Digging

Most tax preparers are working 50 hour weeks between now and April 15th. But I took a break from taxes last Saturday and drove out to Perryville to watch Katie and her friends digging new beds for her garden. It was fun to see how quickly and competently they turned a raggedy old patch into a fine, well laid planting space. And it will be even more fun to eat all the produce that comes out of it.

Here are some pictures of the action.

Katie and Travis have an acre of land around their house. In addition to the garden, they're planting some fruit trees and berry bushes this season. In no time at all, Katie will have fresh peaches and blackberries for her pies and jams. Yum!

On Sunday it rained. Very hard. One of those storms that blows over quickly, but makes a big noise passing through. Mick and I went to a museum with a friend from our Buddhist center, a woman named Mary. She took us to see a special exhibition of contemporary Southern artists. It was pretty interesting stuff. And we were happy to discover that the museum also has a charming standing collection of modern art pieces. Even Mick saw a few things that he liked.

Admission is free to all the museums and state parks in Arkansas. You might have to pay a couple of dollars for a special showing or a tour or something, but the basic admission costs nothing. I really like that.

The cold came back on Monday morning and its been in the thirties ever since, never getting much warmer than about 45. There is frost on my windshield every morning. I'm back at my desk doing tax returns from dawn to dusk this week, so the cold hardly matters to me. Still, I'm eager for Spring to take some of the edge off the bare trees and chilly mornings.

It does not show well in this picture, but Honey carried a spoon around in her little fist almost all day on Saturday. She wanted to dig like everybody else was digging. It was my job to watch Honey while Katie worked (lucky me!) and we spent a lot of time studying the dirt together, noticing how clods differ from rocks, and how you can make different kinds of holes with your spoon.

As always, I had a great time sharing Honey's ground-level, here-and-now viewpoint for a brief time. Its better than a vacation to hang out with her. Whoever invented grandchildren was a genius!