Pea Pod on the vine

It's that time of year again... time to think about the garden! Every year on Mother's Day, I begin my new garden. It's my present to myself (with my kids' help, of course :)

Each year we plant the basics: tomatoes (regular, cherry, grape, etc - great for salads and snacks), summer squash (zucchini, crookneck, etc. - great for grilling and making bread), radishes (the kids love em - not to eat, but because they pop up so fast!), strawberries, snap peas, basil.

And then I usually plant something new, something different, but more often than naught, they just don't turn out right. The bell peppers never get bigger than a walnut. The cucumbers never get long enough. The cantaloupe don't grow big enough and then rot on the vine. The Japanese eggplants were actually fine, but I didn't know what the heck to do with them. Only two ears of corn grew from the eight starters I planted.

This year, I think I'll probably just stick with the basics and maybe throw in a few more herbs to the mix instead :)

A Boy Reading a Book

I would LOVE to open a book shop. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! I love books. I love visiting bookshops. I even make it a point to visit used bookshops whenever I am in another town. You never know what you might discover.

I would love to have a little nook of a bookshop with comfy chairs and beanbags and skylights and "regulars" who would come in and tell me about what they've been reading and I'd have used books and new books, and book swaps and book clubs.

Of course, I probably wouldn't make any money at it which means I wouldn't be able to pay the rent... but it sounds like fun and it would be so relaxing and my kids could come hang out after school and I would be so happy.... Well, I would be happy in my fantasy :)

The most interesting biography I ever read was "Suites Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton" by Diane Wood Middlebrook. It was fascinating from page one. The cover drew me in first, a picture of a face - half male, half female. And then the story blew me away.

Billy Tipton was born Dorothy Tipton in 1914, but lived her life as a man. And no one knew the truth until her death in 1989. She was a renowned jazz pianist and bandleader, playing gigs all over the mid-west for 50 years (fooling even Duke Ellington!). She married (five times). She had three children (adopted, of course). And lived a full, rich life doing what "he" loved. Dorothy wasn't allowed to play jazz music because she was a girl, but Billy was because he was a boy, so Billy is who she became. She made her own rules. And survived the Great Depression working hard to provide for her family doing what she loved and somehow miraculously survived being found out. A great book.