egg collecting. Ridiculous. 
• Because of our unusual schedule, Handsome and I have had a little less home cooking than we’re used to and more eating out, but that is getting fixed today. To. Day.
• Late nights of laughing our faces off, both alone and with great friends.
• A small group of bees has been spotted drinking en force at the edge of the pond. This is cool, you guys. They are finding their way around the farm and are thriving. 
• I shipped some  Green Goose products to California to see if my lil’ sis can peddle textiles as hard as she skates and breaks.
• Wedding. Did I ever tell you we were hosting a wedding? It was this past Saturday. It was so beautiful and happy…xoxo
• We scooted off to a car show this Saturday too but forgot our wallets. It was post wedding and sans any real meal that day, and we were so very hungry. My stomach growls now when I think about it.
• Saturday night we slipped into short but intense comas then spontaneously woke up at midnight to watch a recorded basketball game. I ate a weirdly satisfying dinner of excessively sweet watermelon (seven and a half slices) and excessively salty almonds and cashews (three handsful).
• At church on Sunday we barreled through the book of Jude. Do you have any idea how interesting that stuff is?
• I ran out of deodorant and bobby pins. Oh well.
• We hosted and thoroughly enjoyed our nephew’s vow renewal on Sunday afternoon.
• I attended Oklahoma Blogger’s Ball #2 at  Red Dirt Kelly’s  house and came home further inspired and further motivated! I also brought with me a branch of fresh oregano from Katie and a sample jar of decorator paint from Allison.
• Some excessive but much needed sleep has graced both our bed and our couch.
• I keep forgetting to go pick up a prescription.
• Missed the flippin solar eclipse, yo.
• And I really, really want to leave some of the wedding decorations up around the farm. They are so happy and beautiful, it just feels so good.

   How grows your garden so far? Is your corner of the universe lending you regular sky showers and plenty of warm, windless days to sow your seeds? Our new raised beds have been like a playground for me this month. Clean, level, and packed with compost and black soil, they draw me out every morning and seduce me into slipping just one more herb or just one more packet of seeds into an empty space. At last count I had nestled almost twenty squash plants in the dirt out there and almost that many peppers and tomatoes. It’s a numbers game, you guys.

   We also now have a bed jam packed with what will become edamame, thanks to a gift from our neighbor Robby, and we are celebrating the rise of the green bean tipi. But you know what? Some of what I have been doing in the garden this past week is sort of against regulation. Oklahoma is smack in the middle of a waning moon, which means I should have been focusing more on weed removal and soil cultivation than the installation of above ground crops. The thing is, I lack willpower.

      Things are growing steadily and with few obstacles, and more importantly Rebecca’s wedding is just a few days from now; so the temptation to plant new stuff is just too strong to resist! The photo above, though, is actually an old clematis vine. One which I believed to have perished in last year’s heat wave. But look! Just like the abandoned, rusty blue bike from the Pine Forest, she made a comeback! When I look at this pairing I see three months into the future, when that misshapen front wheel is draped lavishly with green vines and heavy blossoms. And then I go plant some more seeds.

   Before we all go scoot to our Tuesday chores and appointments, will you be kind as to cast a vote? Yesterday I collected lots of normal chicken eggs… and then the behemoth egg you see on the right in this photo. It is heavy, folks. And I have yet to crack it open to see its contents, but it could be a goose egg. Before you vote, here are some facts:

• This giant egg was found in the same nesting box as six average sized hen eggs.
• That nesting box is about three feet off the ground, inside the chicken coop.
• The geese have in fact been sleeping in the coop lately, but…
• Momma Goose is, well, she’s just not athletic.
• But seriously, that is a big egg. And it is as heavy as a brick, no kidding.

   You might remember that Tracy accompanied me to that first bee class back in March. She is always up for a new experience! Here she is again, cheerfully painting this field of flowers, which I immediately loved to pieces. To my eye, her abstract blooms resemble Coreopsis, poppies, and gladiolus. Wouldn’t it would make a great stationery set?


   I did not realize the day of our painting fun that Tracy’s birthday was right around the corner! Happy Birthday, sweet woman! You are setting such an incredible example for your kids, feeding that happy appetite for life.

   Can you even believe how sweet and bright these girls are? By the way, Lauren is Tracy’s youngest and Haley is Lauren’s friend. They are sheer joy to be around! Well mannered, protective of the little kids, and just plain happy. When all the bee art was complete and they had each made a tie-dye shirt, these girls dove right in and helped with wedding prep! Thank you ladies.

   Our Lazy W ranch brand!! Thank you Mysti, this is so darn cool as beans. Now if we could only figure out how to get the brand of each of our tiny little bees…

   I went outside early this morning in flip flops instead of rubber boots and zipped through a handful of chores, eager to get to the good stuff. I took with me a giant mug of hot, perfectly delicious coffee and thought about how much opportunity is at our feet.

   The sky was golden-blue and already very warm, the breeze was mild compared to yesterday’s gustiness, and the animals were all bright eyed and affectionate. I felt life pulsing happily all around me and had love seeping out of my skin. These are the perfect conditions for flip flops.

   Do you know what I found when I walked downhill and into the veggie garden?

  Well hello there dahlings… I am sustaining the nasty habit of writing only once or twice a week, mostly because this is a busy time of year and lots of lots of worthwhile tasks are keeping my attention all day every day. In addition to sewing orders and normal housework and animal stuff, the garden has been a big energy consumer. In a wonderful, happy way, though.

   Most days I wake up wondering what has happened while I slept and what the weather will be that day. Will it allow me to dig, or should I sow? Is it a day for weeding, and have those morning glory seeds split open yet so I can plant them? Or will the chickens just eat them? Are moon flowers toxic to horses? And what the heck am I going to do about that weirdly thick rose bush our front? What did those salvia fail? Wait, it’s a waning moon right now… what does that mean again? Is it already too late for cilantro? My gosh I miss the smell of basil. It’s gonna be such a good year for squash. I hope someone will go fishing for me so I can get those fish heads for the corn. These are some of the three and a half million thoughts that swarm my brain every morning on my way downstairs for that first heavenly cup of steaming hot coffee.

   The potagerie is on track so far. All four raised beds are sturdy and, dare I say, quite attractive. Three of them have been filled lasagna style with alternating layers of dried leaves, chicken litter, horse manure, and finally some beautiful top soil we had dumped here last week. Two of those filled beds have now been planted. And, unbelievably, the chickens are minding their manners. The only seedlings I have discovered kicked and scratched out of the earth are some zinnias up at the east flower bed, near the front door. Everything else has been left alone. This is reason for cautious celebration!

   By the way, you guys, this is the first time in my life I have ever written a check for dirt. DIRT. I mean, we live on nine acres, so you might think I could drum up my own dirt. But most of our property is sandy, which is barely amenable to growing the stuff we really like to eat, with the exception of melons, berries, spinach, and fruit trees. Those thrive in sand. Anyway, the dirt purchase felt weird, but it should yield us some good  edibles.